Why Everyone Thinks Indian Food Makes You Sick
A viral BRICS summit rumor tapped into something much deeper than one bad lunch.
On September 16, 2026, betting platform Polymarket blared: “JUST IN: Multiple world leaders have reportedly fallen ill, after attending BRICS summit in India.” The tweet went viral with over 18.2 million views. The Indian government angrily called the allegations “fake” and “malicious,” but it didn’t matter: the news spread anyways.
The rumors felt (no pun intended) nauseatingly familiar. For generations, India has been held up as the poster child of travel-induced food poisoning: something reinforced by everyone from CNN host Anderson Cooper to creators of AI-generated “disgusting Indian street food.” Why is everyone so quick to believe that Indian food makes you deathly ill? We spoke to food historians and scientists, dove into colonial archival records, and more to investigate where the stereotype really comes from.