Nutritionist Explains 3 Rules on How to Consume Pulses

Pulses form the basic dish of the meal. Excessive of anything is bad. There are certain rules on how to consume pulses in the right manner. Read on to know more about this.

One of the ways to stay healthy and fit is by eating the right food and choosing the right ingredient. To live a healthy and risk-free life, food is important. Pulses too is an important ingredient. As basic as pulses are important. Pulses form the basic dish of the meal. Excessive of anything is bad. There are certain rules on how to consume pulses in the right manner.

Taking it to Instagram, nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar shares three rules for eating pulses. “India has more than 65000 varieties of pulses and legumes. A wide variety of pulses (atleast 5 different types in a week) when eaten in different ways (as dal, papad, pickle, idli, dosa, laddoo, halwa, etc.) ensures that we get the diet diversity needed for healthy gut bacteria,” an excerpt from the caption.

The three rules are:

• Soak and sprout before cooking
• Use right ratio of pulses and grains (1:3) / pulses and millets (1:2), in cooking
• Have atleast 5 types of pulses/ legumes every week and in 5 different forms every month

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A post shared by Rujuta Diwekar (@rujuta.diwekar)

Here Are The Rules:

• Pulses should be soaked and sprouted before cooking. This reduces the anti-nutrients and allow for optimum enzyme action to break them down. “Pulses are rich source of protein, vitamins and minerals, but it’s not quite easy to assimilate the amino acids from them. They naturally contain what is called as anti-nutrients, molecules that come in the way of nutrient assimilation. That’s why so many people have gas, bloating, indigestion etc., on eating them. And so, your dadi devised this method to reduce the anti-nutrients and to enhance the protein, micro-nutrient and digestibility of pulses and legumes,” writes Rujuta.
• Pulses should be mixed with millets and grains to improve their essential to non-essential amino acid ratio. When you use it with rice, the ratio is 1:3 and when you mix it millets and grains, the ratio is 1:2. Rujuta says,” The rationale behind this is that pulses and legumes lack an amino acid called methionine and grains lack lysine. Lysine is found abundantly in pulses but without the full profile of other amino acids like methionine, it cannot completely carry out its functions. These help in three ways:

1. Antiageing (prevents premature greying)
2. Bone mass (preserves it, strengthens it)
3. Immunity (helps build antibodies when under attack)

• “Having a wide variety of pulses and having them in different forms to optimize intake of all nutrients,” says Rujuta.