I am very convinced that our phones listen to our conversations. Ever since I tried to focus more on my health, the algorithms on every social media platform of mine boost the posts and reels of influencers promoting healthy lifestyle and the impact of wrong lifestyle choices. However, the focus of this blog is not about phones or algorithms, rather it is about a topic that is now gaining more momentum. HEALTH. You would have heard the proverb, ‘Health is wealth’ and in Tamil, we say, “Suvar irundhaal dhan chithiram varaiya mudiyum”, which translates to, “You need your health to confront any challenges in your life and also to achieve your dreams”. This is not a literal translation but what the Tamil proverb implies. Give the utmost importance to health and then to your dreams, family, and everything else.
There’s a lot of revolutionary content emerging on social media, and one of my favorites is Food Pharmer’s work. His powerful campaign, “Label Padhega India,” encourages people to read food labels before making a purchase. I’m someone who already does that, so I was glad when I first came across his content. More than two million people follow him—why? Because he inspires everyone to do something both powerful and absolutely essential: to reclaim the power to make informed choices. Whether to purchase something or not. No one can push a product on us anymore, and we are not in an age where we blindly trust brands. It is high time you start making the choices for your health. When the demand for good health increases, more new brands will come up to cater to those needs. I already see a few healthy chocolate, ice cream (made of almonds), healthy snack (with ragi), etc. brands being listed on quick commerce platforms such as Zepto and Blinkit. We are still not there completely but eventually, we will have more authentic and healthy brands that help us to keep our health while enjoying varieties.
Even then, portion control and exercise play a vital role in achieving a healthy lifestyle. I would also say many fitness communities, rather than just centres, focussing on the holistic health of a person are coming into existence because people have started giving more importance to workouts. Health-focused innovations such as apps to track your sleep, calorie intake and walking steps and machines to accurately record your blood glucose and pressure have increased in recent days. If you are already someone who has started your health journey, that’s amazing. Let us encourage more people to do so and make the food brands give what we need. Let them experiment more and come up with the taste in demand using the naturally existing ingredients. Let us also start using these technologies and advice to stay on track. The main mantra is: Balanced meals, adequate sleep and workouts. It’s perfectly okay to have a cheat day once or twice a month, coming from a true foodie who does her best to stick to the right path as much as possible.
When you start focusing on your physical health, you will also improve your mental health. From my own experience, whenever I’m in great physical health, my mind feels stronger—calm, focused, and ready to take on any challenge.
In a nutshell, make the decision with the knowledge of all information on a product. Eat, sleep, exercise, repeat. Don’t be influenced by the wrong influencers; follow the right ones. Take the advice or use apps and improve the quality of your life.