Honor your health: Gentle nutrition

Food is a major part of our living for survival, but are we making the right choices to get the right nutrition. The food industry is a million dollar one growing with hundreds of products each day but failure to understand and figure out nutrition labels we fail to differentiate the right product from the one which is merely a pocket burner.

To honor our health we dont require fancy food or an upside down routine but a routine with consistency is all that matters. The word health feels a burden for many of us and we think we are under debt, cause we simply punish ourselves with guilty thoughts after having our feast/favourite foods, this mindset of ours builds in a ton of negativity with hesitation to move forward peacefully.

The main ideology behind the term gentle nutririon is to build basic yet efficient ways of healthy living wherein we honor our health at the same time going easy on ourselves.

The simple ways that can make huge difference are:

Prioritizing movements such as walking, taking steps
starting the day with water
simple meditation and breathwork exercises
Practicing mindful eating with no distraction of gadgets around
Emphasizing on me time
Including more of home cooked meals in the routine following the 80:20 rule where majority 80% food is home cooked, healthy and balanced meals and 20% is outside food with your favourite foods
I’m proving the hydration levels to avoid dehydration
To differentiate physical and emotional hunger
To work on your fibre and protein intake if you are a poor eater of vegetables

Nutrition guidelines to follow this Ramadan

Hydration is key. Have sips of water while opening fast and further consume 2-3glasses water every hour from iftar time to cover 1-1.5litres, include fruits and vegetables with high water content like cucumber, watermelon,orange, spinach, tomato,lettuce, pineapple and strawberry

Avoid caffeinated drinks like chai or coffee or sodas as they increase urination and also increases thirst

Consume foods less in sodium and consume foods rich in potassium like banana, yoghurt/dahi,milk, unsalted pistachios in sehri as it suppresses thirst

Eat a well balanced meal including all food groups like cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, meat and meat products and fats

Complex carbohydrates like wheat,rice,oats are rich in energy and can sustain longer

Never feast in iftar this may make you skip sehri which is a wrong practice

Never break your fast with fried foods they may contain trans fat which might cause digestive issues or bloating

Include fruits and vegetables in both sehri and iftar

Chew your food well and do this slowly to increase digestion and to avoid unhealthy weight gain

Avoid deep frying method of cooking and avoid over consumption of oil, instead opt for pan fry/shallow fry, grilling, baking or steaming

Food and nutrition guidelines for kids

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Children having the natural characteristics of being fussy eaters becomes a major concern to the parents. kids being in their growing phase need all the good nutrition to enhance their development, but thats not just all they also need fun foods that keep them going to have that fun factor in life.

NUTRITION GUIDELINES:

AVOID MONOTONY:

Variation is a must for anybody’s diet and specially for children as this makes them build a relationship with food. The foundation to their establishment of a new start with their relationship starts with variation

2. PROVIDE KIDS COMFORT:

Your kids need your time, understanding, love and your cuddles. Your time with the kids make them more strong and confident in their choices and parents are the first influence on their kids

3. MONITOR THEIR HABITS:

Keep a track of your child’s eating behaviour because the habits are grabbed from a very young age and you can understand your child only when you keep an eye on their intake

4. GET YOUR KIDS INVOLVED

From gardening with you to selecting vegetables for lunch, from deciding meals to cook from selecting the right fruits, from reading news articles to watching health videos get them involved with you

5. SMALL CHANGES MAKE BIGGER HEALTHY CHOICES:

Swaping packed fruit juices with a fruit has its own benefits as it keeps away from preservatives, stabilizers. Make wise swaps for kids so that they dont get used to unwanted stuff which we clearly know is not good on the long run

6. DON’T AVOID ANY FOOD:

We all know that store bought or outside food is not always a good wholesome option to rely on and this should not make us from banning any foods from our children’s routine. Lets say a pizza when bought we clearly have no idea about the ingredients in the sauce or we know that there are not enough toppings on it and how about making the same pizza at home, this creates a great difference and also assures the child the funfoods he/she requires

7. HEALTHY SNACKING:

The right healthy option is not bland or tasteless it just needs a good pairing to get that amazing flavour and as parents it becomes a responsibility to deliver the right food to kids

8. DON’T FORCE FEED:

Never force feed because that has never been a solution if your kid is a fussy eater and does not like vegetables then hide the vegetables in their favouriet foods like pasta, one pot rice

9. TRAIN THEM WHEN YOUNG:

Young ones are easy to mould and they understand quick and act even more quickly so this is the right age for them to learn that more vegetables of rainbow colours give them more nutrition this fact is one of the other facts that stays in the mind imprinted

MENTAL HEALTH IS AS IMPORTANT AS FOOD TO THE BODY

Before you read the title so quick and move to read the article with curiosity let me tell you that the person who has written this particular blog has also been under bad mental health space this is just to make you comfortable in case you have been through bad times before.

People live in denial about mental peace when they forget that even a person with a wide happy smile is under pressure. What awaits us further in life is definitely a road with obstacles, but lets not destroy our mental health because of a few life hurdles.

Maybe we haven’t trained our mind enough to fight wrong territorial thoughts and maybe that is why we are all suffering

Everybody at some point in life has felt like drooping with pressure or losing their mind or facing deteriorating health issues and its everybody’s story, but coping up with it and stepping into a brighter day is what we need to learn.

TIPS TO HELP RELIEVE ANXIETY/STRESS:

Drink more of water when you feel stressed, this will help you calm down for a while

Stop overthinking when you feel upset, more of negative thoughts will worsen the situation

Try to journal when in stress this will channel your pain in an effective way

Read a good book which will uplift you in the crisis

Do not binge eat when in stress, just eat a fruit or take in a few nuts

One of the successful mothod is meditation, breathe in and breathe out tip is never out of fashion and always in trend

Stressed mind reflects the negative energy double times, it overpowers and constantly forces all the possibilities in the situation which mostly isn’t pleasant and positive
saba fathima

MENTAL HEALTH IS AS IMPORTANT AS FOOD TO THE BODY

QUICK FOOD GUIDE FOR YOUNG ADULTS

As growing adults, our mind is loaded with thoughts and we are running down with repetitive busy schedule. In this time nutrition is important.

spare a minute and just think of all the junkies you have been eating this whole week and now count one if you had a junk item today and one more point if you had something yesterday, add up for the complete week and see how much you have been loading up on the unwanted stuff.

for young adults it is hard not to crave for a slice of pizza overloaded with cheese or to munch over constant fried street food and it is understandable and so lets not use heavy words like restrict/stop/abandon/avoid but lets create a balanced cycle

what we consume is what reflects in the body , it happens to influence the mind too!

Let us all have cheat days too but not often because our bodies are not going to be the same forever

There will be times where we will feel the need to go all healthy at once and develop vegetable routines, enhance healthy yoghurt drinks, consuming energy boosters like nuts, snack on fruits, have a little caffeine rush and munch on those meatballs but it would simply look new and foreign because its happening all at once so lets not load our body and start with little and then initiate ourselves towards healthy eating so that it becomes a habit later on.

Lets take resolutions of healthy eating:

I will eat vegetables as much as I can, even if I hate it
I will try to start a planner for my fitness too
I will develop proper eating habits which include food from all food groups
I will sleep maximum of 8 hrs of sleep to work with good peace of mind
I will at least try eating the food that I have been avoiding over the years
I will eat minimal junk food and plan my cheat days accordingly and compensate with healthy food
I will not binge over packed foods

The above lines might look heavy but it is not impossible. We as the younger generation contain so much of information but we fail to follow and practice, lets try to create a change within and shine brighter.

DIABETIC DIET

A diabetic patient is tired of hearing advice’s to avoid sweets and so many other foods that are simply fascinating. Let’s make it easier for them to have the food they desire occasionally. But follow the tips below for a good maintenance of your blood sugar levels.

Lets practice good food with good fitness
Lets live a stress free happy life
saba fathima

BASIC STEPS TO FOLLOW:

Proper diet patterns needs to be followed, no irregular food timings, sleep patterns. Do not consume outside food often and strictly avoid fried foods and bakery products often.
There should be seven meal timings in a day’s menu. NO long intervals should be given between meals this can shoot the glucose levels. Small frequent meals are essential- Early morning, breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, evening snacks, dinner, bed-time.
To have a proper balance of all the nutrients, for eg. Your lunch should have inclusion of carbohydrates, pulses, vegetables, diary and very little fat
Consumption of meat products regularly is not advisable as there will be fluctuation in the lipid profile especially the bad cholesterol
Fruits can be consumed except for banana, mango, custard apple, sapota/chiku. Seasonal fruits should be promoted.
Try using different millets and cereals in diet to have a variety and to avoid repetition

SAMPLE MEAL PLAN:

Any one food should be selected from breakfast, mid-morning, evening. This is to just give you an idea how the planning should be done to have a variation. Different menu can be planned accordingly.

EARLY MORNING: ragi malt/ milk

BREAKFAST: bajra idli/ wheat dosa/ jowar chappathi/ urad dhal chutney

MID-MORNING: fruit salad with yoghurt/ almond/ oats porridge

LUNCH: rice/ dhal/ curd/ vegetable stir fry/ chappathi/ spinach

EVENING SNACKS: sprouts/ chickpea salad/ steamed corn

DINNER: quinoa with steamed broccoli/ poached egg

BED-TIME: fat free milk