10-second takeaway: A balanced South Asian diet can offer significant health benefits, and simple dietary swaps can enhance nutrition while respecting cultural practices to ensure effective dietary improvements for patients.

While the Mediterranean Diet is often touted as the “healthiest” for overall health, it’s important to consider other diets that may play an important cultural role in the lives of our patients. For those of South Asian origin, diet is not only intimately tied to culture and identity, but the vibrant combination of colours, textures, spices and flavours can also bring positive health benefits.

Check out this Nutritank webinar by Toral Shah for tips on tailoring nutritional information for patients of different cultures undergoing cancer treatment.

The health benefits of a South Asian diet

While a “South Asian diet” is more of an umbrella term, there are some common features of South Asian culinary practices including an emphasis on variety, spices, legumes, vegetables, grains, and fruits, with a varying amount of dairy, meat and fish. 

Considering the parallels with Blue Zone diets, it’s no surprise that a well-constructed, considered South Asian diet can offer a wide range of health benefits. Although by no means a full or extensive list, here are some of the benefits of a South Asian Diet and why we should celebrate it:

• • Flavour: South Asian food is infused with flavour from herbs and spices, which not only improves enjoyment but also reduces the need for added salt
  • Anti-inflammatory: Foods including onions, leafy green vegetables, pulses and legumes are thought to provide beneficial antioxidant and anti-inflammatory and gut health and brain health supporting attributes.
  • Plant-based: South Asian food contains many wonderful plant-based dishes based on ingredients including spinach, bitter gourd, cabbage, cauliflower, chickpeas and lentils, which are all a rich source of fibre and polyphenols
  • Gut health: South Asia has a rich history of fermented foods, including fermented breads, dairy products, vegetables and fish. Research has found a positive association between fermented foods and gut health.

• Mental health: With vibrant colours, textures and flavours, South Asian cuisine can provide mood-boosting experiences (alongside the brain-supporting nutritional profiles!) with an emphasis on social cooking and eating

Simple swaps for South Asian patients 

South Asian diets have come under scrutiny in the nutrition world, as they can be high in trans fats, salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates (as is the Western diet, I may add!). However, these simple swaps below may help to address these areas, whilst enjoying all the incredible nutritious benefits a South Asian diet provides:

• Try to have a wide range of colourful vegetables and fruit each day, adding them to curries, wholegrain rice and other dishes
• Aim to consume high-fibre varieties of rice and bread (for example wholemeal chapati or roti and wholegrain rice). These help to support gut health, are lower in sugar and will enhance satiety.
• Limit added salt during cooking, increasing the use of herbs and spices, if needed, to replace the flavour
• Swap refined cooking oils for healthier alternatives, such as coconut oil and olive oil

The South Asian Eatwell Guide

A South Asian version of the Eatwell Guide has been created by registered dietitian Fareeha Jay, which can be a useful resource to share with your patients alongside tips on choosing healthier alternatives.

 

Fareeha explains more about the South Asian Eatwell Guide in her Nutritank webinar “Following the principles of the Mediterranean Diet for South Asian patients”. 

 

As a final thought, it’s worth bearing in mind the potential cultural insensitivity when suggesting a Mediterranean diet to patients with their own cuisines. It’s important to support individuals to make positive behaviour changes whilst honouring their culture and heritage, at the very least because it will maximise the chance of success! As health professionals, it’s our responsibility to decolonise nutrition and ensure that we celebrate the rich diversity of cultures in our population. 

Key takeaways:

• South Asian diets offer numerous potential health benefits with high-fibre, plant-based dishes that emphasise the enjoyment of food in social settings
• To support patients from South Asian backgrounds, it’s possible to make healthier swaps based on the South Asian Eatwell guide 
• As a wider point, it’s important to consider the cultural context of treatment plans and, where possible, to tailor advice to the individual patient’s circumstances

 

Looking for more high-quality lifestyle medicine education? Make sure to explore our free CME-accredited webinars and the latest series of our Nutritank podcast.

About the author

Alice Benskin BSc MSc RNutr is senior nutritionist at Nutritank. She has a BSc in Nutrition Science and MSc in Personalised Nutrition and has worked over the past 10 years in the food industry, agriculture, nutrition education and research.  

Further reading:

• Fareeha Jay’s South Asian Eat Well Guide: https://www.instagram.com/p/CT1b4GwIrsy/ 
• The Diverse Nutrition Association: https://www.diversenutritionassociation.com/