Dr. Gurmeet Singh’s lecture, “AyurAhaar – Food for Life: An Integrative Approach to Personalized Nutrition”, traced three transformative waves in our understanding of food- energy, nutrition, and information. Initially, food was valued mainly for energy, with grinding and cooking driving cultural shifts and brain development. The agricultural revolution ushered in the nutrition wave, emphasizing deficiency prevention, traditional knowledge, and stable food supplies. The industrial age extended life expectancy but introduced chronic diseases, prompting fortified foods and public health policies. The current “information” wave, shaped by nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, and microbiome research, reveals how food influences gene expression, metabolism, and cognition. Addressing India’s dual burden of undernutrition and obesity, Dr. Gurmeet advocated for sustainable, personalized food systems, presenting food as the unifying link between energy, health, and environmental balance.
