Health educator and creator Revant Himatsingka, widely known as Food Pharmer, is urging a national effort to tackle Vitamin B12 and D3 deficiencies with the same urgency that once powered India’s iodized salt campaign.
The idea struck after an afternoon with Padma Shri awardee Dr. Chandrakant Pandav, the public-health champion credited with mainstreaming iodized salt. As Himatsingka recounts it, iodization helped drive goitre rates down from “~40% to near 10%” in trial regions within a decade. Walking out of that meeting, he says, one thought stayed: “It’s time I take on the same fight for B12 and D3.”
The numbers he’s spotlighting
- Vitamin D: An estimated 70% to 90% of Indians are deficient. Signs often dismissed as “just aging”, weak bones, tired muscles, foggy moods, may point to D3 deficiency.
- Vitamin B12: Over 40% of adults may be deficient, especially in rural and vegetarian populations. Symptoms like fatigue, nerve pain, and mood crashes are frequently written off as “just stress.”
Himatsingka warns that untreated Vitamin B12 and D3 shortfalls “can become an alarming health crisis for Indians” if left unaddressed.
From iodized salt to fortified staples?
Drawing a straight line from the success of iodization, Himatsingka is asking a simple question with big implications: “What if Vitamin B12 and D3 could be our next salt revolution?” He’s weighing pathways that could reach households at scale, including:
- Subsidized supplements, to lower the cost barrier for families; and
- Alternate fortification of everyday staples, to build protection into what people already consume.
Rather than declaring a single solution, he is opening the floor. “What are some other ideas we can explore?” he asks, framing this as a collaborative effort spanning citizens, clinicians, industry, and policymakers.
A Personal Pledge by Revant Himatsingka
“So here’s my commitment,” Revant Himatsingka writes. “If salt could once wipe out goitre, I want to play my part in reducing the B12 and D3 burden in India.” The call is less a campaign announcement than an invitation to co-create a roadmap, with reach and affordability at its core.
Deficiency symptoms that blend into daily life, low energy, musculoskeletal discomfort, mood fluctuations, often go unrecognized. Revant Himatsingka’s push is to name the problem plainly, rally public attention, and pressure-test practical solutions that can scale, just as iodized salt did.
His closing line doubles down on that collective approach: “The only way to solve this silent epidemic is together.”
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