An alert issued regarding unhealthy packaged foods, and how food nutrition labels can and cannot help us to become aware. ************************************************************************************** I know you all kids must be excited about Dusshera and Diwali. The whole month you’ll be exchanging sweets and offering scrumptious feasts. Our friends and families will enjoy beautifully wrapped gifts of savouries— chocolates, candies, chips, soft drinks, and what not! Their advertisements will flood our television screens and social media, and even masquerade as a renewed form of celebration with the …

Eat Healthy. Breathe Healthy. Stay... ***************************** Zillions of vehicles are emitting a cocktail of poisonous gases. Industries spewing forth more of it. Burning crops, waste dumps on fire, construction and demolition dust, Diwali firecrackers... Winter is here with a host of triggers for a variety of ailments. Add to it, the gastronomic indulgence that the festive season occasions, a time when adulterated food assumes a particularly menacing appearance. The question is, will the Jawan in all of us be able to deal with this double jeopardy?

Genetic engineering is used to modify the food we eat. But do we know enough about its effect on us? For as long as we know, the food we eat is grown in farms and fields by farmers who sow seeds and harvest them every season. Adulterations in food products sold loose, such as pulses or sugar in the local kirana stores, is quite common. But we never worry about adulterations while buying packaged food from the shelves of our favourite shop. After all, they pass through several quality checks. But a study by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that packaged food items have genetically …

These are some easy steps to detect adulteration in milk that can be done at home. This video describes how to detect adulteration with water, starch, and detergent. The steps are prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The key lies in education. We should expose children more to food systems, says nutrition consultant Rujuta Diwekar.

This is the age of hard sell: everything that is or can be on sale, is being sold aggressively through promotions, advertisements, media campaigns, claims of how good the product is, what health benefits it supposedly has, etc... and that also goes for the food that we eat.