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It is remarkable that Mahatma Gandhi, who led millions during India’s freedom struggle, sustained himself largely on a simple diet of fruits, nuts, and coarse grains. Despite his frail appearance, he walked long distances daily and undertook prolonged fasts without lasting harm. From where did Gandhi derive such strength and stamina?

In Key to Health, Gandhi wrote:

“Whilst it is true that man cannot live without air and water, the thing that nourishes the body is food. Hence the saying, food is life.”

Though he ate sparingly, Gandhi constantly experimented with his diet throughout his life. Historians have noted that his experiments with food were as rigorous as his experiments with truth and non-violence. Just as his politics were simple and direct, so too was his food—natural, elemental, and unprocessed. Food, he believed, should be taken “as a matter of duty—even as a medicine—to sustain the body, never for the satisfaction of the palate.”

The Evolution of Diet of Gandhi

Born into a traditional Gujarati vegetarian family, Gandhi briefly experimented with meat during his school years, influenced by a friend who claimed the British ruled India because they ate meat. He soon abandoned the idea. Before leaving for England in 1888 to study law, he vowed to his mother to abstain from meat and alcohol.

Keeping this vow in England proved difficult. Vegetarian food was scarce, and Gandhi often went hungry until he discovered a vegetarian restaurant on Farringdon Street. Recalling the moment, he wrote:

“The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart.”

Vegetarianism was then a relatively new movement in England. Gandhi was deeply influenced by Henry Salt’s A Plea for Vegetarianism and later wrote that he became “a vegetarian by choice.” He joined the Vegetarian Society and actively participated in debates on diet and health, guided not by religion but by economy and hygiene.

Experiments in South Africa

Gandhi’s dietary experiments intensified in South Africa, where he arrived in 1893. That year he tested a raw-food diet consisting of soaked grains, fruits, nuts, and cocoa. After eleven days, he concluded that it “did not seem to agree well” and returned to cooked food, though raw food continued to interest him.

In Durban, he simplified his lifestyle further, baking his own unleavened wholemeal bread from hand-ground flour to promote health, economy, and self-reliance. At Tolstoy Farm, he encouraged residents to grow their own food and eat fruits and vegetables, partly to reduce the burden of kitchen labour, especially on women.

Return to India and Ethical Eating

After returning to India, Gandhi lived for several years largely on fruits and nuts. In 1929, he undertook another raw-food experiment, observing:

“Medically there may be two opinions as to the value of this diet, but morally I have no doubt that all self-denial is good for the soul.”

During a visit to Haridwar, he vowed never to consume more than five food items a day and to finish his last meal before sunset. He later eliminated spices altogether, eating only boiled or raw food.

Gandhi’s dietary choices were inseparable from his commitment to ahimsa. Vegetarianism, for him, was a moral and spiritual principle. He believed meat carried the defects of the animal from which it came and wrote:

“Man’s supremacy over the lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower.”

He opposed milk on ethical grounds, arguing that humans were entitled only to their mother’s milk in infancy. However, during a serious illness, he reluctantly accepted goat’s milk on medical advice. On eggs, he felt that those who consumed milk should not object to sterile eggs.

Fasting, Health, and Self-Restraint

Gandhi avoided refined sugar, oils, and excess fats, favouring jaggery and small amounts of ghee. His regular diet consisted of fruits, raw vegetables, curd, coarse grains, millets, leafy greens, and unpolished rice.

Fasting was central to his life, serving both moral discipline and preventive healthcare. He undertook at least seventeen fasts during the freedom struggle, the longest lasting twenty-one days. Diet and fasting were closely linked to brahmacharya, or self-restraint. “The diet of a man of self-restraint,” he said, “must be different from that of a man of pleasure.”

Walking, Prevention, and Relevance Today

Gandhi believed prevention was superior to cure. Though initially sceptical of modern medicine, he later acknowledged its value while continuing to trust naturopathy. Walking was his primary exercise; he walked nearly 18 kilometres daily for over four decades, covering an estimated 79,000 kilometres—almost twice around the Earth.

In an age of lifestyle diseases, climate crisis, and pandemics, Gandhi’s ideas appear strikingly contemporary. As global institutions urge reduced meat and dairy consumption, his advocacy of simplicity, restraint, and plant-based diets seems prophetic. What Gandhi once called “experiments” were, in fact, part of a lifelong ethical and spiritual quest—one that continues to offer guidance in uncertain times.

(Note; This article is based on an essay on the same subject published in the e-magazine Life Stream, Annual Issue- 2020)

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