Dr. Alifia S Bhol, Clinical Nutritionist, Lifestyle Therapist & Founder, NutriAl Diet Clinic gets in a conversation with GlobalSpa about her idea behind NutriAI, fad diets, and her take on improving your immunity during a pandemic.
Dr. Alifia S Bhol is a certified Dietician, and Founder of the highly successful online diet clinic, NutriAl. She specializes in nutrition in diabetes, cardiac disease and change in body composition. Her experience for diet planning has been in hospitals, gyms, private clinics, etc. she now runs her own online diet therapy clinic in Mumbai.
1.) Starting off, give us a little insight into your brand NutriAl. How did it come about?
NutriAl began September 2018 from the singular motive of being able to reach out to people who, either due to distance, time or just unawareness, were unable to physically access our Mumbai clinic. Health and our ability to fight off diseases is a combination of our genetics, surroundings and nutrition, with the latter being a crucial variable that is determined by each individual’s day-to-day choices. Therefore, we realised that it was imperative to provide people with the opportunity to access such aid through an online platform that would connect with an audience at large and make diet consultation easy. In a world where procuring diet plans from unregistered source is at the tip of the fingers, why should an authentic diet plan be out of reach and thus, NutriAl online diet clinic was born.
2.) What are some services people can prevail from NutriAl?
NutriAl diet Clinic provides customised diet plans for every health condition and goal. Whether it’s a one-time phone consultation to learn what are the do’s and don’ts of your daily meals or a three months diet program to get your blood reports back to normal, NutriAl does it all. From seminars and forums where people can discuss common health and diet myths, to health awareness camps in various organisations. NutriAl also supplies calorie counted meals to offices and takes orders for healthy food catering for various events. We also have our own line of diet kulfis and ice creams which have zero preservatives, emulsifiers, or artificial flavours under the name NutriAI Diet Kulfis. Additionally, a few months ago, we also ventured into producing soaps made out of natural food ingredients called NutriAI Soaps and the response has been amazing.
3.) As a nutritionist, what do you think are the most important foods people should be consuming right now considering the virus?
There isn’t any quick fix to good health or building your immunity, it’s a gradual build-up that takes time and patience. Getting enough hydration, sleeping well, being stress-free, daily exercise is important to build immunity. Eating a diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole spices, good quality proteins and fats, and fiber-rich carbohydrates, are more important at this time. Restrictive or crash diets are a definite no-no. Warm water will help as well as consumption of foods rich in Vitamin c, vitamin d, zinc, etc.
4.) In your expertise, do you think diets like keto and veganism are fruitful for losing weight/getting healthy, or are they simply fads?
We firmly believe, if it’s temporary, it’s not worth it. Veganism is still not a fad diet in my eyes and can be beautifully balanced with qualified advice but giving up on carbohydrates which are an amazing source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals for a lifetime isn’t advisable.
5.) Besides diet, what are some lifestyle changes you’d suggest everybody should be making for good health?
● Avoid consuming packaged food
● Include a 30 min walk into your daily routine
● Deep breathing for at least 10 minutes daily
● Drinking water every hour
● Talking while walking
● No screens for at least 1 hour before sleeping
● Cutting out or limiting habits like smoking (tobacco or any other), alcohol etc.
● Staying away from diet advice that is unsupported by any scientific evidence
6.) Lastly, what is your wellness philosophy?
You got to nourish yourself to flourish!
