The 15 Day Food Challenge | Nutrition | In the Den with Sarthak Ahuja

If you want to build a D2C brand in healthy snacking or FNB, think functional beverages, functional chocolates or just healthy snacks for the Indian market. Today I have a nutritionist with me Rashi Chadri who runs nutrition in sync in Dubai and she's here to talk about everything that is wrong with our diets and what can we delete or add in our snacks and meals so that it's better food for the consumer. Stick around. I just want to understand why is tracking calories not right for women. You said that and for men it's okay. We have — so men function on a 24-hour cortisol cycle. — Okay. — Women function on a 28 or 30-day estrogen progesterone cycle. Ask any woman. She does not feel the same every day because our hormones are fluctuating a lot. What it was yesterday will not be the same that it is today. So I love to cycle sync with women. So I have a lot of clients who come to me for different issues like whether it's weight loss, it's managing their endometriosis, period pain, all sorts of things and I make them cycle sync. So in certain phases of your cycle, you eat more. Now a gym bro will tell you every day eat 1200 oh nowadays it's become slightly better. Okay, eat 1500 calories. Okay. And that could not be the case for everybody. Sometimes you need a little bit more in your lutal phase. Lutal phase is closer to the period. — Okay? — If you ask any woman, how do you feel around your period? She's going to give you a lot of things. She's going to say, I don't feel the same. I feel I need to sleep more. I feel my cravings for sugar have increased. All of this stuff. So at that time, we need to eat slightly more, — you know. Uh so calorie counting and keeping it the same every day is actually not productive for women. — Okay, got it. So what do you think is the right way for us to then look at our health if not calories? So what are the metrics beyond calories that people should be looking at? — I think the first thing is how do I feel in my body? What is my energy level like? Do I have the energy to do everything? Am I pushing in a workout and feeling great about it? How well am I sleeping? You know, we just say, "Oh, 7 hours. How are you? " Seven hours of sleep. — People are sleeping at 2 a. m. and they say, "I'm getting 7 hours of sleep. " What are your REM cycles like? You know, so there are so many different things to judge apart from now. See, if you want ads, if somebody wants, go calorie count. — Yeah. — You know, cuz that will clearly get you there. But how sustainable is it? What is your mental health while you are counting those calories? How many occasions have you said no to? How often have you gone to somebody's house, they baked you something or they make you eat want they want you to eat something and you say no? — It requires a lot. Yeah. — If you want abs, fine. I'm not your girl. But if you want a nice, you know, nourishing life and you want to respect food and love it and everyone else around you, then hell yes. This is how you got to do it. Like, you got to stop viewing food as calories cuz it's so much more than that. You know, it's emotions, it's memories, it's love, it's all that. — So, I feel this is what I bring even to play. You know, I want people to connect with food again for them to know that look, we do need to eat differently than what we used to eat earlier because now the gluten and dairy are not processed the same way, — right? — Is it? — Yeah. I I'd love to know like I would assume we're having mother dairy milk for like — I don't know maybe two decades. So — commercial dairy is a huge conversation, right? Commercial dairy is not what it used to be 50 years ago. Cows are not grass-fed anymore. — They um — you've seen some of those videos that come up. Yeah. — So, do you want to they firstly they have m all this milk that you're getting it is coming from the udder of a cow who has mastitis. — Yeah. — That's an udder infection. Those mass cells, white blood cells are getting into our food chain. And this is why now young girls are getting their period when they are eight. — Yeah. you know, and then mothers wonder why. It's because you're feeding her cheese, di milk in the name of health and calcium. There are other ways to get it. But anyway, so the point is we need to change the way we eat because of the modern day stress and just the fact that we're living in today's day and age. — I think let's look at it from the perspective of today a lot of people want to build in FNB. They want to build healthy snacks. Mhm. — So first let's really figure out what is the problem with the dairy that we consume or the cheese or the paneer that we consume even if it's coming from like good companies which maintain a certain level of hygiene which could be your mother dairies and stuff because you know Amul has now come up with this entire range of protein and I think it's so good

— um it's inexpensive it's priced for the Indian market and people trust Amul and they're coming up with such amazing flavors and you can only order it from their website so Everyone's literally it's always sold out and everyone's just tracking it and ordering it. — But we believe that cheese milk dairy is good then. — Okay. Now there's education around palm oil is not supposed to be good for you. But why exactly? I don't really know. — Yeah. — Why is date sugar better than uh refined sugar? — What is dairy doing? We spoke about dairy as well. I really want to touch upon that. Right. — It has lactose and casein. These things are difficult for the most humans to digest. So what's happening and the quality is so bad that now so many women have acne issues and it's happening when they stop dairy suddenly the acne goes away. Till they don't stop it for 30 days they will not know. — Gluten is again highly inflammatory. Our gut lining is very sensitive to gluten. — Okay. — Not just for celiacs. Yes. Celiacs 100% have a problem. It's they should not be having gluten allergy. — Celiacs are people who have a gluten allergy. — Gluten uh intolerance. — Okay. — Right. We know this through many studies that a lot of times even people who are non-seliacs can be sensitive to today's gluten because today's gluten there is glyphosate being used and in India they say glyphosate is banned but this is not true. Illegally it is still used. Now glyphosate is a herbicide. This is sprayed on everything and the crosscontamination happens. That's one other thing. But this glyphosate then combines with the gluten in your wheat and goes into your system and becomes antigenic. So your gut looks at it as a threat and it doesn't know how to digest it. And that's why autoimmune conditions where your body attacks your own immunity is becoming so common. Have you — That sounds like cancer. I mean, I don't mean to make this dramatic in any way, and that is not the intention, but the moment you say your body's kind of attacking yourself, it's almost like there's something growing inside of you which is creating a problem with your immunity and killing other cells. And that's what it's — I'm not trying to be dramatic. This is real, okay? And I wish whoever's here if there are women who are hearing this and if they have hypothyroid they should get themselves tested for certain antibodies because 80% of women who have hypothyroid also have Hashimotos which is an autoimmune condition. — Okay. — Autoimmunity is nothing but your immune system protecting you actually telling you that something's wrong and misfiring — because of a lot of reasons. So it's not like uh it's an attack like there's so much in the medical community about this you know it sounds like an attack but it's actually not. It's your body really saying listen I need help you know. Yeah. — Okay. So as a nutritionist um if someone comes to you and they have no concept of healthy eating — that they've lived by so far they've not been educated in so far. — Let's try and understand what do you solve for in what order. — Yeah. Uh so I would assume if someone's overweight you'll solve for calories. — No. Okay. So I what I'm trying to do here is I'm just trying to analyze where will the consumers go or where is the white space right now in India which someone should solve for. For example, if protein is a wave is there an opportunity for a lot of brands to come in and say I'm now going to educate only on pe protein why it is better than all the other forms and sources of protein. — Yeah. After pea protein is established in a market, do people get elevated enough to understand that rice protein is even better if at all? I I'm just for the sake of an example. — Then they come to fiber, then does it come to sources of fiber and then does it move on to gut or a bunch of these things kind of coexist and kind of move on together. — Exactly. That's — But then in gut, where is the consumer at and where do you think is going to be the next level of innovation is what I'm trying to understand. So if you go by a client, whichever client that comes in front of me, I will ask them what their pain points are. — These days, most pain points are around, of course, weight loss has always been something. But I wouldn't go around asking about calories. I will — I would go really deep, right? Figure out is it cortisol problem? It is an insulin problem. What is the problem that this person is not losing weight or is it just that they're just eating too much? Sometimes it's genuinely that they're not eating it. It's not about the amount of food that they're eating. there is an issue metabolically which is causing them to not lose weight — okay — more easily than others right so you know what I mean like there's no it'll be a pain point so the other pain point is anxiety for example — lot of people have anxiety and a lot of times this anxiety is stemming from gut issues you know so suddenly people will be like my heart is just racing — I'm getting anxious very easily my ability to handle stress has really gone down and I just can't sleep really well either so these are all anxiety issues many times is related to their gut. When

I ask them about what's going on with your gut, are you gassy? Are you bloated? Are you constipated? Is there IBS? Most often they will say yes. — So then we solve for the gut — because we try and understand what is going on that you're feeling like this in the gut — because your gut and brain you know this they're related right the conversation is birectional there. So if your gut's not okay most often — or eventually you're not going to be okay here. — So we solve for that. But are you understanding? I don't know if I'm answering your question. — I am. I'm getting the drift. So, if you're talking about gut, — what do you remove firstly and then what do you add as a supplement? — And I would then want to look at okay, if you're adding this, maybe that is an opportunity for education on social media, someone to make products that naturally has it — anti-inflammatory. If you want that — then I think for FNB brands for FMCG putting ingredients that are actually anti-inflammatory would be the next thing. So what happens when we hurt ourselves suddenly suppose you fall there's a bump. — Yeah. — That is inflammation. — That's literally inflammation like it grows in — it's important and it's important because it's protective. — The problem is when this is chronic when it's constantly there but imagine this is happening inside in your gut. — There's constant inflammation. There are bonds inside your gut. There's a gut lining that epithelial cells they're tightly joined together — by this one molecule called zulin — which is a protein molecule. Okay. — When we eat gluten, dairy, sugar, all of this stuff, a lot of times what happens is these bonds become very I'm saying in the most layman terms — but this kind of explains it. These bonds become very loose. — So what happens? Food undigested particles or bigger particles start going in and out. They're not supposed to. Your body will absorb protein not as protein but as amino acid the tiniest particle. Carbohydrates not as carbohydrates as glucose the tiniest particle. But now suddenly bigger particles are entering inside and this is called a leaky gut. — And when you have a leaky gut there's chronic inflammation. So dairy will have lowgrade inflammation. people who've been on dairy for a long time maybe nothing drastic is happening to them but constantly here and there are headaches constantly feeling tired you know not feeling energetic and then eventually it comes down to I'm not motivated — yeah that's like you say that the moment you cross 35 you're constantly feeling tired and we blame it on age but I don't know if that's really true — I you know again this is a long conversation but I think what happens is over time we're not looking at these small things like how we were talking about there are small things you need to solve for. For example, gut, gluten. And I get a lot of backlash for this. But this is the answer. Everyone in India at some point for 15 days should stop gluten, dairy. 15 days. Huh? Gluten, dairy, sugar. Lentils, soy, peanuts. — What do you eat? I mean, we have dal roti and Yeah. But you can there's so much to eat. 15 days. I mean I would think padir but then it's dairy. I would think as a vegetarian. — No, hear me out. 15 days of not eating this and then gradually you add the things you miss the most. So suppose what will you miss? Dal you'll miss the most obviously add the dal back. — Okay. See how you feel. — Then this is a text elimination diet. This is what it's called like by functional medicine. This is the best way to know what are you sensitive like what's working for you what's not. So 15 days you stop then you add the dal then if you're missing the gluten then after four five days you add the gluten and back. This way you will know what really works for you, what doesn't. — And those 15 days this when you remove these things, no most of the other things are anti-inflammatory. — H — so they will — which is salads, vegetables. — Ew. No. So salads will not work at all for I'm not saying don't eat vegetables, but what I would do is give a Now we're talking like actual — I have no I can't even imagine what I'm going to eat if all of this goes out. — So you're going to have rice. sweet potato. Oh, you're going to have regular — rice doesn't have gluten. — No. — Okay. I had no idea. I'm just — So rice is — Okay. So, you'll have to tell me when you say gluten, me. Okay. Remove wheat. — Huh? Remove. Sorry. Correct. So, you remove wheat. You remove um uh pasta, pizza, bread, right? Sourdough bread later. I would totally add it. — Doasas you can have because it's made out of — but which is fine. It's still okay. Look, it depends on now. What I've given you is a blueprint for anyone who's really struggling because if anybody's listening and struggling with their uh gut and if they've heard this and they do it, you'll get a you and we both will get a lot of blessings cuz gut issues can be so traumatic for so many people. So, if they actually do this for 15 days, then they add things back and they'll be fine. Now, 15 days, what do you eat? You're going to eat chaval, a potato, you're going to eat sweet potato. All of these are your major carbs that you would eat. You can eat fruits, you can eat nuts, you'll have dates, you'll have um

subzies, but I would not do salads for a while and um you know very well-cooked vegetables. Pha you can eat. You can eat n dosa. You can eat rasam without the dal. There's a lot that you can eat. You can eat avocados. — Um what am I missing? Yeah, — sardo. I know it has — meat and all of this is allowed, but you're saying vegetarian. So of course you would eat chicken, fish, all of this stuff. Eggs. — Got it. Sourdough I would add later. But if you know that you don't have any sensitivities, you're great, you're not feeling that bad, then please add sourdough bread from the get a good one. Turn it around, read the ingredients. There are some brands that are doing such a good job. Can we name brands? — Of course. — Yeah. So Charlie's is such a good brand. They have just three ingredients and they do a lot of different varieties and Yeah. — So the first thing is you would remove ingredients which add inflammation. — Inflammation. Yeah. — Which would be gluten and sugar. — Gluten, dairy, sugar. Those are the top three. Okay. — Yeah. — And then after you've solved for inflammation, what are the other things that one should do to make their uh snacks more I don't know efficient, health efficient or functional in some. — So then then this happens, right? You either add uh the functional benefit would either be adding the right quality of protein, not the cheap variety. And how would you rank the quality or sources of protein? I think grass-fed whey isolate would be ideal or we can go you can go with the pea protein you know pe protein isolate — uh which again is you know works for — there are a couple of brands in India which are but they're doing it as protein powders not in a snack correct right because it's very hard to work with a vegan protein in a snack bar — okay — it tastes chalky even a protein I don't have you ever had a protein shake it's very chalky it is — um they haven't really solved that yet Yeah. — But um yeah, so when it comes to protein with that or it would be a functional ingredient that you add right now that depends. Do you want your consumers to feel awake, you'll add, you know, caffeine? If you want them or you want them to feel calm, you'll add torine. I don't know. Basine is also like a caffeine plus like it really just wicks you up. — It depends. Like right now, matcha is such a thing. Theionine Eltheanine is something that you can use. uh torine for women above 35 it actually helps you calm relax all of that stuff. — Okay. So you would solve all of this in protein and after that you would move on to fiber. Is it natural? Is it linked to protein in some way? — Fiber. — Yeah. — I mean all protein — I mean why is it that after protein in all consumer markets fiber would be the next thing or the simultaneous thing that will begin to take off. See, I think fiber is a very it's a it should be considered as a mac you know what a macronutrients protein. Yeah. So fiber is going to be the next macronutrient — because we all need anywhere between 25 to 35 grams of fiber every single day. — Without that there your you know gut microbiome. So our microbiome is everywhere on our body. Okay. — But why do we say gut microbiome? Because 90% 80% of it is in our gut which is in our stomach. Right. So uh these microbiome have a lot of power over us and one of the ways you feed them well and keep them happy is fiber. Again, I'm saying it in the most layman way possible, right? — The when you eat enough fiber, and while I'm saying this, I also want to be cautious about there are some people who can't digest that much fiber. — So, don't do Yeah. Yeah. — Oh, I would think fiber is almost something like selium husk or like a isab goal because it looks fibrous and you're like, okay, I'm just adding — fibers. You'll get it in your fruits and vegetables, right? That's why you get it. But there are some people when they eat salads, they don't feel so great. They feel worse because they have again this is technical but they have methane dominated SIBO — and what is that? — SIBO is a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. People who have this will feel worse when they eat salads and sprouts and things like that. And there are some who feel better of course. So anyway coming back but fiber in general of course is good. What I would do with such people is give them soluble fiber not insoluble fiber because fiber different types right. — So what is it like in everyday life? What should people — So for example, if you're for women, if you eat one whole avocado, 2 tablespoons, 3 tablespoons of chia seeds, and you're going to have say five to six prunes a day. This in itself will give you a good 20 g of fiber. — This almost sounds like, you know, they say have prunes when you need to like clean your gut and you want to like go a lot more often. And — you must have definitely seen it. There's this meme online where it says you know when couples travel — the man's like pooping thrice a day and the women's not gone for 5 days and it's everyone relates to it but what is the reason for it? — The reason is women are highly deficient. One of the reasons there are many reasons right why someone would be

constipated. Uh one of the reasons for women is because we don't have enough magnesium because our food is deficient in it. — Um globally the top soil is depleted globally. M — so your top soil decides how much nutrition your — plant will have or whatever vegetable fruit you're going to eat right now if that's depleted what are you getting — in your spinach and carrots you're not getting enough so please take supplements don't — so it's anyway kind of genetically modified for taste and color and size — all this we know and nobody is escaping it right this is just how it is so now we have to try and that's why I said we have to eat differently we have to think differently about food — correct — now you cannot say calories you're not getting anything in even wholesome food now, right? — So anyway, so women are highly deficient in magnesium and if I've seen this when they add magnesium citrate up to 500 mg every day they will clear their bowels clockwork. Also women need to know that this talking about this meme when they are in their lutal phase which is closer to their period they you do get a bit constipated because a lot of us women don't have enough progesterone — if — and it's natural — now in today's day and age it's normal it's not natural would be that we feel good during that phase because our body at a primal level is expecting to conceive and birth a be like you M — so you're supposed to feel relaxed and calm but in today's day and — so it's normal to say that if someone's feeling it I mean — 20,000 other women around them would be feeling the same thing so they don't need to feel like there's something wrong with them — yeah carry chia seeds carry uh prunes with you on a trip and make sure you carry magnesium citrate — sure and we're seeing like a big jump in selium husk consumption like — um is it a good thing because now people are looking at it as a natural substitute to GL LP1 saying that it makes me feel fuller so I'm eating lesser food but then like if I had to think of how our parents or grandparents would advise us they would say only take it when you're constipated not otherwise because then your body gets used to having it is that true and what is it like — you will have a lazy colon if you're going to con lazy bowels be on it constantly and again selium has to be a SOS thing it can't be a daily thing because then there'll be a point where selimas stops working then what do you M got it. Okay. So, we've spoken about protein, we've spoken about fiber. Um, what else gets sold for after this? Have you seen in mature markets? — I think, um, right now, like I said, they're just adding these functional ingredients, right? There's a chocolate which says that it will help with your libido. I forget the name but the thing is that I don't know if they're going to add or they should be ideally adding the correct dosage which has shown to actually have an have a positive effect. — Okay. — Again, not just a marketing dose, right? — Okay. So, that's one kind of additive to give a functional benefit. — Yeah. — What other functional benefits are you seeing across beverages, across chocolates, across snacks? — Prebiotics, probiot, right? Because — is how much of it is marketing? legit? This is the problem. Who is talking about how much probiotic is there? Nobody's it's all marketing. — This is why I'm saying that marketing knows it's very easy to add and then blow up your product. Uh but consumers need to be more conscious and you know so many times consumers are buying it because it's cool. Got — it. — You know you're also buying it for different reasons, right? So I don't know how much still that's not happened where consumers are buying it because is it really having a functional effect or not or is it just marketing? — Got it. — Okay. I think this gives us quite a lot. I've been you know when you go to the US and supermarket especially even places like Aravon their entire focus is — oh god — you know wellness products — it's like aisles full of just supplements and there is this one supplement brand — which has got uh sleepy gummies — and calming gummies and focus gummies and you know when you want to study you have this and sleep you — and I'm like is this legit like does someone keep like a stack and keep popping like gummies the entire based on — no but this is happening why because people need it right people are also feeling — so you're saying that's not marketing like some bit of it could be marketing but — of course I think — but it's definitely a need in the consumer's mind right now — think about it how is it not — who the how many people these days we meet who are just constantly feeling like they are struggling with their health India is the NFld capital of the world non-alcoholic fatty liver is the more — you know women there we are top three in infertility — and it's not just a woman's role it's the man as well it's 50% men 50% women — correct — so what are these what does this mean this means that we are a population

that's getting very sick — very fast we are lazy we are not aware you know we just — I think in India there's it's still a lot of the marketing stuff works — you know um here it is indulgence without guilt. — 0 g sugar healthy. — How if it's 0 g sugar, where is the sugar coming from? Is it maltitol? Maltitol is not good for your gut. — Okay. — Your gut is going to be messed up. — Now to this in sugars, how would you rate it? Like is there a ranking that you would say this source is the best and I would say maybe include something like a monk fruit because these days a lot of people are trying to build monk fruit infused and sweetened beverages and chocolates and they're like this is going to be the next thing. — Yes. But you know, I've seen these brands do this. They'll use monk fruit and then there'll also be sucralose. — Okay. Along with sucralose is not Yeah. And sucralose is not good. So let's — but why what is it that monk fruit is not solving for that you will have to add sucralose? Is it the price point because it's too expensive? — Expensive and uh it won't have that you know there's a very different type of sweetness — that sucralose like how you said I have my diet coke every day. Anyway coming back to that. So they will use monk fruit and they'll use sucralose. Mainly it's sucralose and they've just used very little monk fruit because just to claim it but I can say for sure alulose, monk fruit, erithol are all great. Ethrol — you didn't mention aspartame. — Aspart is not nice. — It's not good. — It's terrible. — It's part of diet coke. Is it? — Yeah. See, it's not the best. — It's almost like you know when you're flying and they offer you beverages. — Now you can't take buttermilk because you're like, "Okay, it's dairy. — You can't take uh coke and all anyway sweeteners. Now you can't even take diet coke because — if you're having it once in a while, what's the problem? Eat everything once in a while. Now look, my ambition is to make play an everyday ritual. If that's my ambition, I cannot give them uh you know — all these chemicals is what you're saying. — Absolutely not. Why will it become an everyday ritual? Why? — Okay. So tell me something. If you think the diet coke sweetener is bad, — what are the effects that happen? And I'm asking this out of selfish interest because for me I'm like okay if I'm really off of a lot of these sugars and carbs that's like my daily like can of joy you know as they I don't know if they've branded it or other people have where they call it the fridge cigarette saying that if I don't smoke I don't have alcohol I'm not having sugar this is like my daily one can of joy okay but what harm is it going to do to my body which is reflect in my health — maybe nothing because maybe overall you're doing a great job — you know overall maybe You're managing your, you know, you're eating enough good fats, you're working out, you have a lifestyle, you have a you have purpose, — you know, that alone we, — again, this moves into direction, but having purpose heals you. — Yeah. Generally in life like you have something to look forward to. It just keeps you psychologically healthy. — Yeah. And it actually is healing. You feel very connected. You feel aligned. — Somebody else who has no purpose, who which has weight to lose, is constantly having diet coke. Uh and so many people who have diet coke are also obese. Have you seen that the irony of like ordering a McDonald's? But so you know it's about it comes down to your thought process. Now maybe for you it's okay but for somebody else who's constantly having gut issues thinking to healthy — it's not working for them right? — So it it's important but that's why calling an ingredient good or bad context matters. So you got to zoom out and see what else is happening. — Okay. So for most people, what do you think would a diet co-create issues in? Is it a gut related issue? Is it a is it an inflammation related issue? — Depends on how much they have. — Okay, imagine someone's having like one can every day. — Again, — what is going to be your biggest concern about it? Like you'll say maybe everything's okay, — but if I have to check this is the possible problem this can create. — I would ask them more things about just how are they feeling with their energies. I looking at you because you said you have one candidate, right? I don't think is going to have such an impact. — Great. — Right. But if I really had to get down, I'd be like, why are you having a diet coke? It's a it's an addiction. It's an it's a habit, right? If you have a regular one, automatically you'll have four sips and stop. — Oh, is it? — Won't you? — I don't know. I mean, I've not had it in a very long time. — Try it next time. Could firstly now that you're used to — I'll tell you why. because I think it's a very it's a great source of zero cal caffeine and I'm like in the evening sometime between lunch and dinner because I know I have a long day every day sometime around 5 6 it gives me like a good like pick me up kind of a thing where I'm like okay I can keep going — but this is what interferes with your sleep architecture at night — you know your REM cycles may be affected — um and again because you have just one a day and you have so many other things going for you this will probably not affect ffect you that much. — But most people — who are some people have four five cans a day — like that's the consumption right

— uh again I think I would comment on it only if I know everything and with you I know your sleep is at 2:30 2:00 you said right so I'd be like maybe the caffeine is keeping you up too late if you struggle to sleep I tell you listen cut back on that or maybe have it in the morning — no I touchwood so far I sleep like a baby it's a conscious decision I think for me because work gets over around 11:00 in the night. — So, it's almost like, you know, watching something on TV or like reals is my way to unwind to be ready for tomorrow because my entire day is like really packed with a lot of — reading, client calls, this that. So, I feel like I need like — 2 hours of just being with myself. And I know, you know, we could have an entire discussion about blue light and — melatonin. Oh my god. But I'm like, okay, it gives me joy for one hour. Let me just do my reels and stuff. — Yeah. And and look, I always ask my clients, right? Are you happy? — You feel like you're in a good place. And if place, continue. Have the diet coke. It's fine, right? But if you're not in a good place, which is where most people come to us, but they're not feeling great. Then of course, we are looking for everything to — We're subtracting things, adding the good stuff. You know, — another issue that I would want to ask if it can be solved through diet is when we tend to speak with a lot of women kind of realize they're having some kind of anxiety or some issue when it shows up in the form of some pain in some part of the body. It could be in the chest, stomach, it could be in the arm, shoulder. But I think whatever I've been reading online, it just everyone who's kind of like a psychiatrist or a therapist, they say that's when people realize they even have the need to come up and it shows physical signs. — Yeah. — Uh do you think there is a functional benefit that can be added in food or snacks to kind of prevent that or it's just looking at the entire subject too simplistically? — I don't think food will sort that. Look, food is surface level. M — when things like this happen like when you have anxiety I mean it's obvious that when you're eating well and what I just said if you're eating an anti-inflammatory diet most often chances of you being anxious also much lesser right because your body is healing inside — when we get stressed out anxious when we have trauma all of this is not free for the body — your HPA axis hypothalamus you know about the HP axis that's a your hypothalamus pituitary adrenals that gets disregulated now when it gets disregulated it needs a lot of nutri nutrients to regulate itself. — So stress is expensive for us. You need B vitamins, zinc, iron, all this is required and most Indians are deficient in these things. — I think when it comes to stuff like that where you're feeling pain because of your anxiety or some stone trauma, you really genuinely need to sit with a therapist and solve for that because it's only going to make you sicker. And no amount of eating well will solve All of that. — Got it. So, okay. To wrap up this part of the conversation, I would want to um ask about as a nutritionist, what would you recommend is the right percentage, gramage or so of the different macros — and what supplements as a generic advice that should apply to most people. — Would you say a stack of supplements? this is what I would recommend for most. And then maybe people who are building in FNB could take that as an advice to kind of play onto some part of the supplement which is missing in the diet or play onto some part of the macros which is missing in the diet. And that could be an insight for them to think that okay is the consumer right to now be educated on maybe a zinc and have like an entire item or array of snacks which is just solving for zinc or you know vitamin D of some sorts or whatnot. So, so maybe just walk me through like the macros. — So, let's start with macros. Right. Now, this will be very different for everyone, but because I specialize in nutrition for women, I'm going to speak for them because for men, it's going to be different for sure. Yeah. For women, I believe, and this again is very contradictory, but I genuinely believe that women do better with no more than 40 to 50 grams of carbs, — okay? In a day, — percent. 40 to 50 grams of 40 to 50% sorry 40 to 50% of their total calories should come from carbohydrates. Okay. — Which is very less. — Okay. So if they're eating about 1500 calories a day as an example no more than — 700 uh calories should come from carbohydrates. — Okay. Yes. Correct. — Then the remaining piece is obviously fat and uh protein. Right. based on what's going on with her hormonally, I would increase the fat. — Okay? — If she has PCOS, if she has endometriosis, if she's, I don't know, struggling with whatever else she is, I'd probably in fertility, not being able to conceive, I would really go higher on the fat. — And if she wants to drop a lot of weight

and that's the focus, then I'd go higher on the protein. — Okay. — So, the split should be 40 on carbs ideally, and then the remaining 60 will be divided between protein and fat. — Would you say 3030? uh getting 30 grams of protein is hard for women who are vegetarian. It's very challenging. So then I for vegetarians I would make it 25 and otherwise yeah it would be 3030. — Got it. Wonderful. Okay that was on the macros. You didn't talk about fiber so it's not coming in the macros is all you need very little. — I think like I said for women no not yeah 20 to 25 grams is good for women and that you'll get from those sources that I spoke about if they just have Yeah. — Got it. And if you had to build a supplement stack — that people could add in their snacks or drinks or whatever to cure people. — For women again I would be uh vitamin D of course is generic men and women. — Uh iron because this helps you ovulate. A lot of women are not ovulating because they are low they have low iron. So iron would be one. Magnesium for sure. — B12 — these three and in addition to this for men I would add zinc — because fertility again. — Okay. But these would be the like literary basics. Yeah. — Got it. Thank you, Rashi. So many insights. Um I would hope we can crunch it well enough for people to be able to consume quickly. And thank you for telling us so much about not just opportunities in you know how people who are building D2C products in food and beverage should think of adding functional additives to differentiate but also how to enter the UAE market because a lot of Indian brands now want to. Thank you for making the time and doing this. — Thank you so much for having me. This was so nice.