Chino business offers Ayurveda, the ancient healing practice of India

By Neil Nisperos, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 07/17/14, 8:51 PM PDT

Sunit Gupta has recently opened a new store, A to Z Holistic Center, in  Chino where he offers an Ayurvedic healing practice. Photo by Neil  Nisperos.Staff

CHINO >> The health marketplace in the Inland Empire is full of options. That’s evident in the availability of alternative health care practitioners in the region.

Among them is Sunit Gupta, who has been offering his mode of healing in the Inland Empire for the past decade and recently opened up a new location in Chino, as a practitioner of Ayurvedic health care and purveyor of traditional herbal supplements.

Ayurveda is the traditional health care practice of India, founded upon knowledge in ancient Hindu religious texts, the Vedas.

Gupta and his wife, Sarita, recently opened up A to Z Holistic Center at 12073 Central Ave. The business is a successor to the couple’s Kwality Indian Foods and Fashions, which was located in Ontario a few years ago, and GoodHealth Clinic in Upland, where in the past decade Gupta offered life coach services and advice through his practice of Vedic astrology and palmistry.

The new store features a market filled with Indian, Pakistani and South Asian Foods.

Gupta arrived in the United States 30 years ago, and has been practicing Ayurvedic healing for the past 36 years.

Gupta, 53, learned the ancient art of Ayurvedic medicine in India from gurus, his own Ayurvedic doctors and years of study. The approach uses a system of dieting, herbs, oils and yoga to heal various ailments and chronic conditions. Gupta sells the various herbal supplements and oils at his store.

“I was exposed to Ayurveda and some of the diseases I had were not cured by regular medical doctors,” Gupta said. “On the contrary, these (Ayurvedic) herbs did help me, so I developed an interest and started studying on my own. From my experience, usually when (clients) walk in, I try to observe them, because we have different kinds of ailments connected to different body types. I talk to them to figure out their history and we try to figure out the root cause of the problem.”

Students interested in learning Ayurvedic healing can get a certification to practice from Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier. There are about 30 students in the program today.

“We are the only WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accredited university of our kind that offers Ayurveda, acupuncture, chiropracty, and the whole gamut of complementary health care science,” said Jackie Silverman, spokeswoman for SCU. “The majority of students are from Southern California and many are from the Inland Empire.”

Silverman agrees that Ayurvedic medicine is a preventive mode of health care that focuses on root causes, as opposed to symptoms.

“The best part of Ayurveda speaks to our integrative health care field because it is based on preventable health care,” she said. “Ayurveda uses simple diets, nutrition, and herbal supplements to maintain health and help rejuvenate and strengthen the body. These principles weave so perfectly within complementary and integrative medicine.”

Prasad Vinjamury, professor of Ayurvedic Medicine at Southern California University of Health Sciences, said the field is growing in the region.

“I’ve been in Southern California for the past 14 years and I have definitely seen that the numbers are growing more and more,” Vinjamury said. “People are aware of it and more people are practicing.”

In addition to Gupta’s services, residents can seek Naturopathic health care at the Integrative Natural Health center in Claremont, 665 East Foothill Boulevard, Suite D, owned by Naturopathic Doctor David Richard.

Patients come to the center for a variety of conditions, including treatment for menopausal symptoms, hormone balancing, pediatric care, preventative care, dermotological issues, hypertension, digestive issues, and diabetes, said Stacy Meisel, a naturopathic doctor at the center.

Like Gupta, practitioners at the center are looking to treat root causes as opposed to masking symptoms through medication, Meisel said.

“Generally when people are ill, it’s an array of symptoms that we see from the body and the symptoms aren’t the problem,” Meisel said. “The symptoms are a manifestation of the problem.”

Life coach Dhari Jani, who works with patients at Integrative Natural Health, educates people on the benefits of Ayurveda, yoga, and pranayama, or breathing techniques.

“Ayurveda is a self-healing science that addresses problems at the root cause,” Jani said. “It’s wonderful natural science that helps us prevent and manage diseases.”

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Multi-faceted merchant

Sarita Gupta owner of Kwality Indian-Pakistani Groceries Gifts & Movies, poses for a picture in her market in Ontario, Friday, September 9, 2011. Kwality offers traditional Indian and Pakistani groceries, gifts and movies and also offers a fortune reading by her husband Dr. Sunit K. Gupta. (James Carbone/ Correspondent)

ONTARIO - An Ontario grocer specializing in Indian cuisine has new owners who  plan to make their Mountain Avenue store much more than a place to buy food.

Kwality Indian Foods & Fashions, is primarily a market specializing in Indian, Pakistani and other South Asian foods. New operators Sunit Gupta and his wife, Sarita Khosla, plan to expand the  business by drawing upon Gupta's experience as a psychic and  establishing a travel agency and acting class.

The couple took control of the store about one month ago,  Gupta said. In addition to providing a place to find food and other products from South Asia, the couple tries to avoid products with  artificial ingredients.

"The goal is to be as health conscious, as natural at every  level we can," Khosla said after pointing out hair-care products, which she said had only natural ingredients.

Gupta and Khosla have stocked their store with a variety of staples such as lentils, chickpeas and basmati rice.

Customers can also find Indian spices packaged like a large  bag of amchur (dried mango) powder or in premixed boxes for dishes like  butter chicken masala.

Previously, Gupta ran GoodHealth Clinic in Upland. There he  offered services as a life coach and based his teachings and advice on  his beliefs in such subjects as Vedic astrology and palmistry. He also adheres to the tenets of vaastu shastra, a Hindu approach to design Gupta compared to the Chinese practice of feng shui.

Gupta and Khosla registered the name Dr. Gupta's Holistic Center to continue his psychic practice at Kwality Indian Foods.

The store's inventory reflects the couple's views on holistic health, he said.

"I'm trying to make more of a holistic store, so in other  words, I'm going to put all the vegetarian items (on shelves)," Gupta  said. "Even the meat items that are in demand, I'm going to replace with vegetarian items."

"I've never tasted meat knowingly," Gupta added.

The market and holistic center only cover half of the business names registered for Gupta and Khosla's store.

Gupta, who appeared in an episode of NBC's sitcom  "Outsourced," also has plans for an acting school to be called  Destination Hollywood.

Nasa Travel is the fourth registered business name. Gupta  wants to create a travel agency linking customers to South Asian destinations, and said his knowledge of the region's languages will enable him to establish a travel agency in the age of Internet travel sites like Expedia or Kayak.

Gupta said he grew up in Kolkata, formerly known in the West as Calcutta, and speaks Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and other dialects.

"Some of the people are more comfortable with the mother tongue. The local language bridges the gap," he said

Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer - Daily Bulletin
Posted: 09/10/2011 06:15:24 PM PDT