Burgers, fries, pizza, turkey, hot dogs, wraps, sandwiches, pasta and shakes. Yum, right? While dreaming of delicious food, our mind often wanders to the foods offered by Western cuisine. We cannot deny the irresistible appeal of Western food even though we have pretty good choices of hot and spicy veggies and curry on our Indian menu.

The fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, etc., influenced by western food, are rampant across every part of the world. Western cuisine is gaining rapid popularity everywhere to provide for guests from different nationalities because of tourism.

Do you even remember the last time you ate with your hands? Spoons, forks and chopsticks have invaded our traditional way of consuming food. When we eat with our hands, we become more conscious of the taste, flavours and aroma, leading us to relish and enjoy our food more. Right from the way of eating to what we eat, everything has changed due to westernization.

The staple diet of western people revolves around meat. They have bread as a supplement or an appetizer. They tend to eat fried foods over others and include artificially developed products and processed ingredients. They prefer minimal spices in their food too. But we Indians, on the other hand, love the mix of spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron and many more. Our staple diet is rice and vegetables. We have unlimited and wide varieties of options to choose from for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are more inclined towards fresh and homemade food.

We have established that Indian cuisine has aromas, spices and all the tasty whatnots. But still, we prefer Western cuisine. There are many reasons behind it. One chief deduction is that we have always had an inferiority complex that made us hold the Western culture in high regard. In doing so, we began to imitate their lifestyle to become equals to them. The other equally significant reason is that globalization has caused Western foods to crawl into Indian kitchens.

There are two sides to a coin. Sure they look appetizing, taste phenomenal and takes little to cook, making it a convenient choice. What more can we ask for, right? Anyhow, did we ever stop to wonder whether these types of food are suitable for us? They may tickle our taste buds at the moment, but they leave a profound mark on our long-term health.

Western food increases the risks of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attack. Due to the lack of variety, it focuses higher on sugar and fats. It causes a threat to our biological system, leading to a rise in diabetes patients in our country.

The abundance of fat in fried foods is the main culprit provoking unhealthy weight gain and digestive troubles. Forget about maintaining your thin waistline and toned abs if you are not ready to give up chicken nuggets and salty dips. But, sacrificing them and switching to roasted and baked foods would prevent the adverse effects later in your life.

Despite the ease of preparation, Western dietary habits are disastrous to our health. If we do not establish a stop system to shut down the onset of the growing fast food industry, obesity and lifestyle risk factors will become more prevalent in India.