On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 7:02 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian<sur...@hserus.net> wrote: > add "thandoori items" [sic] to the list and you have it nailed. > The wedding caterers must be in league with the gelusil manufacturers.
There's material enough for a book I think - on the lines of Super size me - on the morphing of Indian cuisine and lifestyle habits from one that has sustained one of the most ancient populations on earth, and therefore at least not inherently [0] dangerous to one that now threatens to create the largest population of people with lifestyle diseases [1]. I remember having to special order ghee dosai in restaurants when I was a kid, until perhaps 15 years ago that changed with increasing economic affluence when instead one had to special order the 'saada' or plain dosai since unless otherwise specified every dosai was made in ghee. Or remember how the size of deep fried vadais at restaurants has kept increasing with every passing year? I hardly ever get to see the small vadais that would fit snugly into the palm of an open hand anymore. Fizzy sugary drinks like 777 and gold spot came in 200ml bottles in the 80s (and I suspect though not sure - they must contain less sugar per ml than the colas of today) - not anymore - not for 15 years at least - they now start at 300ml, with 500ml being more common. Clearly not just the economy to blame of course - we've always suspected or known [2] that polished rice is bad for you - with its higher glycemic index it is instant starch with none of the redeeming benefits found in the unpolished variety. This is distressing - rice is one of the reasons human beings are alive today - it has nourished countless generations of people, and now we've turned that into the deadliest food one can consume. There's plenty more examples - also of "north" Indian cuisine being introduced in South India by cooks who only had a vague idea of what that meant, and instead spiced up the food with all that's at hand. I only speak of South India because that's where the bulk of my experiences lie, but that's not to say the rest of India was spared - the obesity epidemic seems to be nation wide. Further, India has moved to the cities in astonishing numbers since the economic liberalization of the early 90s - so now Indian cities are many times more packed than they ever were. This has meant that there's hardly any breathing space, or playing space for the kids, incredible levels of noise, water and air pollution and the stressful lives of the IT crowd working late hours in alien cultures in jobs that are essentially impossible to feel happy in. I don't think there's enough debate on the popular press about the looming crisis. Where has sensible intellectual debate gone? Cheeni [0] Indians have always had a soft spot for psychotropes - Soma was 1/3 ephedrine, 1/3 opium, 1/3 marijuana [1] If anyone is interested I can dig up multiple research reports, including a recent WHO finding that claim that India will lead the pack (if not already) by 2010 [2] Link between polished rice intake and diabetes found http://bit.ly/xSMpu
