Western nutrition is based often on research in caucasians, more likely males and changes as new “discoveries” occur. Wrong teachings such as your example of margarine is the perfect case in point. For over five decades (2013 trans fats banned in US) it was pushed by almost all the nutrition powers in US with the American Heart Association being the biggest guilty party. The New York Times nutrition pages were full of advice to use margarine. The lowering of IQ when margarine is fed to infants and young children may be one of the reasons for how America is turning out. The epidemic of DJD, A Fibrillation and Macular degeneration, and other ailments in old age in the world can be blamed on this cellular poison made from near rancid vegetable oils for profit, ease of transport and to prolong shelf life of baked goods from a few weeks with butter to many months with margarine! My grandmother would not let us eat cheap "vanaspati “ or ghee from the forest Hindustan Lever name for the ubiquitous margarine.
The countries with the two biggest populations India and China have long histories of food habits that developed through careful observation in populations over millennia shared from generation to generation in families. Colon health was paramount in both ancient health systems but all I learnt in Allopathic medicine till just a few years ago was that colon just had waste products. Nothing could be further from the truth as the worst discovers microbiota and how it dramatically influences health.
The story of scurvy is fascinating. This vitamin C deficiency disease that killed 1/3 to 1/2 the sailors that left England to come to India around the cape till the 19th century was not an issue in any of our Indian sailors because they all took pickled lemon in the sailboat as part of their long journey. The British Navy despite hearing of this did not accept it for over 100 years after learning this practice. The wisdom of the elders saved these intrepid Indian sailors that went to Southeast Asia Fiji Australia.
The science of scurvy was not known till somebody in the west “discovered" vitamin C.
How maida came to be the flour of choice after World War 2 is a story worth sharing some day!
I craved White bread over parantha as a kid. I remember a movie where Ashok Kumar who played the husband was given toast butter and jam by his lovely wife as he rushed out to be driven in his car to work. And that's what I wanted, NOT the desi ghee parantha Iand milk got for breakfast daily. Only papa got the egg!
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