Right diet and nutrition is very necessary when you are COVID +ve and recovering at home. Have a balanced diet and freshly cooked warm easy to digest food.
After you have come out of the Covid infection and is still recovering at home, it is natural to feel very tired, body pain and no energy to do your work routine. More importantly the appetite must be off due to lack of taste, smell and also a bitter taste in the mouth due to medicines and above all it takes time to be mentally energetic too because of the ordeal you have gone through.
- Have a balanced diet and freshly cooked warm easy to digest food. See a sample meal plan (table)
- Use amla daily (1-2)
- Gargle with warm water –add a pinch of turmeric and salt
- Gargling with fresh boiled neem leaves (just a sprig would do) water or drinking 25 ml of the light green water with salt and turmeric is also therapeutic.
- Use haldi, jeera, dhania, garlic in your cooking liberally
- If dry cough and sore throat – saline gargles and cold with secretions- steam inhalation twice a day.
- Take regular medications as prescribed by your doctor especially diabetic and blood pressure medicines with enough food intake
- Have adequate sleep and rest
| On rising | Warm water |
| After breathing exercises | have green tea or milk with turmeric or milk tea or light coffee |
| Breakfast- 8-9 am | Steamed foods like idlis with sambar or Steamed rice string hoppers or sevai or idiappam (available in ready to cook forms) with bland potato stew Or Poha with less oil Or Pongal with sambar |
| Midmorning-11 am | Kadha-200ml with fruits like musk melon, watermelon, oranges or apples |
| Lunch-1-2 p.m. | Well cooked rice with sambar or rasam with black pepper and cumin powder seasoning with well-cooked easy to digest vegetables such as pumpkin, lauki, cucumber, knol khol, beetroots, carrots as pallya or gravy with vegetables lentil mix Or Vegetable Khichdi with turmeric Or Well-cooked bland vegetable and lentil mix dish which can be mixed with rice Or khadi mixed with rice Dilute buttermilk ( if no cough or sore throat) |
| Evening 4-5 p.m | Light toast with tea or steamed food like idlis if hungry Or Fruits Or Multigrain rusk with tea |
| 6.30p.m. | Drink rasam or vegetable soup or use the vegetable stock that is used to boil the vegetables or kadha |
| Early dinner before 8.30 p.m | Same as lunch items or broken wheat dahlia as Upma with well-cooked veggies with less oil |
| Bed time | Golden milk- milk with ½ tsp. turmeric If not diabetic add jaggery instead of sugar |
- Wheat may be hard to digest for some, if used can have phulkas or also well-cooked ragi mudde
- Egg whites -2 can be had daily as boiled or omelet or have an whole egg if not feeling bloated or heavy
- Well-cooked ragi porridge with salt or jaggery or better still multigrain with badam powder one scoop can be taken if unable to eat solids due to lack of appetite
- Drink kadha throughout the day- at least 1 liter along with other fluids such as soups, rasam, vegetable stock, fruit smoothies at room temperature (not fruit juices) and tender coconut water
- Have warm water throughout the day.
- Amla fruit- one daily, can be had grated in smoothies, rasam, buttermilk, or in soups for the tangy taste and a dose of Vitamin C
- If the mouth has a bitter taste or no taste at all suck on a piece of ginger, amla or lemon while taking meals to have a sour taste and to secrete more saliva
- Oily and deepfried foods to be avoided as it would be difficult to digest
- Can have clear chicken soup or bone soup thrice a week
Rest well and eat well till you bounce back as you would have realized that your HEALTH is the most important factor in your life for you and your precious family.
Sreemathy Venkatraman
Clinical Dietitian & Wellness Nutritionist,
Founder- Mithaahara
