Gandhiji’s experiments with food

He said food was not merely a means to satisfy hunger, but an essential ingredient that shaped human consciousness. He said, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” 

In his lifetime, Gandhiji has written quite a few books and a few of those were also on food and health like Diet and Diet Reforms, The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and Key to Health. A staunch vegetarian, he always favoured a snack of plantains with groundnut paste when on the move. 

From his writings, it may be inferred that he followed a disciplined diet. Brown rice seemed to be his preferred staple with dal and locally sourced vegetables. His go-to drink was goat’s milk. He preferred jaggery over refined sugar. 

Raw fruits and vegetables were an integral part of his diet. However, his dietary experiments reached a point wherein he stopped eating all spices and only consumed boiled or raw food. Even his family had to follow these food restrictions, sometimes grudgingly so. 

It is widely believed that though the food cooked in the communal kitchen at Sevagram under his watchful eye was austere to the extreme, Kasturba was allowed a little private kitchen where she would make sweets and other goodies for her grandchildren.