Anish Ghimire  

One of our routine habits to which we don’t pay much attention is food or eating habits. Our body needs the appropriate amount of food or just the right kind of eating habit to get us through the day. Our health, overall well-being, depends on what we choose to consume. It is an integral part of our existence and yet most of us choose to be naïve about it. Especially those who have a tight schedule and cannot pay much attention to what they eat or the young ones, who have a healthy digestive system and can digest almost any type of food. For them, to put some thought into their edible consumption seems an uphill task.

There is no doubt that in urban areas, the variety of unhealthy foods is available at large than the healthier ones. Every street, every market, and almost everywhere in Kathmandu, we can find the aroma of fried and dry food coming in. Most of us are lured into its added flavour trap. One cannot help themselves but sit down and dive into the food to heal that dose of dopamine. Momentarily, it tastes great, the savoury taste melts in your mouth asking you for plenty more. But as you go about it again, your stomach weighs heavy. Tardiness begins to conquer your body. All of a sudden you find yourself lacking energy, feeling lazy and sleepy.

Cheap medications
Why does that happen? The apex reason for this phenomenon is that regular fast foods are high in fat but low in fibre. They slow down our digestion as they are also utterly low on nutrients. Munching on deep-fried foods which are low on fibre and nutrients seizes the power of our body to digest quicker, hence, leading to fatigue and tiredness. In Nepal, fast foods aren’t the only problem. The vegetables are filled with pesticides. Certain types of cheap medications result in abnormal growth of vegetables that are by no means healthy for the human body. The vegetable can look nice and healthy from the outside but once you take it home, the taste is off, the smell is weird and the whole thing tastes like some kind of medicine.

An incident occurred to my relative once, she bought some beans from the local market, and once she cooked it properly, she sat down to eat it, and when she did, the vegetable had the taste of chemicals mixed with medicine and she had to throw it all away. Fruit and Vegetables aren’t the only issues here. When one buys chicken from a local shop and starts to cook it, a large quantity of water is released from the chicken. And when a large amount of water is released, the quantity of chicken has ultimately decreased. The cut pieces look smaller. The quantity decreases dramatically, it’s as if the half of chicken was only water. If dairy, fruit and vegetables, and other of our daily edible foods have to stop being healthy then how can we remain fit?

No wonder, people of older generations can survive for so long because all they ate was home-cooked organic food. But today, in our generation from the early growth, we eat processed and added flavour foods that hinder the growth of our body. Such a situation also costs our health; both mental and physical. Here I dare not miss to mention pure negligence from schools and colleges. In many canteens of educational institutions, especially in the morning shift, we can find all sorts of deep-fried snacks like samosas, mashed potatoes, chow mein, momo, and what not.

The students eat such food early in the morning and go back to study. Imagine the body of that pupil, how it reacts when in the need to pay attention in the classroom. One can be sleepy and tired in the classroom after consuming such fatty foods with low nutrients. Healthy food options should also be available especially in the area of education institutions.
Fast food can affect academic performance since it is difficult to complete tasks that require extended periods of concentrated attention due to high sugar levels followed by sugar crashes and poor concentration levels. Blood sugar changes can cause mood swings and a lack of alertness, which can reduce classroom engagement. With all of these highly enticing fast foods available, it’s hard to maintain a good eating habit. One of the major parts of eating habits is the time of eating.

Balance consumption
If your mealtime is dynamic and there isn’t a fixed time for your meal, then that isn’t a good eating habit. Too late or too early isn’t good. A fixed time should be designated for all the meals taken throughout the day. If that is taken into action then the body will get habitual to your eating time and will expect the food, hence digesting with ease. The other factor is quantity, if you feel full and still decide to eat more, it results in overeating. Consumption should be balanced and not more or less. We should keep one thought in mind as we go about our eating habits and that is, “Don’t survive to eat but eat to survive.”

It is said that we are what we eat. If we choose to be rational and opt what benefits our health controlling our momentary desires then we have a path towards a healthy life. Our body is energised and undiluted. Such a trait of ours gives us a longer concentration span and better performance in professional life. Tardiness will be brought to a minimal rate and the overall well-being of the body stays sharp. Both the mental and physical health will be at ease due to our one simple mannerism. After all, we want to be around for as long as we can. If we can achieve that by just controlling our consumption, then imagine what else we can achieve in this life.

(Ghimire is a college student. anish321ghimire@gmail.com)