6 June 2018

Food and Nutrition Trends – 2018

Reducing Food Waste

There is a rise in intentional cooking and zero waste cooking owing to the 30-40% waste of every year’s harvest. There is also a rise in using glass containers instead of plastic food bags.



Traditional Medicine Vs Modern Science
There is a rise in awareness and demand of herbal ingredients in medicines

Fermented Foods

They are a good source of probiotic bacteria. Eg – Yogurt, kimchi, kefir and miso

Everyday Detox

High protein and high fat diet lead to acne. A good chunk of fibers, fruits and vegetables will leads to a healthier skin.



Being a vegetarian

There is an increasing trend of people converting to being a vegetarian worldwide. This is because an increasing rise of high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, hypercholestrolinemia etc is due to the consumption of high animal source food and lack of fiber and antioxidants which are present only in plant foods.

30 May 2018

Food and Nutrition – Bursting Myths

https://www.vlccinstitute.com/blogs/food-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!

2 May 2018

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.