by
Ranjani Ramesh,
B. Sc., Pg Dip. in clinical nutrition Sri Ramachandra Medical College
Article date:June 2002
Health
Is Wealth
Health has become one of the most
concern in today’s world. One of the main reason being overweight in
upper economic group and malnutrition in lower economic group.
We have to think of our ancestors who didn’t suffer like us. What was
their secret diet?
It was nothing but a balanced diet! Most of us don’t give the right
attention to our diet. Avoiding fat alone is not the solution for
healthy life. In fact fat is as important as the other nutrients. Our
goal should be to bring a balance in our diet including all the
nutrients in appropriate proportions.
Always remember “What we eat is what we are!”
Knowledge of nutrition is fundamental to a balanced diet.
Balance diet makes sure that our body gets all the essential nutrients
and hence prevents deficiencies. It also ensures that none of the
nutrient is taken in excess. As I stated earlier our ancestors were much
healthier than us because, they included all the nutrients in their
meal. Lets see how they included it.
A vegetarian lunch would have been like this:
Starter – a sweet.
Main meal – rice, sambar, rasam, curd, vegetables cooked, papad and
pickle.
Desert – fruit.
Now In this lunch we find that all nutrients are covered and the
proportion has to be modified as per our requirements which is defined
by the type of work we do (sedentary / moderate / heavy ) and also it
needs to be modified as per ones health condition for example diabetic,
high blood pressure etc.
If we balance our diet as per our body needs we will be able to prevent
the deceases caused by our food patterns efficiently.
