Mona and Huda Kattan put their support behind hydration supplement Humantra

When Mona Kattan signed up for a breathwork class in 2019 with Dave Catudal, she was so impressed by his “geeky awareness in the health supplement space” that she resolved to collaborate with the health and fitness mentor and investigate scientist on Humantra. The manufacturer, which introduced its first health supplement, Hydration Hack, in February, is one of a handful of companies supported by Huda Splendor Investments, a fund and incubator that seeks to associate with “exceptional entrepreneurs”.

“I cherished Mona’s strength. We obtained talking about nutrition and dietary supplements, and she outlined how interested she and her sister Huda had been in the health supplement house. One point led to yet another and we determined to co-build a manufacturer, with a merged eyesight of creating a true difference,” states Catudal, who survived most cancers and has researched functional diagnostic nutrition in North The usa and Asia, as perfectly as natural plant therapeutic with South American shamans in Brazil.

The change he’s referring to? Presenting folks a product that will, virtually, complement wellbeing by way of hydration. “Our system, brain, coronary heart and lungs are made up of in between 60 per cent and 80 per cent drinking water,” Catudal explains. “So we are, fundamentally, drinking water, and we need adequate of it for each survival and great health and fitness.

Hydration Hack models alone as an all-normal, plant-primarily based drink that is sweetened with zero-calorie pure plant extract manufactured from monk fruit. The sachets come in two flavours, Himalayan Lime and Berry & Pomegranate, that can be consumed among one particular and a few situations a working day, in 350ml of drinking water. Every is made up of all 6 necessary electrolytes — magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, chloride and phosphate moreover zinc and chromium picolinate for immune help — with Humantra proclaiming it can hydrate four moments more successfully than h2o by yourself.

It’s a tall claim, but 1 that is backed up by science. “Oral rehydration answers are safe and comprise an sufficient amount of money of electrolytes that are needed to hydrate in situations of gentle to moderate rehydration, though it is normally advisable to get a doctor’s prescription,” states Dr Salman Abdul Bari, a general practitioner at RAK Hospital.

Impure water, also, is a induce for worry the globe above. “While pure water is recognised as the world’s initially and foremost medication, impurities can cause bacterial and parasitic [conditions] that can lead to dehydration,” claims Bari. “These impurities typically enter by leaking pipes, lack of drinking water disinfection, improper filtration and poor storage.”

Strain also performs a part, says Dr Marilyn Glenville, a nutritionist and psychologist who operates from Harley Street in London, and opened the Glenville Diet Centre in Dubai in 2018.

“When I commenced my practice additional than 35 yrs back, I would have accomplished everything with food, but I never think we can any far more. Tension depletes our minerals and vitamins. For case in point, we need to have magnesium when we are pressured, but research reveals only half of the residents in the UAE are taking in adequate fruit and veg.”

By the way, a healthful quantity of fruit and veg can make up for about just one litre of a person’s daily water prerequisite, claims Catudal.

Glenville also notes that a ton of foodstuff that arrives to the UAE has travelled hundreds of miles, though drinking water containers are often sitting in a warehouse, so the nutritional benefit could be compromised prior to it will get to you.

“So in this problem, exactly where strain is higher and food items [and water] top quality is questionable, persons will have to seem to health supplements, for the reason that some of these nutrients are vital and you have to have to best them up,” she claims.

Catudal — and the Kattans — feel that is wherever their product arrives in.

“If we have been all farmers, scooping water out of wells or rivers, we would get all the minerals our overall body desires from the rocks and clay and sediment. But most drinking water these times is pumped, triple-filtered, handled utilizing reverse osmosis and sterilised, this kind of that there are no minerals left. It’s why you can consume up to 3 litres of drinking water in a day and may well however feel dehydrated,” Catudal claims.

“We are not competing with h2o, but alternatively making an attempt to collaborate with it. We are striving to tell h2o: ‘You aren’t what you utilized to be.’ We want to educate persons that it’s excellent you are consuming extra drinking water, but what you will need to guarantee is it’s nourishing you. And the only way for it to do that these days is if it is crammed with electrolytes.

“I dream of a world so healthful that no person requires to get nutritional supplements, but I have to admit we’re only not there but.”

But, you can not nutritional supplement your way out of an unhealthy way of life, he suggests. “You just cannot take in junk food items, then get a load of nutritional supplements, that does not get the job done. Rather, get your diet in examine and then use supplements as a enhance.”

Future on Humantra’s radar are nutritional supplements for intestine wellbeing, brain wellbeing and excellent snooze. As to the philosophy driving its title, Humantra is a portmanteau of “human” and “mantra”.

“It’s intended to accept that all individuals, no make a difference in which they stay, are experiencing identical way of life troubles, be it dietary or the pressure to execute at function or the associations we are striving to determine out. So the ‘human’ part of Humantra is this recognition that we are all trying to navigate daily life in overall health and contentment,” says Catudal.

“Mantra has so quite a few distinctive meanings, but we like to latch on to the repetition it represents. I think our life style is the end result of our patterns, and the high-quality of our behavior dictates our level of wellness.”

This, he suggests, also ties in with the life-style modifications that additional individuals than ever are embarking upon, be it for the reason that of the pandemic or basically extra access to facts.

“I imagine the long run of wellness is headed in the appropriate course. The ‘lose six kilos in 6 days’-design and style headlines do not work for all people any extra,” states Catudal. “Without query, several diseases that are commonplace these times can be prevented by much healthier way of life options. And these days, a lot more persons have an understanding of that in order to make sustainable adjust, they have to adopt these much healthier alternatives. It is why fitness centers are mushrooming, extra food system providers are coming to current market … there is an awareness and an awakening proper now that health and fitness is our genuine wealth and that we are a whole lot more in handle of the consequence of our perfectly-remaining than we have been informed or had believed, but we do have to acquire possession of that.”

Updated: February 17th 2022, 7:52 AM