Add Health to your Meals....!

We are a health-conscious generation and in theory, know the nutritional value of almost every food. But our taste buds are not slaves of the information we've gathered. In fact it's clearly the other way round! Some fruits are just non-seasonal the year round, while some veggies can never make it to the menu. If we don't like the taste of one, the smell of the other makes us say "eew" (the calcium-rich milk has my vote!). Well, we all may just get to keep our lists of outcasts without having to ever hear the doctor announce the deficiency we invited ourselves. Just grasp the tricks 
of food fortification.


 
A pinch of this and a pinch of that! 
Fortification is not new to Indian cuisine. Our spices are a storehouse of vitamins and other nutrients, informs nutritionist Naini Setalvad. Think of an ailment, and our good old turmeric's ready to fight. She reminds us of its anti-septic, anti-histamine and even cancer fighting properties. And indeed, the yellow power is rich in tonnes of nutrients - dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B6, niacin, manganese, iron, potassium, magnesium, omega 3 fatty acids, omega 6 fatty acids and phytosterols.


 
Sow the seeds for a healthy heart 
Cardiologist Dr Dhanashri Chonkar prescribes sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds to ensure that bad cholesterol doesn't come knocking. These seeds contain good monounsaturated fats that help keep cholesterol levels low and also lower blood pressure. While in the Western countries these seeds often land on buns and bakes, she suggests that we can incorporate them in our chutneys. "In fact, the traditional Maharashtrian diet serves interesting chutneys made from these seeds with bakhri."


 
Substitute nutrition 
While for the non-vegetarians, fish serves as a great source of the very important omega 3 essential fatty acids not produced by our body, those not into seafood can include in their meals flaxseeds, says Setalvad. "And to ensure that your family's diet in rich in calcium, mix oats and barley to the flour," she suggests. For sulphur, onions are very good, woch the Indian cooking uses almost be default. For a dose of zinc, she counts the other seeds already suggested by Dr Chonkar


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Fortifying desserts 
Nutritionist Namita Jain says honey makes for the perfect topping sauce thanks to glucose, B complex, C vitamins and some antioxidants. What's more, honey is always welcome to our taste buds, and works well practically with all the desserts says, Chef Arindam Bahel. More concerned with the taste aspect, he suggests marrying honey with cream, nuts and even chocolates. 




For the kids 
It's the kids who are the most fussy, agree all mothers worried about ensuring that their little ones receive a balanced diet. Paediatrician Dr Deepa Bhandarkar shares some sneaking tips for them, "Mix jaggery in dal. It's a rich source of iron." She also says that if kids don't like vegetables, prepare a blending and knead the dough in that liquid. "Like this you can sneak in their requirements of vitamin A and B, she says. And according to her, allow them to indulge in bhel. If made with chana, peanuts and sprouts, it's not really junk food." 

Six kitchen drop-outs...

You might be following the dos and don'ts of a healthy lifestyle - avoiding fried, unhealthy stuff, watching what you eat and exercising well. 

However, small things you miss tend to have a huge impact. Fact is, food is bombarded with chemicals in some way or the other and you invariably end up making the mistakes you were desperately trying to avoid. The solution - be informed and aware. Here are six easy dietary tips that can save you from life-threatening diseases.

How to use salt 
The common table salt you buy from your grocery is bleached and leached of all its minerals. This 'refined' or 'iodised' salt also includes additives including aluminium silicate (to make it free flowing), dextrose, bleaching elements and chemicals. Salt is vital to your body, but it's important to have the right type.
Solution: Switch to unrefined crystal rock salt (sendha namak). it contains 84 of the 92 trace minerals and that too in the same proportions as the human body does. It also has calcium and magnesium.

Avoid tea bags 
Switching to green or herbal tea is a good choice, but tea bags can negate all the good effects. They are manufactured using a compound called epichlorohydrin, which is also used as an insecticide and to manufacture plastics. The bags are bleached to look white, and the edges are heat-sealed using chemicals. Drop by drop we absorb these chemicals into our bodies and weaken our immune system.
Solution: Use natural tea leaves

Food labels 
If you don't recognise - or can't pronounce - the words on a food label, don't buy it. First, check for expiry date. Any product with a shelf life of two to three years is bad. While purchasing oil, check the chemicals mentioned.
Solution: Here's a quick guide:
- Avoid products containing nitrates and nitrites, sulphur dioxide, sodium benzoate, colouring, BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), MSG (ajinomoto), refined or bleached flour.
- Avoid products containing sugar substitutes such as saccharine or aspartame.
- Avoid food that has been genetically modified or engineered. Nearly all processed food contains GMOs.
- Avoid products made with ingredients described as 'natural flavouring' or 'natural colouring'.
- Avoid products with added sugar - watch for words ending in "ose", e.g. glucose.

Water before and after meals 
Naturopathy believes water is unhealthy for the body 30 minutes before and one hour after any cooked meal. If you have water before meals, it settles in your system before you've started eating. The enzymes released to aid digestion get diluted and they can't be as effective. Similarly when you have a meal it roughly takes 40 minutes to an hour to digest, and this process gets affected if you have water during or immediately after eating.
Solution: Chew food really well; the body generates its own fluid through saliva to aid digestion. And if you have something too spicy and have a lime shot instead of water.

Oily truths 
Don't fall for oils that make tall claims. Through a refining process, crude oils are standardised, using water, salts, acids, alkali, clay, pressurised hydrogen and catalyst metals. Oil is further processed, filtered, deodorised and bleached, stripping it of its vitamins, minerals and enzymes.
Solution: Use unrefined sesame or mustard oil. Don't use extra virgin olive oil for cooking as it has a low burn point. Cold pressed, unrefined oils are best used in their natural state.

Know your plastic 
Adopt these two measures: No plastic containers or wraps in the microwave. No plastic water bottles. For dioxin, a chemical that's highly poisonous to cells and causes cancer, is present in plastic and freezing water-filled plastic bottles releases it. Similarly, the combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxin so don't heat fatty food in plastic containers in the microwave.
Solution: Use glass or ceramic containers for heating food and glass jars or bottles for storing water. While having instant noodles or soups, remove the contents from the packet or container and heat them in something else.