Madhavan’s grandparents lived until the ripe-old age of 92 and 93. In a 2024 interview, he decoded the diet that helped them live such a long, fruitful life. In the podcast 100 Year Life Project by ACKO, the ‘3 Idiots’ actor recalled how his grandparents had isli sambar and rasam pongal in the morning, rice in the afternoon and rice and sabzi (vegetables) in the evening. He revealed that his grandparent’s diet lacked in many of the supplements talked widely about by fitness enthusiasts, yet they lived long. The Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein star also revealed his grandfather had upper black hair till he passed away. Reacting to his anecdote, fitness influencer Saurabh Aggarwal explained that carbs are not the enemy and if you are leading a very active lifestyle - burning 2,000 calories per day, you will need to eat 4,000 calories per day. However, if you are leading a sedentary lifestyle, not even burning 100 calories or engaging in any exercise, you have to restrain yourself to 1800 calories. He also explained that they did a lot more physical work and their diet probably had some natural source of protein such as sprouts, daal etc. Dr Siddharth Warrier, a neurologist and lifestyle influencer also pointed out that unlike us, our grandparent’s diet consisted of little to no processed food. Processed food have trans saturated fatty acids affect our health a lot. We also experience a lot more stress - due to several factors such as lack of sleep etc. In another interview with GQ, Madhavan revealed how he ensured his diet was similar to his grandparents: “Even when I’m on set, I take my chef along to cook simple meals like dal, sabzi and chawal—the kind my mom made. I also don’t get all the fuss around rice. My grandparents lived till the ripe old age of 92 and 93, and they ate rice three times a day,” he said.