Modern diets consist of too much intake of bakery products, processed foods, food additives like fortified foods, preservatives etc. Modern diet among the youth of Indian can include street foods.
FOOD ADDITIVES – BENEFITS OR ILL – EFFECTS
Reading the ingredients list on packaged food can leave you feeling horrified, especially when it comes to the names and numbers of food additives, which are often completely unidentifiable and unpronounceable.
But despite our confusion, the food additives in in our tins of tomatoes, tube of margarine, or jars of jam are there for a variety of reasons. They may stop your food going off, improve its taste or appearance, or keep the ingredients from separating.
Food Standards Australia’s chief scientist Dr Paul Brent says: “a food additives is any substance that is not normally consumed as a food in itself and is not normally an ingredient, but which is allowed to be there if it fulfills a technological function in the final food”.
- › Adding or restoring color to foods (artificial colors have numbers in 100s).
- › Preventing food from ‘going off’ (preservatives have code numbers in 200s).
- › Slowing or preventive the oxidative deterioration of foods(antioxidants have code numbers in 300s).
- › Improving the flavor of food (food enhancers have code numbers in the 600s).
- › Also certain food additives are done for the purpose of fortification of the products which is good to some extent. It provides good amount of healthy but artificial or synthetic nutrients.
The Indian cuisine is said to be developed over ages by influence of Ayurveda. Over the years, beneficial ayurvedic herbs were introduced in our daily food which became our curries and cuisines.
e.g. our cuisines uses various herbs plus vegetables which have known benefits for curing ailments.