One afternoon, Vineeta Grover, an advertising copywriter in Delhi, decided to take a break from her home-cooked food she brought to work. She logged in to an online food delivery portal and ordered a salad for lunch. “The food was tasty, filling, fresh and healthy,” she says. The salad was from 6Meal. Vineeta liked it so much that she decided to buy 6Meal’s monthly food subscription of five meals per day for a month for `16,000.
Sonal Arora and her sister Priyanka Chopra started 6Meal in October last year in Delhi/NCR to plug the gap between nutritionists, wellness doctors and the common man, and address the issues of metabolic and lifestyle diseases. “To make the kind of food that nutritionists recommend without giving up on taste is quite a task. All that fancy flaxseed, chia, couscous, parsley, extra virgin, soba noodles, grilled, broiled, poached and baked mumbo jumbo sound delicious, but when one actually starts to do it from scratch, it can fob off anyone who hardly visits the kitchen. But eat healthy you must. This tantalising trend can be tempting for the tastebuds if concocted and presented well. That’s where we step in. 6Meal is about scrumptious healthy food at your doorstep, sans the hassle of preparing it yourself,” explains 34-year-old Sonal, a former media professional.
Dishes are prepared according to the meal plan made by 40-year-old Priyanka, who has an art background, and vetoed by nutritionist Alka Lohia. The menu ranges from Kashmiri, Punjabi, Thai, Mediterranean to South Indian. Health and nutrition are paramount, hence each portion is just enough for a single person. “Overeating is not encouraged. That would beat the purpose of 6Meal,” says Sonal.
On the menu are soba noodles, brown rice and couscous instead of unhealthy carbs. “Lean chicken substitutes red meat. The fish we serve is high on Omega 3 fat and our paneer is fat-free. If anyone is lactose-intolerant, we recommend curd. So there are dishes such as Peri Peri chicken with Pearl parley, egg white and dill sandwich, Bircher muesli oats with fresh fruits, kamal kakhdi yakhni, whole wheat penne pasta with veggies in cauliflower bechamal and a lot more. The oil content in north Indian preparations is monitored,” says Sonal.
The meals are delivered before 8.30 am in a bag, insulated with dry ice so that they stay fresh. A day’s meals are for `850.
Before launching 6Meal, Sonal and Priyanka poured over studies on how to serve food that would benefit those with medical conditions and ailments. They started serving food to combat diabetics as they knew that insulin was only one of the factors that kept the sugar in control. “Soon people with other health disorders asked us to plan their menus, but insisted we make the food appealing. Now we tackle health issues through our food, which enables holistic living,” says Priyanka.