“We associate health with food, instead of agriculture, that’s why we get it wrong,” said Anna Lartey, director of the UNFAO. If there’s a single sentence that sums up the ideas in this book, it’s this. Agriculture is about growing what is suitable for the region and then eating it in the right season. It also means that there are versatile and varied ways to consume that food, not just by humans but by other living beings in that region, which results in less waste and makes it more sustainable. Because such food is local, it’s more traditional and traditional, means that it will have varied therapeutic applications.
Among the nuts, the humble kaju has always had a bad rep. Almonds and walnuts are great for the heart; however, the kaju apparently causes cholesterol and is fattening. The kaju, though, is not really the type of fruit to get worked up over small misunderstandings. Rich in vitamin B6 and folate, this nut is forgiving and simply wants to inform you that, since you have a liver, you are the one producing the cholesterol. After all, it is only a plant, not some animal or dreadful human that it can produce cholesterol. But it does have a beautiful profile of fatty acids and phytosterols that have a wide range of biological activity in the human body ranging from anti-inflammatory to antibacterial, antioxidative to anti-cancerous.
You are avoiding it because the fashion magazine food writer is making the same mistake that your dietician is making, who is making the same mistake that your doctor is making, by not putting agriculture in the same bracket as health, as Anna Lartey pointed out.
And if you did put the two in the same bracket, you would realise that it’s not about eating the Mediterranean diet, it’s about eating your traditional diet. Because if you are a numbers-driven person, the number of obese in the Mediterranean would boggle you. Then you would stumble upon the next big thing called the Nordic diet, only to realise that the government and the stakeholders in that region are promoting the local food and eating habits because they have realised that it’s not about being on the Med diet but about creating food systems that deliver good nutrition to the present and future generations in a sustainable manner. Because local is traditional and traditional is sustainable (local plants and crops are climate-change-resilient). And sustainability matters because the way we are going, climate change is going to kill us before a heart attack does.
We are, however, a country where kaju is local but it is oats from some packet (again, consider your carbon footprint) that is recognised as good for cholesterol. It is at least three times richer in iron than spinach but it doesn’t find a mention in our school textbooks. Cashew fruit or apple as it is called has at least five times more vitamin C than orange but you won’t learn that in school and the government doesn’t give a damn if some orange juice brands itself as vitamin C rich while the poor cashew farmer doesn’t know how to make cash from his crop. Then a global cola giant walks in and says, Hey! We will buy that cashew apple and make it into a juice. We will package it, rebrand it, the farmer still won’t make money, the consumer will still stay fat from eating industrialised food and we will still earn huge profits. And all is well with the world.
So why the big bhashan? Because I am eating kaju and feeling generous and you should know the facts, man. You can’t be sitting at your doctor’s table with a cholesterol report in your hand, listening to how you can eat walnuts and almonds, but cannot touch kaju. So here’s the lowdown on this super-nut.
Basically, if you are losing sleep at night and spend the day feeling anxious and dead tired, this is the nut that you need to crack. Its amino acid profile, minerals and vitamins could well be the inspiration behind the “stay calm and get on” line of posters. The amino acids help, among other things, in the production of serotonin, the natural sleeping pill whose only side eff ect is a stable, happy mood the next day.
Magnesium is essential for nerves to relax. The next time you are PMSing and want to kill someone or just die crying, just chill and chew some cashew or if your husband is officially middle-aged and wakes up in the middle of the night with a cramping calf, let him munch on cashew too. Its tryptophan (an amino acid) and vitamin B combination is leading to an ever-increasing interest in using kaju as a natural antidepressant.
Excerpted with permission from Indian Superfoods: Change the Way You Eat, Rujuta Diwekar, Juggernaut.
