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You don’t have to try too hard to eat healthy; that’s what U’ve Got Meal is here to prove

Till two years ago, Dubai resident Ajay D’Almeida was a prototype created by 
the city’s lifestyle: bad eating habits and lack of exercise. He was working for a security company that had its office in Karama; it was foodie heaven — and cheap to 
boot. “I was eating red meat everyday — a lot of it… what’s more, I was taking my colleagues, most of who were hearty, meat-eating South Africans, along with me to sample the fare...,” says Ajay, sitting at Paul Maison de Qualite on the BurJuman ground floor, sipping on a drink that looks sickeningly healthy. “This [pointing at his glass] is my new avatar… you wouldn’t believe what I’d have been imbibing earlier.”

Back then, his wife and mother had been insisting he get his cholesterol levels checked (given his fondness for the red stuff). “I was being badgered from both sides, so I finally gave in and went for a check-up.” Turned out to be a timely one: Ajay’s levels had shot up alarmingly, pegged at three times over the baseline figure. He was walking on a landmine, the doctor warned, and advised him to “start exercising — and eating healthy”.

“I realised, in a city where most baulk at the idea of even cooking at home [forget cooking healthy], there must be a lot of people out there who are eating badly just because it’s so easy to do that here...” If only it was that easy to have access to healthy yet delicious food — cooked, packed and delivered. That’s when the bigger picture emerged: of healthy eating becoming more than a personal cause. “I did some numbers crunching to figure out if it could be a sustainable business venture.”

Last year, Ajay quit his job after 
announcing to his colleagues (yes, the same ones who’d accompanied him on his cholesterol-laden food capers) that he’s decided to take a plunge into the business of good eating. One of them jokingly suggested a name for his 
company: U’ve Got Meal. “You’ve Got Mail is her favourite film; I just thought it was a fantastic name.” And in sync with the tagline — ‘It’s easy to be healthy’.

Ajay now needed a partner who’ d take care of the food part of the business 
(“My forte is marketing”). It had to be a qualified dietician/nutritionist. “Time and again, Mitun De Sarkar’s name cropped up, and I shot it down each time because she is a mini-celebrity: a dietician at Northwest Clinic and a columnist with a leading magazine. Why would 
she be interested in a start-up with 
an unknown quantity like myself?” 
Besides, Mitun was already running 
Simply Healthy — a meal delivery 
service targeted at Indians. In a sense, she was competition.

Then, one day — since his search 
was yielding no results whatsoever 
— he decided to take a chance and speak with her anyway.

Mitun — a former columnist for 
wknd. — fell for the pitch. “Ajay said my own business [Simply Healthy] had a specific target group; he, on the other hand, had a far broader base: he had 
international cuisine—East Asian and Middle-Eastern and Continental — on his mind, and wanted to cater to a more generic catchment.”

U’ve Got Meal launched last month, on April 1. Like the online resonance its ‘cinematic source’ had, registration for the programme (for customers) is Internet-based. One has to log on to the site uvegotmeal.com, fill in basic details (weight, height, age etc), that are evaluated and an ‘ideal weight’ calculated. Then, one goes for a consultation with Mitun and gets a blood test done (so as to identify any special needs — thyroid, blood sugar, cholesterol etc). Based on the findings, a five-meal-a-day diet plan — with some variety and options — is drawn out and customised. If you don’t want to lose weight, yet want to eat healthy, there’s the maintenance plan.

“In the first 15 days, 15 people signed up,” smiles Ajay, “and we haven’t yet started any marketing campaigns; everything’s happening via our Facebook page and Twitter account.”

How does the supply chain work? The chef, a former five-star one, and his team operate out of a kitchen in Satwa. Five meals are packed, labelled and put into a cooler-box, and delivered between 6 and 9 am anywhere in Dubai.

The five-meal policy that U’ve Got Meal follows comes from Mitun’s adherence to eating something every 3-4 hours: breakfast, a snack at 11am, lunch, an afternoon snack, and an early dinner. Nothing after that (see box).

It’s important you don’t follow a diet every day of the week. “One day should be kept aside for bingeing,” Mitun says. “That’s what I do: I jot down the things I want to eat through the week, and come Friday, I go crazy. Your body likes this sudden change, the shock — it’s good for you.” Which is why the monthly food plans available are for 20 days (for those who want to follow the plan only on weekdays) or 24 days (those who want eat “other kind of food” only one day in a week). (There are shorter plans for those who want to do a trial run).

Ajay points out the day is not far away, hopefully, when fun, customised, healthy eating becomes affordable. “I am aware that my prices are not very cheap [the 20-day plan costs Dh2,349], and that bothers me — healthy eating should be available to all, not just those who earn five-figure salaries. But at some point, once we get more customers, economies of scale should kick in and lower the price points.”

If you go by the adage ‘Health is wealth’, money could well be the last thing on your mind as long as you’re convinced you are what you eat.