Opinion: Dear Patanjali Thanks For The “Healthy” Fast Food But No Thanks

Patanjali is more often than not in the news on a daily basis. The last thing I wrote about was the Army canteen banning their Amla juice but they’ve been in the news most recently over their proposed chain of fast food items which allegedly would rival McDonald’s and KFC. This is probably due to the fact that they have been able to give HUL a run for their money.

Unfortunately, I feel like Patanjali is missing the whole concept of eating fast food (spoiler alert: it’s not to be healthy). There is nothing better than ravenously shoveling a burger and fries down after a long night out (being hungover), I know it’s certainly come to my aid more than once.

Almost everyone I know, enjoys fast food from time to time, including my dad (who is a vegan btw). It’s something to do with it being a guilty pleasure that numbs our senses and keeps us feeling really satisfied. Also, everyone knows it’s unhealthy, at least here in India (I’m not responsible for what they think in the United States). So, that can’t really be a selling point for them.

In case they didn’t know, we already have Indian vegetarian fast food – it’s called chaats, vada pav, and dosas, thank you very much.

It’s also a matter of breaking into the market. Prominent brands here like Domino’s are still finding it difficult to break the market even though they have been around much longer than say, McDonalds.

According to Baba Ramdev, the unofficial, unpaid ambassador of Patanjali, their long term plan is to wean Indians off unhealthy food. Sorry to say, but you’re not our parents or our significant others to ‘wean’ us off of something that we like and enjoy. Unless, of course, Patanjali has become the unofficial parent of the entire country to assume to know what’s right for us and what we need.

I’m a fully grown adult and I can make bad decisions if I want to, and unfortunately for Patanjali I will not give up my McDonald’s. So go work out the capital expenditure that you’ll need to take on KFC while I munch on my fried chicken.