Diversity and inclusion is gaining momentum in all corners of world, be it policies, corporate world, welfare society or any other field. When both these are embraced, they outperform other strategies and missions.
Let’s apply these to our food. Diversity supports health, research shows. Those who consume a diet that includes all major food groups –fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, nuts, seeds and whole grains – could reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes and cancers.
Breakfast is considered as most important meal, as it is a good way to lose weight. The body needs refueling after a long night’s sleep. It provides sustained energy for the day and prevent us from overeating at lunch. One can include eggs, yogurt, fruits, and fresh juices in breakfast.
What do we Kashmiris eat in breakfast? It is nun chai, kept on high boiling point with some milk and salt added to it. An average Kashmiri sips 3 cups a day. The WHO recommends 5gms of salt a day but we consume 10gms, double than recommended. We need tough and mandatory limit on salts. Too much salt is bad for our health as it leads to water retention, increases volume of blood, increases blood pressure, hypertension, heart problems and kidney issues.
Not much diversity we see in our lunch, too. Looking from the perspective of average per capita income, the majority sticks to basic staple diet as rice and collard greens (hakh) and if pocket at times permits, then red meat or mutton twice or once in a month. The important factor in achieving good health and avoiding diseases is overall diet, not a specified food item. Collard greens have to be part of the diet, not a diet in itself.
Diet diversity ensures sustainable, environment friendly, holistic nutrition and keeps us disease-free and drugs-free. Food plate of Kashmir doesn’t complete the nutritional composition required for healthy and fit body. Kashmir has a huge burden of diseases, especially non-communicable ones. Nutritional deficiencies can lead to a variety of disorders: bone, skin, eye, mental, sexual, digestive, and blood disorders. Poor intake of food, bad lifestyle, faulty food habits, special meal preferences and sedentary life style exacerbate and worsen the prognosis.
Extreme diets are killing us. Breakfast cannot be replaced by nun chai or traditional bakery items. Drinking too much salty tea can lead to stone kidneys, weaken the immune system, deprive body of essential vitamins, and make us vulnerable to diseases.
Most of the foods consumed by us have a negative health nutritional index. We need to replace negative food with positive ones. The Kashmiri plate is in urgent need of change. Food with positive scores as per health nutrition index add healthy minutes to our life. These are fruits, starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, sea food and legumes. Kashmir is witnessing the rising epidemiology of silent pandemic: there is rise in non-communicable and chronic diseases, worst in form of peculiar cancers. Kashmir has a huge diabetic burden. Fighting this is not complicated, and prevention is simple. Preferring home cooked meal, eating green vegetables, exercise, and embracing diversity and inclusion of cereals, millets, fruits, salad on our platter is the solution.

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Masroora Jan