All good things are said to be either unhealthy or illegal. Well, pick up one of the many baked treats and cookies that Dr. Neelima of Vizag has to offer through her home-based enterprise Twin delite, and you can strike out ‘unhealthy’ from the list.
Unusual foray
A dental surgeon by profession, Dr. Neelima’s foray into baking was quite unusual. A course in clinical nutrition during her pregnancy and the birth of premature twins firmed her resolve. Dr. Neelima became extra-cautious about everything, including diet. Food was completely cooked at home, and when her kids started school, she ensured that their tiffin box had home-cooked healthy snacks as well. When other pre-schoolers started to like the snacks her kids would take, she started supplying snacks for that group of 15-20 kids as well. Doing this for two years, she is now taking her venture further under the banner of ‘Twin Delite’.
The unhealthy culprits
“Store-bought biscuits use low grade ingredients and refined flours like maida, which isn’t good for health. To ensure longer shelf life, they use fats like dalda which isn’t healthy too.” The third culprit, she tells us, is sugar, which is present in high quantities. Then there’s also a prevalent usage of preservatives and artificial colouring.
The healthy alternatives
Dr. Neelima’s range of cookies offers much healthier alternatives. Using organic millets and ghee, she doesn’t use refined flours at all. Well aware of the downside of sugar, she uses jaggery, palm sugar or cane sugar in her preparations instead. What’s more, the baked goodies can even be customised as per requirement. The cookies, cakes, muffins and even chocolates meld with Indian tradition, use organic certified ingredients and even herbs. She also adds veggies like carrots, beetroot, sweet potato and potato powder as well in preparations that kids enjoy. Finally, she bakes in a clean environment, as she runs her venture single-handedly.
Availability
Though Dr. Neelima’s venture is small, she ensures that she’s thorough in approach, and doesn’t compromise anywhere. With the treats aimed mainly for kids, her delectable range of muffins and cookies are made from millets like Ragi, bajra and jowar. From muffins to walnut cookies, Fig Newtons, Peanut crinkles and many other options, one is spoilt for choice. Available at Starlite Wellness Center, she also takes all sizes and kinds of orders on the phone. So while some ask for immunity building or brain development products, which use herbs, she ensures that the good ingredients are a part of the baked treats that kids like. “One of my friends told me that Ashwagandha helped her autistic child talk better. But because the kid did not like cookies, we put them in chocolates, and he loved the taste.”
With this being a one-woman venture in Vizag, she hopes that in the future she can get trained personnel who are as obsessed with hygiene as she is. Till then, she’s content working on her own. “Even if I do minimal quantities, it should be the best” she smiles as she signs off.
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