This month my sermon isn’t about which chemicals (read poisons) to watch out for in our food, but about popular attitudes to food. Too often when we are handed a cup of branded coffee, be it a Georgia or Barista, we adjust our tastes to suit the coffee. Perhaps we need to be less accommodating. Truth to tell, I’ve never been able to finish even one cup of any of these coffees. Used, as I am to drinking only organic filter coffee, I can’t accept their taste of chemicals. And there’s no harm in being frank about it.

Unfortunately feeding oneself has become a sport rather than a means of nourishing the body. I’m amazed at people who crib about buying organic food because of the cost, but don’t blanch at the thought of spending thousands on a dinner or bauble, or even, as on one memorable occasion, a foot massager (price: Rs.22,000). True, it may be a one-time buy but the amount involved could pay for organic fare for a whole year! Plus there will be savings on doctor’s bills and earnings lost while sick.

Recently I signed up with a health spa on the recommendation of a friend since the establishment offered free membership. In the beauty salon I encountered women spending hours on facials, hair treatment, the works. They were so vain about each strand of hair on their heads that it prompted me to wonder how many of them cared about their insides as much they did for the externals.

There’s more to life than getting worked upon to look beautiful to attend dinners and soirees and ingest food also made to look beautiful with deadly colouring agents and emulsifiers. That’s why sensitive people all over the world are beginning to appreciate chemicals-free organically grown foodstuff. Even master chefs acknowledge that if the raw material of their fare is not good (i.e organic), the end result cannot be either. And the smart folks are also becoming aware that one doesn’t need to rustle up exotic fare or re-learn cooking to incorporate organic foods into their diets. It’s simply a question of replacing your ingredients with whole natural organic foods and cooking as usual.

An article in The Hindustan Times (September 16) discloses that the world’s largest health study correlating death and lifestyles has been commissioned in India. I wonder why. Do we still need proof that smoking, drinking, ingesting refined cereals, oils, salts, refined sugar and leading sedentary lives contribute to ill-health and premature death? More than listing and warning against these killer foodstuffs, positive propaganda about organically grown foods and physical activity might serve a better social purpose.

In this connection, the role of stress reduction and love in spreading happiness and general well-being needs to be emphasised. A stress test is hardly the solution. It only steers you in the direction of allopathic medication. If the powers that be in government were truly interested, they would do something about abolishing archaic rules and laws that demoralise and stress out citizens. Moreover in the general interest of society, government needs to make a determined effort to resolve long-standing social problems such as widespread poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment by ensuring stringent tax laws without loopholes for the rich. It is entirely possible for a country as large and rich in natural resources as India, to take care of all its citizens with minimum provision.

What health studies like the one referred to above seldom take into account — one of the main causes of ill-health — is the lack of love in people’s lives. Nor do they accord adequate weightage to government-imposed stressors such as niggling laws, processes and procedures.

Recently at a friend’s home, the conversation veered around to pesticide residues in Coke and Pepsi and the ruckus being created about it. What about the pesticides in milk, fruits and vegetables, asked the host who owns a soda bottling plant. Pertinent question. But unfortunately that’s where the conversation ended with nobody advancing the view that a switch to organic farming could be a simple solution. There’s a weary resignation within society to living with such assaults on our daily lives, and nobody wants to make a fuss.

The plain fact is that our ground water is heavily contaminated with chemicals. If so, how can Pepsi be pesticide free? Unfortunately we cannot see the chemicals. So we eat, drink and make merry. And when we get sick we blame it on our genes, germs, viruses or destiny! Why take responsibility and change our reckless habits, tastes and lifestyles? Why bother changing our priorities when it is more exciting to acquire yet another pair of shoes or add more to bulging wardrobes?

Increasingly people are switching to garlic, green tea, wheat grass etc because they believe in their healing properties. But surely the main food items on the menu cannot be ignored? Adding exotic supplements while continuing to ingest chemical-laden staples won’t help. Pure, chemicals-free food has to be carefully prepared and eaten to feed our hungry body cells. If not, they will always be hungry, forcing you into eating as a sport or displacement activity.

So once you grasp the connection between food and intelligent nutrition, your life will sort itself out. And you will free your mind and body to follow your dreams.

(Kavita Mukhi is a Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and director of Conscious Food)