The underestimated everyday Lankan foods as medicine in the times of COVID

By Suryamithra Vishwa 

Last week we featured the inspirational life story of Sri Lanka’s culinary legend and author of Lankan food heritage Chef Publis Silva; a story of courage and perseverance.

This week we feature some advice from him on the use of food as immunity boosters, especially in these time of pandemics. 

Meeting him in these masked times, it was interesting to find out that Sri Lankan chefs in the time of Lankan kings who were working in the royal kitchens wore masks when preparing the food and when serving to the Royal family. 

“So you see, masks are not that alien to us,” he quips and then goes on to advice the holistic philosophy of eating and health.

Food that we take for granted as everyday curry centric additions; coconut, karapincha, ginger, turmeric, onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and all other spices are in fact a powerhouse of medicinal properties which either prevent or cure illnesses

“Why do you eat?” he asks and then answers, “If one eats to live, then why do you fall sick eating things that are merely ‘tasty’ but never ‘healthy’. He obviously does not mean our traditional food which is superior in both taste and health benefits but the many other imported substances one finds often very attractively packaged in the market. 

With regard to our Sri Lankan food he speaks of the process of preparation and consumption describing both as a meditative processes. The preparation of the food he points out is traditionally carried out infused with the most primarily important ingredients; (adaraya, karunawa, maithriya) love, compassion and empathy. “Traditionally our mothers would put at least one or two of the above ingredients into the food. This itself would have a great impact on our immunity,” he notes. 

With regard to everyday herbs such as cumin seeds he points out how these can be used as medicine for ailments such as stomach pain when one can roast the cumin seed and drink it like coffee. For high sugar he says that one can sun-dry waraka leaves and crush and boil just like tea and adds that goraka consumed in moderation is excellent for cholesterol. 

“My mother was an excellent Goda Weda like almost all the mothers and fathers of that time,” quips Publis.

At 84 years young, he at first announces his age as 60 and I am quite ready to believe him without further question but the fact remains that I know of him and have read his biography so I know he is 24 years older than that! “But you would have believed I was 60 if you did not know my age,” he laughs, stating that his impeccable health (without a single ailment) is due to a lifetime of eating food as a continuous experiment of the adage ‘food as medicine’. His daily diet includes one kilo of fruit but he admits that meditating sages of yore who barely ate were equally healthy.

“Health first begins in the mind. When the mind is free from ill will any food, however meagre is digested well. The human is conditioned to feel kindness and this is why food cooked in a kind and loving state is absorbed well by the person consuming it. That energy of love has then become part of the food that is to be consumed and its curative quality is enhanced,” he states.

One does not have to be a student of Reiki or Pranic healing or other energy based studies or methodologies to understand the truth of what he is saying.

Having researched into the food history and Sri Lankan heritage foods as well as invented and tried out diverse methods in which to prepare everyday Lankan food like Mannokka and Kos he says that the value of these foods are grossly underestimated by Lankans who latch onto imported and expensive so-called health foods. 

We discuss how Jackfruit (of which around 50% is unused in Sri Lanka and rots off from trees) is full of vitamin C, is antiviral as well as antibacterial and believed according to international research to ward off cancer. We speak of how ideally we should be promoting the consumption of jackfruit in these coronavirus times and the focus on how every household once had a reasonable amount of herbs/vegetables/fruits growing in its garden.

“In the times I grew up in as a child each household had its own kitchen yard full of herbs as well as few vegetables and fruits. Hunger and illness is not something that should be there in this country if we had maintained this tradition of self-sufficiency,” he says.

We further discuss that it is indeed ironic that we should run out of turmeric as a country and import it from elsewhere when few decades ago each home had a Kaha Pathiya and this would suffice for the year for the household consumption of each family. 

The philosophy of Publis ever since he took to cooking at the Mt. Lavinia hotel and took over as chief chef in 1970 is to look at the preparation of food as a science. His book on the ‘Supavedaya’ reads as Supa for food and Wedaya for science, details this further. “We need the doctor when we are ill. More important than the doctor, we need the Supavediya to prevent illness,” says Chef Publis.

Working on a new book (his 24th book) he is these days travelling to various forests to study certain plant species and the discussion centres for a while on how man has lost his way as a creature of nature and living an artificial life in concrete jungles. 

He then takes me around the medicinal-herb garden he had initiated and maintains at the Mount Lavinia hotel. Among the many medicinal plants is the plant Garuda that looks quite like a pathaya and is to be grounded and applied on the swelling caused by the sting of a Pathaya.

Like many conversations these days that begin and end with corona, the discussion with Chef Publis too ends with it, but on a positive note where he is confident that Sri Lankans if they revert back to their traditional diet, will be able to maintain the health of this nation despite the continuing global fears of the coronavirus. 

“Food that we take for granted as everyday curry centric additions; coconut, karapincha, ginger, turmeric, onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and all other spices are in fact a powerhouse of medicinal properties which either prevent or cure illnesses,” he says and shows a small booklet printed in Sinhala and Tamil.

The conversation which I was reluctant to end, then tapers off to manioc and how one could make interesting dishes such as salads with grated manioc. His many books include such recipes that will possibly be akin to a magic wand of health in a time when diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart ailments and kidney failure are replete in society.