You are not what you eat
How does it matter what you consume for your sustenance? The simple answer is it doesn’t. But we live in a complicated world where things…
How does it matter what you consume for your sustenance? The simple answer is it doesn’t. But we live in a complicated world where things are either oversimplified or understated. Something as personal as what goes into your mouth can become a matter of immense disagreement. The main reason why this is so has a lot to do with our history. More than 15000 years ago, our ancestors were hunters and gatherers whose only mission in life was to stay alive. They moved from one place to another in search of — no cookies for guessing — food. This trend ended with the birth of agriculture. Once they realized that they can grow their own grub instead of pursuing it, they decided to settle down. Thus, we became stagnant while assuming that we’ve domesticated the cereals, the fruits, the vegetables, the ‘domestic’ animals, etc., when in reality, they were the ones who domesticated us. So, different people grew different produce and consumed different things as per their availability and the weather.
Everything seemed fine for a while before somebody knocked on the door.
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Religion
What can we serve you?
The rise of religion coincided with the rise of dietary restrictions. This boiled down to a new kind of normal where it was alright to hate others for what they ate.
Fast forward to 2017 and we still haven’t gotten over these foolish differences—religion or no religion — where the motive is to appear emphatic but under the disguise of arrogance. Small surprise why we see the way vegetarians sneer at those who consume meat. As if plants don’t have feelings; they must be communicating in Silence. This is not even a recent scientific discovery. JC Bose proved it in the 19th century with little doubts left amongst scientists.
In a similar vein, non-vegetarians often thump their chest believing they are doing a favour on others by ingesting cooked cadaver. They mock the vegetarians by claiming that there is no such a thing as non-vegetarian food and that it’s purely an Indian myth. Yea, right. If India had a population lower than Lichtenstein, then this argument might have made sense. (Actually, it wouldn’t.) Vegetarianism is as much in vogue as the fear of Donald Trump pressing the nuclear button. The consumption of non-veg food is understandably high but then, it doesn’t make the non-vegetarians any better than those who avoid meat. Both are consuming food to stay alive. Just like a lioness has nothing against the bull but an empty stomach won’t even enable her to roar.
Did anyone mention vegans? Let’s not talk about them. The moral high ground that these creatures take is completely out of the menu. That said, it’s their choice. They are still better than the hypocritical vegetarians who consume milk — something that is meant for the young ones of the four-legged beings and is forced out of lactating mothers — and have eggs while citing scientific explanations. In hindsight, we totally deserve powdered milk and all the chemical manipulations that are going on in the name of food security.
As for me, i consume everything that is on the plate, be it spinach or fish or squid or beef or pork or sheep or fox… There’s hardly nothing that i won’t have. I was once averse to lauki and karela. Three years in hostel cured me. To me, the only thing that matters is the desire and the means to fill my tummy. What keeps us alive is hunger, not food. That’s also why i don’t discriminate or judge the quality of food either. Being married to someone who not only loves food but also cooks/bakes brilliant stuff, i fully understand my palatal handicap. I basically eat to survive.
But that’s me, a person who can’t distinguish between chicken and mutton. And i can’t speak for anyone else.
However, i think it’s high time we acknowledged the hold division of taste can have on us. If a Jew maintains his kosher and a Muslim observes his halal and a Brahmin stays true to shakahari and a Seventh-Day Adventist fellow says no to coffee, then let them. But none of them aren’t any superior than anybody else, based on their diet. Besides, it’s easier to grandstand when there is food available. It’s only when there’s nothing to eat that one’s choice gets tested for real.