Good nutrition is a key to healthy life

Good nutrition is a key to healthy life. More attention needs to be given to mindful eating and staying active which provides protection from the health risk of diseases and will have a positive influence on your health.

Good nutrition is a key to healthy life where quantity and quality of food plays a major role.Nutrition is the heart of our everyday lives, and a well-balanced, nutritious diet is essential so that a healthy body translates to a healthy mind.While improper nutrition is associated with several chronic diseases which has great impact on morbidity, mortality and quality of life.

This “National Nutrition Month” comes with a theme of “Converging towards a healthy walk-through life”!! Where, it marks the emphasis of good nutritious diet throughout the life span.This promotes healthy pregnancy, supports normal growth, development and ageing. It also helps maintain a healthy body weight, boosts your immune system and reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases.However, there is moderate awareness about this issue worldwide and people must overcome the hurdle from awareness to action as an unhealthy diet opens the gate to diseases or infections especially in this scary situation of COVID-19 pandemic.

Good nutrition comes down to consuming a variety of wholesome food to support health:

1. Fuel your body: Prefer whole grains over refined one’s. Use millets, rice varieties (red, brown, parboiled, barley), lentils, legumes, soy products, nuts, seeds and not forget dairy products which provides calories and proteins.

2. Add colors to your meal: Include 2 to 3 serves of vegetables & fruits in your days diet as they add dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Consume whole fruits rather than juices. opt for seasonal fruits which are locally available and inexpensive.

3. Keep a watch on salt, sugar and fat: Keeping salt intake less than 5gm /day,reduces the risk of heart diseases, avoid salty snacks and preserved food, e.g.: chips, coated nuts. Limit your consumption of sugars and food containing sugary snacks, sweets, candies or sweetened beverages. Reduce saturated fats in the diet like butter, ghee, cheese and replace healthy fats with poly unsaturated fats, like soybean, corn, olive, safflower or sunflower oil.

4. Stay Hydrated: Drink about 2 liters of water and keep away from fizzy, sweetened or carbonated drinks as they add on to extra calories. Consume natural and inexpensive sources like tender coconut water, soup or fresh fruit juices instead. Avoid alcohol.

5. Focus on traditional food and cooking methods: The food that has been passed on since generations strengthens and provide sustenance to our body. Prefer steaming, boiling, grilling, braising over frying. Use turmeric, dry ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, amla, black peppercorn, basil, berries, nuts and seeds in your days diet. Incorporating these traditional foods in the diet not only adds to a lot of health benefits but are also incredibly tasty. It supports your immune system and helps prevent many digestive or respiratory problems.

6.Choose to snack healthy:Seasoned puffed rice (Bhel /chat),flattened rice chewda, boiled corn, dhokla and momo’s. Green gram salad (kosambri) boiled whole grams, sprouts, masala steamed dal dumplings.Salad, steamed vegetable, fruit salad, fresh fruit juices. Home-made ground nut chikki, roasted almonds, boiled groundnuts and walnuts, use them in small quantities.

7. You can plan wholesome meals at a reasonable expense: Recipes made at home are less expensive and healthier than bought, combination of cereal and pulse improves the nutritional quality. Use locally available and seasonal foods, go for fresh food rather than processed or preserved foods. Fermenting, malting and sprouting of grains to make nutritious beverages (like ragi malt) reduces the cost of buying supplement drinks.

8. Kitchen Garden: Home nutri garden is the best source for meeting your family needs with a minimal effort. It improves health, enhances nutrition profile, inexpensive and boosts nutritional security. Green leafy vegetables, green chilies, capsicum, tomatoes, ginger, turmeric, garlic, herbs, varieties of beans etc. can be easily grown at home kitchen garden.

9. Stay active and keep mind at peace: Following a routine through meditation, yoga, breathing exercises or walking for at least 45 minutes a day will give a positive approach to life especially at this hour of crises.

“Remember Good Nutrition Doesn’t Come in a Pill”. More attention needs to be given to mindful eating and staying active which provides protection from the health risk of diseases and will have a positive influence on your health.

“Let Food be thy Medicine”