Move around, if not I will Move on!

I received a mailer from KPN (Kovai Pazhamudir Nilayam, a local produce store) on my Facebook page educating me on the nutritional value in bananas/strawberries and pushing their imported strawberries and their hybrid bananas. Despite food companies making nutrition based marketing, are we making healthy food choices? That triggered a barrage of questions in my head and led me to think about the purpose of eating, evolution of our eating behavior and choice of foods we buy and we are made to buy. The entire thought journey was a mix of ponder and wonder.

Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers and ate to satiate hunger and didn’t bother about vitamins or vitality. After fire was invented, not sure if cooking was an accident or an experiment, but nevertheless with abundant time in their hands human mind and palette started to experiment and evolve. As we learnt the art of storing food to minimize the seasonality and the art of food processing we improved their shelf-life and usability. The purpose of eating has also evolved as we changed roles and as science developed. From produce that grows below the ground to shrubs to trees tops, and deep in the ocean man has looked around everywhere to seek vitality and to build immunity against common diseases and ailments.

In the last century Science and research has been busyfinding clues and cues on how food can be used/modified to combat diseases like cancer, diabetes, etc. keep us healthy and extend our longevity. We read articles that promote antioxidant rich Blue berries, Potassium rich Bananas, electrolyte rich Coconut water, Vit A rich Carrots, Vitamin E rich oil extracted from Cod fish Liver, and as a result an average human is much more aware of nutritional value in foods and what choices to make, yet they make the same mistakes across China, Calcutta, Cairo, California, Canberra, and Cancun. They’ve also helped diabetics and weight watchers continue to enjoy their sweets we’ve even discovered “sugar free” and “fat-free” substitutes, but we’ve failed to get people to exercise.

Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease has taken over the world and is a testimony to wrong food choices we make and the lifestyles we live. Though food packets come with calorie information, but hasn’t deterred the population from consuming in moderation. May be we must start to include Statutory Warning like that on Cigarette packets on our food products? Not sure if statutory warning will have any effect at all.

From eating to satiate hunger, today many of us eat for a variety of reasons from entertainment, social bonding, beat stress, while food companies are constantly trying to help us turn into intelligent eaters by feeding us with nutritional facts to develop immunity to fight diseases and increase our longevity. Today many of us are in desk jobs and lead a sedentary lifestyle, thanks for those big screen televisions, computers, sedentary lifestyles. We have our food home delivered and we order our flavored popcorns and high fructose corn syrup based sodas while we order our movie tickets online. and lead a sedentary lifestyle to compound the situation. Our eating habits have definitely become more complex, and unintelligent.

We also live in an era where we looks for quiz fixes be it health or otherwise. We are ready to throw money at people rather invest time in keeping us fit and healthy. More than 50% of those who pay for gym memberships at the begining of the year as a part of their New Year resolution dont make it to the second week. Every city has a dozen hospitals that offer bariatric surgery and liposuction procedures and every street has a weight watchers clinic, and gyms yet we make wrong choices. Doctors compete with their patients on the scale of obesity and unhealthy diet and living. And sadly many doctors are consumers of medicines they prescribe! Increasingly lack of exercise and food is becoming a threat to mankind.

Despite the howl and scowl by environmentalists, change in weather patterns and drought has not decreased our food production, and nothing seem to have an impact obesity. From food being a part of our life has now become epicenter of our lives. Today we find more crowd in the food courts at Malls than at gyms and play grounds. And today festivals like Diwali, Eid and Christmas have been purely driven by consumerism - shopping and eating more than philanthropy and sharing. Moderation seems to be a forgotten word! Shopping that was once an exercise is now soon becoming an online experience and exercise adding to our sedentary lifestyle.

By the time I finished typing this message, I receive an email from our HR informing about the demise of our colleague. The e-mail said he suffered a heart attack and asked us to observe a two minute silence. What is the use of observing silence when another soul has departed? Remember it is a crime to keep silent when you colleague, friend or a family member makes wrong food choices and lives practices unhealthy lifestyle. Think what you can do to help our circle of friends and family understand the purpose of eating, the importance of healthy food choice and moderation.

1. Start meeting friends and family for walks, swims and cycling rather than coffee, meals and ice-creams

2. Ration what you buy/consume and also buy the right food – stop using food like a suicide pill

3. Restructure our life around physical activity than food. Don’t ask what you going to eat, ask how you going to exercise today

4. Start BMI and waist-size based friendships - Big hearts are okay not big bodies!

5. If you can’t turn your friends/family from living healthy, severe ties with them – Move around, if not I will move on!

6. Also stop visiting our unhealthy friends/relatives when they get hospitalized

Until mother earth loses her fertility the race to consumerism will not end. And when she loses, we may have food wars and we may also go back to our hunting skills (animals and humans) and go back on the evolution chain. For now, lets us start our campaign and cult around living healthy and propagating a healthy lifestyle. It is not a marketing war, but a health war!