India and Foods of the Foreign Lands

I have been on rigours tours of 3/4 days travelling around 3000 odd kilometres in Western Ghats of Kerala and Karnataka. Since these trips were family trips with a 3-year-old kid we made a point that we stop at decent hotels for lunches and dinners that serve hot food and  grabbed all coloured fruits and veggies to snack on the way bought from little hamlets bordering state and national highways. The flavours of sweet and sour totapuri mangoes laced with red pepper powder and salt was no less than a treat that one usually would enjoy with a packet of potato wafers rather I would say a wiser and zing choice. Jack fruit was another great snack that gave a miss for lunches on few rides   bright yellow  with sweet-smelling fragrance was surely no less than a black forest cake.  Star of the snacks was indeed Star Fruit with its aromatic and distinct tangy flavours added sparkle in the tours of course we never miss the humble Banana! Cucumber slices, Coconut water and sugarcane juices kept us well hydrated to brave the summer heat . 🙂

While we made a conscious food choices as a family. I realised that the interiors of these two states grow fruits and vegetables in plenty. I was ghastly surprised by the number of tiny outlets  selling all the top brands of soft drinks or thanda and all brands of junk snack rather call it plastic snacks in plenty apart from local breads, cakes and all sorts of biscuits . It’s an irony to see young kids in small hamlets buying a five rupee worth plastic snack and denied of fresh fruits and vegetables as they are sold in bigger cities and food factories for a ransom price.

A decade ago as a student of Community Health and Nutrition , I was studying Food Ecology as one of the subjects and had worked on few projects on tracing  food products from making to market and identifying the hurdles at each stage and methods to be adopted to curtail. However in none of the paths that I had traced neither the MNC market (never existed) and nor did the food advertisement had any major influence then.
Now I strongly understand to what level a food advertisement can impact irrespective of the economic, social,cultural and educational levels of an individual . Also thanks to the mini / economy  packs specially designed to target poor rural India 🙁

I was pacifying my self that ok at least we three as a family are not choking ourselves with these junk foods and with a hope that there would be many more like us………………………

Lets make a conscious effort to avoid hazardous foods and help our children in making wise food choices . This will also help them to nurture nature in true sense !