Is Your Food Really 'Clean'? 5 Red Flags to Watch When Buying!

Hello everybody and thank you for joining us today. We have a very different topic today and we have an amazing human being today here with us. And why I say that is every time I meet Kanupriya, no, I feel more love I feel more peace, and I'm sure all of you will know what I mean when we start YouTube live and she starts speaking. So without taking a lot of your time, welcome Kanupriya, and thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me here, ma'am.

Great. And you know why I think, Anupriya, I really wanted her to come on this forum and share her insights? Because whatever she's doing, whatever her journey is, opportunity. I think functional medicine may all of us, all health coaches, all doctors, everyone who is focused on products, and also everyone who is taking the functional medicine route to heal themselves. One thing is very common in all of us. It's our story which has motivated us to tread on a path which generally we had never thought that we will tread on, right? And something like this happened for Kanupriya that, that gave her the strength to do something differently, right? Nutritionist by degree, That's right. Yeah, a mom, a very loving mom, and very, very passionate about keeping— helping people keep their children healthy and themselves healthy. Now, am I right, Kanupriya?

Absolutely right, ma'am.

Great. Over to you, Kanupriya. Clean food. In functional medicine, you know, nutrition is important, and nutrition is the base of food. And we strongly believe food is medicine. Okay, I generally tell people, I'm a management person, and in management we always say 80/20 rule. 20% of people do 80% of work, and 20% of your revenue— 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers, right? And if you learn to focus and strategize properly You have to do 20% of work to get 80% of the results. Likewise, in nutrition, I realized that we should focus 20% on what we are eating, and 80% is about how our body receives it and what it does with it. Which brings us to the fact of today's topic: does our food have too much toxic metals? That our body has to work 80% to get 20% of nutrition, or our body has to just work 20% to get 80% of the nutrition, right? So over to you, Kanupriya. Share with us what you think we should do so that 20% of the effort, 80% of nutrition is what our body can get.

Oh, thank you, thank you so much, ma'am, for having me. And as you rightly said, you know, as functional nutrition practitioners, functional medicine practitioners, we know that nutrition isn't just about macronutrients, it's more about information. Food literally informs our microbiome, immune system, and also plays a role in genetic expression. Yet in the wellness space today, clean eating has become a very vague buzzword which marketing teams are using to their advantage. Many of us buy foods labeled as natural, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, believing that we are doing the right thing. But unfortunately, these labels mask ingredients that disrupt our microbiome. They produce inflammation. And drive the symptoms that we see every day. For example, bloating, brain fog, anxiety, joint pain, fatigue, and so many others. So today what I'm going to really talk about are the 5 major red flags to watch and to help identify foods that may look healthy but are silently undermining our gut health. We'll also touch on how eliminating inflammatory triggers like gluten, dairy, and refined sugar can support our mucosal barrier, regulate immune responses, and foster a more resilient and diverse microbial ecosystem. Now, why this talk matters— because we are in the business of root cause resolution, and often that journey begins in the gut. If we are unknowingly consuming products that degrade microbial diversity, it compromises our junctions and activates immune response. Then even the best supplement protocols will fall short. Going gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free isn't about trend following. It's about reducing gut inflammation, improving intestinal permeability, and giving the microbiome a chance to recalibrate. So this talk is really help to— I help you to identify what might be keeping you inflamed even though you may be thinking that you're eating clean. The first red flag is the natural label trap. So we often equate natural by being— meaning safe, but this is quite dangerous. Products that are labeled natural can still contain genetically modified ingredients, seed oils, and pesticides residues like glyphosate. Now glyphosate, we know, is something that is used to, uh, you know, when wheat is grown, we spray that with glyphosate. Glyphosate binds minerals, it harms beneficial bacteria, and it promotes tight junction breakdown. So also, not just that, glyphosate also inhibits certain pathways in our microbes that play a role in the formation of tryptophan. So thereby it compromises serotonin, melatonin, and immune regulation. So when we take away gluten from our diets, we are not just taking away gliadin, which is an inflammatory-causing protein in gluten, but we are also reducing our exposure to glyphosate. So gluten-free diets, when done properly, they help regulate— reduce gut inflammation and support epithelial repair. This is one of my favorite red flags: greenwashed packaging. What is greenwashed packaging? Packaging itself is powerful today. And marketing visuals like using leaves or certain fonts or words like farm fresh, using certain colors that look eco-friendly— let's say you use a green packaging or your packaging looks artisanal— so they all create a sense of trust. But the actual ingredients tell a very different story. Unfortunately, many gluten-free and dairy-free products that look healthy on the outside often contain products like gums, flavorings, emulsifiers, starches, and ultra-processed additives under the guise of health. So I want to talk specifically about the starch problem. We know that most gluten-free and dairy-free products today rely heavily on refined starches like potato starch, tapioca starch, cornstarch, and even rice flour. While these are technically gluten-free, they behave similar to sugar in the gut. What do they do? They spike postprandial glucose and insulin levels. They are rapidly fermented by opportunistic bacteria. They promote gas, bloating, and dysbiosis. They lack fiber, polyphenols, or micronutrients, so they do not offer any support to our gut lining or our micro flora, and they can encourage Candida or SIBO flares. These starches can also thereby perpetuate inflammation, insulin resistance, and microbial imbalance, especially when consumed daily. And they are a part of most gluten-free attas that are found in the market today. Let's talk a little bit about dairy-free. So when we talk about dairy-free milks, or we talk about dairy-free yogurts, they all come in beautiful packaging, but they also contain things like carrageenan, guar gum, sunflower lecithin, and xanthan gum. These emulsifiers have been shown to erode the mucous barrier and trigger low-grade inflammation. So removing dairy, we are helping reduce casein and whey-mediated immune responses, but when we replace these with processed alternatives, the gut still remains inflamed. Sugar-free and keto claims. Now, sugar-free doesn't mean safe, especially for the gut. Non-nutritive sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame have been known to shift microbial composition. They favor pro-inflammatory species in the gut, and they impair glucose metabolism. Sugar alcohols like xylitol ferment in the colon and can worsen bloating in sensitive patients. Eliminating added sugars is crucial to reducing inflammation, but we need to emphasize whole food sources of sweetness, for example, raw honey or dates, and avoid synthetic replacements. Going sugar-free doesn't mean abandoning sweetness altogether. It means choosing options that nourish rather than disrupt the microbiome. Ultra-processed health snacks. They are marketed, marketed today as functional, but they often contain dozens of ingredients designed for shelf life, not gut health. Emulsifiers have been shown to thin the mucous barrier, allowing bacteria to come in closer contact with the epithelium, contributing to dysbiosis and immune activation. When you remove gluten and dairy from your diets and replace them with these snacks, they do feel like a lifeline at times, but their long ingredient lists often include gut disruptors. So we need to snack on foods made without using additives. Simplicity supports digestion and reduces gut reactivity. So my rule of the thumb is, whenever you buy a packaged product, Please look at the list of ingredients. The lesser the ingredients, usually cleaner is the product. Mislabeled produce— what does this mean? Produce that is labeled local and fresh, seductive, but it's unregulated, designed to evoke trust and health, but in reality they don't guarantee nutritional density or purity. And for example, I'd like to talk about hydroponics here a little bit. Hydroponic crops are basically grown in water with added nutrients but without soil. While this increases yield and reduces pests, it comes at the cost of phytonutrient and microbial diversity. What do I mean by that? Soil-grown plants develop symbiotic relationship with the microbes in the soil. Which help produce, you know, components like flavonoids and polyphenols, which are very important for human health. Hydroponic plants lack exposure to these microbes that are present in the soil, and therefore they tend to have a lower level of polyphenol and certain minerals like selenium, magnesium, and zinc. Soil is also a source of environmental microbial input or an inoculant to our gut. Hydroponics eliminate this natural exposure. Moreover, many hydroponic operations still use synthetic fertilizers and may apply fungicides or biocides to prevent contamination. So when we are eating local produce that are hydroponically grown, they may be missing key compounds that nourish beneficial gut bacteria. Additionally, produce, when it's labeled fresh, it may have actually been harvested weeks ago. So as time passes, we know that post-harvest vitamins like vitamin C, folate, polyphenols, they all degrade. So even if the vegetable or fruit that we are eating looks very vibrant, it may be nutritionally depleted. So whenever possible, we should seek soil-grown organic farm-produced because not all local and fresh food is created equal when it comes to gut health. Now, how does all this affect the gut? When we eat clean products, so-called clean products, but that those are actually filled with emulsifiers, gums, starches, artificial sweeteners, and pesticide residues, it directly undermines our gut health in 3 ways. Number 1, it affects our microbial diversity. Number 2, it harms our mucosal protection. And number 3, it affects the tight junction integrity of our gut. So over time, this leads to chronic inflammation, leaky gut, and metabolic dysfunction. So removing gluten, dairy, and sugar, when done correctly and strategically, it helps reduce antigen load. It calms our immune system and allows healing to occur. This change that you will see will be across a range of spectrum, from mood and energy to skin and digestion. So a gut that can digest, absorb, and detoxify is the foundation to healing. So what should we recommend instead? We have to educate our patients, our clients, to read ingredient lists and not just focus on what the claims are being made at the front of a packaging. You must choose organic, prioritize naturally fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and avoid products or foods with ingredients that you cannot pronounce or you would not cook with at home. Very important. What is the final takeaway? That clean eating isn't about labels, it's about integrity. We must help our clients see beyond the marketing and understand how food affects their gut, their brain, and their immune system. When we remove inflammatory triggers like gluten, dairy, and refined sugar you must replace them with fiber-rich whole foods rather than packaged foods which come with ingredients that are undermining your gut health. Only then will your healing really occur. Our microbiome really thrives on simplicity, diversity, and consistency. So functional nutrition really allows us to translate this into personalized, sustainable nutrition strategy. And we need to reframe clean eating as a tool for restoring the gut, not just for following trends. The last few things I want to add to this are what are the other tips for gut healing. Number 1, hydration. You must aim for water, herbal teas, or infused waters. Keep yourself well hydrated. Eating slowly and without distractions, when you're concentrating on the food that you're eating, is very important. Fasting helps because it allows the gut to rest, and anywhere between 12 to 16 hours of fast, um, I think is important. The last but not the least is you avoid dietary monotony. Don't eat the same foods every day. Bring about diversity because that's how our microbiome also becomes more diverse.

Thank you, Kanupriya, for sharing this. And based on what you have shared, I have few questions. Um, I strongly believe that being Indians, we are very blessed because I think when it comes to diet and nutrition, our ancestors knew more than what we know today. True, right? So can you share some traditional Indian practices, maybe like eating seasonal fermented satwik, which aligns with the clean food movement which you've been talking about?

Yes, you know, so, um, amongst the first, uh, examples that come to my mind is, uh, in North India we have kanji in the winter, carrot kanji. It's a superb naturally fermented food that is so good for our gut, you know, which nowadays— earlier, every house, our grandmothers would be putting it, but now we buy it.

And then our patients make it at home. Simple reason: who makes it, their microbiome goes into it.

Correct. The other—

be careful, you know.

The other thing I have seen a huge shift from what we were doing, I would say, even 15 years ago to now, is we are all going after buying commercially set yogurt or Greek yogurt. Not many people are setting dahi at home, are traditionally set dahi. What they don't realize is that when you are buying yogurt prepared outside, their commercial, uh, you know, bacteria that they use lacks the probiotic effect as compared to what we use at home. So, you know, that's another traditional thing that we used to, uh, do which we have stopped doing. Um, things like, uh, you know, sorry.

One more thing.

Yeah, so, you know, things like having our— we used to first make our own atta or go to the chakki with the grain and get it ground in front of us and bring it back. Now we are buying all these attas which come in fancy looking packagings which say multigrain, but if you start reading the ingredients, you'll realize what really multigrain means. Is it really multigrain or not? So, you know, these little things we start getting aware of. Yeah, yeah.

So my next question for you is, can clean eating be achieved on a traditional Indian diet without going organic? Because see, you mentioned organic in your presentation and talk, but most of the people think organic is too expensive for them to afford.

Yes, you are absolutely right. Today organic is not, uh, you know, something that comes under every household's budget. I personally feel that you can go to clean— yeah, you can achieve clean eating without going organic by incorporating certain practices. For example, when you buy your fresh produce, make sure that you wash it well, you know. Uh, now what most people will do is you buy it, you put it in the fridge, What I always recommend is let it soak in some, uh, you know, you know, water in which you've added a little bit of vinegar, okay? And then you let it dry out, then you refrigerate your produce. The other thing is maybe you buy, uh, from a place where you know that has a lot of customers because their turnover rate is so high that they typically will not be resorting to things like you know, dipping them in certain chemicals to make them look more fresh and things like that. That's the other thing that you can do. The third thing that you can do is maybe you buy not once a week but maybe 2 to 3 times a week. Again, just— and maybe also sometimes what I have found is you may want to look at different organic vendors and compare prices. Sometimes you will find that, you know, especially if the vegetable is in season, it'll be cheaper than if you're trying to go for an exotic vegetable. For example, why would somebody want to eat aloo methi today when you know that methi is no longer in season? It's still available, it's expensive, but you don't need to be eating aloo methi today. Why don't you eat something else that is available today which is a summer vegetable, for example, a ghee or a tori or a tinda. So what I feel is it— you can go clean without having to resort to organic.

Thank you. Do you think there are any policy changes which can be done, or any education for farmers which the government can support to help not only urban elite but everybody you know, to eat clean.

Yes, absolutely. So I was a part of a conclave held by FSSAI about 6 months ago, and we did talk about labeling and how foods were allowed to write, let's say, millet cookies, even though the amount of millets added to that cookie was about 5 to 6%. The rest was all wheat. Or maybe oats or something else. So yes, as a government, we had said that labeling laws should be stricter, enforced more strictly, so that if you are making a claim that your product contains a particular ingredient, it should be part of the majority of what the product contains and not minority. And you should not be allowed to use a buzzword just because you've sort of added a little bit to it.

And what do you think by when this change will happen actually on the real level? That's what has to happen for us to be healthy, right? Otherwise there's no way to become non-chronic diseases.

All I can say is that all of us, what we should start with is till that change happens, is start reading the ingredients. Start reading the labels. And I always say, don't— you know, now it's not just about reading ingredients, but read everything that's printed on a food packaging.

So, Kanupriya, what I think is that our labels are not accurate.

Oh, they are not, right?

So only reading food labels is not the solution.

Yes, you were actually—

you were a part of the forum which plays an important role in this. And therefore, with your experience and coming from the inside, any inside thoughts on how long this will take to happen?

Well, it should have happened day before yesterday according to me, uh, but it will never happen. No, I, I'm not saying that. I think, um, you know, I think they're trying hard Uh, for example, recently they did come out with a ruling that said that you are allowed to write gluten-free only if you have a certificate to prove that it's actually gluten-free. Uh, we as a food business, as Caramel, we get all our products certified according to FSSAI regulations. So we don't just check for gluten, but we actually get about 146 different things checked in every product of ours, including pathogens, microbial colonies that were found, uh, fertilizers, certain heavy metals, all of that, you know. But, and, and I, I hope that others do the same. I know that if you are a big brand, you will be probably getting it done because FSSAI needs you to do it. Uh, what concerns—

yeah, so when I was managing hospitals and everything, we used to follow all of this strictly, especially the pathogen part. All restaurants and all, everything has to follow. But I think food labeling still has a long way to go.

Also, I think, uh, you know, in today's trend, uh, there are so many, uh, home chefs, for example, or small little bakeries, uh, so many smaller food businesses that are doing business. And sometimes when I visit their websites, uh, I'm amazed to see that they haven't even bothered to mention an ingredient list.

Can you name some of those sites?

You know, to be honest, I would have if I remembered, but I don't. I do remember ordering from a couple of gluten-free, dairy-free food businesses, and when I got the product, it didn't have a label. The label only consisted of the name of the product and the contact number. It had no other information. So whenever I see a product with no information or less information that it should have, it instills a sense of distrust in me personally, and I don't want to buy from them because I actually want to know exactly what I'm putting inside my body.

Great. Uh, second, you talked about glyphosate. I was extremely happy a year back when government banned it.

Correct.

Because I wrote a book, you know, after reversing diabetes for many, many patients. I wrote a book, the title was What Doctors Should Know About Diabetes Reversal.

Okay.

And when I wrote this book, I went to American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, from where I have done my fellowship in functional medicine. And met the founder and gifted her that book. She took the book like this and said, Preeti, have you mentioned a chapter on glyphosate? Because that's one of the biggest reasons why all Indians are becoming diabetic. And if not all, at least 50% are pre-diabetic and insulin resistant, right? And I told her, no, not a chapter, but two PubMed extracts. And she said, okay, you've still done some work.

So when I came back, it was about 5 years back, right?

So about a year, year and a half back, I read this news that glyphosate has been banned. I was extremely happy that the government has taken a step. Yeah, but still you and me know that it has not gone away from the—

yes, market. Yes.

What, how, where do you see The clean— so the government is doing a lot, honestly speaking. Uh, the millet year was a big change. I was extremely happy. At least a lot of new grains have come back into picture. Even 5%, 10%, 20%, whatever it is, it's better than zero. People like me didn't know much about millets, right? I started my functional medicine practice, right, right. And so where do you see this clean food movement in India heading to in the next 5 to 10 years, especially keeping in mind that I've been talking about it for the last 10 years already, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who've been talking for it even more than what I have, right? So where do you see this movement going?

Oh, I think, to be honest, I feel that it's going to explode, just like the gluten-free movement exploded. And people now, at least the educated people— I'm talking about the urban elite here— more than people living in smaller towns, uh, you know, uh, so people, for example, are more aware of how gluten can cause inflammation. Similarly, because if people like you and other functional medicine experts, people in my, uh, industry, we all are talking about clean food and we keep educating again and again our clients about what to look for and how to identify what is clean and what is actually labeled as clean.

I think we've lost Kanupriya in between. I will take this opportunity.

Number 1. Number 2, what I was— I'm back. Am I back?

Yes, you're back.

Yes. Okay, sorry. So what I also feel is that many more youngsters now are entering farming. Farming has suddenly become very, uh, classy. It's the in thing to do. And I feel with the newer generation wanting to get into farming, knowing that it needs to be clean and how it makes a difference, and that there is a demand for it, I think it's going to do very well.

I agree with you, Kanupriya, and I hope it does well. But you know, the water, the soil actually has to be recharged, replenished. Yes, organic farming means that every 1 or 2 years you don't do anything on that land. And for the number of people we are, to feed everybody is a challenge. So I think it has to be a balance. Of both the worlds. And I strongly feel that it is us, it is the public who is to become more active, more aware. Because, you know, we generally say, right? I think we need to go one step forward and say Milk curry. People like me and people like you are buying organic foods and we don't even question why this is at this price.

Correct.

Sometimes I see that the normal vegetable I get at some price and some organic vegetable I get at 5x and sometimes even at 10x.

Right, right.

But we don't question. In the beginning we used to— I remember 5, 6 years, 7 years back when I started doing this organic food at my house, my husband really every month used to tell me, wastage money, people can learn from you how to waste money, right? And it's taken me time, but now sometimes I want to have a little more variety in food. Because another problem with organic other than the prices, variety decreases so substantially, I can't tell you. Yeah, because you majorly get seasonal.

Correct.

You don't have too much. In 2 days everything will go rot, right? Every 2 days new stuff has to come. You have to keep it properly. In 2 days, maximum 3 days, sorry, either you eat it or it will perish, right? So I sometimes feel that there's less variety, so maybe I want to have more variety, and he tells me no, it doesn't taste as good as what I order, you know, organic taste. Yeah, one of the best Sunday outings for me is going to this organic markets in Gurgaon. I love them, and I've been really thinking of taking my patients there. And the best is, you know what, they offer you nice healthy breakfast.

Yes, they do.

And, um, that's a very amazing thing True.

Yeah.

So, um, so yes, so thank you for sharing this, bringing everybody into awareness. Thank you for being here, and I wish everybody lots of health. And definitely, with everybody's help, I want us all to redefine clean food properly.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Have a great day. Bye.