Rujuta Diwekar on the 3 superfoods that can keep us fit: ‘Our mothers knew best, trust their food wisdom'

Indian Express

21-06-2025

She may be a celebrity nutritionist now but what many may not know is that Rujuta Diwekar (51) began as an aerobics instructor. An average scorer and not too academically inclined, she thought a knowledge of diets could help her clients better. 'So when I came to know that SNDT University, Mumbai, had collaborated with IIT Mumbai for a new postgraduate course on sports and nutrition, I signed up and cleared the entrance test. We were just seven girls. Nutrition science back then was like the last resort for those who didn't have any other option,' she recalls. She, however, made the space that nobody wanted her very own. She dived into treatises and research on food sciences, understanding how each morsel affects the human body.
The year was 1998, when an aspirational India was eager to globalise, evident through lifestyle changes like fashion, fine dining and fast food. It was the age of convenience, fads and indulgence. Along came processed foods, burger chains and heat-and-eats. Understanding food molecularly, she realised what processed food laden with chemicals would do a decade later— a nation with one of the highest burdens of chronic illnesses like obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
That's when she chose to swim against the tide and tell people why they needed to return to traditional wisdom and food heritage that had sustained generations. 'I was just continuing what our mothers and grandmothers practised for centuries — fresh, natural, simple and functional food that keeps you disease-free. That was their only concern. They treated food as nurturing, as a healthy discipline,' says Diwekar, whose books became synonymous with weight loss, though she intended them to be more than just diet guides. 'It was my way of saving local and seasonal produce,' says the nutritionist, who is now also working to preserve native roots and shoots on her farm. 'We have lost so many herbs to climate change, so I'm trying to save those. My local food movement is about education and advocacy, about reconnecting people to the food that's in their DNA, so they choose it willingly — not because it's a fad.'
Her latest book, 'Mitahara' (mindful eating) by DK India Publishing, goes a step further. 'Everybody thinks home-cooking in our rush-hour life is complicated. As a fourth-generation working woman, I relied on recipes from my maternal lineage — one-pot meals that are fuss-free, nourishing and logistically easy. All you need are 30 minutes and a pressure cooker,' says Diwekar, who believes in keeping a kitchen simple: some pots, pans and a few accessible spices.
As a nutritionist, she insists weight management is about keeping to the food we grow up with. 'Let's look at science. We inherit our gut microbes from our mothers and the maternal bloodline. These organisms carry the memory of ancestral food. That's why when you eat something simple like dal-bhaat, you feel comforted and secure; you feed these microbes. But when you eat something alien — like quinoa or kale — they don't recognise it or have the enzymes to digest it. So even healthy foreign foods can cause gut issues,' she explains.
This is not to say she opposes trying different cuisines. 'Think of eating out like learning a new language. You may know a few words for occasional use. Restaurant food should be treated similarly,' advises Diwekar. Familiar food, she says, aids weight loss. 'Observation studies show that people who eat what they like, eat less overall. Calorie intake drops. Over time, they lose weight, stay happy and motivated to exercise. They even recover better post-workout because they're eating the food that puts them at ease.'
Diwekar, a proponent of using a teaspoon of ghee daily for its good fats, believes many Indian foods are underrated. She makes a case for pickles, which preserve produce year-round without additives. 'They only use oil and salt. Yet they're on the 'avoid high salt' list. But pickles were never side dishes—they're condiments. Their complex flavour satisfies our cravings and reduces the urge to snack on chips or pizza,' she says.
Rice, she feels, is unfairly maligned. 'It's the best prebiotic, with resistant starch that feeds good gut bacteria. It also contains B vitamins and antioxidants. Rice is our circle of life, used in our birth and death ceremonies, used for both diarrhoea and constipation. Again people look at rice without context. Clinical studies are done with plain rice. But in India, rice, a carbohydrate, is seldom eaten alone, it is always paired with protein, legumes, lentils and fibre. Our traditional thali has a small portion of it in the centre, with other foods meant to be had with every morsel,' Diwekar reasons.
Her super fruit? The banana. Traditional menus use everything from its fruit, leaves to its stalk. It contains complex carbs and fibre that delay digestion and slow blood sugar release. Potassium helps reduce blood pressure. 'It's such a filler food.' According to her, many meals can be made with just these core ingredients. 'Our cooking is so sophisticated and calibrated to the palate that you can do thousands of dishes with the same ingredients. Yet each will be complete and you won't need supplements.'
Diwekar has an easy way to declutter all the advisories and voices on healing diets. As a nutritionist, she follows the global gold standard for dietary advice, which is FBDG — food-based dietary guidelines. 'That means I should talk about foods you're familiar with. Our mothers and grandmothers followed this intuitively through home-cooking. If you just go back to their kitchens, you will find all your answers. Trust them,' she says.
So what's India's weight loss conundrum? Diwekar doesn't think Indians are lazy or less aware. 'Everyone knows they should eat healthy and walk 10,000 steps. That same Indian walks 15,000 steps abroad. But do we have an enabling environment? If you want home-cooked food, you need a gender-neutral kitchen. If you want healthy snacking, you need nutrition grading and front-of-pack labelling. We need walkable neighbourhoods and clean air. These are collective policy matters but essential for any anti-obesity drive,' she explains.
Diwekar didn't set out to be a celebrity nutritionist. 'One of my first clients was filmmaker David Dhawan's wife Karuna. Remember this was before social media. So your first client almost decides who the rest of your clientele will be. Her son and actor Varun Dhawan found our recipes light and comforting in the middle of a busy day. That's when I realised that I would write books to reach out to more and more people,' she says. And she will continue till she finds that people following her advice have remained fit and trim 20 to 30 years later. Simply by eating right.