Srinagar, Sept. 23 -- What did you eat today?

It is one of the most ordinary questions we ask. We ask it at the dinner table, over a phone call, or simply to keep a conversation going. Yet those four words carry a question that matters to every one of us: are we giving our bodies what they need to grow, function and stay healthy?

Nutrition shapes how a child grows, how an adolescent develops, how a woman experiences pregnancy, how an adult stays healthy and how an older person stays active. In that sense, nutrition is not just about food. It runs through the story of our health at every stage of life.

That is why Poshan Maah, observed every September, is more than a yearly reminder to "eat healthy". It is a moment to pause and ask a bi...