Food for Health

- Mangai Jaikumar

Growing your own Food:

There is a sense of accomplishment in growing your own vegetables and fruits, though in small quantity. All you need is soil, sunlight and water! You are sure your crops are not sprayed with pesticides, you can have a control over the types of seeds and plants that you sow and grow.

Our ancestors lived mostly in independent houses. Flats and gated community living were unfamiliar in those days.

Each independent house had a small or big garden - a backyard for growing vegetables and herbs while the front looked colourful with a variety of flowering plants.

Preserve your own Food:

Canning the food you grow in your garden is a great way to preserve fresh foods. Home canned goods will never go waste. If you practice and follow what our ancestors did, there would be a lot less food getting wasted. Even leftovers became a whole new meal.

Cook at Home:

Nothing like a home-cooked meal! If you prepare your own food you know what goes onto your plate and into your body. You can also ensure that you are eating an organic, non-genetically modified diet. Nowadays, it is common for people to eat out several times a week/month. For our grandparents, eating out was reserved for special occasions. Eating out was considered a treat then.

Healthy habits:

Bottled water would have seemed ridiculous 100 years ago, but now people take them wherever they go. Money spent on medicines was less as our elders practiced simple home remedies like to combat a cold with garlic, ginger, herbs and/or oil.

Above all, there was no Face book, there was no TV. People just talked to people in genuine reality - the secret behind their long and healthy life!

Growing and preserving your own food is also creative. Cooking the food that you have grown and sharing it is an emotional and creative thing to do.