The Forgotten Ancient Indian Foods: The Need of Hour

Public Health Reviews, 2022

Objectives: The objective of this review is to examine the changes in food consumption pattern of Indians over the years and to recommend evidence-based policy making regarding all the factors affecting food consumption.Methods: We have reviewed the articles from major databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar. The keywords used for the search included dietary pattern, dietary trend, dietary intake, food system, nutrition system, prehistoric food systems, drought, famine, whole grains, diets, prices, income, environment, urban food consumption, processed foods, food security, food preferences, demographic transition, fat intake, food production, public distribution system, food consumption pattern, Indian agriculture, and India.Results: There is no facilitating environment for the production and cultivation of healthy and sustainable food.Conclusion: Policymakers should make major amendments to food and agricultural policies, and demotivate the consumption of junk food.

International Research Journal of Ayurveda & Yoga, 2023

Objective: Sattu is one of the famous traditional foods of India. It is also used as medicine for treatment of many diseases, as dietary supplement for maintaining health and for prevention of different diseases. Aim of the present study was to compile and analyze the information regarding Sattu, available in various classical texts of Ayurveda. Data Sources: Ayurvedic texts mainly Brihattrayee comprising Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, Ashtanga Samgraha and Ashtanga Hridaya and various lexicons of Ayurveda were critically analyzed for the present review. Results: Sattu can be prepared from grains/cereals or medicinal plants or processed food articles. Sattu prepared from grains/cereals can be used as dietary supplement and Sattu prepared from medicinal plants can be used in various medical conditions or diseases as per the disease alleviating properties of the medicinal plant. Conclusion: Sattu is described by almost every classical text. In classics various properties of Sattu have been described in detail. Sattu is a nutritious food and its description is found in the form of Mantha as a regular drink for instant energy and strength.

Journal of Anthropological Survey of India, 2011

Man is a cooking animal. The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the facilities and passions of our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook Boswell 1970 The Backdrop The entire history of the human being has been divided into two parts, time when they used to gather and hunt their food that was grown naturally and time when they started cultivating and rearing their food. Gaining command over the sources of food through domestication has been called a revolution; undoubtedly that revolution has remained the most significant one in human history. Processing food for preserving or consuming the same, cooking is a part of that effort, marks another extremely significant dividing line between the humans and the non-humans. Any culture has its own body of knowledge on food and beverage and on human behaviour related to the same. When the lore, riddles and anecdotes found among the people are studied critically, those might reveal important insights into culture contacts of the distant and near past, changes in the collective value system and various culture dynamics of more recent times. Till date much of this knowledge has had been transmitted orally, only a fraction of it has been written down or documented otherwise. Other than the community based knowledge, a large body of knowledge has also been generated through experimentations and through systematic enquiry by professionals and experts. The existing literature on food can be classified into several distinct genres. Starting from economic discourses on procurement, production, distribution, availability, affluence, wastage and scarcity of food, there are innumerable studies on nutritional and other physiological impact of food on human groups. The anthropological writings on food and beverage have examined various dimensions of human behaviour related to the above; those studies have critically examined the traditional knowledge as well as the political and historical perspectives in addition to the recent perceptions and popular discourses on the subject. The Beginning In the nineteenth century queries raised by the anthropologists about food were dominated by issues related to taboo, totemism, sacrifice and communion. In other words, the emphasis was essentially on religious aspects of food (Goody 1982). Other than James Frazer's article on taboo and totemism in the ninth edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Garrick Mallery and William Robertson Smith wrote on this subject. None of the latter two were primarily interested in researching food and food related behaviour; at least for Mallery the primary goal was to demonstrate the evolutionary stages of the social institutions. However,

International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 2017

Food composition table is the data of chemical constituents; energy yield and nutritive value of food brought first time by NIN in 1939 and has been constantly revised in the year 1951, 1971 1989 with more precision. However, 202 common foods with altered nutrient composition were noted. Significant rise infat content with reduction in protein and micronutrient was found. Hence in the year 2017 foods were sampled with valid sampling methods unlike earlier study adding 136 new components and Vitamin D 2 components. Analysis showed that green gram and black lentil has less protein by 10% and 6.2 % respectively than earlier. Milk and eggs has reduced prtein than before. Also, thiamine, magnesium and zinc declined in tomato, cabbage and potato by 41-56%. Micronutrients level rises in some foods like masoor and green leafy vegetables but reduced in other foods like apple has 60% less iron. Major reason recognized for this decline in nutrients content is rigorous agricultural practices resulting in stripping of soil quality. Further, increased level of carbon dioxide affecting plant nutrition by inhibiting nitrogen uptake and hence protein concentration in food. All the above findings demands immediate consideration by researchers, agricultural scientist and policy makers to find the substitute with more nutrient dense food and fortification policy to uplift health statistics by diluting micronutrient hunger in the country.

Journal of Human Evolution, 1978

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 1995

The cultural landscape of India, from the earliest Vedic period to contemporary times, is littered with food. As a biological necessity, as an economic commodity, as the primary ingredient of ritual and social transactions, as a medium of social and familial interaction, as a marker of social boundaries, as a principle of classification, and as a focus of ethical concerns of both religious virtuosi and common people, food has always been and continues to be at the heart of Indian ritual practice, social behavior, common etiquette, and theological speculation. The Vedic sacrifices, often involving the killing of a sacrificial victim, just as their vegetarian counterparts in modern temples, are essentially offerings of food to the gods. Eating the leftovers of these divine meals provides a major point of contact with the divine for sacrificers and devotees alike (Wezler 1978). In a contemporary celebration of the cowherd god Kr.sna in the region of Braj, the central attraction is the "mountain of food" (annak~ta) created and consumed by the devotees (Toomey 1992). Every Indian life-cycle rite is celebrated with a feast. Food links the dead with the living in periodic drdddha oblations. Food links the Buddhist and Jaina monks with the laity and the Hindu samnydsins with the common folk in the ritual of daily begging-the giving and the receiving of food. Issues relating to food-what one is permitted to eat, how one should prepare it, when and how much one should eat, from whom one can accept it, with whom one can eat-these are central questions both in the legal literature of dharmaddstra and in the minds of ordinary people. An ancient Vedic text uses food and eating to classify all reality-food and eaters of food, that's all there is! 1 A similar thought is echoed in the famous creation hymn of the R gveda (10.90.4) when it divides all things into those that

SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities

This article analyses some popular eating habits in the Indian subcontinent, considering its diversity in its history, especially during the time of colonialism and its religion. Based upon the religious scriptures and postcolonial theorists like Shaobo Xie and Homi K. Bhabha, the article argues that food has its implications beyond the kitchen where it is cooked. Consciously or unconsciously, history and religion have dictated our food choices. Taken together, the references provide new insights into some of the common food items of the Indian subcontinent, showing them as distinct identity markers. Such analysis can help relate our food habits to a broad context and open new avenues to understand the cultural identity of humans through their dietary choices.

This essay surveys a broad landscape of studies that take up the preparation, imbibing, and distribution of food in significant ways, focusing on the way in which the field of food studies in South Asia is cohering in recent scholarship. It begins with histories of the imperial period that frame food around imperial encounter and then move on to studies that address the crises of food through famine and their political aftermath. It then turns to the postcolonial, globalized context of making food Indian in a large‐scale market and concludes with thoughts on where food studies and food cultures are headed. Ultimately, food is determined to have symbolic and pragmatic meaning as an icon of national presence in the greater world, a tool for assessing social relations, a measure of taste and values, a challenge for the political and environmental systems of a geo‐economic space. As eating in India has taken on new political dimensions that have arisen from the synchronous rise of both neoliberal practices of political economy and the rise of Hindu fascism, the anxieties articulated through the cultures of food at work in the region are revealed.

International journal of multidisciplinary research & reviews, 2024

Food consumption in India has evolved dramatically over the years, affected by cultural, religious, economic, and technical reasons. Ancient Indian meals were predominantly vegetarian, based on agricultural products such as grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables, with dairy playing an important part. The arrival of the Mughals in the 16th century brought rich, diversified cuisines with meat, exotic spices, and new cooking techniques, resulting in the fusion of Persian and Indian culinary traditions. The colonial period brought about additional changes as European influences introduced new foods and eating habits, like tea, coffee, and refined sugar, which became staples of Indian diets. The Green Revolution of the mid-twentieth century greatly revolutionized food production, increasing the availability of staple grains such as wheat and rice and shifting conventional consumption patterns. In recent decades, globalization and urbanization have resulted in a more INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH & REVIEWS j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. i j m r r. o n li n e / in d e x. p h p / h o m e