The eating culture

I am sure you are wondering what this blog is all about. All around me I hear people talking about eating right, avoiding this or that, eating something in moderation or not at all. I remember my grand-parents and great grand-parents who lived for more than 90 years and passed away quietly. What was the secret of their health? Well, as far as I can remember, my forefathers never gave up coffee, nor their usual diet. But yes, maybe, as they aged, the quantity they consumed was much lesser and sometimes the body itself rejected certain foods. So I am still wondering!
Let me see if I can find some answer to my question by looking at their lifestyle. They woke up every morning before the crack of dawn, took bath in cold water, whatever the season. My grand-ma slogged away in the kitchen, grandpa and we kids would draw water from downstairs and fill the four drums in the house, apart from all the containers we could find, for the whole day for the 15 odd members staying together and for the beloved plants around our house. Then would come their morning rituals. Reading the newspaper while grandma prepared the tiffin for all of us with some help from her two daughters-in-law, plucking flowers, preparing the various idols, followed by long two-hour poojas, during which not once would my grandpa get up; he would sit totally straight, back erect, subsisting on two more coffees, chanting all the sanskrit mantras loudly in a melodious way. I still remember all of them despite it being ages since I heard it all! After which would follow the distribution of prasad (milk and honey, little tulsi water mixed with a bit of sandalwood paste and either sugar crystals or kismis). Then the ritual of having lunch would start. We always sat on the floor, cross-legged, padmasana style. The place was always prepared for this. After the long slow meal, during which the women folk served the men folk, the clearing up would follow where the women had to double over from the waist to clean the floor. Quite an exercise! We had to eat with our fingers, taking care to use only the right hand, we daren't soil the palm, neither did we dare to waste even a morsel neither to spill anything. Food consisted of rice, vegetable curries, pickles, ghee, papads, stew (or kootu), rasam and curd. We also had one or two seasonal fruits. Afternoons grandparents spent in reading quietly either magazines or other books of interest. Evenings we had snacks with coffee. And this was everyone's meal. And we had innumerable visitors who were always served something to eat and drink. Night, again we had rice with rasam, curry and curd. As my grandpa grew older, the quantity of food he consumed reduced a little bit, but the variety remained. He would walk miles together at the most cycling to certain places. Him going in a bus would've shocked all of us! He was the Chief of the Veterinary College of Hyderabad and refused to travel by the car offered by his hospital! I saw this side of him till his 85th year after which chidings from many prompted him to abandon the cycle.
Makes me wonder for the nth time, why are we fussing so much about food? Tomatoes leading to kidney stones, mangoes producing heat, sugar to diabetes, oil to heart trouble, coconut to cholestrol... Is it the food or something else that is making us unhealthy? The minute we go to a doctor, he doesn't even look at us, just writes out innumerable tests/ medicines all cutting a huge hole in your pocket not to mention your heart, its sinking, of course. Heart trouble eh? I remember recently, a visit to a doctor. He was openly telling his secretary, " he is a corporate patient, so ask him to repeat the tests. Make sure you give him a copy of whole thing, so that he can claim reimbursement".
Is our eating culture that is wrong or .....?