Eat What’s In Season

Spent the winters avoiding gajar halwa and til ladoo and now channelising the will power to resist mangoes? Don’t. “They say” mangoes are VERY fattening, but that’s because “they” can’t tell their kilojoules from their calories. A principle I strongly believe in is that everything that’s ‘in season’ has nutritional properties that will help you overcome the imbalances that a change of season or weather may bring.

Take the mango, which is rich in carotene and fibre to help you deal with the sweltering heat. The carotene provides nourishment to your eyes to cope with the bright glare (yes, even with those dark sun glasses on) and prevents suntan. The fibre provides the necessary roughage for your intestines, which otherwise feel overworked with dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Ok, you say, but won’t it also make me fat? Nothing could be further from the truth. Your mango can help you become lean and toned, but you’ve got to eat it at the right time. Here’s how it works: A mango, eaten with a meal, alters the pH balance or acidity of the stomach and disturbs both the glycemic index and glycemic load of your meal. When a mango is eaten on its own, exactly like the way you often eat your papaya and melon, the sugars and the micro-nutrients in the fruit are much more available to the body than they would be, when it is consumed along with, or right after a meal. So eat your mango after dinner, or have it, as some of us love to do, as aamras, with hot puris, and sure, you will be expanding that ring around your waist. Eat it first thing in the morning, or just after physical exercise, and it may just help you get that six pack.

(A new, fortnightly column on nutrition and fitness, by the best-selling author of Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight)