Ice Creams, Mangoes and No Regrets..

Ever seen a kid who is relishing her favourite food.

It could be an ice cream, her favourite fruit or simply an innocuous occasional treat like simple home cooked non fancy pasta, which we in common parlance, called junk food. She eats with all her senses wide open. She is taking in the aroma through her tiny nostrils, experiencing texture of the food with her little  fingers and admiring the shape and colours of the food, she is so mindfully engrossed in…

Compare it with an urban adult, who is always on the go, rushing through his food, with all his senses switched off and only his mind racing to chase those nerve-wrecking deadlines, or caught in the web of tangled relationships or trying to strike a balance between responsibilities and some leisure. No doubt, there is no connection with the food since it has been consumed most mindlessly and what ensues is a guilt and calorie counting spree and we can all imagine the havoc this can create on us mortals.

“Choosing a meal based on its carb or protein or fat content is like choosing a bride who is fair complexioned, tall, slim and convent educated…the results or the ill results start to show off within two months”, says Rujuta Diwekar, the celebrity nutritionist who is a huge endorser of locally grown food. Just like all of us have become more aware with information trickle, which may be half baked, we are trying to apply our newly gained knowledge to daily consumption of food as well. Let’s eat this and let’s not eat this..Really?

Just rewind your memory and recall our food choices and how we consumed them. The food behaviour has drastically changed. A prevalent and occassional North Indian home cooked meal of poori, aloo ki Subzi, raita and halwa is a balanced meal in itself with different components neutralizing and complementing each very well, Same goes with the morning tiffin of rice idlis, crispy lentil dosai and vegetable laden Sambhar with an assortment of chutneys, with a burst of flavour and also balancing the various nutrients our body needs to begin the day.

As a result of our lifestyle or the half gained knowledge, we are consuming food completely ignoring the treasure trove of food choices we have all grown up with. The subcouncious result is a guilt trip and imagine how food and guilt, which is such a negative emotion, can co-exist when food is supposed to enlighten and satiate all the senses. So next time, the dessert streaming out of your kitchen are lucsious mangoes or an ice cream syndae served after a fancy meal, just not fret..cherish it whole heartedly without any regrets because you will soon be burning it off since the satisfaction of eating to your heart’s content will really make you run, dance and live life..when you live life well, calories just don”t count. Do they?