After we seize a meals merchandise on the grocery retailer, our intuition is commonly to test the expiry date. However will we additionally spare only a couple extra minutes to scan the ingredient record? These additional moments could possibly be essential, shaping our understanding of the meals we’re placing into our our bodies.
Packaged meals has turn out to be integral to our lives, whether or not we prefer it or not. Subsequently, making aware choices to go for packaged meals that gained’t pose further dangers is important. It’s a small step, however it may possibly have a major influence on our well being and well-being.
Current experiences have emphasised the crucial significance of fastidiously studying meals labels. The Indian Council of Medical Analysis (ICMR) launched dietary pointers for Indians on Could 8, cautioning that the data offered on packaged meals labels can usually be deceptive. “Well being claims on packaged meals are designed to catch the patron’s consideration and persuade them that the product is wholesome. All the time learn meals label info to know concerning the contents contained in the pack,” the rules state.
Don’t be fooled by labels like ‘wholesome’ and ‘no sugar added’. One man who has been making an attempt to decode these meals labels and educate Indians the best way to learn them is Revant Himatsingka aka ‘foodpharmer’ on Instagram.
For the previous 12 months, this 32-year-old has been main the cost in selling well being literacy and elevating consciousness concerning the significance of studying meals labels earlier than making purchases. Via his Instagram web page, he has gathered a following of over 2.2 million individuals.
Having left behind a profitable Rs 2 crore job on Wall Avenue, this licensed well being coach is on a mission to spark a “well being revolution” within the nation.
“Indians are educated however not well being literate. I’m subsequently specializing in well being literacy, with my main goal being youngsters. It is best to develop wholesome habits in youngsters from day one and hold them away from junk to cut back the probability of growing well being points later,” shares Revant.
Holding massive FMCG conglomerates accountable
Rising up in a 90s Kolkata, Revant had a daily childhood, which included biscuits, packaged meals, and drinks like Bournvita. The younger boy was then blissfully unaware of the dangerous results of the meals he consumed, like thousands and thousands of Indians.
He slowly learnt the significance of diet over the second decade of his life, which he spent largely within the US. Revant moved to New York for his undergraduate diploma in finance and administration in 2011. It was additionally the time that he began taking an curiosity in meals and diet, which ultimately bought cemented with a well being coach certification in 2015.
He additionally began studying meals labels fastidiously throughout his grocery retailer runs. “I needed to eat wholesome and began paying extra consideration to the ingredient record. I quickly realised that the majority firms are saying one thing on the entrance of the pack, whereas the again states a special story. I slowly learnt concerning the substances just like the emulsifiers, colors, and so on,” he provides.
He was angered when he realised that whereas the corporate states that the product is pure, natural, and superb for you, the reality is way from it. This led to intense analysis on the subject of diet and meals labels over the previous decade of his life.
“I had an curiosity in creating social influence and checked out varied avenues the place I might present assist. I realised that well being is likely one of the most essential pillars of life, and what we eat immediately impacts it. Subsequently, I made a decision to concentrate on fixing this downside in a structured method,” Revant tells The Higher India.
In truth, his want to create influence first materialised as a self-book referred to as Selfienomics in 2016, which apparently had info on studying meals labels! Whereas he had realised the significance of this matter, it was seven years later that he determined to make it the mission of his life.
Earlier than his ‘Bournvita’ video that led to him turning into a bonafide viral sensation on the web in April 2023, Revant labored as a administration advisor at McKinsey & Firm. His stint on the administration consulting agency, in some ways, laid the groundwork for his content material at present. “As a advisor, I usually labored on tasks within the grocery house, so I do know first-hand concerning the false advertising and marketing that takes place,” he provides.
Working in consulting meant fixing issues in a structured method. Revant determined to make use of this talent to assist remedy the bigger situation — studying and understanding meals labels. With this plan in place, he give up his job and returned to India, a lot to the chagrin of his household.
However he was clear about his mission and took on the baton of educating Indians what he calls “an important life talent”. His downside lies with packaged meals that masquerades as wholesome.
In April 2023, he kicked off his stint as ‘Foodpharmer’ with a video about Bournvita, manufactured by Mondelez. The video highlighted the extreme quantity of sugar within the drink, but calling itself ‘wholesome’, including that it might trigger diabetes. The video went viral throughout social media platforms, resulting in authorized hassle for the previous advisor.
Mondelez despatched him a authorized discover asking him to take down the video. Left with no alternative, Revant took it down and issued a press release. Nonetheless, he had achieved what he got down to do — create consciousness amongst Indians.
Keep away from sugary drinks
Regardless of the authorized discover, Cadbury decreased the amount of added sugar in Bournvita by 14.4 p.c in December 2023, validating the content material creator’s efforts. The Central Authorities additionally directed e-commerce corporations to take away Bournvita and different such drinks from the well being drinks class.
One other main product that decreased its sugar content material by 22 p.c was ‘Maggi wealthy tomato ketchup’. Revant made a video highlighting the truth that the product had extra sugar than tomatoes!
These actions have been a shot within the arm for the content material creator, who has since educated Indians on many different packaged merchandise. His downside, he says, is with the false advertising and marketing by firms, which promise diet, energy and extra in your little one, when truly, it’s simply stuffed with sugar. His downside is just not with candies or Coke as a lot as with drinks like Bournvita and biscuits which are fed to youngsters day by day.
“We often have chocolate or Coke on the weekends, however a toddler is having two glasses of Bournvita per day. But, we take into account the one glass of Coke an issue, not realising the quantity of sugar content material within the 14 glasses of bournvita we’ve given our little one,” he stresses.
To coach individuals about sugar consumption, Revant has created a sugarboard, which exhibits the quantity of sugar in standard mushy drinks. This has been replicated throughout many colleges, guaranteeing that youngsters steer clear of these drinks.
He’s now additionally working with specialists to incorporate diet at school curriculums.
From incomes Rs 2 crore to zero
Whereas the 32-year-old has been relentless in his pursuit of constructing Indians ‘well being literate’, there have been quite a few challenges. Think about quitting a Rs 2 crore job within the US and coming again to authorized notices and authorized charges.
Similar to another household would react, his household too thinks that coming again to uncertainty was a “loopy determination”.
Since he hasn’t finished sponsored posts to date, Revant has not been in a position to monetise his content material creation on Instagram, he shares. However he has been slapped with greater than 5 authorized notices from Multinational firms (MNCs), resulting in large authorized charges.
The assist and alter he’s seen in his followers is what retains him going, he shares. “Folks are actually questioning the necessity to give these so-called ‘well being’ drinks to youngsters. They’ve began studying labels, and that’s my greatest victory. Firms too have been pressured to vary their packaging and sugar content material,” he provides.
Whereas he agrees that altering current merchandise could be troublesome, he hopes that new startups will fastidiously choose the substances they add to their choices.
To coach much more individuals, he has began a well being motion referred to as ‘Label Padhega India’ (India will learn labels), the place he’s partnered with celebrities and influencers to unfold the phrase.
“If nearly all of us begin studying labels, firms will likely be pressured to cease false advertising and marketing and begin giving us higher high quality meals. Allow us to all unite and remodel India from the diabetes capital of the world to the well being capital of the world,” reads the slogan of the motion.
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At the same time as he goes all weapons blazing towards conglomerates and forces them to rethink their packaging, he urges mother and father to show youngsters the artwork of ‘decoding’ meals labels. “An important talent within the twenty first century is just not coding, it’s decoding,” he remarks.
Edited by Pranita Bhat; Pictures Courtesy Revant Himatsingka
