panaji foodies and dietary experts concurred with and disputed each other as theydiscussed the pros and cons of traditional goan food at a panel discussion on nutrition in goas traditional food held on monday the primary ingredient in goan cuisine the coconut in all its forms was hotly debated everyone agreed that traditional curries would be lacking without using coconut juice as a thickening agent trupti neurekar dietician at the new district hospital mapusa recommended using it in small quantities to keep cholesterol levels under control if youre using it in your curry avoid using it in your vegetables and other dishes there are other ways to prepare vegetables she suggested sanjeev kadkade hod at the institute of hotel management catering technology and applied nutrition advised adding garlic in dishes to cut down on cholesterol virgin coconut oil extracted after boiling milk of mature coconuts for a couple of hours is used widely in kerala and gaining popularity in goa icar scientists have begun popularising the preparation of the oil among locals kadkade spoke of its health benefits and its wide use in kerala pointing out to the long lifespan of the locals neurekar argued that coconut oil in general like butter and margarine according to science fell into the category of saturated fats she recommended sunflower olive and cornflower oil all sources of unsaturated fats kadkade argued that these oils were comparatively tougher on the pocket maria lourdes rodrigues from the audience pitched in explaining that it was the western companies selling olive and cornflower oil that were pushing their agenda deceiving people about the actual benefits of virgin coconut oil neurekar steered the discussion away from food to the importance of physical activity in ones life we recommend all those with diabetes besides checking their diet to walk at least for half an hour everyday she said the reason our forefathers prospered despite consuming coconut oil is because they engaged in a lot of physical activity she also advised those with high levels of cholesterol to avoid eating the yolk of the egg on the consumption of water kadkade said ayurveda recommended drinking water before food and not after as this dilutes the bodys digestive juices he suggested doing the same with fruit for the body to be able to absorb it faster writer artist and foodie sanjay talwadkar indicated how perfectly balanced the traditional goan food plate was providing one with carbohydrates in rice proteins in yogurt and fibre in pulses kokum that forms part of the local diet too helps in digestion neurekar spoke of the positives of a vegetarian diet stressing that vegetarian food was cholesterol free but warned against cooking it using unhealthy ingredients that could turn vegetarian food harmful