SHARAN

The best holiday ever! 

Delhi-based scientist Dr Suman Govil cannot stop feeling grateful to her son and daughter-in-law for the best holiday ever, where she came back home with zero medicines!

Dr. Suman Govil, a Ph.D. in botany from University of Delhi has worked in the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India as a senior advisor from 1982 to 2018. A vegetarian by birth, she had a lot of health issues including polycystic ovaries and its complications, severe osteoporosis, hypertension, and low immunity resulting in several bouts of cold and cough every year and cervical spondylitis. And if that were not enough, she was also overweight.

Despite her son and daughter-in-law’s warnings that milk is bad for health, leads to leaching of calcium from bones, leads to stone formation she did not make changes, perhaps because of her conditioning and addiction to tea.

Immediately after her husband’s kidney stone surgery, she and her husband attended SHARAN’s health retreat in June, 2018.

She found the methodology adopted by Dr. Nandita and her team scientific, systematic and holistic and appreciated the camaraderie with the team and participants. Apart from health benefits, she felt, it was best holiday of her life. The scientist in her, always wanted evidence and she got enough evidence from the medical tests before and after, which showed significant reduction in total cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.  Both she and her husband, benefitted tremendously from following SHARAN lifestyle, are totally free from all medicines, are lighter by 11-12 kg. each, and their energy levels and stamina has improved a lot. And naturally they witnessed dramatic improvements in other participants as well.

Totally motivated, she took up the facilitator training in January, 2019 in order to spread this lifestyle to friends, relatives and everyone that she comes in contact with in order to lead a happier, healthier and ethical life and leave a better planet to future generations. 

Egg Replacers

Eggs have zero dietary fibre, consist 70% of saturated fat and are loaded with cholesterol.

Egg whites are a concentrated form of animal protein that our body cannot digest and, therefore, can do without.

Eggs also have potential life in them. So, when we eat eggs, we are consuming a life.

However, eggs can be easily replaced in recipes. You can have your scrambled 'eggs' and your omelettes or use them in baking with some interesting plant based alternatives.

Replacing eggs in baked goods

Eggs are used in baked goods for leavening or lightness. They also may serve as a binder.

Flat foods such as pancakes and cookies don’t rely on eggs for lift. In many cases, you can eliminate the egg altogether, especially if the recipe calls for only one egg. Instead, add a tablespoon or two of additional liquid soymilk, fruit juice or water per egg omitted, to restore the recipe to its original moisture content. A small quantity of baking powder may help give lightness to pancakes.

In recipes for baked goods that have a light, airy texture, replace eggs with an ingredient that provides lift. Any of the following ingredients can replace one whole egg in a recipe:

• Half of a small, ripe, mashed banana. This gives a mild banana flavor, which can be nice in recipes for muffins, cookies, pancakes and quick breads. However, items made with bananas may not have a very long shelf life and are best eaten within a couple of days.
• 1/4 cup of tofu blended with the liquid ingredients in the recipe. These too are best eaten in a couple of days.
• 1/4 cup of applesauce can be used. This also adds a hint of flavour. Add an extra 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder because using fruit purees to replace eggs can make the finished product somewhat denser.
• A heaping tablespoon of soy flour or bean flour mixed with a tablespoon of water.
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch beaten with 2 tablespoons of water.
• 1 tablespoon of finely ground flaxseeds whipped with 1/4 cup of water.

The flaxseeds gel together and binds with the other ingredients. Use immediately. If don’t want the flecks of brown skin to show, you can strain it through a fine sieve or cheesecloth before use. NOTE: Flax seeds can be a bit drying to some baked goods since they suck up liquid, so use it judiciously.

Vinegar, when used in baking reacts with baking soda to give the same effect as egg.

Replacing eggs in main dishes

Some recipes need an ingredient that binds all the other ingredients together. Your choice of ingredients to replace eggs in these types of foods depends on the degree of “stick” you need, as well as how the ingredient will blend with the other flavors in the recipe. Here are some options:

• Arrowroot starch
• Potato starch
• Cornstarch
• Whole- wheat, unbleached, oat, or bean flour
• Finely crushed breadcrumbs, cracker meal, or matzo meal
• Quick-cooking rolled oats or cooked oatmeal
• Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes
• Tofu

Thinly sliced tofu, pan fried and sprinkled with nutritional yeast flakes tastes surprisingly like fried eggs.

Food for the mind

FACEBOOK SUPPORT GROUP

If you love Facebook, then join us to be supported on your plant based journey. Since 1 January, 2016, we have been offering three possibilities

1. SHARAN India This is SHARAN's main Facebook page which you can like and follow for getting useful daily updates and news from the plant based health world. You will also get news about the latest SHARAN events, see testimonials, and more.

2. SHARAN's Vegan Support Group This is an open support group to know more about vegan/plant-based lifestyle. Here you can ask questions and share inspiring stories, tips, recipes, etc.

3. SHARAN's Plant Powered Health This is the new group only for the past attendees of SHARAN's events: seminars, cooking classes, retreats or longer programs.

All our doctors and presenters will be here to answer your questions and give you tips. If you have attended our events join this group to be a part of our family.

Please like the main SHARAN page and join the group(s) applicable to you.

So, what exactly is a tumour?

According to the dictionary, a tumour is defined as 'a swelling of a part of the body, generally without inflammation, caused by an abnormal growth of tissue, whether benign or malignant.'

Tumours can be found in any part of the body and almost in any organ. Unlike a malignant tumour (cancer), a benign tumour does not spread to other parts of the body. However, it can pose a problem if it compresses vital structures such as vessels or nerves, necessitating treatment. Some benign tumours go away on their own. Malignant tumours, of course, have to be dealt with at a deeper level.

Read on to find out how you can either prevent or even dissolve tumours…