Label It With Common Sense

A recent Facebook post of mine drew ire from some Indians living in the US. It was about the ‘choices’ that packaged food offered there and how more information need not translate into more nourishment. ‘Nutritional information’ can be misleading—Vitamin D fortified doesn’t mean Vit D assimilated.

Next day, NYC witnessed three lakh people participating in a protest walk about climate change, about the apathy of world leaders to set up laws governing gro­wth of food, seed modifications, pesticide usage and, importantly, food-labelling.

Science, especially food science, is beyond the division of food into carb, protein, fat or counting calories. Believe it or not, it’s a common sense science. That eating local and fresh will lead to better nourishment and lesser ecological damage is common sense. But it doesn’t lead to change in behaviour. Change in food behaviour comes from change of heart (that happens when we read labels with common sense).

Closer home, the Navratras are on, and one of the important food during the fast is the sweet potato. It has all the micro-nutrients and fibres to improve bone health. Now, it is common sense and experiential wisdom that the winters that follow Dussehra bring in more than their share of joint stiffness and aches, specially in women and the elderly. Just because this ‘street’ food doesn’t carry the label of ‘fibre-rich’, ‘high in natural Vitamin B’, ‘magical magnesium’, etc., should we shun it? Or sho­uld we relook, review and reflect on why grandma says what she says.