Its already known that ‘Food’ is an ‘indispensable fuel’ for survival. Daily you read so many Food & Diet articles but do you usually put them into practice for your wellbeing? For some of you it’s YES, maybe you have last dieted in the past for your mirror image. Amazingly, the COVID-19 pandemic again has reminded human civilization ‘You Are What You Eat’ and Balanced Diet intake can only make immunity warriors strong.
But tell me - did we permanently turn out to be conscious TODAY for our OWN nourishment?
In this era of instant gratification, we habitually by and large are still making food choices that indulge our taste buds and provide instant fullness to the tummy. There's nothing wrong with an occasional treat—you have to #Treat Yourself every so often, after all! However, when you have little to no self-control on a daily basis, you can set yourself up to serious health issues opening with weight gain, lifestyle diseases, progressively inclining down to poor nutritional status (common micronutrient deficiency like anemia plus others).
Amidst, did you ever realize that indirectly these are making a way to waste your productive years of life in sickness with long hospital stays, when actually you could have used this important time for your professional growth, enjoying with people around you and also contributing for Nation’s growth?
YES, you heard me right!
YOUR ‘nutritional status and wellbeing’ is one of the key factors directly connected to Nation’s prosperity. Unfortunately, in this 21st century, India still has a large number of nutritional issues with majority of its population of all ages suffering from nutritional deficiencies due to many reasons (e.g., UNDER NUTRITION since childhood to puberty due to shortened breastfeeding, improper weaning, poor quality-unsafe foods or OVER NUTRITION due to bingeing more on calorie dense foods instead of calorie dense, fizzy drinks and so on). Nevertheless, ‘faulty eating habits’ right from early years of life remain as one of the common causes for the current vicious cycle of malnutrition.
But it wasn’t your fault!
Still, you can ‘NOURISH WISELY’ in this sustenance journey of ‘One Life to Live’. When you nourish right, you take care of your own health and ensure long term wellbeing - reducing YOUR HEALTH BURDEN on others! With each bite of food, you’re actually nourishing each cell of your body to empower you with energy, to grow, perform activities, protect from infections as well as making sure of your mental wellness and good SPIRIT too!
What if we could celebrate this #NUTRITIONMONTH 2021, encouraging ‘rising generation’ to eat intelligently for ‘healthy body image’ instead of just fueling? What if we could make them realize that her/his ‘SOUND Nutritional Status' can be their best GIFT to Nation’s prosperity?
Small steps in right direction do lead to big changes!
This is simple…. You have to follow gardener’s code of nurturing plants right from ‘start’ to get a fruitful yield. For that, you need to INITIATE THE MISSION of healthy eating practices in your FAMILY itself!
Investing on healthy balanced diet and ‘FEEDING SMART RIGHT FROM THE FIRST’ - from the moment of conception, throughout critical life stages (newborns, infants, early and late childhood years & teenagers) with environmental stimulation is a sure-fire strategy to achieve this GOAL.
FOR SURE, with successful antenatal period plus making the move with first 1000days of newborn life - feeding the first milk, colostrum (immunoglobulin rich) within one hour of delivery as ‘first vaccine’ followed by exclusive breast feeding, successful weaning plus complementary feeding – will seed a healthy microbiome, activate immune system & prevent infant mortality load for Nation. Additionally, this foundation nutrition will prevent deficiencies, growth faltering, promote cognitive development and support development of essential organs in Childhood thereby preparing for healthy puberty phase with vitality.
Also, ‘Healthy Eating Practices’ inculcated in early years of life resembles good financial investments. For example, breakfast to start the day, balanced weekly menus, eliminating unhealthy food temptations- will prevent faulty eating disorders, childhood Obesity and other nutritional related diseases too! Continuing on balanced nourishment plus fine tuning throughout adulthood (most productive years of life) will maintain body’s optimal nutrient stores, prevent deficiencies, maintain immunity against environmental insults – check onset of many chronic lifestyle diseases- encourage best productivity and work performance with positive mindset. Even reproductive phase will be healthy - putting off to birth of LBW babies & maternal death burden for Nation.
Definitely, when SHE/HE ages, will enjoy win-win nourishment investments laid in childhood - averting micronutrient deficiencies and early osteoporosis too! Did you know that eating the right foods can even help stave off age-related declines in memory and cognition?
Hence, maintaining optimum ‘nutriment score’ throughout life cycle can make true sense of the catchphrase ‘If Citizens are healthy, Nation is Healthy’ – an exclusive GIFT to Nation!
If NOT, then the vicious cycle of malnutrition will HINDER good health…. presently many of us are already experiencing its consequences, ensuing frequent hospitalization, poorer outcomes, increasing emotional - totaling up expenses and family burden, Isn’t it? In long run, this is going to add on Nation’s health burden finally, HALTING its prosperity.
So, let’s start our nourishment drive passionately…
Every time you put your time to dine with your children, family ‘eat mindfully’ with more love, gratitude and joy than ever before …. Watch how making that shift changes everything!
