Revant Himatsingka is a happy man. This after Cadbury's Bournvita chocolate 'health' drink has significantly reduced its added sugar content in response to concerns raised eight months ago by health influencer Revant Himatsingka. The previous formulation contained 37.4 grams of added sugar per 100 grams of powder. However, the latest packaging indicates a 14.4 percent reduction, bringing the sugar content down to 32.2 grams per 100 grams. This adjustment follows criticism from Revant Himatsingka. Oneindia's Pankaj Mishra speaks to Revant Himatsingka. Watch.
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#BournvitaRevamp #SugarContentCut #HealthierBournvita #RevantHimatsingkaImpact #NutritionAdvocate #SugarReductionWin #FoodLabelAwareness #InstaReelInfluence #HealthyChoices #TransparencyInNutrition #SugarAwareConsumers #SocialMediaImpact #BournvitaHealthUpdate #SugarContentAwareness #RevantHimatsingkaSuccess #NutritionInfluence #HealthyLivingWin #LabelReadersUnite #FoodFactsMatter #BetterFoodChoices
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NewsTranscript
00:00 They market themselves as a health drink.
00:02 There was a lot of health claims on their front package.
00:05 Strong muscles, strong bones and a lot of other things.
00:09 Immunity support and everything.
00:10 And when you turn around the back package,
00:13 a large percentage of Bonvita is just sugar.
00:16 Coke and Pepsi of course is bad,
00:18 but if you start saying that,
00:20 "Okay, this will make you sharper or taller or stronger."
00:23 And that is my issue.
00:25 Company sent me a 13-page legal notice.
00:28 It was very dense, as you can imagine,
00:32 a lot of lawyers, lawyer type words.
00:34 And it was sent by one of the biggest law firms in India.
00:38 There was a hoarding in Marine Drive
00:40 which someone put up against Bonvita.
00:41 And I still don't know who put it up.
00:43 But it just became a whole movement that everyone was like,
00:46 "How can you bully this guy who's told the truth?"
00:48 In the history of thousands of years,
00:50 we have been eating packaged food for the last 50 to 100 years.
00:54 Ultra processed food has been linked to several illnesses.
00:58 Trying to get food in the school curriculums.
01:00 How many calories should we eat?
01:03 How much protein should we eat?
01:04 How much fat should we eat?
01:05 What is saturated fat?
01:07 What is unsaturated fat?
01:08 So this should be a part of a school curriculum according to me.
01:12 Hello and welcome to this very special broadcast on One India.
01:17 We have seen several cases of late being handled in the court of law,
01:24 especially when it comes to consumer courts.
01:27 There is a process that takes a lot of time firstly.
01:31 And secondly, many a times one would say that
01:34 the light at the end of the tunnel looks rather too far.
01:39 But this time around, a man from West Bengal,
01:42 Rewandt Himatsinghka, dared and did what not many others had done before.
01:49 Challenging Cadbury, the company that makes Bonvita,
01:54 an energy drink, quote unquote, for the kids and for young adults.
01:59 And Rewandt questioned the quantity,
02:05 the percentage of sugar in that particular brand Bonvita.
02:10 Rewandt joins us there on the show from Kolkata.
02:13 Rewandt, thank you so much for speaking to us.
02:14 You are a food farmer.
02:16 We can see it on your T-shirt also.
02:18 We'll come to that and please explain also what a farmer with PH means.
02:23 But before that, tell us what happened eight months ago
02:27 and your latest post says, "Hum Jeet Gaye."
02:30 Yeah, thank you so much, first of all, for having me.
02:34 So what happened eight to nine months ago was
02:37 I made a video regarding Bonvita and how much sugar it has.
02:43 And I was really bothered that, you know,
02:45 they market themselves as a health drink.
02:48 That's what it says on Amazon and everywhere else.
02:51 And all that I focused on how healthy it is.
02:54 And, you know, there was a lot of health claims on their front package,
02:58 strong muscles, strong bones, and a lot of other things,
03:02 immunity support and everything.
03:03 And when you turn around the back package,
03:06 a large percentage of Bonvita is just sugar.
03:09 And according to me, it is not a health drink at all.
03:13 In fact, most nutritionists who also would agree
03:16 that it is not a health drink per se.
03:19 That was my main issue is that I don't mind junk food.
03:23 I have a problem with junk food marketing itself as healthy.
03:27 That is my biggest issue.
03:30 Like Coke and Pepsi, of course, is bad.
03:31 But when if you start saying that, okay,
03:34 this will make you sharper, taller or stronger,
03:37 and that is my issue.
03:38 So that's what I made a video regarding it, highlighting
03:42 what is already in that back package.
03:44 I didn't say anything new.
03:45 It was already written in there.
03:46 They themselves wrote the percentage of sugar and everything.
03:50 So I just made a video on Instagram regarding it.
03:52 The video went very, very, very viral.
03:55 So it got 12 million views on Instagram.
03:58 It got way more views on WhatsApp.
04:04 And as a result, company sent me a legal notice,
04:08 asked me to take down my video.
04:10 I was very new into it.
04:12 I took down my video.
04:14 And then a group of doctors supported my video,
04:19 saying that my video is completely scientific.
04:21 But where the government sent them a notice,
04:25 asking them to take down their package
04:28 and their misleading ads.
04:29 And then finally, just recently,
04:32 they launched a new product,
04:33 which has about 15% less added sugar.
04:36 Less added sugar.
04:38 Okay, it's a victory of monumental proportion, I would say.
04:44 How did you arrive?
04:46 I mean, you arrive and you say that
04:47 what the company was saying,
04:50 you found it not to be that case.
04:53 But did you consult any doctors or any food specialists
04:57 or maybe some labs to test the sugar content?
05:01 Or is it just the packaging that you saw?
05:04 Yeah, I didn't consult any doctor or lab report or anything
05:10 because I was not saying anything
05:12 which was like, you know, out of the ordinary.
05:15 I was whatever I was saying already
05:17 what is in their package.
05:19 And that is the best part.
05:20 It is like, you know, many people know me as the Bonvita guy,
05:23 but I've made many, many other videos
05:26 against many other companies as well.
05:28 And the reason why companies have a very hard time challenging me
05:34 is because whatever I say is already in their package.
05:37 So they cannot say that what I'm saying is wrong.
05:41 So you understood, you understood, Revan,
05:44 that the percentage of sugar that was written
05:47 on the back of that packet is unhealthy.
05:50 Because most of us don't.
05:53 Exactly.
05:54 And that is not only with Bonvita,
05:56 but with many, many other products as well
05:58 that they market themselves as healthy biscuits.
06:02 But if you look at it,
06:04 turn around the back of the packet,
06:05 it just has sugar, maida, palm oil.
06:09 And market themselves as healthy.
06:11 And the same thing which happens with this as well with Bonvita.
06:14 And that was my biggest challenge.
06:16 And if you look at it worldwide,
06:18 Bonvita, from my knowledge,
06:21 is sold mainly in only two countries, India and Nigeria.
06:25 And both these countries are, of course,
06:28 not the most economically well-off countries
06:31 on a per capita basis.
06:33 So they understand their target market
06:35 that they can go to this country
06:37 and market themselves as healthy.
06:39 And people will buy it
06:40 because of lack of options or whatever else.
06:43 It also reflects on the food consumption habits
06:49 and also whether we check the labeling or not.
06:53 You're right.
06:54 Nigeria, I have spent quite some time
06:58 in the vicinity of Nigeria, though.
06:59 But yes, in the western part of the world,
07:04 they go by the kind of kilocalories
07:08 are mentioned on the food labels
07:09 and obviously needless to say, the expiry dates and all.
07:12 All right, Rivand, when you took on,
07:16 when you made that advertisement,
07:19 that video that you made,
07:22 definitely it created a lot of uproar.
07:26 And that's why you were contacted by the company
07:29 to take down the ad.
07:31 The legal proceedings,
07:32 did they make you to take down the ad?
07:36 Was that the case?
07:37 So legally, I'll tell you what happened was
07:42 that it was not way too much
07:43 which happened legally from with me.
07:46 All that happened was company sent me
07:49 13 page legal notice.
07:51 It was very dense, like, you know,
07:53 as you can imagine, like, you know,
07:55 a lot of lawyers, lawyer type words.
07:57 And it was sent by one of the biggest law firms in India.
08:01 And every single line I said in the video,
08:06 they analyzed that and they wrote a paragraph
08:08 that this is not true, this is not correct.
08:11 You use this thumbnail, but this thumbnail says this.
08:14 So every single word I said was overanalyzed
08:17 and all sort of twisted or something along those lines.
08:20 And at the end of the notice,
08:23 they told me that you have 24 hours to delete the video.
08:27 Or else we will like, you know, take it ahead legally
08:31 or we'll, you know, do something more.
08:32 So I had honestly seen that email 12 hours
08:37 after the legal notice.
08:39 After this, I got that email.
08:40 - So you had 12 hours.
08:41 - So I had 12 hours to respond and it was night already.
08:44 So I was like, you know, I'm going to sleep also.
08:45 So I have like very, very few hours to respond.
08:48 And of course, I don't have a legal background or anything.
08:50 So I just wrote an apology letter, you know,
08:52 based on what they said.
08:53 I just wrote an apology letter saying that, okay,
08:57 I'm going to delete the video and all of that.
08:59 And I did what they asked me to do.
09:01 But then it got even more attention.
09:03 And all media started capturing it
09:06 even more than what they did before.
09:07 And it became like a whole movement.
09:10 And there was a hoarding in Marine Drive
09:13 with someone put up against Bonvita.
09:15 And I still don't know who put it up.
09:17 But it just became a whole movement that, you know,
09:19 everyone was like, how can you bully this guy
09:21 who spoke the truth?
09:22 - Okay.
09:23 This is strange.
09:25 I mean, being caught, you know,
09:29 labeling a food something else is a different thing.
09:32 And then issuing action, you know,
09:37 against someone who has quote unquote exposed them.
09:41 Now that the cat is out of the bag, Raymond,
09:43 they have made amends.
09:46 They have changed it.
09:46 Obviously, I understand they won't admit it,
09:50 that it was the video.
09:51 But I mean, you have all the reasons, you know,
09:55 to claim it, to be the one, the whistleblower
09:58 who actually got this done, who called it off.
10:01 Do you plan to talk to cabarets of Bonvita now,
10:04 maybe telling them that could they shed some light
10:09 on this change?
10:09 (laughs)
10:11 - I mean, I don't have any personal connections with them.
10:17 They can do what they want to do.
10:18 I appreciate and I celebrate the change that they've made.
10:21 I still do not consider it to be a health drink.
10:25 But because still has 32 grams of added sugar,
10:30 so 400 grams, which is almost one third of the bag is
10:33 still added.
10:34 So I still would not call it a health drink.
10:37 So, but yeah, I would still appreciate it
10:40 because I know for a large company,
10:43 there's a lot of bureaucrats,
10:44 like there's a lot of, it's difficult to change something.
10:47 I used to work at a large company before as well.
10:48 So the fact that they have been able to change it
10:52 even by a little bit shows that their intentions
10:54 are not as bad and they're trying to make a difference.
10:56 - Right.
10:57 - So I do...
10:58 - And eight months.
10:58 - Yeah, and it's not easy because there's a whole
11:01 supply chain in the back.
11:03 - Absolutely, absolutely.
11:04 - It's not that easy.
11:05 So I do appreciate the change is the point.
11:08 - All right.
11:09 No doubt, I mean, eight months,
11:11 I would say by any yardstick is not such a long time
11:15 to bring such a huge FMCG or a brand to actually admit
11:22 and maybe make amends.
11:23 That's one good thing.
11:24 Tell us something about yourself, Arivand.
11:27 I see food farmer with a PH.
11:30 Tell us something about it.
11:31 - Yeah, so the name food farmer is actually,
11:36 the word farmer is a pun.
11:37 So it stands for farmer as in the Kisan
11:41 and PH is like the pharmacy, farmer.
11:44 - Pharmaceutical.
11:45 - So the idea is that food is medicine
11:48 and if we start eating foods made by the farmers,
11:53 we can use our dependency on pharma.
11:56 So that is the entire thing.
11:59 So I always believe that,
12:01 you know, in (speaking in foreign language)
12:06 And packaged food has been linked,
12:20 like in ultra processed food has been linked
12:22 to several illnesses.
12:23 So I keep saying eat food made by farmers
12:27 and then you use a dependency on pharma.
12:31 That's how I came up with the name.
12:32 And yeah, so I mainly just make videos currently
12:36 on raising awareness about food products
12:40 that we consume on a daily basis,
12:42 whether it's a ketchup or a biscuit
12:46 or any of these food products that we most like,
12:48 every single human consumes.
12:50 And I try to consume slightly healthier foods.
12:54 And that's basically a quick background.
12:57 But earlier I was doing a lot of other things.
12:59 I was at McKinsey, I was a consultant,
13:01 I was an MBA, I was at Warner in the US.
13:04 So I was, for the last 13 years, I was in the US
13:07 and I just moved back to India.
13:09 I moved back to try to raise awareness
13:11 and it's kind of magical that my first video
13:14 was Bonvita and that itself blew up.
13:16 - It helps us understand.
13:18 I mean, you have an illustrious background,
13:21 let me tell you.
13:21 I mean, having worked in the United States,
13:25 obviously you have seen the kind of living standards,
13:28 the quality of life that all of us deserve here in India.
13:33 And it is very much achievable also,
13:35 not that in any way India is inferior,
13:37 but the foul play that comes into picture,
13:41 what actually made you to check
13:46 the veracity of the food items?
13:47 So it could have been anything,
13:49 started with Bonvita, just a chance, I would say.
13:53 But is that your background also in food?
13:57 Something, if I may ask, that what profession were you in
14:01 while you were there?
14:02 - While I was there, I was a consultant.
14:04 So not directly doing what I'm doing right now.
14:07 So I used to advise companies on various other things,
14:10 but seven to eight years ago, I studied nutrition.
14:13 So I did a degree in, like a health coach degree.
14:15 So seven, eight years ago is when like, you know,
14:19 I started reading labels for the first time.
14:22 And I always, always, always say this,
14:24 learning how to read a food label
14:27 is an even more important skill
14:30 than coding in the 21st century.
14:32 Like, you know, 21st century, everyone says,
14:34 you know, coding is the most important.
14:36 - Of course, of course.
14:37 We are teaching this to kids also.
14:39 - And coding, it takes two to three years.
14:43 (speaking in foreign language)
14:46 So I always say this is an even more important skill
14:56 than coding.
14:57 And that's when I realized,
15:00 because most of what we are consuming today
15:02 is ultra processed foods, packaged foods.
15:04 So if I teach people how to read a label,
15:08 I can, you know, teach them one of the most important skills
15:10 in their life.
15:11 So coming back to your question,
15:13 seven, eight years ago, I learned all of this.
15:16 I even wrote a book back then,
15:19 maybe having it somewhere near me.
15:21 It's called Selfie-nomics.
15:23 - What is that?
15:26 Selfie-nomics?
15:28 - Huh?
15:29 - That's a selfie-nomics.
15:31 (laughing)
15:32 - It is a self-help comedy book,
15:36 but it had a chapter on nutrition.
15:37 So I had a whole chapter on food labels,
15:40 how to read food labels and all of that.
15:43 And since then itself, I've been preaching
15:45 and I've been asking people,
15:46 (speaking in foreign language)
15:50 Finally, (speaking in foreign language)
15:58 I used to advise a lot of companies
16:00 and many of them were even food companies.
16:02 And this was mainly in the US,
16:04 but I realized that, you know,
16:06 this false marketing and all is even higher in India.
16:10 And I wanted to do something about it.
16:11 So I made a very, very drastic call
16:15 that, okay, I'm gonna leave the US,
16:16 come back and I'm gonna focus on this,
16:18 focus on raising awareness about this.
16:22 So that's what I did.
16:24 I came back to India, made this account.
16:26 I changed (speaking in foreign language)
16:28 Instagram (speaking in foreign language)
16:31 I changed that, I made it food farmer.
16:33 (speaking in foreign language)
16:35 First video, (speaking in foreign language)
16:37 and that's how it happened.
16:37 - What are your social media addresses
16:41 where our viewers can reach you,
16:42 Twitter and Instagram if possible?
16:44 - Yeah, so Instagram is food farmer.
16:47 Twitter is food farmer too.
16:51 And the reason is because I earlier had food farmer
16:55 and then my account got hacked.
16:57 And coincidentally, it got hacked
17:01 the same day I received the legal notice from OneVita.
17:04 I even posted about this
17:06 and not trying to make any claims
17:07 that why it happened, who did it.
17:09 I'm not trying to say--
17:10 - We need to our viewers imagination.
17:12 - Yeah, but that's why I had to make a new account
17:15 with food farmer too
17:16 because my earlier account got hacked.
17:18 So that's how it's been.
17:21 And yeah, now I'm finally,
17:24 and like even on YouTube,
17:27 you can just find me on food farmer.
17:29 - Lovely, we will definitely hear from you more.
17:34 And we have seen the story that One India has filed
17:39 on the recent conquest, I would rather say,
17:43 that you have made in your efforts.
17:45 All the very best for that.
17:46 One quick comment from your side,
17:50 since you come from a developed nation
17:54 and you have spent a substantial amount of time there,
17:57 barring food habits and the promotion of food
18:01 and the labeling of it,
18:02 is there anything else that India can work on
18:04 towards the betterment?
18:07 Say for me, if you asked me, I would say traffic.
18:09 What did you find when you immediately came back
18:12 that India had something that could have been fixed?
18:15 - So regarding the food issue itself,
18:19 besides the labeling, there's one more is,
18:22 which I'm also trying to work
18:23 with some other health expert
18:25 is trying to get food in the school curriculums.
18:29 So, if you catch the smartest kid in India,
18:33 the kid from IIT, the kid from IIM,
18:36 ask him, how many grams,
18:39 like how many calories are there in one gram of fat?
18:41 Or like, you know, basic nutrition questions
18:44 and they will not be able to answer it.
18:46 - No, no, because we are never told in the family
18:50 and we are never encouraged.
18:51 And no, I'm not even telling my kids, to be very honest.
18:53 - Yes, so no one has been taught in school.
18:56 So I have this belief that in school,
18:59 we should learn a lot about food,
19:03 like how to read labels.
19:05 Not just labels, but how many calories we should eat,
19:08 how much protein we should eat,
19:10 how much fat we should eat,
19:11 what is saturated fat, what is unsaturated fat.
19:13 So this should be a part of a school curriculum,
19:17 according to me.
19:18 So that is one separate thing from labeling.
19:20 Outside of that, of course,
19:22 there are many, many other things like,
19:25 like just trying to help people to think critically.
19:29 Like, you know, a lot of us believe
19:31 any and every WhatsApp forward we get.
19:33 And often it is because we do not think critically.
19:37 So, you know, these kinds of skills,
19:39 if it is tried to be inculcated in a very,
19:42 like a kid, that can be very useful.
19:46 And basically getting people to ask why,
19:49 like, you know, why, like, why is this happening?
19:52 Like, make people curious,
19:55 like not blindly believe their parents
19:57 and society around them.
19:59 I feel if that skill comes into people,
20:01 it will be very, very, like, it will have a lot of impact.
20:06 All right, Reevant, I know this question
20:10 was a little bit off our discussion routine,
20:13 but I wanted to know from you,
20:15 because you are obviously, you know,
20:17 of that age where the consumption,
20:21 be it news, be it any information,
20:23 is highest on social media.
20:25 And if you ask, you know, someone else
20:29 of an older age group who talks about
20:31 and changed India, then the examples get different.
20:34 But that was the reason why I wanted to know from you
20:36 that how does youth, the youth of India think
20:40 and wants changes to be assimilated
20:43 in the Indian polity and in the Indian social life.
20:45 Thank you so much, Reevant,
20:47 for speaking to us from Kolkata.
20:49 Ladies and gentlemen, Reevant Himmat Singh.
20:51 (speaking in foreign language)
20:55 (speaking in foreign language)
20:59 (speaking in foreign language)
21:04 (speaking in foreign language)
21:07 (speaking in foreign language)
21:16 He got a legal notice from Bonvita Cadbury
21:20 (speaking in foreign language)
21:25 (speaking in foreign language)
21:29 So this is a vindication for Reevant
21:36 (speaking in foreign language)
21:41 Food Farmer is the place on Instagram
21:44 where you will find it.
21:45 And on Twitter @foodfarmer2 is where Reevant can be accessed.
21:50 Thank you so much for speaking to us, Reevant.
21:52 Thank you so much for having me again.
21:54 Thank you.