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: which is hard to do because exact values change a little from batch to batch. But from the consumer’s point of view, how does it help to know that a 100 gm helping of say some biscuits contains 58 gms of carbs without reference to a standardised food pyramid? If you accept the USFDA model, and if your body type requires 2000 calories a day, these 58 gms would equal 23.2% of your daily requirements. If a sedentary lifestyle justifies only 1,500 calories a day, just 100 food gms into your day, you have already had 30.83% of the carbs permitted to you. The beer and pakoras are still on their way!

And should the pakoras come with their own calorie count? In the US, in an effort to fight the obesity epidemic, New York restaurants are being required to put a calorie count on their servings, and ‘health zoning’ is generally expanding across the globe. Critics have challenged these moves as manifestations of a nanny state, asking what comes next? Is there going to be legislation controlling serving sizes as well? Nope, I wouldn’t support that. But a more lucid labeling on the packaged foods which we are increasingly gorging on across the country—a walk into any of those megamarts in Tier II& III cities confirms this—doesn’t quite qualify as nannying.

It’s the least we can do in light of our growing healthcare burden. The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations has warned that the cost of heart diseases, strokes and diabetes could climb to $200 billion in the next ten years. That may sound alarmist but so do the numbers pouring in from across the globe. Research unveiled in Australia last month shows that the country’s obesity bill has doubled in the last two years.s