How I went Gluten free and Dairy free on Indian diet(south/north)

Why I did this ?

1. Swellings, random body pains and eternal tiredness has been bothering me for longtime . One day, I decided that I need to do a deep de-toxification ritual to re-energize me. Following this diet was a start in expelling allergens from my system and making it more robust.
2. For blood sugar control in long term. I have read many a book claiming that this diet will help regulate Insulin resistance and go med-free for patients with advanced sugar levels. My parents have blood sugar and they hated taking medicines for rest of the life. I have been researching ways to do balance with diet. And as part of this , experimented on the diet.

Food Exclusions

Wheat, white rice, dairy, millet, sugar, processed foods -sauces, ready made food, anything packaged.

This translates to bread(any), roti, paratha, idly/dosa, upma, pongal, teas/coffee, snack and paneer

Challenges

1. As you have figured out, finding alternative for daily food routine.
2. Making sure I am not depressed after being deprived of comfort foods like tea/coffee , curd rice or bread sandwiches.
3. Figuring out food options which is ustainable for 1–3 months.
4. Planning the meal ahead. As your ingredients are not super market friendly. You will need to procure it to avoid last minute hunts.

Who will find this prohibitive

1. People who are used to majorly wheat based diet will find it extremely tough as the major ingredients wheat and white rice are the major exclusion.
2. Vegetarians will find it tough as milk and dairy is excluded. Plus if rice is not your staple food, you will find yourself eating unfamiliar hence un satisfying food.

My recommendation — If your food habit vary more that 70% from what is permissible in this diet, it may not be sustainable. It will be better to find options within your practical zone.

My journey

Indian diet is a marriage of gluten, white rice and diary. From break fast to dinner to snacks, there is simply no way you can escape gluten and dairy. But as I went deep into the journey, I realised have we been really this way all along?. Traditonaly we ate variety of graints from sorgum, millet,bajra and so on. Wheat and white rice was not the ubiquitous components of our life. Following a totally foriegn diet living in India will not be scalable. Due to climatic , geographic and availability reasons we cannot follow a totally mediteranina, eurpean in long term, And I started hunting for indegeneous alternatives.

Over all meal structure and planning

1. I found it better to go with breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper approach works better for me. I found with Indian varients, we have more rich breakfast and lunch options but less snack and dinner options.
2. Lesser snack options made me have my dinner quite early between 6.00- 7.00 to substitute the heavy duty evening snacking. This really worked well as I found myself very light during dinner time.
3. Shop local, you may find many surprising alternate ingredients which our moms and grand moms would have cooked in our child hood. While superfood is good, 1)it is expensive 2)Difficult to create a full rounded meals with it alone in the lack of common recipes and 3)difficult to procure in a timely fashion

Breakfast

Most of my existing breakfast came from white rice. I replaced it with red rice options. I added pulse based items for a filling and tasty morning gulp.

1. Red rice pohe — Presentation wise not as appetising as the white rice one. But taste wise not a big difference.
2. Red rice dosa —I made this by soaking payasam rice. This will grind faster than other red rices and I can do it in a mixer grinder. Red rice dosa is good for soft dosas. Crispy dosas will not be as great as the white counterparts. You will learn to like this as time goes.
3. Puttu — red rice/corn powder— Liked corn power one very much!. It is better than white rice puttu.
4. Dhokla — Substitute curd with lemon
5. Pesarattu (Green Moon dal dosa) — This with spicy ginger chutney is yum and filling.
6. Adai dosa (Dosa with yellow daals and rice)
7. Fruit bowls — Having fruit bowls at least once a week became a ritual

Points to note

Red rice variants will need more cooking/soaking time. Look will, it will not be as appetising as the white variants. White crispy dosa in much more pleasing to eyes than the pinkish brown ones. Same goes for pohe as well. Your stomach will be full with lesser quantity than you are used to with red rice variants.

Lunch

Red rice, mostly all south_indian/ north indian curry/dry which does not have milk/paneer. Coconut milk is welcome substitute for any milk based dishes.

Dinner

If you are a native rice eater having rice twice or thrice in a day will be a normal routine. If not it can get tough. Me being a rice eater, having daily rice was not so bad. But I tried these extra options for my husband who was not keen on rice for dinner.

Few breakfast items — Red rice masala dosa, adai dosa, pesratuu with curry.

Mediterranian/European — Veggies and Protien (Mashed potato, capsicum, carrots,cabbage) with pan sauted/fried chicken or fish in herbs(italian, mexican)

mexican bowl- red beans, veggies, shredded chicken in Salsa sauce.

Note — I have made salsa, coriander/mint chutneys, tomato sauce, mustard sauce for a week and kept.

Snacks

Various sundals — black channa, peas, white channa pressure cooked with tadka on the top, sprinkled with thinly sliced onions and corriander.

Sprouts salad

Local Snacks — Besan based snacks like nipattu

Nuts — trail mixes, dates, seeds

Smoothies

Drinks

Cold — Fresh Juice

Hot — Black tea/coffe , green tea(tulsi, camomile and so on), lemon tea

Hot chocolate drink with dark chocolate and coconut milk

Life savers

1. Stock jaggery and honey as major sugar alternative
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Nuts and trail mixes
4. boneless chicken pieces

Verdict

1. Your apetite for junk food reduces.
2. Helps detoxification — bloating, pains and aches due to inflammations reduces
3. Food sensitivity will increase to identify any allergies — By following the diet you will be able to figure out any allergies you have for dairy/wheat etc.
4. Weight reduction — My husband lost 5kgs without reducing food but cutting these off
5. Impact on blood sugar — yet to find out