India, June 20 -- Potion 1st was born out of a steady pattern across health clinics in India. Patients with conditions like diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and heart disease were becoming regulars. What struck health professionals was a noticeable paradox: the patients already knew what should be their diet but took no little to no action about it

This made Dr Madhur Motwani, who graduated from Grant Medical College in Mumbai in 2011, realise that merely advising patients to eat right was not really helping. "Most of our patients already knew what they should be eating," he said. "The problem wasn't awareness. It was action."

That made him think deeper. Why is it so hard for people to act on what they already know is good for them?...