City-based diet coach Aniruddha Shankar’s appointment diary for this calendar year is chock-a-block. In fact, this has been the drift for him for the past one year. “The trend to follow diets rose dramatically last year. With both online and offline dining platforms helping by adding quality diet food to their menus in recent times, it’s just easier for professionals to follow a diet we prescribe,” notes Shankar.
Trendy diet plans like Paleo and Keto and practices like veganism and gluten-free eating have sparked off a new interest in city’s routine restaurants and online food platforms. They are dedicating sections of their menus to focussed diet food and handcrafted salads.
Café Thulp, known for its meaty burgers, launched a keto menu with burger buns made with cauliflower bread and cauliflower-base pizzas. This was added after owner Gautam Krishnakutty found success and swore by the diet himself. He will soon add a keto menu to his other eatery The Smoke Co too. Sly Granny, Toast & Tonic and Smoke House Deli are catering to this new genre of diners as well.
Online platforms are leaving no stone unturned. Increasing number of enquiries prompted them to launch diet menus. Freshmenu started experimenting with millets early last year. In September 2017, it introduced a keto menu with dishes like keto herb-crusted chicken. “About 25% of our sales come from low-carb, high-protein meals. Those in the 20-35 age group are the takers. We get maximum orders from Indiranagar and Koramangala,” says founder Rashmi Daga.
After offering a vegan section, cloud-kitchen model Chefkraft added a keto menu four months ago in a convenient subscription meal format. “Idea is that if you are a professional who does not have the time to cook or not fond of entering the kitchen, we will remove the friction. Most takers are in the 26-40 age group who are globally-aware and have made a lifestyle decision. We get most orders from Indiranagar, Whitefield and JP Nagar,” says cofounder Mohit Mittal. Next, he is planning to introduce a healthy snack menu to cover the 4-pm hunger pangs for dieters.
Even a watering hole like Social is offering healthy beverages like beetroot kanji and probiotic tea called kombucha. It’s a given that when a person puts in effort to lose weight and get healthy, he or she will not compromise on dinner outings.
Like Melanie Fernandes who lost 30 kg by religiously following a diet. The marketing head for apparel brand Gap finds that chefs are always willing to make a meal according to her dietary requirements. Now, that there are restaurants dedicating sections of their menu to diet food, she is delighted.
Fernandes adds, “Hope eateries are not hopping onto the bandwagon just to make a statement. They should put in effort to ensure that every dietary detail is met with meticulously.”