Only 7 weeks to go for The Growth Retreat, a networking event, I am hosting at Rishikesh from 8-11th December 2022. Every week we bring you a write up by one of the esteemed guest speakers of the Retreat, giving you a sneak peak of what they will be sharing with the participants of the Retreat.

The road to wellness is littered with misinformation, making it very confusing and complicated on what are the best practices to follow. New findings released from research labs from around the world on health and nutrition meet its match in WhatsApp forwards that have no scientific basic whatsoever. During the pandemic, world class laboratories and scientists were in a mad rush to come out with a vaccine against Covid, while WhatsApp university was busy churning out home remedies from kadha to salt water to prevent, or worse still, cure Covid. Health and nutrition are also pet topics of YouTube influencers, who have no background in healthcare or science whatsoever. 

That’s not all. 

In South Asian culture, there is a great deal of faith in Dadima ke nuskhe (Hindi) or paati vaithiyam (Tamil) when it comes to prevention of disease or cures, and a huge part of the wellness beliefs people hold. Quite a few of these have either been proven to be wrong by present day science or are no longer relevant. To chart a roadmap to wellness in the new year and to form sustained habits towards better health, the primary focus must be on food and nutrition, as we are what we eat. In addition to that, staying active, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and mindfulness are also equally important. Combining common-sense ideas from traditional cultures along with science-backed information, that blend into our present day lifestyle is the most sustainable way to make lasting positive changes to our health.

Doctor, nutritionist, wellbeing advocate and columnist, Nandita Iyer is the author of three bestselling books. Her fourth book, The Great Indian Thali: Seasonal Vegetarian Wholesomeness will be out in October 2022. She has been writing on nutrition, health and food for over 15 years. Since 2006, her popular blog Saffron Trail has been a major resource for healthy food and vegetarian recipes.

 Nandita’s newsletter Sattva is about the joys of mindfulness and the beauty of slow living. She is a student of Hindustani classical vocal music. Nandita has an avid social media following on Instagram and Twitter. You can follow her @saffrontrail.

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We have also archived all the old issues and you can access them at www.sandeepmall.com. They contain some very good tool kits to take charge of your well being.

See you next week .