It has been almost 3 years since I wrote the first part of this blog reminiscing my past and undergrad days (available below/here). In a way this hiatus is beneficial because I have learned more and have more to share.
There are close to 2 billion people in the world who Wikipedia classifies as "not following any religion". Seems that the rest somehow believe in one of those religions out there, with some more popular than others. Three broad and oversimplified groups, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, make up seven-tenths of the world's population. Revered and respected, these religions have teachings that have been carefully passed on through ages. While in modern world we know that communication gaps can scrape off nuances from mind to paper, imagine passing on complex truth that is meant to explain The Purpose, over generations withering through centuries of civilizations, renaissance and revolution. What we have today can only be the bits and pieces of the original ideas. Now despite these transmission losses, certain teachings of all these religions are unambiguously clear and are surprisingly similar across religions.
Every year during the month of Ramadan, a considerable population goes on fast at dawn and remains hungry till dusk. Christianity lists gluttony as one of the seven sins, with churches and various existing forms of bible preaching to limit indulgence on food. Needless to say, Hinduism also has truckloads of literature on regulating eating practices starting from skipping one meal to weeks long fasts depending on the sub-sect considered. Different other religions and sub-sects of Buddhism, Judaism and various traditional religions have their own advice to restrain food intake, all of which stay relevant in the age of consumerism and instant gratification.
The CONCLUSION- our philosophies and ideologies have evolved drastically over centuries, but a unanimous message subtly stands out: control the palate.
Why should we care?: Over 800 Million people either do not have enough food to eat or what they can have isn't good enough to be healthy (the most basic version of it). One in nine people in the world go to bed hungry and one in four children are undernourished. According to World Food Program, global food scarcity has six major causes including unstable markets, war, climate and agricultural infrastructure. The most striking on this list is, food wastage - scarcity because of wastage. World Food Program says one third of food produced in the world is never consumed (this blows my mind). The policies and media that we see focus on food scarcity and obesity/diabetes as two separate problems. And the fact is that it is not even distributed into developed and under-developed worlds - but surprisingly, most countries have both the problems simultaneously (in different proportions though). Examples of developing and developed nations with contra problems are, china with a 12% diabetic population, Mexico with the highest prevalence of obesity and USA with 5.7% households challenged with severe food security.
So what can we do? free advice follows (ads-free)
1. Never waste food. Remember eating more than what's needed also amounts to waste
2. Choose cooking/eating practices that minimize wastage of produce and energy
3. Choose raw materials and food products with consideration to the farm to factory journey. Every additional step in processing food has consequences in energy usage, resource utilization and waste disposal.
4. Educate yourself and chose healthier food options (if possible Organic), local produce, with minimal processing. And importantly make sure not to under-nourish either.
5. Become a champion of the cause and educate others.
Image credit: Dilbert.com
Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/apr/22/eat-smaller-and-smarte;
worldhunger.org & wfp.org/hunger/cause
