The kitchen is the best hospital and food is the best medicine
INSTEAD of paying attention to our diet when we are sick, let’s analyse the power of foods and their impact on our health.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) or lifestyle diseases – like cardiovascular diseases including stroke, heart diseases, respiratory disorders and diabetes – have been rising at an alarming pace across the globe.
Diet plays a major role in adapting a positive lifestyle. In order to sustain healthy habits, it is best to consider home as the destination point. Here are a few points to consider:
Decisions start with shopping: What we eat is not a dietary choice made at home, it is a decision made while shopping at a grocery/vegetable store. Pick the right place to shop, spend quality time on food labels and buy fresh. Healthy and tasty can go together by adding a variety of fresh produce to your diet. This can often be consistently followed in your home kitchen.
Discipline of time: Beginning from breakfast, the appropriate timing of each meal is vital for matching the body's circadian rhythm. A healthy and timely breakfast is a great way to start the day on a positive note. Chrono-nutrition deals with correlating timing of diet with metabolic patterns of diseases. Evidence suggests that irregularity in eating meals is associated with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome – high BMI, blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Home remedies: From the common cold to cancer, weight loss to weight gain, there are many home remedies that can help the body perform better. There are plenty of options to serve necessary vitamins, anti-oxidants and essential elements through the right diet.
Portion size and optimisation: Since there is a personalised approach to cooking, portion size can be optimised with minimal wastage of food.
Economical: When healthy food comes at economical value, sustenance is a great possibility.
Emotional health: Home food can bring the opportunity to enhance emotional wellness. Eating together around a common table is perhaps the best way to strengthen family bonding.
Professional help: Seek professional support in establishing/supporting healthy dietary patterns at home. | IANS