order delivered in 10 mins

His warning about India's ultra-fast food delivery addiction struck a nerve: "Our junk food addiction, fueled by ₹49 pizzas, ₹20 energy drinks, and ₹30 burgers, is steering us down the path of the US and China—without the economic safety net for healthcare."

The post got thousands of shares. Comments poured in from entrepreneurs, doctors, and ordinary Indians all saying the same thing: "Finally, someone said it."

Then orthopedic surgeon Dr. Manan Vora doubled down with his own viral post: "Dear Zomato, Swiggy, and Zepto: We don't want ultra-processed garbage delivered in 10 minutes!"

His research-backed warning was brutal: "For the food to be delivered in 10, it needs to be cooked in 3 minutes or less. And they can only achieve this with ultra-processed, ready-to-eat meals – pre-cooked, frozen, microwaved, and delivered."

the data he shared was terrifying:

• 12% increase in cancer risk

• 10% rise in cardiovascular disease risk

• 27.8% of Indian adults now obese

Reading these posts hit me like a slap across the face. A few weeks ago I thought AI was a crutch we had. Now it feels like convenience. 

For context, the Indian convenience food market alone is projected to grow from $10.1 billion in 2024 to $37.9 billion by 2033. Meanwhile, our health metrics collapsed at exactly the same pace.

101 million Indians now have diabetes. Another 136 million are pre-diabetic. That's 237 million people / nearly 20% of our population with blood sugar dysfunction.

But here's what the headlines miss: this isn't about genetics or our geo being a cause.

The root is behavioral consequence.

The ICMR-INDIAB study analyzed 113,043 individuals across 31 states and found something terrifying. Urban diabetes prevalence (14.3%) is double rural rates (6.9%). The difference? Convenience infrastructure density.

Delhi leads obesity at 33%, followed by Punjab (31%) and Tamil Nadu (29%). Meanwhile, central states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh remain below 10% obesity rates. Coincidence? Think again where Zomato, Blinkit and Swiggy get the most orders from 👀

Dr. Robert Lustig's research at UCSF revealed something that blew my mind: ultra-processed foods trigger the same neural pathways as cocaine. The combination of refined sugar, artificial flavors, and preservatives creates literal addiction.

Now layer on India's delivery psychology. UPI transactions hit 16.6 billion monthly as of October 2024 / 535 million daily transactions enabling instant gratification.

Behavioral economists call this "present bias" / overvaluing immediate rewards while undervaluing future costs.

The result?
We've Pavlovian-conditioned ourselves to crave junk food on demand.

"Pavlovian-conditioned" refers to classical conditioning, the psychological phenomenon discovered by Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov.

Pavlov's Original Experiment:

• Dogs naturally salivate when they see food (unconditioned response)

• Pavlov rang a bell every time he fed the dogs

• Eventually, dogs would salivate just hearing the bell - even without food present

• They were "conditioned" to associate the bell with food

But how is this related to food delivery? 

In our convenience economy context, we've been Pavlovian-conditioned to crave junk food through these triggers:

Food delivery platforms deliberately use psychological triggers (appealing photos, strategic timing, reward programs) to create these conditioned responses. We literally salivate at our phones like Pavlov's dogs salivated at bells.

This explains why people order food even when they're not hungry. They've been conditioned to associate certain cues with the pleasure of eating, bypassing natural hunger signals.

The scale of our convenience addiction is shocking.

Indians made 1.25 crore dining table reservations through Zomato in 2024 alone. One Bengaluru customer spent ₹5.13 lakh on a single restaurant bill, while another Mumbai resident became the "nation's biggest foodie" with 3,580 orders in one year…
That's nearly 10 orders per day.

But the convenience addiction goes deeper than food. 93% of urban Indians are sleep-deprived, with 61% sleeping less than 7 hours.

Why?

Always-available services create "decision fatigue.” Your brain burns glucose making micro-choices all day (Which restaurant? Which delivery time? Which payment method?).

By evening, you're cognitively exhausted, making progressively worse health decisions.

Meanwhile, 50% of Indians are physically inactive, that’s 100s of millions of sedentary people. Yet fitness app downloads hit 656 million in 2021.

We're downloading health apps while destroying our health.
It's the perfect paradox of modern India.

Medical expenses now consume 7.13% of rural and 5.91% of urban household expenditure. For non-communicable diseases, costs per hospitalization are three times higher than communicable diseases, creating catastrophic health expenditure for families.

We're paying twice: once for convenience, once for the health damage it causes.

ICMR now attributes 56.4% of India's disease burden to unhealthy diets, specifically calling out ultra-processed foods for the first time in 2024. 

Meanwhile, convenience companies are getting richer. 

Zomato's revenue grew 67% year-on-year to ₹20,243 crore with strong market share. Quick commerce platforms fulfill millions of daily orders with average delivery times shrinking to 8-11 minutes.

The faster we get convenience, the sicker we become.

The sicker we become, the more we depend on convenience.

It's a vicious cycle worth ₹141 billion and growing.

Traditional food systems that took millennia to develop are being destroyed in under a decade by convenience platforms.

200,000 kirana stores closed in 2024 due to quick commerce competition. Festival cooking traditions are being replaced by catering services, disrupting intergenerational knowledge transfer of traditional food systems.

We're literally eating our culture away.

We don't need to eliminate convenience but instead redirect it.

You’ll also see your savings multiply by just doing this.

the inflection point we can't ignore

India stands at a health precipice where convenience economy growth trajectories intersect with exponential disease burden increases.

With new age qcommerce, services being delivered at your house in 10 mins for cleaning and every other thing. We will soon just tap a button instead of moving for everything.

Saves you time? Yes
Costs you health and money? Yes

By no means am I against these apps. But I am against the culture / habits that are being formed and destroyed in the process.  

Think about it, what's your convenience-to-health ratio?

How much do you spend on quick commerce now vs 5 years ago?