The story of Gandhi’s experiments with food

For me, so far removed in time, he comes across as a serious diet expert who conducted unique and bold experiments throughout his life.

His writings are full of the minutest prescriptions on health matters. Though once in a while, the experiments backfired, he still gained some very useful insights.

To Gandhi, food was not merely a source of nourishment nor was it meant to merely satiate hunger. Food, according to him, was instrumental in shaping human consciousness. This led him to search, through experiments on himself, for the perfect diet.

Surprisingly, many of his notions of a perfect diet, I feel, were ahead of his time.

Only now, some ideas that he had had sixty years ago are being ratified scientifically.

His emphasis on unpolished cereals, vegetables and fruits is very similar to recommendations today.

He also laid great emphasis on proper mastication of foods. Scientific evidence now recognises the importance of this in view of the role played by the salivary juices in breaking down starches. The cult of drinking goat’s milk that he initiated has a huge following even today.

Not all his diet experiments were successful. Once, while advocating raw food, he lived largely on peanuts for four months, thereby developing a serious sickness. But he learnt the importance of other foods.

Although raw foods may be touted by many as a panacea, it is important to recognise that cooking is helpful in many ways. For one, it destroys some of the inhibitors present in food that prevent it from being digested completely by the body. Even today, there though some raw food diets are in vogue, their limitations are scientifically well recognised.

Gandhi, like many philosophers steeped in Hindu thought, believed that that what a man ate was a reflection of his person.

Of course, there are many votaries of this supposed relationship between diet and personality, but I do not find much scientific evidence for their statements. What I have noticed in a purely anecdotal fashion over the years, is that women have a predilection for spicy food. Would that mean women are more interesting as humans than men?

Gandhi came up with many unorthodox treatments relying on naturopathy. He successfully treated many typhoid cases with wet sheet packs and orange juice and water diets.

He cured Kasturba’s anaemia, when she was critically ill and in grave danger, with limejuice and a salt-free diet.

Of course, not everyone was a willing subject of the Mahatma’s ministrations.

Sardar Patel, the original Iron Man of India and one of Gandhi’s closest associates, once found himself at the receiving end of a treatment by Gandhi. Later, he could not help remarking that the cure was worse than the ailment!