“I didn’t stick to any cult or principles; I was only trying to understand my body and myself with a correlation to food. So, I joined a nutrition university because that’s the only way I could get the food, body, and biochemistry interaction and share with the world something which is complete. That’s when this whole-food plant-based thing came to me.”
Meet Kajal Bhatia, she has been a whole food plant-based nutritionist for a decade and a half. She is vibrant and inquisitive and driven to explore the human body in connection with food. She maintains the dictum that food does not work on the body but the body works on the food we consume. Kajal respects the human body immensely for its needs, interactions, and physiology. As a nutritionist, working with patients suffering from diabetes and obesity, her main objective is to manipulate our food intake so that we can effectively live disease-free lives.
Kajal has been congruous in reading, researching, and developing vegan substitutes for unhealthy or junk food. She is fully aware of the significance of taste for the mind, which has been trained to emphasize it for a very long time. Since she knows that patients frequently stray from their diet plans at snack time to indulge in “Chiwda” and other similar fried snacks, she has the singular aim of making her dishes appetizing while nutritious and plant-based. As a result, she wants to provide them with “alternative snacks.”
Kajal is of the opinion that good health is based on the 80 / 20 philosophy; 80% of our health depends on eating right and the remaining 20% is our lifestyle. Her journey has largely been one-on-one dealings with the clients where she takes into account the mysteries of the human mind or the Factor X as she calls it! She works on understanding food, not only from the nutrition aspect but also from the perspective of Factor X, which can be explained as a resistance or mindset to a certain food or a way of thinking, its correlation to the gut, and its cravings. You must be wondering about ‘Factor X.’Well, as a part of her nutritional experience, Kajal realized that we all have a seventh sense, that no one can explain, yet it plays an essential role in our food journey!
Food should be simple. That is her philosophy. Each body and mind have different conditioning. She tells her clients to find their own truth by listening to no one but their body, and in this journey, she is their mentor and confidant.
Her journey as a nutritionist has been satisfying and humbling for her as she sees her patients getting back on the road to recovery. To quote, “my journey has been miraculous as I have been able to enhance the quality of life of my clients”
She believes that plant-based food alternatives are the answer to all health-related issues. Kajal has been practicing nutrition diligently for the past 15 years. She has counselled corporate clients, athletes, youngsters, and patients suffering from diseases like diabetes and obesity. Her work in these years made her aware that more was required in the food domain. People knew and understood what they should not eat but they had no delicious alternatives to things they could. This is how Plant Power was born. Kajal wanted to provide a healthy power-packed array of plant-based products which were clean, natural, and minimally processed. Four years in the product line and her belief is reiterated that nutritional requirement these days is not just proteins, carbohydrates, and fat, it is about the missing vitamins and minerals. All these are packed in Plant Power products. They provide people with the magic to transform the quality of their life by eating the right type of nutrients.
Plant power is not just a product line. It is a sentiment. An immense amount of labour and hard work is put in at the back end to create authentic products and recipes which are tailored to help people maintain their dietary requirements. When Kajal struck up on Factor X, a direction was chanced upon. She put her heart and soul into creating nutritious snacks and shakes. She has always been amused and curious about the myth of proteins! As a mother and homemaker, she has wondered about the fixation of masses and Gen Z, with protein. Protein bars. Protein Shakes. Why? She delved deeper into this aspect and realized that energy, rather than proteins, was the need of the hour. She knew that the protein needs had to be taken care of, not only from mindset conditioning but also from certain nutritional requirements of the body, hence she has been trying to include energizing nutrients in her diets.
Plant Power is a result of years of experience and evolution. The product line proves that healthy can certainly be tasty! Indian traditional foods (like Chiwda) can also be vegan yet sumptuous. The same is proved by the Chandni Chowk mix which is the diet Chiwda with proteins. Surprised?! Well, the icing on the cake is that this is not just one product that is yummy and delectable. Keeping the fact that ‘life is delicious’ at Plant Power, Kajal, and her team have created munchies that are healthy like their Coated Nuts. Our ‘friendly nutritionist’ believes that if a patient is going 60% of the way to manage his diet, he should be allowed to consume 20% of food coming out of a packet! ‘Packaged is packaged’ she says, at plant power the focus is on purity and safety with minimal preservatives.
Not only people with health issues but also athletes, consult Kajal. It dawned on her that a complete plant-based segment is essential for them. So, she suggests a home-style meal plan for them but apart from this she realized that their nutrition is different so she created ‘Mocha Bites’ which are 10-gram protein-rich bites that can be popped in anytime and anywhere. Despite having a range of shakes and superfoods available for athletes, she advised them not to just depend on a glass of powder to enhance their strength but also be mindful of other factors like what they eat throughout the day, sleep schedule, water consumption, lifestyle, etc. However, Kajal is all excited and inspired by the new changes in the food industry and looks forward to new challenges with zeal.
Kajal applauds the youngsters’ curiosity about food and wants to tell them to cook their own food or even know their food and cravings just like they know about technology and cryptocurrency because it is directly related to their well-being. She advises them to have a discerning mind and understand health concepts like organic, sugar-free, and vegan because knowing your body and working in accordance with it is essential. Find your own truths, she asserts, hers being plant-based food.