On Jan 30, 2013, at 11:57 AM, Chew Lin Kay <[email protected]> wrote:
> Tangetially related to starting the day right: > > http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/fighting-fat-at-india-inc-one-dosa-at-a-time/ > > Fighting Fat at India Inc., One Dosa at a TimeBy SARITHA > RAI<http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/author/saritha-rai/> > [image: A screenshot of the]Courtesy of HealthifyMeA screenshot of the > “HealthifyMe” application. > LIFE AND LOVE IN THE NEW > BANGALORE<http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/category/life-and-love-in-the-new-bangalore/> > > Tales of ambition and youth from India’s outsourcing hub. > > Six-footer Sanjay Jain is at least 15 kilograms (33 pounds) overweight at > 95 kilograms. Typical of many of his Bangalore peers, Mr. Jain puts on > weight, loses weight and then starts the whole cycle anew. > > Like many professionals in Bangalore and urban Indians everywhere, Mr. > Jain, 46, works late hours, trains in stops and bursts, and, until > recently, paid scant attention to what, when and how much he ate. > > But a few months ago Mr. Jain, a software industry professional and a > budding entrepreneur at the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod > Khosla’s Khosla Labs in Bangalore, decided to lose weight and signed up as > a tester for an app called HealthifyMe. <http://healthifyme.com/> For the > first time, the vegetarian began measuring what he ate, not just in > calories but also in nutritional content. > > Mr. Jain, who said he considered himself well educated about dietary > choices, was jolted when he found out that his carbohydrate-laden diet > contained barely any proteins. “I was stunned to see that 70 percent or > more of my intake consisted of carbs, and it was a high-fat and low-protein > diet,” he said. > > Mr. Jain’s struggle parallels that of HealthifyMe’s co-founder Tushar > Vashisht, a University of Pennsylvania graduate and former investment > banker who gained 18 kilograms within a year of returning to India to work > for the country’s Unique Identity project. > > “Corporate India happened to me,” said Mr. Vashisht, who confessed that he > used to unthinkingly order entire vegetarian menus at fast food restaurants. > Courtesy of Tushar VashishtTwo of the co-founders of HealthifyMe, Tushar > Vashisht, left, and Mathew Cherian. > > Starting on a fitness regimen was hard enough, but when it came to his > diet, Mr. Vashisht said he was flummoxed. In a country of a billion-plus > people and a food heritage of thousands of years, there was no easy way to > track nutrition and calories in common Indian dishes. Calorie counters > developed in the West could not tally the calories of Mr. Vashisht’s > beloved Indian food. > > Around him in Bangalore, entrepreneurs were starting to tackle uniquely > Indian problems by devising their own innovative technology solutions. So > Mr. Vashisht, 28, and Mathew Cherian, also 28, a computer science graduate > from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, set to work creating an > application for the Indian diet. (Mr. Vashisht and Mr. Cherian once > conducted a month-long experiment on the diet of poor Indians by living on > 100 rupees a > day<http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/living-like-the-other-half/> > .) > > The two were joined later by a third co-founder, Sachin Shenoy, a holder of > five patents who helped build many consumer products at Google. > > “India Inc. is a one-way ticket to being obese, diabetic and hypertensive,” > said Mr. Vashisht, who cited a study by the Indian Council for Research on > International Economic Relations that suggested that half of white-collar > India is prone to lifestyle diseases and that 71 percent of the workforce > and 82 percent of chief executives were overweight. > > “Living on salads is unworkable in India, so we need solutions that can > work for our own food and eating culture,” he said. > > Mr. Vashisht and Mr. Cherian first digitized hundreds of pieces of data on > Indian raw ingredients, with their micro- and macro-nutrient counts, from > dusty files at the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad. They > integrated them with records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration > database of 10,000 raw ingredients. > > After stitching the two together, they built a comprehensive database of > nutritional values for thousands of standardized Indian recipes. With > expert help from endocrinologists, dieticians and gym trainers, HealthifyMe > is set to become the country’s first comprehensive calorie tracker for > everything from thepla (a western Indian flatbread with greens) to bisibele > bath (a rice and lentil dish from the south) to sabudana khichdi (a savory > pudding made from sago pearls and peanuts). > > In India, even diet experts, fitness professionals and hospitals struggle > to provide their clients accurate calorific counts and nutritional data, > said Sheela Krishnaswamy, a clinical dietician based in Bangalore. > > “Making a database of all Indian foods across cuisines and regions and > enumerating their key nutrients and calories is a humongous task,” said Ms. > Krishnaswamy. > > Experts like her have come up with their own approximations with the years > of practice. But the average person still had to rely on advice doled out > by friends, relatives and co-workers, she said. > > In a country where diabetes and cardiovascular disease rates are alarming, > any technology that can hold a mirror to the Indian diet is a dire need, > said V. Bharathwaj, who runs Myndgenie, a counseling company that promises > to reduce stress for professionals, athletes and students in Bangalore. > > Mr. Bharathwaj, 40, himself found out the hard way when he was tested with > very high levels of triglycerides during a routine blood test five years > ago. He put himself through a weight-loss regimen and started looking > closely at his diet. The three calorie counter apps on his smartphone were > useless when it came to Indian cuisine. > > “I had no clue that the six dosas and six dates I consumed daily at > breakfast pumped in 900 calories,” he said. > > Each calorie-counter Internet site provided a different figure for popular > Indian foods, and Mr. Bharathwaj worked out a range from the more reliable > ones. He eventually taught himself to gauge calorific values of Indian > foods over time. > > But the general awareness about diet is poor among the average educated > Indian. “Plus we are not a data-driven culture like the United States,” he > said. > > The creators of HealthifyMe, which will be officially released March 1, > hope to right this very information asymmetry. “Older relatives will keep > telling you that desi ghee is good, paneer is great and that dal is > entirely protein, all of which is so wrong,” said Mr. Cherian. > > The app accommodates transliterations in a dozen Indian languages, and the > database provides up to 100 micronutrients for each recipe. It makes > thousands of standard Indian dishes customizable. > > “Every family has its own khichdi (lentils & rice) recipe, for instance, > and the app can calorie-track regional variations and tweaked recipes,” Mr. > Vashisht said. > > The app’s basic Android version is available free, but customers must pay > for a premium version that can be customized and shared. > > India’s “global workforce,” as it is often described, is increasingly > tethered to the work desk. Compounding the situation is the fact that > crowded, uneven pavements discourage walking and there are no jogging > tracks or public-access playgrounds. > > “It is really a lethal combination of what we eat and what we can’t or > don’t do,” said Mr. Cherian. He said his company hoped to begin > articulating India’s dietary expectations and eventually set off a process > that would influence the health of its billion-plus citizens. (bottom posting to express stunned admiration and gratitude) Now THIS is something really useful! Indrajit Gupta 62 yrs., 5'9", 100 kgs., vegetarian
