Do you like watching cooking shows in your spare time? Are you passionate about food? Is cooking your favourite past-time? Then working within the culinary arts industry should be your ultimate goal.

What’s this career about?

The field of culinary arts basically deals with the science and art of cooking. The job of a culinary arts professional is to balance the aesthetics with the nutrition — basically to make food look good so that it appeals to our senses, and to also ensure that its food value is not compromised. S\he has the skill to create fusions between different types of cuisines or to be creative and even come up with a unique dish.

A culinarian working in restaurants is commonly known as a chef. A chef is an artist. In a restaurant setting, the Executive or Head Chef is in charge of the kitchen; their duties include kitchen staff training and oversight, food ordering and menu planning, and supervision of meal preparation. The Sous Chef is next in command. They also have supervisory roles in the kitchen, but they typically play larger roles in daily food preparation than chefs.

Apart from the Head Chef, you can also become a Personal Chef, Pastry Chef, Baker, Catering Specialist or Dessert Specialist. Depending on the chef job you are taking on, you could be working before dawn or not even starting your shift until the evening.

Research Chefs create recipes based on consumer feedback, modify existing recipes or even creating new recipes through experimentation. Their duties include testing new products for flavour and nutritional content, monitoring ingredients for quality and nutrition or finding substitutes for additives that could be unhealthy or harmful.

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Independence Day is round the corner, and everyone is filled with a sense of freedom, patriotism and pride. One topic of fierce discussion is ‘The Right to Health’. Lately, it has gained a lot of attention; however, many believe it doesn’t require a corner of its own in the Constitution.

In the absence of freedom of knowledge, people have started abusing their health by eating junk, over-working, adopting irregular sleeping habits, improper hygiene, sedentary lifestyle and breathing in polluted air.

Even after years of independence, we still disregard the nation’s ever-increasing rate of nutritional deficiencies. While India is among the top five countries in terms of obesity, it also has the highest number of underweight/malnourished individuals, especially youngsters.

In the past decade, a number of Indians have fallen victim to a plethora of non-communicative diseases, and are constantly at war with numerous health issues daily. There has been a sharp spike in the number of diabetes, hypertension (blood pressure), cancer and respiratory cases in the past century.

However, the good news is that, prevention of non-communicable disease is possible.

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Lunch… tea… dinner and supper, these words don’t mean anything on their own, but whoever created the word ‘breakfast’ left no room for confusion. “It is the meal which breaks your fast!”

Due to our monotonous routine and never-ending vicious cycle of work, very often we are in dire need of a break — be it short or long. Similarly, just as we need a break from work, our bodies too need a break to recharge.

While we sleep at night after a long day of work — physically our limbs and muscles are resting, but our mind and internal body is constantly at work.

Just as machines need some time to cool off, or a car needs fuel to run, similarly our bodies and brain need a break to recharge and refuel, before kickstarting a new day. And what better way to start than a healthy and wholesome breakfast.

Why is breakfast important?

Breakfast is often called ‘the most important meal of the day’ and for good reason. As the name suggests, breakfast implies ‘breaking’ the overnight fasting period. It replenishes your body’s supply of glucose to boost your energy levels and increase alertness, besides providing the required nutrients.

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Healthy food choices and eating habits are important at all stages but vital for teens. Because of the changes taking place in your body, your total nutrient needs are higher during teenage than any other time in your life cycle. Nutrition and physical growth are closely related. Adequate nutrition is a must for achieving your full growth potential.

Naturally, most teens have increased appetites so their bodies can get the extra nutrition they need for the growth spurts. This is the stage when you may be changing your food and eating habits too. You’re also likely to choose food for reasons not related to nutrition, like peer pressure and changing social activities and your choices may not be the best ones.

Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats

Your level of physical activity and stage of development, rather than age, determines how much you need to eat. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats, all play an important role in your diet. Teens generally consume approximately 53% of their calories as carbohydrates. Foods that contribute the most carbohydrate to their diets include bread, soft drinks, milk, cereals, cakes, cookies, donuts and sugar. While being rich in carbohydrates, all of them are not healthy foods.

Regular healthy meals and snacks should include carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, rice, pasta, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, lean meats, poultry, eggs, legumes and nuts. These ensure keeping sugar levels adequate, preventing sudden energy crashes.

Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. Your body produces most of these naturally. However, there are nine essential amino acids which your body cannot make. These must come from the food you eat.

Teens need protein for building and repairing muscles, ensuring hair and skin health, fighting off infections and carrying oxygen in the blood. Proteins also help with building enzymes, hormones and vitamins. Meat, chicken, eggs, fish, milk, cheese and yogurt are all good sources of protein and they provide the nine essential amino acids.

If you are a vegetarian there are many options for protein. They include beans, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds, whole grains, soya, quinoa and vegetables. Sprouts of alfalfa, green gram, chickpeas and soya beans are highly nutritious and rich in protein.

The human body requires dietary fat and essential fatty acids for normal growth and development. It is recommended that adolescents consume no more than 30% of these from fats. Major fats in a teen’s diet come from milk, meats, cheese and butter.

Healthy dietary fats promote proper skin and hair development. They also help absorb essential vitamins and minerals.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients, including calcium and iron, are critical for you.

Calcium helps you reach peak bone density and build strong bones. The skeleton accounts for at least 99% of the body stores of calcium. The gain in skeletal weight is most rapid during teen growth spurt. About 45% of the adult skeletal mass is gained during adolescence. Because of the dramatic increase in skeletal growth, calcium needs during teens are greater than in other stages.

Milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream are major sources of calcium in a teen’s diet. Juices, breakfast bars, breads and cereals are calcium-fortified. Soft drink intake by teens often displaces the consumption of nutrient-rich beverages such as milk and juices.

Your bones begin to stop taking in calcium deposits by the time you reach your early adulthood. That is why it is critical to get enough calcium as a teenager. If you don’t meet your calcium requirements now, you have higher risks of brittle bones, bone breakage, stunted bone growth and osteoporosis later in life.

Increasing blood volumes and growing muscle mass means you need more iron during your teens. Iron has an important role to play in muscle function, energy creation and brain development. It aids red blood cells’ ability to carry and circulate oxygen throughout your body. So, if you are not getting enough iron through the food you eat during the day, you’ll probably feel tired and lethargic.

Iron is a mineral that is naturally present in many foods. Red meat, eggs, poultry, fish, shellfish, dark green vegetables like spinach collards and kale, nuts, black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, other cooked or dried beans, rice and cereals are also good sources of iron.

A vegetarian diet can provide enough iron too if you eat iron-rich vegetarian alternatives to meats. They include green leafy vegetables, legumes like beans and lentils, whole-grains and fortified cereals. Getting the right amount of iron can improve your performance in sports and in studies.
Iron deficiency leads to anaemia. Anaemia occurs when you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells. Without sufficient red blood cells enough oxygen does not reach all parts of your body. This causes you to feel weak and tired. Your skin may become pale especially around the hands, nails and eyelids, your heart beat may quicken, you may become irritable, lose appetite and feel dizzy, too.

Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are called micro-nutrients because your body needs only tiny amounts of them. Yet failing to get even those small quantities of vitamins and minerals, can cause serious diseases. Lack of vitamin C, found in fresh fruits and vegetables, can cause scurvy which results in the bleeding of gums and listlessness. Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness. Deficiency of vitamin D can cause rickets — a condition marked by soft, weak bones that can lead to skeletal deformities such as bowlegs. Your body is designed to get the vitamin D it needs when your bare skin is exposed to sunlight. A combination of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K and phosphorus ensures strong bones.

Fluids

Teens need to drink plenty of fluids. Water is obviously the best source (easily available, too) of liquid and supplies fluid without calories. Other fluid sources are milk, milk drinks, fruit juices and soft drinks.

As a teenager you will be exposed to periodic food fads and slimming trends, and may fall into the habit of skipping meals, and develop irregular eating habits. One of the most frequently missed meals is breakfast. Breakfast plays an important role in providing energy and nutrients needed after your overnight fast. It also helps concentration and performance in school/college.

Snacks are an integral part of your meal pattern. You cannot eat large quantities of food at one go and you often become hungry before the next meal. Small mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks can help meet your energy needs of the day.

Over-nutrition

You need about 3000 (for boys) and 2500 (girls) calories daily. But if you are overeating in general or indulging in a lot of junk, over-nutrition and weight gain can become a problem.

Excess weight gained during adolescence does not go away automatically, even after the teen growth spurts. An obese teen has 80% chances of becoming an obese adult. That raises long-term risks of heart disease, diabetes and sleep problems. Teens who are obese also tend to have lower self-esteem and higher emotional ups and downs.

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With an increasing number of working parents juggling daily chores with hectic work schedules there is hardly any time left for cooking. This is when the Not-So-Super Supermarkets come into the picture. Considered to be the most convenient place for parents to go and buy ready-to-eat foods for their school or college-going teenagers, supermarkets are shockingly just a “convenient layout” designed to encourage us to buy more products, which are either more expensive, discounted and less healthy or totally unhealthy.

Let’s walk through the three biggest tricks used by supermarkets to entice you to buy unhealthy but convenient food items:
1. Supermarket layout: Supermarket designers don’t just make sure you pass a large selection of products, but make sure it is wider and easily navigated with a shopping cart.
2. Mixing healthy with unhealthy: This is most commonly seen in supermarkets nowadays. For example, when we see frozen foods such as ready-to-make parathas, nuggets, cutlets and many more, the first thing we assume is that they are fresh and thus, healthier.
3. Misleading marketing: This is where the storm of “low-fat”, “gluten-free”, “100% vegan”, “no added preservatives”, “zero calories”, etc. comes in.

Junk food ingredients: The main culprits

Recent studies term junk food as “Drugs: foods that become an addiction”. The impact of consuming readily and easily available junk food can have long-term adverse effects on a teenager’s health, namely obesity, high blood pressure, inadequate growth and development, dental issues, diabetes and constant fatigue.

While supermarket shopping, we pick up a number of “food-like products, not real food”. Some of the ingredients commonly found in these processed foods can be considered “toxic”. These include:

1. Palm oil: This is blasted with hydrogen and turned into a solid, thus becoming a trans fat. This anti-nutrient helps packaged foods stay “fresh”, meaning that the food can sit on the supermarket shelf for years without ever getting stale or rotting. Known to raise “bad” LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and lower the “good” HDL, this fat also increases the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.

2. ‘White’ foods: When a whole grain is refined, most of its nutrients are lost in an effort to extend its shelf life. Both the bran and germ are removed, and also all the fibre, vitamins, and minerals. This makes white flour easier to digest but skyrockets blood sugars and insulin.

3. High fructose corn syrup: This evil ingredient is known to increase triglycerides, boost fat-storing hormones, thus making one overeat and gain weight.

4. Artificial sweeteners: These include aspartame, saccharin and sucralose and is harder on our metabolic system over plain white sugar.

5. Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Benzoate: Commonly found in sodas and contains “Benzene”, a known carcinogen linked to serious thyroid damage. This makes it even more dangerous when benzene is added in combination with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).

6. Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA): Another cancer-causing preservative, it prevents spoilage and food poisoning, but is extremely harmful to hormones.

7. Sodium Nitrates and Sodium Nitrites: Found in preserved meats like hot dogs, nuggets, bacon, etc, this is believed to cause colon cancer and metabolic syndrome.

8. Blue, green, red and yellow: As per recent studies, these artificial colours have been linked to thyroid, adrenal, bladder, kidney and brain cancers.

9. MSG: Monosodium glutamate is a processed “flavour enhancer” commonly found in ready-to-eat Chinese noodles and other food items.

Importance of nutritional labelling

The nutritional label, or Nutrition Information Panel, is a food label required compulsorily on all food products. The guidelines are based on different dietary targets for various nutrients than the labels on specific foods.

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