There can be no society without fallacies and fads, especially with regard to the obsession of mankind - food. After all, most of our waking hours are spent in the pursuit of food, how to procure it, how to prepare it for consumption and how to avoid it, especially so in today`s health conscious era.

Here`s a look at some fads and fallacies which hound us all the time. These relate to the kind of food, the days, the age and gender of the consumer, the health and most of all the religious rulings, which control these fads. Of course, the greatest experts, the grandmothers and old wives are the infectious carriers of these traditional tales, which have framed our outlook on food.

Religion
Every religion has dos and don`ts regarding food. Foremost is the fear created by fasting. For certain reasons, which can be personal or universal, fasting is necessary, and if not done, some curse will fall upon you and your family. Perhaps, `karvachouth` can be a very good example. The health and welfare of your husband (read God), is at stake if you don`t follow the rules! What about avoiding sour foods for Santhoshi Matha?

Scientific truths, like fasting occasionally is good for controlling body weight, are often camouflaged by religious fears. Certain other ideas like sour foods should be avoided have no scientific approval but still makes sense. But religious control through fear causes a lot of fallacies.

Next is the vegetarian and non-vegetarian taboo. Being totally vegetarian has good reasons, but avoiding non-vegetarian food on certain days for religious injunctions shows great immaturity in my opinion. A friend of our family, who could not accept a meal without meat, would wait till midnight on Saturday nights so that he could eat meat on a Sunday morning! His whole family had to wait for the lord and master to eat along with him or after him.

Eating meat in combination with some other foods can be detrimental to health and even life, according to some fallacies. Meat and curd are a no-no. Egg combined with snakegourd paves a clear path to heaven or hell! No idea where these ideas come from!

No eating fish on Fridays? Why, what happens to fish on Fridays, perhaps this is just for a change in the menu of too much fish in the diet?

Food allergies, real or imagined
Some of the fallacies are based on alleged allergic reactions. Eating fish, eggs, milk, brinjal, yam and some others may be named in this connection and may be real allergies for some people but for most, these are connected to a single unpleasant reaction to a food. In children, if they react adversely to a food, the women of the house immediately make a judgement about the food and proudly announce that their child can never ever eat that food again, just like his father, grandfather and even great grandfather!!! Now, is this a fad or a fallacy? Scientific tests are available to check this out. As a matter of fact, good or bad habits (mostly bad habits) are formed in this manner at childhood with the blessings and connivance of elders at home. These tend to become family specific fads and fallacies.

Fads and fallacies based on calories and weight
These are modern influences with little or no knowledge of nutrition in relation to health. A few foods are marketed as health and heart friendly foods, like oats, nuts and mixed grains. While this is true, the price of these foods has gone up phenomenally, which in turn makes them unavailable to people who cannot afford them.

Many youngsters and women think that carbohydrates and calories relate to rice more than any other food. Therefore, rice has to be avoided at all cost and calories should be totally cut out to be slim, thin and size zero! How can I expand on this universally accepted LAW of today? Help, it`s the worst fad and fallacy!

Malathi Mohan
The author is a retired professor of WCC, Chennai; retired Dean, Academy of Fitness Management, Chennai and Past President, Indian Dietetic Association

Image: Flickr/creativecommons scaredykat

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