Shilpa Shetty pens book on Indian diet

Mumbai: Actress Shilpa Shetty has now turned an author with a diet and nutrition book "The Great Indian Diet".

The actress, however, said she does not think of herself as a fitness expert.

"People should have discipline towards life. I don't know... I don't think if I am an expert on fitness. When you are writing a book it cannot be subjective, it should be very overall. It was not easy to write a book. There were challenges. There were lot of beliefs that I had, but I couldn't use it," Shilpa told PTI.

The 40-year-old actress has maintained herself well and people often ask her the secret of her fitness and that was one of the reasons for her to come up with a book on the subject.

"A lot of people keep asking me how I maintain myself, what I eat and what I do. After becoming a mother I did put on weight. I lost all weight by doing right things," she said.

"I wanted to share it (experience) with everyone, it is my way of giving it back to people all the love that I have got from them. Everybody can't afford a dietitian or nutritionist or go to slimming centre. There is a way to it (losing weight) and one can do it by having right kind of Indian food," she said.

The book describes how nutritious the locally grown and sourced ingredients are and encourages people to look for good health within our Indian borders.

"The book busts the myth about having food that causes fats. I worked on the book with my co-author Luke, an acclaimed nutritionist. I couldn't write a book without having theory and proof," she said.

The "Bazigaar" actress thinks people have forgotten the benefits of having Indian food. Through this book, Shilpa hopes to shed light on several misconceptions associated with food.

"We have forgotten about our own food, we are going towards the West. We are scared to use ghee, oil. We are scared to have Indian food because we think it is fattening, (with) high sodium," she said.

"The fact is Indian food is healthy... Each spices or food item that we eat helps us in some or the other way. One should live a simple lifestyle, eat proper food like lentils, sprouts, yoghurt," she added.

The book will release on World Nutrition Day.