JAN 28 - On
holidays, when I am at home my mother prepares aloo fry with green onion leaves
(or coriander leaves) and fenugreek. She also doesn’t forget to make sandheko
bhatamas (roast soya bean pickled with mustard oil, chillies and spices). Then,
she serves it with a little beaten rice and mushroom soup.
Holidays are
often special to me because they offer me the chance to eat fresh and healthy
snacks at home. The home-made snacks are not only tasty, but also nutritious.
They are far better for health than any fast food. Fast food such as noodles,
potato chips, and bhujia are much more expensive than the actual value of
nutrients they contain. Moreover, most fast food contains large amounts
of fat and salt, which are harmful to our health, if consumed in excess.
According to
nutritionists and doctors, fast food is the main cause behind increasing
obesity cases around the world.
Obesity
causes various complications to our health. Moreover, fast food kills your
appetite. You don’t feel like eating but at the same time, your body is
deprived of proper nutrients. This becomes a ripe invitation for malnutrition.
On the other hand, too much fast food consumption also makes you unnecessarily
obese and clumsy.
At present,
the change in people’s life style has affected their food habits. The
attractive media advertisements of fast food have shaped their minds in such a
way that they possess many misconceptions about nutrition. In fact, they are
misguided and do not know that raw grains and fresh vegetables contain much
more vitamins and minerals than the readymade tongue-friendly junk food tinned
or packed in plastics. People are wasting huge amount of money for a very small
amount of nutrition.
According to
a recent report published by AFP, the situation of child malnutrition in Nepal
is so grave that donor organisations have termed it as a ‘silent emergency’.
The government statistics show that 1.7 million children in Nepal (almost half
of the under-fives) are suffering from chronic (long term) malnutrition. 18
percent of children have acute malnutrition, the prime cause of infant
mortality, in the country.
It is urgent
for awareness programmes among the parents about cultivating healthy eating
habits to be conducted. The city dwellers should also begin to rethink the
understanding that the consumption of junk food is a status symbol. Eating
home-made food and snacks is not a shameful act. They should be encouraged to
send their school children home-made snacks such as fried rice, porridge, wheat
bread, and popcorn for tiffin. In fact, schools should not allow for students
to bring fast food. A school in the capital is reported to have started the
practice of checking the students’ tiffin at the entrance gate to discourage
fast food. This is an appreciable initiative and should be adopted by schools
all over the country. But more importantly, villagers also need to know how
local agro-products can be used for keeping family health sound, so that their
children will have no more malnutrition.
Published in The Kathmandu Post on
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