This should fit into your scheme of things

There’s a common thread that connects Aamir Khan’s recent weight gain for his latest film, Shikhar Dhawan and Harbhajan Singh’s fitness, wrestler Sushil Kumar’s physique and squash player Akansha Salunke’s game-readiness. And it goes by the name of Ryan Fernando.
As the New Year gets ever closer, this Bengaluru-based Goan is on a mission to help his star-studded clientele stick to their resolutions, from losing their love handles to bulking up.
“Eat some more, you’re looking like a kondo (bamboo).” A standard line at almost every Goan dining table and a reaffirmation of Fernando’s belief that nutrition is tainted with love as it is reciprocated in the form of food. “We eat what our mothers and grandmothers cook. Which is why you end up eating more than required,” says Fernando.
“My grandmother would take a ferry from Chorao to get to the Panaji market and walk about five kilometers. My mother, who lived in Fontainhas, would walk a maximum of 1 km to get her chores done. And I call my grocer and get my vegetables delivered at my doorstep. Our palates have remained the same as our ancestors, but our lifestyles in terms of ease have changed. This leads to expanding waistlines,” shares the commonwealth scholar in food biotechnology.
Going undercover as a cancer patient and weight gain client to the best nutritionists in the country, Fernando realized the need for culture-specific diets. “People wanted to know how to eat their xit ani coddi,” he says.
Encouraged by his successful wife and former classmate Devika, Fernando quit his job at a nutraceutical company to start a nutrition clinic called Qua (Latin for in capacity of). “The brand has expanded to eight clinics, including two in Goa, has 50 dieticians and a turnover of 3 crore per annum. I realized that a brand can influence a lot more people,” says the alumnus of Goa Medical College, IIM-Ahmedabad and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.
Besides its diet plans, Qua is the first clinic that offers nutrigenetic testing, which helps customize diets based on an individual’s nutritional needs. Through word of mouth, his expertise was soon sought by the who’s who in sports and ‘celebritydom’ as well as the average Joe, who wants to shed or gain some kilos. Fernando even has Guinness record holder Dinaz Vervatwala as a feather in his cap, as he helped her “achieve peak fitness levels to perform 26 hours of non-stop aerobics.”
For the sinful food-loving Goan, Fernando has some good news and a few bitter truths. All you need to do is re-portion your meals and get their timings right, advises Fernando. “The Goan diet has its pros and cons. It contains a lot of fish which has protein, omega-3 fatty acids and cardio-protecting factors. It has a lot of turmeric which has anti-aging factors. Also, the produce in Goa is relatively fresh. The cons? Goan diet is high on saturated fats and this should be compensated with fruits and vegetables.
But while people shoot down coconut oil I think it is wrongly accused of being the culprit.”
And although red meat is “freely consumed and not yet banned in Goa”, Fernando highlights the need to lower the intake as it is rich in fats. Talking rice, he says, brown is beautiful. “The real culprit is the consumption of white rice and bread. It’s ironic that brown rice was something our ancestors used to eat and now we as nutritionists need to promote it.”
Qua has a plan for every stage of your life. If you want to shed some puppy fat before you tie the knot, base your weight loss plan on the time taken to put on the weight, Fernando says. For couples wanting to start a family, he promotes “planned pregnancies” where parents prep their bodies to obtain the best possible sperm and eggs. “They can do this by avoiding alcohol and junk food and not smoking.”
His pet project right now though is his toddler Icahn. Ditching formula for customized meals for his nutrigenetically tested son, Fernando takes pride in his brown rice milk among other concoctions. “I allow my son to eat junk food occasionally, as restricting someone has a reverse effect. I was shocked when I asked the pediatrician for a list of foods to feed my child and I was given a list that had artichokes on it and measures in pounds instead of kilos. Who eats artichokes in India?” he shares.
The lack of an Indianized nutrition plan led him to get his certification as a pediatric nutritionist. He bagged the ‘Best Practicing Nutritionist Award’ at the ATP sports and fitness convention.
With a clinic in Caranzalem and a space in Chowgule college in Margao, Fernando is now on a mission to rope in Goan nutritionists, train them and have them take over the Goa branch.