Should we peel our food?
Granted,
you’re living in a concrete jungle where you have no control over pesticides in
your baingan and adulteration of your milk. You are also too busy to bother
about what you feed yourself, often rushing to grab a burger, gorging on a
pizza and washing these down with a cola. The reasons given for treating our
body to junk are many. Health foods? Too expensive. Counting nutrients?
Impractical. Organic and natural food? Not always possible.
Say ‘No’ to animal protein
Don’t pack in protein from animal sources - cheese, milk, meat, butter, eggs
etc. Unlike plant-based protein sources, these take more time to digest, making
you feel heavy and bloated. To make matters worse, unknowingly there is a
tendency to have acidic food to help digest the protein (eg, consuming alcohol
with meat).
Dairy can be avoided
Have soya milk or almond milk if you can’t do without your daily glass of milk.
Dairy products, especially the ones available after processing these days, do
your body no good.
Oily fact
Watch your oil consumption. The best way to consume oil is through nuts and
seeds rather than the refined form where all fibre is lost. Think you cannot
make your sabji without a generous dollop of ghee? Here’s how you can do it -
Add a little salt to soften the onions and fry them in a pan without oil or
fat. If you feel it sticks, just sprinkle a little water. Onions will get fried
just as well.
Change your cooking style
Healthy, oil-free cooking might take a little longer than usual, but it’s worth
the wait. Begin using vegetable broth to cook your sabjis and curries. Can’t do
without tasty (oily) temptations like patties, fries or cutlets? Simply coat
your patties in fine peanut powder and roast them. It might take a while, but
the oil released from the peanuts is enough to cook them.
Have whole foods
Eat only whole foods because most of the nutrients and flavour is in the skin and when you peel them, you throw away the nutrients. Ever wondered why you add sauces and masalas to spice up vegetables? It’s because while peeling the skin, you are ridding it of its flavours too. If you learn to cook with whole foods, you won’t feel the need to artificially flavour them with sauces. Similarly, have unpolished rice and brown rice instead of the white one,s and atta instead of maida.
Use water sparingly
Washing vegetables, grains and fruits is well, necessary, but don’t overdo it, else you’ll lose all nutrients. Steam your veggies instead of boiling them. You’ll require less water and retain nutrients too. Also, never wash vegetables after chopping them.
Have fruits separately
Do not combine fruits with a meal. Our bodies digest fruits very quickly as compared to other foods, as fruits are very sugary and therefore ‘ferment’ in your stomach. This is fine normally, but if you eat fruits post a heavy meal, then the fermenting fruit remains in your stomach a lot longer and can cause bloating, gas and discomfort. Also, have fruits instead of juices. The calories are higher in juices and with fruits, you’ll get your fibre too.
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