Although my mission is to help people discover their natural healing powers and non-allopathic solutions, weight loss and food queries are forever coming my way, and in particular questions about natural sources of calcium and iron.
If we were to read a food chart with nutrient details, we would be amazed to learn how many foods have most nutrients, only the quantities differ. So it isn’t as though one would get no inputs of calcium or iron if one ate, say, an orange. In fact oranges contain both these nutrients, although in small quantities. However, in an orange, iron and calcium are available in a more assimilable form as fruits digest easily. But since many people ask me to identify calcium and iron rich foods, here’s my take on this issue.
Calcium. All greens including leaves of various vegetables (cauliflower, knol khol, carrot, beet, gram, celery, colocasia, coriander, curry, drumstick, fenugreek, pumpkin, radish, rajgira, tamarind, turnip, water cress), all types of spinach, ragi, whole bengal gram, horsegram, rajma, amaranth, dry lotus stem, bean, dried coconut, palm jaggery, artichoke, almond, walnut, sesame, sunflower seed, watermelon seed, poppy seed, sea weed, piper longum, lime, apricot, bael, fig, raisin, dried date, dried karonda, betel leaf, mahua flower, mango powder (aamchur), roasted tamarind seed kernel, most spices but particularly cumin and bishop’s weed (lavage/ajwain), tapioca, and of course most fish and snail.
Iron. Green leafy vegetables, most dals, millets (especially jowar, bajra and ragi), most unpolished cereals, amaranth, lotus stem, most nuts, most seeds, most spices, most vegetables, tamarind, dried karonda, dried dates and raisins, apricots, blackberrys, watermelon, betel leaves, dried coconut, jaggery, mahua flowers and dried fish.
Yet there are myriad pre-conditions needed for calcium and iron to be optimally utilised by the body. Science has only recently discovered that calcium, when foolishly taken as a supplement, is unusable and causes health problems in the form of painful calcium deposits in joints of the human body.
Moreover one recently discovered secret of improving calcium intake is engagement in physical activity. Which is to say that it’s useless to ingest calcium supplements and lie in bed expecting your calcium levels to rise and bones to become strong. Meanwhile it’s important to know that there is enough calcium in common foods if we don’t overcook greens and restrict sugar consumption. Refined sugar (and other refined foods) leaches calcium from our bones, so even if our diets are calcium rich, sugar will leach it away.
It is because most people’s approach to food preparation and ingestion is fragmented that they are unable to experience natural health and well-being. If they put their trust in nature and make the right choices, they wouldn’t suffer at all. Maintaining good health requires a modicum of natural common sense.
Unfortunately usage of fertilisers, pesticides, genetically modified seeds and irradiated foods make even our common fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, nuts and seeds potential hazards to good health. Rampant food adulteration which is ubiquitous in this under-governed nation is another major health hazard.
Against this backdrop, it makes eminent good sense to choose organically grown food and to eat as simply as possible, taking care to supplement diets with seasonal fruits and vegetables. It also helps to follow elementary digestion rules like chewing your food, not mixing fruits with staples and vegetables, keeping meals simple without over-cooking, and not overeating.
For the country’s poor majority, getting one square meal is a daily struggle. Therefore it’s particularly heart-breaking to see them spending their few rupees on white rice, bread, white sugar, tea, refined oil, iodized salt, and milk. What an utter waste! India has an age old tradition of eating red rice, jaggery, sea salt, rock salt and using ghani (cold-pressed) oils as cooking media. Yet giant food multinationals never stop trying to make big bucks from promoting ready and refined food products while lobbying for legislative bans on jaggery and unrefined salt.
In ancient India, cooking in iron utensils was standard practice. Thankfully in most poor households chapattis are still made on iron tavas. This is a great way of infusing iron into daily meals. Please note that your body accumulates iron reserves to protect you against infections. So even if lab tests indicate inadequate iron content, your body may not be lacking. Therefore haphazard ingestion of iron supplements may cause health complications. If you must pop pills, resort to ayurvedic and homeopathic supplements because they don’t hinder the body’s capacity to produce and absorb nutrients from natural food and diets.
Our grandmothers may not even have known much about iron and calcium nutrients. Nevertheless they were healthy and strong. Likewise if we have faith in nature, follow its laws, trust our intuition and treat expert nutritional advice with healthy skepticism, there won’t be need for nutritional supplements. Nor will we fall prey to consequential ailments of contemporary lifestyles.
(Kavita Mukhi is a Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and director of Conscious Food)