Parul Shah's Healthy Family

The awareness to eat healthy has certainly caught on, but to find a family where every member is as conscious about it as the next, is rare. We bring you the Dr Viral Shah family, which continues to eat Gujarati fare at home, but with a healthy twist

Eat healthy, stay fit, is the dictum which is on the rise among Indian families only recently, but that is not the case in the Viral Shah household. By which I mean it is not a recent phenomenon here. Viral Shah has been following his inner instinct of eating right since almost two decades.
I’ll tell you how it happened. Like most hardworking Gujaratis, Viral was committed to his profession. He worked long hours, year after year, only to realise the years had flown by, his two daughters had grown up and he was still at it, working away, till one day, 16 years after his last-born, he was jolted into reality. Two things happened, one good, one not so good. Good; his wife Parul announced she was pregnant. Bad: Simultaneously Viral was perturbed by a personal medical issue.
And he decided, “I am now going to live my life.” From that day to now, when his son Sohail is 16 years old, Viral has religiously followed a lifestyle which practises not just healthy eating, staying fit, following an exercise routine, etc, but even going on frequent holidays, spending time with his children, being interested in their lives, helping them with their life decisions and ambitions and the rest. In short, what everyone aspires to do, but very few actually do. Hats off, Viral.
I was curious, how did Viral do it? “Well, when Sohail was on the way, I decided I will be more of a dad than I was to Aditi and Rishita when they were babies and growing up. The realisation came to me and I asked myself the question, ‘Do I enjoy all this?'" He meant his current lifestyle of working long hours. And then socialising heavily, meeting the same people at every party… “The answer was, ‘No!’" So Viral changed tack and started to sail in the opposite direction. For starters he hired top professionals and started to delegate work. From being more hands-on in office, he became more hands-on at home.
Dr Viral Shah, you should know is the man who got the first MRI machine into the country. The sophisticated scanning machine which was used at Breach Candy Hospital was his baby. This was in 1987. From there on, with many of his patients showing interest in total health checkups, got Viral into creating a Multi Diagnostic Preventive Health Centre in 1993, called Spectrum Healthcare. This was started at Cooperage at the Indian Cancer Society where it is still situated, albeit much bigger now and with gadgets, machines and scanners of every shape and hue. They have over 900 corporates who use their services in preventive care.
“Yes, by God’s grace Spectrum has helped many a man and woman. We diagnose hundreds of people with cancer, diabetes, thyroid… corrective measures taken earlier on are certainly beneficial. Most people suffer from chronic lifestyle diseases. Diabetes, obesity, backaches because of wrong postures, lack of exercise. All you have to do is, change your ways.”
Well, I have been going to Spectrum for my annual checkups since over 15 years so I know what they do. There’s a whole battery of doctors, specialists, sitting in their own little rooms which you rotate through in some order that is overseen by a supervisor. They certainly guide you well in correcting all the wrongs you inadvertently follow – bad postures, bad eating habits; they guide you in nutrition and what not. For example, the malaise of modern times is overusage of cell phones. Go check how your ears are doing! We take such things for granted and it takes a Spectrum to jolt you! It takes a whole morning but surely worth it, considering it’s just once a year and once done, you are kind of relieved.
But never mind that, for now let's see how we can have our cake and eat it, too. By which I mean, eat the lovely Gujarat food and not pay a price, in terms of getting to look over-healthy, if you know what I mean.

Enter Parul Shah.
“Look, we all love to eat in this house,” says Viral’s happy and ever-smiling wife, “and so we found ways of eating the food we love, but by giving it a sensible twist. So instead of pouring pure ghee on everything we eat, fresh white home-made butter, where we have to. Like with Bajri Methi Palak Rotla. Or take this Dal Dhokli. It’s got all the traditional ingredients in it, but in addition I have the chopped and cubed veggies that we steam and add to it, according to our own individual taste.
In addition, what I have trained my cooks to do is bake, steam, roast, boil or blanche as and when it is needed. Meaning, very rarely do we fry things and deep-frying is almost never. One has to keep oil intake in check. These small things make a big difference.
Since these are all fairly ‘heavy’ foods, substantial in themselves, we make it a one-dish-meal. So we won’t eat a whole variety of dishes at meals, just one. Of course, we don’t eat all this at one meal. I have just cooked all of it only today, especially for UpperCrust, so you get an idea.”
One-dish-meal sounds like a sensible idea to me, anyways. There is a lesson in this for other hostesses. The ones that prepare a number of hardcore non veg meals and set them up on their tables. Where not only the tables groan but also the tummies, post meals. Like haleem, khichda, biryani, dal gosht – these are all one-dish-meals. And if you eat small quantities of such meals, it is not excess. You and your soul, both are happy!
So I agree with Parul when she says, if they have eaten well at lunch, dinner will just be a soup with a salad, or so. They sure are sensible in this household and disciplined, too. For that is what is most important. Most of us do such things on and off – more off than on!
Guess what is binging for the Shahs?  An extra scoop of ice-cream! That too only when it is the handmade variety which they can't resist. When they are out on family dinners over weekends, each of them literally studies the menu before ordering. Laughs Viral, “Even at weddings we eat carefully, I, in fact will take just one vegetable!” That’s expected from someone who eats just some toast and tea for breakfast, bajra rotli and salad for lunch and soup and a one-dish-meal for dinner. And sips only green tea, when he drinks tea.
So concerned is Viral about the unscruplous ways in which vegetables are grown – alongside the railway tracks and in sewage water,  Viral tired of trying to source good ingredients, has started growing his own vegetables. On the terrace of his office at Marine Lines, incorporating Hydrophonics, “because space is so scarce!” This involves growing veggies, not in soil, but water loaded with nutrients. The water in which these vegetables grow is aerated with a pump, so it is well oxygenated. It’s worth seeing Viral’s face as it lights up when he describes how he brings home bunches of spinach, baby tomatoes, cluster beans, gourd, mint, methi and chillies. Right now he is growing bitter gourd, good blood purifying agent, he says.
Guess that’s the way to do it.
But eating right is not the only thing this family does. Viral practices yoga in the mornings, walks in the evenings. From office he goes to the CCI Club, gets out of his jacket and trousers and into a T-shirt and tracks, walking shoes and is all set to walk home from Marine Drive to his home which is up Malabar Hill. Likewise Parul, she has a trainer come home with who she works out. The family travels a lot, but wherever in world they are, their discipline follows.