Michael Pollan’s recent book “In Defense of Food” offers a new mentality on nutrient today. Unlike many other authors of our clip. he discusses the defects of the nutrionist system we have adopted and encourages his readers to one time once more follow their familiar household formulas. Harmonizing to Pollan. we should no longer experience guilty about eating a traditional repast because of its supposed ill health. Alternatively. we should encompass our roots and cultural culinary art because that is the diet that kept our ascendants alive and healthy. unlike the “scientifically proven” Western diet of today that is doing mass fleshiness epidemics and other wellness jobs. As Pollan states in his book. nutrionist ideals today have had “little scientific backup from the really beginning” ( Pollan 46 ) . while conventional cultural nutrients have been passed down from coevals to coevals due to their success in keeping wellness. After reading Pollan’s book. I found myself looking at my ain diet and how much it has changed from that of even my female parent. After oppugning my female parent about nutrient in our ain kitchen. I found many of our current imposts are rather unlike those practiced in my grandparents’ kitchens. For better or for worse. lone clip can state.

To get down. my female parent grew up in Hyderabad. India. Looking at how industrialised Hyderabad is now. a visitant would ne’er hold been able to conceive of its low beginnings. Yet. this was the clip period my female parent grew up in- 1. in which. fixing for merely one repast would be a exercise. in itself. Cars were rare in the metropolis at this clip so my ma would hold to bicycle from one portion of the metropolis to another because the formula called for. “3 to 5 kgs of day of the months from Nawab’s Bazar. ” Not compromising on even the location of where the day of the months would be brought from. my grandma would state my female parent to acquire day of the months and other dried fruits from at that place as her female parent had told her. Furthermore. repasts would be cooked from food markets gathered on a day-to-day footing. Unlike the hebdomadal trips my household makes to the supermarket. my female parent would acquire veggies from “farmers who would pick the veggies from their farms and so they would sell them” ( Nayyar Khan. Personal Interview. April 24. 2014 ) . She would acquire meat day-to-day. every bit good. so all of the repasts her female parent would do would be literally be from the farm to the dinner tabular array. In India at that clip. there was non much accent on nutrition- what your female parent made was best for you. This changed for my female parent. nevertheless. when she came to the States. Traveling to New York City from Hyderabad. my female parent got exposed to a whole new universe. Outside of her little. turning metropolis. she hadn’t gotten much exposure to other civilizations before she came.

Now. she was in the centre of the convergence of civilizations where she met people from all over the universe. She had roomed with them and encountered their manners of cookery. She took a liking to Chinese nutrient. particularly. happening it to be alien. but non excessively extremist from the nutrient she grew up with. Despite the cultural Renaissance my female parent experienced. she besides got exposed to American culinary art dwelling of fried poulet. Buffalo wings. Doritos. and other processed nutrients. Soon afterwards. my female parent like many other immigrants at the clip faced wellness jobs such as “high cholesterin. high blood force per unit area. and other weight-related issues non uncommon for immigrants to America to develop” ( Tavernise ) . Eager to lose weight and return to her healthy life style. my female parent fell victim to the nutrionist ideals of the clip such as believing that saccharides had negative effects. Now eschewing the rice she one time ate in India. my female parent found herself deriving more weight. Merely after she returned to India for a three-week visit did she lose all of the weight she gained in the States. This merely proved that something was incorrect with the seemingly not-so-full-proof American diet. non the Indian 1 that had sustained her for so long. Similarly. my female parent realized this and decided to avoid processed American nutrients every bit much as she could and go on to eat as she did in India.

She describes herself as foolish for avoiding her traditional Indian nutrient when she truly should hold been avoiding the cereals that claimed they would assist her lose weight. As expected. my female parent was able to keep her weight and found many of her wellness jobs began to lessen. Unfortunately. my female parent had to finally travel back to a less Indian-like life style when she moved to New Jersey where she had to work at a desk occupation. going less active. Besides. she had to take attention of her three childs. including me. which left her with even less clip to cook proper repasts and work out. After reading Pollan’s book. many of his thoughts about us compromising our wellness and nutrition. in exchange for salvaging clip and attempt. started to stand out and I started to detect how incorrect this state of affairs was going: we were get downing to pass less clip with each other and were get downing to eat less healthy every bit good to salvage clip for other activities. For case. both of my brothers would hold association football pattern one twenty-four hours so it wouldn’t make sense for my ma to set in so much work to do one repast as her female parent did when she was younger if no 1 was traveling to hold clip to eat it so we would merely take out. Because we would take out. we got exposed to a batch more civilizations than my ma was exposed to.

However. we were losing the connexions with household over the dinner tabular array that was so important to my mother’s upbringing. Furthermore. our green goods was non every bit fresh as hers was in her childhood because it was genetically modified and would be bought one time a hebdomad from the ace market. a pattern a batch less time-consuming than purchasing fresh food markets every twenty-four hours. Our sweets were turning into boughten bars while her childhood sweets would be the fruits she would pick off the trees. herself. Now I wish I had a opportunity to be every bit active as my female parent one time was and eat every bit healthy as she had. This is non possible in India any longer either with its increasing industrialisation. Merely looking at images of Hyderabad from when my female parent was a kid to when I visited two old ages ago. I can hardly believe that it is the same metropolis. Factories and promenades have replaced the farms where my female parent used to one time travel for ingredients. Alternatively. those topographic points are selling ready-made Indian sweets that would hold one time taken yearss to do and the inexplicable list of ingredients proved how different they were from the original sweet. In decision. nutrient has evolved greatly from what it originally was. This development can be seen in my ain family. Decidedly. we are tired of compromising our wellness and have returned to our original Indian diets. Though. its ineluctable. we have badly limited taking out and choose for waiting for my ma to cook traditional Indian repasts.

In fact. we help her brand material in the kitchen and are happening ourselves get nearer as a household. My female parent now orders me around the kitchen as her female parent one time ordered her. With this in head. I recognize my responsibilities as a torchbearer for the civilization and traditions for my household. When I think of holding to convey my childs up in a universe likely more contaminated with nutrient more processed than what I am turning up with. I think the lone manner for me to maintain them healthy is to cook nutrient like how my female parent cooks for me. Our nutrient has become more diverse as we interact with other civilizations. but we must retrieve to non alter our diets with the wellness crazes of the clip and go on with the nutrient we have been brought up with.

Plants Cited
Khan. Nayyar. “Food When You Were Turning Up. ” Interview by Adeena Samoni. n. d. : n. pag. Print. Pollan. Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin. 2009. Print. Tavernise. Sabrina. “The Health Toll of Immigration. ” The New York Times. The New York Times. 18 May 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.