Thiruvananthapuram makes good food choice with healthy eats

Discover how foodpreneurs in Thiruvananthapuram are revolutionizing healthy eating with oil-free, sugar-free options from salads to sweets.

For 25-year-old Vrinda Vinod, who lost her grandfather to high blood pressure, an affinity towards healthy food started at a young age with her mother bringing in a healthy twist while packing her lunch boxes to school. Following her graduation from a law school in Bengaluru , Vrinda returned to the city and converted their rented space at Pattom to a cloud kitchen, The Salad Bistro, in November 2023, serving salads, smoothies and sweets, that were mindfully crafted.

Vrinda belongs to the list of foodpreneurs who have decided to venture into the business of “healthy food” in the State capital in recent years. Outlets such as Whealthier, Salad Caffe, Boiled, and Steamed are among those who are serving healthy but not boring food, ranging from salads to oil-free and sugar-free protein platters.

“Healthy food is the future. Illnesses that used to appear in 60-year-olds are starting for those in their 30s nowadays. The current generation have begun going to the gym not just for bodybuilding, but also for their general health,” says Sreenath Raveendran, one of the three founders of Boiled at Jawahar Nagar.

Also read: How to eat healthy and prevent lifestyle diseases

Boiled follows a strict “no oil, no sugar” policy, with their best-selling items being ghee chicken, honey chilli lemon chicken, coconut milk poached chicken and boiled special chicken salad. “We use only honey in our dishes,” says Sreenath.

“Evidence suggests that high-sugar diets can lead to obesity and inflammation as well as high triglycerides, blood sugar, and blood pressure levels — all of which are risk factors for heart disease,” says Dr Leena Saju, nutritionist at KIMSHEALTH Hospital.

Another outlet which follows the same policy is Steamed at Kuravankonam. Founded by young entrepreneurs A Pranoy Jose and Gauri Nandan VR, Steamed started as a cloud kitchen. Currently, the restaurant serves a variety of platters, shakes, wraps, momos and even mandis, which do not use oil. They also had a sweet box for Deepavali in 2024 with protein bars made without any sugar. Gauri Nandan says, “We keep in mind the quantity of nutrients, proteins, carbs and other components necessary for a person. Our focus is on the quantity of nutrients.”