Preserve your health during the lockdown

Edwina Raj, senior dietician at Aster CMI Hospital has listed a few simple ways of enhancing your immunity during this time of Coronavirus outbreak and lockdown. 

Amid lockdown, you must be flooded with ideas from everyone to stay safe. With loads of information making rounds on social media, of which a lot are fake, there is a chance that many of you are getting anxious and scared. All these can increase your stress levels that may result in a lack of interest in daily activities like exercise, cooking and cleaning. With increased stress, you may end up stress eating and enhance your body weight which may affect several blood parameters like sugar levels, uric acid, cholesterol values, blood pressure, mess up with thyroid function, cause constipation and sleep disturbances and impair mental health. You need to remember and work on equipping yourself to boost your immunity in order to prevent hospital visits.

Make the following simple changes to your daily routine if possible:

. Do not buy anything unhealthy. Rather, make a list before you head to your grocery store/order online.

. Staying indoors generally draws your interest towards food and frequent snacking becomes a common practice. Hence get prudent while snacking.

. Being at home can make you susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency and getting sufficient Vitamin D is crucial during this season. Its deficiency may adversely impact your immunity. Thus, never miss out on your weekly or monthly supplement dosage and talk to your doctor today.

Stay in touch with your loved ones online

. It is important to get connected with friends, family and relatives through phone/skype/video call to motivate one another and stay in touch. If you can manage the time and have the inclination, try doing c home-workout challenges, self-cooking, new healthy recipes and ideas for clean and tidy homes. Mental health is important and if you think it’s hard to cope with the unusual situation try to interact with psychologists, mindfulness experts and friends who are optimistic and can re-energise your mind. Many mental health professionals are offering their services for free over the phone.

. Consult your nutritionist online to devise a meal plan to maintain your health. Choose your food judiciously that combat your hunger hormones rather than snacking on carb-dense, starchy foods that get digested quickly and neither help you manage your hunger pangs nor give you the feeling of fullness.

. Some of the immune-boosting ingredients like Vitamin A, E, D, C, B6, B12, folic acid, iron, zinc, selenium, prebiotics and probiotics that should be included in your daily diet during this season are ginger, garlic, amla, tulsi, guava, kiwi, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, pepper, honey, curd, leafy vegetables, shallots, cabbage, bell peppers, sweet potato, seafood, nuts and oilseeds. But do not overdo and check with your nutritionist.

. Don’t give up on protein sources in your meal due to myths circulating on social media. Protein plays a vital role in enhancing the body’s immune system, especially for healing and recovery. If you are non-vegetarian, include protein in all your meals like fresh fish and antibiotic-free poultry. If you are non-vegetarian, include plant-based protein sources such as daal, beans like rajma, channa, paneer, nuts, curd, etc or consider having a protein powder prescribed by your nutritionist.

. Boost your immunity to help your body fight infection naturally with food or consider supplements as advised if you are unable to make it through diet. We Indians are blessed with immune-boosting foods that can be consumed through our traditional recipes such as rasam, lassi, chutneys, gravies or in the form of kashaya.

Avoid junk food

. Strictly exclude energy-dense junk and sugar-based preparations. Rather, include plenty of veggies and fruits that can help in building up your immunity.

. Respond to your high appetite and get hydrated during summer by adding low-calorie immune-boosting recipe ideas to your diet such as buttermilk with ginger and basil, vegetable soups with turmeric and pepper, sugarless ginger ale, sugarless unstrained fruit with nut smoothie/ kokum drink/jaljeera/aam panna with chia seeds and stevia, traditional rasam, millet-based drink, vitamin water, fruit-infused water, green tea or herbal tea, etc.

. Do not hoard any unhealthy food due to less activity during this season and blacklist junk, sugar-based, refined carbs, ready to eat foods, bakery goods, starchy vegetables and desserts.

. Giving up on sugary treats and replacing with jaggery is not a solution since both contribute to hiking up your sugar levels.

. Stack up some healthy homemade munchies to take a break from packed snacks made from white flour loaded with refined sugars and chemical additives.

. Listen to your body and limit portion size even if something is tagged as healthy.

. Fibre up your meal to manage your weight and prevent constipation. You can include vegetables for half of your plate, whole fruit can be a snack, you can take leafy veggies every alternate day, whole grain like unpolished rice can be a part of your meal and millets and sprouts can be a part of your regular diet.

. Never skip 30 minutes of physical activity. Regular physical activity and frequent exercise enhance one’s immune competency and regulation to fight against viral or bacterial infection. It also benefits one by managing weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. It helps to de-stress and calm one’s mind.

. Motivate each other to follow a healthy routine and manage your health during the lockdown.