“Tut! Tut!”
Said the nutrition expert
After lunch was over
“Don’t you love your family at all?”

I stared at him dumfounded
Till he relented and said
“Salt is bad for all of you!
So is polished rice and refined sugar
Coarse flour is quite all right
Not the silky white one!
As for the milk and milk products
Better forget they exist!
A cabbage leaf
Some vegetable juice
A couple of grapes if you like..?”

“Please pass the dessert
If you don’t mind!”

- From ‘Kitchen Poems’ by Dhiruben Patel


Cooking & more is seven years old, thanks to your co-operation! We would not have survived for so long without the support of our readers and contributors and I would like to thank you all with this special issue dedicated to health and overall well being. Though we may not all agree with the above poem, we do need to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

Through this anniversary issue, I gift my readers a bunch of interesting health articles contributed by leaders in the field. I would like to thank Dr. Usha Saraiya for sharing a beautiful women-oriented article