Six years back, Lavleen Kaur was a qualified dietitian, but a stay at home new mother, who looked around and wondered at the general attitude of people towards food. She was encouraged by her husband Jagandeep Singh, who is an IT engineer, to jump in and use her qualification, knowledge, and instinct to her best ability to help loved ones, and this is how ‘Diet Insight’ came into being. The venture started from a corner of the house, with only good intentions and a healthy outlook towards life.
Lavleen grew up in a family which placed utmost importance on education. Her father Baljit Singh, a local cloth merchant was her greatest inspiration. She did her graduation with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Home Science. The subject of Food & Nutrition fascinated her, and she pursued it. It was her fascination with Indian kitchen and its spices, and their role in our well-being, that she became passionate about food and nutrition. Later she earned Masters in Foods and Nutrition from Government Home Science College in Chandigarh. She also holds a degree in Master of Education from Government College of Education which is affiliated to Panjab University.
It was this passion which led her to work towards changing the general perception of people around her, about food. She observed that the hoard of diseases almost everyone was carrying around, was generally because of unhealthy food habits and an unhealthy lifestyle. She knew that she could help change that perception, and use food to turn around health problems for others. She started counselling friends and family, and soon word travelled. It became evident in seven months, that whatever magic she was cooking with her clients in that basement room of hers was working. Diet Insight grew leaps and bound, and soon expanded.
The diet industry is full of fads and crash diets. The do’s and don’ts are so many that they entangle the people. The diet trends change every day and engulf people in their complexities. Trendy names to these trends seem extremely attractive to people, especially the youth and they follow them blindly. Usually, people do not try to gain knowledge about what are they putting their body, why and what is its purpose. Fancy names and unheard-of dietary components rule the diet industry today. This is where Lavleen touches a chord with them.
In a time when western diet trends and fad foods rule the roost, she promotes the traditional Indian food. The motto for her is, that Indian kitchen is a complete pharmacy. Generations of Indians, for centuries, have eaten the traditional Indian diet and stayed healthy. It is the food which is engrained in the DNA of Indians. The whole world is rediscovering the goodness of Indian spices and grains, and the fads take us away from them. The fads are just fads. Any diet that deprives one from any of the food groups, is a fad diet, and is not sustainable.
Apart from her approach towards the food, what differentiates her venture Diet Insight from others is that it does not focus on the short-term goals of weight loss etc. Lavleen has maintained from the beginning while setting her outlook for her endeavour, that the focus is to be on forming lifestyle altering habits. The fads and trends often present a short cut, which is not permanent.
The clients at Diet Insight get a real insight of the diet being prescribed, and the effect each component has on their health. The client is deeply involved in planning the course of action to be taken, which in turn brings about a realization regarding the changes in the lifestyle and dietary habits required to bring about permanent well-being of the whole body and mind. Diet Insight provides lifestyle coaching and diet consultation both, as both these aspects are important to lead a healthy life.
Dietitian Lavleen is at a very crucial stage right now, where after establishing her brand, she and her team aim to expand their reach. Since her approach towards food includes a holistic approach towards traditional Indian food, it is natural that her clientele is also of Indian heritage. It did prove to be a challenge to increase the base with a specific target group, but technology came in handy.
Diet Insight has a mobile application now, which connects Indians from across the world to her. Indians from around more than 25 countries are connected to her through this application and reaping the benefits of her experience, becoming healthier by the day, eating the food they grew up eating.
After years of experience in the diet and nutrition industry, Lavleen Kaur, the most promising youngest dietitian in North India, has some pearls of wisdom to share. She believes in uplifting others, hence encourages the budding entrepreneurs to find their ground. Learning your trade makes you better every day. Learn, apply, make mistakes, learn from the mistakes, and repeat the process. Another particularly important source of learning is the peer group. Do your own thing, but observe what others are doing right. There is no harm in learning from others. Preserving your basics, and your originality must be of utmost importance. That is what makes you unique. One must never lose that uniqueness in the race to march ahead. Lastly, persevere. “No matter the roadblocks and failures, persevere through all of them. That is going to be your strength”, she says.
