What's driving India's newfound obsession with the ancient Saatvik diet?

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a change in dietary habits in India where many are shifting to more health-conscious food choices to boost their immune system.

In recent times, Indians have added a new flavour to their expansive vegetarian palate: saatvik food (Sanskrit for "purity").

"According to ayurveda (the ancient system of medicine), there are three types of food that are related to our body type and nature - saatvik, rajasic and tamasic," said food curator and television host Rakesh Raghunathan.

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Saatvik is associated with purity, rajasic with activity, ego and ambition, and tamasic is related to laziness and greed, Raghunathan said.

He explained that tamasic foods, which include fast foods, are over-processed, not fresh and difficult to digest. Rajasic foods are pungent and hot.

Although the saatvik diet has no onion or garlic, it is "not tasteless", Raghunathan added.

"Saatvik food is meant to balance all six flavours - sweet, salt, bitter, sour, pungent and astringent."

Indians traditionally ate saatvik food - which is freshly cooked with very little spice and never stored for beyond four hours - during festivals like Navarathri or Dusshera or when they fasted to detox their bodies.

Seasonal fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and milk are also part of saatvik foods that are naturally grown or ripened without the use of pesticides.

Mumbai-based food writer Gita Hari, who used to eat out a lot as part of her work and often suffered from an upset stomach and acidity, said she switched to saatvik diet to help restore her system.

"I did some research and went back to my roots, put myself on a saatvik diet to heal myself.

"And realised that the simple food I had grown up eating as a Tamil Brahmin was the best for my gut," she said, adding that people are interested again in eating healthy since the pandemic took hold.

"Even in the case of fine dining, people want to eat food that is not detrimental to health," said Hari, who has curated saatvik food menus for Indian five-star hotels, including ITC Maratha (Mumbai) and Novotel Vizag.

"Saatvik food is all about eating in moderation and food that promotes harmony of the body, mind and soul. It can be Indian or international cuisine but has to be vegetarian, fresh, cooked with love, and mildly spiced."

Wellness resorts in the country have also jumped on the saatvik diet bandwagon, serving local and international fare including spinach risotto and pasta.

"Our vegetables and fruits are sourced from local farms in villages and the menu is changed daily depending on the availability of ingredients," said Hemwant Rautela, executive sous chef at Viveda Wellness Village in the western city of Nashik.

"All food is freshly prepared according to the diet charts of clients and we have no a la carte menus except for limited room service."

Food blogger Anushruti, who has been writing about saatvik recipes since 2008, said the diet has its roots in the ancient Indian culture where people consumed freshly cooked food devoid of garlic, onion, meat and alcohol.

The Mumbai-based dietician also said she learned a lot from her grandparents who were into ayurveda and saatvik food, and applied the experience when prescribing saatvik diet for clients in India and abroad.

Anushruti said though dairy products have attracted criticism from animal rights activists over the ethical issues related to the industry, people can still include them in their saatvik diet.

"Ghee (clarified butter), buttermilk and yogurt are also part of a saatvik diet and really good for the body," she added.

Speciality saatvik eateries including Sattvam in Bangalore, Delhi's Sattvik and Naivedhya Restaurant in Nashik have also mushroomed across the country. Last month, the Indian Railways started serving saatvik food on its trains headed to religious destinations.

Recently, the Sattvik Council of India, a not-for-profit organisation, was set up to certify vegetarian food based on an independent audit and tasting process. It aims to attest around 1 million establishments, including kitchens, hotels, products and textiles by 2025.

Although the food industry has capitalised on the new trend, some like the Bangalore-based engineer Priti Krishnan - who grew up eating home-cooked saatvik food - are surprised by the commercial success of the age-old cuisine.

"We rarely ate out or had rich, oily gravies. Even confectioneries were made using jaggery at home. Now this food is curated in upmarket restaurants and spas and called saatvik food," she said.

Sonal Barmecha, the owner of the Sante Spa chain of restaurants that offer a wide range of food from vegan to saatvik, said she aims to dispel the myth that healthy food is not tasty.

"We stay clear of anything refined [from sugar and flour to oil] and only use coconut oil or olive oil. But being a commercial establishment, we do use certain sauces and other ingredients that are not fully saatvik, though the food is healthy and fresh," Barmecha said.

She also observed an uptick in younger customers frequenting her restaurants which were earlier attracting mostly middle-aged patrons.

As more Indians become increasingly aware of the benefits of eating healthy, most seem to agree with Anupama Shukla - who writes in her book, Sattvik-Foods of India - "while we cannot all grow our own food, we can definitely bring greater balance to choosing what we eat."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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