Wellcure
Wellcure
01:36 PM | 06-02-2023
Priya Vijan, the only Plant-based & Vegan chef in MasterChef India 2023, reflects on her journey from eating paranthas soaked in butter to completely switching to a plant-based diet.
A 21-day experiment of consuming no dairy, changed her life.
In 2019, Priya enrolled in a nutrition course and this is where she understood the importance of a plant-based diet and the negative impacts of animal products, dairy in particular. She did a 21-Day experiment of consuming zero dairy and realised she did not need to take her medicines for allergies & migraine as frequently as before. She went back to consuming dairy just to see the difference and the frequency of medicines went up again! Clearly, dairy did not agree with her stomach.
The entire transition period of going off dairy took her six months. Born into a Punjabi household in Kashmirs’ Baramulla, it wasn’t easy for her, but the results of her experiment were surprising. “By the end of the period, the number of pills that I took came down from one every two days to zero. My migraine disappeared. My haemoglobin count, which was never above 9.5, shot up to 12.5,” Priya recalls.
“I realised that a plant-based diet can cure you of many of your ailments. Simply put, it’s a diet that involves whole foods- vegetables,fruits, grains, legumes, nuts & seeds. The aim is a fibre-rich food that can’t be sourced from animal sources,” she adds.
A plant-based diet, Priya claims, can help reverse type II diabetes, hypertension, obesity, auto-immune diseases to name a few.
In October 2022, Priyas’ enthusiasm for plant-based food helped her win the apron and become the only plant-based & vegan contestant in MasterChef India Season 7 2023.
Priyas’ personality and love for food reflects in each dish she cooks. Out of the many vegan dishes that Priya has cooked so far in MasterChef is the vegan version of yam galouti, which is usually cooked with meat, with vegan makhani sauce and a rice platter. The vegan version tastes equally good, she swears, thus shattering the stereotype that healthy vegan food cannot be tasty.
Among the other plant-based dishes that got her appreciation of the judges - Chefs Ranveer Brar, Garima Arora, and Vikas Khanna were a Kashmiri-style pulao and sukh wangun cooked with tangy brinjal, served with walnut and raisin chutney.
Priya has written an e-book titled ‘Slick Belly’ on essential plant-based recipes. She has reached around 12,000 people across the globe and hopes to reach many more people as possible so that they can take charge of their own health, solely through a simple change in diet & intuitive eating.
Today, she conducts workshops and programs on plant-based, gluten-free & vegan food, to help individuals make the route toward the transition. Check out Gluten-free Healthy Desserts by Priya Vijan here.
Sounds Interesting? Explore and join her workshops
Help Vote
(1)
Comments
(0)
Share
Disclaimer: The health journeys, blogs, videos and all other content on Wellcure is for educational purposes only and is not to be considered a ‘medical advice’ ‘prescription’ or a ‘cure’ for diseases. Any specific changes by users, in medication, food & lifestyle, must be done under the guidance of licensed health practitioners. The views expressed by the users are their personal views and Wellcure claims no responsibility for them.
