The vast importance of bran : Health with Mahatma Gandhi

Those who have been following what is being written in these columns on balanced diet will not have failed to understand the vast importance of bran which we simply throw away and give to our cattle. I do not grudge the cattle what they get. But it seems to me that we are thoughtless about cattle-feeding as about many other things. Cattle do not need bran so much as green fodder and seed cakes which they can easily divide with us if we will revert to the village oil-presses. But we need every ounce of the bran of wheat and rice if we are to become efficient instruments of production, not to be beaten on this earth by any race, and yet without the necessity of entering into killing competition or literally killing one another. But I must not prolong what is becoming a heavy preface to a simple recipe which a friend has passed on to me for treating wheat bran. He is obliged to his sister for it. Here it is:

Grind sufficient wheat coarse to give you one pound of bran which you get by passing the meal through a medium sieve. Add 112 lb. of cold water, eight tolas of pulverized clean gur and half a tea-spoonful of clean salt to the bran and stir well. Pour the mixture in a flat vessel, cover and let it stand for full half hour. Then put a well-fitting tava or dish on the pot containing the mixture and stand it on hot coal and heat hot coals on top. Keep the pot between the two fires for full five minutes. Then transfer the mixture on to an iron kadai and roast on a slow fire till the water is fairly dried out. Then take the pot off the chula and let the contents cool. Then strain them through a sieve with clean hands and the contents will drop on a clean cloth or board in the form of threads. Expose these to the sun till thoroughly dry. These can be taken as they are or with hot or cold milk or hot water or whey. Two ounces will make a good breakfast and is claimed to be a valuable aid to remove constipa­tion the bane of civilized life and precursor of many diseases.

~ Harijan, 12-10-1935

Related posts:

Book titled ‘Mahatma Gandhi and Prakrutic Chikitsa and Nisargopachar Varta’ released on 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi Minimum Diet : Health with Mahatma Gandhi Cereals : Health with Mahatma Gandhi Wheat and Gur : Health with Mahatma Gandhi Polished V/s Unpolished : Health with Mahatma Gandhi