JOIN USEating healthy is something that tops almost everyone’s priority list, but not many are able to execute it successfully. Thanks to a hectic lifestyle and lack of awareness, one often ends up eating whatever is in sight. Faced by the same problem, several individuals have ventured into the healthy food segment, promising to offer nutritious meals. And what’s good is that they aren’t compromising on the taste, dispelling the very myth that healthy is plain boring!
Nutritown, a startup launched by Kushal, Pravin and Vinayak, aims at providing healthy meals crafted by nutritionists and naturopathy experts. “I had lost a lot of weight and realised that there was noise in the market regarding what’s right and wrong when it comes to eating. People were craving food that was genuinely healthy. And that’s when we came up with Nutritown. Our menus are made keeping in mind the problem of weight loss. The focus is not just on calories but on improving metabolism as well so that weight loss is gradual and healthy,” tells Kushal.
They currently deliver lunch and dinner with Indian and Continental options around Indiranagar and MG Road. Healthy items like ‘soya atta kadhi’, ‘spinach dal’, ‘tofu matar’, beetroot and cabbage babycorn are served along with two types of salads and two vegetable rotis for lunch. For Continental, they have exotic things like Mexican brown rice bean salad, Rice Pad Thai noodles, wholewheat subs and protein wraps with hummus. Dinner is lighter and the salads are whipped up using low-fat dressings made with olive oil, vinaigrette and hung curd.
Nutritown has received a good response from fitness enthusiasts and corporates, especially women, shares Kushal. Meanwhile, co-founder of startup ‘Tandurust’, Pushpesh, says that after his MBA, he wanted to adopt a healthy lifestyle. “There’s a lack of knowledge and non-availability of ingredients required to prepare a healthy meal. Besides, it’s time consuming too. While working out and watching my diet, I also started reading about nutrition and began experimenting with recipes, keeping calories, cost-effectiveness and other factors in mind. My friend Sudhanshu joined me later and Tandurust was born in December last year,” says Pushpesh adding, “Our meals are calorie counted and we are catering to lunch, breakfast and snacks in regular and large portions. A large lunch provides 650 calories while a regular one gives 500 calories. Large and regular breakfast (and snacks) come to 400 and 280 calories respectively.”
Wholesome dishes like red rice poha, spinach corn sandwich (with yoghurt dressing), multigrain idlis and broken wheat-cum-oats upma can be enjoyed for breakfast and snacks. Lunch is a five-portion meal comprising two multigrain rotis and brown rice, dal, vegetable, spinach or cucumber raita blended with flaxseed and salad with broccoli or bean sprouts.
Combining taste and health was a major task but Pushpesh seems satisfied with the results. “We are currently delivering 150 meals a day. The good part is that more than 70 percent of the customers are repeat customers.” Eshaan, a professional, who regularly orders from Tandurust, feels that it is great value for money. “I feel healthier, lighter and more energetic now. Also when you know that the food you’re eating meets your nutritional requirements, you feel good about yourself,” he says.
Healthy food options can indeed be limited and not all of it is genuine too. Shenba and Mani, who worked in the corporate sector, felt that the so-called healthy food wasn’t really healthy and following 6 months of groundwork, introduced Good Eats. “We tested for the feasibility of our venture and started this February. Together with our team of nutritionists and professional chefs, we have curated the recipes keeping in mind that balanced nutrition is achieved,” says Shenba adding, “We mostly use organic vegetables. Techniques like steaming, sauteing, grilling and baking are used so as to impart great flavour to the food without adding any extra calories.”
Their specials include grilled chicken burger, arugulla basil pesto veg pasta, wholewheat spaghetti in tomato sauce with meatballs/ vegetables, wholewheat rolls with vegetables and sprouts/ chicken, wholewheat chicken sandwich with vegetables and avocado butter, steamed rice with veg/ non veg Red Thai curry and broccoli babycorn salad. They also provide healthy juices like green juice (comprising broccoli, wheatgrass and celery) to flush out toxins, vitamin booster and immune booster. Good Eats has delivered around 6000 meals up till now in and around Whitefield, ITPL, Outer Ring Road and Marathahalli.