calorie culture

my wife was just talking to me today about a business idea of selling low calorie / health food. it got me interested as well. i started thinking about our days in the US and how we checked the calorie count on a lot of things we bought from the grocery store. how many times have i done that in india? none!

i think it's a part of the culture in a place that you are in. in the US, right from low calorie food to health bars to health shakes to protien and vitamin supplement - everything was a big big hit. not just that - people were also going crazy about artificial ways of losing fat like tummy tucks. they must have really been super famous - since i would hear a lot of these weight losing ads on the radio.

since we were a part of the super health conscious society, looking slim and fit was on our agenda as well. we too started counting calories. we started practising hypocrisy by having diet coke with pizza. of course, america has a huge population of over weight and obese people, the health and health food market is totally booming.

here, in india, it has started to pick up slowly but surely. looking thin is definitely on a lot of people's agenda (or new year resolution). but sadly enough, there are not too many players in the market - referring to healthy eating products - who will help you do that. i do hear of ladies buying baked snack instead of their fried counterparts, buying soya snack instead of flour, etc.

but again the movement is not as large as it would become a culture. for example, my wife was saying that she had to look real hard to find the diet version of one of our favourite tea time snack in the store. she found it though.

i think its time for the food companies with enough muscle power to come in and start inculcating the calorie counting culture among indians, the urban ones at least.