Healthy Food
While goji berries did not stick for long, there are a few health foods that we will be seeing a lot in 2016. Matcha tops the list. Derived from green tea leaves, there are more than a million pictures on Instagram where people have used it in various food preparations. Seeds like sunflower, watermelon, pumpkin, chia and hemp to name a few are second on the list. Sauerkraut and Sorghum also make the list. Sauerkraut is a probiotic made by fermenting cabbage and Sorghum is a gluten free grain rich in essential nutrients.
Makar Sankranti is celebrated across the country as a festival of new harvest where people make sweets at home from freshly harvested grains and organic produce. One common component in the sweets is jaggery which is rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Food specialist Sadhana Ganti from Kharghar, Navi Mumbai said that Sankranti sweets can be a part of a balanced diet as the concoction of ghee, jaggery, seeds and grains transform sweets into health food.
Maryland Healthy Vending Act" has been proposed in the state of Maryland, the USA to make more choices of healthy foods and drinks available in vending machines across the state. With childhood obesity and diabetes on the rise, this act could eradicate health problems from unhealthy eating habits. This Act could decrease the problems related to obesity if implemented. 75% of all snacks will have to meet the trans-fat and sodium content standards provided.
‘Healthy’ is leading to ‘unhealthy’ obesity. People are overeating healthy foods keeping them less full but increasing their waistline. We have an extreme gap in differentiating healthy and unhealthy foods that alter our eating habits. People associate ‘nourishing’ with keeping full. Research shows that the term ‘healthy’ to describe food has a negative impact on people and a more positive term like ‘nourishing’ should be used thus making it appear to people that the food is more filling.