Dimple Jangda in conversation with Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani on the ultimate healing code: energy, nutrition & gut health
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. It is my pleasure to host this talk. It is also very appropriate to have a conversation on gut health after enjoying this buffet here at the Oberoi Trident. Gut health is a very popular topic; everybody wants to know about it. But we are also going to touch on other aspects of healing, depending on how much time we have.
As you heard, Dimple has just authored a book called The Healing Code. Healing, in one sense, has become a very fashionable word. Everyone seems to be healing from some mental or physical trauma. Even when there is nothing obvious to heal from, we dig something up. And it is not a one-size-fits-all formula, as we will discover in our conversation with Dimple.
I also want to add that Dimple and I did our yoga teachers’ training together, and I have seen her through her journey. Here she is today, a celebrity gut health coach, and we are all so proud of her.
Dimple Jangda:
Thank you so much, Anushka. It is always a pleasure to have a conversation with a friend. It becomes even more interesting and intimate.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Your journey has been very unusual, Dimple. You were a TV producer and an investment banker, and you really did not have much to do with the healthcare industry, except that you made a lot of doctors very rich because you fell sick quite often. What made you look for this healing code and move into Ayurveda and gut health?
Dimple Jangda:
It was all accidental, actually. Like you said, I have been a banker, a TV producer, a TV reporter, all of it. At the peak of my career, nothing made sense. I had everything that I ever wanted: a high-rise career, a high-rise lifestyle in New York City, rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful men on Wall Street. I had everything, but I still felt empty from within, and I could not understand the reason.
That is when I decided to pack up everything, leave it in storage in New York City, and come back to India to figure out my purpose in life. That is what we call ikigai. We are all in search of our true purpose in life. What is the reason for your existence?
I was then able to connect the dots because I took a two-year sabbatical to travel around the world. I realised that the reason I fell sick so often was not to forget the suffering, but to make sure I learned from it and prevented others from suffering the way I did, because of ignorance. We suffer because of ignorance, and that is why I pursued health and happiness through Ayurveda, yoga and gut health.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Ignorance of what? What are we ignorant of?
Dimple Jangda:
We have not educated our senses enough. We go through the schooling and college education process, which is a formal system that teaches us how to make money, how to buy a home, how to own a car, build a career graph, and maybe even find a suitable partner using your qualifications as a trump card in arranged marriage meetings.
But do we really learn how to be healthy and happy in school? Do we teach our children how to be happy? Instead, we place enormous pressure on them through the rat race. They are raised in a competitive environment where they are constantly trying to outdo one another. This gives rise to negative emotions like competitiveness, jealousy and envy, and a burning desire to achieve things at the cost of everything else — at the cost of sleep and health.
We choose to give up our health to pursue wealth, and then in our later years, we give up our wealth to regain health, which becomes very complicated. We are not taught how to preserve health, and we are not taught how to be happy. These are the basics that I wish every school would make mandatory.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Very well said. We are not taught how to be happy, and happiness in our thoughts and emotions is such an important part of healing. It is all connected to the gut.
We will talk about nutrition and gut health specifically, but first I want to ask you about something you mention in your recent book, The Healing Code. You say that everything in the universe has energy and a unique vibrational frequency — plants, water, animals, everything — and that our body is a physical manifestation of the energy we vibrate. Could you explain that before we move on?
Dimple Jangda:
If I had to give an example of how we are a physical manifestation of the energy we vibrate, I would go back to my younger days. I was sick all the time and had four surgeries before the age of eighteen. I was constantly unwell, but we were also mentally trained to get sick.
After every surgery, the doctor would tell me that if the tumours came back, I would need another surgery. Exactly a year later, I was back for the next one. We are trained to expect illness. When we constantly invest money in insurance, we are preparing for sickness. We are not preparing for health.
If instead we invested that money into our daily lifestyle — the food we eat, the kind of workouts we do, the quality of sleep we get, the friends we socialise with, and the environment we live in — whether the air is toxic or clean — we would be preparing for health and wellness, not sickness.
Of course, insurance is a backup plan for emergencies. But what is an emergency? A fracture, a car accident, or even a heart attack. And even a heart attack is largely within our control. If you maintain cardiac health, you can avoid it or postpone it.
Most of the illnesses we see today are lifestyle diseases — chronic lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, arthritis, rheumatism, spondylitis, thyroid issues, PCOS, PCOD and infertility. Lifestyle diseases are by choice. They are not accidental, and they are not contagious, pandemic-based diseases that come into your home because someone sneezed near you. These conditions are by choice. You suffer by choice, and you heal by choice.
That choice is energy. It is intangible; you cannot see it or touch it. In my first book, I spoke extensively about gut health and the gut microbiome, saying that we are literally 99 per cent gut microbiome and 1 per cent human consciousness. That is tangible. I can see the gut microbiome under a microscope and measure it.
Energy, however, is intangible, yet it can be measured and felt. Have you ever walked into a room and done a vibe check? You immediately sense whether it is your kind of space or your kind of people. People can lie, but energy never lies. Someone can smile at you and say, “Wonderful to meet you,” but deep down, you know they did not mean it.
Your intuition is never wrong, and intuition comes from the gut, which is your second brain. Gut and energy, when understood at the core, allow you to access your own ultimate healing code. That is what the second book is about — understanding the intangibles.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Getting into the intangibles — and I like the way you said that energy never lies. That is so true. So, is the secret to healing and living your best life about putting yourself on a higher vibration? Is that really the secret to healing?
Dimple Jangda:
When you are vibrating at a low frequency, you attract events that have the same low frequency. This is measurable. Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist whom many of you may have heard of, conducted a well-known experiment. He took three bowls of rice soaked in water. To one bowl, he spoke kind, beautiful words. To another bowl, he gave complete ignorance — it was kept in the same environment and room as the other two, but completely ignored. To the third bowl, he spoke nasty, angry words like, “I hate you, you’re ugly, you’re not worth living.”
They repeated this every single day. Two weeks later, they observed that the bowl which received positive words had a nutty, fermented aroma that made you want to eat it immediately. It had a beautiful, edible quality. The bowl that was ignored had developed black mould. That is what happens to children who are ignored — they fall sick. Bronchial health takes the first hit because that is where grief and depression are often stored. The third bowl, which received negative words, turned rancid — so toxic that you could not even stand the smell.
That is energy. Dr. Emoto also repeated the experiment with water. Different people spoke different words to the water — some positive, some kind, some negative — based on what they were genuinely feeling. They were not pretending or imitating; they were vibrating what was truly in their hearts. When the water molecules were examined under a microscope, those that received kind, beautiful words formed crystal-like structures, resembling snowflakes. The ones exposed to harsh, unkind words formed distorted, ugly patterns.
This experiment proved that what you vibrate is what you receive. Think of a radio station. There are multiple radio channels in a city. If you tune into 98.3, you will not receive 101. That is not possible. What you tune into is what you receive. That is the ultimate secret of the universe.
We are co-creators of this universe. You can decide how your day will be, how your life will be, and how your health will be. You simply have to tune into the highest frequency, which is gratitude and love. Love is something you give to others, but it is conditional and finite because we all have limited time and energy. Gratitude, on the other hand, is unconditional, infinite and unlimited. Gratitude is a form of self-love.
I would rather give myself something unconditional and unlimited than something conditional. Gratitude is a frequency at which you can genuinely heal and reverse disease.
There is a true story. I was recently at SRMD’s festival, where 18,000 young people attended a programme centred on spirituality, health and chanting. It was a Bhajan Kirtan concert, and I was genuinely surprised to see such a massive youth turnout.
A panellist sitting beside me, Karan, shared that he had reversed eczema. There was no cure for it. He had applied countless creams throughout his childhood with no results. He said that the day he started maintaining a gratitude journal, within a few weeks, his eczema reversed. That was the energy he began vibrating, and that was the frequency he attracted. It really is that simple.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
So the energy you give out comes back to you. As you said, we are co-creators of the universe. It is fascinating. Your book explains all of this in detail.
Now I want to move to what everyone wants to know about — food, nutrition and vibrations. This ties directly into energy because food also carries a vibrational frequency and has a direct impact on our physical, mental and emotional health. Trigger warning, because I know there are many non-vegetarians at Rotary. I know what Dimple is going to say, so this is just a heads-up. Could you tell us about the vibrational frequency of food and how it impacts us?
Dimple Jangda:
Food has different vibrational frequencies, and this has been measured and proven by modern science. Nothing I am saying is unscientific or speculative. Scientists identified a pyramid structure of food frequencies.
At the very top of the pyramid, with the highest frequency, are things we consume daily: sunlight, water and air. You cannot exist without these three. You could survive without food, and even without water, for a few days. There are monks and sages who have survived for extended periods on sunlight alone.
Sun exposure, clean water energised with positive intention, and pure air form the highest frequency. You can even energise water by playing music near it. I personally use a water purifier that plays Mozart, classical concerts, chanting and mantras continuously.
Next come sun foods — fruits and vegetables that grow one foot above the ground. These carry the highest urja, the essence of life. When someone is sick, what do we give them in hospital? A basket of fruits, not bacon pizza. Fruits store the sun’s energy, and when you eat them, you feel an immediate uplift. Eat a bowl of oranges and you instantly feel vibrant. It is not just vitamin C; it is the sun’s energy and colour vibrating within your body.
Then come vegetables that grow close to the ground — pumpkins, melons, gourds like ridge gourd, sponge gourd and bitter gourd. Then you have beans — French beans, string beans, double beans. Beans are one of the best antidotes for diabetes.
Next are earth foods that grow below the ground, such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions and garlic. These are grounding because they carry the earth’s energy. They help when you feel restless, irritable, or experience body aches.
Then we have grains, pulses, legumes, lentils, nuts and seeds, which have a longer shelf life and require more energy to digest.
At the lowest frequency are dead foods, known as tamasik foods in Ayurveda — meat, seafood and eggs — because they are dead in nature.
There are five reasons why modern science, including Harvard and Stanford, recommends a whole-food, plant-based diet with a 95 per cent plant slant. First, animal-based diets cause inflammation, while plant-based diets reduce inflammation. Second, animal-based diets are acidic, whereas plant-based diets are alkaline. Third, animal protein pulls calcium out of the body — for every 50 grams of animal protein consumed, around 40 milligrams of calcium is excreted through urine. Plant-based foods provide abundant calcium; for example, 100 grams of sesame seeds contains 7.8 times more calcium than 100 ml of milk.
Fourth, animal-based diets take longer to digest — 48 to 72 hours — while plant-based foods digest faster: three hours for fruits, six hours for vegetables, and eighteen hours for grains and pulses. Fifth, animals develop complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes, blood pressure issues, thyroid disorders and PCOD. Plants do not develop these diseases. When animal tissue carrying disease enters our body, cooking cannot destroy all disease cells. Our body has to work harder to fight inflammation and delayed digestion.
Harvard says it, Stanford says it, Japan says it, and all the Blue Zones say it — a 95 per cent plant slant is the secret to longevity, leaning towards a plant-based diet as much as possible. At least two bowls of fruit per day — that is a challenge. At least two bowls of fruit every day. Yes, take that as a first step. Decide that you are going to have two bowls of fruit, and then have everything else that you want to eat.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
You have explained the vibrational qualities of each food group. But how do high-vibrational foods impact gut health specifically? Could you explain a little more about what they actually do to the gut?
Dimple Jangda:
How many people here have tried water fasting or fruit fasting? How do you notice your mental faculties on those days — your IQ, productivity and energy levels? You might feel tired later in the day, but until around 4 pm, you feel good, right?
When we fast on water, which is a high-vibrational frequency intake, or on fruits — many people do Monday fasting where they eat only fruit until 4, 5 or 6 pm — it is sensible. After that, you break your fast with one meal that includes a good portion of protein and carbohydrates, such as moong dal khichdi, moong dosa or chilla.
When you consume only water and fruits, you are fuelling your body with high-vibrational, frequency-based nourishment. That is an investment in your gut. Your gut is like a piggy bank. It contains trillions of micro-organisms — literally trillions. A healthy adult carries nearly one kilogram of gut bacteria. The diversity is so rich that it cannot be replicated, and no two human beings have the same gut microbiome. That is why no two human beings are the same. It is like a rainforest.
Instead of cutting down trees in the rainforest by consuming complex foods like pizza, burgers or sticky foods such as cheese paste, fruit fasting allows you to invest in the rainforest. You are sowing new seeds. Fruit fasting acts as a prebiotic. It nourishes your gut microbiome, just like planting new seeds in a garden.
We do not do this every day, but even once a week is powerful. This elevated frequency sharpens mental faculties. I have heard people say that on fasting days, they make their best business decisions. I often tell people never to make a decision on a full stomach. Your gut needs to be free to contribute to your thinking process because your gut is your second brain.
Emotions are stored in the gut. When you feel anxious, scared, excited, happy or nervous — butterflies fluttering — you feel it there, not in your head. Love should come from the bottom of your gut, not just the heart. This is where emotions and memories are triggered. There are as many neurons in the gut as in the brain. When your gut is not busy digesting complex foods, it contributes to intuition and cognition. That is what high-vibrational foods do — they enhance mental facalty.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
They enhance mental clarity. And coming to your first best-selling book, Heal Your Gut, Mind, and Emotions, which has helped so many people — I have read it — you explain that the gut is the second brain. You also mention something fascinating: that 75 per cent of serotonin is released in the gut. So mental wellbeing is completely connected to gut health.
Dimple Jangda:
Absolutely. Imagine you are proposing again to your wife or girlfriend. Would you do it with a box of chocolates or a box of onions? A box of chocolates relies on gut instinct. Chocolates, cocoa or cacao, release serotonin. The moment it enters the gut, it elevates mood, making people feel happy and emotionally open. There is a good chance the answer will be yes.
Onions, on the other hand, are antibiotics. Onions and garlic help kill harmful bacteria and are best consumed when you are sick. In this situation, you do not want an antibiotic response. You want serotonin release.
Food releases serotonin in the gut. Happy memories do too. A childhood memory can instantly bring a smile to your face. You may notice someone looking at their phone and smiling, and when asked, they say, “Nothing.” That moment triggers serotonin and dopamine. Seventy-five per cent of serotonin is produced in the gut.
That is why the aroma of food cooked by your mother feels comforting even if it is something simple like tori ki sabzi or parval. You want to eat it immediately, even more than the most elaborate restaurant dish. Serotonin is real. Gut health is real. Energy is real. Happiness is real.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Energy is real. Happiness is real. We have many allopathic doctors here who are part of Rotary. There is often a perceived tussle between alternative medicine and Western or modern medicine. Some people dismiss Ayurveda as pseudoscience. How do we blend the two, especially since you practise both approaches?
Dimple Jangda:
Let us look at this logically. Western medicine and allopathy are relatively new — around 200 to 300 years old. Ayurveda is over 5,000 years old. Before modern medicine existed, how did our ancestors survive? By observing nature and aligning the body with natural rhythms.
They understood circadian rhythms, food combinations, what to eat and what to avoid. By smell, taste and observation, they could identify what was safe or poisonous. Ayurveda is an observatory science — a collective intelligence of generations who survived pandemics, disease and adversity.
Modern medicine is now validating Ayurvedic principles. Ayurveda advocated fasting for health and said thinning of the body was the first step towards healing. Today, autophagy — fasting-induced cellular repair — has won a Nobel Prize. Ayurveda recognised turmeric as anti-inflammatory through its effect on pitta and kapha. Modern science identifies curcumin as the anti-inflammatory agent.
When East and West meet, humanity benefits. All sciences are valid within their scope. Ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy and pranayama teach preservation and prevention. Western medicine excels in acute care — heart attacks, fractures, accidents. One is preventive, the other curative. You need both. You cannot live only on medicines, nor only on air. Balance is essential.
Ayurveda is a personalised science. No two fingerprints, digestive systems or constitutions are the same — even among siblings or spouses. Therefore, no two diet or treatment plans can be identical.
During the Industrial Revolution, people worked in close quarters, diseases spread rapidly, and antibiotics were developed to manage outbreaks quickly. However, after antibiotics, it is essential to reinvest in gut health through prebiotics, probiotics, diet and lifestyle.
Ayurveda personalises not just food but lifestyle — when to eat, when to exercise, what flavours suit you, whether sweet, sour, bitter, astringent or pungent. For example, capsicum and onion may suit one person but aggravate another. It is highly detailed but time-intensive. Each consultation requires at least an hour to assess genetics, family history, lifelong symptoms, prakriti and vikriti. Only then can a truly personalised plan be created.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Very detailed science. I want to end with one question before opening it up to the audience. You have shared so much valuable information. Could you give us a few practical hacks for better digestion? Perhaps some food combinations to avoid, a little about our metabolic fire, and the time of day when it is most active?
Dimple Jangda:
Sure. I will share three or four basic take-home hacks.
Number one: bloating, gas, flatulence and indigestion. How many of you experience this? Most of us do at some point in the day. To improve gastric juices, you can boil cumin seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds, along with one cardamom pod and some carom seeds, in a cup of water. Drink this after breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bloating will reduce significantly. These are carminative spices that stimulate digestive juices.
Number two: if you feel heavy, sluggish, low on energy, or notice weight gain, your metabolic activity may be low. Have a lemon shot post-meals — lemon, water and cumin powder. Lemon improves hydrochloric acid secretion in the stomach, aiding digestion.
Number three: if you feel you have overeaten or not invested enough in your gut microbiome, have buttermilk or coconut buttermilk. It is an excellent source of probiotics. Kombucha, kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, idli, dosa and papad all exist for a reason. Consume fermented foods once or twice a week, not daily, as they can increase body heat.
The best trick of all is to follow the sun. When the sun rises, your digestive fire rises — have a light breakfast. When the sun is at its peak, your metabolic fire and productivity are at their highest — have your largest meal at lunch and never skip it. As the sun sets, have a light dinner before sunset.
Countries where people eat dinner by 5.30 or 6 pm and sleep by 9 or 9.30 pm have the healthiest populations. Countries with late dinners at 10, 11 or midnight and late sleeping patterns tend to experience fatigue and disease. A simple rule: rise with the sun and set with the sun.
Rtn. Anushka Jagtiani:
Amazing, Dimple. And as you said, lunch should be the heaviest meal. I am sure everyone feels better about having had a heavy lunch today. Let us open the floor to questions.
ROTARIANS ASK
Q1. Very interesting. I have two quick questions. We eat fruits, vegetables, milk and everything together, so what kind of churning happens inside? What combinations should be avoided? Secondly, since we are mentally programmed, does that also affect digestion?
I am glad you asked this. We are making a khichdi out of our food by eating everything together. Rule number one: fruits — eat them alone or leave them alone. Fruits do not combine well with dairy because their natural acids cause dairy to curdle and ferment in the gut. Banana milkshakes, apple milkshakes and fruit smoothies with milk are as harmful as a lemon milkshake. You would never drink a lemon milkshake, so do not mix fruits with dairy.
Rule number two: fruits may only be combined with a small handful of nuts or seeds to slow the sugar spike. Do not mix fruits with vegetables or grains, as they require different digestive enzymes and digestion times.
Eat fruits one hour before breakfast or at 4 pm as a snack. Eat vegetables before lunch and dinner to prepare the gut and prevent sugar spikes. Your plate should have equal portions of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables. Carbohydrates fuel the brain, protein supports muscles and bones, good fats are essential, and fibre ensures proper elimination.
Q2. Being vegan — is it a good thing? And if someone is vegan, is eating eggs acceptable for protein?
That is a contradictory question. If you are vegan, you cannot eat eggs or dairy. I am 95 per cent vegan, with ghee as an exception, mostly for social reasons. Ever since I turned vegan — this is my third and finally successful attempt — my body inflammation dropped dramatically. My weight stabilised, my BMI corrected itself, and I now practise yoga just three times a week. I stopped CrossFit, gyms and heavy lifting.
If you are vegan, the best protein sources, proven by Harvard, are beans, lentils, legumes, nuts and seeds. India alone has over 300 varieties of dals. If you eat one variety daily, you would not repeat one for an entire year. These are excellent protein sources.
Q3. Wonderful conversation. I have a serious question. It is commonly said that gout is a rich man’s disease. How do you get gout? And while you are at it, please put in a good word for single malt.
I love that question. Gout is indeed associated with rich foods. The main triggers are processed meat and red meat. Beans, lentils and legumes can also trigger gout if not cooked properly. We now pressure-cook everything due to lack of time. This releases phytic acid, lectins and uric acid, which are natural plant defence mechanisms.
The correct method is to soak lentils overnight, cook them in an open vessel, and remove the foam that rises to the top — that foam is uric acid. To treat gout, eliminate purine-rich foods temporarily. You can also make green papaya tea by boiling diced raw green papaya and drinking the strained water. It helps pull uric acid out of the body.
As for single malt — line your stomach walls before drinking. Bread and butter works well. Negative cancels negative.
Q4. Two quick questions. Is having a drink or two harmful? And what are your views on homeopathy?
Homeopathy is not my primary expertise, but I have studied it. It works on the principle of “like cures like”, similar to microdosing. I applied this approach with a patient who had severe food allergies. We introduced foods gradually, rebuilding her gut microbiome. I also advised gardening and working with soil. She recovered from most intolerances.
Homeopathy works well for allergies. Naturopathy works well for diabetes. Ayurveda works for skin disorders, psychological conditions, PCOS, PCOD, infertility, diabetes and arthritis if the right herbs are used. Unfortunately, limited R&D has caused knowledge erosion.
The world moves in cycles. Ayurveda was practised across India, China, Japan and Korea for millennia. Colonial rule abolished sciences taught in regional languages, prioritising English-based education. Ayurveda institutions were dismantled.
Now, post-independence, revival is underway. The AYUSH Ministry exists, and Ayurgenomics is emerging to predict disease based on body type. The younger generation, especially Gen Z, is deeply invested in revival. With sufficient R&D, Ayurveda can regain its rightful place.
Q5. You mentioned turning vegan. Why is milk considered harmful today, especially when we grew up believing it was essential?
If you own a cow and care for it personally, milk is beneficial. However, modern factory dairy involves hormones, antibiotics and forced insemination. This milk contributes to PCOS, PCOD, infertility and hormonal disorders. Countries like Korea and China avoid dairy due to its cancer links. Factory-produced milk should be avoided, especially for children. They do not touch dairy. They say it is the root cause of cancer for them. That is the reason why we should not be giving our children factory-manufactured milk. If you have a gaushala, definitely give them good milk.
Q6. You mentioned that Ayurveda, of course, is 5,000 years old. But is it a science that has evolved over these millennia, or has it been static and are we now trying to rediscover what was said? And also, you mentioned surgery. Why has surgery been abandoned by Ayurvedic specialists and doctors?
Yeah, and I am so glad you asked that. The world goes in circles, right? And now we are all going back to our roots. What has happened is that for 5,000 years, India and most of the countries associated with India, like China, Japan, and Korea, practised Ayurveda in different forms. Traditional Chinese medicine also found its roots here.
Unfortunately, because of our Atithi Devo Bhava, we invited invaders, and we had colonial rule that abolished any science taught in regional languages. They said R&D would be given only to sciences taught in English, and the English Education Act was passed in the 18th century, which put Ayurveda on the back burner. Most schools and colleges were shut down, factories were shut down.
Now, 75 years post-independence, fast forward, we are reviving it. Yet, we still do not have enough R&D happening. We do have the AYUSH Ministry that has come up. We also have an interesting subject called Ayurgenomics that has emerged, which helps predict diseases based on your body type.
We are definitely going back, but it will require a lot of investment in terms of money, time, and energy. And hopefully, the new generation, Gen Z, seems very invested in this subject. So hopefully, they will bring it back for us.