It's not a secret that India's batting icon
Virat Kohli
turned
vegan
a few years back, which is why the words '
chicken tikka
' in his Instagram story made his fans wonder what's the connection, until they discovered that it was '
mock chiken tikka
'.
"You've really nailed this mock chiken tikka. My God!" read the caption on Kohli's Instagram story, lauding the chef with a picture of the dish.
The 'mock' version of the chicken tikka Kohli savoured is plant-based, which means it's a vegetarian dish.
The reason behind Virat quitting
non-vegetarian
food was because of a cervical spine issue; and to control the production of uric acid in his body, he turned vegan as part of dietary changes.
"In 2018, when we went to South Africa, I had a cervical spine issue while playing a Test match," Virat had said in an Instagram Live session in 2020. "It compressed a nerve that was running straight to the little finger of my right hand. It gave me a tingling sensation and I could barely feel my little finger. I could not sleep at night and it was hurting like mad.
"Then I got my tests done and my stomach was too acidic and my body was too acidic, creating too much uric acid. Even though I was taking calcium and magnesium, everything but one tablet was not sufficient for my body to function properly. So my stomach started pulling calcium from my bones and my bones got weaker. That is why I stopped eating meat completely in the middle of England tour to cut down the uric acid and I have never felt better in my life, to be honest," he added.
English (US) ·