Bournvita's Added Sugars Comes Down After Influencer's Video Goes Viral (Image: X.com/foodpharmer2)In April, this year, Revant Himatsingka, who is an influencer, had reviewed the content of sugar in Cadbury’s Bournvita, on his X handle called ‘Food Pharmer.’ The review became viral, with the company charging back at Revant with a legal notice. There were more hurls at Revant, the Food Pharmer. They called his video unscientific.
Matters were to take a turn soon. A team which consisted of eight doctors and nutritionist, said in a signed document that Revant’s video was scientifically based. Following this, the Government sent a legal notice to Bournvita, demanding a recall of the advertisements which were misleading the public.
After eight months, Bournvita has brought in a change by reducing the added sugar in the product by 15 percent. Calling this as just the beginning of India’s food revolution and adding that, this the power of the people and the power of truth, Revant writes on his X handle post that, “this is probably the FIRST time in HISTORY that a social media video has led to a food giant reducing their sugar content! If one video can result in a 15% reduction in added sugar, imagine what we can achieve if all of us start reading food labels before we buy anything!”
For Revant Himatsingka, a Wharton MBA, who makes use of humour and facts to help the public choose food which is healthy, it was not a fight against any company, but against the companies which sold food which was junk, in the cover of food which was healthy. The company had said that the drink contained 7.5 grams of added sugars, which they pointed was less than the daily intake of sugar which was recommended for children.
The Bournvita’s tagline calls the drink “Tayyari Jeet Ki” but Revant called it “Tayyari Diabetes Ki,” as he pointed out that the drink could not be seen as healthy with the amount of sugar it had. Earlier, the old pack of Bournvita had 37.4 gms of added sugars per 100 gms but the new, improved pack has 32.3 gms of added sugars per 100 gms. Revant said that, this “fight is to get 140 crore Indians eating healthier! 1 company changing its sugar content, will result in a chain reaction, and every company will be slightly more careful now.”
His move in bringing in healthy food back has been supported by people from many sections, and shared by cricketers and actors too, his video in Twitter, the current X platform and instagram says. In his video, he reiterated that his fight was never against Bournvita but on the companies that marketed food in the name of healthy labels. In the late 1920’s Cadbury’s Bournvita was made in England, and in 1948, the product was introduced into India. Bournvita has been marketed as a health drink.
The video available on his X handle has many replies, which are encouraging and some in the nature of pointers. This is not the first fight that Revant has got into, earlier, he had raised his voice against other products – Real Juice and Chwayanprash too, in his quest to raise awareness about reading food labels. Recently, Forbes India has done a feature on him.