India should focus on becoming Knowledge centre for tomorrow’s Nutraceuticals: Rajesh Kumar, CEO, Sami Direct

Sami Direct, as a part of the Sami Group, is committed to offer range of nutraceuticals, which have been acknowledged by the world over for its quality and safety standards. Sami Direct has been focused on bringing “Clinically relevant nutrition” to everyday life and the key will be how to create the awareness in the general mass on a preventive approach.  We have products which helps detoxification, Balanced meal replacement protein drink mix, series of antioxidants focused on strengthening the immune system, women health products, joint health, weigh management, diabetic care etc.  Some of its brands in the market include Co Q Energiser, Omega bio plus, LeanGard protein drink mix, R 3 Power, Livstrong, Organic Spirulina, Curcumin C 3 Power, Lycopene Beta , Cranex, Osteostrong   and series of cosmeceuticals products.  In an interaction with NuFFooDS Spectrum, Rajesh Kumar, CEO, Sami Direct, Bangalore speaks about the role of nutraceticals in managing lifestyle diseases. Excepts of the interview


According to you, what are the key reasons for malnutrition and lifestyle diseases? 

Ever wondered why our forefathers lived longer and most important healthier lives? Well, it apparently boils down to their balanced dietary intake …..good wholesome food comprising of proteins, fibres and unadulterated with hormones, preservatives, pesticides, synthetic flavourings. Their diets were full of naturally occurring antioxidants, which is needed for our body to take care of the natural oxidation process in the body. Oxidation is simply a chemical reaction whereby hydrogen gets transferred to an oxidising agent producing free radicals. Free radicals also exists in nature such as when our body breaks down the food or as tobacco smoke, alcohol, x-rays, sunlight, pollution etc. These radicals in turn can produce chain reactions which can create damage or death of cells. Now the changed food habits combined with the modern lifestyle has disturbed the equilibrium and the body doesn’t get the required antioxidants to combat the dangerous oxidation process. Low levels of these antioxidants can lead to oxidative stress and subsequently damage of cell which forms an integral part of many diseases like Obesity, Diabetes, Allergy, cancer etc.
In India we are dealing with two types of problems at the same time 1) Over nutrition 2) Mal nutrition. Both needs to be addressed with lot of awareness and structured efforts in a continued fashion before it shapes up into a major epidemic.

Why are these diseases on rise?

Again the major contributing factor is poor dietary habits combined with an unhealthy lifestyle, which weakens the immune system weakening our response to these diseases.


What could be done to cure the lifestyle diseases? (Keeping nutraceuticals and dietary supplement in mind)

We need a total shift in our approach to our food habits as well as we need a lifestyle intervention. In today’ scenario we need to incorporate the daily essential protein, complex carbs, Micro nutrients, Phyto essentials, coupled with essential fatty acids. All these nutrients should come from our daily food and from our daily Nutraceutical supplements. We also need to take out the excess salt, sugar, oil, masalas from our food and should supplement with daily essential nutrition.

What is the role of nutraceuticals in tackling malnutrition, Cardiac disease, Diabetes, Cancer and Allergy?
Nutraceutical intervention on a daily basis address the issues created due to wrong food habits to a large extend. However this should be coupled with a balanced diet and adequate exercise and water intake. Our diets today are totally inadequate when it comes to providing the body with the right ingredients to lay the foundation of wellness. Also our food is over cooked, has the wrong oils, and loaded with additives, preservatives, synthetic colourings and everything else that points to bad news. What make it worse is that with the bad farming practices we get load of toxins which gets accumulated in the body over a period of time. Nutraceutical regime plays an important part to address some of these challenges to a great extent.

What is your opinion about the current Nutraceutical market?

The current nutraceutical market is well poised for an exponential growth and the key to that is a sustained awareness and information system, which connects the general mass. We also need to create the required infrastructure like research labs, clinical research labs, world class manufacturing set ups, regulatory body which works at the required pace, skilled man power (scientist, food / bio technologist/ Quality experts/ process engineers etc). This also will help us to cater to the global requirements and open up export markets for us. India should focus on becoming the Knowledge centre for tomorrow’s Nutraceuticals.