The Hindu Business Line : What's the alternative?

Life expectancy in Japan is currently 81.4 years, the highest in the world. This longevity record is thanks to the people born before 1920, who have maintained a traditional diet. However, today, the situation is markedly different.

Among people on nutritionally "improved" diets, more than half have lifestyle-related diseases, one-third suffer from allergic reactions such as atopic dermatitis, and one-fifth are obese, according to available statistics. While no one is starving in Japan today, one cannot say that people are getting healthier.

This "health crisis" in the midst of "improved" westernised diets is one of the reasons why many Japanese are now exploring lifestyles — food in particular — that are more in harmony with nature. The International Life and Food Association (ILFA) has initiated one such move, with the message that "the food you eat can change your body, lifestyle and the world."

The inspiration that translated the ILFA into a reality came from Yumiko Otani, 52, who set it up as an NGO in 1982. The NGO views food as a matter of environmental concern directly affecting our bodies, and advocates millet as the staple food for society. "Contrary to what many people may think, millet and other `miscellaneous' grains were the staple food for Japanese across the country from ancient times until as recently as 30 or 40 years ago," says Otani, who discovered the importance of millet (grains such as ragi, jowar and bajra belong to the millet family) in the Japanese diet at a personal level.

When she ate millet for the first time, she was surprised to find it tasty, despite its image as an ancient, unpalatable, nutrient-sparse food for the poor. She also discovered that millet contained essential nutrients in a balanced proportion and that historically it was eaten whole (unrefined), with wild vegetables and sea salt. Otani's new understanding led to a long lasting change — her family switched to a largely vegetarian diet consisting of grains, vegetables and seaweed cooked with salt, soybean paste (miso) and soy sauce.

Recipes for all

Since 1982, Otani has been developing and introducing simple and speedy ways to prepare millet dishes as well as recipes that suit modern tastes. With a total of 1,000 recipes today, the ILFA's research division promotes millet-based food by creating new recipes, organising seminars and cooking classes, and publishing relevant literature.

"Currently, graduates from our seminars operate 10 Tsubu Tsubu cafes across the country, and more restaurants have introduced millet dishes based on our books," says Otani. Tsubu tsubu is a Japanese expression to describe something grainy. In general terms, however, the word refers to a range of grains. Apart from millet, tsubu tsubu includes buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, barley and other grains.

Otani says that about 20 years ago, most people had not even heard of millet or miscellaneous grains. "But now," she says, "everyone is familiar with them and knows that they are good for health. A millet diet has become something of a status symbol especially among artists." Each Tsubu Tsubu café provides an opportunity for people to become familiar with ILFA recipes, while it encourages them to experience the taste of millet and grains.

Since 1997, the ILFA has also been making an effort to nurture millet producers by conducting a `Life Seed Campaign' each spring, when pesticide- and chemical fertiliser-free millet seeds and millet-growing manuals are sold. "Increasing the diversity of crops — `biodiversity on the farm' — becomes most effective when it is promoted along with `biodiversity in the kitchen'. I see the Life Seed Campaign as a movement to bring diverse, traditional millets to the farm and tsubu tsubu cooking' to the kitchen table," explains Otani.

Besides Japan, millet has been grown and eaten for thousands of years in Africa and India. In China it was grown as early as 2700 B.C., and it was the staple food before it was replaced by rice.

Why a millet-based diet?

Otani lists reasons why millet grains should be an important part of the Japanese diet today:

Millet grains can expand and stabilise food supply; these grains can grow in poorer soil and colder areas compared to rice and wheat, and are resistant to aridity and climate change. They require less irrigation and fertilisers. Considering that Japan's self-sufficiency rate of food supply is 40 per cent (calorie-base) and that it imports more than half of its food from overseas, the country, in a way, could help tackle the world's food problem by changing from white rice to miscellaneous grains. By learning to supply foods to its own people, using its own land more efficiently, Japan can reduce pressure on farmlands abroad.

These grains are rich in dietary fibre, minerals and vitamins; contain both protein and vegetable fat, and are nutritionally well-balanced. Diets based on polished rice and processed wheat, on the other hand, can cause "hidden starvation" because they lose many of their nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

The grains are more resistant than rice or wheat to diseases and pests, and are easily grown without pesticides. Post-harvest, they can be stored for a longer period of time.

These wholesome grains require a lot of chewing, and are rich in flavour and taste; it is easy to switch to a millet-based, no-meat diet.

Changing pace... from fast to slow

So what's behind all this attention to millet food? Amid growing interest in the "slow food" movement (in contrast to "fast food"), more people look at millet food as "the" slow food of Japan. Some people also relate its potential use with a concern for food security in the world.

In March 2004, the ILFA launched a magazine focused on millet food recipes and related lifestyles, which has built a circulation of 10,000.

Where is the ILFA headed? "To those wishing to change themselves, I have taught techniques to nurture their sprit and body with millet food," says Otani. She also intends to work on a "correlative" study that goes beyond dietetics. In this study, the relationship between food and cooking, as well as between mind and body, would be approached through broadly defined natural sciences including dietetics and physiology, and the encouragement of a spiritual culture too. She also plans to collaborate with groups or organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America promoting a diversity of crops and traditional food culture.

Says Otani, "I believe tsubu tsubu millets can change the world from the kitchen."

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