Heldi began with a phrase I heard growing up.

Whenever we asked my nani whether her food was good for us, she would smile and say it was “heldi.” Not healthy in the polished, clinical sense, but heldi in the way home-cooked food truly is: warm, nourishing, familiar, and made with care.

That idea stayed with me.

My name is Mihir Melwani, and I have always loved Indian home-cooked food. Dal, curries, sabzis, raita, chai, the kind of meals that bring comfort, family, and tradition to the table. At the same time, fitness and training became a big part of my life, and I started to notice a gap. Traditional Indian food offers so much, but many everyday dishes can still be low in protein.

I did not want to replace the food I loved with bland fitness food or generic supplements. I wanted a way to add protein to traditional dishes without changing what made them special.

That is how Heldi was born.

What started as a personal need soon became something bigger. I realised this could help my parents too. As we get older, muscle, strength, and movement become even more important, and so many age-related issues are made worse by inactivity, low protein intake, and gradual muscle loss. Exercise helps. Strength helps. Protein helps too.

But there is still a stigma around supplements, especially in households that value real, home-cooked food. Heldi was created to stand apart from that. The goal was to make something that feels food first, family friendly, and easy to understand, using natural ingredients people recognise and formats that fit into everyday meals.

Heldi is not here to replace tradition. It is here to support it, whether that means adding protein to your chai, your dal, your curry, or your raita.

Because the food we grew up with is already beautiful in so many ways. Heldi simply helps it nourish us better, proving that there can be real strength in tradition.