Using Food As Medicine with EGA Juice’s CEO

EGA Juice Clinic was founded by Sumit Nanda in 2016 and has recently added their third and latest outlet at Marina One. Strongly believing in the power of food as nutrition as well as the philosophy of Ayurveda, he once said that his objective through EGA Juice Clinic is to raise “awareness amongst more Singaporeans that over-the-counter medications merely treat and/or suppress symptoms. Instead, we need to listen more closely to our bodies to treat the cause of the symptom and eliminate the root cause.”

We caught up with Sumit to find out more about EGA Juice Clinic as well as what Ayurveda has to say about general health and wellbeing. Needless to say, we managed to get some wellness tips from him!

 

Q: Hi Sumit, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself in terms of background? What were you doing before founding EGA Juice?

I am a first-generation entrepreneur and started a company manufacturing toothbrushes in 1990 with my brother. We were initially on contract manufacturing Oral-B toothbrushes for Gillette in India. After which we started an office in USA in 1998 as a private label contract manufacturing for Walmart and Walgreens stores. We then started our own brand and acquiring old brands and today, the company owns brands such as Dr Fresh, Firefly, Binaca, Reach as well as master licenses for Aim, Pepsodent, Closeup in USA.

I used to exercise regularly and would tried to follow a healthy diet, but my weight kept increasing and my energy levels were low, sleep quality was poor. I was visiting the doctors regularly and after every visit, they would prescribe a new medicine for various health issues that kept on increasing. My weight was 100 kg when I first met Dr. Ratheesh. I was popping pills regularly for diabetes, blood pressure, allergies, sleep issues.

It has been more than 5 years since I met him, my weight is down to about 70 kg (same as my teenage years). I have never taken a single medication since, I have never fallen sick and my blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels are in the normal range, my sleep quality and energy levels are same as my teenage days and I wake up feeling refreshed every morning. I teamed up with Dr Ratheesh to start EGA Juice Clinic as I feel strongly that it is my duty to bring this knowledge to more and more people. This life changing health journey has been experienced by me first hand and I would like to help people lead healthier lives without the use of medication.

Q: How did the name EGA come about?

When I first met Dr Ratheesh, he touched my pulse and told me that my metabolism was very slow and my internal biological age was 65 years, which was a big shock to me. He said not to worry as it was possible to reverse the biological age through cleansing the internal digestive organs with changes in my diet and lifestyle. When we started this company, I told him that the biggest attraction for me was the idea of age reversal. We began thinking of a brand that could signify the concept of age reversal and jointly came up with this brand as it could denote the concept of what we do. Hence, EGA stands for ‘AGE’ in reverse.

Q: Why did you choose to focus on the juice aspect of Ayurvedic medicine?

The main focus of Ayurveda is about the use of food as medicine. 70-80% of Ayurveda is about food, but we chose to focus on juice as taste and flavour are subjective to different cultures while fruit and vegetables are more universal across all cultures and body types.

Due to our modern lifestyle, most of us are leading calorie surplus but nutrition deficit lives. Moreover, we are not consuming enough nutrients and enzymes that can be obtained from raw foods. We started with juices and ayurvedic food supplements as an experience to educate more and more people about the concept of fasting and cleansing.


Front facade of EGA Juice Clinic at Marina One

Q: How has been the response so far?

The response has been more than overwhelming and that is very encouraging. It has given us a lot of confidence about what we are doing. We have most of our clients who are regulars and come back 2-3 times a week, most of them tell us how their energy levels have changed and they don’t fall sick as often after consuming turmeric and the other Ayurvedic products regularly.

Q: There was a trend for cold pressed juices as well as juice fasting programmes in the recent past few years. How did you differentiate EGA Juice from them?

The main difference is the knowledge of Ayurveda. We don’t just randomly mix fruits and we don’t make smoothies for taste. Fruit combination is very important to follow so that they can be easily digested and can provide nourishment to the body. For example, green juices are good but not good for every body type, also green juices are very ‘cooling’ in nature and can cause body aches and other ailments if not digested well. It is important to mix a good quantity of ginger and turmeric to increase the heat while consuming greens to balance the effect on the body. It is this knowledge about the effects of various fruits and vegetables which sets us apart from other juice stores.


Interior of EGA Juice Clinic with shelves of freshly cold-pressed juices

Q: What advice and/or tips would you give to people who want to start leading healthier lifestyles?

The first and most important tip is to eat freshly cooked food only, no breads, biscuits or any packaged food should be consumed. Stale food has dead calories with preservatives which are a cause of many health issues that we are facing today.

Ayurveda focuses a lot on daily routine and seasonal routine, the other very important tip is to follow a routine with nature and wake up before sunrise as well as sleep by 10pm.

Q: How can people adopt simple Ayurvedic practices into their daily lives?

Simple Ayurvedic tips for healthy living are as below:

Eat a light breakfast within one hour of waking up before 8am, lunch before 1pm, dinner before 6pm.

  1. Do not mix cooked and uncooked food in one meal.
  2. Eat one meal of fresh fruit, preferably dinner of mono fruit in one day.
  3. Eat freshly cooked food only. No packed food or anything readymade.
  4. No wheat, rice or meat in the evening for dinner or breakfast.
  5. Eat three meals a day only. Nothing to be eaten in between meals not even one bite, it will disturb the digestion of food in stomach as digestion process takes 4 hours.
  6. Drink 100 ml water every 30 min the whole day.
  7. Don’t eat milk or any dairy products, the human digestion system is not designed to absorb other animal’s milk.
  8. Fast for one day every week, only water or fruit fast for a whole day to clean your digestive system and to detox your body.
  9. Never eat while stressed or in a hurry.
  10. Avoid coffee or tea on an empty stomach early in the morning.

Q: Thanks for your time! Do you have any last words for our readers?
As we’re living in a fast paced, modern-day society, we have started believing that health can be bought by popping pills. Many people will eat badly even when they suffer from diabetes or hypertension because they are taking medication. The medicines also carry a lot of side effects. Our mission is to spread the awareness that we can lead a completely disease-free life till the day of death without any need to pop a pill or visit a hospital by taking care of diet and lifestyle.

We wish Sumit and EGA Juice Clinic all the best and if you’d like to check them out, you can do so via their website www.egajuiceclinic.com or at one of their three outlets:

  • Marina One, 7 Central Boulevard #B2-30 Singapore 018936
  • Forum the Shopping Mall, 583 Orchard Road #B1-11 Singapore 018936
  • Cluny Court, 501 Bukit Timah Road #01-04A Singapore 259760

Photo credits: EGA Juice Clinic

 

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