Habit: We are What We Eat

India is known for its diversity, and we can find many varieties of food in different region of country. We are well-known for usage of spices in our food. But in fast-forward life, two more ingredients are integral part of our diet, i.e. Sugar & Edible oil. We can find the trace of these items in every meal, starting from breakfast to dessert. Let’s pause for a moment and ask one question to Ourselves:

What did you buy (with respect to food) while visiting your friend’s/relatives?

Or what your friends brought when they visited you? When we visited to our friends/relatives, during our last trip to hometown, we mostly bought Sweets. It was not that we didn’t have any other choice but with ubiquitous presence of shops, made us to choose without any further conscious thinking. We, too, had junk foods in snacks during our stay. Similar eating habits can be found with most of us in our society, where products are easily accessible. We hardly bother about nutrients while choosing these food items.

There are two main reason for our eating habits:

Availability: We can find far more Sweet/Junk food shops in our society than fruit shops. With demand, more and more sweet/junk food shops come up with time. Also, now-a-days, we get these foods delivered at home. Very few or no promotion for healthy foods like fruits.
Environment: Environment is the invisible hand that shapes our behavior, irrespective of our own unique personalities. For example, people act wary and guarded on the dark street. In this way, we are changed by the world around us. We can find similar foods in gatherings, celebrations, ceremonies etc.

Eating Sweets/Junk foods also trigger dopamine in our brains, and this instant gratification encourages us to eat more and more of the unhealthy foods. This behavior lead to create bad habits. So, we should always choose food which is good for our health in long term (i.e. delayed gratification) instead of short term.

People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are and how they are presented to us. -Atomic Habits

We know that Sweet & junk foods are not good for health, but If we track our eating habits, it is clearly evident that the consumption of these items are far more than fruits or other healthy foods. We also hardly do any physical activities to compensate this excess consumption of junk foods. And when we look around our family and society, we can find the proof of this unhealthy behavior com habit in our medical reports.

Many people’s livelihood depend on food industry and this has a significant role in our GDP, directly and indirectly. This is not an attempt to question others but to improve our behavior, our eating habits. Instead of taking radical steps in the future, we should pay attention now with small steps like reduce frequency of Junk foods, avoid eating out and gatherings, replace with healthy items fruits, idli and poha etc. for better future. We are the solely responsible for Our Health. Now, we may die due to excess food, but not from a lack of food. So let’s improve our eating habits. Let’s wrap up with a nice saying:

InvestOnSelf