HEALTH AND FITNESS THROUGH MILLETS AND GRAINS; A TALK WITH CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH IN NETHERLANDS: BY KHATIBAH REHMAT.
KHATIBAH REHMAT: Chef Teekaram Singh, you yourself is such a young chef and is staying so far from India. How come you find yourself so much into organic foods?
CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH:No matter where I reside, I will definitely respect the hardships and hard work of each and every farmer round the globe. Farm could be any and farmers may belong to any nation, they simply share a common thing like our farmers and i.e., they feed us from their bottom of their hearts. No matter they have sleepless nights or horrifying days, they will wipe their sweats and will once again move into the fields to look after their crops, vegetables or fruits. I can very easily co-relate all this just because, I also belong to a farmer’s family and the emotions which occur, comes from my land called: INDIA.
Chef Teekaram Singh in Netherlands.
This is one of the reasons I easily understand the difference between a conventional produce and organic farming. Organic farming has nothing to do with genetic modifications or with any other artificial way of growing things. The detail is there in my previous interview with REFT Today, I’m also leaving it’s link: https://3c5.com/inv44 . Well, my involvement into organic farming comes from the roots I actually belong to, where I know the values of such a way of farming. In fact, I would like to request the young generation to join their family work of farming and take it to another level, that too, to the world front.
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KHATIBAH REHMAT: Every food grain leaves a different impact over our bodies, which clearly shows that it’s a vast topic. Then in that case how can we say that which millets to eat and when?
CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH: As everyone knows that millet is rich in niacin which helps a human body to manage more than 400 enzyme reactions and is also important for healthy skin and organ functioning. In fact, it is such an important compound that is often added to processed foods to enrich them. COVID-19 has taught us an extremely important lesson to eat and drink a healthy and immunity boosting dish/beverage so that it may help us to fight with that deadly and disastrous disease during pandemic. The best part was that, no one had to buy any expensive or fancy food stuffs to make them stronger, everything was presented by nature, that too within our pockets.
Women framers harvesting FINGER MILLETS in Uttarkashi.
Imagine, a simple normal looking food grain can turn into making breadsticks, bread, cereals and several other things as well. No one has to stick towards one old and boring recipe, millets is still a staple food in the world today. From last thousands of years Africa and South East Asia has been the oldest cultivators of millets. There are umpteenth benefits of bringing it to a daily diet which is an excellent source of beta-carotene, this natural pigment acts as both an antioxidant and as a precursor to vitamin A, which helps a human body to fight off free radicals and supporting the health of eyes as well.
Women farmers harvesting BARNYARD MILLETS in the farms.
KHATIBAH REHMAT: COVID-19 is once again bouncing over human bodies, what suggestion would you like to give to our readers and viewers, so that they may atleast grasp basic immunity boosting food which may help them instantly?
CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH: Millet is just a tiny cereal grain but, is highly nutritious which belongs to the grass family. This is our ancient food, which is being used for centuries as food groups, but somewhere people has forgotten about the magic of ancient food stuffs. All thanks to this COVID situation; millets is again in the spotlight for better immunity! This include: Jowar, Ragi, Foxtail, Bajra and other minor millets which are very useful, highly nutritious and superior to major cereals. It is a good source of protein, complex carbohydrates, dietary fibres, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients.
Chef Teekaram Singh (Left) is found checking his finger millet harvest in the farms. (File photo).
One must be surprised to know that presently, almost one-third of world’s population consumes millets regularly. As we know that millets were our main source of food for centuries but, somewhere down the line, particularly in India, people have replaced them with polished rice and maida-mixed wheat flour. Fortunately, with all this disastrous situation it has gained back it’s demand due to it’s immunity boosting values. Year 2023 is declared to celebrate the International year of millets and this proposal of India was supported by 72 other countries.
INTERVIEWED AND PICTURE COURTESY: Chef Teekaram Singh.
FEW INPUTS FROM: Google and few Newspapers.
INTERVIEW TAKEN BY: Khatibah Rehmat (Senior Journalist).
