How much can you trust Bollywood’s favourite dietician Rujuta Diwekar?

 Celebrity dietician Rujuta Diwekar stirred up a Twitter row last month when she said mangoes are safe for diabetics. It was yet another of her many contentious claims.

If you’ve Googled “how to lose weight” in India, a name you would not have missed in the results is Rujuta Diwekar.

The celebrity nutritionist with a glittering clientele such as Kareena Kapoor and Anupam Kher, is the author of the popular book Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight. Diwekar also has a formidable online presence —her Twitter followers and YouTube video views are both in excess of half a million.

Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar (centre) has a glittering clientele | Commons

The 44-year-old’s emphasis on cooking locally available produce, exalting “Indian food the way your grandmother cooked them”, advocating counting pranic value (which she classifies as freshness of food) instead of calories, while also citing new American research on heart disease and using WHO statistics to back sugar consumption, have earned her admirers across the spectrum.

But her ideas have also drawn as much flak as they have followers as Diwekar has earned the ire of doctors, nutritionists and researchers.

On 30 April, Diwekar, who came into prominence in 2008 for helping Kapoor achieve a “size zero” body for the movie Tashan, created a stir when she recommended mangoes for diabetics, tweeting that the fruit is seasonal, local and low on glycemic index (GI).

It angered medical professionals, who termed the advice dangerous.

But such is her following, Diwekar was swiftly defended, with many of her followers pointing to the fruit’s relatively low glycemic index.

Responding by email to queries from ThePrint, Diwekar said that her recommendation was based on one from a doctors’ body. 

“Mango and its effect on blood sugars — it’s from the Association of Physicians of India, Karnataka chapter. One of the objectives of this study was to get diabetics to consume fresh, local fruits without fear,” she said.

She also stressed that her statements are based on available research. “Every idea that I talk about or tweet has been in the public domain for over a decade. A cursory Google search will help you find articles from authoritative journals that back that information,” she said.

Lack of context

Technically, Diwekar’s statements are often correct. Mangoes do have a lower GI but her throwaway advice, say medical experts, lacks the larger context of portion control and total sugar consumption. Mangoes aren’t just sugar; they’re full of nutrients. But mangoes aren’t just nutrients either; they’re also full of sugar.

“It is highly incorrect to make recommendations for any food item solely on the basis of GI,” explained Maaz Shaikh, the co-founder of Wellthy therapeutics, India’s first digital therapeutic firm managing thousands of diabetics every day. “For a diabetic, what matters most is the glycemic load — total amount of sugar that enters their system.”

So, the problem is not a diabetic patient eating mangoes, it is not knowing when to stop.

But Diwekar not only avoids mentioning portion control in public, she seemingly advocates against it, saying in this interview, “We are born with the ability to self-terminate eating; we do not need a dietician or a doctor to tell us where to stop.”

To her credit, that’s not entirely wrong.

“All animals do have checks and balances that keep them from overeating,” explained Ishi Khosla, clinical nutritionist at the Centre For Dietary Counselling, Delhi, and founder of The Celiac Society Of India. “The perfect example of this is how you can never overfeed a baby or a pet. But that is provided they aren’t exposed to sugar or junk.”

But sugar changes everything.

All about sugar

Diwekar’s assertions on sugar are contentious, to say the least. Her new book, ‘Indian Super Foods’, lists sugar as one. In a fiction vs fact table, she terms the medical advice to “avoid sugar if diabetic” as fiction and claims that meta studies have shown no “conclusive link between consumption of sugar and diabetes”. 

Diwekar also claims that refined sugar and jaggery are healthier than beet sugar.

“Most forms of sugar are converted to glucose in the body,” explained Shaikh. “Simple sugars like our everyday white sugar spike our blood sugar levels very fast while more complex sugars lead to slower rise. Sugarcane, jaggery, beet sugar are all simple sugars that are absorbed rapidly and spike blood sugar levels.”

Khao aur khane do, Mangoes 🤩

Separating the familiar lies from the truth.
The lies -
1. It’s very high in sugar and calories
2. It’s very high on glycemic index
3. People with Diabetes and obesity should avoid eating it.

— Rujuta Diwekar (@RujutaDiwekar) April 30, 2018

In her book, Diwekar claims low-calorie sweeteners can cause cancer — a claim heavily debunked. Her advice, particularly on Twitter, where her words reach more than 5 lakh people, doesn’t explain the complexities of nutrition nor does she cite authoritative sources.

Links she provided to ThePrint backing her statement on sweeteners (like here, here, here) all demonstrate older studies on rats. Today, even the most conservative of studies show that the mechanism of increased cancer incidence can be seen only in rats. It is non-reproducible in human physiology and artificial sweeteners were completely delisted from carcinogen lists in 2000.

She often proclaims that microwaves are harmful as micronutrient bonds “break, get oxidised, become toxic”. This myth has been refuted again and again; nutrients are best preserved when cooked fastest and microwaves are more suitable for that than low flames.

Her links to back these statements  (like this 1992 study, this study on any form of heating on garlic, this 1995 paper on milk, and this self-critical piece on microwave plastic) are at least 10 years old.

Diwekar uses the age of the studies to validate her stance without recognising that all of it is very much outdated, replaced today with better products and safe results.

“People who follow me on Twitter are intelligent and don’t take anything at face value. They arrive at their own decisions on food,” she said. “All I hope for is that one arrives at them based on facts and not fears.”

Unfortunately, Diwekar’s factually incorrect statements appear alongside sensible advice — like responsibly reducing plastic — increasing the credibility of her words.

Eat-local, the business model

Much of Diwekar’s appeal lies in her emphasis on consuming locally available produce and relying on our grandmothers’ cooking techniques. Her USP is simple: Stick to Indian foods the way our grandparents ate them.

Diwekar backs her claims on what our “ancestors” ate without details or context of the evolution of food. A whole host of vegetables that are staple today, including potatoes, tomatoes, and capsicum, came to India just 400 years ago. Apple came to India a little under a century ago.

“Our dadis, nanis seem to be eating whatever they like. They have great skin and look good even today. What are they doing that we aren’t?” she asks. The answer is obvious: No processed foods, sugar and junk that surround us at every corner. It’s not what they eat, it’s what they don’t.

Her standard recommendation to everyone, even those with diabetes and blood pressure, is eating rice, dal, and ghee every day.

“A lot of her advice on ‘traditional’ foods doesn’t apply to people who don’t belong to educated, upper-caste elite,” said Dr Veena Shatrugna, former deputy director and head of the Clinical Division at the National Institute of Nutrition.

Even today, the majority of the country simply cannot afford to eat rice, ghee and dal every day. “A large part of the working class eats rice with chutney or roti with onions. On the ground, it is important to not straddle class and social layers with sweeping statements,” added Shatrugna.

Diwekar also advocates for simple changes that are mostly just common sense and non-specific: Exercise every day, eat in short intervals for blood sugar stability, avoid packaged foods, eat healthy fats, cook foods we understand.

“Brazil is in this area,” she told ThePrint. “Their official dietary guidelines reflect the current space that nutrition science is in — eating is a social act, we should eat traditional and home cooked food (to account for diversity in cuisines and climate), and pay attention to food while eating to guide us on quantities instead of fussing about portion size.”

Nutritionist or dietician?

Diwekar’s words have impact and reach for a reason: There is a dearth of voices on nutrition, particularly from medical professionals.

“I would heavily fault doctors,” said Shatrugna. “Most have abdicated nutrition entirely. They advise diabetics to stop eating sugars and carbs like rice and meat, but don’t tell them what to eat instead. So, patients turn to nutritionists who are often without medical training, and whose important science isn’t seen as academic or useful by doctors.”

It is this void that Diwekar has tapped into efficiently. A lot of people whose troubles need to be controlled by diets don’t really know what to eat, so they turn to whoever has advice.

“Nutritional advice can apply to someone who’s hale and hearty and wants to lose weight at best,” said Dr. Kamini Rao, IVF specialist and founder of Milann Centre for Reproductive Medicine.

“Anyone with even the slightest of diseases requires personalised advice. Everyone with the same disease can’t be bunched into one group. Nutrition cannot replace medical advice, and it isn’t safe to recommend foods online to those with diseases,” she said.

In India, dietetics and nutrition aren’t well regulated. While the field of nutritionists is pretty much unregulated in most parts of the world, being a dietician requires a licence in several countries. 

But not in India, where the two words are used interchangeably.

“Nutrition is something everyone is waking up to today. It’s an evolving science that is often accompanied by a lot of sensationalism,” explained Khosla, a clinical nutritionist.

“Unfortunately, there is no prerequisite for a nutritionist in India today. People with a personal weight loss story or even marketers of nutritional supplements can call themselves a nutritionist.”

That isn’t good news for those seeking advice online, which is pretty much most of us.

“In the battle of your research vs mine, common sense, experience and practicality wins,” Diwekar told ThePrint. 

“Thanks to the internet, we are demanding more transparency about food research, asking questions of who funds a study, and if this affects the conclusion it arrives at.”

Like Diwekar herself seemingly agrees, words of celebrity nutritionists — especially in non-professional consultations — perhaps need to be taken with a generous helping of salt.

(Source: The Print)

Eastern Europeans to be flown in to pick fruit and veg in UK

Eastern European farm workers are being flown to the UK on charter flights to pick fruit and vegetable crops.

Air Charter Service has told the BBC that the first flight will land on Thursday in Stansted carrying 150 Romanian farm workers.

The firm told the BBC that the plane is the first of up to six set to operate between mid-April and the end of June.

Government department Defra said it was encouraging people across the UK "to help bring the harvest in".

British farmers recently warned that crops could be left to rot in the field because of a shortage of seasonal workers from Eastern Europe. Travel restrictions due to the coronavirus lockdown have meant most workers have stayed at home.

Several UK growers have launched a recruitment drive, calling for local workers to join the harvest to prevent millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables going to wast

Getty Images

One of the UK's biggest fresh food producers, G's Fresh, based in Cambridgeshire, confirmed it chartered two out of the six flights carrying Eastern European farm workers from Romania.

Derek Wilkinson, managing director of G's Fresh's Sandfield Farms division, told the BBC that the 150 workers arriving at Stansted from eastern Romania on Thursday will be taken by bus to farms in East Anglia to pick lettuce.

The firm said the group will be screened on arrival in the UK, will be socially distanced, and anyone found to have a temperature will be quarantined.

Mr Wilkinson said his business needed 3,000 seasonal workers, with the greatest need in May at the start of the spring onion harvest, followed by the pea and bean crop in June.

He added that the company had had a good response to a recruitment campaign aimed at local workers. So far, 500 British people have registered their interest.

The Air Charter Service, a private firm, has already arranged flights for seasonal workers in other countries. It flew 1,000 farm workers to Germany from Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks.

The workers will board in Iasi, eastern Romania, after having their temperatures taken and filling out a health questionnaire. The BBC understands that they will be taken from the airport by minibuses to farms in the South East and the Midlands.

Seasonal worker shortage

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said up to 70,000 fruit and vegetable pickers were needed. It is calling for a modern-day "land army" of UK workers.

NFU vice president Tom Bradshaw told the BBC: "Growers that rely on seasonal workers to grow, pick and pack our fresh fruit, veg and flowers are extremely concerned about the impact coronavirus restrictions may have on their ability to recruit this critical workforce this season."

"In the meantime, I would encourage anyone who is interested in helping pick for Britain this summer to contact one of the approved agricultural recruiters."

A national campaign is appealing to students and those who have lost their jobs in bars, cafes and shops to help with the harvest.

Several schemes have been set up to recruit new workers. They include one by the charity Concordia, which typically helps young people arrange experiences abroad, and another by the industry bodies British Summer Fruit and British Apples and Pears.

Data released to the BBC last week by job search engines suggested that those recruitment efforts might be paying off.

Totaljobs said it had seen 50,000 searches for farming jobs in one week alone. It added that searches for terms such as "fruit picker" or "farm worker" had surged by 338% and 107% respectively.

Indeed.co.uk said that there had been a huge spike in interest for fruit picker jobs in particular. Between 18 March and 1 April, there was an increase of more than 6,000% in searches for these roles on its website.

Meanwhile, Monster said the number of UK users searching for "farm" or "farm worker" jobs had nearly tripled.

The charity Concordia said the response had been "phenomenal", but that a labour shortage was still expected.

Many UK growers depend on seasonal migrant workers from Eastern Europe

Stephanie Maurel, its chief executive, told the BBC's Today programme that 36,000 people had registered interest and more than 6,000 had conducted a video interview.

But in the last 10 days, while almost 900 people had been offered jobs, just 112 have agreed contracts to accept employment.

"We've got brilliant people who are ready to work, but the reality of a job when it comes to it hasn't really matched their circumstances, so we're just working through that at the moment," Ms Maurel said.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was "working hard with industry to ensure farmers and growers have the support they need" for harvesting produce.

"We are encouraging as many people as possible to take part in seasonal working opportunities across the country to help bring the harvest in, and recruitment efforts by industry are well under way," a Defra spokesperson said.

The government is not involved in chartering flights of European workers to the UK.

(Source: BBC)

High Court favours jail term for using chemicals to ripen fruits

Use of pesticides & chemicals to ripen fruits amounts to poisoning the consumer, the High Court of Delhi has observed & said invoking penal provisions against the culprits would have a deterrent effect.

“Using chemicals like calcium carbide to ripen mangoes is like poisoning somebody. Why should the Indian Penal Code be not invoked against them? Send such persons to jail, even if for 2 days & it would have a deterrent effect,” a bench of Justices GS Sistani & AJ Bhambani said while hearing a PIL initiated by the court to monitor use of pesticides on fruits & vegetables.

Fiat to FSSAI

The bench directed the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) whether calcium carbide was still being used to ripen fruits like mangoes, & sought the presence of its Chief Executive Officer to assist it on the next date of hearing.

The Court also asked the Ministry of Agriculture as to whether any kit was available for consumers to themselves test for calcium carbide in their homes. The ministry said no such kit was available as the presence of calcium carbide can only be tested in laboratories with the help of proper equipment & additional chemicals.

The Govt. of Delhi, represented by its additional standing counsel Naushad Ahmed Khan, told the Court that it has been picking up samples from markets in Delhi for testing & also carrying out awareness drives. It also told the Court that some of the samples were tested & no chemicals were found & the results of other samples were awaited.

Apart from the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) initiated by the Court on its own, it is also hearing 2 other petitions by private individuals seeking directions to the authorities to curb the use of pesticides & other chemicals on food products, especially the agricultural produce, coming into Delhi.

Excessive pesticides

According to a report filed by amicus curiae Rajul Jain earlier, due to excessive usage of pesticides in fruits & vegetables, “various countries have banned the import of Indian vegetables & fruits & many more were under scrutiny.”

The HC had launched the issue on its own after an NGO had found that vegetables & fruits sold in the Delhi markets contained poisons capable of causing cancer & harming the nervous system & liver.

The Court has in the past suggested several measures to curb adulteration of eatables, especially fruits & vegetables, like large-scale testing & sending back contaminated food products to manufacturers or farmers.

(Source: Latest Laws.com)

UAE bans fruits from Indian state after Nipah virus outbreak

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has banned imports of fresh vegetables and fruits from the southern Indian state of Kerala where 13 people have died due to an outbreak of the rare brain-damaging Nipah virus, the Gulf state said on Tuesday.

The UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment also notified other local authorities, including the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and the municipalities of its emirates, to prevent the entry of any fresh produce from Kerala, it said in a statement.

The ministry suspects that fruit bats are the source of the virus. It said it was banning fresh produce, including mangoes, dates and bananas - the bats' preferred fruits.

Indian health officials have not been able to trace the origin of the Nipah outbreak and have begun a fresh round of tests on fruit bats from Perambra, the suspected epicenter of the infection.

In this file photo taken on May 21, 2018 Animal Husbandry department and Forest officials deposit a bat into a container after catching it inside a well at Changaroth in Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala. (AFP)

Kerala has sent 116 suspected cases for testing in recent weeks, 15 have been confirmed with the deadly disease and 13 of these people have died, with two patients still undergoing treatment.

No confirmed cases of the virus have been found outside the state.

There is no vaccine for the virus, which is spread through body fluids and can cause encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Last week, the UAE consulate in Kerala advised travelers to take precautions and follow safety instructions issued by the Indian authorities.

The Gulf state has also banned imports of live animals from South Africa, based on a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of the registration of Rift Valley Fever disease, the ministry said.

(Source: The Peninsula)

The strange history of the “King-Pine”

Nina-Sophia Miralles, the founder and editor of Londnr magazine, writes about the strange history of the pineapple as a spiky signifier of wealth, in the Paris Review. Read on: 

“There is no nobler fruit in the universe,” Jean de Léry writes of the pineapple. Charles Lamb loved the fruit erotically: “Pleasure bordering on pain, from the fierceness and insanity of her relish, like a lovers’ kisses she biteth.”  Pieter de la Court professes: “One can never be tire’d with looking on it.” How did these men, and so many others, become so enraptured with the pineapple? And how have we forgotten its former grandeur?

In 1496, when Christopher Columbus was returning from his second voyage to the Americas, he brought back a consignment of pineapples. Little did he know that this golden gift, nestled among the tame parrots, tomatoes, tobacco, and pumpkins, would be the crowning glory of his cargo.

The fateful pineapple that reached King Ferdinand was the sole survivor: it was the only specimen that had not dissolved into a sticky rot during the journey. It produced enough of an impression for Peter Martyr, tutor to the Spanish princes, to record the first tasting: “The most invincible King Ferdinand relates that he has eaten another fruit brought from those countries. It is like a pine-nut in form and colour, covered with scales, and firmer than a melon. Its flavour excels all other fruits.”

At least part of the excitement came from the fruit’s spiked form, which sent Europeans into rapture. King Ferdinand’s envoy to Panama, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdes, writes, “[It is] the most beautiful of any fruits I have seen. I do not suppose there is in the whole world any other of so exquisite and lovely appearance.”

The sweetness of the pineapple, too, should not go unmentioned. Renaissance Europe was a world essentially bereft of common sweets. Sugar refined from cane was an expensive commodity, and orchard-grown fruits were subject to seasons. The pineapple may well have been the tastiest thing anyone had ever eaten. But delicious or otherwise, it was still the preserve of adventurers, and the pineapple might never have made it into common lore if it hadn’t coincided with yet another global development: the widespread dissemination of the written word.

Though books had been in production since the mid fifteenth century, the sixteenth century saw an estimated increase of 130 million books flood Western Europe. Sailors and scholars alike took up the pen to chronicle tales from the New World, its civilizations, climate, flora, and fauna. Suddenly, wider knowledge of the pineapple led people to notice its glaring absence in the Bible and classical texts.

As Fran Beauman notes in her book The Pineapple, “That it was previously unknown in the Old World meant that it was free of the cultural resonances that engulfed other fruits.” While the pomegranate suffered under the legacy of Persephone and the apple was stained by the creation story, the pineapple was, Beauman continues, “a completely blank page” onto which ruling powers could press their own meanings.

It did not take long for the absolutist monarchy, still unshaken on the continent, to co-opt the pineapple for its own purposes. The French priest Father Du Tertre may have been the first to bless it “the king of fruits,” but by the mid seventeenth century, this imperial image was exceedingly popular. The French physician Pierre Pomet’s exalting explanation runs: “It was thought a just Appellation … to call the Ananas the King of Fruits, because it is much the finest and best of all that are upon the Face of the Earth. It is for this Reason that the King of Kings has plac’d a Crown upon the Head of it, which is an essential mark of its Royalty.”

The pineapple became a symbolic manifestation of the divine right of kings. Not only did it suit Royalist agendas to claim anything with a crown had been appointed by heaven, but the distance the pineapple had to travel to get to Europe meant few people had seen or tried one. This added an extra mythical quality that could not be contested. The situation in England, however, was set to change.

During the sparing Cromwellian years that followed the English Civil War of 1642, there are no mentions of the pineapple in print. To the staunchly protestant Cromwell, “the pineapple must have seemed like an insufferable luxury compared, to, say, the humble pear,” Beauman writes. Besides, Cromwell was not willing to embrace a fruit whose leafy headgear was read as evidence of God’s favor. In England, torn by issues of governance, the pineapple was briefly the enemy.

Then Charles II was recalled to take the throne in 1660, and a new era of plenty was ushered in. Nicknamed the Merry Monarch, Charles II was celebrated for his voluble personality, swaggering court of cavaliers, and rapacious love of women. Cromwellian Puritanism was cast aside in favor of the revival, and splendor returned to the dining table with glistening meats, trembling jellies, and sugar sculptures. In the pineapple, which Charles II christened “King-Pine,” he saw an opportunity.

In 1668, when the French ambassador came to England to mediate a heated debate over the island of Saint Kitts in the West Indies, Charles II ordered a pineapple from Barbados, then an English colony, to be perched at the top of a pyramid of fruit at dinner. It was a wily move to assert English ascendancy in the region, and a public-relations triumph. “We can get pineapples,” it seemed to relay, “and you can’t.”

From then on, the pineapple became Charles II’s favorite status symbol. He even had a painting commissioned of himself being presented a pineapple by the royal gardener, though this was another bit of clever PR: the pineapple still could not be grown in northern climes.

Charles II presented with a pineapple, C. 1675.

As European kingdoms tussled for power in the colonies, and particularly as the Dutch gained ground, English access to pineapples would continue to be leveraged as proof of their strength. Unluckily for the British, the Dutch were also keen and able gardeners. The first greenhouse was constructed in the Netherlands in 1682, intensifying the rivalry between the two nations.

When the Dutch cloth merchant Pieter de la Court had a breakthrough in the process of growing pineapples, the English were galled into a jealous frenzy. This only subsided when a former English princess and her Dutch husband, ironically named William of Orange, took the throne. William’s new title as king of England did much to calm the pineapple wars.

By the Georgian era, pineapples could be raised on the British Isles. Cue countrywide madness. As the Enlightenment period made the rich richer, the landed aristocracy began to engage in a frenzy of new hobbies, including gambling, boozing, and time-consuming, expensive pineapple cultivation. Pineries needed care around the clock, custom-built greenhouses, and mountains of coal to keep the temperatures high. The fruit took three to four years to bloom. The cost of rearing each one was equivalent to eight thousand dollars in today’s money.

The sheer expense meant it was considered wasteful to eat them, and they remained, as during Charles II’s reign, dinnertime ornaments. A pineapple would be passed from party to party until it began to rot, and the maids who transported the pineapples placed themselves in mortal danger should they be accosted by thieves.

For those who did not have the funds to grow their own, a bevy of pineapple-rental shops sprung up. By the 1770s, it had entered the lexicon as a commendation. “A pineapple of the finest flavour” was a phrase used for anything that was the best of the best. (For instance: “My birthday party was a pineapple of the finest flavour.”) In Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals, a character compliments another by pronouncing, “He is the very pineapple of politeness.”

Teapot, Edward Warburton, 1760.

During the expansion of trade in eighteenth-century Britain, home-goods companies began to cash in on the pineapple as a status symbol. Wedgwood, the makers of fine china, began to produce tableware with pineapple themes for the upper classes. Carved stone pineapples appeared on plinths outside grand manor houses, pronouncing to passersby the largesse and high standing of the family within. They adorned carriages, topped garden temples, figured in countless paintings, and were turned into enormous sculptures gracing country gardens.

Pineapples had become synonymous with good taste, nobility, and limitless wealth. It was a primarily English phenomenon. Pineapples disappeared from France after the 1789 Revolution, and other countries such as Spain, Portugal, and even Russia (where a pineapple had once made it to the court of Catherine the Great) could not keep up with the UK’s heavy investment in pineapple cultivation.

Built in 1761, the Dunmore Pineapple is an iconic Scottish landmark

As steamships began to import the fruit in greater quantities from the colonies, the pineapple’s reputation deteriorated. Industrialization, war, and shortages served to push the fruit further from cultural consciousness. It seems strange now that this fruit, easily purchased in chunks at any supermarket, ever engendered such furor.

Yet in the past few years, the world (or at least the world of those who shop at Urban Outfitters) has witnessed a return of the pineapple motif. Its bristly shape appears on clutch bags, in the form of novelty shot glasses, stuck on cute stationary and phone cases. After the advent of cheap canned pineapple rings and pineapple chunks atop Hawaiian pizzas, it seems difficult to believe that this most recent embrace of the pineapple’s whimsical form has anything to do with status. Trends in hipster decorating motifs—from owls to pineapples and on, more recently, to cacti and flamingos—follow little discernible logic.

Trend Bible pins the emergence of the pineapple as connected to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and a subsequent growing interest in South America, though the “King-Pine” appeared on wallpaper and statement socks as early as 2014. Perhaps the memory of when people had never seen anything so spiky or tasted anything so sweet lingers in our collective subconscious. At the very least, the modern love of the pineapple feeds into people’s constant yearning for summer, for faraway tropical lands. A life of heat and pleasure. A life of leisure, in fact, just like aristocrats once had.

M&S selling stoneless avocado that could cut out risk of injuries

Retailer’s ‘cocktail avocado’ can be eaten whole and may help end problem of people slicing their hands while removing stone, writes Sarah Butler in the Guardian. Read on: 

Marks & Spencer has begun selling a stoneless avocado that could help banish the pain of “avocado hand”.

The so-called cocktail avocado is 5cm-8cm (2in-3in) in length and has a smooth, edible skin, meaning it can be sliced or eaten whole.

Earlier this year, the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons identified the problem of increasing numbers of people turning up at A&E after cutting their hands and fingers while trying to remove avocado stones, and called for safety labels to be put on the fruit.

Charlotte Curtis, a food technology specialist at M&S, said: “We’ve had the mini, the giant, ready sliced and we’re now launching the holy grail of avocados – stoneless. This amazing fruit has been on our radar for a couple of years and we’re very excited to have finally been able to get hold of some for our customers to try.”

The slimmer fruit is the result of an unpollinated blossom and develops without a seed. It is grown in Spain and currently only available during December. M&S said stoneless avocados were usually sent to Paris, where chefs use them in high-end restaurants, but the retailer had managed to source a limited supply this year.

Marks & Spencer’s stoneless avocado is 5cm-8cm in length and has an edible skin.
Photograph: PicturePartners/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Curtis said she expected them to sell out quickly, adding: “My top tip is to try them deep fried.”

M&S’s stoneless version is the latest attempt to meet growing global demand for avocados while supply is being squeezed.

Over the summer, Tesco briefly sold an avocado weighing about 70g and nearly one-third of the usual size. M&S is also experimenting with tattooing avocados instead of using sticky labels.

UK sales have surged as the Instagram-friendly dish of avocado on toast has become increasing popular and health-conscious consumers have used the fruit in smoothies and salads. It has also been blamed for young people not being able to afford to buy a house.

Poor harvests in producer countries including Peru and South Africa have combined with soaring demand from China to create a worldwide shortage. Strikes by workers in Mexico, which accounts for up to 70% of global avocado production, compounded the problem.

A banana a day keeps the doctor away

Getting enough potassium could make a huge difference to your health, finds the new study.

Eating bananas every day could help prevent heart attacks and strokes, new research reveals.

High in potassium, foods like bananas can stop fatal blockages from occurring and inhibit the hardening and narrowing of arteries.

Researchers at the University of Alabama discovered the effects after analysing mice who were at risk of heart disease.

The mice were then fed either low, normal or high levels of potassium with the results showing that the arteries of mice fed a low-potassium diet became significantly harder.

In contrast, the animals given high potassium had substantially less artery hardening and reduced stiffness in their aorta.

As such, the vital mineral is thought to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans. However eating too much can cause stomach ache, nausea and diarrhoea.

Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, acknowledged the recent study showed that not eating enough potassium leads to the hardening of arteries.

 “With more research, we might be able to see if the disease forms in humans in a similar way and develop treatments,” he told The Sun.

Official NHS advice is to consume 3,500mg of potassium each day, a quarter of which could be met by eating two bananas.

Other foods rich in the mineral include potatoes, broccoli, sprouts, seeds, fish and poultry.

As such, the vital mineral is thought to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans. However eating too much can cause stomach ache, nausea and diarrhoea.

Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, acknowledged the recent study showed that not eating enough potassium leads to the hardening of arteries.

 “With more research, we might be able to see if the disease forms in humans in a similar way and develop treatments,” he told The Sun.

Official NHS advice is to consume 3,500mg of potassium each day, a quarter of which could be met by eating two bananas.

Other foods rich in the mineral include potatoes, broccoli, sprouts, seeds, fish and poultry.

(Source: Independent)

Goans decided to go organic, and grew a mini forest in their backyards!

In Goa, organic farming has caught people’s attention, who want to experience the satisfaction of growing their own food organically, writes Arti Das on The Better India. Read on:

As you walk into the kitchen garden of Peter Fernandes and Rosie Harding in Assagao, Goa, you realise that it’s no less than a forest, where the land is covered with mulch and the 700 square meters of area is covered with perennial greens. This 4-year-old kitchen garden is the perfect place to understand how you can grow your food without using chemicals and by following the permaculture method for farming.

Peter likes to describe it as an edible garden which provides health and nutrition. A few years ago, his garden was no more than a wasteland. Then, both of them worked on the soil fertility to grow their own food. Now, they grow vegetables and fruits, including a variety of spinach, red and green amaranth, a variety of gourd, herbs and beans among others.

“It’s really important that we produce what is safe and rich in nutrition. For us, growing our own food has led to substantial benefits. Given how easy it is to incorporate edible plants into your garden, there’s no reason why all of us can’t do it,” says Peter.

He adds that now they are focusing on perennial plants that are local and mostly considered as weeds.

Peter and Rosie at their farm. Image source: Hemant Parab

They have a total of around 150 species of plants that are edible. Also, in one small patch of land, he has 11 types of citrus fruits that include oranges, 13 varieties of mangoes and nine varieties of guava – like the rare black guava.

For Peter, this is where people can learn about farming and share the knowledge with others. “We started this because we wanted to eat healthy and nutritious food,” he says. He is on a sabbatical from his job of consultancy.

Another interesting aspect of their garden is that they do not sell their produce. “As our garden grew successfully in the past years, we started getting surplus produce. But, we don’t want to sell it. We give it to our friends, neighbours or just compost it,” says Peter, adding, “Some 30 years ago, most people in Goa had kitchen gardens, where they would grow their food – be it chillies, red amaranths, different types of gourds, cucumber and fruits like coconut, bananas, guavas, etc. But, now this concept is fading with time.”

Growing food organically, however, is catching people’s attention. All it needs is time and dedication. There are a lot people, who, in their own capacity, are building their own kitchen garden. Terency Luis from Verna has a garden with more than 60 vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices and medicinal plants. Terency does all the work on the 1,950 sq m property herself. She has also managed to encourage her neighbours to grow organic vegetables.

She makes compost using a tumbling composter that she has assembled.

Terency Luis at her farm in Verna.

Fish waste is dumped into a 200 litre plastic drum, where she mixes sawdust and uses the fish waste as a fertiliser for the plants. A traditional compost pit is also present, where leaves and other waste sit before they are transferred into the banana circle to fully decompose. Terency has created several raised beds using materials like wood, laterite stones, cement posts, bricks etc. Each of these are filled with soil that she makes on the property, using the various methods of composting that she employs.



If space is a problem for you to start a kitchen garden, then the solution is community farming. Abhay Kesarkar from Ponda is involved in community farming in a housing complex in Ponda – a town 30km from Panaji. They started their kitchen garden on a terrace of the building and four families are involved in this activity. They grow around 30 seasonal varieties of fruits and vegetables.

Yogita Mehra, who regularly conducts organic gardening workshops in Goa and Mumbai, has noticed a trend of growing your own food in Goa. They’re mostly urban dwellers who don’t want to compromise on the quality of the food and at the same time want to experience the satisfaction of growing it themselves.

She conducts workshops with her husband, Karan Manral, where they teach how, even a small verandah can be turned into a kitchen garden, provided that it receives at least five hours of sunlight for the plants to grow well.

People also like the idea of composting. Goa experiences an issue of waste management. So it’s great that there are people who compost at homes. A portable composting unit called Khamba, introduced by a Bangalore-based company Daily Dump, is quite popular in Goa. It not only gives the much required compost to the plants, but also solves the regular issue of wet waste (which is around 70 per cent of our total waste generated at home).

The government is also working on promoting organic farming in the state.

Vegetables that can be easily grown in a kitchen garden. Source: Green Essentials

The agriculture department recently launched a state sector scheme, under which, 50 per cent assistance will be given on the cost of organic inputs limited to ₹10,000 per hectare and maximum up to 2 hectares per beneficiary for all categories of farmers. These organic inputs are organic fertilisers, bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides and bio-control agents. Farmers possessing a valid Krishi card and cultivating a minimum area of 0.1 hectare in the state are eligible for this scheme.

The Botanical Society of Goa started in 1990. Its annual Home Garden Competition began two years later and focused entirely on ornamental plants. In 1996, a component of Kitchen Gardening was introduced and in 1998, a component of composting of kitchen waste and garden clippings was introduced. In the next year, they introduced a component of waste/grey water reuse for irrigation.

In 2011, the Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) held its national executive committee meeting in Goa.

The annual Konkan Fruit Fest held in the month of April in Goa

Taking advantage of the organic farming promoters coming to Goa, the Konkan Fruit Fest was pushed to April end and exhibition and sale of organic produce like fruits and vegetables was organised as part of the event. Now, this event is held every year in Goa focusing on a particular fruit or plant.

Another success story is the Chorao Farmers Club which was initiated in the year 2008 with a group of 22 farmers from the island village of Chorao. It was started by a retired school teacher Premanand Mhambre.

Today, it has around 100 members, 50 per cent of whom are women. They sell various produce like coconut oil, cashew nuts, etc., but their most famous products are the salt-tolerant, traditional variety of rice called Corgut, grown without using chemical fertilisers. It has high fibre content, essential oils, digestible protein as well as high levels of vitamin B complex.

They have other products like Mancurad Mango that sell like hot cakes in the month of April and May. All these initiatives in Goa in the last ten years or so, have helped people become more aware towards what they consume, and also become more environment conscious.

Indian fruits you've never heard of

Being as geographically diverse as it is, India is home to an incredibly wide variety of fruit. The country is the second largest producer of fruit in the world after China. It is only natural that you will find many strange products of nature that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. We’ve rounded up a list of five Indian fruits that you’ve probably never heard of them if you’re from outside the country.

Fingered Citron or Buddha’s Hand

This distinct-looking fruit, whose origin is estimated to trace to India’s northeast, is quite popular in East Asia today. Segmented into long finger-like sections, the fruit resembles a human hand, hence its name as ‘Buddha’s hand’ in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The fragrant fruit is used for perfuming rooms, as decorative additions in gardens and as religious offerings in certain Buddhist temples.

Wood Apple

Known locally as kabit or bel, the fruit is called wood apple or elephant apple due to its hard, woody exterior, which needs to be cracked open to get to its sticky, brown pulp. The fruit usually tastes sweet and sour. It is usually mixed with jaggery to make fruit juices and jams. The wood-apple tree is considered auspicious by Hindus and therefore can be found at many temples. It is usually found in South India, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Karonda

The berry-sized pinkish white fruit is used mostly in pickles, owing to its tangy, sour taste. A rich source of iron and Vitamin C, karonda is used for medicinal purposes in parts of the country. It is also used to make jelly, jam, and chutneys. It is grown in parts of South India as well as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.

Carambola or Star Fruit

The distinctive ridges down the sides of this green to yellow colored fruit cause it to resemble a fruit, if sliced. Native to Southeast Asia, besides India, the extremely juicy fruit is entirely edible and often is just eaten as is. However, it is also used to garnish dishes, owing to its peculiar shape. Rich in antioxidants, potassium, and vitamin C, and low in sugar and sodium, this is one fruit you should definitely aim to dig your teeth into while in the Indian subcontinent!

Targola or Sugar Palm Fruit

With a black husk and a sweet jelly-like interior, this fruit grows in clusters on trees called by a variety of names including doub palm, palmyra palm, toddy palm, or wine palm. Eaten raw, boiled, roasted, or incorporated into complex recipes, the fruit is found mostly in South India. Rich in Vitamin A, B, and C as well as calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, and phosphorous, the fruit has various medicinal uses as well.

(Source: The Culture Trip)