The other day I was talking to a senior doctor friend about the growing incidents of cancer among people of all age groups. He mentioned that the food that we eat today is one of the major causes for the devastating spread of the ‘crab’ disease. Not just the junk food that both the young and old consume but also the common vegetables that we eat as part of our daily food habit. It seems the chemical pesticides used for the healthy growth of plants become the deadly poison we consume every day, even if it is in small doses.
The junk food culture that we have inherited from the western world is spreading like wild- fire among the younger generation. The office going young women who do not have time to cook have no qualms about buying ready-to-eat foods from restaurants and malls for their three meals a day.
Convenience is the key consideration. And that is what most of the marketers of instant foods advertise. Recently, I was having a conversation with my son around dinner time. Talking about his visit to a newly opened Italian vegetarian restaurant near our house, he said, “the restaurant is very good and very reasonable, appa. It cost only Rs.650 per head for two of us. Good value for money!” I was aghast! `650 per meal per head is considered reasonable by a representative of the upwardly mobile mid-level executive of a company.
Is it a sign of extravagance or prosperity? My middle class mindset refused to accept it as a reasonable price. Both my son and daughter-in-law love to have a ‘chat dinner’ (bhelpuri and paanipuri, etc.) at least once a week. Another friend has the habit of having just ice creams for dinner, once a month. In many homes with growing kids it is not unusual to order for pizzas or snacks for dinner from well-known outlets nearer home. And when a family visits a restaurant, the number of short eats they order as starters is mind boggling. Starters, most of them deep fried items, are not only filling but also could be the cause of all kinds of stomach and other ailments, early in life.
The NRIs living in the West have found an interesting solution to the problem of eating out which not only saves on cost but is also safer.They cook meals at home consisting of some vegetables, dhal, rice, etc., for the whole week during the weekends and pack them in foil packs, mark them day-wise and store them in deep freezers. Every evening, when they return from office, the item earmarked for dinner that day will be taken out and heated in the micro oven and served. This idea will not work out in our country as the concept of deep freezers is non-existent. Apart from washing vegetables thoroughly before use or going for organic vegetables I don’t see any other option.