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Wellness
Big Food and Big Pharma :The Unholy Nexus
Big food and big pharma are best friends. NCDs(noncommunicable diseases) are now the leading cause of death in India for some time over riding diarrhea diseases and tuberculosis.According to the World Economic forum India will be spending 3.55 trillion dollars between 2014 to 2030 if intervention against the NCD promoters are not strictly taken care .
The combination of ultra-processed foods and drinks, seed oils, unhealthy diets, substance abuse, and a sedentary lifestyle is creating a global health emergency.
Most of the biggest research are funded by either big food or Big pharma.Infact if the tweets basic premise is checked ,before 1970,America had far less lifestyle disease and so did India.
Butter, ghee, and coconut oil were staples in India, and our grandparents never whined about diabetes! Olive oil containing MUFA was used forever in Italy and they have lower CVA risks.
I wrote about processed food and the soya oil problem long time back.But just like everything else the internet has a lot of noise, making it difficult for doctors like me to even reach the ears which would be helped.
I am not selling a supplement or food product. I hope what I say encourages you to research the topic. The Omega six fatty acid is in excess in these seed oils.They are pro inflammatory and may give rise to various health issues even connective tissue disorder.If you don’t skip using them in your daily food, you are at risk. Packaged food and restaurant food all contain some or all of this and you have no way of knowing.The seed oils cause oxidative damage,plaque formation with increased cardiovascular risks.
Eat a Variety of Foods
Include cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, and animal foods daily.
Balanced Macronutrients
50–60% carbs, adequate protein & healthy fats (20–30%).
Fruits & Vegetables
Consume at least 5 servings daily for vitamins and fiber.
Limit Sugar & Processed Foods
Cut down on sweets, soft drinks, and refined carbs.
Control Salt Intake
Keep intake below 5g/day to reduce hypertension risk.
Be Physically Active
Aim for at least 30–60 minutes of moderate activity daily.
Safe & Hygienic Food
Prevent infections by washing and cooking food properly.
Exclusive Breastfeeding
Recommended for first 6 months, followed by complementary feeding.
Avoid Tobacco & Alcohol
Strongly discouraged to prevent chronic diseases.
Use Fortified Foods
Use fortified staples to prevent micronutrient deficiencies.
📘 Source:
ICMR-NIN 2017 Nutrition Guidelines
The chemicals used in process are a horror story leaving behind Trans fats, Glyphosate residue,Plasticizers
BPA,Hexane and more.All the vegetable oils below have some or all the risks.
- Soybean
- Sunflower
- Cottonseed
- Canola oil
- Rice bran Oil
- Dalda
If big food didn’t sell all the horrors ,big pharma would be unable to sell the medicines for lifestyle diseases.
You will see there are always newer and better hypoglycemic drugs and antiobesity drugs but no interest in making packaged food better and less harmful healthy.Or maybe that’s too much to ask for. ITC is a big FMCG company it’s also the Indian tobacco corporation and mints money that way too.
Dabur sells Ayurvedic products as well as FMCG including their honey,fruit drinks as well as oral care products. Do you get the link?OTC pharma ,FMCG and Big pharma are in a dance of death contest where they are competing for the highest margin and not necessarily your health.
Ultra-processed food (UPF) and Ultra-processed beverage (UPB) consumption is associated with higher risks of numerous non-communicable diseases (NCDs). (Source)
Which FMCG brand has OTC drugs in india?
Dabur
Cipla
Abott
In India NCD s increased from 1995 and peaked in 2018.Kerala followed by Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab.
The study report “India: Health of the Nation’s States” provides insight into the 2017 India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),states that the proportion of deaths due to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in India has increased. It rose from 37.9% in 1990 to 61.8% in 2016. The four major NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), and diabetes. They share four behavioral risk factors: unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and use of tobacco and alcohol.(Source)
The Marketing gimmicks are extensive. Real fruit is absent from packaged fruit juices, and milk biscuits lack milk. Honey often contains HFCS(Source) . Chawanprash is marketed by Big B and Dhoni. Gutkha and pan Masala are promoted by so-called A-list heroes. Beverages are endorsed by health-conscious beauties. These irresponsible marketing ploys mislead the population. Clever marketing and addictive tastes influence choices, leading to high spending on R&D.
The ratio of fat,salt and sugar are meant to be addictive and all the fast food companies spend money and time perfecting that.
What are the main points of ICMR 17 Nutrition Guidelines for Indians?
ICMR 17 Nutrition Guidelines for Indians
| # | Guideline |
|---|---|
| 1 | Eat a variety of foods from all food groups, focus on seasonal and regional foods. |
| 2 | Balance energy intake and expenditure to maintain healthy weight. |
| 3 | Limit intake of salt, sugar and unhealthy fats, avoid trans fats. |
| 4 | Consume whole grains and millets instead of refined grains. |
| 5 | Eat at least 400g of fruits and vegetables daily. |
| 6 | Ensure adequate protein intake from quality sources like pulses, legumes, eggs, meat, fish. |
| 7 | Meet micronutrient needs (Iron, Calcium, Vitamin A, B12, Zinc, Folate, etc.) |
| 8 | Ensure safe food handling and clean drinking water. |
| 9 | Use healthy cooking methods and avoid reuse of cooking oils. |
| 10 | Stay physically active at least 30-60 minutes daily. |
Avoid protein supplements, instead opt for protein from real food.Straight talk is strangely often skipped
People would rather take alcohol,smoke ,drive without helmets, than prevent theses preventable causes of problems.Its so much easier to blame the,Government system,parents,partners,next door aunty,doctors than looking inside.Take responsibility for your own health. #HealthIsWealth
Big Food & Big Pharma: Key Supporting Research
| No. | Title | Synopsis | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Food–Pharma Convergence in Medical Nutrition | How food and pharma blur lines via medical foods, nutraceuticals, and shared R&D. | Read on PMC |
| 2 | Big Food, Food Systems, and Global Health | Big Food fuels chronic disease burden, feeding pharma’s treatment markets. | Read on PLOS Medicine |
| 3 | Big Food and WHO Influence Strategies | Food industry lobbies and shapes policy, mirroring Big Pharma tactics. | Read on PubMed |
| 4 | Critical Assessment of Food Industry Influence on Health Research | Food industry–funded studies often report favorable results—like Big Pharma’s research influence. | Read on PubMed |
| 5 | Manufacturing Illness: The Role of Big Food and Big Pharma | How both industries profit from chronic disease, shaping health narratives and policy. | Read on ResearchGate |
Sources: healthwealthbridge.com | X: @misra_amrita | YouTube: @healthwealthbridge
More Reference:
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1796435
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/prevalence-of-ncds-tripled-infectious-diseases-doubled-since-1995/article68422602.ece/amp/
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/indias-call-action-noncommunicable-diseases
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/india-otc-drugs-market/companies
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9309965/
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/india-otc-drugs-market/
https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/features/story/fmcg-firms-eye-healthcare-market-19873-2011-02-09
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/curbing-indias-ultra-processed-foods
https://ncdalliance.org/why-ncds/risk-factors-prevention/unhealthy-diets-and-malnutrition#:~:text=Unhealthy%20diets%20and%20the%20resulting,and%20stroke%2C%20and%20some%20cancers.
https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/upload_documents/DGI_07th_May_2024_fin.pdf
Sharing is good Karma!
Is Happiness an Inside Job?
This is one of the toughest questions.But it is and that’s why what you allow inside your head and heart is crucial.
Sometimes walking away is the answer .But for other times it’s best to be careful.
Just like what you eat ,builds your physical body;what you see,feel,read,interact with builds your soul ,mind,spirit,heart whatever you believe holds your happiness.
There’s a saying you can’t pour from an empty cup and that where happiness being an inside job makes sense.
Only if you are happy inside will you give off the joyous vibe.
When you smile ,the world will smile back at you.
That saying your physical health,exercise ,what you eat all affect your mood and helps you keep your happy spirits up.
Environment health or the company you keep is another thing that needs to be looked deep into.
You are the sum total of the five people they interact with every day.So environmental health involves both human environment and nature
Man is know by the company he keeps – promote this aspect of our mental health .
Nature therapy
There study to show that spending even one hour a week that’s less than 10 minutes per day in the company of Green tree friends will help you feel better.The influence of nature is so strong,that people in hospitals, if they have a green garden view or even see a garden pic in their hospital room walls tend to get better.
Studies may be many for vary many topics but what’s true is how you feel when you meet people whose company you love.Thats not something you can fake.
Hope you are walking on your happiness.The real kind.
Sharing is good Karma!
Gardening Quotes I love
I wasn’t a gardner. My parents weren’t either.But my paternal Grand father must have been one,though I never had an opportunity to ask him.You may wonder why I say this.Its because he planted the tree which still bears fruits some sixty years later.
The tree is as tall as five storied building and was the reason behind many of my childhood daydreams and adventures plus delicious summers eating the firm juicy Jackfruit from the mighty tree.
I think the tree liked me too.I always felt very protective towards it.Its the reason I made plant friends easily and now have been able to increase my family of trees and plants to a number I can’t count.I love picking fruits fresh from trees and eating them.
The best part is, it gave me the first idea of how even a single tall green tree can help nurture a child.I started gardening in October 2014 the very same time I started blogging and writing online.I am not always writing aiming for SEO and money.
Writing is the cheapest ,easiest,most accessible method for my self therapy.To balance my moods indoors, when I can’t visit gardens,parks or go for fun nature walks.I miss nature even more than coffee or tea and the same amount as books.That’s saying a lot since I am a voracious reader .
But I degress .I published the audio book on How to Walk Write and Garden for the Healthy Life you want free on Youtube.
One reason was because, I wanted it to be available for free for those who want to find wellness in their daily life through going back to nature,words,walking and the simple stuff.Its not rocket science but in this world of sunless rooms ,it’s important to repeat truths ,lest people forget.
On that note sharing my favorite garden quotes-
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.-Greek proverb by Unknown author
Quotes by Alfred Austin
We come from the earth,go back to earth in between we garden
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.
Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.
A garden that one makes oneself becomes associated with one’s personal history and that of one’s friends, interwoven with one’s tastes, preferences and character and constitutes a sort of unwritten autobiography.
Exclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society.
No one can rightly call his garden his own unless he himself made it.
There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.-Janet Kilburn Phillips
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. – Audrey Hepburn
My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
Claude Monet
I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.-Claude Monet
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.-Marcus Tullius Cicero
Garden as though you will live forever.-William Kent
Life begins the day you start a garden.
a Chinese proverb
Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.
Emily Bronte
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.
George Bernard Shaw
The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
Abraham Lincoln
To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.-Mahatma Gandhi
No single sort of garden suits everyone. Shut your eyes and dream of the garden you’d most love then open your eyes and start planting. Loved gardens flourish, boring ones are hard work.
Jackie French
Where flowers bloom, so does hope.
Lady Bird Johnson
Did you know ,Monet had his own garden Givenchy which was the inspiration behind his paintings?
My garden is the inspiration behind my painting.
Sharing is good Karma!
Walking Away
Helen Mirren once said: “Before you argue with someone, ask yourself if that person is even mature enough to grasp the concept of a different perspective. Because if not, there’s absolutely no point.
Not every debate is worth your energy. Sometimes, no matter how clearly you express yourself, the other person isn’t listening to understand — they’re listening to react. They’re locked inside their own beliefs, unwilling to even consider another point of view. Engaging with them only drains you.
That’s the difference between a meaningful conversation and a pointless argument.
Talking to someone open to growth and understanding can be enlightening — even if you don’t agree. But trying to reason with someone who refuses to see beyond their own convictions? It’s like talking to a brick wall. No amount of logic or truth will reach them — not because you’re wrong, but because they’re unwilling to see anything else.
Maturity isn’t about winning arguments. It’s about recognizing when the argument just isn’t worth it. It’s choosing peace over proving a point to someone who’s already decided not to change their mind.”
You don’t have to fight every battle. You don’t owe everyone an explanation.
Sometimes, the strongest thing you can do is walk away — not because you have nothing to say, but because you know they’re not ready to listen. And that’s not your burden to carry.
This is a decision you will think ,overthink,regret,discuss and blame yourself and others about.But if you did it ,it was meant to be.
Even this shall pass is a wise way of looking at life.Its difficult to remember when you are right in the middle of the chaos.
Thats why you must choose your peace first.If you have inner war ,the outer war follows.Listen carefully.Your soul is whispering right in your ear.You just need to pay attention .
Sometimes you wonder why the right thing is difficult to explain. Why being righteous is never easy.Why self doubt is a part of growth.Why letting go and walking away
But it’s going to be hard.I have a difficult time doing everything I have written about.But the first step is knowing that and accepting that .
Thank you for reading till the end.
Sharing is good Karma!
The Empty Room
The empty room doesn’t haunt me anymore. But there was a time it did.
It was a time I had no control over circumstances. But when that room came calling again …it was a different place ,a different time.I was a different person.I made a choice.
That choice was my peace first.If I am not calm inside,I can neither help ,nor heal.
I realized this in 2018 .After that I resigned .There’s no peace in work with limited QOL.Doctors need to feel healthy and happy to do their best and help others.Please take a break and do something you enjoy ,life is short.Living without family affects mental and emotional health in different ways.Hope you have friends where you work.
It’s no fun coming home to an empty room.Its no fun scrolling endlessly on social media or binge watching on OTT content.Its way better to spend time eigh family and friends .
(This post was written after an online interaction with a colleague)
While I am talking from my viewpoint as a Doctor,this affects everyone who is in a transferable job with limited support system.Some jobs don’t encourage family(directly or indirectly).Some are in such locations where bringing up a family is difficult.You end up living alone and that empty room haunts again.
Medical professionals are at a crossroads.While the mushrooming Medical colleges lack quality ,the employment opportunities,quality of life and economics of healthcare is stuck in the dark ages.
Calling a “spade” a “spade” will invite punitive actions.Hence at the risk of irking those in power I have decided to say “it’s just not for me”.Since I can’t spout the official line ,I have already lost the race.
But with all that sadness and darkness,I see a ray of light.Its about finding myself.My husband and I did something different.We adoped a small town and chose a life together. If you are reading this post,I hope it helps you.
I wrote this for “Doctors Day”,because Doctors definitely need to “heal thyself“!
That was Incidentally the theme of Doctors Day this year.
