All by means of her college and school years, Priya Vijan suffered from allergic reactions. Each morning, she’d get up sneezing and with a runny nostril. “I might get chest congestion, sinusitis and extreme migraines often, and used to devour antihistamines each second day for near 10 years,” says Priya, who hails from Bengaluru.
After school, she began working as a freelancer with occasion manufacturing firms. However she knew {that a} company profession was not for her, so the commerce graduate stop her job in 2011, planning to begin a enterprise from residence that requires little funding. On a good friend’s recommendation, she selected baking, although she had no specific curiosity or background in cooking till then.
However in 2012, she kicked off Soften It Down, a house baking enterprise, studying every little thing from scratch. Inside a 12 months, she had began taking over orders.
In 2019, she took a break from baking and enrolled in a diet course. And that’s the place she understood the significance of a plant-based food plan and the detrimental impacts of animal merchandise, dairy specifically.
Ultimately, her idea of meals remodeled from being a way of satisfying one’s style buds to a supply of diet. Priya opens up about her journey in direction of good well being in a dialog with The Higher India.
From parathas soaked in butter to legumes and millet
Following up on what she learnt within the diet course, Priya stopped consuming dairy merchandise, as an experiment.
Born in Kashmir’s Baramulla to Punjabi dad and mom, it was not straightforward for somebody like her to surrender on dairy as it’s an integral a part of Punjabi delicacies. However after a 21-day experiment, she observed that she didn’t have to take her medicines as often as earlier than. She went again to consuming dairy simply to see the distinction and the frequency of medicines went up once more. Clearly, dairy was not agreeing along with her abdomen.
The whole transition interval of going off animal merchandise together with dairy, meat and eggs took her six months. Her food plan fully modified from parathas soaked in butter and paneer to extra greens, legumes and pulses. “Earlier, I had solely two to 3 sorts of dals in my pantry, now I’ve not less than 15 varieties of legumes and grains. I additionally launched millet into my food plan. The alternatives advanced from trial and error,” says Priya.
“By the top of the interval, the variety of tablets that I took got here down from one each two days to zero. My migraine disappeared. My haemoglobin depend, which was by no means above 9.5, shot as much as 12.5,” she remembers.
“I realised {that a} plant-based food plan can remedy you of lots of your illnesses. Merely put, it’s a food plan which entails extra greens, cooked with primary components. The goal is a fibre-rich meals that’s not sourced from animal merchandise,” she provides.
A plant-based food plan, Priya claims, may also help reverse sort II diabetes, hypertension, weight problems and auto-immune ailments.
Profitable the MasterChef apron
In October 2022, Priya made it to MasterChef India along with her easy and wholesome plant-based recipes.
Recalling her MasterChef journey, she says, “On the audition, I launched myself as a plant-based meals, well being and health fanatic. I imagine that good well being outcomes from a fruits of all three. I discussed that India is the diabetes capital of the world. Lack of understanding and junk meals add to the well being hazards.”
Her major objective in entering into MasterChef India was to talk about her journey, and to assist heal individuals throughout the globe by means of meals.
“It was this goal of mine, quite than the meals, that received me the apron. Cooks Ranveer Brar, Garima Arora, and Vikas Khanna had been actually completely happy. MasterChef is a present that celebrates meals, and I’m glad I acquired such a platform,” says Priya, who’s the one vegan contestant at MasterChef India Season 7 2023.
Her persona displays in every dish she cooks, and he or she provides plant-based components to every recipe.
One of many vegan dishes that Priya has cooked up to now in MasterChef is a vegan model of yam galouti, which is often cooked with meat and butter, with vegan makhani sauce and a rice platter. The vegan model tastes equally good, she swears, thus shattering the stereotype that wholesome vegan meals can’t be tasty.
Among the many different vegan dishes that acquired her appreciation from the judges had been a Kashmiri-style pulao and sukh wangun cooked with brinjal, served with walnut and raisin chutney.
Spreading the message on-line
After digging extra into plant-based diets and observing the adjustments, Priya began sharing her experiences on social media, which numerous individuals resonated with.
In 2020, she began giving speeches, on-line and not too long ago offline, on therapeutic by means of a plant-based life-style. “I additionally began tutoring individuals on options for animal merchandise. To this point, my speeches have reached round 12,000 individuals throughout the globe,” says Priya.
In the present day, she conducts free workshops on plant-based, gluten-free options for animal merchandise, reminiscent of tofu, nut curd, forms of dairy-free cheese, gluten-free bread and pasta. Priya has additionally written an e-book titled ‘Slick Stomach’ on primary plant-based recipes.
She hopes to talk about the advantages of adopting a plant-based food plan to many individuals as doable in order that they’ll take cost of their very own well being, solely by means of a change in food plan.
Edited by Asha Prakash; Image courtesy for all pictures: Priya Vijan.