Tradition addiction

Reason: One researcher states that “our earliest ancestors went through a period of significant starvation 15 million years ago in a time of global cooling. During that time… a mutation occurred that increased the apelike creatures’ sensitivity to fructose so that even small amounts were stored as fat.

This adaptation was a survival mechanism: Eat fructose and decrease the likelihood you will starve to death.” (Business Insider).

Today however, technology allows for mass production of sugar.

This sugar is processed and now that it’s available in abundance we use it in abundance given that our brains have not evolved to understand that we no longer need so much sugar to live.

Excessive processed sugar intake makes no sense in today’s context where we do not hunt for food and are therefore not required to run for long distances in pursuit of food.

For many today, life is generally a sedentary one. Excess sugar therefore predisposes us to illnesses like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

However, sugar is tradition and to completely eliminate it from our diet is equally harmful.

People are attached to sugar not only at a biological, but an emotional level. Life without sugar is generally inconceivable to some people. Gauge your own reaction should a doctor advise you to cut all processed sugar from your diet and eat fruit in moderation. It would be a break from tradition.

How can you possibly not eat that chocolate or ice cream or drink that Coke? Furthermore, sugar causes the secretion of dopamine, the feelgood chemical. So the intake of sugar is also something from which we derive pleasure. Apart from the chemical reaction, there is also a social one that binds us with others when we meet for ice cream or partake of chocolates after dinner. (For those interested, runnersworld.

com and runnersworld.co.uk have some informative articles).

Let’s transfer this diatribe on sugar into cultural thought. If sugar is part of our tradition and people find it difficult to change the amounts they consume, can we say the same for cultural traditions? The thing about such hard-wiring is that some can be tweaked. We can train ourselves to be mindful of the amount of sugar we consume so as to lead healthy lifestyles. However, this presupposes a willingness to change and an understanding of why we are adjusting.

Sat Maharaj’s militant approach (once again) to the issue of child marriages, has again provoked some outrage. While I do reserve the right to disagree with him, I also feel a responsibility to understand where he comes from. Sat Maharaj’s voice has traditionally been a vexing one for many of us.

And it generally prompts the reaction of fighting fire with fire.

As far as I see it, some of the venomous reactions towards his opposition to the change in the marriageable age are however, in no way different, perhaps even worse than his own. A few comments on social media, immediately jumped on the issue of paedophiles blaming him for encouraging paedophilia.

Why is it the first thing that comes to mind? Assuming that I have read Mr Maharaj’s arguments accurately, his main point about the lower marriageable age was that it was a protective mechanism for girls.

Given the shame culture that prevailed among Indians, it comes (to my mind), from a generational difference in how women in particular, are viewed and the seriousness with which her honour is regarded within the community he supposedly speaks for.

But for a younger generation, honour is not an overriding consideration.

The issue is deeper than this column can accommodate of course, but this is just a general angle from which one can view the arguments.

While times have changed, this attachment to tradition has a social and cultural value that is ingrained in some people’s view of the world.

But this is where the laws of the country become useful, for the laws of a country are also responsible for the creation of cultural traditions as the finance minister brightly noted re: the property tax.

And so, with the legal age of marriage changed to 18, a new tradition has been created to accommodate a modern society.

While traditions like sugar consumption are cultural and social, we also form emotional connections with them, not realising that there was once a context in which they were useful. But traditions have a tendency to become habit, and habits are in many instances mindless. Changes in laws now open a discussion and what was once mindless practice shifts to mindful practice.

Perhaps we can apply this thinking to culture and we may understand the different approaches to the issue at h a n d .

Or one can simply say, Sat is just being Sat and end the story there.