







































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 5 (2): 103-106, July 2022 

INSIGHTS FROM THE FIELD 
 

Food Beyond Counting: Insights Based on Local 
Knowledge from the Field 
 

Ranjoy Gupta 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

“Food is a source of health, it is also a source of pleasure, and it can be the 
reason for illness.” These are the words of an elderly participant from the 
village of Badnotta. This was his response to my questions on the 
importance of food for health as per local knowledge. This paper presents 
local knowledge and values on “eating food” from fieldwork carried out for 
a larger study to understand the local knowledge of food and health in a 
food system.  
 
2. DATA AND METHODOLOGY 
 
I collected data through fieldwork consisting of 14 in-depth interviews with 
traditional knowledge-holders between November 2021 and February 2022. 
The participants were aged 60–98 years. Of the 14 participants, 8 were 
women and 6 were men. Of these, two were traditional healers.  
 
Badnotta is located in a mountainous region in Kathua district in Jammu 
and Kashmir. It is quite remote with poor road and infrastructure 
connectivity. The major sources of livelihood are labour and farming. 
Young men are mostly involved in labour, while old men and both young 
and old women are involved in activities like farming and shepherding; the 
women also manage domestic work. People practise farming using the 
resources found in their surroundings, for example, by using the dung of 
animals as manure. 

 
 Department of Social Work, Central University of Jammu, Ranjoygupta007@gmail.com 

Copyright © Gupta 2022. Released under Creative Commons Attribution © 

NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of  Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web).  

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719 

mailto:Ranjoygupta007@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [104] 

 

Here, I discuss and reflect upon some of the important insights into their 
values and ideals related to eating food. 
 

3. COUNTING FOOD: IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT? EATING 
BEYOND NUMBERS 

Food and nutrition insecurity, the triple burden of malnutrition, and hidden 
hunger are important global concerns. Various policies and programmes 
have been initiated to address these concerns. At an individual level, the 
minimum prescribed food consumption standards (recommended dietary 
allowance, RDA) define the quantity of food or calories required to provide 
energy for moderate to high physical activity. However, there are views that 
stand in stark opposition to these standards. For instance, discussing 
Ayurveda in the context of food and health, Kumar and Kaur (2017) 
mention eight factors listed by Acharya Charaka in the Ashtavidha Ahara 
Visheshayata. These factors describe different conditions to be considered 
while consuming food, such as quality, processing, combinations, time, 
quantity, habitat, directions of use, and individual constitution. Further, 
Charaka explains a whole list of eating norms. Sujatha (2002) discusses local 
peoples’ (from a village in Tamil Nadu) eating norms—one among which is 
constancy in the quantity of food. She further explains that, as per the 
locals, the quantity of food to be consumed daily is not a fixed amount; 
rather, it depends upon the amount of physical work done. It is also based 
on the capacity of the stomach to hold food. She further explains that while 
constancy may appear to be a common criterion, the “capacity of the 
stomach to hold” is localized to specific conditions. The other two factors 
are regulation and moderation, where regulation stands for regularity in 
meal timings, while moderation stands for flexibility in the maximum 
number of meals eaten in a day. 
 
3.1. Local Understanding of Eating Food 
Here, I share the views of locals on minimizing consumption beyond “a 
particular amount and the practice of counting calories”. An elderly lady 
stated, “Don’t count what you eat. In fact, never count what you eat, and 
eat as per your hunger. If you count, you won’t digest the food well. Eating 
without counting is based on listening to your own hunger rather than 
listening to someone else’s instruction.” Another lady said, “Contentment 
after eating plays a major role in digestion and your body will tell you when 
to stop, so there is no need to worry about numbers.” 

 



[105] Ranjoy Gupta 

On further probing, they explained that food is not only needed to fill the 
stomach; instead, its purpose should be to provide health so that one is able 
to work. I asked her and a few others what matters in deciding how much 
should one eat and whether there was any standard rule. “There is no such 
standard regarding how much one should eat, but whatever you eat should 
bring an end to hunger. One must be able to do the required physical work, 
which creates satisfaction after eating, and so taste in food is very 
important,” I was informed. According to them, tastes can be of different 
types: sweet, sour, salty, astringent, and pungent. They further added that, 
“Taste should be controlled and regulated in two ways: first, avoid 
repetition of the same type of taste or an excess of a particular taste in a 
meal, and second, maintain the process of preparation, which can be 
adjusted according to the season.” Giving an example, another elderly lady, 
referring to the eating habits of her grandchildren and others of younger 
generations, said that, “When we were children, at least one meal of the day 
was different for different days in a week, but today I see that children don’t 
have time; they cook fast and keep feeding themselves with a particular type 
of taste for a long time.” She pointed out that this is where our discussion 
had begun—on “contentment after eating” being important for complete 
digestion. Her statement also matched that of a traditional healer who said, 
“If you have three different tastes on a plate and you eat one kind of taste 
in excess, it will create problems in your digestion and later lead to illness if 
not treated on time.”  
 
I finally asked them if there was any time when taste was not considered 
important or a priority. To this a man said, “When you have food, you must 
think of taste, but when you do not have food, you should first think of 
ending hunger.” Citing past incidents, he shared that people remember the 
harsh times when there was scarcity of food and they were left with no 
choice but to consume whatever they got, such as uncultivated greens from 
the forest. In such instances, taste did not matter much. 
 
4. REFLECTIONS 
 
From these interviews, I classify the amount of food intake based on three 
factors: availability, variability, and uniformity. Availability is simply the 
amount of food available to be consumed. Variability refers to variations in 
food taste; when they say, “to avoid repetition of taste”, they mean 
repetition of the same taste over days or weeks, which is believed to lead to 
illness. Uniformity is maintaining the process of preparing food; there 
should not be a lot of changes in the method of preparation, and uniformity 
should be practised by adhering to set recipes over time, with changes made 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [106] 

 

according to the season. In relation to the eight factors given by Kumar and 
Kaur (2017), citing Charaka, I assume that taste/satisfaction is another 
important factor in the local context. Further, Sujatha’s argument, regarding 
eating according to the capacity of the stomach to hold food rather than 
predetermining the amount you eat, is partially relatable to my field insights. 
These factors decided by people are based on their knowledge, observation, 
and lived experiences. These play a crucial role in their autonomy of food 
choice, which they believe positively affects their health and wellbeing.  
 

5. CONCLUSION 

The understanding of locals regarding how much to eat is based on 
fulfilling two needs: the physical requirement and satisfaction/contentment. 
The latter depends on taste, which is important only if food is generally 
available. Once enough food is available to eat, then there is the 
consideration of taste, which is regulated by uniformity and variability. 
Even when they eat according to the type of physical work, they do not rely 
on counting calories but on satisfaction/contentment as the guiding 
principle. Their knowledge reflects their understanding of food, which 
ranges across factors like availability, capability to do physical work, and 
taste. Given the context that at the local level, multiple factors determine 
the amount of food intake rather than it simply being a fixed amount, the 
primary question that arises is to what extent can localized principles be 
generalized on a national scale?  

 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
I acknowledge the financial support from the University Grants 
Commission through their Junior Research Fellowship (UGC-JRF) award. I 
am also very grateful to the study participants for their participation and 
support in the study.  
 
REFERENCES 

Kumar, Harish, and Harpreet Kaur. 2017. “Role of Ayurveda in Prevention of Life 
Style Disorders W. S. R. to Ahara.” International Ayurvedic Medical Journal 5 (9): 1–9. 

Sujatha, Vendata. 2002. “Food: The Immanent Cause from Outside – Medical Lore 
on Food and Health in Village Tamil Nadu.” Sociological Bulletin 51 (1): 79–100. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920020104  

 

 

https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920020104

