Interview On Health and Food system: An Analysis of Rujuta Diwekar interview through system map
Analysis of Interview With Rujuta Diwekar
Interview with Rujuta Diwekar explores the Food and Health aspect of Human body, She is leading nutrition and exercises science expert of India. She has written many books in Hindi and English language for the Indian audience, some of the famous books are KHaiye Aur Wajan Ghataiye , Women and weightloss tamasha , Don’t loose mind loose your weight.
In her Interview On LitfestX
Rujuta Diwekar elaborates The health system through the systematic lens , She guides the audience from the perspective of a nutritionist, an influencer and also as a citizen who cares for the economy and healthy lifestyle of the public. To disagree with Rujuta opinion would be an overly pessimistic, I personally understand and feel the position she fixes upon but there are some gaps and counter process which were present and not being explored, Also when we talk about systems the understanding of it differentiates from person to person. Based on the target group Rujata suggest every possible desi way to convince the audience on adapting a healthy lifestyle, from walking to exercising all of which are viable and impactful to bring out a lifestyle change. However, I am a little deviated on my point of view on Health and Food.
Quality standard
Rujuta supported Home raised crops and how we should acknowledge the value and nutrition of it and emphasis was put upon to de support the crops that are being supplied by outside country, her idea was that Rich Indians should support small farmers. I would say the idea lacks the Customer point of view into it. As a customer, one would be interested in the Quality of the crops. The quality promised by foreign companies is much better when compared to local standards. As their system of a Quality check is rigorous also the procurement and preservation of their crops are far better when compared to Indian standards. Therefore in order to support the economy of small scale farmer, the infrastructural needs must be met and quality of procurement and preserving should be enhanced by the government. Here I can see this as Postive feedback loop which is constantly trying to fixes things up but fails to do so in the long run as positive feedback loops provide both Growth and Collapse and are unstable.
Misses On Governance importance
She misses the importance of governance in the whole food & health system. As described in the system map the governing authority plays a big role in managing the whole system of health and lifestyle of citizens It is the source of biggest Balancing Loop (-ve). Governance can provide stability and equilibrium to the whole system. It is interconnected with the deepest level. From income to cultural expansion of a certain food to farmers income to regulators of foreign companies. It can establish an open equilibrium whereby citizens defines what is good health parameters.
Variety is necessary vs Monotonous food
One argument that every millennial hold is that they can never live on dal chawal for 24*7.Hence Variety in taste, variety in elements is necessary for growth . Monotonous food is also like a positive feedback loop, it fixes the fail but in the long run, it is certainly not a viable option. Here particular “Policy resistance “ takes place and Choice of Varity cannot be compromised
Ideal Body shape & Class of clients
Rujuta is been known for her contribution to Zero size figure model. This backfires with Indian image of the female as it establishes and often suggests that attention and popularity come up with A figure /shape/ Ideal size. A larger portion of Indian population is middle class, realistically they don’t have time, resources, guidance to achieve such ideal body shapes and also it is not necessary to look at a certain shape as being the ideal neither does it qualifies a person to be considered fit, if the persons have certain ideal shape of the body. Eligibility to be fit never depends on the shape.
Politics of Pulses
Rujuta talked about raising pulses at a large scale. But From an economic point of view, it doesn’t work. If every farmer is mass-producing pulses then the market rate of pulses will automatically go down, simple demand and supply principle. This is the same case with Corns (United States of America) but they have the machinery to convert it into a sugar syrup. Politics of pulses also defines that State Governments will have competitive prices and if the pulses are cheap the rate of other commodities will rise sky-high. This is again a reinforcing loop masquerading as a balancing loop. The politics will be played at a high level. As certain states would be able to grow more pulses as compared to other states.
Sustainable food system to end poverty
The switch of animal protein to plant protein is rightly suggested yet the focus should be on sustainable cheap food to end poverty, As the population rises and income disparity increases the Hollow of food poverty in Indian system increases. The focus to switch over foods that are produced on a mass level can only be successful if it aims to sustainably improve the conditions of Families with absolute poverty cases.
Mental power
Physical fitness requires mental power. Hence food can only prepare one’s body from internally, In order to take action a lot of mental motivation is required which was missing from the interview talks. Mental determination and the issues related to internal conflict regarding fitness, drive to continue and Purpose are some important aspect that is to be viewed before starting to aim for physical fitness. This process works as a balancing loop where you constantly push yourself physically and mentally. In the map, I correlated food intakes with exercise as the scientific method goes by the Amount of calories intake Vs amount of calories burned decides the Exercise output.
Ownership over localness VS. Disowning other foreign local variety
Ownership over what is local is a myth in a historical sense on humanity scale, as we can not say certain crops belonged to our country and others are not. Such ownership is a diplomatic business which should not be done with the food system. When we take the case of illness, the body requires certain types of food nutrition which might not be available in a home country hence, Ownership and possession over food is a waste of resource due to ignorance.
Credibility Of grandmother test
The credibility of Grandmother test is also subjected to Instability as not every grandmother feeds healthy food, Some grandmothers outperform their duties due to love and conditionally support the wishes of the grandchild, In such cases, the grandkids get confused between the test.
