FOR NUTRITION

In the famous Hindi one-act play Ande Ke Chhilke (Eggshells), members of a strictly vegetarian joint family flirt with eating eggs in the privacy of their bedrooms, each person believing that their secret is safe and no one is aware of their taboo behaviour till, one day, the daughter-in-law of the family finally breaks the silence and brings the secret out into the open. It turns out that even the devout matriarch was aware that her family was not quite as strictly vegetarian as they pretended to be, but chose to wink at this behaviour. The family can, finally, stop walking on eggshells. Many Indians’ relationship with protein is similarly complex and fraught. Although Indians are not predominantly vegetarian, as is sometimes assumed, with around 70% of the population eating meat or fish in some form, the cultural practices surrounding non-vegetarian food are mind-bogglingly varied. Some eat meat at restaurants but don’t cook it at home, some eat it only on certain days of the week, some abstain from meat during some months of the year, some ovo-vegetarians eat eggs in baked goods but not otherwise, and so on. And despite its 70% non-vegetarian population, India’s per capita meat consumption is among the lowest in the world at around 4.5kg per person per year, according to data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). This means most Indian meat-eaters don’t consume it as regularly or in quantities as high as those in the top meat-eating [login to view URL] this is a good thing for the environment—as is well-known, livestock raised for meat and dairy contributes a whopping 14.5% of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions, according to FAO—the Indian population suffers overwhelmingly from protein deficiency. A 2017 report by the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) states that more than 80% of Indians are protein deficient, unable to meet the daily minimum requirement of 60g protein per day per person (the average consumption is around 47g). While the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommends 0.8-1g per kilogram of ideal body weight of protein for an adult individual, the actual average dietary intake is only close to 0.6g per kilogram ideal body weight among Indians. For vegetarians who can afford it, adding nuts, high quality legumes and pulses and solid forms of dairy like paneer can make up for the lack of protein in the basic diet, but for most, these fall under the head of discretionary consumption. And the basic diet is simply inadequate to fill the protein gap: To get the daily requirement of 60g protein every day, one would have to consume eight bowls of lentils or drink seven-eight glasses of milk every day, a practical [login to view URL] any middle-school biology book will tell you, proteins are the building blocks of the body, and dietary protein is essential to maintain muscle mass, sustain collagen, fight illnesses, have healthy hormonal balance, and much more. Also, a higher proportion of protein in the diet helps you feel fuller faster and is more satiating than simple carbohydrates (a big part of the urban Indian diet), boosts metabolism and keeps blood sugar levels well-regulated. In fact, other than people with certain specific ailments like kidney dysfunction, a protein-heavy diet is universally preferred by modern nutritionists over a carb-heavy one.