HYDERABAD: With the ever-evolving trends and routines shaping our lives, maintaining proper nutrition has become a key concern. In light of this, CE spoke to Sheela Krishnaswamy, Nutritionist and Wellness Consultant, during a session titled ‘A Handful of Almonds a Day’, hosted by the Almond Board of California. The session focused on promoting healthier lifestyles, with almonds taking centre stage as a vital dietary inclusion.
As the session focused on almonds, we tried to ask her about how useful the session turned out to be. “We discussed the benefits of almonds and why they should be included as a part of a person’s daily diet and how they benefit and help in improving health. The nutrients that are contained in almonds have a lot of health benefits,” she informs.
On asking her about the various nutritional factors that help our health and lifestyle she says, “Basically when you look individually the requirements will differ from one person to another. But by and large if we were to ask for the general guidelines, just a few tips to keep in mind one is eat a well balanced diet everyday and make sure to include all fruit groups like whole grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, nuts, water, dairy and if a person eats non-vegetarian small amount of egg can be included.
Include all food groups so that all nutrients are available for the body because we need carbohydrates and protein for our body. We need a variety of food so dietary diversity is very important on a day to day basis.”
As the lifestyles have changed drastically and people have been involving themselves into intermittent fasting and portion control and so mentioning the right way to take part in these diet forms she says, “Are we doing it right is the bottom line.
A lot of people jump onto various kinds of diets like fat diets or flash diets and they do not do it right, they do not follow a healthy well balanced meal. So, portion control is a good thing because many times people end up eating more than what they really need and what their body requires. Portion control is definitely a good thing intermittent fasting, I have a couple of thoughts on that.
Yes, it does help some people initially but in the long run we don’t know how a person can sustain it. And even if a person is following it a person needs to eat healthy. If you eat anything and everything that is not right, a lot of people are unfortunately doing that. They will be saying I am fasting for 12 hours and I can eat anything the rest of the time, it does not work that way. It has to be healthy, well balanced food.”
Winters get us all carving to food that is hit and deep fried and so giving out nutritional tips for the season for all the Hyderabadi she says, “I don’t know if indulgence is because of desire of hunger, I think it is very important to first identify that a person is really hungry or not.
And if the person is really hungry, always reach out for healthier options like a handful of almonds, fresh fruit, cup of spouts, omelette or something which is healthier than reaching out for a slice of pizza, fries or chips. We have to reduce the fats that we eat and also reduce things like sugar and sodium. Eat more healthy nutritious food that is how we are going to prevent lifestyle related disease.”
With the organic products taking a centre stage and choosing the right organic stuff gets difficult and so commenting on the same she explains, “I think one good thing the government has done is that they have given a logo of foods which are organic.
Look for the logo and look for authentic products. They are stores that selling authentic organic products so go for that and clean label stuff. No one wants unnecessary chemicals added in their food. Minimise the use of unwanted ingredients; those are small changes we need to start looking for.”
People on a diet believe in cheat days but end up counting all the days as the same and so giving out details to control themselves from the trap she says, “That requires a lot of mindfulness, behavioural change not getting tempted, reaching out only for healthy options.
Cleaning out the refrigerator and kitchen of all the unwanted food stuff, a lot of small steps will help you reduce the number of cheat days but even if you have a cheat day enjoy whatever you are eating and don’t feel guilty about it and if you feel guilty that stress makes it worse. Have a cheat day once in a month and eat something that you really love and then just let it be.”
Giving out a nutritional tip for the people she mentions, “Eat mindfully, include a wide variety of healthy nutritious food and definitely don’t forget to exercise, get good sleep and get adequate sunshine and have a lot of social connectedness. It is very important.”