“A woman takes upon her the herculean task of looking after an entire family. Without her, the support system would break. For a woman, life is a continuous Marathon and she needs a constant source of energy to ace it! She requires stamina throughout the day, be it a housewife or an office-going woman – and what’s better than oats, which is a slow-energy releasing carb,” said Raghav Gupta, founder of the popular oats brand, Oateo.

Founded in 2014, Raghav’s company Ausee Oats established its brand Oateo in 2017. Oats are among the healthiest gluten-free whole grains and a great source of important vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants which lead to weight loss, keep your cholesterol in check, lower blood sugar levels, and diminish the risk of heart diseases.

Raghav spoke to IWB where he shared how Ausee Oats has employed some of the very first female millers, the pros of adding oats to one’s diet, and his mission to not just make a single nation but the entire world healthy. Excerpts:

There is this fad of blindly following superfood trends. Like, half the people in my office are hooked to green tea, including me, in hopes of losing weight.

One should know that there is a need for a lifestyle change, and just adding green tea or oats to your meal is not gonna do that. You have to ditch the regular consumption of unhealthy food, exercise, minimise your sugar intake, etc.

Like one of our distributors saw a major change in his blood sugar which dropped from 145 to 126 when he switched his regular breakfast for a bowl of oats. And that was the effect of just changing his meal for one day! Imagine the benefits of following this diet.

Wow! Oats do live up to their name of being a superfood. Well, apart from providing women with this ceaseless source of energy, how else are you improving their life?

We have of some of the very first female millers working at Ausee Oats. As you know, traditionally millers have been men and rarely have women tried their hands at this. We had the opportunity to hire women millers from Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, a milling institute.

We have always kept an individual’s abilities above their gender. These women are well-experienced and always ready to cater to any challenge that comes their way, proving that gender plays no role when your skills win the day. So, a majority of our product development, packaging, financial and marketing teams are made up of women. Our chief operating officer is a woman.

Changing our mentality with time is what we need today. Talking about change, oats is something that people, especially kids, always think of as something boring.

Oh, I know. And that is the major motto of Ausee Oats – to reinvent oats for the modern era. Ditching its former image of being a mere breakfast item, we have turned oats into snacks, shakes, cookies and also made it a part of lunch and dinner.

Earlier oats were exported from far off countries in Australia and Europe but now we are getting it to the consumer within two hours of milling them, after which they are packaged. Thus packing it fresh, retaining its nutty aroma.

We have launched a range of products to cater to the varied taste preferences out there. Now you can add oats to your poha, make chapatis and parathas out of oats, make pao bhaji with it. There has been a shift in the perception that people held for oats earlier and this is posing as a major competition to the instant food market.

Oateo oats are available in 12 countries. In Sri Lanka, it is the number one oats brand and also has a wide presence in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius, and the Maldives. It made its entry into the Indian market this year.

So, what’s your favorite oats recipe that you treat your family with?

I really enjoy making pancakes by mixing oats with banana, protein powder, and cocoa powder. They are just yummy!

Before I lose my train of thought over this yummy image you have created in my mind, tell me, in what ways are you helping the most impoverished sector of our society, the ones you closely work with, the farmers, especially the women?

As you rightly said, we work closely with farmers, we try to educate them on better farming techniques and avoid the use of pesticides and fertilizers. We strive to give them a good share of what profits we make and the same goes for women farmers as well.

And that’s not the only way Oateo Oats is making sure that the energy meter of women is always pumped up. It is also sponsoring IWB‘s campaign, The Locker Room, where we got in contact with the four national women’s sports teams – Rugby, Ice Hockey, Kabaddi, and Football, with the agenda of bringing to them the much-deserved attention and accolades.

As part of our campaign, we held conversations with gritty Indian sportswomen, and also took a sneak peek into their locker rooms to find out how they huddle together for “The Talk” that prepares them for the battle ahead.

A big shout-out to our partners – EPIC TV Channel, Oateo Oats, HRX, Gold’s Gym India, for joining us in solidarity and helping us in exploring the challenging road for India’s sportswomen.

Stay tuned for our custom-made anthems. We have more sports rush coming your way.