Ayurveda docs make 1,008 dishes of medicinal value

Did you know that the food items we eat every day have medicinal value? And what about having 1,008 such food items under one roof?

A team of five Ayurveda doctors did exactly that at the Global Wellness Meet 2016 which began on Friday. Their aim is to promote the Indian system of medicine.

The doctors, associated with the Karnataka Ayurvedic and Unani Practitioners’ Board, spent a whole day preparing the dishes themselves. “Each of these dishes is made of ingredients used in households almost regularly. There are 1,008 varieties of idli, payasa, roti, thambulli and other dishes,” said one of the doctors, Dr Bharathi.

Dr Lalitha, Dr Komala, Dr Gayathri and Dr Satyamurthy Hebbar were also part of the team.“The idea is to spread the message that the food we eat has medicinal value and promote ‘Mane Maddu’ which stands for home-made medicine,” she added. The three-day programme organised by the board in association with the Department of Ayush is being attended by delegates from around the world. More than 650 papers and 150 posters would be presented during the event.

Nearly 300 stalls have been set up by companies and government colleges. Among the primary attraction is a 125-foot-tall statue of Dhavantari, which has made it to the India Book of Records for being the tallest statue of the Hindu deity of health.

Ahead of the meet, ‘Ayush Jyothi’, a vehicle with a lamp, covered 30 districts of Karnataka, especially rural areas, to create awareness about Ayurveda. The soil from different places was collected in a pot, and a ‘Lakshmana Phala’ sapling was planted in it by Minister for Health and Family Welfare, U T Khader.

Khader said that if Ayush was promoted well, it could become the first preference of treatment, not the last. “Now, patients try English medicine first. If that is not effective, then they consider Ayush as the second option. If this stream of medicine is promoted well, patients will go to Ayush doctors first,” he said. He also urged Ayush practitioners not to prescribe allopathy medicines. “If you study Ayurveda and prescribe allopathy medicine, who will save your system?” he asked.