Healing Through Nutrition - In Conversation With Junior Anand Gupta
Junior Anand Gupta was the catalyst in bringing about the bill in the Parliament which is for women’s rights and he will tell us about it. But in the last 2 years Junior from a businessman became a healer. His whole mission now is to heal people through nutrition, through well-being. It started with diabetes and now it has broadened to really helping people being healthy and away from every disease. He ran a very successful initiative before the Covid-19 for a year where not many people were able to follow the diet they want to. He not only gave the diet but also started sending in the three meals and I did subscribe to that meal for 3 to 4 months and I lost 6 to 7 kgs, just eating that and it was very healthy, nutritious and tasty. In Covid times health and nutrition are even more important.
Q. What is keeping you busy during the Covid-19 period of time?
A. Covid has been an interesting journey for us because we are located in a mall and now all the malls are shut. We have really done a 180 degree turn and we just launched online consulting products so taking all our years of experience and putting it into a ‘health at home’ type of product. That is available on lifeheal.in and we are trying to bring weight loss, increase immunity and control diabetes through what you do at home.
Q. You had started a very successful kitchen and a very successful program of delivering three meals and it was very scientific, very calibrated and I know for 3 months that at the same time my meal would arrive beautifully packaged with everything labeled and tasty. I enjoyed it. I had to be disciplined and there was a variety of cuisines – Chinese, Indian, South Indian, Italian etc. Do you think post Covid even if things come back to normal will you go back to providing that or you will stay on a digital course?
A. We are definitely taking the digital course and we are also looking at making alliances with other people whose business is the kitchen business. We see our business as being a health and wellness business so if we can tie-up with people who are running their kitchens, then we can focus on the healing and the scientific aspects of healing versus the operational aspect of managing the kitchen, managing the staff and managing deliveries.
Q. Just for the benefit of our viewers and our readers give us a sense to the years of your journey. How did this idea of Life Heal come?
A. It started with diabetes and that is because both my father and mother have diabetes. Its only with my practical experience that I learnt about fatty liver, kidney disease or even thyroid but my personal mission is diabetes and cardiac disease. When I learnt in the US that diabetes is reversible I got a shock because no one in India told me that diabetes is reversible. Even going to the best doctors, nobody told me it is reversible. So I decided to pursue it more and we are going to talk about women safety but like that I saw something wrong in the system which bothered me. For example, for people who take insulin, nobody tells them that insulin is hardening their arteries and is going to make them a heart patient. I feel it is just wrong, all the focus is on treating the symptoms and not enough focus on the fact that diabetes is very easy to cure today. That is my goal. I see something wrong and I want to fight against it. That is my nature.
Q. I know when you started your venture it was called ‘Cure my diabetes’ and today it is called Life Heal. Could you tell us about that shift and broadening of the purpose so to say?
A. What happened is I would meet a lot of people, let us say these 2 people who are 135 kilos. Now one person is diabetic and is ready to take some action but the other would say I am not diabetic so it is okay and I don’t need you. I would say the fact that you are not diabetic, why are you waiting to get sicker? So we realized that in Cure My Diabetes we were missing out a lot of the people who have certain earlier stages of the disease and it is not just diabetes – there is so much thyroid, so much PCOD, so much fatty liver as a matter of fact now. I feel that fatty liver is more than diabetes. So if we can treat all these then people can live long and not go through a surgery and the stuff that is traumatic to the whole family.
Q. Could you tell us about 2 or 3 examples of your customers, people who consult you. Please give us 2 or 3 transformative stories.
A. My mother and father live in Lucknow and it was always a challenge for me to transmit the knowledge to them. I will share the first one with you as we are looking at home treatment. I am happy to say that 2 days back my mother stopped her insulin and while I was treating her during the lockdown it was a long journey, so that is my first one and I take a lot of happiness because previously her insulin only stopped in Gurgaon but at home to do it is ultimate. The second one is another patient who lives in South Delhi. He was on insulin for 8 years and his insulin stopped in 35 days and now he has been without insulin for about 7 to 8 months. He keeps losing weight and the last time I spoke to him he was wearing pants from 15 years ago.
Another really cool story is about another patient who is 60 years old and I last met him in January, but his insulin hasn’t stopped and that keeps bothering me but his kidneys have become pretty much perfect. He says that don’t worry as things in my body are improving and guess what, even my reading glasses have gone. His long distance vision is cut in half and reading glasses have disappeared. My wife who is an eye doctor said it is theoretically possible. I said that I had never heard that a 60 year old man’s reading glasses disappeared and they have to go get new prescriptions done by lower strength by half, because of food. It is mind blowing to what the body can regenerate when the food is right.
Q. Can you tell us what was the similarity in all the 3 patients you just mentioned in terms of their conviction in what you said to them? In their discipline? What would you say to people watching you and give us some tips?
A. I will tell you what I told my father. I said I had to change what he ate. I have to add new things like salads and smoothies. I had to eliminate some of the things that are wrong. One has to be ready to change. If one wants to change their health, quality of life then one has to change their inputs. If you can’t change the inputs, then I can’t change the output. As long as people are open minded, willing to be persistent, for example, you might not like something the first time you eat it. But I say eat it 10 to 15 times and then tell me you don’t like it. The persistence to eat what you don’t like, a dozen times, is what has to be brought to the table.
What we have done in the Corona virus time is that we were thinking about how people have changed. Now they are all at home, so the consulting plans of what we have done is, we re- tweaked them to be consulting for the whole family. Because just for one person if we have to make separate food, vis-à-vis the rest of the family members is not going to happen. If we say that we make one thing extra for you, these are the other things that everyone will eat, we feel that it is a more appropriate approach for India in a Corona virus situation that we do a healing plan, a health plan for the whole family which would include grandparents, parents and teenagers to young kids.
Q. You mentioned quite a bit of the demand side of the problem when it comes to diabetes but I would like to draw your attention to the supply side, I mean India is largely a sugar driven country, we love sugar and the kind of sugar that is present in processed foods like sucrose in its form. If I talk about the supply side, a lot of processed food brands put in a lot of refined sugar, like even in milkshakes there is a lot of refined sugar. Could something be done to inculcate this cultural change, not only from the consumers side but also the brands which put out refined sugar on the shelves?
A. For brands profit comes first. I was eating a chocolate today that said no sugar added and no artificial sweetener but actually they do have some sweet stuff. I didn’t feel so good afterwards. Recently I bought a bread which said 100% atta but if you read the back it says only 45% atta. It is time to harness the power of the internet and just get some basic knowledge about certain basic items like your sugars, carbohydrates, like fruits, just maybe about 5 food groups that you had awareness you would eliminate 80% of the damage you do.
Q. Please give us some thumb rules during Covid times for good health, for people who are obese also, or in general some foods that are good for nutrition.
A. Some thumb rules would be firstly, make sure you have some raw vegetables everyday. Vegetables, not fruits, for example, tomatoes which are high in vitamin C, whether it is cauliflower, lettuce leaf. These will fill your stomach also and are very high on nutrients. So you will get more nutrients in your body which is important for boosting your defense. The second thing that I would encourage is to have vegetable juices. Carrots, tomatoes, amla are all super foods. Amla is great for vitamin C. All packaged foods should be avoided. You get energy from living food. If you eat what is in a packet it doesn’t die. Food that doesn’t die, wasn’t living. So don’t eat dead food. Eat a fistful of nuts over the course of the day. Haldi reduces inflammation. So Haldi milk, Haldi black pepper and water. So I think that vitamin C and Haldi, sometimes raw garlic will boost your nasal and overall the respiratory system. If you can boost your respiratory system it is great. Not everyone is getting Corona virus. Those with a good immune system will lead to being unaffected. So boost your immune system. Lastly I would like to say, add some probiotics because the gut is where the probiotics go and if your gut is strong then your immune system won’t focus down and it will have the energy to focus on your respiratory systems.
Q. How do you see the body, mind and soul connection in the context of prevention and healing of diabetes, and what would you like to say about emotional eating?
A. Firstly, find your cheating roots. If you can put relatively healthier snacks out there and ready then your emotional eating has a choice to eat something that you decided to eat. If you don’t have or haven’t made preparations for that then your emotional eating will be the most convenient thing that you found. For example, I bought 2 of these packs of (before lockdown started), healthier chocolates, I bought a lot of dates, figs and nuts so that when I am doing my emotional eating it is dates and it is nuts, which are zero processed, compared to eating something sweet and fatty that is processed because that would be the first thing that I would say. The answer to the mind, body and soul connection, I’m not familiar with particularly diabetes in this context but I would say the mind, body and soul connection is important for your complete existence. Whether it is your work, family or health all are extremely important.
Let us talk about work. Having a purpose behind your work is so much more powerful than working only for money. Today when we talk about treating diabetes in this Corona virus time, I would say I just hate diabetes. So it doesn’t matter if food subscription maybe less viable now or other concerns, be it logistics, I just hate that disease. I am going to keep trying to find ways which are holistic and that are going to keep you healthy. I get a different kind of joy with that.
When it comes to family I think that you know, like I made my kids do pranayama. And I tried to make them aware of what some things mean. During this lockdown with less staff at home so when they need something I just say go and get it. You can’t keep shouting at someone who is working. We have to recognize when someone is tired. So you have to teach people to treat others like you would want to be treated, you have got to be connected to your work, you have got to take care of yourself, so the soul, pranayama, meditation, self-awareness etc. helps. I would go on to say not only mind, body and soul but also nature. During these difficult times you have to be connected to nature. I have realized that we humans are designed to get sun. That is why people have low vitamin D because we are designed to operate in the sunlight.
There is a new theory of health, called the Circadian theory of health which says that if we went to Mars or we went to some other planet and if the day became 48 hours long, we wouldn’t be able to survive as a species. We are designed to operate on a 24 hour cycle. So our heart, mind, lungs are got to be looked after well. For example most heart attacks happen in the morning because we are designed over 3 million years to work on a 24 hour cycle. I want to add on this that as we look at the Corona virus and a lot of people’s businesses are disappearing and incomes going and I look at all the people who perhaps do not have a viable economic future.
As souls we are not here to make money but to impact the world around us. That is how you are going to be measured.
Q. You donate one day a week to a social cause. How does that make you feel serving humanity?
A. Donating one day a week was probably one of the best things I did in my life. It allows me to structure doing something and doing it persistently. I realized in social work the biggest thing is persistence. One day a week allowed me to really be structured with it. Before the startup I was very consistent for 5 years and it was the most incredible journey. Doing something good teaches your children to follow as well.
Q. Tell us as an entrepreneur what went through your mind during this challenging time?
A. I think one has to believe that whatever happens, happens for the best. So now we are looking at virtualizing the food delivery, tying up with other people. If I tie up with a company which is in 5 cities, I could be in 5 cities within weeks which would have taken years to be. So if we can develop this model successfully we can be in 30 countries and it is asset light. God knows how much time. We have to fundamentally believe that whatever happens, happens for the good. We need to be a positive attitude. I don’t know how long it will take this difficult time to end and I hope we find a vaccine for Corona virus.
