Green signal: Delhi warms up to the trend of vegan foods

NEW DELHI: Natasha Singh, 27, is going to attend a friend’s birthday party.

NEW DELHI: Natasha Singh, 27, is going to attend a friend’s birthday party.

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Like most people, she very carefully chooses what to wear and the gift before leaving.

However, unlike most others, she also eats before she leaves for the party as she is apprehensive about finding food of her preference at it.

Natasha, a freelance producer, is part of the miniscule but growing brigade of vegans in Delhi. Some doctors recommend a vegan diet and a private hospital is set to launch a study on the benefits of veganism. Cafes offering vegan food too are coming up across the city.

The question is, how easy is it to be vegan in today’s times?

Turning vegetarian Indian food into vegan food is not difficult, if you are ready to give up a few items, experts say.

“When I went vegan, I simply stopped using butter and ghee in everyday food,” Natasha says. “It wasn’t really difficult. But looking for alternatives for milk and cheese can burn a hole in your pocket.”

A litre of toned milk costs under Rs 40, a litre of soy-milk is around Rs 100. If you want to substitute paneer for Indian tofu, it will cost you around the same. The two products have slowly become more popular and easier to find. But alternatives such as almond milk and cashew cheese are tougher to find and more expensive.

Nageshwaran started her classes in 2012 with four students. Today, she teaches two batches of 12 to 18 people each in a month. “I recently trained a group of 10 chefs in vegan cooking,” she says.

Spaghetti and Samosa in Vasant Vihar is Delhi’s only vegan cafe.

“We opened eight months ago and also toyed with the idea of opening an outlet in a mall, but found the idea too risky,” says Maria Di Fiore Solanki, who along with her husband manages the place.

Vegan health coaches say the dietary change is slowly catching on in the city.

“Today, the recognition for the word is much more than it was five years ago. While other cities in India are better, Delhi is a little behind on this trend. Bombay has a fully vegan restaurant and is more vegan-friendly in general. Bangalore has two completely vegan restaurants,” says Nandini Gulati, a health coach who went vegan in 2011.

Doctors recommend a vegan diet for cardiac patients and to those who want to lose weight.

Dr Ritika Samaddar, a clinical nutritionist at Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket, says a pilot study with 5-6 patients on the vegan diet shows an improved heart function and weight loss.

“These are just initial trends. We will go in for a full-fledged study soon,” Samaddar says. “Veganism is medically helpful but a little impractical in the Indian context as Indians have an affinity for milk products. There is a danger of developing a calcium and Vitamin B 12 deficiency if you are vegan. I always inform those who come to me about these dangers and ask them to either take supplements or increase the intake of milk substitutes such as almond milk, rice milk and soya milk.”