Indian food was once rich in nutrition — filled with pulses, millets, chapatis, vegetables, and homemade ghee. But is that still true today? In this interview, Dr. Vanita Rahman reveals how the modern Indian diet has become westernized, processed, and packed with cheese and soda. She breaks down the myths and shares evidence-based science behind healthy eating, power plate model, and the role of dairy, meat, and refined oils in India’s rising chronic disease scenario.

Dr. Vanita Rahman, Clinic Director at the Physicians Committee for Responsible, Medicine (PCRM), US Vanita Rahman

Our traditional Indian diet was really full of nutritious foods, like our chapati is or even our rice based foods, or millets or pulses and vegetables. And mostly kids ate fruits that their mothers bought at a local fruit stand. But over the past few decades, that's changed. Kids are no longer eating fresh fruit. They're drinking fruit juice. They're drinking soda. When they're eating vegetables, they're usually in the form of deep fried vegetables or French fries. And when they're consuming grains that are no longer whole grains, they're usually made with all purpose flour or maida, and then they're deep fried at that. And pulses are being replaced with cheese or animal based meats or eggs.  The traditional Indian diet has changed to one that was produced from one that was predominantly plant based to one that's now more infused with highly processed foods and much more animal products. 

What's the difference between vegetarian and plant based eating. So different people define vegetarianism differently. Some people include dairy products as part of their vegetarian eating pattern. Others may include dairy as well as eggs, and yet others may include dairy, eggs, and fish. So that's how loosely it's defined. Now, a plant based diet is one where we eat a lot of nutritious, plant based plant foods, like the pulses and whole grains and fruits and vegetables.  And we avoid all animal products, including dairy and eggs, fish and meat. And we try to keep the food minimally processed so we avoid added oils. We avoid deep frying the food, and we try to eat food that's minimally processed and seasoned with lots of herbs and spices, rather than added fats or sugar. 

Over the past few decades, Indian cuisine has become much more westernized. So what I mean by that, as fast food establishments from abroad have moved and burger establishments, pizza, and fried chicken and all of these foods are very nutritionally poor and very calorically dense. They're high in saturated fats, they are high in cholesterol, they're high in calories, and they're having a very negative impact on our health in India. 

But the other thing that's happening is the Indian food itself is also becoming more westernized, whereas cheese was an uncommon ingredient that was used. And when it was used, it was homemade. Nowdays, cheese is being added to everything. Cheese and heavy cream are taking a more prominent role in the Indian cuisine, and they're often being used to flavor food instead of for traditional spices. So both of these factors together are leading to really an epidemic in India of non-communicable diseases.

Ghee is he's very high in saturated fat. It's also very high in cholesterol. And research has shown that consuming Ghee increases our LDL cholesterol, and that is associated with a higher risk of heart disease. We really have to separate tradition from science.

At the physicians Committee, we've created what we call a power plate. And it's made up of four food groups vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. And I recommend, whenever you put a meal together, use that power plate model to put your meal together. 

Try to get some element of each of those four food groups in different combinations throughout the day. Get a rainbow of vegetables, a rainbow of fruits, different varieties of whole grains, and all these colorful lentils and pulses that we have in India. Those are the foods that have proven to nourish us and keep us strong.