How the journey began

"Perspective" took on a completely new meaning for me when I began traveling with my family in 2016. As I learned about cuisines from across the globe, I noticed the obvious issues with nutrition but more importantly the social and communial views associated with health. For instance, in 2022, I celebrated my 13th birthday overseas. A small gathering was held, and the table was set with cake, cookies, sugar rich ethnic desserts, oil-drenched curries, and deep-fried appetizers. I very much enjoyed the meal, the gathering and the constant requests for go back for second and third helpings... but in the days to come, I realized the feast and attitude towards eating in abundance was common in the normal course of the culture. The icing on the cake (figuratively speaking) was watching a mother pour Coca-Cola into the bottle of her two-year old toddler, while appreciating this "treat"  her child was enjoying was due to their privileged social-economic background. 

These observations piqued my interest and, through discussions with my family, I learned that these meals and ideas were largely determined by age-old generational mindsets – mindsets that had very little regard for the macro- or micronutrient needs of the human body, but also the role communal biases played. In chatting with other youngsters, I realized they knew very little about food choices, and they didn’t understand how their current diet or lifestyle was impacted by the cultural norms around them.

Something had to be done, so I researched food pyramids, cultural biases, prevailing misinformation about nutrition and started my advocacy journey. I hosted a Zoom session to educate a few friends from my travels. The response was overwhelming, and the questions were non-stop. Through subsequent international trips in 2022 and 2023, I realized how much more work needed to be done.  For this, I created Webtorium Health - a labor of love to raise health awareness. 

Educating on health started as a labor of love and quickly grew to a larger exploratory journey.  While I was immersed in the different anthropological perspectives on health, the effect on health ecologies, biosocial factors impacting health, the role poverty plays on health, I quickly found myself immersed in the culture, history, politics, the inequity of the health care system, health care policies , the role technology can play and the role climate change is playing in different cultures and regions across the globe. 

At the heart of Webtorium is our mission to elevate health awareness for the global youth under a cultural, social and biological lens.  The later will be my personal journey, an evolution of a young intellectually curious mind chronicling her findings.