PVPF 2024

Interview with Yogesh Singh, author of “The Real Deal About Your Meal”

I have discussed various plans that are consumed by people world-wide for weight-loss regime like Keto diet, Atkins diet, Palaeolithic diet, Dukan diet, 5:2 diet, etc.
on Apr 06, 2023

Yogesh Singh is an author and senior faculty member at the Institute of Hotel Management, Kurukshetra. Born in a small village in Uttar Pradesh and raised in Mumbai; he is a health, nutrition, and fitness enthusiast who has contributed to several Indian and international publications over the years. In 2015, he was conferred with the prestigious "Gourmand World Cookbook Awards".

He has authored four books - "The Real Deal About Your Meal" (2022), "A Culinary Tour of India" (2015), "Principles of Food Production Operations" (2017) and "Aahar Charitra" (2021 - In Hindi). He has a great flair for writing and his zeal is easily reflected in his work.

Frontlist: "The Real Deal About Your Meal” covers various topics, from superfoods to microgreens. How did you organize the information in a way that is accessible and engaging for readers?

Yogesh: “The Real Deal about your Meal” is an educational and informative compendium which provides a practical approach to holistic wellness by covering various nutritional key terms like antioxidants, prebiotics and probiotics, detoxification, rainbow diet, micro-greens, various food combinations and many more. In the second half of the book, it describes numerous Super-foods like onions, flaxseeds, beetroot, garlic, ginger, curd, fish, eggs, mushroom, walnuts, spinach, sprouts, wheatgrass, and many more.

In order to make the content of book interesting, I have tried my best to portray the multitude of benefits the terms mentioned above offer to mankind in a realistic mode. For illustration, a large mass of people have been using terms like antioxidants, detoxification without actually knowing the real essence of such terms. I have decoded such terms in simple words, highlighted their benefits, and tried my best to associate them with the simple diet one consumes. This has helped me to let me enter in to the nutritional thought process of the readers and get them engaged with the appropriate healthy diet and their well-being.

My book is based on the philosophy that “our body is our temple and hence it deserves only nutritious food; not the processed and junk foods”.

As it is rightly said by Francois de la Rochefoucauld “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”.

Frontlist: One of the key themes in your book is the importance of understanding the scientific evidence behind various nutrition claims. How can readers become more discerning consumers of nutritional information?

Yogesh: We all are residing and actually are a part of Era which inadvertently relies on half-baked knowledge associated with nutritional aspects. Along with this, we also speak about facts and figure to a large extent, which is usually not only distorted but detrimental to health. This book speaks about its contents in extreme articulate manner rooted to nutritional facts and compounds which are present in any food. This facilitates me to connect easily and effectively with the reader mindset creating large impact about the authenticity of the nutritional aspects of stated food. Reader can build a fine sense of nutritional perspicacity which is very intriguing and engaging. Most importantly, this engrossing journey about nutritional perspective actually ends up benefitting the readers with an apparent choice what they should consume and why they should consume!!

My book – The Real Deal about your Meal is basically a compendium which is comprehensible and in real sense relates to the culinary and nutritious aspects of our daily diet. It highlights about the pros and cons of many super-foods (around 25 nos.); and along with features many key terms like anti-oxidants, prebiotics, probiotics, micro-greens, aphrodisiacs, detoxification, etc. in a meticulous manner demystifying the in and out of each terms.

My endeavour is to convert all reader in to Conscious, Aware Reader about Nutrition and I have been extremely successful in doing this. I assure all reader that this book will transform not only their Health but also the Quality of food to be consumed by them.

Frontlist: In your experience, what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about nutrition, and how do you address these in your book?

Yogesh: In my opinion, nowadays, everyone seems to be an authoritarian of nutrition and hence they deliver best nutritional advice as per their level of understanding to all; but many a times it appears to be quite harmful to those seeking advice. The knowledge many of us have gained is with lack of scientific evidence, without professional study and hence is just incomplete. Nevertheless, people from any field/segment usually dictate their precarious knowledge about the nutritive values of food with great aplomb. If anyone is ill and is in bad shape of health, people advise what one should consume and why they should consume? What is even more unfortunate is that people blindly act in accordance to such advice and put their health at stake!

So, in order to overcome this issue, I have tried my best to provide appropriate information in a lucid manner in this book.

My advice to all the readers is that please seek advice associated to your health and your diet only from person who is actually a genuine nutritionist, dietician or a medical advisor or from a book like “The Real Deal about your Meal” backed by scientific evidence.

Frontlist: Many people today are looking for quick fixes or magic bullet solutions regarding their health and nutrition. What would you say to someone skeptical about making sustainable lifestyle changes?

Yogesh: On a lighter note, I would say our country is a country based on “Jugaad” hence people do look for quick fixes or magic bullet solutions in every aspect:, but when it comes to health and nutrition, take it with a pinch of salt.

People prefer taste over health and in this war between taste and health; people succumb to the likings of tongue and ignore their health; thereby consuming what seems better to their taste bud and not what actually is better to health.

I would like to quote one sentence from my book –“People prefer organoleptic quality over therapeutic values of food ingredients”.

For example, people still keep on consuming white sugar and refined flour; even when they know that they are harmful to them; and their health would deteriorate due to their consumption over a period of time. Ice-creams, desserts, sweets, junk-foods items are consumed substantially; as they satisfy the demands of taste buds. On top of this, people don’t exercise and have chosen a sluggish lifestyle. Obesity is at its peak and has found its way in all age-group. Outdoor games have been replaced by mobile games. This is the actual lifestyle people have been opting for.

Health is a state which cannot be maintained in a day or two. Consistent efforts are required to be in good shape of health and people have to adapt healthy lifestyle for a longer period of time. Health cannot be built in a flick of time; but it improves and sustains with healthy and focused lifestyle. Hence, in short, there are no quick fixes for sustainable health. “Adapting healthy lifestyle and relying only on nutritive food is the need of the hour for sustainable healthy life” is the only mantra.

Frontlist: Your book emphasizes the importance of a varied and balanced diet. Could you discuss the role of different food groups and macronutrients in promoting overall health and well-being?

Yogesh: Variety is the spice of life, isn’t it!! And hence this book speaks about varied and most importantly balanced diet to avoid boredom for all readers.

Mother Nature has blessed us with array of incredible foods from both plants and animals. Apart from this, we have classified them in different food groups on various bases. Like, one classification of food is grains and cereals, vegetables and fruits, dairy products, etc.; other is on the basis of their shelf-life such as perishable foods and non-perishable foods and then lastly on the basis of their nutrient content they are classified as carbohydrate based food, protein based food, fat based food, vitamin based food and mineral based food.

Speaking about nutrient content, all the macro-nutrients like carbohydrate, protein and fat whereas all the micro-nutrients like vitamins and minerals have their specific role in our body and they perform specific function in our body. We all need to know their daily requirement as per our body constitution and feed our body as per the need to lead a healthy life.

I request all readers to go on nutritional journey by means of this book to understand this concept of different food groups to promote their health.

I would conclude by saying that Exercise is an icing on top of this, as it expedites in maintaining the calorific value of food we consume.

Just eat healthy, eat balanced diet, exercise sufficiently and stay healthy forever!! - is the philosophy.

Frontlist: Your book offers an array of diet plans for readers to try. How did you develop these plans, and what were the principles that guided your selection of meal choices?

Yogesh: First of all, I would like to make it very clear to everyone that I have not planned any diet for any one. I have discussed various plans that are consumed by people world-wide for weight-loss regime like Keto diet, Atkins diet, Palaeolithic diet, Dukan diet, 5:2 diet, etc.

Everyone has different body and different body constitution. So, body need varies accordingly to such difference. Like one is thin, one is fat, one is under-weight and one is obese; one is disease-free and one has distinct disease. So, their body demands for different diet and different nutrients. We all need to understand our body and its need; and then after if we feed it properly; it would be more fruitful.

This book would prove to be a helpful guide to all to identify their body needs in terms of nutrition. But there are certain things which are beneficial to all like antioxidants, rainbow diet, micro-greens and my book highlights all such thing in very detailed manner. It helps everyone with better choice of food to be consumed and then it is their selection of food ingredients. It is up to the reader what they prefer: processed food, junk food or nutritious super-food. But, I assure this that this book will equip all reader with the best knowledge of foods to be consumed and will make their life worth living with better health.

Frontlist: "The Real Deal About Your Meal" discusses the potential benefits of fasting and intermittent fasting. Could you explain the science behind these practices and guide readers interested in trying them?

Yogesh: First of all, I would like to make it clear to all that one should not go for fasting blindly. Before practicing this process, one needs to understand the precise reason, actual need, actual purpose and their outcome to do so.

The reason behind the fasting may be guided either by religious approach or it can health concern. I would be highlighting on fasting aspects here only associated to nutritional perspective and not with religious background.

Fasting is fundamentally a state where we abstain and restrict ourselves from consuming food for a particular period of time. Whereas, intermittent fasting is a state where fasting is observed at irregular intervals and is not a continuous process and it cycles between periods of eating and fasting. There are various types of intermittent fasting.

Fasting is an effective ways of detoxifying our body. If during fasting, one remains on liquid diet; their digestive system rests and rejuvenates accordingly. In this process, the entire body resets, recovers and rejuvenates helping body to function with great efficiency.

During intermittent fasting one doesn’t consumes much and due to this a special peptide hormone (PYY) is released, and this eventually results in weight loss. During fasting one must ensure that they rely only on fibrous foods to have a feeling of satiety. This won’t let them feel irritated and exhausted.

I assure and wish my book would be fruitful to my dear readers to let them achieve their goal of leading a healthy nutritious life.

Eat healthy, Think healthy, Stay healthy and yes Read healthy – The Real Deal about your Meal!!!!!! Be blessed.