Hydrogenated vegetable oils – What is Safflower? Or Canola oil? Or even worse – corn oil. Are they even food? After the kind of processing they go through to make them edible, they better be termed as food. But the process itself adds such hidden harmful chemicals and calories that we’re far worse off than we ever thought we were. We’re lucky that we live in a country that produces coconuts and we can avail of wonderful coconut products. But where can I find a reasonably priced bottle of pure coconut oil? I buy nariyal paani on the road, but the oil at Nature’s Basket. What a shame.

Hand sanitizers – I have always been a grubby tomboy. And it’s helped keep sickness at bay. Today I can eat roadside bhel in the monsoon rain and get away scot-free. I’m not showing off. I just stay clear from being sanitized all the time and I have a bloody strong immune system. Before you write me off, as a loony toon here’s a point of view to consider.

Ruffles Lays – Baked not fried. Ummm really? All so called ‘healthy snacks’ like baked bhakar wadis are such a lie that their makers should be jailed. The combination of sodium, trans fat, and empty sugar (the starch) makes the chip one of the most nutrient-deficient and simultaneously unhealthy foods on the planet. And that goes for the ‘baked’ chip as well. So let’s not even go there!

Poor you, you can’t eat this can you? Yes. I choose not to eat that bunch of chemicals and sugar and wheat (that has similar properties drugs that cause addiction have).  And because I’ve cut this out of my diet I just don’t feel like that dessert because the craving is gone. And I’m feeling and looking my best these days.

The list could go on, but the gist is this. Living in a highly processed sanitized world is making us sick and fat. It’s time we think first before taking the advice of conglomerates and mass reasoning. We’ve done good for 99% of human history.

So what makes this current 1% of a blip on the human timeline so special that we should listen to everything they say?