Smartphone Generation, Dumbest Diet Ever: The Truth About What You're Eating

Smartphone Generation, Dumbest Diet Ever: The Truth About What You're Eating

Author Name:Ryan Fernando

Youtube Channel Url:https://www.youtube.com/@celebritynutritionistryan

Youtube Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeBjDAFyMsk



Transcript:
(00:00) Why are some 25 year olds feeling like 45 year olds? What exactly is broken in our lifestyle over the last four to five decades? Our chronological age is just a number on our ID card. What matters is our biological age. Our biological age is decided by what's happening in our cells.
(00:23) The nutrition from the foods that they are eating is slowly getting wiped out. The biggest mistake that the smart educated urban people are making is normalizing living a suboptimal life. >> The food that we eating is not affecting us. So the thought process is it affects us slowly. Look at Virat Gooli. Do you think if we would have been still eating those kulch cholay cholay bur he would have been what he is? I think the most difficult decisions he made were not on the ground but probably in 2018 when he said oh this is causing me acidity it's
(00:56) elevating my uric acid I need to change my diet >> I can eat the same thing for the next 6 months like three times a day I have no issues >> Jookovic Ronaldo you know everyone has made significant changes in their diet in India and it's no different from rest of the world doctors are trained less than 20 hours on nutrition in their >> oh absolutely absolutely I studied at Goa medical college in my master's degrees I attended first year lectures of medicine there were only 6 hours of nutrition in biochemistry and all the
(01:30) doctors because it's an easy subject were talking in the backbenches I really don't care whether the biryani cost 370 rupees or 470 rupees I think people should be caring that rice in that biryani is 30% less in iron and that's going to devastate the female fraternity in our country. What if the food on your plate could quietly fight one of the world's biggest health crisis, hidden hunger? Millions of children eat enough every day, but their bodies are still starving for iron, zinc, and essential vitamins. And
(02:02) today, we're going straight to the solution. My guest is Raindra Grover, chief operating officer at Harvest Plus Solutions, a global organization working on food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable communities. With over 20 years across uni liver, PWC, ADB and IFPRI, he's one of the leading voices driving biofortification breeding crops like ironrich pearl millet and zinc rich wheat that are naturally packed with nutrition.
(02:27) And through programs like Utri Pachala, his team is bringing these foods and the knowledge behind them into schools across India. In this conversation, we've discussed the real issues, why hidden hunger persists and what's broken in our food systems and more importantly the real solutions that actually work on the ground and at scale.
(02:45) So sit back because this one will change how you look at the food on your plate. Raven opening with a prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for the wonderful weather today. Thank you for the wonderful people uh in this room. Bless everyone. A big thank you to Raindra and his team for coming in and spreading the message about healthier nutrition on the planet.
(03:09) Um I do hope that this message will be able to reach the right people so that we can affect lives for the better on this planet. Let's rock and roll. So welcome to my podcast Rainda. How are you doing today? >> I'm great. Thank you Ryan for having me here. >> You know thanks for flying in all the way from Hyderabad.
(03:25) Now before we get started, people always ask me who's his next guest? Why is he here? And what impact? My job is to change the way the world eats. Right. >> Absolutely. >> How is Rainda and his company and his team changing the world? How do they change it? What is it that you do? >> You know, this episode of yours is so important because I think it's probably the first time the agriculturist is meeting the nutritionist.
(03:49) So >> that is very true. So you know I mean say agriculture and nutrition are so interlin and uh we can't walk out of our walk our way out of the broken food system just by supplements. Too much to expect from a small pill, right? So this is precisely what we are trying to do. We are building our food system.
(04:08) We're repairing it. It has been leaking. We are trying to patch it so that food is nutritious. We're trying to repair bring back the nutrition. That's what my organization Harvest Plus Solution does at a global level. We operate in around 40 countries for last 20 years with the singular mission make everyone's plate nutritious.
(04:28) >> You know just before entering the podcast I got in my broker calling in because I brought a small farmland to plant a few trees and my own blueberries and stuff like that. And there's actually a selfless reason for bringing in Raindra over here because you see he's right. I said that you know I'll do your diet plan.
(04:50) and I'll do the blood testing. I will discover your microbiome. I will figure out the nutritional supplement. But content, dala content, rice content, chaval, can I make the rice more nutritious? Can I make my dal more nutritious? There is a possibility and that is where people like Raindra come in because as an agriculturist, they bring in the science to growing the crops.
(05:17) So listen in closely. This is going to be a fantastic episode because if you're like me, have a kitchen pot and you want to grow some herbs even that's important because you can put micronutrition into that. So let's get cracking. So let's start off with I have so many questions. So Raindra, why are some 25 year olds feeling like 45 year olds and some 65 year olds seem to be aging in reverse? What exactly is broken in our lifestyle over the last four to five decades? This is such a bizarre situation, isn't it? You look at these 25 year olds uh you
(05:51) know many in my family too who get up uh tired looking for coffee to get into their daily life crash by 3:00 p.m. look tired all the day and then you go out for a walk in your society and then you see these seniors in the garden walking joining those laughing clubs full of energy and we are not talking about unpum kids and Anil Kapoor and Milan Suman but we are talking about people around us how come they are so full of energy and I think answer lies in this our chronological age is just a number on our ID card what matters is our
(06:26) biological age and our biological age is decided ed by what's happening in our cells. And I think there are three things which are affecting this the most. Nutrition, your sleep and exercise. And out of these three, Ryan, I think nutrition is the foundational thing. Sleep helps your body recover. Exercise is challenging your body.
(06:49) But nutrition is what makes your body. Every drop of blood in our body, every hormone, every immune cell, every neurotransmitter is made from what we are eating today. And so the answer to your question I think lies in the same nutrition. Two things have changed in our food environment in our overall environment.
(07:10) If you see the young people are in the perfect storm, first is this this digit chronic digital stress which was never before there. Your notifications all the time. We talked about Amazon deliveries. We talked about uh Instam Mars and uh then those perfectly curated LinkedIn posts where everyone is putting their best uh out there making you feel that you're left behind in their life.
(07:34) So they have this generation has been living with their cortisols hitting the roof. It's like a similar situation that the old people used to have uh generations away when they were always afraid that some animal will eat them away. So we are living in a similar situation these 25 year old. The second thing that's changing uh for them is the hidden hunger.
(07:55) The nutrition from the foods that they are eating is slowly getting wiped out and they they don't even know about it. So the food they are eating is probably convenient comes in 5 minutes but it doesn't have essentials like zinc iron thing and if you don't have nutrition if you don't have the raw materials that's the body you will build.
(08:15) Now coming back to the 65 year olds what has worked well for them it's a very strong foundation they started strong for most part of their life they have been eating food which had been homecooked was really great rich in nutrients and they have upgraded as well now many of them have added a bit of protein strength training so they picked the best from both the worlds and lastly I think for a 65 year old a strong sense of purpose they're choosing peace over this hustle culture and that's what is keeping them young.
(08:46) I think that's very valid because the other day I was on an Indigo flight and I actually was noticing that the older people were not taking food but every youngster around under the age of 30 or 35 if I could be correct was grabbing in the airated beverage the fruit juice on the flight and the sandwiches and the unhealthy packaged foods that was there and Raendra it was a 40minut flight right I mean there's some sickness with our country right now people I mean this is very true this is again the food environment look at how
(09:25) food was uh earlier this used to be home-cooked there used to be two or three meals a day food wasn't available all the time like it's available 24 by7 and it's just at your fingertips treats were occasional junk food was very less but I don't blame this generation Ryan look they have been before they get up before their breakfast they are exposed to 20 different ads so they are fighting against the algorithm itself which is very obscenogenic today >> I think algorithms is kind of ruling the roost but you know as a nutritionist I
(09:58) want to ask you this what is the biggest nutrition mistake that the smart educated urban populations are making today >> I think that's a great question I guess the biggest mistake that the smart educated urban people are making is normalizing living a suboptimal life. >> Say that again. >> Normalizing to live a suboptimal life.
(10:20) >> That's powerful. >> Because you know we are living something which is in a times of metabolic underperformance. >> Okay. >> I know this is your subject but I I love to talk about it from this aspect because we talked about nutrition. >> You know many of our generations are waking up tired. They have brain fog.
(10:40) Their productivity is impacted. They're living in what I call as a battery saver mode. You have seen on our phone when are in battery saver mode everything is black and white. No apps are working only the essentials. So we are operating at 70% of our capability. We are not sick enough to be hospitalized but we are not there to perform at our best and that's what nutrition is doing to us.
(11:04) And the biggest mistake that people are doing is normalizing living with this. Most of the time they thought it this is adulthood or this is stress or this is urban lifestyle. In reality it's the broken food system that's doing all these things to us. So we have all the nice step counters, the sleep rings.
(11:24) We try to cope up with this with the tech and then we order a very nice health wash snack from our favorite ordering app hoping that it'll fix things but it's not going to fix it. And then what we do because we see so many people around us living the same life we think that's a way of living. I think the important learning for everyone is that we need to ask questions when things start changing and the the worst thing about hidden hunger is like I said it does change your body so gradually that you don't realize and it starts sounding
(11:57) normal before it reaches to its uh tipping point. >> But I would like to correct you over here. You say slowly. In April of this year, I started eating mangoes every day. Okay. One month later, I did my inbody and checked my fat percentage. Raindra, not slow. 2 kg fat gain. I know I overdid it by eating like six mangoes a day thinking that I was working out and running.
(12:23) But there is this arrogant assumption in the human race that the food that we eating is not affecting us. And so the thought process is it affects us slowly. But when you do the measurement 2 kgs, I'm surprised as a nutritionist. So I'm like slapping myself. What have you done, Mr. Fernando? This is not right. But I think everyone makes these cardinal mistakes, you know.
(12:44) But >> I don't blame you for that. Amen. Say the mangoes, right? >> But today it's a mango, tomorrow it's aated beverage. Day after it's a croa, then it is a macaroon. Then it is a gulab jamun. Then it is a ras malai. Then the ras gula. And then the chumpy and fumpies and you know food in India is really kata >> it's so tempting ry and in fact I have a very interesting theory around it you know manifestation nowadays everyone keeps on talking about I'm manifesting for this I'm manifesting for that it's trending right I think what should trend
(13:16) is and which is very real is manifestation >> oh I like that term manifestation >> you know you can only fulfill your dreams if you change what you are eating look Virat Kohli do you think he if he would have been still eating those kulch cholay cholelay boules he would have been what he is I think the biggest the most difficult decisions he made were not on the ground but probably in 2018 when he said oh this is causing me acidity it's elevating my uric acid I need to change my diet you know Jookovic Ronaldo you know everyone has made
(13:52) significant changes in their diet so don't blame your luck for your failure or your successes is fate is giving us three opportunities minimum to change our life. That's breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I think that's why I love manifestation. If you're ready to say no to something in your breakfast, lunch and dinner, you will start seeing the change immediately.
(14:17) And like you said, you know, the food is the most powerful thing. This changes the way your body looks, the way your body behaves, the way your mind works. And it has a real impact on your chances of success. >> You know, Raendra, it's it's it's so refreshing to hear you and it's such wise words because yesterday I was talking to a client of mine again another Mr.
(14:43) Singh, right? Uh first nine months of his program, brilliant. He lost nearly 11 kgs of fat, right? But from March to now, he fell off the bandwagon. So he's like sir Monday business crash and all this stuff and what you're saying no that can you eliminate something at breakfast lunch and dinner and I said this to him and I say this to all my players and the reason Virat Kohli and the Yuvra Sings and all the players come to me in the later years is because there's a realization that the battle is not fought in the business space or in the sports field. It's
(15:18) fought over here. >> Absolutely. >> And food is the largest interest. So I actually tell my clients if you cannot say no or if you cannot win on the battle of the food choices to your body, how will you win on the court? How will you win in the match? How will you win in the business space? Right? So it's tough.
(15:37) It's really tough and it's which is why very few people focus on their nutrition because they're like as long as I'm breathing, as long as I'm standing, as long as I'm thinking and I'm living this suboptimal life >> and I'm okay with it. I think people are not okay with it but they are lying to themselves that you know they can become a Virat Kohli but they don't want to put in the thought process and the hard work like Mr.
(16:01) Virat Kohli to get to greatness and the simple excuse is huh celebrity pis but people don't understand it is your own body that makes your wealth it's your own body that does your thinking it's your own body that takes you to the next level of consciousness yeah absolutely and I think people give very little credit to the food they eat for what their life is currently like uh you know like I give example of all great people you know look at Kapil Sharma I'm sure he made so many changes in his life right to to reach where he's reaching. So whenever people get
(16:32) promoted when I used to work in my previous organization whenever people used to get promoted I used to ask don't ask yourself what am I going to add say what I'm going to remove from my diet for to reach to the next level and that's so true my own journey I told you about it I was like 86 kgs and I'm now 71 kgs and all I was doing was looking at my food and asking myself okay what can I remove right do I need this much sugar I grew up in a Punjabi family uh you know where they sandwich carbs in carbs and make that aloo paratha put a
(17:05) lot of saturated fat of white makan on top of it. It's so yum. It's so tempting and uh if you grew up eating that all your life and so the question at the breakfast is not what will you have for breakfast question is so that's the question that's asked in a Punjabi family. So it was very difficult but like I realized I think the the the the fight is not with an outsider.
(17:33) It's with your own self fighting your own temptation and learning to say no. People say saying no is such a powerful thing. I think start with yourself. >> Speaking of start with yourself, right? Um 17 kgs dropped. That's massive. Congratulations. I believe you will live a decade longer because of that. So if you were destined to live to 80, now you will live to 90.
(17:56) Can nutrition in your opinion influence productivity, mental performance, mood and energy as much as sleep and stress management? Because you're the CEO of your company, you run a large organization. You have a lot of stress, but you're also taking care of your body. Give us your experience and your inputs.
(18:15) I think it does and uh you know the more I I'm learning about nutrition I think this like I said nutrition, exercise and sleep are the three fundamental things which are deciding your not only your longevity but also quality of the years that you live and nutrition is very very key important thing and it has been always underrated. I guess the other things even the stress and sleep also depend on what you are eating right.
(18:38) If you start when you start designing your nutrition you also minimize your stress in many ways you also improve the quality of your uh sleep through the essential micronutrients that you are taking your magnesium intake etc and all that. So nutrition is foundational for me and I guess it has been proved beyond doubt that what we are eating today is not only impacting us but the next two generations as well.
(19:04) I'm sure uh you know you come from this background and you know about the famous Dutch hunger winter right which is one of the biggest natural experiments done in the nutrition science where they found out that during that famine which happened in the last few months of World War II where the calorie intake of those people came down to around 600 to 800 calories and the scientists when now they are studying the kids who were in the womb at that time for the mothers they have such a high chances of building cardiac uh uh you know failure, obesity, high
(19:38) cholesterol and not only them even the generation next to them. So what I'm eating today I'm not eating for myself. I'm also leaving a nutrition legacy. In fact this is one point that I've been telling India today. We are the largest population. We need to improve the quality of our population.
(19:57) So to all the mothers out there, you really have to before deciding to have a child, first get your body and diet in shape because you transfer genetic material which the raw material comes from your nutrition. Yes, there's a primal code. The building block needs the carbohydrates, the protein, the fats and the vitamins and the minerals and that is what forms the future cell.
(20:26) So it's really nice to hear this from an agriculturist because I always have this thing that one if the food is better grown and the choices of people are educated the next level of population can really really be healthy intellectual calm a lot of anxiety today in today's world is because of lack of the good nutrition in the diet.
(20:53) But taking a cue from this Dutch study right affects the next generation's uh health and their living outcome. The women of today they're juggling careers, their jobs, their families, their responsibilities. When these women come to my clinic, could be your wife, it could be my wife, they are reporting feeling tired, stressed, depleted despite them having access to food and health information that is very sophisticated.
(21:21) So what are we missing? >> Firstly, I'm happy that you singled out women here, you know, because I strongly believe tiredness in India is not equal. When a man in India feels tired, people ask you, he must be working hard. He must be building something. He must be in his hustle. When a woman in India feels tired, it's like stating the obvious.
(21:43) It's like poor time management maybe. So the tiredness is different. Men and women are absolutely equal but for their biochemistry you know I think people need to understand this that women women because of the menstruation cycle because of the child birth their iron requirements are double what a man needs. A man needs 8 mg per day of iron.
(22:04) A women needs 18 and when they are pregnant they need 27. Now this is a very very fundamental thing that people have to understand. When our food system is broken, our wheat, rice are losing iron. And by the way, the wheat and rice today have 30% less iron than it used to have five decades back. >> 30% lesser.
(22:26) >> Exactly. >> You have data on this. >> Oh, this is a ICR study which we can we'll be really happy to share. But the nutrition in our common staple has been significantly decreasing. It's like you trusted your banker to keep your money. Forget about paying interest. That banker has been stealing 1% of your money every year and you didn't notice because it was so gradual and five decades later you just realize your wealth is at 50% now and you didn't notice also because you trusted the banker. So this is the unfortunate
(23:04) truth. Now who does it affect the most? probably we still have enough iron to take care of uh the the dietary needs of men but not enough iron to take care of the dietary needs of women and they are the first ones to crash when our food system is leaking because their biological baseline itself their total iron requirement itself is higher than the men and so I'm not surprised that women today feel tired exhausted all the way because their diets have been becoming poor and this affects women the most what we should be surprised about
(23:38) is how they are able to achieve so much despite having this inequality. We talk about gender wage gap. Unfortunately, no one is talking about gender nutrition gap. We are living in a world I really don't care whether the biryani cost 370 rupees or 470 rupees. I think people should be caring that rice in that biryani is 30% less in iron and that's going to devastate the female fraternity in our country.
(24:06) That's something that India should be talking about more >> and I'm deeply reflecting here on this thought process because when somebody comes to me for a diet plan I am doing protein carbs fats and I'm looking at the calorie content and then people like Do I know how much iron is there in it or not? So I'm getting goosebumps. Okay.
(24:36) >> And Ryan, you talked about Rajma. So you know we we don't have much of that in India but in Kenya we are actually adding iron back to these Raja. >> Why are you doing that? >> So beans is a staple food in uh Kenya and there is a huge population which is iron deficient. By the way in India also 57% of women are anemic. Right.
(24:57) >> I I I I I actually remember it's about close to six. I remember as 60. So you're absolutely right. >> Yeah. So one and two. Yes. >> Even in our offices in our house that even every second lady is anemic. So the situation is not very different in Kenya. Beans is a staple diet there. So we found a way to add back iron to these beans. We call those high iron beans.
(25:17) And these high iron beans are magical because they are taking care of uh the iron needs of the women. A common staple food. No behavioral change needed. They are eating it every day itself. The nutrition walks silently in >> this is not genetically modified. >> So the approach that we work on is called biofortification.
(25:37) It's non-GMO technique. It's done through conventional breeding. The selective breeding which our fathers has been doing, our grandfathers have been doing for ages. So this is an age-old technique of selecting the crops for better traits. See for so many years people have been doing it for higher yield or better pest resistance but no one was focusing on the nutrition.
(25:58) We have flipped this and started focusing on nutrition. Can I select varieties which have more nutrition? >> So your company has those varieties of Rajma that have higher higher iron content. Not only Rajma, we work on 12 st such staple crops which have higher higher iron, zinc, vitamin A, all these essential micronutrients which are like causing the most widespread micronutrient deficiencies and Ryan I'm sure you must be knowing three billion people today suffer from micronutrient deficiency. So it's such a big problem
(26:31) in the world. >> That's why you are here today in my podcast because other than that you need to know this. I am also getting him to deliver the first crop of seeds to my lamb because I know my crops are deficient in micronutrition and I need them to be biofortified. But lots more for you to discover.
(26:49) Stay tuned in this podcast. >> Hang on Ryan. In fact, you are the celebrity nutritionist. I have got few celebrities with me today. >> Okay. >> Uh we can get those. >> Yeah. >> Okay. This is a different type of celebrity that you're talking about. >> These are our celebrity grains. You know we talked about those ironrich beans.
(27:09) Uh so these are the grains that we are doing in India. The one that you're seeing >> this is bajra right? >> This is this is not an ordinary bajra. This is superstar bajra. This is rich in iron. Have around 50% more iron than your regular bajra. >> 50% more iron. >> Yes. >> And you have not done this with genetically modified.
(27:31) This is biofortified uh launched and released by ICA. >> That's why it says biofortified on it. >> Exactly. And I want to break this myth also Ryan for everyone. >> Yes. >> No food crop in India is genetically modified. Period. >> And that's why I love our government currently because they're not allowing it to happen.
(27:51) >> Absolutely. >> So tell me a little bit more about these guys because you know what at the end of the day as a nutritionist I can do a diet blood, right? I can do a blood test. I can discover that you have iron deficiency. I can discover that you have vitamin A deficiency. I can discover that you have a magnesium deficiency.
(28:06) But what is the solution? Talk to me about this because I called you in for this podcast today because I believe this is the future. >> Oh, absolutely. And that's the idea probably. These are the crops, these millets and the crops that you're recommending as a part of a diet plan every time to your clients.
(28:25) Now our TVs have become smarter. Our phones have become smarter. Our homes have become smarter. Why should our food be dumb? >> That's amazing. I want smarter food. >> So this is your smarter food ra. And this is 50% more iron in the your same bajra. It doesn't taste any different. It doesn't cook different.
(28:43) It has more nutrition. >> So if I put a small patch in my farmhouse, do I need more fertilizer, more water because it demands 50% more iron? What is a growing process? >> That's the beauty of biofortification. These crops do not require any change in the farming practices. These crops are able to absorb more because their ability to absorb from the soil is higher than the ordinary crops.
(29:09) They are genetically superior. So this is the bajra that you have. And then you have very famous crop, everyone's favorite ragi, right? And um I've seen some of your videos where you have mentioned you're lactose intolerant. Now you know that two roties made from our biofortified calcium richch ragi gives you more calcium.
(29:34) 30% more calcium than a glass of milk. >> One second. It's not equivalent. It's 30% more calcium. >> It's 30% more calcium. So look at all those vegan. Look at all those lactose intolerance. This is not nutrition. This is freedom. Step one, choose the right ragi which is biofortified. Step two, make two chapatis and you will get 30% more calcium than a glass of milk.
(29:57) >> Absolutely. >> India, are you listening in? That's the reason this podcast is getting information to you. So if you haven't liked my channel till now, please like, share or subscribe because that's what we do. Roti is replacing a glass of milk. Let's hope the milk federation doesn't put a hit out on me. Okay.
(30:13) And step three India would be for that extra calcium that beats a glass of milk make sure you're picking up H+ biofortified. What else do you have Raindra for me? >> So you talked about this H+ biofortified mark already Ryan which is to indicating to consumer that this is genuinely biofortified and it has higher nutrition than the regular crops.
(30:35) We have a very important one uh >> wheat. >> Wheat not many people like to talk about it. I especially don't like to talk about because I'm gluten intolerant and so it's it's a thing. But tell me about the gluten in the wheat. >> No, you know gluten is the new Arian Kelvin of uh the food industry. Just say the word and it gets you the views, right? I mean say the other day I saw it on a pack of Poha gluten-free, right? And I mean you just put gluten-free anywhere and it goes up and and you say non-GMO, it works. In a country where
(31:04) there is no GMO crop in the food, you just write non-GMO and gluten-free. It works all the time. So this wheat has 50% more zinc than the ordinary wheat. >> Oh that's my testosterone booster. >> I mean we don't advertise that benefit most but there are many farmers who know that this is the benefit.
(31:23) They are picking it for this reason. >> But zinc works on many things in our body. You know that right? All the apps in our body work on uh zinc starting from growth, immunity, skin and of course our libido as well. >> And is this by traditional techniques? Um, you know, we we talk about all the modern wheats in America having higher gluten because of they're being genetically modified because you want that to make the breads to have that sticky consistency of gluten.
(31:50) So, is there any change in the gluten in this wheat? So look, I think I want to address this uh you know gluten gets lot of views and it's the most talked about thing and I hear many podcasts where people are saying that my granny used to eat this wheat but when I'm eating it it's having higher gluten and it's genetically modified.
(32:09) It's a very very engaging story except for the fact that it's not true. >> All right. So the gluten of the granny and the gluten of now is the same. So firstly, no wheat in India, commercially grown wheat in India or in the world is genetically modified. I will say it again. >> No wheat in India is genetically modified.
(32:30) No wheat grown commercially in the world is genetically modified. Now the second part of your question that's gluten. In last 100 years, research tells us there has been no significant increase in gluten levels of the varieties. The third most interesting part in fact the ancient varieties which are now being popularized by many as kapli your amma wheat and an corn in fact used to have lot of celiac disease triggering epides.
(32:59) So ancient doesn't by default mean that it's a better wheat. So this glute whole gluten thing is overstated. Does it matter? Of course it matters to the people who are medically diagnosed with gluten sensitivity with the celiac disease. But that's one to one and a half% in the world and India is no different.
(33:18) What has changed is not the gluten but the number of influencers on Instagram who are talking about it and probably a diagnosis of uh this disease. >> And what's the other celebrity superstar with bajra? >> So that's uh the bajra we talked about right rich in iron. It has around 50% higher uh iron and there's plenty of evidence that we gathered.
(33:42) In fact for last 20 years Ryan we have been working with uh universities like UC Davis, Cornell, John Hopkins to prove to ourselves and to the world that the food based approaches work. There were so many questions around whether this will actually be available to the people around bioavailability around the actual impact and so we have been working with something which you know is the gold standard of research randomized control trials for 20 years.
(34:10) Many of those trials happened in India on the crops like iron permillate and uh zinc wheat. In fact, an iron permate trial on adolescent proved that more than 40% of the times this reverses the iron deficiency in a period of 6 months when they're eating it through their common foods. Uh we did a similar study in zinc wheat in Delhi on the young children.
(34:31) Their pneumonia days were reduced their vomiting days were reduced. Flash note to all dieticians, nutritionist and practicing ayurveetic nutrition doctors in India. I teach a lot of nutrition subject matter to you. Flash news is this. The point in my head that just came up right now was why aren't we giving the proper shopping list to our client? It is a arrogant assumption to assume that when I prescribe a bajra roti, it is not my duty to tell the client which bajra roti to buy.
(35:08) So maybe the roti need not be the roti but the bajra seed or the flour that you're buying. So I think one job that we need to do going forward 2026 onwards is to educate people on from the soil to the table as nutritionist. Can we give a directional planning to our clients so that they make better and more influenced choices that affect the outcomes of their health? Because the point over here that what Raindra said to me is this that adolescence in a six-month period reversal by using your crop.
(35:44) And so for me that is that. Now if you have questions that you want to ask Raindra directly drop them down in the comment below and in the first six weeks Ravendra and his team are going to come back and answer each and every one of those questions. What more do you have to share with me? >> S I have more celebrities for you.
(36:00) We'll bring them on as we speak. >> Yeah, let's do one thing. Let's get this out of the way right now. >> You know Raindra you talked about hidden hunger three four times. What exactly is it? Is it widespread and is it impacting people's lives? >> So hidden hunger is is a situation when our stomach is full but our body is starving.
(36:25) When we have got enough nutrition but our cells are still sending and we have got enough calories but our cells are still sending an SOS signal for the nutrition and it's a huge problem. The result is the micronutrient deficiencies that exist all across the world which is affecting productivity, health, growth. Women and children are mostly impacted by this.
(36:50) Around the world around 3 billion people are suffering from these micronutrient deficiencies which is like nearly half of the world. >> So how do we end up with a thing where we have obesity and a micronutrient deficiency in the same person? This is a very interesting question uh Ryan and in fact most of the times obesity and micronutrient deficiencies are the two sides of the same coin and I agree with you.
(37:16) I think probably we are the first generation in the history of mankind which is having obesity and malnutrition at the same time. Mhm. >> So this is very interesting theory and uh I'm preaching to the choir but uh which I personally like that the research has proved through the theories like protein leverage hypothesis where it tells us that our bodies actually have a biological target for proteins.
(37:40) So when I'm eating a food that all of us are eating which is rich in calories but it's not giving me enough protein. body keeps on craving and asking for more calorie rich foods till it gets its kota of protein. Similar uh theory about specific appetite wherein body keeps on asking for a specific micronutrient which is deficient and end result is we end up eating more calories that than we need.
(38:07) So you know we are living in an environment we are overfed and malnourished at the same time because we are not giving our body what it needs and in the process we end up eating those hollow calorie rich foods more you know Raendra I want to share with you in India this part that there is a condition known as pika right and pregnant women will actually eat mud and chalk now when I studied at Goa medical college my clinical biochemistry and And I remember we were going through this as one of the uh lifestyle or micronutrient deficiencies. I was like person's gone
(38:44) mad in their head because you're like a 21 year old you don't understand reality of ripe right but it's documented and I have had dieticians who worked in rural areas who says Ryan you won't believe the mothers will actually eat chalk and take mud or scrape mud and eat it. Um, and it's like crazy. Hang on.
(39:07) What is the world doing today? We're craving. >> Absolutely. >> But we're conscious enough not to eat mud or chalk. >> Absolutely. >> So, we switch to foods that give us a dopamine pleasure because the body silently knows that the more calories you consume, what you just mentioned is hopefully giving you those minerals.
(39:25) And if you're not getting it, you're continuing that cycle. >> Oh, absolutely. And if you dig deeper, you will find every craving has an underlying deficiency under this. Talk about chocolates, right? Most of the time it's just a magnesium deficiency. Have start subscribe to pumpkin seeds and you won't need those chocolates.
(39:44) In fact, in our clinic, um, now we have become so bravado that if somebody says, "I have a sugar craving." I'm like, "You're going to eat dark chocolate and only this dark chocolate and you're going to take a magnesium supplement and I promise you that your cravings will go in 21 days. I have been craving chocolate my entire life.
(40:07) " And people will come back and say, and in fact, our word of mouth is so powerful on this one sugar craving success. I think people need to understand that their inability to control their taste buds is also physiologically driven not only psychologically >> and I'm so glad you said it because what I was referring to till now was theory but coming from a person like you who has been practicing it and validating the same thing I think it means a lot for the world.
(40:39) So most of us who are beyond 30 I feel need adult help right you need to go to a counselor you need to go to a nutritionist you need to go to an exercise coach you need to go to a doctor right but I'm scared for the children right so why are children gravitating towards the junk food and I know the answer but I want to ask this question to you so that India hears this from an agriculturist why are children gravitating towards junk on fruit even when their parents are trying their best to control them.
(41:11) >> I think I'll be stating the obvious um why they are gravitating. We know the reasons but I think let's try to break it down into two parts. It's part evolution part child psychology. >> Expand please. You know, we as kids are born with a natural craving for sugar. And this comes from evolution where anything sweet was was told to our brain that it's safe. It's full of energy.
(41:40) Anything salty was rich in mineral. Anything tasteless or bitter was looked at by our brain as poisonous, toxic or suspicious. So when a child prefers a chocolate over a broccoli, he's not being tough. He's just being human. That wiring is still there. So firstly, let's accept this thing, right? So no one is going to crave for broccoli. Period.
(42:04) Kids are always going to crave for the sweet stuff. Now the the second part is which makes it very interesting is the child psychology. I always say kids don't choose their foods logically. They choose emotionally, socially, visually, and habitually. Now, I'll explain a little bit more about it.
(42:29) So, kids choose things emotionally. When you make something off limits for them, you can't have these cookies. The fastest way to make anything irresistible for a kid is to completely ban it. So when you say you can never have this that's something that's telling to kids brain that I should have it. So this is the the emotional component of the uh the thinking that comes in.
(42:53) The social component is even more stronger. When kids are young parents are their Google. When they grow up peers become that Google and slowly this peers are going the peer power is going to be more than the parental modeling system. And so kids are going to not going to eat what we are preaching them but what they are watching in their schools what is happening in their neighborhood.
(43:11) We talked about the visual impact of food and that's even more important when kids see something which is being promoted in a way which is visually attractive. It comes with some cartoon characters some collectibles it becomes immediately tempting for them. And that's why chips will always win over carrots.
(43:34) Chips have the marketing team. Carrots don't. >> True, true, so true. >> And the last one is habitual habituality. And which is a very important thing which most of the times parents forget. Our psychology is about first thing is about being safe. So when a new thing is introduced to a kid, he's not going to say, "Oh, I like this.
(43:53) You you gave me broccoli first time. I'm not going to eat it." The science says that they need minimum 10 to 15 exposures for them to be comfortable with the food and most of the times as parents we give up on a fifth time or a sixth time and then we think a kid is being tough. So I think if we remember this that kids are not going to choose food logically and they're going to follow these principles it'll become much more easy.
(44:19) Now why kids are gravitating towards this and why it's becoming increasingly difficult for the parents? I think the answer lies in the food environment itself. Earlier it was the food was home-cooked. The meals were served at a fixed time. Treats were occasional. Junk food was given very little.
(44:37) There were very few food choices available. Now look at the environment. You know by afternoon you are exposed to so many ads on your YouTube, your TV channels etc. that it's really fight difficult for you to fight that temptation. So nowadays mothers are not fighting with hunger or the craving. They are fighting with with the algorithm, this battery of influencers, multi-million dollar food industry.
(45:02) And those guys are always going to win. You're not competing anymore with your neighborhood bakery. You're competing with the billiondoll food industry which has mastered the art of temptation. The reason I'm smiling so much is I like the fact that he said carrots don't have a marketing guy backing them.
(45:20) And you know what India Ryan Fernando is batting for carrots right now and Raindra is batting for better ragi wheat and micro nutrition in the crops. So I think basically podcasts like this will hopefully get the educated parent to start eating healthier. Now it might sound elitist but I'll share one life experience at home.
(45:46) My domestic help has watched us for the last 10 years. Um she underwent some medical procedure recently and her doctor told her lose weight. So this lady comes to me and says sir and I was like in my head I was like by you will not follow but I realized what happened was the doctor opened the first door. People rever doctors. So this message goes out to doctors.
(46:18) Doctors you cannot tell your patients eat what you want when they have a medical condition. Like the doctor that treated my father for gallstones or diabetes or his heart problem. You keep telling my father he can eat what he wants. He cannot eat what he wants. I have successfully reversed his diabetes after he stayed with me for close to a year now.
(46:37) Your medicine could not do that. Your medicine controls the diabetes. What is my message? My message is that we need the doctors to tell those who are not conscious enough that there is something in the food. Change your diet. So as a result, Mona's eating healthier. She's walking to work.
(46:59) And she asks after preparing our breakfast for 10 minutes time to exercise on our terrace. And I thought she was joking, but she actually works out every day. And yesterday she said, "Sir." So I think marketing managers exist for health. They are the doctors. They are the Raindras. They are the Ryans where we say let's bring back traditions which are not in packets, plastics or have to be unnecessary added with sweeteners, preservatives or food colorings.
(47:32) And speaking of colorings, what children always love, you have done something very colorful, a program known as Nutri Pachala. Now how is that helping children understand nutrition? Because Mona could be told by the doctor but youngsters what is its reach and what have been some of your learnings from this amazing program.
(47:50) So I'd love to tell you more about nutriala but I before I go there I want to go back to your earlier question about doctors you know why doctors today when I used to be young I remember a typical pres prescription of a doctor. It used to have three components. The topmost component was what food should I be eating.
(48:13) The second component was the lifestyle changes which included what not to eat, walking etc. And then came the medicine. I still have those prescriptions from my childhood times where these three blocks were invariably there. Now you go to a doctor and you don't find this the medicine will come straight away. probably some diagnostics and then the medicine walks in and I was doing more research around it you know the very interesting thing that I found and I read many blogs about by the doctors itself in India and it's no different from rest of the world doctors
(48:50) are trained less than 20 hours on nutrition in their >> oh absolutely absolutely I studied at Goa Medical College when my master's degrees I attended first year lectures of medicine right there were only six hours of nutrition in biochemistry and all the doctors because it's an easy subject were talking in the backbenches including me.
(49:17) It's too easy you know protein, carbs, fat. So nobody is educated to that level of nutrition unless they do three years of proper nutrition or they two years of master's degrees and that's the problem today. Even my mother is an influencer in nutrition and a nutritionist. She's not qualified. Even both my in-laws who are doctors consider themselves nutritionist but they're not qualified or trained. They are influencers.
(49:45) And when I meet people on flights, they say Ryan influencer. No, I'm not an influencer. I'm a nutritionist. I have studied it. And therefore what I feel is that because it's a subject matter that's so lovable, so easy, so handme-down from generations that everyone is an expert. >> Oh, absolutely.
(50:10) And you know, at least I mean I don't blame the nutrition influencers. at least they're trying to create visibility about this subject and they are starting those conversations which are very important and I'm very delighted to see some of the doctors nowadays coming on to Instagram and making such nice videos around nutrition.
(50:28) I think that's what the uh India needs there have been plenty of surveys where doctors themselves admitted that they are not prepared enough to advise on nutrition and that's one of the reasons. So this is a system failure which needs to be addressed. Uh now coming to your second question, there are not enough nutritionists in India right now to advise everyone around nutrition. Right.
(50:47) >> I'm glad you brought up that point because I spoke to the government about four years ago saying that we need a million nutritionist and I still remember the person looking at me and is like we don't have enough of doctors. Can we focus on doctors first? And I like sir please understand this. If you have enough of nutritionist, you won't need that many doctors and you can save the doctors for the really difficult diseases, not lifestyle diseases because somebody's eating, sleeping very little and not exercising.
(51:20) But tell us about this program. >> So I'm so glad you said it. So imagine a situation if there were not only a million nutritionist, if there were 120 million nutritionist in India, don't you think it'll be a much better country? I mean, say you probably will need very less hospitals, right? and the performance and the level of society will go up because Raindra you know I'll give you a simple example why everyone watching in should take an important decision to change the way they eat scientifically the brain is made up of
(51:52) 50% fat of which 60% is omega3 right now you talk about that I want more money I want a better lifestyle I want a better future how does that happen with thinking thinking enables 's action and if people's nutrition does not have the basic requisites of the essential fatty acids, it's useless.
(52:16) I could be the best influencer. You could be the best food manufacturer for biofortification. They could be the best chefs. They could be the best uh formulators. Doesn't matter. Awareness needs to come. And the decision starts with what do I pick up and what do I put into my mouth. So I think people need a little bit of a shakeup and a wakeup call.
(52:39) >> Oh absolutely and that's what precisely what we are trying to do. So I talked about 120 million nutrition barak road nutritionist. So Ryan um you know we have limited number of doctors and nutritionists in India right? What if if we could train our kids from the age of 5 years, provide them mandatory nutrition education and by the time they reach their prime, they reach a stage where they know everything about nutrition.
(53:09) Look at what we'll be doing to our society. The whole demographic dividend that we talk about, that will only exist if we produce a a a population of healthy kids who will grow into healthy adults. So this is precisely what we are trying to do. So there are 12 cr primary school children in India and through our program which is nutri shala which focuses on food education.
(53:33) We are going to these kids training them from their kindergarten about the nutrition education. The second most do this >> videos. >> Oh no. So we have a a detailed program which train which we have dedicated modules which are age appropriate. >> So there are teachers for this. >> Oh we have uh a set of our own teachers and we have a very nice concept called a neutri buddy.
(54:00) So most of the times these young kids they don't want to listen to uncles like us you know let's face it but they are okay listening to their elder siblings and people who are like if genpha they are okay to listen from gen Z. So what we do is we ask for volunteers from the colleges of agriculture, food, tech, nutrition who come in uh for a certificate and we train them and then they do this two months intervention with these kids and train them on nutrition and it's not bookish. It's all gifified.
(54:32) Kids play games. If they have to read a label, so if we have to teach them to read label, there will be a girl who's a nutrient buddy stands with the the noodle pack both front of pack and the back of pack and she enacts that I'm looking like this green spinach noodle. But don't be, you know, misguided by what I'm looking in the front.
(54:52) Look at the back and then she teaches them to read the ingredients. And if they want to know the sugar count, they actually put the number of spoons there and they figure out what's happening. So it's a very gamified way. they do puzzles etc. uh to to you know to learn nutrition in a way which is super engaging >> and what are some of the important learnings that have come out now from this >> um >> I'm sure you had speed breakers also right >> we I think the important learnings is that the most important learning that we had and why we started this is
(55:23) >> we realized that there's a big gap right now most of the social mediabased nutrition teaching is focused on adults and teaching adults adults about nutrition sometimes is like teaching driving after the accident has happened. So we figured out that you need to teach the the kids nutrition for two reasons.
(55:45) At that age they are more receptive. There's very little legacy that they have and it's easier for you to then write good habits on that empty slate and so you know the sooner you start better it is. So that has been our first learning. two, we realized the bookish thing is not going to work with kids. So until unless you have age appropriate modules which gify this whole exercise, this is not going to work.
(56:12) And the most important learning that we had uh Ryan is that these kids who have been always blamed for their pester power, you know, they pester us to do things that can be put to a good use. For ages, marketing agencies have been putting it to a bad use. We have started to put potato good use.
(56:32) So these kids go back to their parents and start asking them questions. Why are you eating samosas at house? Why are you eating kachoris at house? Why millets are not there in my plate? >> You know something? Uh I'm glad that you're sharing this with me because I never thought it would actually work. You see when um people come to me for diet counseling, right? Um so invariably what happens is if they come to the Bangalore clinic where I sit or in any of our nutrition clinics in India uh it is always an event for the family because the father or mother who's
(57:01) coming for the diet plan they'll be like if they hear that what mama papa is eating then they're right in saying that the children will also follow suit because parents are the role models for the children and children follow what the the parent does. So I have spun this on the same concept.
(57:23) What I do is after I give the nutrient plan and I look at the kid like so the kid is fully excited. Okay. Like really excited and they actually do that because now they're calling out the parent and the parent like put him to sleep then we will tell our parents take care go out have an ice cream but then I said now you're not ordering on e-commerce in front of the children no so change of behavior is happening so it's so so true that you say that change of behavior does happen with the children
(58:06) >> they are great learners if you can teach them right >> it's an intergenerational change like I said you you're not changing these kids like I said you know the whole nutrition legacy that we talked talked about it's not only what you eat it's also about what you learn about at nutrition right our habits were hardcoded in the first 101 15 years because no one trained us enough about nutrition the kind of food that we are know what probably people like us are trying to do is a repair job right lot of unlearning which is way
(58:35) more difficult than learning the right habits from the beginning itself and that's what nutri parala is doing and I'm glad that it's being recognized globally we were invited to the global child nutrition forum in Japan And Japan by the way is the epidome of running the most successful >> it is >> food education model and >> which is why they know they have one of the healthiest population in the world.
(58:56) The screening is there. The children learn about nutrition at such an age and you know the respect to a fellow citizen I believe comes because the food is taught at a very young age. The food allows the mind to develop with logic and serial order, not randomness and chaos. And therefore, the adolescent that comes out is much more grounded and structured and is able to think through emotions and logic and therefore is far more disciplined as they come into early adulthood and they get their first job and stuff like that. So it's amazing to
(59:38) watch an evolved culture like the Japanese and just the fact that how they approach nutrition is at space age level. >> Oh absolutely. >> In kindergarten you know people appreciate Japan in terms of the technology. They say oh they're living in future right but I think what people appreciate very little about Japan is how they work on fundamentals.
(1:00:01) You know, Japan has by the way the lowest childhood obesity levels and it hasn't happened by accident, right? They it's the school education system that they have worked on which is shokuiku right the food uh education philosophy which is one of the best in the world and uh the the food culture and the food environment that they have created in the schools like you said you know the kids build affection for the food they serve the food they clear the utensils.
(1:00:28) I got an opportunity to visit actually one of the schools in Osaka. That was like like a life-changing experience uh for me and we brought in so many learnings from what is happening in Japan. We brought in to this nutria life. If you see Japan also they most of the food served in the schools is is seasonal and fresh and locally procured from the local farmers.
(1:00:50) That's a part of the whole food culture and nutrient parala does exactly the same. The food that's grown these biofortified crops and the green vegetables it's grown by the farmers nearby them. You know why it is important Ryan? Because in schools you can change only one meal of the children. If you create an environment around those schools when the kids go back they are also eating healthy food in the lunch and dinner which means you're changing their whole diet.
(1:01:15) It's not like that you give something nutrition and they undo everything when they go back and eat unhealthy. >> I want to ask a very cheeky question. Please don't mind. Everyone says Ryan Fernando, you're very expensive. I'm very expensive. My nutrition is premium. Are these grains expensive as compared to the market grains? I'd like to disappoint you.
(1:01:37) These grains are at the same price as the normal grain that people buy in the market. There's no additional money that goes into production of these crops. The seeds are at the same price. Past the Rashamani podcast. In fact, government of India came up with something which has never happened before. Uh ministry of agriculture and ministry of health came together and launched mission seahhat.
(1:02:02) >> Ah >> so they're saying let's use agriculture to solve the problem of nutrition. >> Absolutely. That's >> and biofortification is the front and center and that's the that was the most satisfying moment of my career. You know we were talking about policy big changes cannot happen about the political will. So you need a strong political will and and the execution of course to bring such a change and it's such a welcome change that two ministries came together and they are saying let's solve the problem of health through agriculture
(1:02:33) very few hospitals we have so many farms we should be solving the problem there like I said food has to be the first line of defense >> let's make farms the new therapeutic intervention >> oh I really love the way you said it so that's why when I came back from Osaka I said let try to bring some of the things that Japanese are doing so right to our school nutrition program.
(1:02:57) In fact, I love to show you few things from our school nutrition program so that you can visualize the kind of change that we are bringing. >> U can get h this is my favorite. This is uh you know you talked about Ryan that >> how are we teaching kids right? Is it the screen time? We avoid the screen time at the schools and we design these tools which are like this is a newspaper that we we have recently launched which teaches kids the nutrition in a very fun way.
(1:03:33) The puzzles, the gamification, it also teaches them yoga. >> I like the fact that you've created a superhero around >> Oh, absolutely. Like I said, you know, they want collectibles. They want cartoon correct characters for them to to to like nutrition. The idea is they should start liking nutrition first. >> And have you made this in uh regional languages also? >> So this is printed in the regional languages uh you know for whichever state we are operating in in Maharashtra.
(1:03:59) This newspaper is circulated in Marathi so on and so forth. So that's one of the components. We also took their school diaries Ryan I mean say which has been mostly the time the the tool for teachers to write complaints about the kids right >> we took their school diaries and converted them into nutri diaries so they they write what they are eating sometimes they they default right I mean they eat junk but they'll note it down in their diary so a nutri will say and do a little bit of a counseling to them but it's okay I mean after all it's kids
(1:04:31) so we used all the the food environment that exist existed in the schools and converted into very useful tools and this is the the and it's it is it doesn't only stop at the nutrition education right they need to practice what we are teaching them so we like I told you the crops those are grown around these schools are converted into these recipes which kids like in those areas and we create this nutria this goes as a breakfast uh menu for the kids along with the freshly cooked meals and Why it is important is Ryan government of India
(1:05:06) has one of the largest programs in the world which caters to 120 million kids the midday meal >> but many of the kids come hungry >> okay >> and you know when they come hungry they don't get the breakfast they're all the time they're thinking about food only and their attention levels are very bad. So what we have done is these are minimally processed uh products uh >> mostly cereals right >> made of cereals and all the nutrient-rich crops bio fortified components and other nutrient-rich crops converted into recipes that kids like
(1:05:42) the kakras bajra ladus and uh thing so you know the funny thing is Ryan we used to give this da to the kids first to take back to their homes and then we realized someone was stealing This dubba kids were not able to eat. Kids were not eating all the products. Someone else was eating. It was their mom.
(1:06:03) And then we figured out that now the dubba stays at home. They get, you know, a bar or a lu depending on what's the day of the week is and they get their nutrition from there. I like the fact that it's all freshly prepared ingredients, natural ingredients, uh no artificial colors, no artificial flavors and no preservatives. >> Absolutely.
(1:06:27) When it comes to kids, we have to just do our best and then we continuously keep on improving these recipes. That's why we engaged with chef Sanjie Kapoor to curate some of these recipes for us. So like you know for the kids it's very important for us to have that balance of taste and nutrition. >> I think um I will definitely reach out to you because I do have a lot of schools that reach out to me uh and we need to connect uh healthier food uh for the children so that they develop well but um I have so many questions to ask
(1:06:59) you. So can I get back to some of those questions? >> Oh let's jump right onto it. >> Okay the supplement market has exploded. Right. So we looking at uh there must be a need out there. So everyone's trying to design supplements because there's more awareness. People are getting tested.
(1:07:18) They realize they're feeling low in energy, fatigue levels, all of these things and they're like something must be wrong. Can I get a nutritional supplement? Are these supplements solving the nutritional gaps or are they simply helping us cope with a broken food system? >> So Ryan, let me start with this. I'm not against supplements.
(1:07:35) I think supplements play a very important role when there are micronutrient deficiencies the sphere ones during pregnancy and for some of the micronutrients which are otherwise very difficult to cover like B12 vitamin D which are difficult to uh cover from the food but I believe in a food first approach I think supplements are like a spare tire you use it when you're when you're driving a punctured car but what if if your car is driving everyday punctured that means You shouldn't be looking at the tire but you should be looking at the road.
(1:08:07) Unfortunately, that's the situation of our food system. I say our food system is not broken. It's leaky. It's leaking nutrition. Every year we are losing 1% of the nutrition from our food system. And last five decades we have lost nearly 50% of it. So we need to be definitely looking at the road. We need to fix the food system.
(1:08:28) Unfortunately, we can't supplement our way of this broken food system. it's too much to ask from a tiny pill. So supplements of course have a role to play but I think food is the real thing. Food is the first line of defense. >> So when we look at um food as a first line of defense when someone eats a healthy diet, how much of that nutrition would actually be absorbed by the body and now why does this bioavailability matter so much? >> I think this is one of the very misunderstood concepts in nutrition.
(1:08:58) We think I'm eating nutritious food and this works all the time. All the time, right? >> People will tell me I'll give them magnesium glycinate capsule like no no no natural food but they have a chronic deficiency. So yeah it is the standard my food is what is going to save me. Talk to me about this. >> So you know as you said in nutrition it doesn't only matter what we are eating but what is being absorbed by the body.
(1:09:26) Look at it like this Ryan. Your nutrition is like your CTC. Your cost to the company, the misleading package that we tell people when we are hiring them and your absorption is your actual takeaway. So how much is your body actually taking? So you must be having 10 migram of iron uh in a food but that how much of it is actually absorbed by the body that matters.
(1:09:50) And like I love to say this, the most expensive nutrient is the one that's not absorbed by your body. It's 100% waste, right? It's the money wasted. So bioavailability is a key thing when it comes to nutrition. Good part is that most of the bioavailability of the food can be improved by using very simple kitchen hacks.
(1:10:14) Firstly, what impacts the bioavailability? It depends on number of factors. your gut health, your inflammation, your cooking time, pairing of various nutrients, etc. And if you can make small changes to the way you cook and eat, you can increase bioavailability up to 20 times in some cases. >> Up to 20 times. >> Take example of uh you know the curcumin that comes from turmeric.
(1:10:39) If you pair it with the >> pepper, >> pepperin from uh black pepper, 2,000% increase. Same ways talk about vitamin K E DA people think I'm eating the raw salad it's always good no when it comes to food raw is not always the best option overcooked is not the best option either it's just the rightly cooked so if you can add a little bit of salt saute our vegetables the vitamin K E DA which are like fat soluble they become more available so you know I have this concept called nutrition maxing so you can maximize your nutrition by doing
(1:11:16) simple thing. It's like you know getting more mileage out of what you are spending on your nutrition. The simple tricks like mixing the right nutrition. We talked about turmeric pepper uh you know black pepper uh vitamin K EDA can be enhanced by adding little bit of a fat to the foods like carrots which are rich in uh their right cooking method.
(1:11:41) Now if if you have to get maximum from your eggs the best thing is I think probably the sunny side up right with the flowy yolk that gives you best of both the worlds. Also there are some absorption killers for example tannins in the tea you know we hear that don't drink your coffee and tea immediately after the meal and there's a scientific logic behind that because this reduces your iron absorption significantly.
(1:12:06) So if you can delay the timing between your coffee and the tea and the meal that significantly increases your uh iron intake exact amount of cooking like I said don't overcook it, don't undercook it. Keep your cooking slow and light and that maximizes your nutrient. And the last one is the one that we talked about it. Extract the maximum nutrition.
(1:12:28) Use biofortified staples, foods which are nutrientdense like soya, lentils, you know, these are the natural source. So they have more nutrition per bite. If you can follow these simple tricks, remember the word max mix, you know, uh exact uh nutrients, exact cooking, you know, extract more from uh your thing, absorption killers, avoid the absorption killers.
(1:12:58) So if you can do MAXX, you can maximize your nutrition with the simple hacks. >> Okay. Okay. Super duper. You know, you talk about um agriculture for nutrition, right? I recently bought a halfacre plot of land. Um now, if my goal was to maximize nutrition, I'm not interested in yield or profit right now because I'm a nutritionist. What would you advise me to grow? And firstly, I'm so happy you're doing this.
(1:13:25) This is such a welcome change. We talked about doctors not prescribing food anymore, right? And then on the other side, people like you who are going one step further and actually not only looking at a food first approach, but also trying to understand how food is grown and how nutrition can be maximized.
(1:13:45) So what you're trying to do is what we call as nutrition farming. Okay? when you do farming to maximize nutrition and that's a great way for you know anyone to get maximum amount of nutrition per acre of land. So you talked about 30,000 square ft which is like 34th of an acre which is a sizable land and I think if it's near Bangalore the good part for you is uh these are good letter soils with a moderate climate so you can grow a lot of uh crops um this is not a formal consultation but if I have to think uh you know on my feet I think we will we
(1:14:21) should be dividing your farm into four or five basic pillars. I think a lot uh significant chunk of land should go to obviously to to the healthy staples and um um I'll pick iron pearl millet for you. Orange flesh sweet potato by the way very rich in fiber and rich in vitamin A.
(1:14:42) Zinc rice so we will allocate a part of land to these healthy staples and then we will bring another patch for leafy greens your amaranth spinach right for obvious reason rich in iron calcium etc. We'll also grow some trees which will stay there for longer like gava, papaya, amla for vitamin C and vitamin A. And then we will be doing some poultry birds.
(1:15:08) >> Okay, around 10 12 of those you know so that you get regular eggs and this will give you vitamin B12 and choline. I think that's the way to maximize from your farm. Like I said, I can provide you a former cons consultation. I can fix your farm if you can fix my gut. >> We'll do that.
(1:15:30) I will take you up on that offer cuz fixing your gut, that's my territory. I think fixing your gut is the easy part. Fixing my farm, that's going to be tough. >> So, my offer stays open for you and any of your celebrity clients. We hear a lot about their farm houses. >> You know, everyone nowadays, um, in fact, a client came to me and and he's like, "Mr.
(1:15:51) Fernando, I've got a patch of land outside my factory. Uh, I'm going to grow my own crops and my own food. And I looked at him and this was about 2 three years ago. He's like like guy is like filthy rich, right? You can just buy the best of produce and put it in. So apparently he met a swami who told him that the energy by which you meet people translates to the other person.
(1:16:17) the energy by which you cook your food translates to your food. So this man thought the energy by which I grow my food will translate uh to the food that comes onto my plate. And so he said Ryan I just thought that this is the new luxury. I can afford to buy a Rolls-Royce and a Lamborghini. Why can't I afford to grow my own food? and he set up his own place hiring his classmate from school who was the head of the agricultural college in that part and then that person guided him on this 100,000 square ft property and they put
(1:16:55) part of it in Greenland. So I am thinking when I heard that I was like now this is true luxury. It is I think you know I mean say if you look at it more philosophically we start from soil and we end in soil right and if you the true luxury is owning some of this land and soil and if you can fix that soil grow something out of it I think that's the most positive energy that you can have in your life >> as we go towards the end I want to cement this thought to people for their learning yeah Brian Fernando is getting
(1:17:28) a small nutrition farm We talked about biofortification. What is the difference between fortification and supplementation and more importantly we now have real strong world evidence that biofortified crops improve human nutrition. So talk to me about this very quickly. There are many ways of improving nutrition and none of them in isolation works.
(1:17:56) I mean it's always a combination of these technologies. The the first and foremost is you fix the seed and the soil itself. So the crops growing out of it are more nutritious which is biofortification. The second part is you take the food to the factories and you add something to it synthetic which is like could be your uh iodine in the salt or could be you know uh vitamin D in the milk.
(1:18:21) You fortify those crops. And the last one is you extract all the nutritious components put it in a pill or a syrup and that's your supplementation. Right? So simply put if you biofortification is nutrition from the farm fortification is nutrition from the factory and supplementation is nutrition from the bottle.
(1:18:44) So you know this is how it works in under different circumstances these approaches have a different role to play. Right. Right. uh the the easiest way for me to explain is look at biofortification like your salary. >> That's where you're naturally growing what you are getting from your food. And if your salary increases, that's the good thing, the best thing.
(1:19:02) Look at fortification as your bonus. That's something on the top of it, right? If something is still missing, you add that. Look at supplementation as your personal loan. You take it when you are in emergencies. >> Wonderful philosophy. I mean, I'm going to start using that in my counseling. Um, speaking of counseling, if you were sitting across from the prime minister and you had to advise him the three most important actions that his government should prioritize to improve nutrition at the scale. Raindra G, what would that
(1:19:34) be? >> I'll do four. >> Okay. So, I think we talked about some of these, right? I guess the soil that's the first part which needs fixing. Ryan, in India, nearly 50% of the soils are deficient in zinc. So you can imagine if the the soil doesn't have a zinc it will not pass on to our crops and that's one of the reasons 35% of the children are also stunted in India.
(1:19:58) So they don't get their desired levels of uh zinc. Organic matter in our soils is now nearly 5% compared to the 5% that it should ideally have. >> Organic matter should be 5%. >> Yeah. And our soils are having less than half a percent of organ. >> How do you measure that? So you know you measure the organic carbon in the soil and then that's an indicator >> can be sent to a lab and check it.
(1:20:21) >> Exactly. So there are labs who test for the organic uh carbon in the soil and then gives you a clear picture of and fortunately the government of India has a very nice program of soil health card which measures the soil health. The only thing is we we have a thermometer we are measuring a temperature but very little is being done than on the treatment and that's my suggestion that India should have two dedicated missions on the soil.
(1:20:44) One is a national zinc mission and second is the national organic carbon mission and we need to fix these two components of the soil on priority. Moving on to the next part is seeds. Now in the so these soils we grow the seeds and most of the seeds in our country and the worldwide were grow were produced with the objective of maximizing productivity.
(1:21:06) We need to fix that part as well because we need to bring back the nutrition. Again government of India took a very great initiative of putting minimum breeding standard Ryan which mean any variety released in case of Bajra has to meet that iron and zinc threshold then only it can be released. >> Wow >> that's one of the that's India is one of the only countries which have done it.
(1:21:26) So they the first ones to do it. However, we need to replicate that for all the key staples, wheat, rice, maze, you know, so that the nutrition becomes a ne, you know, it's it's mainstreamed into our agriculture system. The last the third one will be schools. We talked about it. Educating the kids in the school, the 5 years old in the school can make a huge different when they turn 50.
(1:21:54) Again, we have one of the largest midday meal program. We need to complement it with the mandatory nutrition education from the kindergarten onwards. We have demonstrated through our part nutri partial program. Governments are liking it. Many state governments are coming forward. But this should be universal uh for India. Lastly is the safety nets.
(1:22:14) We have a largest public distribution system in India which provides ration to so many people and most of the ration that's given is wheat and rice. We need to ensure that biofortification is the default choice there. All the grains given in public distribution system, midday meal programs in our take-home rations have to be biofortified.
(1:22:35) That's the easiest way of uh increasing nutrition levels, nutrition at the population level. So these are these are going to be my four recommendations if uh I have to make it. >> So Raindra, you travel extensively around the world. What are two lowhanging lessons of food system models from other countries that India could adopt to improve the nutrition outcomes? >> Ah, this is a tricky one.
(1:23:00) I'll talk about one that we can learn from the world which is very relevant for us and the one which we have an opportunity to do right and then inspire the world. So my first one will be around education talked about Japan's model of uh food the Japan's food philosophy of shoku eco you know Ryan in Japan every school has a dedicated nutritionist allocated to them their meals are designed so basically they're prescribing food to the kids and then there's so much of a work that's done around the food culture kids serve the food kids clean up food
(1:23:35) is sourced from the nearby farmers I think this is a beautiful model and very relevant for India. India has all the right pieces biggest midday meal program. We need to learn few things and bring back uh to India and this can really create a demographic dividend for us. The one model that India can do it right you know you we are hearing so much about transparency the the front of u pack labeling the warning signs.
(1:24:06) India has moved in a right direction and now is working on something called INR very interesting name Indian nutrition rating system it does many things right it penalizes the bad which means uh foods which are rich in which are high in sugar salt saturated fats are penalized they get a lower score there's also a component of rewarding the good which is if they have higher fruits and vegetables and millets they get rewarded they get higher points However, it's missing in including micronutrients in that rating. So the
(1:24:42) foods which are rich in zinc, iron, vitamin A, they don't get a higher rating. Now this becomes a big disincentive for the businesses and the farmers. Farmers who are growing crops like nutrient-rich or biofortified crops which are rich in zinc, iron and the businesses who are using these ingredients in their portfolio.
(1:25:02) Now imagine an organization which is selling ordinary ata visav an organization which is procuring this biofortified wheat and then having an ata which is around 40 to 50% higher zinc. There's no incentive. This also impacts thing because it then it doesn't send a demand signal to the farmer to start growing more of nutritious crops.
(1:25:21) >> True. That's the thing. The demand signal is not there because you can't project it to the consumer upfront. It involves testing of the product. Absolutely. So this is an important thing. So India again has a wonderful infrastructure. We have been working with lot of global organizations to build something called as XRF technology and I'm glad you asked this.
(1:25:45) So XRF technology is a very simple thing like in a doctor's clinic when they need to find what's the problem with us they just get an X-ray done. >> So we have a technology which can does the X-ray of these grains. I can absolutely tell you how what percentage of higher iron is there and in less than 30 seconds. >> And is this device portable? >> This device is right now like a tabletop but then we are also working on something as a XRF gun which can be carried to the farm and done it in real time.
(1:26:16) >> Interesting. So therefore as a nutritionist I should expect in the future that a farmer on his produce be able to tell the levels and somebody who's processing that staple into let's say an ata be able to put it on the packet also and say what is the nutrit nutrition content of the micronutrients in that.
(1:26:37) >> Oh absolutely if you ask me what will the future of our food system look like? I think if we get it right this is precisely what is going to happen. We will have uh a world where we will not measure success of agriculture by tons of something produced but by tons of vitamin A, tons of zinc, tons of iron in the food and that's going to be the real change because we will start measuring nutrition. There are tools available.
(1:27:04) These XRF guns and XRF machines will enable us to precisely do that. I've been a huge promoter of diagnostic testing because when you test you know where you are and then you can change your health. Raendra, you have taught me today that there is a crop. We can biofortify it. And the future is if we can test it.
(1:27:29) There is impetus for the consumers to know what they're getting into their body. And coupling that with educating our children when they grew up, they're going to say that, hey, you know what? Our ancestors have kind of paved the way for us. Now it's our responsibility to eat correctly. Because today I'm teaching people to eat correctly.
(1:27:49) But I don't know whether I'm responsible enough to know what the food really contains. And on on that note, I want to leave you with this message. India, change the way you eat. Learn about nutrition. Learn what goes on the front of the pack, behind the pack. Get the nutrition information to the government of India. The INR rating, the Indian nutrition rating index. Please bring it out soon.
(1:28:16) I remember around 3 four years ago you asked every restaurant and every industry in the catering business to bring about the protein the carb the fat and the calories per dish. India is eating far too much when we eat out or we order online because we do not know the calorie content. So we're feeding empty calories to us and because of this taste bud hunger that we have India is getting obese and malnourished at the same time.
(1:28:46) If you've liked this episode, I request you to share it with a policy maker, with a farmer, with a scientist, with a guy like me who's bought a small plot of land so that you can start feeding your crop much better. But don't start only with fortification externally. Look at the seeds that are procured.
(1:29:07) And the reason I brought this podcast to you is I decided to get my piece of land in the nutrition farming way. Raindar and his team are doing that in India. So if you want to reach out to him, there's a link in the description below where you can reach out to him. And if you've liked this podcast, share it with your farmer who's your next door neighbor.
(1:29:31) And that was Raindra Grover, chief operating officer at Harvest Plus Solutions. What a conversation from hidden hunger to biofortified crops to children in schools learning to take charge of their own nutrition. If there's one thing to take away today, it's this. The solution to better health can start with something as simple as the right seed.
(1:29:50) Thank you for watching this. I hope it made a difference. If it did, share it, subscribe to my channel, and let me know in the comments about your thoughts about this entire conversation. Until next time, eat smart, stay healthy. I'll see you in the next