Pulses for Power: World Pulses Day @GGS

Every year on February 10th, the United Nations declares World Pulses Day. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) established the day to highlight the importance of pulses (dry beans, lentils, dry peas, chickpeas, and lupins) as a global food. "Pulses to empower youth in attaining sustainable agrifood systems" is the subject for this year's World Pulses Day.

Learners of GGS celebrated the day by discussing the significance of pulses in a vegetarian diet. Krishna revealed fascinating information about the importance of pulses for our health. Learners adopted nicknames for themselves with the names of the pulses and acted out their benefits and nutritional value, prevalence, and their ways of identification. Devanshi Zala said that the yellow split pigeon pea, known as toor dal in Hindi has amazing benefits like reviving lost strength. The English names of the pulses came as novel and funny as they are hardly used in everyday parlance. This was another objective of the entire exercise — to make learners aware of the English names of the food. Chickpea, kidney beans and baby chickpeas were some names that gripped the learners’ attention.

A major benefit of lentils is that they can be stored for long periods of time as they do not rot easily. In an emergency, stored food like pulses can help one keep oneself healthy and strong. But just as they have great nutritional value, overeating them can lead to health issues and conditions. For example having too many chickpeas can create flatulence while too much of soya beans can elevate levels of the female hormone estrogen. That is something men would not want to happen. Those with higher levels of uric acid in their system would not want to have pulses as they are high on protein. But with moderation and balance, one needs to take this food with amazing benefits.