Jail Or Spa? Navjot Sidhu's Special Diet - Pecans, Sauteed Veggies

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is serving a one-year sentence in jail, will be on a special diet that could easily be on the menu of a spa. Sauteed veggies, pecan nuts, avocado and tofu is part of the food that the cricketer-turned-politician has been allowed by a court.

The diet chart "has been recommended considering his medical condition", after an analysis of his health, say Mr Sidhu's aides.

Mr Sidhu's day starts with rosemary tea, white petha juice or coconut water. For breakfast, he is to be given a cup of lactose-free milk; one tablespoon of flax, sunflower, melon or chia seeds; five or six almonds, one walnut, and two pecan nuts.

Here is the extensive diet chart:

Mid-morning: One glass of beetroot or ghia (bottle-gourd) or cucumber or mausami (sweet lemon) or Tulsi and mint leaves or amla (gooseberry) or celery leaves or fresh haldi (turmeric) or carrot or aloe vera juice.

Alternatively, one fruit - watermelon, melon, kiwi, strawberry, guava, apple, or wood apple.

Sprouted black chana (25 gm) plus green gram dal (25gm) plus kheera (cucumber)/tomato/half lemon/avocado.

Lunch: One chappati of 30 gm sorghum, water-chestnut and ragi flour "in equal quantity".

One bowl each of seasonal green vegetable and of cucumber and ghia raita or one bowl of beet root raita.

A green salad bowl of cucumber, tomato, kakri, lettuce leaves and half lemon, and one glass of lassi.

Evening: A cup of 100 ml tea with low fat milk and no sugar, and 25 gm of paneer slice or 25 gm tofu with half a lemon.

Dinner: A bowl of mixed vegetable and dal soup/black chana soup with a 200 gm bowl sprinkled with black pepper powder and consisting of sauteed vegetables (carrot, beans, broccoli, mushroom, bell pepper).

Bedtime: A cup of Chamomile tea and one tablespoon Psyllium husk with half a glass of warm water.

A "Points to Remember" section on the diet chart also appears to belong more to a health club than prison.

It advises team Sidhu that he should avoid processed food; avoid saturated fats; use only olive oil or rice bran oil, mustard oil, cold-pressed mustard oil or cold-pressed sunflower oil; not sprinkle table salt on salad and exercise every day.

Mr Sidhu, who was removed as Punjab Congress chief after the party's drubbing in the state election, was sentenced to a one-year jail term in a road-rage incident in which a man was killed 34 years ago. He surrendered last week, after his request for a few more weeks on health grounds was rejected.