Making protein sexy again

In the famous Hindi one-act play Ande Ke Chhilke, members of a strictly vegetarian joint family flirt with eating eggs in the privacy of their bedrooms, each person believing that their secret is safe and no one is aware of their taboo behaviour till, one day, the daughter-in-law of the family finally breaks the silence and brings the secret out into the open. From mock meat to ‘plant-based’ everything Nomenclature matters, says Siddharth Ramasubramanian, founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based Vegolution, one of the latest entrants into the plant-based alternative protein market. Soy nuggets, which fall under the category of “texturised vegetable protein”, were supposed to change how Indians eat and—here’s a bit of déjà vu—fill India’s protein gap, says Suresh Itapu, head of food consulting service Nutri-Tech Solutions and an adviser with the Right To Protein campaign. How do you plan to convince people to try an alternative protein product without any advertising and promotion?” asks Itapu, who has been working in India’s soy foods industry for over 20 years. Once that happens, with today’s superior technology, we will see more people taking to these products,” says the soy evangelist, describing the ways in which soy can be used to make vegetarian-friendly products like dal, which “looks and cooks like regular dal” but has higher protein content, and low glycemic index and high-protein rice substitutes—the so-called “diabetic rice”.