Impact Of Food On Our Body And Mind

Kavita Devgan feels that the impact of superfoods on our body and even psyche, are very vast, also adding that every food has some goodness in it.

Kavita Devgan, Author, Acclaimed Nutritionist & Holistic Health Consultant in conversation with Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld and Exchange4media, about her book “Fix it with Food” in association with Rupa Publications, and an insight into healthy food leading to a healthy lifestyle. 

Q. Could you tell us about superfoods and how they are available in daily life and we don’t need to do much to benefit from them?
A. That is the reason why I wrote this book. I have always felt that the idea to superfoods is a little vague. Everyone has their own definition for it. But what superfoods are exactly no one really understands. One can check on Google and find a 100 or more, number of definitions on superfood. I have a very simple definition of it, superfoods are foods that deliver extra concentrated, extra-large doses of vitamins and minerals. Nutrients that we require for health and for sustenance and anti-oxidants which keep us disease free. A food that has a lot of vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants qualify as a superfood, that is the generic definition.

Q. Could you tell us more about superfoods?
A. A whole food that is delivering much more than nutritional science can fathom. Nutrition science is very nascent. There are 2 ways of identifying a super food. There can be a food that gives you a particular nutrient in huge amounts and for example let us take the example of amla. It is a superfood because it is loaded with vitamin C, which is the buzz word today due to immunity. There could be another food which could give you a few nutrients in smaller amounts but in totality it becomes a hugely helpful food to eat. For example – a banana or an apple. They don’t give any nutrients in excessive amounts, but a lot of nutrients in a lot of amounts, basically small amounts. That also classifies as a superfood. We need to look at both sides while identifying a superfood. My whole idea of writing this book was to identify the foods that are there are available at the grocery shops. These are the foods that are not expensive. My problem with the cliché definition of superfoods is that the foods that have a huge marketing budget behind them get classified as superfoods. Where is, the foods that are actually really good for us, for example kale is supposed to be a superfood. I completely agree. It is one which gives you a lot of vitamin A. It is like a concentrated source of vitamin A. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other foods that give you vitamin A. That is the idea behind my book – to demystify regular foods, write so much good about them, so people read them and hopefully people give these foods the respect that they deserve.

Q. You have a chapter in your book – “Foods that make you healthier”, so please tell us about these foods as examples.
A. Every food does something good for you. The first rule of eating superfoods or foods is that do not stick to one kind of food. Don’t think that if you have one superfood a day, say maybe one amla a day is sorted for you. It is not going to work like that. You need to eat them regularly, you need to eat across the spectrum, we need to eat a wide variety because like I believe – Every food does something different for you. If you eat across the spectrum, without calculating or without putting too much thought into it you will be able to cover a wide array of nutrients that your body requires to stay healthy and you will actually manage to remain disease free in that manner. If you want to know some specific foods that can actually help in preventing diseases there are so many of them. There is a section in my book that is called ‘fix it’. In that there is a section called ‘disease busters’. There I have listed foods that will help you with specific requirements. For example, mushrooms. They are so brilliant, especially for today because they actually help in the growth of white blood cells , which fight infection. If you have mushrooms twice or thrice a week always but specifically during this time, will be brilliant for you.

Q. In your book you talk about ’10 peels’. Please give our viewers what this is all about.
A. Nature intends us to eat an entire plant. It wants us to eat the fruit, it wants us to eat the leaves, it wants us to eat the stem. Obviously, we can’t eat all of them, all the fruits and vegetables, but when peeling a fruit or vegetable you are literally throwing away the best part of it. This is because roughage like you rightly said is very good for us. It has a lot of fiber and we need it for our gut so there are a lot of nutrients in the peels that keep our gut happy. Secondly, most of the nutrients, literally, are concentrated just underneath the peel. When you remove the peel, you are not only removing all the nutrients located in the peel but also which are under the peel.