Balancing Glucose, Grandma's Way: Science Behind Time-Tested Nutrition

Before buzzwords like glucose spikes, vinegar shots, glucose monitors, and “food sequencing” started floating around the wellness circles, our grandmothers were already doing it all, only we didn’t know, and I doubt if they did! 

A few days ago, like many others, I had been haunted by this looming feeling that I was missing my last bus to health & fitness. Honestly, I began to feel that if I don’t eat chia seeds by the bucket or track my steps like a stockbroker tracking the Sensex. I’d surely die. So, as a first step to a very long and robust life( fingers crossed), I picked a book.

So I tore through The Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspe, ”a brilliant, science-backed page-turner that has piqued the interest of health and fitness enthusiasts and has forced them to rethink their carb game. But as I flipped through those 252 pages, I realised that the concepts she wrote about were not alien to me. Only the language was different.

Indian food wisdom and modern science

My grandmother, wrapped in a cotton saree, would whip up meals for 30 with the precision of a Michelin chef and the soul of a monk. She would serve food with nothing but a ladle and love. There were no diet plans, no chia seeds, no quinoa, no olives or avocados and certainly no Instagram reels, just food that obeyed rules that were older than time or any influencer: eat local, eat fresh, eat balanced. 

Indian culinary wisdom, rooted in centuries of tradition, understands food not just as fuel but as balance, nourishment, and medicine. 

Think about a traditional Indian thali: fibre-rich sabzis, protein-packed dal, healthy fats from ghee, and gut-friendly curd, fermented batter aka probiotics - all perfectly portioned and placed. Vegetables came first. Rice and roti were paired with protein, fibre, and fats. Sweets? It was a rarity, either earned or available only on occasions. They were savoured only after a full meal, eaten slowly, mindfully, with zero distraction (unless Doordarshan was on). Today. desserts are a tap away and possibly a death trap! 

Modern food science is just now confirming what our ancestors already practised:

• Combine carbs with protein and fats. (Grandma never served plain rice! Remember the humble ghee and dal beside your roti or rice? )
• Add vinegar (aka lemon in warm water or a tangy tamarind rice or tomato rasam starter)
• Move after meals (remember walking after dinner with the family?)
• Don’t snack mindlessly (she would call it “spoiling your appetite”)

But in the name of modernity, we’ve swapped idlis for avocado toast, ghee for olive oil, and bananas for blueberries, and today we fast for ketones and not for Shiva. We forgot that millets, buttermilk, Makhana and saag were the original superfoods. Basically, we have traded our health for trends, and now, we're paying through the roof to relearn what our elders knew. 

Our grandmothers were the OG’s of intermittent fasting. Remember the Somwar and Shanivar vrats? It was done with poise and purpose while Dr. Pal and Dr. Ryan were probably still in diapers. 

• Our ancestors may not have measured glucose spikes with CGMs, but they understood their bodies. Meals were balanced, seasonal, and rooted in routine:
• A glass of buttermilk with lunch (fermented, cooling, and gut-friendly)
• A small jaggery and ghee bite after meals (satiety, mineral-rich, and stabilising)
• Millets, dals, and hand-pounded rice (low GI, high fibre, no drama)
• Breakfast like a king, dinner like a fakir (still better than intermittent fasting with a 1,200-calorie smoothie bowl)

They didn’t need science to tell them glucose affects mood. They knew cranky kids needed wholesome food, not therapists. Indian food science isn’t just delicious, it’s intelligent. It's time-tested. Let’s eat like our ancestors and not like influencers. Please eat to live & love, not to post! 

So if you're trying to eat better, don’t look west. Look back. Your grandmother was the original biohacker. And she did it all in a cotton saree without Wi-Fi.

The hack isn’t in California, it is in your grandma’s kitchen. It’s time to stop chasing trends and about time you call your grandmother and ask for that rasam recipe.

Because while the world is busy inventing “health hacks,” your grandmother had already cooked them and served them with a side of wisdom

Trust me, your jeans will zip without a prayer!

Authored by Ramya Rao. Views expressed by the author are their own.