On the occasion of World Food Day that falls on October 16 every year, nutritionists list down foods that we should add and cut out from your daily diet. Sangeeta Yadav reports
From chips, chocolates, momos, biscuits, to burgers, pizza, pasta, paranthas dipped in oil, sugar intake through coffee, tea, and much more. When it comes to eating, we gorge anything and everything that is easily available at home and at nearby shops. But we don’t think of whether that food is healthy for the health on a long run or not and if it is balanced diet. In today’s time when multiple health issues are on a rise, the need of the hour is to develop healthy and smart eating habit and be aware of what not to eat and what can be the best substitute for it. Here are a few foods that need to be cut off from the diet to build stronger immunity and healthy living.
Oil it right
Be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, paranthas and pooris dipped in oil are the two popular foods that are very commonly made in every Indian household. Since these are highly oily foods, it is important to use the right oil to make it.
“Anything which is highly oily is not good for health especially for the people of 45 plus years old. Since paranthas and pooris are quite popular in Indian staple diet, it is important that you choose plant based oil instead of animal oil. Oils have saturated fatty acid which is harmful to health. Instead of animal oil, one should use oilve oil, bran rice oil, canola oil and pure mustard oil but in less quantity,” Dr Madhurima Gupta, HoD, Preventive Healthcare, Sarvodaya Hospital and Research Centre, Faridabad.
like oil, ghee and butter also need to be consumed the right way. “For children, ghee and butter help in mental and physical development but for people above 45 years of age should cut down. Cow ghee and butter has saturated acid and too much of its consumption is harmful to healthy heart. It can get you high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, stroke and other detrimental health problems,” Dr Gupta says.
lipid test, which checks the cholesterol level in your blood, is very helpful in understanding how much good fat and bad cholesterol is stored in your body. Experts advise that one should keep their saturated fat intake to below seven per cent of the daily caloric allowance by eating more foods with a ‘good’ fat content.
“Alternatively, people can daily consume fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods and stick to low fat dairy products. The can consume lean meat products, eat fish twice a week etc,” Dr Gupta tells you.
Keep your carbs in check
Most of the major staple diet is made from wheat flour, be it roti and parantha, or pizza and burger. The most important thing to keep in mind is to maintain a balance in the consumption of carbohydrates.
“The intake of too much of refined atta and maida is not good for health but can have it once in a while. Too much gluten food harms the body. Instead of this, one can use wholegrain, chickpea flour and oat flour. One can also mix Wholegrain or oat flour with atta or maida. People can go for makki ki roti and bajre ki roti. One can also have boiled rice and should always drain out the starch,” Dr Gupta advises.
Smart snacking
During the evening time, many people go snacking chips, namkeens and what not. To develop a habit of healthy snacking the thumb rule is avoid foods that contain preservatives. “One can have poha, upma, fruits, oat, idli dosa, sweet corn, papad, popcorn, roast potato, etc. Anything which contains preservatives doesn’t do much good to the body. People should avoid food that contains too much of cheese like burger and pizza. Even in drinks, one can go for fresh lime water, fruit juices and shakes instead of aerated drinks.
Protein balance
“Children under the age of 20 requires a lot of protein and should be having a lot of pulses, tofu, nonvegetarian food, rotis made of channa atta, bonvita etc. During dinner time, it is advisable to have a lot of vitamin rich food like green vegetables instead of protein as it produces a lot of gas in the body,” Dr Gupta informs.
Too Sweet to handle
Since childhood days, one thing that we can’t resist from eating is anything sweet like chocolate, ice cream, etc. But doctors advise that it is better to cut down the sugar content as much as possible from the staple diet. “Milk, fruits and juice have its own natural sweetness and by adding sugar to it is not a good thing. Refined sugar is like silent killer which leads to many health issues as it has high carbohydrates and bad cholesterol,” Dr Gupta tells you.