"Let thy food be thy medicine!---"- How true it is!

Though Socrates said 2000 years ago that "let thy food be thy medicine", the modern world does not want to have any thing to do with this famous "truth". How else we can explain the reckless living style people have adopted depending increasingly on a plethora of drugs churned out by the pharma industry for treating, ironically, the diseases caused by over eating, imbalanced eating and irregular eating? The recent report that the American population, about one third of them being obese, does not suffer from want of calories but is severely "malnourished" is indeed a shocking revelation. According to many health pundits if people are educated early enough the close linkage between food and health and if balanced foods are consumed regularly almost all diseases now raging in that country due to bad foods would not have been there! There is a strong view that it is time to think differently when it comes to dealing with the life style disorders which are eating into the vitals of American society and through better food and balanced diet only any future catastrophe can be avoided. Here is a commentary on this issue as put forward by one of the reputed surgeons who has a close ring side view about the health scenario unfolding in that country. 

"The number of people who are malnourished despite being obese is scandalous, a leading weight loss surgeon has said today. A recent study showed despite high levels of obesity in the U.S., many people are undernourished.  A diet of pizza, fries, crisps, pasta, rice, biscuits, cakes leaves many people consuming a lot of calories but few nutrients, says Dr Sally Norton, an NHS consultant specialising in weight loss and upper gastrointestinal surgery. The problem is exacerbated by coffee shops serving sugary and fatty drinks appearing in hospital foyers and junior doctors being given minimal training on nutrition. Drug companies push the sales of expensive drugs which treat the symptoms of the disease but not the cause, she says.Instead we should treat disease with nutrition, letting food be our medicine".

It is a tragedy of Himalayan proportion that the food environment in this so called "most powerful" country in the world is so vitiated that people are behaving like zombies rushing to wards food service joints serving most unhealthy foods offered by the latter rich in sugar, saturated fat, salt, carbohydrates and practically free from that vital food component, viz dietary fiber so necessary for maintaining good health. Modern generation has no clue regarding the advantages of whole cereals, unrefined flours, fruits, vegetables and other health protecting food materials. Blaming food industry.for churning out unhealthy foods will not take the country far, unless citizens assume more responsibility for their own health through scientific and rational food selection. The golden words of Socrates that "thy food is thy medicine" should be the "national icon" for the US for the next one decade if the current trend of over eating and wrong eating practices are to be reversed.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

WHETHER CALORIES OR NUTRIENTS, IT IS NO WIN SITUATION IN INDIA!

In spite of dire predictions about the fate of the country, in the face of crushing burden of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, India seems to be plodding on without any catastrophe as being talked about for a long time. But if the statical figures coming out of this country with a massive population of almost 2 billion are taken seriously, billions of rupees invested by successive governments in the name of poverty alleviation and welfare of the so called "aam aadmi" or the "common man",  do not seem to have made any lasting impression at the ground level. Poor people continue to be poor and hungry ones reconcile to their fate! More shockingly some of the parameters used to measure human development progress reveal a distressing trend with no ready answer for this pitiable state or ready solution to lick the problem. GDP figures or per capita income growth does not tell the true story because here is a country which has made rich people richer and poor ones poorer and average figures do not reflect the agony and anguish most people are going through! Every Indian has to hang his head in shame when confronted by global reports about the tragedy  of Indian children under a democratic dispensation! Is this the cost of development which appears to be not inclusive, benefitiing only a few people in the country?. Is there no hope or salvation to millions of impoverished people in the country who dream of just a simple life with adequate food, security and self respect? Some how the government of the day is imagining that distributing food grains at subsidized cost or badly implemented welfare schemes which never reaches the beneficiaries, will mislead the world. Reports about muti billion rupees scams in the telecom sector or coal sector or in the real estate sector, even if not proven conclusively and the alleged black money hoardings in foreign countries, do not inspire confidence that there can be a turn around in the fortunes of the poor in the forseable future. Here is an incisive analysis about the situation that is unfolding in India.

"While nutritionists and economists debate the importance of targets defined solely in calories, other data shows gains in nourishment also stalled. In the 2005 National Family Health Survey, when India last weighed, measured and counted its children for signs of hunger, it found 46 percent -- 31 million -- weighed too little for their ages, almost an entire Canada of malnourished under-three-year-olds. In 1999, that number was 47 percent. Some indicators worsened: 79 percent of children had anemia, against 74 percent in 1999; 19 percent were wasted -- weighed too little for their height -- up from 16 percent. Anemia prevents the absorption of nutrients; as do the diarrhea and other diseases caused by poor hygiene and sanitation. In sheer numbers, 4 out of 10 malnourished children in the world are Indian, more than in all of Africa. War-torn Sudan and famine-struck Eritrea had smaller percentages of malnourished children, at about 32 percent, according to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. India's hungry children are likely to have lower cognitive skills, grow up to be weakened workers, suffer from chronic illnesses and die prematurely, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Hunger stalks them into adulthood too: 21 percent of all Indians are undernourished, according to Ifpri, up from 20 percent a decade ago. All of which costs the country about $68 billion a year, or almost 4 percent of GDP, according to Veena S. Rao, who heads nutrition initiatives for the government of Karnataka, the Indian state that encompasses the city of Bangalore. "The problem of malnutrition is a national shame," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in January, in one of about 50 public speeches where he has mentioned the subject. "Despite impressive growth in our gross domestic product, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high." India has collected reliable and consistent national data on nutrition since 1972, soon after setting minimum daily intakes of about 2,100 calories a day for city residents, who are assumed to be less physically active. The level for rural- dwellers was pegged at 2,400 calories on the basis that tilling fields, harvesting crops and drawing water require greater exertion".

To add insult to injury, the head of the government proclaims from the roof top that nutrition problem is a national shame without giving any clue as to what he was doing during the last 7 years he has been in power or what plans he has, different from the past, to tackle the problem! His minister for environment seems to be obsessed with programs for building toilets in rural areas where open defecation is commonly accepted practice though one cannot find fault with his focused efforts. If people do not have sufficient food to eat what difference it makes where they defecate. The realization does not seem to be dawning on the rulers that poverty and unhygienic situation go hand in hand and unless an integrated approach is thought about no amount of money invested will show any result at the ground level. It was not long ago that administrators of toilet building program in Karnataka realized, how, within a matter of a few months , most toilets were converted into additional rooms for day to day use including for pooja purpose! The present proposal to increase the toilet grant from Rs 3500 to Rs 10000 is unlikely to improve the situation dramatically unless the hunger in the belly is doused. For this to happen, government will have to ensure that corruption in welfare programs so rampant in the country is eradicated ruthlessly so that beneficiaries get fully what is due to them. Unless and until this happens, the wheel of poverty and hunger will roll on and on with no let up!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

HUNGER AMIDST PLENTY-THE INDIAN PARADOX

It is true that India is a land of many paradoxes in every field of human activity. While democracy is preached day in and day out, for many citizens it is more a combination of bureaucracy and aristocracy that control the economy with very little focus on the perennial poverty stricken population. Here is a commentary on the ironical situation that prevails in the country reflecting the frustration being felt all around.

"There is no other country that presents a more shameful paradox of plenty- grains rotting in the open while millions live in hunger. At the same time, no other country allows its staple food to be exported while the population of hungry and malnourished continues to multiply".---- "In the United States, from where India borrows its economic prescriptions, food is only allowed to be exported after the country ensures that in addition to 309 million people, 168 million cats and dogs have also been well-fed. In India, food — and that includes wheat, rice, maize, pulses, fruit and vegetables — is routinely exported, and the government often provides subsidies to offset the losses incurred in trade"----"In America, where one in every six citizen lives in hunger, it provides a massive federal support of US $ 205 billion for a period of five years to feed its hungry under various nutrition supplement programmes. This marks a continuous increase over the year. In India, which has the world's largest population of hungry, the food subsidy bill is proposed to be pruned, from Rs 56,000-crore for 2010-11 to Rs 28,000-crore, under the proposed National Food Security bill".

Why is that the planners, administrators, social scientists and economists do not see the writing on the wall and do some thing to arrest this drifting trend? Hopes were raised when a truly accomplished economist of international repute took over as the Prime Minister of this country but after 6 years of his rule, common man does not see any thing positive happening to cheer about. On the contrary people are being crushed under the burden of uncontrolled food inflation and all round shortage of critical food materials. Is this country heading for a crisis of Himalayan proportion, with no solution in sight? No wonder people are flocking in increasing numbers to places of worship like temples, mosques, synagogues and churches, seeking divine intervention to overcome their woes!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com