A tabloid journalist called me with this question—why is everyone in Bollywood eating grilled or steamed fish for dinner? How does omega-3 help in losing weight?
Hold it. For starters I don’t know everyone in Bollywood, so knowing their dinners was too far-fetched. “What are your clients eating then?” he asked. Dal, chawal and sabzi, depending on the season and personal preferences. I surely didn’t sound like a celeb dietitian anymore, worse, it made my clients sound like regular people with a head on their shoulders, paying heed to the call of their stomach and taste buds, patronising local food. Bad story!
So why do my globe-trotting clients eat regular home-cooked food when they are home? a) Because they are smart enough to know that we know very little about food or the ‘science’ behind it. b) They realise that patronising food based on its ‘nutrients’, the omega-3, Vitamin E, et cetra, basically invisible stuff, is confusing. c) Are old enough to have seen the same food being glorified for its supposed ‘nutrients’ or weight-loss benefits.
What I am saying here is that your tabloid headline has the responsibility of shouting something that is eye-grabbing, eg ‘Omega-3 helps shed extra weight!’ But anyone remotely sensible has the responsibility to know that multiple lifestyle factors and their complex interplay with each other determine your health and weight. So even if you want to eat fish, don’t do it for its omega-3, as things like ghee, nuts or tadka in your sabzi can provide omega-3. Eat it with rice or the way you have been traditionally eating it because eating tasty food is step one to assimilating all known and unknown goodness in one’s meal.
