There is a tribe of people in Tanzania, called Hadza, who are the only remaining hunter-gatherers in Africa. Every year men from this tribe risk their lives to gather honey from killer bees’ nests hanging at the top of 100-foot trees. If the men are successful, they return to the village (after gorging themselves on raw honeycomb) as heroes. Humans are evolved for a time when sugar and fat were so scarce that no natural instinct was required to help tell us when to stop eating. In the rare instance that we had ample of either, it was in our interest to eat our fill. Fast forward 12,000 years to the pillar of modernity (the grand United States of America), and you’ll find what might be considered mother nature’s cruelest joke on mankind: it is cheaper and easier to find a meal in America that has too much fat and sugar, than it is to find one that has too little (or even just a healthy amount). Moreover, nutrient-rich calories cost more, per unit, than do “empty calories”. Couple that with a human’s natural instinct to eat as much fat and sugar as possible, and you have a major problem on your hands (and hips).

For example, an American living in Atlanta could choose from one of the following two meals for lunch:

a Quarter Pounder Value Meal from McDonalds for approx $4 (200 rupees), which will get you 1320 calories, 51 grams of fat, 95 grams of processed sugar and virtually no nutrients.

OR

a salad from Whole Foods Market for approx $12 (600 rupees), which will get you 310 calories, 5 grams of fat, 9 grams of unprocessed sugar and many essential nutrients.

The problem for most Americans is that they cannot a) afford to pay $12 for lunch, b) work close enough to a Whole Foods to find such a salad on their lunch breaks, and c) be satisfied eating salad in lieu of a meal. And so the world’s wealthiest, most powerful nation has a raging epidemic of a deadly disease: obesity.

Unfortunately, this is one epidemic that is spreading from the richest country in the world to everyone else, and it is a glimpse into India’s future. Obesity in India is following a predictable trend, in tandem with its economic growth — obesity already affects 5% (50 million) of India’s population and, along with the availability of processed foods and unavailability of wives who stay home and cook, is growing steadily. Indians also have the added misfortune of being genetically predisposed to life-threatening problems like heart disease and diabetes. As Nandan Nilekani points out in his new book, Indians will soon comprise 60% of heart-attack deaths in the world. All signs point to a dismal future for India’s health. On the one hand, we have 456 million people living in poverty, malnourished and barely surviving. And on the other we have the “shining” Indian heading blindly the way of the fat American.

So you see I do not simply believe that Indians should copy all things American. There are many things traditionally Indian that I dearly hope are preserved for centuries to come, one of the most important of which is our food. Next time you sit down to a modern meal, remember this — fries from McDonalds, a slice from Pizza Hut and a cold coffee from Starbucks are the bain of an American’s existence. I hope Indians will learn from the mistakes of others, before it’s too late. I for one will continue to hone my roti-rolling techniques to perfection and will urge my children (male or female) to do the same.

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