Maintain good health by having fresh indigenous food and not falling a prey to the temptation of harmful junk food – Vaidya Suvinay Damle, Rashtriya Guru, Ayush Ministry
Vaidya Damle said that junk food is called “viruddha anna” (opposite food) in Ayurveda. We are falling prey to the temptation of harmful cold-drinks instead of choosing natural, indigenous products like sharbats or coconut water. False assertions are made on the packages containing noodles (Maggi), various types of biscuits claiming that these contain various types of proteins, calories etc by Foreign and Indian companies. The public is being misguided by attractive advertisement of these products. The government should ban all these forthwith. “Junk food”, whether foreign or indigenous, Indians should boycott the same. As per Ayurveda, one should consume food which has come in contact with air, sunshine or moonlight. The rashtriya guru of Ayush Mantralay Vaidya Suvinay Damle also made an appeal to consume fresh, indigenous food and not fall prey to the temptation of harmful junk food. He was speaking on the occasion of a special online discussion on “Foreign junk food : Nourishment or economic exploitation” organized by Arogya Sahayya Samiti. 3033 viewers watched this program on HiduJagruti.org website, youtube and Twitter.
“Eatables should be allowed to be sold only after a thorough check regarding their quality. However, this does not happen, frequently,” said Shri Indrasen Singh of Ex-servicemen welfare association who had been instrumental in exposing the truth about Nestle. He also added that many companies are being allowed to operate in our country although they do not have the requisite permits regarding packaged food products and water. It is almost impossible for Indians to get proper nourishing food unless bodies like FSSAI and FDO function impartially and free of corruption.
On the occasion, Smt Meenakshi Sharan a food and nourishment expert said “Junk means muck. Eating junk food is like filling one’s stomach with muck. Not only does it not provide nourishment to the body, it does quite the opposite – it provides malnourishment. This includes all bakery products as well as all packaged foods and beverages. Not only children but even their parents fall prey to the temptation of junk food. We need to inculcate Indian dietary principles and practices in our lives.”
Ashwini Kulkarni, coordinator of Arogya Sahayya Samiti said “We are getting substandard food throughout the country due to administrative negligence. Ordinary people do not know where to complain in case they come across adulterated food. We have been demanding that children should be taught regarding food adulteration in their school curriculum. No state government commissionerate (food) has organized workshops on milk and food adulteration in spite of the Supreme Court directive. We are going to move to the court regarding the same”.
