The whole truth

Most of us already know we are what we eat, temperamentally and physically, but how about extending that logic to the way we love? Sure, we know about aphrodisiac foods, but what about those that make us more desirable in the first place – at the biochemical level? What makes us discharge those potentially profitable pheromones? Nutritionist-author Shonali Sabherwal connects the dots between the food we eat and the way we respond to love and relationships in her new book ‘The Love Diet’, in which she writes, “The energy we receive from the foods we eat directly impacts the energy in the chakras and the responses we have towards our partners in life and during sex.” Then she goes on to recommend the foods that enable good lovin’.Which takes Sabherwal to the fount of her wisdom – macrobiotics.
A trained chef and nutritionist in macrobiotic science, she has built a small empire in catering and counselling. On a recent visit to Chennai for a cooking demo, Sabherwal spoke about the resource-rich south, whose dietary habits were naturally close to the macrobiotic way. Take for example the rising star, millet. “I’ve never seen such a collection of millets anywhere in the country,” Sabherwal proclaims. “The south is more health conscious. I find more organic shops and a greater range of grains here.” Whole grain — packed with protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals — being the bedrock of the macrobiotic diet.
While macrobiotics principally shuns nightshades like okra, tomato, spinach and others, Sabherwal allows you to cheat. “We’re in a tropical climate, and we grow these nightshades, some of them work for us,” she says, “In the macrobiotic diet, fruits ought to constitute less than five percent of your diet, but because our climate is warmer, I say you can go up to 15%,” she says.
If there’s one thing harder than sticking to a diet, it’s finding the right one. Given the smorgasbord out there, it’s a tough call on which formula to plate. “There are options; one says go high on protein and off grain, but they don’t realize that grains give you sustained sugars for eight hours and insoluble fibre to help get rid the body of its waste.”
The Indian diet is an intrinsically balanced one; it’s not surprising that ayurveda has much in common with the macrobiotic system. But Sabherwal advises a few changes. “Supplant the white rice with brown (I’d tell this city to change their idli batter from white to brown rice), bring in more green vegetables, sea algae (spirulina), reduce the dairy and imbibe some fermented food every day,” she says.
Macrobiotics, the science of balancing the yin and yang of foods, is of the belief that since we energetically emerged from the sea, we should go back to eating from the sea, which is rich in chlorophyll and trace minerals. “If you’re a vegetarian, eat a sea vegetable. Spirulina is the simplest sea ‘food’ available everywhere. You can add a quarter teaspoon of spirulina powder to your dal,” the nutritionist suggests.