Sunmeet suffered from chronic fatigue & was diagnosed with thyroid. She didn’t want to go the medicine route because she had closely seen a family member suffer from thyroid & related issues. A good advice from her doctor encouraged her to drop medicines & focus on change of lifestyle instead. She learnt about the connection between food & health from SHARAN (Sanctuary for Health & Reconnection to Animals and Nature). And from Victoria Boutenko, she learnt about the impact home & personal care products can have on our health. She now lives a life full of energy & illness-free, medicine-free. Here is her story.

Sunmeet Taluja Marwaha
42 years, Head – Sales, dnata (Emirates group); Co-founder - Natuur
Gurgaon

Always feeling tired

It started around 8 years ago, after my second child’s birth in 2010. I started to feel chronically fatigued. Despite taking a healthy diet, dairy products every morning & evening and health supplements, I always used to feel short of energy. I felt like lying down & sleeping even during mornings. I was snappy when I came back home from work and I never had the energy to play with my young son, who was only 2 years then. It started bothering me in a way that if my diet is good then why am I always tired?

Discovering my thyroid issue

I was working with a premier hospital in Gurgaon. During an annual employee health check-up, I wanted to explore more about my condition. I was disappointed to learn that I had thyroid and related chronic fatigue problem. I was put on medication. I have a sister who had been on thyroid medicines for last two decades; i knew the other linked issues that she went through. Hence, me being diagnosed with thyroid was like a big alarm!

I went for a second opinion since I didn’t want to take medications. The doctor told me that I didn’t need thyroid medicines; i needed a change in my lifestyle instead. He asked me to discontinue the medicines i was taking. So I decided to follow his advice as somewhere deep inside, I had this fear that once I start with medicines, I would become a patient for life, like my sister, with associated complications. I threw all my thyroid medicines. I decided to learn more about diet and lifestyle. There was obviously something I was not doing right!!

Learning about the connection between food & health

In 2011, i came to know about a health workshop being conducted in Gurgaon by Dr. Nandita Shah of SHARAN (Sanctuary for Health & Reconnection to Animals and Nature). I attended the workshop & subsequently I also took dietary consultation for 12 weeks from Nandini Gulati, one of Dr Nandita’s associates. In those four months, I learnt more about food and understood where I was going wrong. I learnt that eating whole, plant based, raw foods was the key to good health. I realised there are so many food practices we blindly follow as they come from our mother and grandmother, but some of them are flawed.

Attending the SHARAN workshop was a turning point in my life. Subsequently i attended more of their workshops & learnt a lot.

Changes in food led to immediate impact

Under SHARAN’s guidance, I began making changes in my food gradually. The first change i did was that I completely eliminated dairy from my diet. I was very fond of milk products since I was a kid, but I left it overnight because I was desperate to find a solution and not get addicted to medicines and supplements. Within a month of leaving dairy products, the problem of chronic fatigue, went away. I was off my supplements; I didn’t have to take a multivitamin because I started to feel energetic again.

The other key change I did was introduction of more raw food in the form of fruits & vegetables. I took slow & steady steps and today, my breakfast and dinner is usually mostly raw. The only time I eat cooked food is lunch. So overall in my food intake, 50-70% is raw and the rest is cooked, this has really helped me stay in good health.

Now I am off wheat too. I consume besan chilla or red rice instead, if I have to. With these changes, i feel absolutely fit & fine, I go for my exercises daily, i feel energetic & happy, i don’t need any medicines.

Age is not an excuse for health

After I experienced the benefits of whole, plant based, raw foods, I started telling my family & friends about it. I wanted to spread the message.

Our parents, old aged, often don’t pay much heed to what we advise them, especially if it needs them to make changes. So, they would not listen to me. But luckily, their doctor believed in the same principles of food that i was following. My parents are 70 years old now and used to regularly take cholesterol, BP and diabetes medications till few years back. They made similar lifestyle changes towards natural living, and now they are on zero medication!!

It is commonly believed that as you age, health issues will creep in. But seeing my parents, i can say that age is just an excuse!!

Personal & home care products affect health

SHARAN’s workshop was just the starting point of my wellness journey. After that, I attended many such workshops and read a lot of books. I am also in touch with many health enthusiasts who I met along the way. Few years ago, I read a food book called Green for Life, written by Victoria Boutenko. I was so fascinated with it that I wanted to meet her in person, so I registered myself and went for her workshop in Sweden in 2013. I had gone to learn more about food, but what I learnt there was life transforming.

I learnt that apart from food, there could be other reasons for health issues - such as the products and chemicals we use or apply on our body. Victoria told us that when you visit a doctor or dietician, they ask you what you eat during the day. They never ask you which mascara you use, which cream, soap, room freshener or deodorant you use. However, this is important as chemicals used in these products can lead to various health issues. Most of them are carcinogenic, they cause cancer. For eg: Breast cancer can be linked to deodorant used in the underarm area; fluoride, commonly used in toothpastes, causes dementia; sugar and dairy feed cancer cells, etc.

She said everything we use on our body should be edible. The mantra should be – from kitchen to bathroom. This was an “aha” moment for me as I didn’t know all this, i never considered these things important. Her workshop helped me learn how to make personal care items out of kitchen ingredients, free from harmful chemicals.

Once back from the workshop, I started using natural edible ingredients to make personal care products for myself. Then I started making bigger batches and began sending my products to my parents, siblings & subsequently to friends. From there on it kept expanding and this is how I started my company, Natuur. Now we are on Amazon as well.

Living life holistically

My health journey began with changes in food & overcoming chronic fatigue & thyroid, becoming medicine-free. But as i went ahead i learnt about the non-food element of health, i.e. the products we use at home or apply on our body. I feel there is an emotional aspect to health which is equally important. Getting emotional support from my husband and family helped me throughout my health journey.

Hence, health needs a holistic approach. Focussing on one part & losing sight of the other, is a fragmented approach that is likely to yield no results. I also believe that the more we give and share, the more we get & therefore i love to share my story & learnings with everyone. Hope you found it helpful!!

(About Sunmeet Taluja Marwaha: Sunmeet works as Head of Sales at dnata of the Emirates group. She also supports her husband in their natural personal care products venture – Natuur. In her free time, she loves watching films, reading books, travelling & spending quality time with her family.)