The true weight of a single calorie

Science Gallery Bengaluru's latest exhibition season explores the financial, social and cultural impact of food

- Shrabonti Bagchi

Food discourse has gotten out of hand. Protein bros name and shame people for their carb-laden plates, nutritionists talk about plant-based diets with cultish fervor, chefs can't stop talking about umami, mouthfeel and hyperlocal eating. We probably think more about what we put in our bodies today than we ever have, or so it feels to those of us who spend too much time online.

That's why Science Gallery Bengaluru thought the time was right to explore humanity's intimate-yet-fraught relationship with food with its new year-long exhibition season, Calorie. The idea behind Science Gallery's exhibitions is, always, to pick up objects of inquiry, says director Jahnavi Phalkey—ideas and concepts that are studied by people in laboratories and in academic fields conceptually—and bring them to the public in ways that will expand our understanding of them.

"The goal is to create a sort of familiarity and socialization of ideas. But we also want to pick ideas that are already out there—so instead of talking about, say, quarks or mesons, which are not really doing the popularity rounds, we pick ideas that are already in the public consciousness, in people's lives, on their social media, and then try to create different kinds of entry points that will allow them to understand things that they think they know in a much more rigorous manner," explains Phalkey.