Snacking

An American boy visiting a cattle farm in India said, “They are all American cows”. Asked how he knew it, he said “They are all chewing”. That sums up the American habit of chewing—chewing gum or its variant, snacking. Any time is “snack time” goes an ad.

In the days gone by, in India, there were only two main meals a day for adults; one in the morning, around the noon, and one in the night around 7.30 or 8.00 pm. In between, a snack like chakli or kodubale or some hurigaalu, perhaps, just to loosen the salivary glands. Children had an afternoon meal of rice and lentil soup and anything that would keep them from pestering their mom or grandmom. The laborer had some ganjee (gruel) in the morning before setting out to the fields and his wife would bring his lunch with raagi balls (or roti) and some gravy. A freshly cooked meal in the night would round off the day’s diet.

With industrialization and introduction of factory working hours, a breakfast, a lunch in a carrier, and a night meal became the order of the day. Office workers followed much the same routine; they left home after a home cooked meal carrying a lunch box and after returning home had a cup of coffee and some snacks and a night meal. That is how the snack seems to have sneaked in and stayed put. Now, any time is snack time, and one is caught snacking day in and day out justifying the American kid’s description of a chewing cow.

In America, this snacking has become a curse—people are obese and suffer from indigestion, constipation, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases due to blocking of arteries, high cholesterol levels etc. Grocery stores have shelves stacked with snacks: chips—salted, unsalted, lightly salted, sea salted, kettle cooked, ruffled and in various brands, cookies and candies of various types, energy bars, chocolate chips, fruit snaps, donuts, peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, and popcorn in packets and buckets. To wash down these snacks there are sodas, beers, Colas, Pepsies and drinks in tetra packs, cans, and bottles, marked low calorie, high calorie and zero calorie.

The scenario in India seems to be no different now. There are food courts and food streets and food carts selling anything from bondaas to bajjies, dosas to dhoklas, idlies, vadas, paavbajies, popcorn, cooked corn, corncobs, etc. Juice stalls and ice cream parlors, and pizza huts complete the picture. Obesity in children and adults is being increasingly noticed. Snacking is a fad that is being imported by India from America with all its retinue of threats to national health and wellbeing.