Introduction:
We start eating food even before we are born. Our body is made of food, first in the mother's womb, and then after birth. Food is an integral part of what we visibly are - our body and also our mind, which manifests through our body. We can conclude that food defines the health of our body, which in turn determines the health of our mind.
What is Modern Food Culture?
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In today's lifestyle, eating habits are largely influenced by advertising and the promotion of commercial foods. Though we continue to consume traditional food, the way we prepare them has changed.
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The cooking material we use is mostly ready-made. On top of it, our dependence on packed food and ready-to-eat food made by others has increased substantially.
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Technology has enabled food ordering from the comfort of the home, and working people find it more convenient to order than to prepare at home.
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Some years back, eating out was for a change, now home-cooking is done for a change. Changed priorities of earning a living score over leading a healthy life and fading understanding of the right food items have wreaked havoc on our health.
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Today's literate minds have become mechanical and find it challenging to relate food with health, which used to be a common understanding a few decades back.
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Food has just become a filler in our busy lifestyle, and an occasional means of entertainment and socializing.
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Food choices are largely driven by taste, presentation, and convenience. It is further leveraged by the food industry, which is fuelling these choices with its innovative food products, offering an array of instant foods, most with unsubstantiated health claims.
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The availability of mouthwatering instant food products that save time has led to a massive variety of instant-packed foods on grocery stores' shelves, a large number of quick-serving restaurants, and glitzy advertisements.
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Information explosion through omnipresent digital media has led to the spread of vague understandings about good and healthy food. This has left many perplexed about what to eat and what not to eat.
What Are the Impacts of Modern Food Culture?
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A wrong understanding of the right food has led to eating wrong foods with health claims and avoiding good foods.
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Changed lifestyles with very low physical efforts and a long time spent indoors is causing an unprecedented rise in lifestyle-related disorders.
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Diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, hypothyroidism, heart diseases, liver disorders, kidney failure, low immunity, infectious diseases, and cancer, which were rare a few decades ago, have become household names.
What Is the Relation Between Food and Diseases?
In modern food culture, it is becoming extremely difficult to understand the right connection between food and diseases. The cause of bad health is attributed to environmental and hereditary reasons. But the reality is, our body is the outcome of all the foods that we have eaten. Heredity factors for disease play a role, but just as a risk factor, and do not necessarily have to manifest as a disease.
What Is Called Wrong Food?
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Defining the wrong food is simple. It is a food that does not help in the natural repair and maintenance of our body. On the contrary, it causes damage leading to diseases. It does not normally occur to us that eating food can also cause diseases and weaknesses.
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People often compel sick persons to eat more to make them feel better and to fight sickness. What if the same food is the cause of the disease or making it worse? This fact is difficult to digest, but this is a reality for most modern diseases. We eat food, but what if the same food is eating us? After all, our food choices are based on taste, presentation, and convenience, not on what it will do to the body.
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The very thought that a mouthwatering and beautiful looking serving of food can make people sick seems weird to many. Even though it is the bitter truth. Though weight gain is easily associated with eating more, the diseases are not generally associated with wrong eating.
What Is the Right Food to Eat?
Since the human body is nothing but an extension of nature, its growth, repair, and maintenance also need the elements of nature, which are f five natural elements - earth, water, air, fire (heat), and sky.
Earth
Edible food is grown on Earth, and it bears all the properties of the Earth. So we need to pay the utmost importance to its quality and quantity. Some important points to take care of in our food are:
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Eat Fresh - We must eat food grown by the earth, in its natural form, as much as possible. It means fruits, raw vegetables, nuts, and seeds must make up more than 50 % of our food intake. Foods such as grains and pulses should be cooked minimally, avoiding overcooking and frying in oils.
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Avoid Stale Food - Any packed food, or cooked or snack foods stored in our kitchens beyond a few hours lose their nutritional value and become harmful. We should avoid such food or eat such food in very low quantities.
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Right Time - eating between sunrise and sunset is most beneficial as our digestion is at its peak.
Water
Water must be taken first thing in the morning upon waking up. One can drink 500 to 1000 ml of water immediately after getting up, sipping slowly. One should avoid cold water. Lukewarm water is best, as it helps in cleansing the digestive tract. One should not drink water 30 minutes before and up to 30 minutes after eating a meal. Water dilutes digestive juices and will not let the food digest properly.
Air
Fresh air is equally important; hence must go out in fresh air for at least 30 minutes daily. It helps in inhaling more oxygen and sufficiently oxygenating the blood and body cells.
Fire
Sunlight is the best source of the fire element. All plants, including plants grown on earth, need sunlight for growth. The body also needs direct sunlight to form Vitamin D, which, along with calcium, helps maintain our bones. One must take at least 15 minutes of sunlight daily in the first half of the day.
Sky
This element is nothing but space. It means humans need to keep our digestive system empty also at times for its rest and repair. And when eating, must eat only 3/4th of the hunger, keeping 1/4th of space for the mixing and churning of gastric juices with the food.
With these strategies, one can avoid being eaten by our food and can enjoy the food and good health at the same time.
Conclusion:
Good health is determined by the food that one eats. Food plays a key role in maintaining health and preventing disease. Always choose food that is fresh and naturally available, with good nutritional value. Avoid food items with less calorific value, and high sugar, and fat content. Prevent from developing an addiction to junk foods and try to understand the benefits of good food, to lead a healthy life.
