Eat, guilt free

Ads often make us feel good or bad about the food we eat--the cake is sinfully delicious, the carrot soup is packed with nutrition, so be guilt free. How much of our eating should be caught in this moral ground? Experts explain how you must eat whatever you have been eating as a child, and grown up with, with small changes.

Food hand-fed to us, when we were five years old, (and Mama was not at home), by our grandmother, experts believe, is the best food for us. Today with the blitzkrieg of ads shouting claims of going vegan, or having meatless days, turning vegetarian or bringing in sunflower seeds and wheatgrass to improve immunity may ultimately be just a conspiracy for us to change or debate our eating habits. Ads play on our emotions of guilt over food. They suggest and headline food pages with lines of how you must not indulge in the decadent chocolate cake or deep fried chilli chicken, instead chew on carrot or cucumber sticks whenever hungry. Furthermore, you are a good child if you eat healthy (read organic in some cases) snacks and you are bad (?) if you eat processed or fried food.

But Dr Brinda Nayak, a nutritionist asks, “How can any food be good or bad? All food is good, unless it is prepared in an unhealthy way or in an unhygienic condition. Whether it is simple south Indian rasam rice and fried fish or a pulao of rice with vegetables, one must enjoy the food that you grew up eating, whether at your home or at a birthday party with friends.”

Dr Jha, an acupressure cum naturopath explains, “The food that you ate as you grew up is what your body is made up of. If you are now 38 years old and suddenly feel you must not eat samosas or meat as you need to take care of your health index, it may not be such a good idea. Sure, you can reduce the quantity and the style of cooking it a bit as your grow older but why remove it entirely from your diet and replace it with health items—millets, sprouts, carrot salads, herbal tea or red rice? Healthy food can get boring after a while, you need a change every now and then.”

Dr Jha explains how a patient of his has lost interest in eating food since her spouse has suddenly turned vegan, and insists on all kinds of food choices which she is not used to. So, she simply stopped taking an interest in food, and lost weight. “By denying yourself sweets or an occasional fried food item in the week, or even chocolates once a week, you will get mentally and physically ill. Your body requires everything in moderation, and in small qualities, whether it’s salt, sugar or even oil, you need to eat everything that makes you feel happy, and this same food will keep you healthy.”

So the next time you get tempted to eat a slice of chocolate cake, go ahead. Take a slimmer slice if you please but eat it wholeheartedly.