Blogs

Whenever I talk to grandparents during feeding consultations, there is a recurring theme that almost always comes up. They look at the daily menu- polished white rice, ultra-processed wheat flour, packaged breakfast cereals and quietly ask: “Where did all our traditional grains go?” They remember a time when the kitchen smelled of freshly roasted jowar rotis, warm bajra khichdi during the winter, or fragrant red rice cooked on slow heat. Over the past few decades, our urban kitchens have slowly narrowed down to just two primary staples: wheat and polished …

One of my absolute favorite moments during nutritional consultations is when a well-meaning parent looks at me earnestly and asks: “Should I be buying imported blueberries for my baby?”Or organic quinoa. Or chia seeds. Or some incredibly expensive, hard-to-find fruit they saw a lifestyle influencer post on social media. I usually smile before asking a much simpler, gentler counter-question: “Have you bought any fresh mangoes or jamuns from your local cart this week?” There is almost always a long pause. Somewhere along the way, we have inadvertently started believing the …

This is one of those clinical conversations that almost always begins with a completely different headline. A parent books a feeding consultation with me because their toddler has suddenly stopped eating well. Or because they are constantly exhausted. Or because their sweet, easygoing baby has turned unusually irritable and angry over the last few weeks. Somewhere along the line during our intake assessment, I start asking about their daily diet: How much milk are they drinking? Are they regularly consuming iron-rich foods? Have they had a routine blood check recently? …

This is one of the most delicate, politically complex conversations I ever have with parents. Not because it’s about food but because it is fundamentally about family dynamics. The messages usually sound something like this: “My mother-in-law keeps force-feeding him behind my back when I go out.” “My parents think I’m actively starving my baby because I refuse to chase her around the room with a bowl.” “Dadi gives biscuits and sweets every single afternoon, right before dinner, even though I’ve repeatedly asked her not to.” Underneath the frustration of …