BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer
CHRIS GAETANO Ashwini Jasutkar (r) and Sarod Lall discuss how to work a pedometer. SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Township seniors are learning to follow the American food pyramid with an Indian palate.
A class recently hosted by the township’s senior center and sponsored by the township’s Health Department was geared primarily toward the local Indian community, both visitors and immigrants. The organizer of the four-week program, Ashwini Jasutkar, said that the idea came from her realization that the food pyramid, a set of nutritional guidelines maintained and occasionally revised by the USDA, does not cater well to Indian tastes and dietary habits. For example, many Indians follow a vegetarian diet.
“I was trying to look at the Indian diet and gear something more toward the Indian population,” said Jasutkar.
Jasutkar based the class on a combination of cultural culinary research, the Eat Better and Move More program, targeted primarily toward seniors and already in progress at the senior center, and the Food Stamp Nutrition Education program at Rutgers.
Jasutkar noted that hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes are common among the Indian population, partially due to the popularity of processed food and unfamiliarity with the food pyramid among many Indians.
“A lot of these people are visiting, they’re here for six months … visiting their grandchildren. So I figured if I could target this population, they could bring stuff back here in the U.S. for their grandkids and children and take some stuff back to India, and spread the word there too,” said Jasutkar.
On Tuesday, the second of four classes, participants in class brought in various Indian vegetarian dishes, from cakes to couscous. People also signed up to receive a free pedometer, which they could use to track their steps throughout the day. The original plan was to test them out in a short walk-a-thon, but heat reaching into the high 90s that day caused its cancellation. According to Jasutkar, some 45 people had shown up that day, more than expected, necessitating more pedometers to be ordered.
“I originally had 26, and then the last few days I got 33, and today we got up to 45. … I’m going to have to order more pedometers since I don’t want to turn anyone away. It’s not exclusive,” said Jasutkar.
Many participants felt positively about what they learned.
“It’s a very instructive and exciting program,” said Raj Lal.