‘Old wives’ tales’ about food: Why do we follow these superstitions?

Many moons ago, in my late twenties, I visited a dietician to lose weight. Everyone at the PR agency where I worked seemed to be going to her, so instead of hitting the gym, I decided to give her diet a try. Everything was going well until she started listing the restrictions. One of the main ones: no meat, chicken, or fish cooked in yoghurt. So, no doi maach (fish in yoghurt), kormas or dahi chicken. Why? No scientific reason was provided—just doctor’s orders.

To be fair, I’ve heard this same restriction from every dietician I’ve cross-checked with, and the only reason I can think of is that these dishes are too tasty to stop eating. Or maybe they were all secretly Jewish—after all, Jews believe milk or milk products (called “milchiges” in Yiddish) must never be consumed or cooked with meat (known as “fleischiges” in Yiddish).

But seriously, this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding food taboos in India. And I’m not talking about religious ones, just superstitious ones or what I call “Old Wives’ Tales.”

I honestly believe most superstitions have some practical explanation and, sometimes, even a scientific reason. For instance, the often repeated belief in North India about fish that it should not be consumed in months with the letter “R” in them. This leaves you four fish-friendly months if you follow the Roman calendar. The only explanation I can think of is that these months coincide with fish-breeding seasons. If you eat them while they’re breeding or their spawn are growing, you’re pretty much killing off the supply to your demand. Besides that, there’s no reason to avoid fish during certain months. If there were, the populations of Bengal, Goa, and Bangladesh—who eat fish throughout the year—would be dangerously low.

Of course, there’s the taboo, practiced widely in Bengal until a few decades ago, that forbade widowed women from eating salt, meat, fish, or eggs. These foods were considered “heaty” and might “inflame their passions.”

Another common myth is that pregnant women should avoid cold foods and raw papaya and jackfruit to prevent miscarriage. I spoke to dietician Anushree Sharma to get her informed opinion on these pregnancy-related myths since I couldn’t find any medical basis for them. According to her, no studies show papaya or jackfruit directly cause miscarriages, nor is there any evidence about the effects of cold or hot food on pregnant women. In fact, patients often ask if they should avoid curd at night––there goes the dahi vada served at Delhi parties.

India isn’t the only place with food taboos, though. In Tanzania and Indonesia, pregnant women avoid fish. In the United States of America, they’re advised not to eat raw fish because of the risk of mercury and bacteria, which can harm the foetus. But, in Japan—the land of sushi—there’s no such taboo. The oddest one I’ve heard is from Nigeria, where children aren’t given coconut milk because it’s believed to make them less intelligent.

More often than not, most taboos are mindless, especially those imposed on women at vulnerable stages of life––during pregnancy or when they are widowed. It makes as much sense as not cutting your nails after sundown or avoiding haircuts on Tuesdays.

If we are going with non-scientific restrictions based on likes and dislikes, here’s one I think we all should follow: stop serving soya chaap to unsuspecting people!

Do write in if you have come across any strange food taboos you have been following without any scientific reasoning behind them.