Eating healthy these days has strangely become a “special choice” rather than a normal habit. There was a time when simple home-cooked food was the default, and junk food was an occasional treat. Today, the situation has completely flipped. Choosing normal, nutritious food now looks fancy or extra, while eating refined, packaged, and oil-loaded food is considered normal. It feels awkward to even say that eating fruits, dal, vegetables, or millets is a conscious effort. This itself shows how far we have drifted from what should have been basic.
If we look closely at the snacks sold in India, a disturbing pattern appears. Whether it is biscuits, namkeen, rusks, cakes, or instant snacks, most packets list the same ingredients at the top—refined wheat flour (maida), palm oil, and sugar. Different brands, different packaging, different flavors, but the same unhealthy base. These ingredients have become so common that people hardly question them anymore. They are cheap, addictive, and long-lasting, which makes them profitable, but at what cost? Our health is slowly being traded for convenience and taste.
This habit is not limited to outside food or packaged snacks; it has also entered our homes. Every festival, celebration, or even a small gathering revolves around sweets, deep-fried pooris, pakoras, and sugar-heavy desserts. There is rarely space for balance. Proteins, fibers, fruits, and wholesome foods are missing from these celebrations. We celebrate happiness with food that silently harms us. Even casual outings feel incomplete without junk food. Eating something fried or sugary has become a routine, while eating fruits feels like an exception.
The impact of these choices is visible everywhere. There is hardly any household where at least one person is not dealing with issues like diabetes, high cholesterol, blood pressure, or obesity. These problems are no longer associated with old age alone; young people are suffering too. Still, instead of questioning our daily habits, we normalize medicines and lifestyle diseases. We treat symptoms but ignore the root cause.
One of the saddest parts of this shift is how easily we have forgotten our traditional food system. India has always been rich in diverse, nutritious foods—millets, pulses, seasonal vegetables, fermented foods, and simple meals that nourished generations. Our grandparents grew up eating jowar, bajra, ragi, rice, dal, curd, and vegetables without counting calories or reading labels. These foods were not fancy; they were just normal. Today, the same millets are being marketed as “superfoods” and sold at high prices, while we continue to consume cheap refined products daily.
Our attraction toward Western eating habits has played a major role in this change. Burgers, pizzas, sugary drinks, and packaged snacks look modern and convenient, but they lack nourishment. In copying these habits, we slowly pushed our own food traditions aside. The irony is that many Western countries are now moving back toward whole foods, organic produce, and balanced meals, while we are still running behind processed options.
Eating healthy should not be a trend or a luxury. It should be the most basic form of self-care. Returning to simple, local, and seasonal food is not about being old-fashioned; it is about being aware. Choosing fruits over chips, millets over refined flour, and home-cooked meals over packaged food is not fancy—it is necessary. If we don’t change our mindset today, the next generation may grow up thinking that illness is normal and good health is rare. And that would be the real loss.
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