Food Delivery: Healthy now?

Yesterday I read a post on LinkedIn by the owner of a large food delivery company. He expressed remorse for making home delivery convenient but not healthy. They are now going to classify food into grades of healthy.

Wonderful news!

Whenever people wake up and recognize that food is medicine, I celebrate. When people work to inform customers about the impact that food is having on them, I celebrate.

But there is a catch.

Food delivered to your home is not designed for health. It is designed for profit. Which means as a restaurant owner I will do everything possible to cut my costs while improving the taste.

Sure, the signalling effect will matter. Vendors will compete to improve the quality of their food.

But nutrition is not that simple.

What is healthy for one person may not be healthy for another. Take one example.

Palak or spinach. I doubt anyone would argue that Palak is unhealthy. But eat too much and it will give you kidney stones.

So how would anyone know whether it is good or bad for my health?

Add too much salt, and it could be terrible for blood pressure. Add industrial cooking oils and it could be terrible for my cholesterol.

Food dies. Very quickly. Much of the nutritional value is lost even in your kitchen. This is only made worse by accounting for how the food is grown, and the soil and manure used.

So anyone making food at 4am to meet your lunch order has effectively killed a lot of the nutrition in your food.

You see the problem?

So while I celebrate every signal from our universe of the recognition that food is medicine, we need to be careful what we are celebrating.

Even at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, food cooked at home, served fresh, eaten at the earliest is always going to be your best bet.

I use the app as well. To order ice cream. But then I know that is my indulgence. Not health food.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain