Roti, Bachha aur Nutrition.

Roti is one of the 3 most important needs of man. Chapati, fulka, rotli, poli, call it what you will, would still taste as sweet! An Indian from the West or North cannot imagine food sans a roti. The mainstay of the diet, major contributor of calories and energy, fibre when whole wheat atta is used, vitamins, minerals and a major chunk of protein in a vegetarian diet albeit of an inferior type.

In light of changes in the traditional Indian diet, the attitude towards chapatis needs to change.

With the increase in carbohydrates consumed with bread, biscuits, pasta snacks, desserts, a balance needs to be struck with the intake of chapatis. No longer should food intake be measured with the number of rotis consumed.  Observe most children today, when they eat, its big chunks of chapati and minuscule amounts of vegetable and dal. The common refrain, my child eats healthy, he eats X chapatis. This needs to change. Measure the diet by the katoris (cups) of vegetable and dal / pulse / meat eaten.

Another trend to be tweaked should be the ghee on the chapati. A large portion of fat in the diet enters via this source. A child tipping the scales on the overweight side should immediately desist from consuming this. Its a fast and easy way of restricting calories for such children. However for underweight children or those that play sport and have a higher requirement of calories or those that stay in cold climes, ghee is manna from heaven and should be encouraged.

Some people add salt and oil while kneading the dough. This can be done away with. Let children appreciate the taste of a food without the addition of salt. It is a healthy habit to restrict salt in one’s diet. As for the oil/ ghee, dough made without it is equally malleable.

These changes make you question the basic habits we have been following over the years. To quote Lord Tennyson, the old order changeth yielding place to new, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.