Seeds are probably the most important food to have in your diet, for many reasons. In India, they aren’t just used for seasoning, they’re a staple!
Here are some of the things I’ve learned about seeds:
- Indian foods contain lots of seeds.
The Incredibly Healthy Foods of India - Seeds always contain 100% of the expected nutritional value.
With plant food, the quality depends on the soil it was grown in, how long ago it was picked, and how it was stored.
With seeds, none of that matters. If the environment is good, the plant creates lots of seeds. If bad, it creates few. And they keep forever. (Egyptian wheat, kamut, has been grown from seeds found in tombs.) - They provide all of the nutrients the seedling needs to grow (including minerals), until it can absorb them from its roots in the soil.
How Seeds are Formed (PDF, p. 17) - So a farmer who takes care of the land gets seeds in abundance.
One who doesn’t gets few. But every seed you get is a tiny gem of perfection. Perfect for a diet.
And Indian foods contain lots of them. (Cumin, coriander, fennel, mustard, …) - When you go to an Indian store, you can find big bags of seeds and spices.
Not the little tiny containers you find in a supermarket. Big bags of them. They’re not very expensive, either.
Basically, they’re a staple in India. - The tulsi plant is holy in Hinduism.
Looking it up, I read that it is “one of the few plant sources of B-12”.
Hey! I didn’t know there were any plant sources of B-12. Did you?
The American meat packing industry sure isn’t spending any money to tell us that.
Neither is the American medical industry!
But it India, it’s regarded as holy?
That’s no accident. Someone over there has known some very important stuff for a very long time.
Learn more: - Indian foods make a vegetarian diet possible, in my book.
The legumes (lentils, peas, and chickpeas) are high-fiber and filling. (Without them, I feel like I have to graze all day long to get enough to eat.) And it can clearly provide all of the nutrients we need. Even B-12, which we have been told can only be obtained from beef! (I haven’t made the switch yet, mostly because too much cooking is involved. Or a lot of eating out. But I’m inclined to move in that direction.)
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