Know what you should stack up in your kitchen shelves

         Know what you should stack up in your kitchen shelves

What you should stack up in your kitchen shelves is so elementary, that it feels like a joke that I should be writing a post on this subject. But believe me, for me, Diabetes is like a demon sitting inside you. I decided not to let that terrorist sit smugly and eat me up in more ways than one. So, I brought in ammunition from the 6 doctors who I had written about in my previous blog and began Operation Sugarfree - with military precision. We, women, who are avatars of Ma Durga, have the capacity to take this demon by its horns and attack it, tame it, kill it! Meenal Kelkar, who read my blog, wrote on my Facebook, how she is doing her R&D to tackle her husband's diabetes. I appreciate that - that's the passion of us women - we do so much to keep our family healthy and happy. Meenal can be an example of how if one woman gains knowledge and information to tackle Diabetes, an entire family and even her social circle, benefits. 
Once you have decided to adopt a diet which is wheat-free, sugar-free and dairy-free, you will realise that when you stroll through the mall's grocery store, at least two-thirds of the items are a No,NO for you. You need not feel deprived about this or feel bad. I found that due to the narrowed down choices, I pick up only those essentials which would be consumed and would keep you healthy and glowing. Otherwise, I used to unnecessarily buy processed food packets and consume, leading to detriment of my health. Now, my kitchen shelves are free from `faltu' items. Whatever I eat, is healthy and digestible.

So, let us quickly see how Demon Diabetes can be hammered to its death with our Operation Sugarfree weapon

1. Only buy Brown Rice

Three varieties of Brown Rice: From left: Ambemohar, whole brown rice and Indrayani

Polished rice should be completely out of your system. Do not even think of indulging in biryanis, pulaos and jeera fried rice either at home or when you go out. The rice they serve you in restaurants is bad for your health - often, cooking soda is added. Its consumption makes your stomach bloat, it slows digestion. Slow digestion and indigestion is one of the major causes of your sugar levels not coming down. I have experienced that.  Stock up Brown Rice, for sure in the kitchen. Please remember, you get some light brown coloured basmati rice in the market. That, I allege, is coloured. Please do not buy that. Any brown rice should have the double colour of off white and red. Pl see the above three varieites. They all have the two colours. The price ranges from Rs.65 to Rs.110 per kg. You should get them in major grocery stores or just buy online. People complain it takes time to cook. Yes it does, but then meat and chole also take time to cook and you don't mind it, so how about being a little patient with Brown Rice? However, here are a few tips to help it cook fast. Now, the Ambemohar and Indrayani variety (on the left and the right side) cook faster than the whole brown rice. For the Ambemohar and Indrayani types, you may soak if you like. I don't. I put 3.5 katoris water for 1 katori rice. Put it in the pressure cooker - steam it for 3 whistles on high flame and 6 to 7 whistles on low flame. For the whole Brown Rice variety (the middle photo) you need to soak for couple of hours and steam it for 3 whistles on high flame and 8 to 10 whistles on slow flame. But here is an idea. I cook 2 katoris rice and store the extra in the fridge. This way all you do is micro it before eating. In fact, I make fried rice, pulao etc out of this cooked rice (will share recipes in my subsequent posts). In Pune, I get my Brown Rice from Dr Nikhil Mehta. In Pune, you can also get from Grahak Peth, ABC Farms and sometimes at Organic exhibitions. You should be getting it in Dorabjee's and Godrej Nature too. My dinner comprises rice, dal, sabzi. For me, for a good night's sleep, you must have a wholesome dinner. Otherwise, I get insomnia. Have you thought about this? That staying hungry at night could be a reason for your disturbed sleep?

2. Soya is a good alternative for dairy products

Soya milk and tofu

I really don't advocate Soya Milk as I do not like its taste and when I  used it for tea, for a week continuously, I felt heaviness in my stomach. However, you can buy this milk to make Soya curds. Heat the Soya milk a bit only and then add your usual curds -1 heaped teaspoon for one litre soya milk. You get a nicely set curd. Use this in your daily life. What I strongly recommend is tofu, but to have it only once in a while when you are missing your Paneer. The best is Masala Tofu which you can buy online from paneerwala.in. It is so soft and delicious that some of my friends who have dairy products, have also switched over to this Masala Tofu. (I shall share deilicious recipes of masala tofu later - you can use plain tofu if you do not get the masala one). You can have it once or at best twice a week. What is more exciting for me is the Soya Curds that I buy from paneerwala.in. Whether you make soya curds at home or from paneerwala.in, the basic soya curd may not taste as good. So, put it in a mixi, add pudina (mint) leaves, 3-4 cloves of garlic, salt to taste and run it through the mixi. You get an absolutely delicious curd - it looks and glistens a bit like mayonnaise.. It can be stored for 5 to 6 days in the fridge. I sometimes have brown rice and soya dahi, you can make dahi wadas or have it with whatever you like. Even just like that! My idea of beating Diabetes is that you should not feel starved and deprived off some foods which you've been having since your childhood. So, find alternatives instead of indulging in what you should not be eating now. Yeh nahi toh woh - go on a constant discovery for alternatives. 
2. Buy only cold pressed filtered oil

Flakseed Oil

Groundnut Oil

Til oil

Coconut oil

Please note that I am not promoting any particular brand, but being a consumer, obviously you choose certain brands. Dr Nikhil Mehta highly recommends the use of cold-pressed, filter oil as the nutrients of the oil seeds are retained. As per my notes from Dr Pramod Tripathi's lecture, ``best oils to have is any filtered oil like Extra virgin olive oil; coconut oil; mustard oil; til oil; groundnut oil; and best is flax seed oil but it is very expensive... big NO to refined oils, ghee and butter.''
Vegetable seed oils are the best, specially groundnut oil and til oil. I use groundnut oil but use Til oil for items like chinese fried brown rice etc. Coconut oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil also fall in the good category of oils. I use Flax seed oil as salad dressing. Or I add 2 teaspoons in my soup. Dr Mehta says that usage of less oil in our body leads to flatulence in the stomach and joint pains too. When I went to him for my knee pain, he dvocated massage of my knee with til oil and also consumption of it. I now add til oil to the dry chutneys (will give recipes for these too), on rice and dal (instead of ghee) too. I am convinced that if you consume oil this way, you can get rid of constipation, flatulence, joint pains and it helps your skin glow as somehow your skin looks moisturised.
(This post is getting too big, so tommorow on Khapli wheat and various dals and snacks you should store in your kitchen)