Why Nutrition Matters

We live in an age where inhaling fumes from a garbage dump fire seems like a daily routine. Where pollution levels are termed as ‘alarming’. Where chemicals and pesticides in foods lace our stomachs and crawl into our blood streams like stealthy satans, waiting to create havoc. Where just one junk meal makes our bodies age rapidly because of the preservatives, rancid oil and inflammation-causing ingredients. And yet, over a party drink, we boast of being healthy.

The efforts we make to stay healthy are just not enough to reverse the odds we’re up against. Our bodies crave nutrition, and all the factors listed above, plus less sleep and stress, inhibit absorption of nutrients. The result then is, early ageing and onset of lifestyle diseases that we should have got in our 60s. Once you get it that the basis for staying disease-free is nutrition and oxygenation, you will never fall ill. So how do you balance that out with your hectic life? You need a nutrient-dense schedule. Here are some tips:

Eat fruits for breakfast every weekday. With your schedule, remembering to eat fruit through the day may become a challenge. So choose three different fruits every day, that way you can get a lot of variety in your nutrition, and eat them for breakfast. Combine with a handful of mixed nuts and seeds, and you’re done with your fruits and good fats for the day! The pesticides in fruits have less significance than their nutrition. A fruits and nuts breakfast also keeps you alert and agile.

Each meal should be nutrient dense. Load up on cooked vegetables, raw salads and a little bit of lentils. Include 1-2 super foods in each meal. These include: extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, yoghurt, green tea, berries, apples. Carbohydrates like wheat, white flour (roti, bread, noodles, pasta) slow you down, cause phlegm inside the body and increase inflammation. Switch to small quantities of brown rice or oats or have wheat for taste only.

Up vitamin C intake. Anti-nutrients like pesticides, chemicals, allergens and even stress get flushed out with vitamin C. Fresh sweet lime, orange, keenu juices and stir fried broccoli, red and yellow peppers, raw salads, all have an abundance of vitamin C along with other micro nutrients. They up absorption of vitamin B and iron in the food you eat if combined together, making food more nutritious. Make sure you source these items from a reliable source.

Up the probiotics. The good bacteria in your stomach increases nutrition absorption. Eat yoghurt as a snack rather than with food, the good bacteria absorbs better. This will also improve your digestion.

Drink water. In the morning when you wake up, before every meal, at tea time. Clock two litres minimum. It helps nutrients reach the body parts that need it, flushes out toxins and reduces blood pressure. Don’t drink more than a glass every time, it’s important to space water out so that nutrients don’t get diluted and bloating is controlled.

Breathe slowly. Spend a few minutes each day, just sitting and feeling your breath. Do this 2-3 hours after any meal. This helps in digestion, nutrition absorption and stress reduction.

Sleep more. The best way to repair your worn out body and increase nutrient absorption is to sleep it out. Just get into bed at 10 pm and switch off your phone. In a few days’ time, this will become your routine and you will fall asleep faster.

Practice all the above and see your weight disappearing, skin clearing up, moods getting better, blood pressure reducing, sugar levels coming down, cholesterol reducing. In short, the miracle of good health in just seven easy steps!