She was a 102kg diabetic with a ‘death wish’. After losing 40kg, she’s thriving

To lose a baby is unthinkable. To do so during the Covid-19 pandemic, in isolation from your husband, family and friends, is the twist of the knife. But this was the fate of Keya Wingfield, a Mumbai-born, US-based Food Network champion chef. She gave birth to her second child, son Daksh, in February 2021. “He was sick from the get-go,” she remembers. “They just couldn’t figure it out.” Daksh’s lungs were failing him, and he spent his short life – 55 days – in a neonatal intensive care unit. He had a rare genetic mutation that affected his breathing, keeping his lungs from fully expanding. It was during the pandemic, when hospital visits were restricted. Wingfield and her husband, David, had to tag team, one with Daksh while the other was at home with their daughter. For two months, they were like ships in the night. Then their vigil ended. “He passed away in my arms. It broke me in ways I couldn’t believe – I lost the will to live,” says Wingfield, who could not even turn to her parents in her time of grief, as they had both died. “All I wanted to do was pick up the phone to my mum and hear her voice.” The grieving Wingfield, who has lived in Richmond, in the US state of Virginia, for two decades, spiralled into depression for more than a year. The expert baker, who had always been “a big girl”, began comfort eating, piling on weight that landed her in the morbid obesity zone. “I had a death wish,” she says of that dark time. What had started as gestational diabetes during her pregnancy with Daksh became full-blown type 2 diabetes. She ballooned to 102kg (225lb), which, at five feet (1.52m) tall, put her at risk of a stroke. The doctors advised her to start injecting insulin, but she hated the idea. Then one day, about 18 months after Daksh’s death, she had an epiphany. “I was lying on the bed next to my daughter, Uma, who was three at the time. I thought, ‘She does not deserve a broken mother.’ It was unfair to her that I was killing myself. I had to make the choice to live for her.” From that moment, Wingfield began to make small changes, starting with walking and strength training. “I would get up while everyone else was asleep and go and lift weights,” she says. Exercise, she discovered, was a means to work through her grief: “I can’t tell you how much I have cried on the treadmill.” She reached a turning point when she swapped desire for determination. “I threw motivation out the window. With motivation, you can find excuses, but with discipline, you just show up. It’s a humble choice.” She added boxing to her weekly fitness routine, even though she felt like an oddball. “You never saw Indian women in the boxing gym; I was the only one. Then, after a while, I saw other Indian women start doing it.” She began to see results as the weight began to drop, so she strictly enforced portion control and ate more protein. Over the next two years, Wingfield not only lost 40kg, but was also able to fully reverse her type 2 diabetes. She is now in remission. For her, the kitchen is like a temple, and cooking brings peace and healing. As the fog of grief cleared, she found the strength to restart her career as a food entrepreneur. Before she became pregnant with Daksh, Wingfield had started a popular custom dessert company, creating cakes and pastries. Baking had not been an inherent skill for her: she had not seen an oven until she moved from India to her husband’s birthplace in Richmond. Twenty years ago, many traditional Indian homes were fitted only with hobs, she explains. “I saw this black box with knobs in the kitchen, and I said, ‘What is this?’” She had quickly learned how to use it and taught herself to bake. She then went to culinary school and took a pastry arts certificate at nearby Reynolds Community College. Later, she was invited back to teach as an assistant professor, which she did for nine years, while running her dessert business. That business caught the attention of producers at the Food Network, who invited her to enter its Spring Baking Championship in 2021. She won it while four months pregnant with Daksh, a fact she kept quiet while filming. The win, based in part on her Indian-inspired version of a Neapolitan cake with layers of strawberry, pistachio and golden milk cake with walnut buttercream icing, came with a US$25,000 prize. “Now, I really know what an oven looks like,” she joked upon winning. More than four years later, the prize money is helping to run and expand her latest venture, Keya’s Snacks, a brand of crisps flavoured with a blend of Indian spices – such as cumin, garam masala, turmeric and coriander. It had humble beginnings. After her move to America, Wingfield was homesick and craved Indian flavours. “My mother was a fantastic cook, and food was our life. Before we’d had breakfast, we were talking about what to have for dinner,” she recalls. Returning from a trip to India, she brought back large quantities of traditional spices, fresh from farms. In Richmond, she created a blend of 29 spices which she would put on the food she prepared at home – eggs, stews – whatever was for dinner. Her husband was not initially a fan of Indian food. But in a moment of inspiration, she put the spice blend on his favourite snack, crisps. “It did the trick. That was his stepping stone into my culture.” In 2020, as the pandemic was ramping up, Wingfield started a lunchbox catering business alongside her baking business. “When the whole world seemed to fall apart, I started a to-go business making modern Indian food, just to keep my business going,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Along with those meals, I would send small bags of Bombay chips [masala-spiced potato chips], which I usually only made for myself at home. It was a way that I could thank my customers for allowing the pivot and giving me an opportunity to feed them.” Those customers started calling to ask how to get more. Wingfield’s brother, Hong Kong-based graphic designer Abhishek Desai, co-founder of studio Pop & Zebra, helped her launch the new business. He designed her logo and packaging, which incorporates decorations from their late mother’s sari. The face on the front is modelled after Annapurna, the goddess of nourishment and food, who is depicted with four arms. The packaging, in eye-popping orange, purple and gold, is half of the appeal, Wingfield says. “People buy the first bag because of the packaging, but the second and third because they love the flavour.” The snacks, in black salt, Bombay spice and golden ranch flavours, are gluten-free, vegan and “clean”, baked in avocado oil or sunflower oil. Since their launch in March 2025, sales have topped half a million dollars. They are distributed by Daksh Foods – stamped on each package – in memory of her son. In an Instagram post in February to mark what would have been his fourth birthday, Wingfield wrote: “This mum just wants to thank you for keeping his memory alive with every bag you’ve bought.” Her snacks, with their nod to the four-armed goddess, are an homage to all mothers, she says. “This is for those women who raised us and all they do for us.” Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

She was a 102kg diabetic with a ‘death wish’. After losing 40kg, she’s thriving

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Keya Wingfield comfort-ate to morbid obesity after her baby son died. An epiphany led to her losing 40kg and reversing type 2 diabetes

Keya Wingfield comfort-ate to morbid obesity after her baby son died. An epiphany led to her losing 40kg and reversing type 2 diabetes