Anti-inflammatory swaps for an Indian kitchen

It is tempting to sort food into good and bad lists, but that is not really how this works. Very little is inflammatory on its own. What matters is the pattern: a lot of refined flour, added sugar, deep-fried food and heavily processed packets, eaten often, over years.

So read what follows as swaps worth making most of the time, not as a list of things you are now forbidden. A fried snack at a wedding is not the problem. A fried snack most afternoons is a different question.

Refined white flour is the one worth looking at first, because it turns up everywhere: flatbreads, biscuits, white bread, most bakery items. Gram flour and mung bean flour are excellent in its place, and a savoury pancake made from either is quicker than most people expect. Oats and less refined flours work well for everyday flatbreads.

Almond flour makes a very good flatbread too, low in starch and high in protein, and it is worth trying if you can afford it. It costs a good deal more than gram flour or mung bean flour, so treat it as a nice option rather than the one to aim for. Gram flour, mung bean flour and oats do the same job on an ordinary budget, and a swap you can keep up every week beats a better one you cannot.

Rice is not the villain it is sometimes made out to be. It is usually the portion rather than the grain. A smaller serving alongside plenty of vegetables and lentils does a very different thing from a plate that is mostly rice. Hand-pounded and brown rice are worth trying if they suit you.

This is the swap that changes the most for the least effort. Savoury packet snacks, crisps and biscuits are the things that get eaten absent-mindedly with tea, and they add up quietly. Roasted chickpeas, puffed lotus seeds, peanuts, almonds, walnuts and seeds do the same job for your hands and considerably more for the rest of you.

For fried snacks, the method matters more than the item. Deep-fried pastries and fritters are fine occasionally, and baked or air-fried versions are genuinely good. Steamed savoury cakes, rice cakes and pancakes are steamed rather than fried and belong in the regular rotation.

Sweets and desserts are for occasions, and there are plenty of occasions. On ordinary days, fruit with a few nuts does more than you would think: apple, guava, orange, papaya, or berries if you can get them.

Sweet tea is worth attention simply because of how often it is drunk. Cutting the sugar down gradually works better than stopping outright, and cinnamon, ginger, cardamom or clove give you flavour back. One thing worth saying plainly: jaggery and honey are still sugar. They are not anti-inflammatory alternatives, whatever you may have read.

Packaged juices and soft drinks are best treated as sweets rather than drinks. Whole fruit with water, or water with lemon, does the job.

Ghee and butter are not poison, and a reasonable amount of ghee in Indian cooking is entirely fine. The issue is quantity. Mustard, groundnut and olive oil in moderate amounts, plus the fats that come naturally in nuts and seeds, are a sensible base.

Cream-heavy gravies are the bigger change. A tomato and onion base, or curd, or blended nuts and seeds, gives you a rich gravy without the cream. Full-fat cheese and large amounts of paneer are worth moderating, with lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas and tofu carrying more of the protein.

For salt, the packets are usually the problem rather than the salt cellar. Oily, salty pickles and packaged sauces are easy to replace with a fresh chopped salad, a coriander or mint chutney, or a curd-based dip. Herbs, lemon, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander and turmeric do a great deal of the work that salt was doing.

Rather than a list of things to avoid, it is easier to stock what you want to be eating. Leafy greens and fenugreek, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, okra, aubergine, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms. Mung beans, red lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, sprouts, tofu, and curd and paneer in moderation. Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, chia, flaxseed, sesame and pumpkin seeds.

And the spice box you already own: turmeric with a little black pepper, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cloves and cardamom.

One caution about spices. Turmeric and ginger belong in an anti-inflammatory way of eating, but they are not medicines and no single spice will undo the rest of the diet. The pattern is what does the work. This is general food guidance, not medical advice.