Special diets in India - What to eat?

Does anyone know if the farmers around Radhakund and Vrindavan use DDT or other poisonous substances while growing the vegetables?

Where in Vrindavan is it possible to get organic vegetables, fruits etc.?

Here are some of the leading DDT veggies (ppm, parts per million:

Brinjal (eggplant) from Ahmedabad area: 0.1044
Cabbage from Hapur area: 0.3612
Cabbage from Sonipet area: 0.126
Cauliflower from Chandigarh area: 0.225
Radish from Haryana area: 0.6916

The vegs from Delhi area at Azadpur seem to have substantially smaller amounts of residual DDT, namely 0.0101 in cabbage and 0.0047 in cauliflower respectively. Okhala market vegs from UP area have 0.0090 and 0.0030 respectively. Azadpur's Radish from Delhi area has only 0.009 ppm of DDT.

The use of DDT seems to vary a great deal. I wonder if these are at all comparable to Vraja area, as much of what's in there seems to be locally grown, at Radha-kunda at least.

For reference, 0.1 ppm would mean 1.0 mg (milligrams) in a 1000g vegetable. The WHO recommendation for the ADI (acceptable daily intake) of DDT is 20 micrograms per each kilogram of your body weight. ADI is supposedly the amount you can safely take throughout your life without being harmed. For a person weighing 70kg, an acceptable daily intake of DDT would then be 1.4 mg.

However, loading my body with toxins that are hard to flush out gives me the creep neverteless. I wonder how much of DDT there is in grains and in the water.

Thank you, Nabadip, for the links. It is very sad that they still use all these chemicals in India. I am really thinking of bringing food from here with me when we travel to India.

Have you yourself purchased organic food from this person in Delhi? How much more expensive it is than the regular food?

Thank you for your help!

Yes, I can eat oat, and I do use oat a lot while baking. I didn't know one can buy it in Vrindavan. Last time I asked one of my friends at Radhakund about oat, and she said she hasn't seen it on the market.

Thank you also, Keshava, for your tips!

What is the best method to purify the water in India? What kind of water filter would be good to bring there?

Usually we have bought bottled water, but we heard from Advaitadas that it is also not so good. He had read some article on that. There are some chemicals in the bottled water which will stay in your liver and damage it. Some brands have more of it, some less.

And another problem with bottled water is all those empty bottles, whis will accumulate in the room.

Last time we were also boiling water and then keeping it cool in a claypot. I am not sure if all the bacteria die in the process of boiling. I have heard that viruses in the water won't die while boiling the water. And it is not only some harmless bacteria and viruses that can be in the water and cause diarrhea, but there can be cholera also.

When you are living in Radha Kunda just plan to go to Vrndavan, Loi Bazzar once a week or 10 days or whatever. Then just stock up while you are there and bring it back to Radha Kunda. Otherwise if you make have a big need or some other people in Radha Kunda who also need stuff make a deal for the guys in Vrndavan to deliver it to you.

Yes, oats are available. With most things now available in Loi Bazzar there are two qualities and prices. The western quality with a western price and the local version, cheaper. Personally I don't mind the Indian version, except when it comes to pasta. Indian pasta just doesn't cook nicely. It gets really sticky and sloppy. It's useless.

Mataji, I see you mention that you bake with oats. Now baking in India is just about the craziest thing that you can do if it's not winter. But if you are in Vraja in winter then try buying one of the cheap folding camp stoves that fit on top of a gas burner. If you can't get a good one in India (but you should be able to in North India) you can get one from the west (Coleman is a good brand).

Also I have not seen you mention rice. Do you not eat rice? This is of course the staple for most Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Most westerners I know are more accustomed to wheat based diets but since you have a problem with wheat, that's why I am asking about rice.

OK, water is the number one important thing that you use in India.

The absolute best way to make pure water is to distill it. However this takes time, energy (electricity mostly), and creates lots of heat (not so good except in winter.

We actually have a water distiller here in Hawaii and also in Sri Rangam. But it's so hot in Sri Rangam that we don't use it there. When you ditill water all you are left with it H2O. No minerals, no bad taste, nothing, just hydrogen and oxygen, bas. That's the best. However some people say that if you only use distilled water the water leeches minerals from your body. Even if this were true you can easily take a multi vitamin/mineral supplement to counter this if you think that it's a problem.

Second best is to get a filter like the Katadyn water filters. They are a Swiss company and make filters used by the UN peacekeepers. Basically they work just like the candle drip filters many Indians use. Except that you do not have to boil the water first. This is a big advantage for several reasons.

1. Quicker, as you don't have that extra step.
2. You also don't have to wait until the water cools to put it into the filter.
(If you put hot water into a candle filter then mould and bacteria grows on the candles.)
3. THese filters take out everything down to 1 mircon size which the Indian ones don't. This means that they will filter out the gyardia (this is the most common parasite).

A candle will last about 6 months but it does not necessarily get the water to taste better. Whereas distilling and then putting water through a charcoal filter as our distiller does gets it all. In Vrndavan the probelm is that the water is very hard, lots of minerals, tastes salty, and you can't lather the soap much. If you notice what happens when you heat water with a hand water heater. A layer of minerals builds up on the coils of the heater. This is the same mineral layer that will eventually build up inside you too.

Nowadays however there are plenty of bottled water companies. In Sri Rangam you can get Bisleri water in 50 litre kegs which are replaced when they get empty by a delivery person. You pay a deposit for the plastic keg which you get bakc when you return the last one before leaving India. This brings down the price also of a litre of water to only 1 or 2 rupees. For short visits or even for long ones this is now probably the best way to go.

Just remember when you are out take water with you. Or buy bottled water. When at home use it for drinking and cooking and even washing vegetables if you can. Make sure to take tinctures like Black Walnut, Wormwood, Pumpkin seeds, etc available at Health Food stores in the west. And if you really develop a problem just go to the Doctor and get a course of Flagyl or something similar to kill whatever you have caught.

As far as diarrhea is concerned, I recommend Coke or Thumbs Up or any other cola drink. Fast and especially don't eat any sweets which the bacteria love. Then down about 2 or 3 cokes straight if you can. Coke is like draino and it kills pretty muh anything. Afterwards eat dahi to readjust your insides and put back some good bacteria. In fact probably the first thing you should do when you get to India is eat dahi. Eat it a lot, every day. And take vitamins when you go, at least a lot of Vitamin C. Dogs livers produce many times more vitamin C than humans do, and due to this they are able to eat and drink all sorts of dirty things without getting sick. Viamin C is essential to your immune system.

There is another thing that my wife and I do. We have a little maching that gives a little electric pulse through your body (actually you don't feel it at all) and this also kills off the bugs. If you are intertested in this let me know. I can probably find the info on it in the net.

Don't think that the Indian's aren't also sick. They are. They all get fevers and all sorts of problems. I think that because they eat so spicy (chili) the food goes more quickly though their systems. This is important because the human digestive tract is long and in hot climates food will begin to putrify if it isn't digested and the waste expelled quickly. To help with this (and also diarrhea) use Isabgol (flee seed husk). Telephone brand is the most common in Indian, it comes in a green box and you can get it at any chemist or general store. Mix it with water or milk, juice or milk for constapation and dahi for diarrhea.

Another ayurvedic purgative is triphala churna. It's a bitter mix of three powdered fruits. If you take it at night the next morning everything comes out. Good for purging everything out of you.

Oats are not affordable for regular Indians. A Kilogram costs around 80 Rupees, way too much for an Indian budget. The Indian kind comes in a yellow tin box into which it is pressed. The foreign kind, from some Arabian country, comes in plastic containers. Both the tin and plastic containers are useful afterwards as well.

A few years ago oats were not regularly available on the Indian market because the Indian Army bought it all up for its soldiers. I guess due to the cheaper imports more is availabale on the market now, and therefore readily available wherever there are people with larger budget.

Keshavaji mentioned olive oil a few posts back. It is also available in Vrindavan, even though ridiculously expensive, that Italian brand that comes in tin containers. Olive oil users should be aware that the olive oil market is one big cheating business, as far as claims to extra-virgine types etc, or also claims of origin. Oil from Africa, Turkey etc is bought up by Italian companies which then make you think you are buying an Italian product. It is the same thing like with the international honey market (real honey is unavailable in India which makes me wonder how Gaudiyas know about the real sweetness of Madhu )

Independent tests in Germany have shown that some popular olive oil brands contained Dioxin, but the brands that contained it were not named to not damage the market. I personally use only certified organic olive oil, because of that and other reasons. Olive oil is the only oil that someone with liver disease can take. In fact it is curative for a person like that. Olive oil is one of the healthiest substances in the world. If it had been known to the wise guys of ancient India, they certainly would have praised it far above the value of ghee. Obviously it protects the liver rather than putting stress on it. I know people in India who survive their liver-damage with the help of olive oil.

I have read of an observation that heart-disease is unknown in villages in Italy which use olive oil daily and on everything people eat. (When I started to do that I used about half a litre of oil a week per person, which certainly is much. I am over 50 and I started to feel my heart. With my starting to use much more olive oil I never experienced any kind of problem again.)

I think it is better not to believe into the fairy tales that Indians tell about their wonderful oils, especially considering the modern style of oil extraction which is done with heating and the use of chemicals. This applies also to the use of badam-oil, almond oil, which is excessively praised in Ayurveda. For external use that may be okay, but I would not recommend to eat that stuff.

Same thing with ghee. Avoid it if you can. Certain toxins like DDT are stored in fat (which is why you can ingest minimal levels of DDT and live a normal life, as Madhava quoted a study... until you get old, or in the case of a bout of tapasya when you start to fast and melt down some of your body fat).

Certain things are scary, but as we are transcendentalists, we can deal with almost anything when we face reality as it is.

Bottom line: Everything is available in Loi Bazar. Even olives. There is now a walk-in store near Mahesh Cloth merchant which allows you to see the merchandise better.

It is nice to read about all these different experiences and advices.

I have always boiled my water in India when possible, especially in village situations. In my seven years in India I never experienced any health problem whatsoever, like diarrhoea. However this is only possible when I have my own gas bottle ready. Travel with gas bottles is prohibited, fortunately

For staying in the holy Dham at different places for periods of time, use of bottled water is alright. Big kegs of what they call mineral water is now also available in Vrindavan. I have seen and bought it in a store next to Sri Radharaman Mandir main gate. I assume it has caught on and is also available in different stores meanwhile.

If you can, avoid Bisleri. To me it has the worst taste of all the water brands. Bisleri is a franchized brand, which means you get all kinds of different standards most probably. Also the bottles are often not really tamper-proof. I guess you all know about the checks required when you buy bottled water in India. You always have to make sure that the bottle was really sealed by the manufacturer and not someone else. I have seen the most seemingly trustworthy merchant (including kunti-mala, and "Hare Krishna!" and all) trying to cheat with tampered bottles. The first check is before buying a bottle: turn it upside down to see whether it leaks. Then turn lightly on the lid, to see whether it opens easily or not. If it opens too easily, which means it was not sealed at all, you know, but it also might just turn "eternally" or come off without screwing, or together with the tear-off part.

If I forget to check when buying a bottle, and then have a doubt after opening it, I always pour out the bottle onto the ground. The few Rupees are not wasted when I consider the problems involved with polluted water. All of this is less problematic which bigger kegs of water, because it is most unlikely so far that some local person can get hold of such a relatively costly item to refill it on his own.

All of this might sound extremely complicated to someone coming with an open heart to India with a desire to love everyone without distinction. I know someone who drinks water from wherever possible, never buys any, never boils it, and never has a problem... so it is possible too, faith into everything, seeing everyting as divine.

Keshava ji, with all my respect, do you really have this experience with Triphala Churna? I have never seen this with any patient. I think it is one of these euphoric over-statements of Ayurveda. I think if you do have already a regular bowel-movement every day, it may assist that. But if you do not, it does not change anything. Especially to chronically constipated people it does not make a difference.

The best thing I know for general health as well as a good bowel-movement, is the regular eating of Bael-Fruit. It is one of these wonderful products of India. Not sure how it is available in Vraja Dham. In Nabadwip Dham it is, from winter to summer. A Bael-fruit is a meal in itself to me. I eat it raw, as it comes, with a spoon. Indians make a juice out of it. I do not recommend that, because they strain away that important rough part. (and you can't drink it any way because of the water).

Two Ayurvedic products that I always have in India is number one: Lavan Bhaskar. It helps digestion of unusual food combinations, and gives appetite in just about a minute if you have to be ready for that untimely prasadam-plate (one should never eat a large meal without that positve experience of appetite, which means an experience of lightness in the body, watering of the mouth etc). It is also a good seasoner on cucumber, in dahi, etc.

Number two for me is always: Maha-Sudharshan-Churna. It is the most bitter substance easily available in India. But you have to watch out which brand you buy. They have differing mixes. Ayurvedic recipes are not standardized. It should be Maha-, not just Sudharshan-Churna. If you ask for it in a good Ayurvedic shop, you are likely to get the right kind. A good ayurvedic shop is in New Delhi, at Paharganj Main Market, one mile down opposite New Delhi Railway station, at the fork take the right lane about 300 meters onward, to your right. The pharmacy near Banki Behari, next to the fruit stand on the way towards Loi Bazar, may also have some. (I do not know of any reliably good Ayurvedic shop in Vraja).

Maha-S.C. is good when you feel a fever is coming. It cools you down right away. For me it is more like a medicine, unlike the Lavan Bhaskar which is also an appetizer. I use it (Maha-S.C) a lot for Indian folks who eperience troubles. They over-eat a lot on oily stuff. (you'd be shocked to see how traditional Indians cook, also Bengalis... not a drop of water... all liquid is oil...)

Well, the taste depends largely on the brand. Some brands taste awful, and some tap water actually tastes pretty good.

At the source? They don't carry it down the Himalayas you know. Most of it is just any water "cleaned by learned professional experts using superb equipment under most hygienic conditions".

Get an ultra violet radiation treater for the organisms and pump the water out of it into a reverse osmosis filter for hardness and chemical poisons. There are multistage purifiers available.

Bottled water, coke/pepsi and other soda have been found flouting even Indian BIS standards of pesticide content.

That boiled water is actually safer because you have boiled it yourself. The easiest way to boil it is (I forgot to mention it before) if you buy a heating coil in the market in India (cost about 70 Rupees), the larger kind, plus a stainless steel vessel of about three liter capacity, best with a matching lid (for cooling the water later). My minimum boiling time is 10 minutes, because Typhoid bacteria (unlikely that you get them from tab or pump water that you pumped yourself, but to be 100% sure...) take about 6 minutes to get killed.

Just do not forget not to touch the vessel while you plug in the coil. Most of the time they are not shock-proof. You also need an additional line (cost about 20 Rupes) to reach the plug in your house, because the line of the coils are not long enough.

1 Euro about 55 Rupees

I haven't been baking in India, because we have not had a stove there. This time it will be winter when we are there. (November, December, January) I would very much like to have a stove, it would be a big help in the kitchen. I think I have never seen a folding camp stove, do you think I could find one in Vrindavan?

I eat rice very little, almost never. Somehow my stomach doesn't like it. But I do use rice flour in cooking.

This sound good, but the electricity is very unstable at Radhakund. There is never a day when you can have the whole day electricity, or even half a day, and sometimes it is off for three days. So at Radhakund we need an option which doesn't require electricity.

Do these filters really kill all the bacteria and viruses without a need to boil the water first?

Do you know prices for these kinds of filters and where to buy?

I haven't seen these tinctures here in Finland in Health stores. We have grapefruitseed extract, olive's leaf extract, oregano extract and beewax extract, do these have a similar effect?

Is this Isabgol same as Psyllium?

What is it then that they sell as honey?

It sounds like a good idea to bring a bottle of honey and olive oil from the West. These items might also be nice gifts for some mandirs.

I know the place, they have toast, corn flakes, pasta, tomato puree, whipped cream, fruit jams, cheese etc. But the prices are almost the same as here, which is very expensive compared to the regular Indian food.

In one book I have about ayurveda it says:

Mahasudarsan Churna
Ingredients: bitters (chiretta, guduchi, barberry), trikatu, triphala, cannabis.
Doshas: mainly anti-pitta
Properties: antipyretic, diaphoretic, diuretic.
Uses: fever, intermittent fever, debility after fevers, nausea, enlargement of liver and spleen.

I also heard that it can prevent Malaria. I did use this last time when we were in India, but then one devotee, who is somewhat learned in ayurveda, told me that it is not good for me, because it heats my body too much. In other words increases the pitta. But this description above says it is mainly anti-pitta. And she said it is also not good because it contains cannabis.

And I wondered how come we were so jolly in the beginning, but lost the spirit towards the end of the trip...

Seriously, if someone has tips on preventing Malaria, they would be more than welcome. Actually, I'll start a new thread for this.