Culture & Nationalism

INDIA SHOWS WHY THE GLOBAL SHIFT TO PLANT-BASED DIETS IS DANGEROUS By Sylvia Karpagam, Frédéric Leroy and Martin Cohen DECEMBER 4, 2019   https://www.ozy.com/around-the-world/india-shows-why-the-global-shift-to-plant-based-diets-is-dangerous/250958/  WHY YOU SHOULD CARE? What works in the West isn’t necessarily good for developing countries.

Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its global report on nutrition and called for a global shift to a more plant-based diet and for “substantially reducing consumption of animal source foods.” In countries like India, that call could become a tool to aggravate an already fraught political situation and stress already undernourished populations.

A diet directed at the affluent West fails to recognize that in low-income countries undernourished children are known to benefit from the consumption of milk and other animal source foods, improving anthropometric indexes and cognitive functions, while reducing the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies as well as morbidity and mortality.

Or that, in India, bone fracture and shorter heights have been associated with lower milk consumption. Importantly, traditional livestock gets people through difficult seasons, prevents malnutrition in impoverished communities and provides economic security.

Vocal critics of the food processing industry and food fortification strategies, such as India’s Right to Food campaign, have been left out of the debate along with the National Institute of Nutrition, the 100-year-old government nutrition research body whose research points in favor of animal source foods. But the most blatant omission may as well be the fact that India’s farmers were conspicuously absent.

What is conveniently being ignored are the environmental and economic cost of shifting metric tons of micronutrients from Western countries on a permanent basis while at the same time destroying local food systems. It’s a model fraught with danger for future generations.

FOOD FOR THE SOCIAL MEDIA SOUL: WHY INDIANS VICIOUSLY DEBATE NUTRITION ONLINE 8th May 2019 https://genderit.org/feminist-talk/food-social-media-soul-why-indians-viciously-debate-nutrition-online by Sylvia Karpagam

Excerpts: Social media occasionally erupts into a tizzy over food choices. While true blue vegans swear by almond milk, non-dairy ice-cream, scrambled tofu, flaxseed, maple syrup, fortified plant milk etc., “pure’ vegetarians get into a sublime trance over thayir saadham , molagu maanga , poosanika pachadi, kurkure mushroom, malai chaap rolls, tandoori paneer momos, achaari tikka* etc. Meanwhile, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are going ballistic over the extreme cruelty meted out on animals by the meat-eating, leather wearing, animal experimenting sections of society.

By a strange but not unnatural coincidence, caste and class sit closely aligned in each of these groups – with the ‘pure’ vegetarians lauding the vegan army, and also claiming to be PETA activists in their spare time. It’s also this same group that occupies large tractlands on social media with little cognizance or sensitivity on how little the other groups are represented in these spaces. 

Discussions on social media around nutrition and food choice get cluttered with multiple issues. The modus operandi seems to be to shout, abuse, play the victim card and/or share links of google search documents that validate one’s own pet prejudices

In the meantime, India is reeling with several food-related crises. In some states, there are documented starvation deaths, especially with the introduction of the Aadhar card and biometric verification of people’s citizenship. 33.2% Indian men and 36% women have a Body Mass Index less than 18.5 which means they aren’t getting enough food to perform even activities of daily living, leave alone heavy labour. The poor in India have smaller heights, weights, chronic energy deficiency, poor bone health and a high risk of non-communicable diseases which can be attributed to poor diets that are cereal-heavy with nothing much else.  

While food is an extremely personal choice, its access and availability are closely linked to and affected by policy decisions around the land, water, environment, agriculture, pesticides, labour rights, gender, caste, education, social welfare schemes, healthcare etc.

Research shows that animal food, when eaten in the recommended quantity, has better absorption and bioavailability of proteins, vitamins and minerals than vegetable sources. 

However, given the rigid hierarchical caste and class structures that operate overtly and covertly in India, this mobility is almost impossible. Those that do move up on the social ladder often continue to face harassment, discrimination, abuse, humiliation, rejection etc.

Nowhere is this more visible than in how the vegetarians treat the meat eaters. Ideas of purity/pollution, clean/unclean, higher value/base value, sattvik/tamassic play out repeatedly with the single-minded agenda of maintaining a hierarchical status quo of humiliating the meat eater into a self-imposed state of inferiority.

Corporates such as Pepsico, Nestle, Coca Cola, Mars, Ajinomoto, Unilever, Monsanto, Bill and Melinda Gates, World Bank etc, - never slow to identify a market opportunity, have already occupied the policy-making table in the country, along with the predominantly vegetarian policymakers to push for fortification, processed foods, veganism and sattvik diets. The vegans, in the meantime, have quietly snuck up into the Indian sub-continent riding on the backs of the processed food industry – an agenda of large corporates and multinationals to divest food from the hands of communities and take full control.

Caste, food and ideological imposition By   Dr. Sylvia Karpagam https://www.dalitcamera.com/caste-food-ideological-imposition/ November 21, 2020

In reality, cutting down on sugars, reducing traditional cereals (read carbohydrates), and increasing the consumption of animal source foods, has the ability to drastically prevent or reduce the large scale prevalence of diabetes and its complications. 

In India, politics, culture, religion, caste and economics around cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses, oils, eggs, meat etc., prevent any rational or evidence based conversations around food.

The idea that dalit, Adivasi and OBC children should be grateful for whatever food is ‘given’ to them is deeply ingrained in the minds of doctors, activists, researchers, policy makers and pretty much the entire gamut of citizens in the country. The idea that children have inviolable rights to healthy, nutritious, tasty, clean, culturally relevant food is lost on most people who claim these same rights only for themselves. This is the crux of how caste discrimination operates in India, reinforcing all the hegemonic, hierarchical imbalances that are so evident that they become invisible. An entire mafia has formed around children’s food, making it almost impossible for children to have one decent meal as legally mandated by the NFSA.

It is of utmost importance that dalit, Muslim, Adivasi, Christian communities etc. that consume (and enjoy) eggs, beef, pork, fish, poultry etc. come together to reclaim their food sovereignty and challenge the hegemonic imposition of nutritionally inferior ‘sattvik’ foods.

Tiptoeing Around Meat in India’s Nutritional Minefields.  https://medium.com/brainfoodmagazine/tiptoeing-around-meat-in-indias-nutritional-minefields-5237459c7ef8 Dr. Sylvia Karpagam looks at the vegetarian politics which prevent action on diabetes

Since healthcare in India is largely privatised, unregulated and market driven, prevention of Type 2 diabetes would be considered less ‘lucrative’ than the curative care of debilitating consequences of poorly managed diabetes. The Indian health system is neither ready to handle the consequences of diabetes, nor is it affordable to a majority of Indians, who in the absence of any protective healthcare, are mostly left to choose between a poor public health care system or an exorbitant private system.

Anyone who.. is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in India is likely to repeatedly hear one specific bit of unsolicited advice ad nauseum — from parents, children, grandparents, relatives, teachers, employers, neighbours, friends, cousins etc. and that is to “Stop eating meat’. Ironically, this ‘nutritional advice’ is also given by medical professionals, counsellors, nutritionists, dieticians, teachers etc. irrespective of what is taught in their text books.

Giving up meat is seen as a panacea to all the health issues of the country. In fact, the more vegetarian one claims to be, the higher they are rated on the ‘nationalistic’ scale, with meat eaters being readily classified as ‘anti-national’.
Burdening patients with the responsibility of exercise as a way to control Type 2 diabetes is inadequate if the prime responsibility is not placed on diet. Multinational food companies are constantly sniffing around for devious ways of entering the food market in India and bring in the risks associated with processed foods.

 Also see:  http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/1357-%20karnataka-anti-cow-slaughter-bill-a-denial-of-right-to-nutrition 

Karnataka Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill: A Denial of Right to Nutrition https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/karnataka-anti-cow-slaughter-bill-a-denial-of-right-to-nutrition#read-more  SYLVIA KARPAGAM  11 Dec 2020

15 percent (or 180 million) Indians consume beef. This includes Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Adivasis.

the anti-cow slaughter Bill, which the Karnataka government has passed with great urgency, without even a pretence at the due process of democratic consultation, particularly with those who will be the most disaffected by this law.

Denial of Basic Nutritional Rights:  39 percent children, especially those from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, are stunted (less height for age) while 40 percent are undernourished (less weight for age). Anemia is found in 56 percent of the children before starting their school life at six years.

during the lockdown, all animal sources of food had been withdrawn from the mid-day meal for children. As a consequence, malnutrition in the state is going to increase even further, with a resurgence of several serious nutrition deficiency diseases, complicated by breakdown of regular immunisation during lockdown.

during the lockdown, all animal sources of food had been withdrawn from the mid-day meal for children. As a consequence, malnutrition in the state is going to increase even further, with a resurgence of several serious nutrition deficiency diseases, complicated by breakdown of regular immunisation during lockdown.

Nutritional Benefits of Beef

containing all the nine essential amino acids

vitamin D

Beef contains heme iron, which is better absorbed than non-heme iron from plant foods – which has inhibitors like phytates, polyphenols, calcium and phosphates, etc.

Animal foods are the most abundant sources of zinc and lean red meat can give approximately 40 mg zinc/kg. Green leafy vegetables and fruits are the poorest sources of zinc with a concentration of <10 mg/kg.

Preformed Vitamin A has better bioavailability and are found in food from animal sources.

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is found only in animal foods, particularly organ meats.

Attack on Cultural Eating Habits

While on the one hand farmers face the prospect of economic downturn because of the anti-cow slaughter Bill, extortion, harassment and exploitation by vigilante gangs are also being enabled by the government.