I’m in India.  Having spent a year working for The Thali Cafe I figured it was time I headed to the Motherland to see what all the fuss is about.

And to tighten my winter waistline through a spot of yoga?  I was unaware until now, however how much yoga is seen not just as a form of exercise but as a way of life taught by the yogis.  With special eating practices to go with.  Time to put Thali to the test then I thought, in terms of Yogic Eating and maintaining a healthy diet.

I was brought up by my father as a meat and two veg kind of girl, my weekly diet consisting of meat (everyday), white bread, the odd microwave meal, chocolate, sugar-based drinks… Breakfast was small, lunch got bigger and dinner was our chance to stuff ourselves before bed.

Shiva would be shocked.  Shiva was my yoga instructor, Hatha style, and specialist in Yogic Eating , whilst in McLeod Ganj, suburb of Dharamsala, Northern India. 

“Yogic eating starts with understanding your eating necessity – eat to live don’t live to eat”, and most importantly “don’t be a slave to the tongue”.  I had heard it before “you are what you eat”, India was teaching me to pay closer attention to this.

Meat-eating animals have a long intestine and teeth designed to cut through meat.  Human Beings have neither.  Check one.  At present the Thali Café is a meat free zone, based on similar opinions to the Yogis that the human body is not designed to digest meat. 

“If you don’t absorb food through the blood you become a shit making machine”, Shiva had a way with words.  Food should not stay in the body for more than 24 hours.  Meat, dairy, and processed foods are harder to digest.  Natural unprocessed food, like vegetables, nuts and fruits are easily digested taking just 2 hours. Check two.  Thali food is fresh, vegetarian and balanced, and our chefs like to scatter a few nuts and seeds in there to keep us regular too.

Our bodies are 20% acid, 80% alkaline.  Whenever we break nature’s combinations food becomes acidic, brown rice is alkaline for example whereas white rice is acidic.  I brought this back to the Thali drawing board with the suggestion of offering customers the choice of brown rice as a healthy alternative? Brown rice also retains it’s fibre is a rich source of thiamin (vitamin B1) The Thali kitchen is looking into it.

Our stomachs are like a balloon.  We should never eat more than half our capacity to fill the stomach.  To find out what your capacity is, Shiva proposed one day eating all you can until you think you are going to explode, then never again eating more than half what you managed that day.  The stomach should only ever be filled half with solid and liquids leaving the other half for air.

Western eating habits see an over-consumption of carbs.  The carbohydrate intake that we require is actually very minimal.  Two types of curry and some salad on the Thali plate alongside the rice gives people the option to fill up on the good stuff rather than binge on the rice which is most filling, and we try to keep the rice to a minimum so you don’t get the option of over-eating.

Food preparation can also have a bearing on digestion, cooking food for less time in order to preserve it’s original form and nutritional makeup.  The stronger the colour of the vegetable after cooking, the better.  So keeping our thalis colourful is actually a reflection on how nutritious our food is.

Oil should also be used with care as cooking with oil changes its makeup, making it harder to digest.  We base our food on fresh homemade Indian cooking, using less oil than your usual Indian takeaway.

Yogic eating says “no” to dairy although a bit of curd (yoghurt) once in a while can act as a friendly bacteria for the stomach. Hence the dollop of raita or coconut and ginger chutney we complement our thail plates with.

Eating times and types of foods dependent on time of day should also be observed, our heaviest meal being lunch, lightest in the evening, and a simple breakfast early in the morning.  So if you are a carnivore, eat your meat for lunch then head to Thali for dinner to keep your digestion time to a minimum before bed.

Excessive alcohol should also be avoided according to the yogis, although a balanced diet sees no harm in a glass of red wine a day to aid relaxation.  Stimulants like alcohol, coffee and nicotine can also interfere with ones yoga routine when taken seriously, known for disturbing concentration and balance.

My six weeks in India I ate hardly any meat, and experimented with as many of Shiva’s yogic eating ideals as possible.  I felt lighter, healthier, more energized and better concentrated.  On returning to the UK I slipped back into my old habits and I got ill!  On consideration I can now guarantee that eating Thali food a couple of times a week fits in with a complementary way of eating and maintaining a healthier way of life. 

And the trick is to stick with it.  Shiva described our diet in terms of a health graph.  ‘stepping up on your quest for better health through diet makes you instinctively become attracted to things that are good for you’.   I don’t know about that, but at least I know I’m on the right track eating balanced and nutritious Thali food whenever possible!