Are Spices Really Healthy for Your Body?

Rujuta Diwekar, a celebrity nutritionist explains the importance of in-take of spices in day-to-day life

Rujuta Diwekar, a famous celebrity nutritionist is known for busting myths revolving around food, nutrition, disease on social media. She is a staunch believer in eating healthy, fresh, locally procured food and avoiding WhatsApp forwards on diets.
Rujuta took to Instagram, the next stop for fashion, entertainment and everything under one roof, to talk about the importance of spices. She also stated the right proportion and the overrated diet trends which are usually unhealthy and tiresome.

Check out her Instagram Post:

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

She said, “The peculiar thing about diet trends is that the good of our culture goes from being demonised to glorified but the bad that the trends bring along, stays. So the giving up on sabzi for a salad, rasam or kadhi for a soup, saag for a smoothie, stays. But with that our wisdom of actually cooking the native species like the worthy delicacy that they are, disappears.”

“In 20 years they have gone from ‘must avoid’ to ‘must have’ list. There was a time when people would dutifully avoid the spices, “hum bas sadha khana khate hai, no masala for us”, to now starting the day with shots of haldi, jeera and what not,” says the author of Indian Super Foods.

She made the viewers understand the importance of a healthy diet. She also advised viewers to not fall for scams like shots, pills and powders. She said,” Use them in cooking and in the right amounts, sequence and combinations.”
Rujuta not only highlighted the plus points but also cautioned the viewers about the ill effects. Spices should be consumed in adequate quantity or that will give rise to skin issues like acne, bloating and others.

Her caption reads, “So what can you do? Think of spices like a person, a real person. A real person comes with the good and the bad. There are environments like families, teams, friends etc., that enable the good. And then if by chance you meet this person without his wife or outside his work environment, you don’t really like them anymore. The proportion and the setting in which he was good is taken away and now that you have a lot of him, it begins to make you feel restless, uncomfortable, stressed. Experienced this? Well spices are exactly like that. Too much of them and say hello to acne, missed periods and bloating. Too little of them and say bye bye to smooth skin, pain free periods and a flat stomach.”

She explains the tradition, heritage and culture with which these spices have originated. Spices carry history and has been passed down to several generations via oral tradition. She said, “There’s deep rooted common sense and science behind there use in certain proportions, seasons and settings. But mostly our biases fail to recognise science when it comes from women, oral heritage and local languages. Science is not hidden in text books/ journals, written in English and accessible to few.”

She concludes by saying that science has its owns value but we should value the cultural significance through these local cuisines that has been used for ages. She says,” The whole purpose of science is to be accessible and make our lives more sustainable and liberating. But then like love, we must be able to recognise science when we stumble upon it. And as far as food is concerned it’s found in our local cuisine and kitchens. Value it.”

One has to make sure to not overuse the spices but have the right amount to value and respect the culture, tradition and art of local cuisines and foods.