India has a rich culture of foods and cuisines. From numerous vegetables, fruits and grains to a variety of spices, Indian cuisines are loaded with diverse and delicious foods. However, the importance of food diversity does not reside solely in providing flavours but also in boosting your overall health. Wondering how?
The flavours, tastes and aromas of different foods play with your senses and enhance your digestion. When you look at your food, you salivate, and enzymes are released, helping to strengthen your gut. Food diversity also enhances your longevity and reduces the rates of chronic diseases in your body. Hence, we always recommend including local, seasonal, regional and diverse foods in your diet. Now, if you also wish to make a remarkable change in your health with a diverse diet, keep reading to explore how you can do it in real life.
How To Include Diversity In Your Diet?
- Include various grains in your diet. Do not stick with just rice and wheat. All grains are necessary and constitute different nutrients. Therefore, it is important that you include different grains in your diet, such as rice, wheat, ragi, jowar, bajra, kodo, buckwheat, maize, etc.
Let’s Bust a Myth:
Many people believe that they should substitute wheat with other grains. However, if you do not have gluten intolerance, you must eat wheat. Wheat is highly beneficial in boosting digestion and preventing type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, etc.
- While including lentils and pulses in your diet, do not only eat your favourite. Try to include different lentils in your diet every ten days. Each lentil is rich in a specific set of nutrients, and your body needs all of them!
- Add various herbs and spices to your food, such as ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, coriander, cumin, heeng, etc. Herbs and spices not only help to enhance the flavour of your food but also to improve digestion and strengthen your gut.
- You must try to eat things that have originated locally. For example, instead of kale, prefer spinach; instead of quinoa, prefer daliya, millets, etc. Such foods are more gut-friendly and therefore help to improve and add diversity to your gut bacteria.
- You should always try to add as many colours to your diet as you can. No, it is not to make your food visually appealing! The coloured pigments of foods such as berries, carrots, etc., are rich in different antioxidants that help to reduce oxidative damage in the body.
India has an abundance of seasonal fruits and vegetables. They are unprocessed, fresh, environment-friendly and rich in high nutritional value. If you eat them fresh while they are available, you do not need to eat processed and cold-storage foods. Therefore, do not miss out on seasonal foods and eat them as much as you can.