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India
has been blessed with a climate which is
suitable for growing spices, vegetables and
grains. Indians had trained their tongues to
relish chawal-dal-sabji-chutni and other spice
filled additives like papads, achars etc. In
India people relished freshly prepared
vegetarian food. As there was no electricity in
rural India, storing food for long durations of
time was not possible. Meals were cooked and
eaten hot – typically steaming rice or round,
steam inflated rotis with hot dal, vegetables
and other additives.
However, things are changing fast. A nation wide
survey by the National Institute of Nutrition,
Hyderabad has revealed that, as Indians become
more and more affluent, eating habits are
changing. In the early 1990s 46 percent of
Indians were non-vegetarians. Today, after
slightly over a decade, 64 percent of Indians
are non-vegetarians. With the per capita income
rising, a much larger chunk of the urban
population is eating outside home and the
preference is for non-vegetarian food. As per
the survey, in North India 40 percent of the
population are non-vegetarians whereas 90
percent of South Indians are non-vegetarians.
We will witness what effect this changing food
habit has on the health of the Indian populace
in the coming years. Children should be
benefited, to an extent, if they get a protein
rich diet but it may spell doom for the middle
aged and the aged people as eating discretions
will be thrown to the winds and people will
gorge down large quantities of rich, hard to
digest food. Eating meat at the cost of eating
grains, vegetables and pulses sure can not be
good for us.
Compounding this problem is the availability of
junk food. The market is inundated with packets
and pouches of fried junk food. Multinational
companies eye the massive market of India with
greed and push their products with such zeal
that their products have reached the hutment
shops of rural India too. The biggest lovers of
junk food are children and teenagers. They
consume junk food as if it was their staple
diet. A few spoons of rice, pulses and green
vegetables are eaten on junk food filled
stomachs to satisfy nagging parents.
What kind of people are we creating? If India
does not take steps now to curb the entry of
junk foods and to educate it’s population over
the mass media about what comprises a healthy
diet, very soon we are going to have a large
number of sick people. The large chunk of the
younger generation will be sick in it’s most
productive years and more of the older
generation will be unwell too. India must take
steps to ensure that Indians eat healthy food as
they have done in the past.
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Comments: |
It's premature to arrive at such
conclusions!! What has been the
effect of mass media to curb smoking
or drinking!!!
Let us give consumerism some time to
mature in India.
What has the writer to say on
malnourishment and scarcity in food
grain supply? Let's learn the
marketing strategies from these
people who have managed to sell junk
food even in interior parts of rural
India. On the other hand, take the
quality of the packaged junk food, I
feel which is much safer than the
food grains that are stored in
granaries that have ample amount of
pest incidences, fungal spores and
rodent feces. - Hayat Rizvi -
Oct. 26, 2006
In my opinion Rajeshji is raising a
very genuine point. The radical
change in the food habits of the
larger section of the Indian
population belonging mostly to the
middle class is really a matter of
concern. The reason why this problem
has not attracted the eyes of the
government and the NGOs is because
they have larger (the more basic
ones) problems to deal with. But, in
any way that doesn't justifies our
negligence towards the problem.
This is one of the consequences of
wide scale westernization. As
rightly been pointed out by Rajeshji,
the primary victims here are the
children (who like to identify
themselves with the Cartoon Network)
and the teenagers (who have become
the proponents of the Rock culture).
These are the confused lot who are
unaware of the difference between
modernity and westernization. Steps
are needed to be taken to spread
awareness among the people about the
ill-effects of junk food and
extensive non-vegetarian diets. Even
the western countries are facing
serious health hazards due to this
and although lately, they are now
the front runners in promoting
vegetarianism.
The secondary solution to the
problem is to promote alternative
food items from our traditional
cuisines which are delicious and
healthy at the same time. We have a
lot of them especially in our Bihari
community. Ready to eat food items
like sattu, bhoonja, bel sharbats,
etc. along with sweets like tilkut,
lai, etc. need to be promoted. In
addition to that, delicacies like
litti-chokha, pittha, etc. requires
to be put into the mainstream.
"Malnourishment and scarcity in food
grain supply" is a separate problem
which is being tackled at various
levels. In a socialist country like
India we need to look at problems
pertaining to all sections of the
society. As far as promoting of
consumerism is concerned, we can't
afford to promote it at the cost of
the ill health of the masses. There
are better ways to learn marketing
strategies (at least we can do it
without being guinea pigs). -
Gunjan Arya, Gaya -
Oct. 26, 2006
"Give consumerism some time to
mature in India" says Shri. Hayat
Rizvi. Sure, let us give time to
consumerism to mature but it will be
immature on our parts if we inherit
all the ills of a consumerist
society from the western world. We
have seen them rise economically and
we have also seen the side effects
of that economic rise on their
society. We now have the option of
fine tuning our development so as to
maximize the good effects and
minimize the bad. We need not
necessarily walk on their trail and
fall in the same pits they have
fallen. Obesity and diseases caused
by consuming rich food is the bane
of development that the developed
world faces. As very rightly pointed
out by Shri. Gunjan Arya, the
developed world is now propounding a
vegetarian diet to the world. Open
any web page on the issue created by
well known experts of the developed
world and you will find food
pyramids which give the highest
priority to eating grains and green
leafy vegetables. They have
experimented with rich, fried foods
and have finally arrived to the
point from where we started, after
paying a very heavy price. Need we
go the full circle round and pay a
similar price and then finally
arrive at the point from where we
started?
We are not all bad and they are not
all good. We have our problems and
they have theirs. As we develop
fast, we must adopt the desirable
part of their work culture and we
must ensure our good points, like
our social bonding, our social value
system, our diverse healthy food,
our music etc., do not fall victim
to aping others. To be called
"developed" do our kids have to eat
junk food, do our teens have to
experiment with sex in their school
days and become unwed mothers, do
our young people have to go talk
with heavy made up accents, do they
have to consume drugs and alcohol,
do they have to live in together
before marriage, do they have to
appreciate the noise called "western
music" while they look down upon the
great Indian music, do they have to
dress in clothes unsuitable for our
climate, do we have to eat a rich,
oily, hard to digest diet which will
make us unhealthy? In trying to be
"cool" Indians are becoming "fool".
While we follow their good points,
we must not ape them. The price tag
is clearly visible. It is the job of
the government and the intellectual
community of India to ensure that
our people do not start aping the
bad practices of the western
society. We have to de-glamorize
such practices and constantly
educate our people of what good
values we must retain in this age of
jet speed development. - Rajesh -
Oct. 27, 2006 |
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