Harshita Kalra - How We Are in Our Head Is Clearly How Our Health Is Overall (Nutritionist from India)

I realised that my job is to guide them, to be a help throughout the journey. Everybody knows that what is good and what is bad for themselves. My job as a nutritionist is to answer their questions, direct them, solve their confusion, structure things for them so that they don't have to spend energy on that and also keep them going

1. Tell us about your background and journey. 

I did my BSc in Home science and Nutrition from Delhi Lady Irwin College DU. I did my MSC in clinical nutrition. I did my MSc in nutrition and dietetics from SNDT Juhu Bombay. I have been practising for around 7 and half years now. I have done a few jobs earlier and for around 4 years I have been practising alone.

2. When did you first decide that you wanted to be a Nutritionist?

That's an interesting story, actually, I didn't plan on being a nutritionist. After 12th everyone wonders what field we should choose. I took science in my college and so I thought about what I should do, I just wanted to be different, I didn't want to do engineering like everybody was doing, I wanted to do something else.

So my mother got me AIEEE Brochures and then it had the word "food technology", I was like okay... food, food I am familiar with. I have been watching TLC all my life. My family is enthusiastic about food, food is interesting and technology is the science with which I am familiar. So I shall do this as I love both. I filled up forms for food tech and also food science which came with nutrition blindly I didn't care about the word nutrition.

We can experiment, We will work in industries. Unfortunately, I didn't have biology in 11th and 12th, I had computer science with maths, So I wasn't eligible for food tech. But I was confident enough that I would pass even if I didn't meet the eligibility criteria and my form was rejected obviously. But I got through this food science and nutrition wherever I applied for it.

Giving emphasis to the food science word and completely ignoring the nutrition part. When I went to Lady Irwin, which is the best college in Asia right now for food science and nutrition, at that time, we studied a lot of nutrition and it really got me interested, Like WOW! That's how the human body works And I Lost Interest In Food Science, I was like, yes this seems interesting I was quite sincere in my college at least for the first year.

Then I did my Masters from Bombay. I did a couple of jobs and then again I lost interest in nutrition. I am not enjoying it. I was always wondering why people hire a nutritionist, it doesn't make sense at all, everything is available on Google, everybody knows what to eat and whatnot, so I always wondered what exactly was my role. I had really struggled with being a nutritionist that everybody knows everything so what is my purpose and what am I adding to it.

Very recently I realised the importance of my role in what a nutritionist actually does, so I realised that Google can be confusing, people have multiple questions, it may seem easier to me as obviously I have studied but not obvious to the people. I realised that my job is to guide them, to be a help throughout the journey. Everybody knows that what is good and what is bad for themselves.

My job as a nutritionist is to answer their questions, direct them, solve their confusion, structure things for them so that they don't have to spend energy on that and also keep them going. Basically, to motivate them, supervision is important in the journey. My job is to live them up, motivate and supervise.

Some people are better with this so that they don't give up, that is why I enjoy the counselling part of being a nutritionist more than making the diet plans. How I can relate lives and health journeys together, Whatever I have learnt from my life I apply that in my counselling because, I realised that how life is not linear its parallel, like it's basically ups and downs. Just like your Food journey and health journey.

On some days you will be consistent, something else would come up, which would break the flow which is really normal. One has to just recognise that and just move ahead, just bounce back. Recognise that the problem has arrived, address that and just go back to whatever you have started in terms of your health habits. So my ultimate advice is to just bounce back, just don't give up. It's ok, life is not linear, so your expectation towards anything should not be linear as well, It should be flexible and just bounce back.

 

3. What aspects of nutrition do you feel are most important to address when consulting with people?

I have realised that it's more about the psyche when engaging with people, when counselling it's more to do with how they perceive food as the most important flight. If they have a really bad relationship with food, it's important to address that rather than just saying that eat this or that I mean yeah, it's also a part of it but the main thing is you know just to bring attention to the point, that sees you don't have a great relationship with food so it's important to address that.

For example, if you fought with your friend and you want to fix it, you know you want to nurture that relationship so you know what to do, you make time for that person, you give attention to that relationship, you give your energy, you come up with different ways of affection, you do care about that person to make up for the fight.

So same is with food this is one relationship with food with your body, your relationship is not going to focus on what you need to do, we need to give time, give respect to your body, so hating your body will not help, cause you will just pile up the fight, it will increase, it will basically expand the fight so don't fight it, love it because it starts from there if you see it as something ugly, you cannot be the friend it so, first of all, it really needs your attention.

Give attention, give energy, give love and eat food properly which is clean. Clean eating is also self-love it also is self respect, you owe that much to your body. So it's a about the mindset initially, how you perceive food is the most important and then you can build on it by adopting new habits in terms of lifestyle and food changing. 

4. According to you, what should be an ideal diet for today's youth?

So I would like to give some pointers for today's youth because I see a lot of people doing these things so I would like to highlight a few:

• Early morning empty stomach tea or coffee is a trend now. After waking up they immediately have tea or coffee. I would say that just don't do that it's like you're really like poisoning your stomach lining and once your stomach lining gets disrupted, you'll face indigestion, acidity, gas, bloating, nausea, constipation and as you grow older it will just deteriorate with time and you will have these things. Your gut health is related to your hormonal health and again, If you don't have good health, you would bound to get diseases. Diseases in form of weight gain, weight loss, cancer diabetes, heart issues because everything is related to your gut health. That's really vital. So basically no intake of caffeine on an empty stomach. 

• Try having fruits because we forget about them. Try and have two fruits a day.

• focus on water because people forget that as well, with their work the youth especially, they forget to have water. They are like they don't get time, they don't remember. So, these are the important points to keep in mind. Have water 3 to 5 litres of water is amazing for every day, having 3 litres should be the minimum goal per day. 

• Also, a lot of youth don't focus on sleep, they are like up in the night on social media, which really screws up our circadian rhythm which basically in turns screws our hormonal health and then we start gaining weight or having you know other, health issues. We don't get sleep, once we don't get the sleep our hormonal balance goes off. We don't wake up fresh and then when once you don't wake up, you feel lethargic and don't want to do something, do not want to workout. and then you start depending on the stimulants like tea, coffee because naturally, your body is not fresh when you wake up. 

So yeah these couple of things should be kept in mind.

5. Your advice to our readers who are willing to follow a healthy diet plan?

People who are willing to eat clean and willing to follow certain healthy habits I just want to say one thing that our body and mind are connected. So take care of your mind as well because what thoughts you create, manifests your body.

For example, when we were in school on exam day, we used to get stressed and then our body used to show symptoms of diarrhoea. so this is a good example of the mind and body connection.

You are stressed up in your mind and then your body shows physical manifestation of it, so they are very much linked. Giving importance to your mental and emotional health is equally important. Taking up tools like yoga, meditation really helps. If you are taking care of your physical health also please take care of your mental health, pickup journalling, take up any art or hobby or working in the nature, or yoga and meditation, all of these things really help,

Also, I would like to say for people who are already following a healthy plan and are willing to do that please don't be too hard on yourself because life comes with ifs and flows and it's not the same, it cannot remain the same, you will face issues in life and that is ok so just don't fight, don't be too hard on yourself if you break the routine is to bounce back. Don't be too hard, there is no point in it, don't fight your own selves.

 

Just give a breather to yourself like how you would treat a kid, if a kid makes mistake, you wouldn't ask him to give up you would motivate him in everything he would do, try this or that, you will encourage him and that encouragement you give to a kid, you can give it to yourself as well.

6. Which is your favourite book and why?

My favourite to book is "Think like a monk" by Jay Shetty because it does have a lot of good perspectives on how to live a life with a positive attitude and what you feel in your head. I personally believe what you feel in your head, goes to your body as well because of the mind-body connection.

So how we are in our head is clearly how our health is overall. So emotional and mental reactions and responses, basically to the situation are how we perceive life and how we respond to it. There are good insights about it in the book so if you have clarity of thought you wouldn't do impulsive things in life and it also relates to impulsive eating in way, emotional eating all of that gives a little more clarity and you are no more in a compulsive loop of eating junk.

Harshita Kalra

Interviewed by - Vanshika Jain