Food is the fuel that drives our body. Food in various forms, shapes, sizes and tastes unites us globally. People visit food melas, read cookery books, watch YouTube videos and even travel to different countries to try different foods, from the simplest to exotic. Come winter and the festival season, food is on everyone’s lips. We gorge on mithai and snacks all day, and feast on delicacies, calorie-rich items, made using a variety of herbs and spices in the meals. With the changing times, food and our eating palate have gone through many changes.
Growing up in the 1980s, we were totally ‘bindaas’ about food. For meals with family, we had two options: on normal days, we would eat something simple at home and on special occasions, we dined in a restaurant. Some luckier friends had a ‘maharaj’ at home to make a wider range of meals. With limited options and information, life was much simpler. We could easily have three-four stuffed parathas made in desi ghee with rich black dal and still have room for a huge glass of lassi. We never kept count of calories and weight check was done only on red-coloured machines at the railway station. Heart ailments, cholesterol issues and diabetes were discussed in medical journals, not in lifestyle magazines. We lived to eat and not the other way around.
In the fast-paced life that we live today, with access to technology and chatter on social media, things have changed. Not only do we have hundreds of options to eat out, but they can also deliver sizzling hot food to our doorstep. There are services that deliver a precise quantity of each ingredient as per the recipe in a neat packet, and we just mix them up and cook to taste. The best chefs in town can come home and cook a seven-course meal in our kitchen, deck up the dining table and give a candle-lit fine dining experience. Then there are times when we go to restaurants looking for ‘ghar jaisa khana’. In the office too, we can skip the dabba from home as there are a variety of options in the office cafeteria and at the building’s food court; from Punjabi, Chinese, Mexican, Continental to even ‘ghar ki thali’.
The increased options lead to added problems. More and more people are grappling with health issues, like obesity, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and heart ailments. There is a growing interest to eat ‘healthy’. A range of organic and ‘direct-from-farm’ fruits and vegetables providers guarantee ‘chemical free’ produce. Apps take pics of our plate and indicate the exact amount of calories consumed.
Food packets have intricate details on all nutrients supplied. Air fryers are being used to avoid oil for cooking savoury items. Baked and roasted snacks are preferred over their fried cousins across the aisle. Treadmills show, with every mile run, calories burnt to consume toast, toffee, cake or coffee. Report from the BMI machine in the gym not only highlights the issues but also offers the diet needed to get back into shape.
The move to ‘healthy’ is here for good. Very soon we will have protein and vitamin stores to address specific nutrient deficiencies. Though beneficial, it has taken the ‘juice’ out of eating. It’s better to maintain a balanced lifestyle, have everything in moderation, stay fit and active and get a health checkup done regularly, so we can have our cake and eat it too.
Hetal Sonpal
hetal.sonpal@gmail.com
Startup evangelist, author and blogger