An Appetite for Health

The 'food pharmer' has taken on some of the biggest names in the FMCG sector. His mission: to get consumers to read product labels

- Ankita Mookherjee

The story of the 2004 Bollywood film Swades goes that Mohan Bhargava, an Indian expat and a scientist in the United States, travels to his country to find the woman who raised him following the death of his parents. As Bhargava journeys into the rural heart of India, he rediscovers his homeland, a process that leads to the realisation that India is where he can do his life’s best work.

Much like the protagonist in Swades, it was India where Revant Himatsingka—the food pharmer on social media—found his cause. Himatsingka, who lived in the US for nearly 13 years, worked a high-paying job as a consultant before returning to India to take up his crusade against food labels that mislead consumers.

Since 2023, life has changed in myriad ways for the alumnus of New York University and Wharton Business School. “It was tough making this choice”, he says. But there has been no looking back.

What We Eat

In 2015, Himatsingka was certified as a health coach, hoping it would help him manage his health. Dependence on packaged food was high during Himatsingka’s years in the US but there was a discrepancy between what labels claimed and the contents of packages.

Much of what he bought depended on store displays, the colour of the packaging, advertisements and the names of products. But did it mean people understood what they were eating? The answer was no.