Who We Are
Siri Khalsa, Founder and Editor in Chief
Siri Dharma “Siri” Khalsa became interested in nutrition while still an elementary school teacher. (She says she owes it all to Adelle Davis’ Let’s Eat Right.) After receiving her Life Time Teaching Credential from the State of California, she made a career change and began writing freelance.
During that time, she was invited to create an educational handout for a large independent health food store, and Nutrition News was born. In essence, Siri Khalsa returned to teaching, this time delivering the latest information on health and nutrition to a very large classroom.
Siri tells her own story: “In 1976, I was asked to create a handout for a local health food store. I did. That copy soon turned into my first newsletter, ‘Sugar: No.1 Murderer’.
Although it was distributed through only one health food store, Nutrition News was an immediate success. That community of shoppers reflected back to me my gifts for encouraging people to take a stand for their health and for inspiring them to take on healthy behaviors to transform the quality of their lives.
These gifts were reinforced when friends who were graphic designers for a big printing company told me something that redirected my life’s path. I sent them my text for a vitamin C Nutrition News newsletter. They were to produce it from design through printing, publishing, and delivery.
When they reported back to me, they were astounded. They proclaimed that amazingly every person who came in contact with the newsletter during production (and some who just got the news by word of mouth) went to the local health food store and bought a bottle of vitamin C. Not just the graphic artists but also the proofreader, the printer, the shipping department personnel, and even the owner of the company all followed suit.
The most astonishing thing about this is that most of these folks had never before set foot in a health food store. They certainly had never in their lives purchased a nutritional supplement. This was 1976 and natural products were still a ‘hippy’, fringe idea. The term ‘health nut’ was used to describe us.
Knowing the profound impact that I could make on people’s health through Nutrition News, I borrowed $2000 from my dad to do a nationwide mailing. Sitting in a big circle in our yoga room, a dozen yoga students (including me) prepared the first direct mailing. Within a few short years, people were reading Nutrition News worldwide.
Siri Says: My intentions are to give you the information you need to make powerful health choices and to inspire you to reach your own optimal health by taking personal responsibility for for your wellness.
The continuing success of Nutrition News is based on the impact it has on the reader. My husband (our publisher, Gurumantra Khalsa) calls it the ‘Nutrition News Effect‘. The Nutrition News Effect is a wonderful web of relationships, which begins with our readers. In addition, there are creative collaborators, vendors, affiliates, partners, practitioners, deep thinkers, and every other lover of life playing the “Is It Healthy?” Game with us.”
As I enter my 40th year of writing Nutrition News, I want to thank you for the privilege influencing your good health. ~ Siri
Siri Khalsa received her B.A. from California State University at Long Beach. Her MA in psychology is awaiting the completion of her thesis. She taught Kundalini Yoga classes for over 20 years at Cal State San Bernardino, the Pomona Colleges, and the University of California at Riverside, where she also taught several series of vegetarian cooking classes. In addition, she has taught psychology courses at Cal State, San Bernardino and theater arts at Cal State, Long Beach. Siri continues to write and lecture widely on health and nutrition.
Check out Siri Says for timely musings on whatever strikes her fancy.
Who We Are
Gurumantra Khalsa, Publisher
Gurumantra “GM” Khalsa’s interest in nutrition began in the 60’s while a student at the University of Wisconsin. In 1979, he read his first issue of Nutrition News and was instantly hooked. Through mutual friends, he was introduced to Siri Khalsa the writer and he begged for a subscription.
At that time, individual subscriptions were not available. Ms. Khalsa said she only sold her newsletter in bulk quantities to natural product stores. After a series of phone calls with more reasons why she should send him her newsletter, she relented provided he agree to send her 12 self-addressed, stamped envelopes.
His persistence and his suggestions about how to make Nutrition News more readily available, resulted in an offer to move to California and take on that responsibility.
Having bigger ideas and larger ambitions than that, Mr. Khalsa married Ms. Khalsa in 1982. The following year he became the publisher of Nutrition News and began a new life chapter that included health, passion, creativity and a deep appreciation for the power of content marketing.
Mr. Khalsa holds a B.A. from University of Illinois, Chicago. He also has taught Kundalini Yoga and Vegetarian Cooking classes for the University of California.
He remains an enthusiastic reader.
“If reading her newsletter could do that for me, imagine how it could impact your life.”
