Food and Nutrition – Bursting Myths

1: Bananas makes you fat

Bananas give you calories as much as a pear! It is a concentrated source of minerals and vitamins and contains a carbohydrate called “Resistant Starch” (RS), which helps in weight loss.

2: Comfort food helps you chase away blues

A pizza on delivery? Street chaat? Or a bowl of Mac and Cheese? While you are down, comfort food just makes you feel better doesn’t it?

In a recent study on Health Psychology, a bunch of people were shown a depressing movie to make them feel negative. Then they were given their comfort food, no food or food not considered to be comfort food. And they all recovered in equal amount of time. So, eating comfort food is no more and excuse to chase blues. Moreover, these foods all contain refined flour which gives glucose spikes with no healthy nutrient as such.

3: Choose a Multigrain/Wheat bread over White bread

Wheat bread – white bread with caramel/molasses

Multigrain bread- refined grains mixed together

Always look for ‘100% multigrain’ label on the pack.

4: Rock salt is healthier than Table salt

Rock salt and table salt have the same amount of sodium in a tablespoon. Rock salt has other minerals and magnesium which exist in trace amounts. And table salt has iodine. This is very essential in your wholesome diet, as deficiency of iodine can lead to a condition of Hypothyroidism. You could have the best of both instead of giving up on table salt.

5: You need to give up on carbs to lose weight

Nutritionists say that banning carbs from your diet is not necessary. It’s is about having the right portion. According to experts, carbs should take up ¼ of the portion of the meal; it is responsible for giving exclusive energy. In absence of carbs, the energy providing function is done by proteins and fats thereby creating a situation in which an accountant is used to design a building!

Beauty and wellness firm VLCC to expand internationally

Beauty and wellness firm VLCC is on the expansion spree with a target to add 50 new training institutes in India over the next five years.

The company, which has about 70 institutes in India, has also chalked out plans to foray into international markets such as Canada, Malaysia, Srilanka, Kenya, Oman and Bangladesh.

With the opening of more institutes, VLCC is eyeing a 35 per cent year on year revenue growth. In FY 2018, it had a turnover of Rs 55 crore for the skilled business.

"We will add 50 new institutes in India and also in countries such as Canada, Malaysia, Oman and Srilanka with a target to train approximately 15,000 students," said Mr.Sandeep Ahuja, Director VLCC Group.

The company offers about 100 courses and workshops in the beauty and wellness space and has trained over 1 lakh students so far.

The institutes have crossed the target of Rs 50 crore and are set to go over Rs 100 crore with international expansion by this fiscal end, as per the company.

With regard to retail expansion in the personal care category, Ahuja said VLCC has recently added close to 100 new distributors and is betting on the modern trade across national and regional customers besides giving leverage to the e-commerce.

The contribution from e-commerce was close to 15 per cent in FY 2018. Total turnover from personal care category stood at Rs 400 crore in the last financial year. The company has 197 wellness centres in India and markets over 169 skincare, haircare , body care, functional foods and fortified food products.

Interview - Deepanshu Khurana of VLCC says over 30% of its students get into entrepreneurship

Long before Skill India Mission was launched or skilling the masses became one of the primary focus areas of the government, VLCC—the beauty, health and wellness major—had started its first skills training institute in the then emerging area of beauty and wellness. The year was 2001, and since then the company has set up and is running more than 75 campuses of its training arm, the VLCC Institute of Beauty & Nutrition, across India and one in Nepal, where over 15,000 students graduate every year. The institute is now looking to expand further. “We will open training centres in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman, Kenya and the UAE, apart from opening more centres in India,” says Deepanshu Khurana, business head, Skill Development, VLCC Institute. In an interview with FE’s Vikram Chaudhary, he adds that entrepreneurship, which often leads to women empowerment in this sector, is one of the key areas that the training centres focus on. Excerpts:

What kind of courses does the VLCC Institute provide?
We offer both entry-level as well as skill enhancement courses in beauty and wellness. Students are primarily trained in Hair, make-up, skin, beauty, spa, nails and Nutrition categories.

Who form your students?
It’s primarily women. The VLCC Institute, through its skill development courses, campus placements and job fairs, has created a platform for women to become entrepreneurs.

Does the VLCC Institute work closely with the government?
We run the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programme under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). RPL provides recognition to informal learning or learning through work to get equal acceptance as formal levels of education—it aims to appreciate prior learning irrespective of the medium of achieving it. In addition, we have been working with several ministries, government departments and school education boards to increase the pool of skilled people in the area of beauty and wellness.

Where does beauty and wellness stand among the overall scheme of things within Skill India?
The Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council is one of the top-rated Sector Skill Councils (SSC) in the scheme of things the government has. It has received awards for the best SSC. Because beauty and wellness, as a business sector, is growing, it will need more and more trained people.

So will it be one of the major job creators, going forward?
It already is. The compounded annual growth rate of the beauty and wellness business in India has been around 18% over the last five years. According to a KPMG and NSDC report, about 78 lakh people were working in this industry in 2017. And of these 78 lakh employees, a majority are women. A sizeable number of these women, as I said, turn entrepreneurs—because this industry itself gives huge entrepreneurship opportunities.

Do you plan to open more centres?
Yes, we are looking at opening training centres in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman, Kenya and the UAE, apart from opening more centres in India.

What kind of focus do you have on entrepreneurship at the VLCC Institute?
Entrepreneurship is one of the key areas that we focus on. Around 30% of the students who pass out from our institutes get into entrepreneurship. Some of them become part of the VLCC network itself—either through the franchising model or becoming a VLCC partner in a somewhat similar capacity.

Is there a need for a specialised university for this sector?
Yes, there should be. In fact, we are exploring an opportunity to start a beauty and Wellness University or an maybe institute on similar lines, in the near future.

Why you should shape your career in the field of Nutrition ?

When it comes to India being considered as a major super power among the global economies, it largely rests on how employable and prosper are the residents of this nation. We being a youth economy where 65% of occupants are in working age group, it is highly significant that we empower this demography and it can only be done with Skill Development. Skill Development in laymen terms refers to enhancing a person’s technical expertise and practical delivery of work to make him employable and productive. Vlcc Institute of Beauty & Nutrition in an effort to contribute to this mission have played a pivotal role in Beauty & Wellness training space.

One particular category, which has shown tremendous growth and demand in last few years, is definitely Nutrition. Diploma in Nutrition refers to understanding the role of diet play and nutrition in maintaining health. With increasing demand among varied age groups towards living a healthy and fit lifestyle, the demand for specialist in Nutrition and Diet across hospitals and wellness centers have grown multifold. To balance this demand, VLCC Institute offers Diploma and Certificate courses in regular class room programs and also has certificate courses in Distance Learning programs, in varied categories like Nutrition & Dietetics, Clinical Nutrition, Sports and Fitness Nutrition, Child care Nutrition and Weight management and Slimming Therapies, incorporating comprehensive in depth knowledge in Nutrition Sciences, Food Science, Basic and Advance Anatomy & Physiology, Dietetics, Community and Therapeutic Nutrition.

The courses duration are 3 months, 6 months and 1 year for different course categories. Our regular courses have internship programme following the course to allow our students ‘on the job’ training to make them industry ready in all aspects. We also have an affiliation with Indira Gandhi National Open University’s DNHE programme, wherein VLCC gives complete and easy execution with the entire 1 year study with respect to assignments and project submission. We also have various workshops wherein we keep updating the students on relevant topics like Fad Diets, Child care Nutrition, Functional Foods, Fat Burners etc. The assessment process is simple and student friendly online exam.

Our courses offers varied career choices of working as Clinical Dietician, Nutrition Management Consultant in hospitals, wellness centers, gyms, hospitals, nursing home, spa or health . One can run their own private practices, work as an online/app based diet consultant or as a blogger. One can also work in media or journalism and in Neutraceutical Company, which manufactures supplements and supplement based food products, which is currently a booming market.
Our courses are not gender specific, has no age limits and classes conducted at convenient hours.

Nutrition for Overall Wellness

The skin is the first "aging" sign we tend to see in ourselves. We all want to find ways to keep our skin beautiful, soft, and, we hope, wrinkle free. We will each get some wrinkles, but nobody wants them

prematurely!

Many persons realize that beauty and youthfulness come from inner health and are curious about how they can enhance their appearance through proper diet, physical activity, and other healthful habits.

THE ROLE OF NUTRITION IN BEAUTY:   Nutrition explores the effect of dietary interventions and appropriate supplementation on reducing acne and wrinkles, managing skin dryness or oily skin, and strengthening hair and nails.

SKIN:  Dermis and Hypodermis layers of skin are connected to a vast vascular network that helps maintain healthy issues, aids in wound healing, controls blood pressure, and mediates immune reactions. Due to this direct connection with the bloodstream, the skin usually is the first-place nutrient deficiencies can be visibly identified, such as the common skin ailments seen with certain B group vitamin deficiencies and protein malnutrition.  Over intake or avoidance of certain nutrients can affect other skin-related complaints such as acne, skin dryness, and wrinkles.

ACNE:  acne is related to inflammation, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial herbs and dietary supplements have been used to treat acne. Several herbs, such as Oregon grape root, goldenseal, and yellowroot, contain berberine, same like active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, an active ingredient that helps inhibit the activity of P acnes, andacting as an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent.  Omega-3 fatty acids are known to be anti-inflammatory properties, it have been investigated due to the inflammatory response caused by bacterial overgrowth and linked to an increase in acne pustules.  Supplementation with vitamin B12 lead to the creation of compounds called porphyrins, which have been previously shown to increase inflammation, leading to increased acne lesions.  Probiotics have shown promise in acne treatment.

SKIN DRYNESS AND DULLNESS:  True dehydration can lead to flaky, dry, dull-looking skin, but drinking more water doesn't always help improve dry skin. Other factors that may lead to dry skin include dry, winter weather; the use of certain soaps; excessive sun exposure and some clinical conditions like echzema.  The skin cells need to contain the proper types of fatty acids to help hold in water.  The main roles of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs specifically EPA and DHA) in the skin are to maintain fluidity and flexibility in the cell walls as well as help with the synthesis of intercellular lipids that help with hydration.

AGING:  Elastic skin is a sign that a person has ample collagen, the strong cement-like material that binds together the cells of your body. Collagen is one of the most valuable proteins in the human body. Protein, vitamin A, E and Vitamin C (act as a Antioxidants) important to slow down aging process.  The strongest correlation was found between vitamin C intake and wrinkled skin.  Vitamin C plays a role in collagen formation and skin regeneration, and has been found to be photoprotective and Vitamin E Also Both vitamins protect against sun damage.

HAIR AND NAILS:

Hair and nails are made from a protein called keratin. Therefore, any factor that affects hair usually will also affect nails. Hairloss and brittle nail may be related to anemia, fungal infections, and possibly a deficiency in L-lysine or other amino acids.  Hair regrowth after loss has been shown to be successful via supplementation with omega-3 and -6 fats and certain antioxidants. Biotin, a B vitamin, commonly has been used to help strengthen hair and nails. A good zinc supplement for hair loss will supply a good amount of the mineral, as well as other key hair nutrients such as biotin, vitamin C and iron.

Conclusion:  Proper nutrition have a significant impact on overall appearance affecting skin, hair, and nails from the inside out. Good nutritious food make you young and gorgeous.