FOOD AND NUTRITION.
Folk songs, historical records, direct observation, consumer expenditure surveys and a host of other sources point to the absorbing role of food in Indian culture, but popular concern goes hand in hand with an extraordinary neglect of nutrition issues in public policy.
Abstract
According to Pierre Mac Orlan, artist and writer, “humanity is first and foremost a stomach”. The statement is based on Mac Orlan’s personal experience of hunger during his childhood in France, but it would not be difficult to substantiate it in the Indian context. Folk songs, historical records, direct observation, consumer expenditure surveys and a host of other sources point to the absorbing role of food in Indian culture. This popular concern, however, goes hand in hand with an extraordinary neglect of nutrition issues in public policy, in spite of the democratic nature of India’s political institutions. Even the basic facts are poorly understood.