A recent Oxford study revealed that India has the unhealthiest packaged food in the world with the highest levels of saturated fats and sugars. Obesity in India among the adult population is on the rise.
About 11% of women (1 in 10) and 15% of men (1 in 7) of age 15–49 are hypertensive. India has more than 73 million people with diabetes! Statistics have a way of blunting us with the hard edges of truth. But the truth is, as a nation, we are now more at risk of lifestyle diseases that can seriously affect the quality of our lives than ever before.
Food and its impact on our lives is something that I have always pondered about. Recently, I was in Amritsar, where I visited the Partition Museum. One of the exhibits on display was of the Bengal famine of 1943, which killed three million people. This devastating famine, which is considered the world’s worst recorded food disaster, and chronic food shortages even after independence, led the Indian government to focus on achieving greater security in food supply. The ground for India’s Green Revolution was laid right there.
Haunted by memories of the Bengal famine, the Green Revolution spurred agricultural production, changing India from a food-deficient country to its current status as one of the world’s leading agricultural nations. But here’s the paradox. Despite the rapid strides we have made over the last few decades in food output, malnutrition is worryingly high, and lifestyle diseases are gaining more ground.
We are producing more than ever. We have more choice. We have more convenience. Our supermarkets are crammed with food from around the world. We can order breakfast, lunch, dinner, and some snacks in between too at just the click of a button on our phone.
We are consuming more than ever. But the question that comes to my mind is: What are we really consuming?
The Fit India movement could not have come at a better time. It’s important to work out, yes, but any fitness professional would also tell you that health begins in the kitchen.
An average person might burn about 250 calories walking for an hour. Impressive. But just two gulab jamuns will negate that with about 300 calories. That’s why the Eat Right India movement, which was launched this month, is just as important too. Consider this food chart that shows just how much of an impact our food choices can have on our health.
MyFitnessPal, HealthifyMe and other apps allow you to become more aware of the calories we are consuming. Developing this sense is very important on the healthy choice journey. A portion of palak paneer can range from 100 calories to 500 calories. That dal makhani I’d made at home with no cream can be 80 calories, which at a restaurant can be 400 calories!
The way we consume food is also changing. The Zomato Trends report for last year showed that Indians are ordering more food from home than from the office.
Swiggy’s annual report last year showed that Indians are increasingly ordering in festival fare with traditional foods such as laddoo and karanji seeing a 400% increase during Ganesha Chaturthi!
As much as I am happy at the success of home-grown startups like Zomato and Swiggy, a part of me is also sad that we are losing touch with the joys of cooking at home or just having homemade food. With so much of consumption shifting to restaurants, we are facing a unique challenge — how we do meet our desire for convenience without sacrificing our health?
The memories of food: Making a conscious choice
Food was such an essential part of my growing up — all of the simple flavors and aromas from my childhood are still alive in my memory. Most of our meals were at home. As a family, we probably went out to a restaurant once a year! Everything was made at home, right down to the masalas, pickles and papads. Fruits and vegetables, we understood, were seasonal. For example, watermelons and mangoes were only enjoyed in summer.
There was this anticipated joy that came from having something that you know comes around just once a year. I remember we used to have puran poli only once a year for the festival of Ugadi. It was something that we would look forward to! Now, I can probably walk into any local store and buy a packet any time I feel like. Easy, but just not the same! Somehow, in increasing availability, I feel we have diluted the essence of food.
Over these years, I have come to realize that while our driven lifestyles might force us to miss breakfast, have lunch on the go, or slump in front of the TV for dinner, we simply aren’t taking good care of ourselves. The easy availability of sugary drinks and fast food have led to unhealthy diets that I fear will create a different sort of food crisis in India. I was aghast the other day, at the airport, when a young mother poured Coca Cola into a baby’s bottle for a 2-year-old! I had to force myself to not give in to the urge to lecture on eating right. But I see this happening more and more, which has led to this urge to discuss the right food.
Yes, several Indian startups are already starting to bring about change. Yoga Bar, which sells nutritious snack bars, Lo! Foods with its low-carb laddoos and other snacks, Cocofly with coconut-based products, and Cure.Fit which promotes overall wellness with its Eat.Fit and Mind.Fit programs. Zomato too, has started Hyperpure, a food supply chain where restaurants can buy fresh and clean ingredients from local farmers and suppliers.
Bite-sized ways to healthy eating
Personally, I have become a big proponent of eating at home versus processed food. The challenge for me is when I travel. I have consciously chosen to include millets even in traditional foods. I use a few websites for cooking inspiration: allrecipes.com for baking and world food while Archanaskitchen.com is my go-to for Indian recipes. Other practices I follow include:
- Reduce portions! This was the hardest habit for me to form.
- Stop snacking.
- Eat dinner early. Most days I don’t eat after 7.30 pm, though today’s modern lifestyle makes this difficult.
- Make mealtime sacred. Put away the phone and the TV. Take a moment to be grateful for the food before eating.
- Eat slowly and cherish what is on the plate.
- Eat seasonal foods — it is Nature’s guidance. Sarson ka saag is a great winter dish but doesn’t do much for your body in the hot summer.
- Focus on sourcing the right ingredients. In fact, I now grow most of what we consume, though this isn’t really practical for most people.
I have reduced gluten from my diet and found that it keeps me more energetic. And I have finally succeeded in fasting for Ekadasi. At least a couple of days in a week, I practice intermittent fasting for 16hrs. I am amazed at how much of a positive difference it has made! Not in reducing weight but in increasing energy and well-being. Fasting has been an integral part of our culture, but I used to dismiss this as ritualistic. When the Japanese cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016 for his research on autophagy, I was intrigued and began to research the benefits of fasting. His research indicated that fasting activates autophagy — which is how cells recycle their content — slowing down the aging process. Now, I believe fasting is cleansing, spiritual, and essential.
In our nation, where 8.7% of the population has diabetes, and heart disease is on the rise, perhaps, the time has come for us to make small choices to eat better.
Adjusting our eating habits and choosing to eat well takes time, resolution, and determination.
But I find deep changes in me with this change in my relationship to food. Our hectic lifestyles need not be an excuse to not eat nutritionally. My all-time comfort food is khichdi. I use millets instead of rice and add lots of vegetables. It is so easy to prepare! I think it is easier than reaching out for the nearest restaurant’s menu.
So, here’s my wish. We can make a start and a commitment to one home-cooked healthier meal each day and then build on it. Our most important priority should be to make healthier eating the new routine. I feel that unless you are in a serious accident, your best chance of living to a ripe old age is to avoid doctors and hospitals and learn more about nutrition and natural medicine. Avoid popping pills unless necessary as they only treat the symptoms and not the root cause.
You might ask me: Why this post on food on a professional network? I feel in my world, that is the world of startups where the stress is high, the first compromise is lifestyle, and this creates a vicious cycle. If you want to be in the race for the long run, right health choices are simply uncompromisable.
