The Healthy Indian Diet

We are very proud to introduce our first book called “The Healthy Indian Diet” written in collaboration with Dr. Niraj “Raj” Patel. Similar to the highly popular Mediterranean Diet, read about the health benefits of a traditional Indian diet and learn to make small changes in your daily food habits to protect yourself from chronic diseases. Click here to purchase one for yourself or makes a perfect gift for your loved ones.
For the Nook ebook version, click here

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95 thoughts on “The Healthy Indian Diet

  1. Hello..
    my name is harpreet.i put on my weight after my delivery.my baby is 10months old but she still get feed.thats why i m feeling hungery very soon.but i want to loose my weight.i even dont know what is the diet chart..what should i eat or what should i skip.do u have any diet recipe.please help..give me any diet food recipe for lunch nd dinner…please

  2. Anuja and Hetal,

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    The publishing of your book is super. Is there a way I could send my copy to you for both autographers? Naturally I would send along postage paid, pre-addressed return packaging.

    Devoted fan, Rich

  3. Dr. Niraj Patel, Hetal and Anuja

    Congratulations on your new Book. This may helpful for younger and 2nd generation outside India as well as all over the world.

    Anybody can buy at any Amazon.com or similar to the following website

    Shahonlineshoppingmall.com

  4. Congos Hetal and Anuja!
    It is indeed a very good effort to come up with a book!!
    People commenting here should try and write atleast one page worth reading!!

    Anyways, is the book available in Australia??

  5. Hi… Good job with the website and the receipes and now the book…

    It would be very informational if there is also information on the calorie content of indian food, lentils etc. that someone can approx. to get total calorie content when making receipes. May be 2nd edition of the book 🙂
    Eg: 1 tbs canola oil: calories 60
    1 cup toor dal: calories 60

    Keep up the excellant work!

    1. It would be nice to have the nutrition fact (ie amount of carbs/proteins etc.) for the indian ingredients more than the calories content.

  6. good job, ladies, so proud of you.

    ( btw: did you notice that although according to that jealous person, this site is “for lazy ladies” and what not, that jealous person is still visiting this site? LOL, what a joker)

    keep up the good work ladies, i love this site 🙂

  7. Well done Hetal and Anuja!

    Congrats on the book. Its a long pending request from my side. I have a one year old. Please do share some toddler/baby recipes which would help mothers like me. Since you both have quite an experience on that….pls do share some of them.

  8. wow the comments are crazy!!!
    Anyways just wanted to Congratulations on ur book!! I love ur website and appreciate you guys doing the videos.
    I ordered my book and am excited to make some changes. I used to cook indian food only 3 times a week as thought t was not healthy enough but after doing my own research have started to cook a lot more and this book will help reassure that indian food can be healthy:)

    Thanks Hetul, Anuja and off Dr Raj!

  9. Congratulations! I will order this book ASAP.

    As a visitor to SMTC for several years now, I have found many of the recipes and tips to be very helpful. I try out the recipes I am interested in, or I take one of the different twists or approaches and apply them to the recipe I usually make, changing it up slightly.

    I appreciate the fact that some fusion and international items were shown because it helped me discover some new styles that I hadn’t otherwise considered trying. It always helps to be introduced to something by someone you trust.

    To those who feel that SMTC recipes are in-authentic or for ‘lazy ladies’, I must say the following. There are always hundreds, even thousands of different variations for certain recipes. There is no right or wrong way. They are just showing the version that they came up with or perfected. Everyone’s tastes are different.

    For those who think this site is for ‘lazy ladies’, these SMTC recipes take anywhere from a few minutes all the way up to a few hours. These aren’t those semi-homemade types of recipes which use all store-bought pre-made, pre-cooked ingredients that you assemble quickly with average results. If you don’t like what they are teaching and offering, then you don’t have any obligation to watch the videos and/or try the recipes.

  10. Congragulation to HEtal, Anuja and Dr. Niraj!! Waiting to get the book :)Does it also contain non-vegetarian food?

    1. Hi Sivaranjani,

      Currently it is only available on Amazon or as a Nook ebook. We are working on making it available in India by later this year.

  11. Congratulations on your book…

    BTW check out Ladies Home Journal Magazine July 2011 issue..
    got mentioned by them as one of their favorite online cooking shows…(last page).. way to go ladies..

    sujatha

  12. Wow! I am truly surprised at the range of emotions on this topic. Just wanted to add my two cents worth… 🙂

    This book was written with several target groups in mind — First of all, it is for people who may not be very familiar with Indian food but are looking for options. Second, it is for people who are not convinced that Indian food can be healthy. Third, it is aimed at people who eat Indian food everyday but can benefit by making small changes to their diet to follow a more “traditional” Indian diet versus a “modern” one.

    The one thing this book does NOT do is to lay out a meal plan, something a dietician would do.

    More than anything, this book tries to put science and research behind things we may already know. As we said in our video, it tries to explain “why” we do the things we do. We have all heard by now that turmeric is good for us, but why is is good for us?

    As someone said, it is by no means rocket science, but it is not intended to be. Everyone has different levels of knowledge when it comes to cooking and the same applies to knowledge regarding health. Obviously, some of you will know more than others and will already know some of the topics covered in the book. You may even learn something new.

    We don’t claim to have a “healthy cooking website”, though we have always tried to put a healthy spin on our recipes when we can. We also realize that some recipes cannot be made “healthy”.

    We’d like to thank everyone for their concern but hope that you can take this book as it is…a way for us to reach out to our viewers and hopefully get them to think about what they eat and why.

    1. Excellent response- The book or recipe within by no means a claim of only healthy food. Dietitians are welcome to add their views in it in positive manner.

  13. SMTC Team,

    Congratulations on your new book. I have read most of the comments above and read some negative comments questioning the “healtiness’ of the book. Yes, the information you mention in your video is something I have known for a long time by reading and hearing it in many places. However, if this book….your book….can make a difference in peoples’ life than it was worth writing it. There are some people that will follow and listen to what you two have to say even though they have heard this information over and over again from other places. Coming from you they may decide to put healthy eating and living into practice.

    I’m not sure about the legality of the book because I haven’t read the book and I’m not an attorney.

    Once again, congratulations on thinking ahead and smart compared to other online cooking shows.

    1. What is “Legality” in books. No body claims it is the only way. Like any other books inmarketg.. you read and judge and follow if you like ..

      1. Ramesh,

        My comments are not meant to be negative. H & A knows I’m a huge fan of them. Nothing wrong in stating my opinion, right? 🙂

  14. Writing this book was indeed an organic leap hopefully to success.I do hope with all my heart to congratulate both of you on your input.
    Good luck & hope many more interesting recipes yet to come !!

  15. Hi
    Congrats to all of you on your new book. Is there a Nook/Kindle version of the book? Do let me know.
    I switched to brown rice last year. But was wondering if I can use brown rice to make dosa/idly batter? If you or anyone has tried to make batter with brown rice do let me know how it turns out?
    Keep Rocking like you always do….
    Jayashree

    1. Hi Jayashree,

      I have made idlis with brown rice once & here’s my feedback –

      1. I used the same proportion of rice & dal as I would use for white rice
      2. It did not ferment as well as white rice (don’t know why)
      3. Idlis were soft
      4. Hardly any difference in taste

      Suggest you experiment with lesser quantity. If you like it, you could always make it again 🙂

    2. I have tried brown rice for dosa. I added just 1 glass urad dhal and 2 glasses of brown rice. It came out fine.
      I tried idli. Somehow it did not come out well for me. But my friend tried and it was just great in her case! Not sure what mistake I did.

      Anuja, Hetal, if you guys know what are the common mistakes while using brown rice in idli, dosa, pullav or just cooking plain rice, please let us know. Thanks.

  16. Posting recipes and publishing a book on diet are two different things. Hope you did consult with a nutritionist because nutritionist are the ones who study nutrition and diet.

    1. First of all, congratulations to Hetal and Anuja on the new book. Recepies on SMTC are already healthy version of Indian cooking. Mr. Anomymous now u are really annoying me by posting rude comments. It is SMTC’s business, they have every right to run it the way they want to. I would ask SMTC to remove all of your comments.

    2. hey,
      I studied Food and Nutrition that’s why i commented the book seems to be good from what i read on amazon..yes research and details are what i want – as i dont have my grandma or trusted doctor from India here to reinstate what we know – being a South Indian food eater i know we can get diabetes, at 36 like me ,if we continue eating only RASAM and white rice – so i know what this book means , i think ‘Anonymous’ -u must start ur own website, so u we can get the knowledge u have published …

  17. I never associated your website as a “healthy cooking” reference by any stretch. I consider it as a recipe demonstrator. Because basically you take a recipe and demonstrate it and make the process easy for people who are amateur or new to Indian cooking. So you coming up with “healthy” indian diet cook book is bit of a shock and a surprise. I haven’t read the book so can’t comment on the content and its validity. Dr. Niraj Patel is a doctor in training. It’s great he has an interest in a healthy diet for his patients, becasue you are what you eat and these days a Dr. is hardly interested in your diet. I would say the healthiest thing about indian diet is the herbs.
    Congratulations on your efforts in publishing a book !

    1. I completely agree with you. Dr Patel is just a Dr. in training. Plus, Drs are not involved in advising on nutrition. Universities run a major called “Nutrition and Nutritional Science” there are master degree and PHd holders out there. these are the people hospitals and people who are on diet employ for giving advice on nutrition, designing diet, commenting on diet etc. A Dr, especially a Dr in training technically and legally have no say in writing a diet book. If you publish this book advertising it as a cookbook, then it makes sense. But advertising it as a “healthy diet book” is doing wrong to your viewers giving wrong information to your viewers and to the society.

      I see in the book you have included a small note in small letters explaining how this book is NOT intended for dieting for legal purposing protecting yourselves. But, please stand by your words that you have in your book and do the same when you post a video such as the above ( which sends a messege that is entirely different from the note in the book)

      1. he is stating with research facts, the advantage i see in this book is it is fresh and a doctor in trg has “loads ” of data and passion than some one who is a certified dietician or a nutritionist. The passion, new angle is what we want and as per market demand – i see it douing well…

        1. LOLLL Hilarious!!

          oh, well if passion is market demand, hey, I am not a doctor, I am not CEO of Microsoft, but I have passion in this area too…I have done soo much research on diseases, and on Microsoft, I know al their products, used them too for decades…So I guess, I can be your Dr? I am sure I will be a better Dr than the one you go to, because I have the “research and the passion”

        2. @ananymous,

          Pls publish or start a website “i will be your Dr”..
          i will definitely visit ur website ..
          Thanks,

      2. Healthy homemade food is Health Food! I am an RN and have seen RDs give some of the worst advice as to what patients should or shouldn’t be eating. A healthy diet is so much more than what is printed in textbooks. It is culture, nourishment for the soul as well as the body. I find it sad to see negative comments nitpicking these lovely ladies who are so helpful and interesting to watch. Keep up the good work, ladies!

    1. I dont understand what is a golden feather to which cap here. This website does one thing, nothing special that a million other websites do – show cooking videos. It is not rocket science – just pick a recipe you already know, or search online and make a video out of it- simple. And the cookbook, that is just like the zillion cookbooks out there, that fill up half of a thrift store..not a Harry Potter book or Martha Stewart here guys!!

      1. wow someone is Jealous! Agreed it’s not rocket science.. they don’t claim to be one! It’s about food that each and every person needs.. rockets; we could do without them!

      2. Wow! you are such a sad, sad person! I would hate to be such a bitter person like you. I would not have wasted a single second of my life on a website that I thought so negatively about and found “nothing special that a million other websites do”. You, quite apparently, have nothing better to do with your life, because if you did, you would not have wasted your time on a website that you thought so poorly of.

        As for the book, I have my reservations, and I’m not sure I would buy the book. From the video above, it looks like it covers a lot of material that I find is well available through other sources and is fairly well known (like eat whole grains, healthy fats, the benefits of certain spices etc.). I’m know not sure what it could contribute to my knowledge that I don’t already know– I’m not being boastful here, I just read a lot of health books/research, and am quite well aware of the Mediterranean diet (maybe this book adds an Indian twist to it–not sure?) . That said, I’m sure that there are people who would benefit from this book. Nonetheless, congrats on this endeavor, on your dedication to co-author this book, and your passion for cooking and food. I truly LOVE your website and have found every single recipe that I’ve tried to be excellent.

  18. did you two even consult a nutritionist while write a book like this and commercializing it? Because, a doctor looks up to a nutritionist to keep his patients healthy. He himself never is considered a nutritionist. Publishing a cookbook is different. But publishing it as a “health book” is different. This is giving wrong information to people!!!!!

    1. While I agree with what Anon says, it was quite a glass half empty comment.
      I def applaud u girls for working on making people healthy! Even if one household follows these tips then there will be atleast 4 healthy people 🙂

      It would be beneficial for the book’s sales and for the community if you can publish a second edition which has been edited by a Registered Dietitian who is Indian.

  19. did you two even consult a nutritionist while write a book like this and commercializing it? Because, a doctor looks up to a nutritionist to keep his patients healthy. He himself never is considered a nutritionist. Publishing a cookbook is different. But publishing it as a “health book” is different. This is giving wrong information to people!!!!!

    1. Hi Darshika,

      Dr. Patel did his internship in Internal Medicine and is a Nuclear Medicine resident in Houston, TX.

      1. I found some recipes pretty good but some are with such an odd combinations and never authentic. I heard that these girls are putting so much efforts in finding right recipes from different websites, developing them in home as experiment, and if sounds good publish video. Pretty good efforts for cheating right? This site is perfect for ladies especially who are lazy and want some quick tricks without having any knowledge of real Indian taste. Indeed this site is not for medium-high level interested people in cooking. My so many friends tried recipes from this site than come up with question for better recipe. They preferred my food much much better than this one. I am sure one would definitely realize once they will have real taste.
        Just one Question to Hetal & Anuja: How many times you visit India and take a risk to enjoy the real Indian flavor??? Don’t lie. I know both of you very well.

        1. Let’s get one thing clear… to date, we have counted 5 different names which you have used to post non-sense comments — some comments supporting your own previously posted comments. We realize that you must be a superstar cook and are completely baffled as to why you insist on visiting our useless website dedicated to lazy ladies, over and over again. This website is of no use to you so please don’t waste your time here — instead, you can spend the time to teach all of your friends the authentic way of cooking.

          For the record, we don’t “cheat” and if we ever use someone else’s recipe, we ALWAYS credit them (even if we make small changes). You don’t know us!

        2. Hey Hetal,

          Bravo! Way to go on taking a stand against cyber bullying/abuse. Assuming you moderate the comments on the pay, why don’t you just press the delete button on idiotic threads?

          Keep up the good work!

          With deep appreciation,
          A seasoned cook!

          1. Hi SC,

            Thanks for your support! We prefer not to moderate the comments (only answer questions) because good or bad, feedback on recipes is always useful to us and to our viewers. We only step in when things get out of control :).

        3. Dear Mr Negativity fountain … definations for u

          1. One who has so much negativity built up inside that they practically spew negativity/negative like a fountain spews water.

          2. One whos only method of feeling better is to try making you feel as shitty or shittier than they do.

        4. Radhika, all research is basically cheating. Do you seriously believe that only one person can think up of something? Many people in the world do things in the same way without knowing anything about the others. Stop being a basher simply because these ladies r Indians. The west has done so much damage to the East, that now it looks like there are more brainless mutants being produced than intelligent people. I [ersonally have never believed i the lies propagated by the west, & stick ti the Indian diet, not as served by the all-you-can-eat places, but like moms & grandmas & “housewives” have been doing for generations. & also, I never eat brown rice more than twice a year for it tastes horrible. White rice is no threat to health if it is only a PART of the diet, not the whole diet. I have yet to meet anyone who eats ONLY rice. It is ALWAYS used with a lot of nutrient dense foods that it isn’t any problem. It is not as big a threat than the sugars or the sartificial sweeteners & the chemicals applied to the cooking vessels to make them non-stick. We need to begin to use our brains & stop being impressed with everything white or western.
          As for the book, it is oly a guideline, a scratch on the surface. If we scrape off the lies of the past, we will discover the truth that the Indian food is actually the best when it comes to health benefits.

        5. Radhika/Anonymous,

          Looking forward to your series of “show me your kitchen”.com… I’m sure all of us are looking forward to the series.

          🙂

  20. Another feather in yr cap!!!. sure will buy it when I buy my other stuff at Amazon…Good luck…..I made the instant coffee the other day and it was awesome……

  21. Hi Anuja and Hetal,

    congratulations on your new attempt. I like the cover page….very creative…I am sure Anuja was part of the cover page selection 🙂

  22. hi
    Congratulations!! anuja,i liked your glittering top very much. though i cudnt see it clearly as you were sitting. Pls wear that again in the next videos to come. Also try wearing pink shades of lipstick preferably bright ones coz it blends well with ur skin tone..

  23. Is this book in the bookstores such as borders or anywhere else?

    I was hoping that you would soon have a cookbook out and now it is here. Looking forward to it.

  24. I congratulate you both and Dr Patel for publication of book and surely I will be purchasing it at the first available opportunity my best wishes to you.
    Ghanshyam.
    London(UK)

      1. Thanks for the response Hetal. I badly wanna read your book. I’ll go for the paperback version now and later also get the kindle version 😉

  25. Can not wait to get the book. It is challenging to maintain a diet as prescribed by American doctors. Since most of diets are designed with american food in mind. I
    am sure your book will help people like me…
    Thank you Hetal and Anuja….

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