bhopal the weeklong tribal food festival underway at the tribal museum has become a hub of food lovers people are making a beeline for the yummy and healthy tribal cuisines that are seldom found in eateries of the city besides having an earthy taste the cuisines also have nutritious value that keep the tribal people away from lifestyle diseases and also act as medicineswe hardly take medicines as the food we eat also has healing properties as most of the things are just roasted boiled or steamed the nutritional value of the food is high even when someone falls ill we give them some homemade curry or soup and they get better in no time said dayaram rathodiya a bagheli chef he added we mostly eat coarse grains like jawar bajra kodo etc as they are more nutritious besides we get a lot of green vegetables from the jungles that have medicinal properties these are not commonly available in the market but are found in abundance in dindorispeaking about the healing properties of tribal food rathodiya said when someone in our family is down with fever we give them peij made from rice along with some green bhaji which is easily digestible they get better in no time we hardly take pills for things like fever cough and cold and other common ailments discussing the variety of green leafy vegetables consumed by them he said rai bhaji koyar bhaji pakri bhaji gehul tadar etc are some leaves eaten in our daytoday life we also make bhaji out of the newborn leaves of the peepal tree which helps in curing stomach aches and skin diseasesanother tribal chef kailash sisodiya from the bheel tribe added we cook everything in clay utensils it enhances the taste and also retains the nutritional value of the food our ancestors used to advise us to eat chicken especially kadaknath during winters as it is very good to provide warmth to the body and boosts immunity to ward off cold