Ours is an ancient and boundlessly enriched heritage. So vast is its extent that it encompasses several subjects as well as millennia, all the while maintaining their relevance. Our grandparents know and respect that heritage. They abide by it. They incorporate the core principles into their lives. Case in point – Child Nutrition. Our grandmothers were personally in-charge of preparing the meals and procuring the necessary foods. They, unlike us, had been acquainted with the rules of the kitchen from an early age. Predominantly belonging to large family set-up where women were the de-facto managers of the household, they were well-versed in the nutritional requisites of people of all age groups.

Then, due to the lack of availability of foods that were designed specifically to appeal to children, it was upon them to come up with innovative methods to make even the most disliked ingredient palatable to children. As their primary goal was to ensure that the family’s, especially the children’s, nutritional needs were fulfilled. They are masters at presenting the same ingredients in various forms (made through various treatments and processes), playing with textures and flavors alike keeping in mind the nutritional value of the same and appropriateness for particular climatic conditions, prevalent seasons and specific requirements of the individual.

They ate the produce as they occur in nature. They didn’t trim the bits that were unappetizing. They ate vegetables and fruits in their entirety, including the seeds and peels when they were deemed edible. Today, we have hybrid varieties of produce which are genetically altered to look appealing and yet we are hesitant. And since these hybrids are available all year long , we end up consuming foods that are not suitable to our genetic composition as they are not local or not suitable for our climatic conditions. Let’s not ignore the fact that most things we consume daily such as grains and dairy products are now heavily processed.

In our unrelenting quest for eating healthy, we have pushed the food industry personage to evolve the system to benefit from this. And while the foods may pass the quality test, the nutrients added therein are often artificial and synthesized. The product thus created is a ‘one size fits all’ sample and hence doesn’t take into account requirements of people from diverse geographical conditions and age groups. Our children bear the brunt of this modernization.

It would be wise to let the grandparents be in-charge of the health of the household – especially the children, so that they may inculcate the importance of natural sunlight, exercise, routine and germs while we foolishly pride in being slaves to our soy milk lattes, screens and spondylitis.

Nisarg Nutritions, supported by a team of Dietitians, Nutritionists and Ayurvedists aims to bring back India’s lost and forgotten healthy grains to you in the form of Natural, Tasty and Healthy products.