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Food & beverage trends in 2022 - The importance of healthy eating
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Tuesday, 14 December, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nidhi Nahata
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A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition. It protects us against many chronic, non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for healthy diet. One can improve their health by keeping a balanced diet and include foods that contain vitamins and minerals.
With the pandemic that changed everyone’s lifestyle, the hospitality industry has seen a revolutionary shift in the choices of consumers. From eating mindlessly, just for taste, people have understood the importance of their health and began choosing consciously of what is going inside their body.
Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicines; he once said, "All disease begins in our gut and says, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
But now, as time passes by, people are becoming more conscious of their health, mainly their gut health. Food playing a key component of our daily life, now being mindful of what we eat is crucial. It is not just a saying, but it is something our generation is keeping in mind and changing their eating habits. They have understood that ‘we are what we eat' and we also can cure such issues without any medicines.
People's faith in plants and the environment is slowly being restored with the result that people are starting to eat the gifts of nature rather than indulging in refined, packed, and processed products and exploiting other sentient beings. India can go a step further to leverage its agricultural resource base and vegetarian-friendly economy image to master the supply chain for packaged vegan food items. With the availability of local ingredients that are more nutritious, ‘home cooking’, ‘ghar ka khana’ will take the centre stage in the coming year.
The modern generation, which once believed in finding nutrition for their bodies in packed foods, now doesn’t. People are more conscious now and understand what real nutrition is and what is harmful to their health. Past couple of years, there has been a paradigm shift towards mock meat, fermented food, plant based milk, butter, cheese which have proven to be healthy and effective.
Plants have all the nutrients we need, and we can reverse all diseases and weak immunity problems with plant nutrients. As nature is our mother, and as a mother cannot forget her children, in the same way, mother nature cannot forget her load of plants with protein, carbohydrates, calcium, which our body desperately needs.
The health space in the hospitality industry is on the rise. The myth that healthy food is boring is not more than a belief. Today, what’s trending is good health with good taste. A vegan and plant-based lifestyle is trending and is now becoming the preference of many. This type of lifestyle is sustainable because of its easy availability and it also provides the best alternatives to daily consumable ingredients like oil, cheese, curd, milk, meat.
A plant-based or vegan lifestyle shows that we do not need animal products to fulfill our body’s needs. Rather, there are a variety of meat substitutes in the market like soy, green peas, jackfruit, wheat gluten (Seitan), and beans of all types to satiate the need of meat protein replicating the taste, flavour, texture and visual appeal; followed by the rise of fermented foods which aid digestion and boost weight-loss gaining a broader acceptance.
With healthy food choices and hygiene preferences on the rise and less time in hand, the trend of home delivery and takeaway will see a spike; fast-paced lifestyles and changed consumer behaviour have further driven the rise of Cloud kitchens in India catering to various Indian palates.
So, with time, the need to understand that we can live without consuming other beings and that plant alone can give us a healthy lifestyle is very crucial. Also, the animals are there to cohabitate, not go extinct due to our consumption. Hence, the need to shift to a vegan and plant-based lifestyle is very important. The world is a space for all species to co-exist together and thrive. We are all born compassionate beings, but during life, we see that our body needs animal protein.
Hence, we consumed it in many forms, such as in dairy products, meat products, and by extracting proteins. These industries market and condition us to believe that we need to build a life for ourselves above all other sentient beings. We live in the golden era, where the world is just a click or a post away. Globalisation is now easy and is the only thing that keeps our globe modern and running.
The fact that it does not give enough nutrition is not true. Plant-based food gives us what our bodies need and in the right amount.
(The author is founder at Justbe Resto Café)
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