Why home cooked food is better for a healthier lifestyle

Our Indian culture has always encouraged us to eat home-cooked food instead of snacks which are easily available in the market. We have grown up hearing that the secret to a long and healthy life lies in your kitchen, the ingredients which are easily available in your kitchen are key to a healthy life.  

Make sure you eat slowly and chew every single bite properly. When you are having your meal, your full concentration should be only on what you eat. The ideal way of having the meal is to sit on the floor with folded legs and enjoy the meal. Our traditional Indian food has been designed in such a way that listens to our gut. Traditional Indian food is not only healthy but is also incredibly tasty with a lot of health benefits. Indian food supports immunity, Inflammation, brain function, and several other functions in the human body.

Instead of trying out some crash diet, if we just stick to our culture, our Indian food, and do some regular exercises, we will never gain those extra kilos.

Breakfast

Rather than starting your day with tea/coffee, start with a banana or any other fresh fruit. You can also eat soaked almonds or soaked raisins. For breakfast, you can have a traditional home-cooked breakfast, such as idli, dosa, or poha, about 45 minutes to an hour after the pre-breakfast snack.

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Mid-morning

You can have fresh fruit or a homemade laddoo or barfi. You can also opt for seasonal/homemade drinks, such as coconut water, buttermilk, nannari or nimboo sherbet. The Ayurvedic wisdom behind including these drinks during the day is to stoke the appetite, ease digestion, and boost the immune system.

Lunch

Stick to homemade cooked food such as rice, roti, and regular sabzi. You can also add chicken or eggs if you wish to.  Add ghee, the ultimate Indian superfood, to every meal. It is a fat that breaks down other fats, reduces sweet cravings and is excellent for digestion, keeps joints healthy and skin glowing. Lastly, add papad and achaar to your meal. Homemade achaar is a rich source of antioxidants which also improves immunity and Improves the process of digestion in your body.

Evening snack

The key to losing weight lies in what you eat between 4 pm and 6 pm. It is a time when most of us are hungry and also the most careless in our eating. You could eat chapati with ghee and jaggery. You can also eat poha, egg toast, murukku or homemade coconut or gond laddoos.

Dinner

Now, an ideal dinner should be done before 8 and keep the gap of at least 3 hours between your meal and bedtime. For dinner eat rice with sambar, rasam or dal and any green vegetable. Non-vegetarians can add chicken also. Pick hand-pounded or single-polished rice, instead of brown rice for your everyday use. This is easy to digest and a complete meal also improves sleep quality. At night if you still feel hungry then have a glass of milk.

What a healthy plate should look like?

You can follow the plate method. This healthy eating plan works for everybody, including people with diabetes. Indeed, making nutritious healthy meals will be a snap.

A healthy plate is a way to control your serving sizes so that you don’t have to count. Simple use a 7-inch plate for children and a 9-inch plate for adults. First, divide the plate in half and fill one of them with vegetables. There are two types of vegetables, starchy potatoes, corn, peas or plantains and non-starchy like zucchini, jicama, cucumbers, carrots, or salad. If you have diabetes, fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables, then fill ¼ with whole grains or starchy likes brown rice, corn, and beans. In the other quarter, add some lean protein like tofu, grilled fish, or chicken. Lastly, add a bowl of rice or bread.

The idea is to eat everything in the right proportion to lead a healthy lifestyle.