“Wanna eat paratha?”
Why to exhaust yourself in the process of kneading the dough, making balls and flat them with rolling pin! Just buy a packet of ready to cook paratha, get your task done in a few minutes and enjoy the delicacy.
There is a mood of having some rolls, patties and nuggets as snacks. No worries! Several companies packaged them with various flavors in a ready-to-cook mode. Open the pack, fry them and have fun with the feast.
Who to buy fresh milk everyday. Let’s buy the packaged ones for the whole month.
There should be some fruit drinks with the lunch. No problem! Tetra packaging has made it possible to preserve fruit drinks for a long time. Now there is no need to tire yourself by the process of buying, peeling and crushing fresh fruits.
The science has done a great job in creating sophistication and flavors in our everyday life. By learning the methods of preservation we are not only able to increase the shelf life of the food but also able to save time by preserving ready-to-cook meal.
The additives in the food tantalizes our taste buds and gives the pleasure that was missing in the natural product.
From fried onion to tomato puree, pizza crust to rolls, pop corns to chips, sauces to garlic/ginger paste, everything is available in ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat format. The sophistication has created a lot of ease in our day to day lives.
Science has not only facilitated the human life via the preservation and flavoursome-ness of the food, but also via the increase in growth of food products.
The breeding of chicken in ample amount is made possible by feeding the chicken with additive feed and growth hormone. Production of milk is increased via injections to the mammals. The use of pesticides have helped saving the crops. We certainly owe the science for the benefits it has brought to us.
Nevertheless, the bliss is merely the one side of the coin. The other side is scary.
Ultra processed and synthetic food has been found to be a reason of increasing rate of chronic illnesses like obesity, cardiac diseases and diabetes. source. Ultra processed food is not only harmful to physical health but also for mental health Source
The use of additives and preservatives in our food have added to the antibiotic resistance. So the treatment of infections has become more troublesome. Source. The use of preservatives has also found to be related to onset muscular weakness, abdominal pain, leukaemia, respiratory tract ailments, diarrhoea, etc.
The use of growth hormones for the production of milk and chicken has adverse effects on human health. It has found to be related to increased risk of certain cancers and tumours. Source. Also, these hormones are responsible for hormonal imbalances, and early onset of puberty among young girls. Source. In a study the commercially bred chicken was found to deteriorating for liver health.
It’s a fact that the number of chronic ailments and health related problems have increased in the last two decades source. Along with other factors, I believe, the science applied in the field of food industry has a lot to do with deterioration of health. While the application of science has brought economical and lifestyle benefits, the general health of the masses is negatively effected.
I must confess that it is no longer possible to prevent ourselves fully from the elements like preservatives and processed food. However, we should be as preventive as we can. We should prefer using fresh fruits and vegetables instead of canned ones. Instead of utilizing ready-to-cook or pre-prepared food, we should prepare the food at home. We should take nutritionally rich food instead of mere delicacies high on fats and sugars. This way we can minimize the effects of unhealthy scientific applications used by the food industry.
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This post is my participation for Hl-featured contest.
Disclaimer: In this post, I have used hyperlinks to various sources. There is no intentional plagiarism. The purpose of providing the link is to support my points with evidence and empirical researches.
Image by AlbanyColley from pixabay