In today’s tiring and stressful life, people have been neglecting their health constantly. Be it clocking in less hours of sleep, or being under intense amount of stress, leading to behavioral changes and changes in food habits. Every day brings something new to the table, but what should remain constant is our lifestyle and our daily nutritional intake.
As Denis Waitley once said, “Time and Health are two assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” We only become more conscious and aware of our lifestyle, when there are some fluctuations in our body.
As a society, we need to become more aware about the food we eat, the type of nutrients we consume on a daily basis, and for that, we need to understand our body first. Every person has a different nutritional requirement according to their body type. For someone performing resistance training or looking to build muscle mass, protein intake has to be significantly higher than the normal amount. For someone opting for high endurance training, high carbohydrate stores should be present in the body.
So let’s start with the basics of nutrition. Few of the important things we need in our body are proteins, carbs i.e. carbohydrates, fats, fiber and vitamins. We will not delve into details for all of them, but the basic working of these will be explained below.
Carbohydrates, proteins and fats, all of these can provide us with energy in the form of ATP. However, carbohydrates is the most used form for ATP. Depending upon an individual’s basal metabolic rate, the requirements are different.
For Indians, if I assume a person is having a proper lunch including roti and rice, our carbohydrate and fat diet is pretty up to the mark. However for many people, especially vegetarians, protein sources are less. Hence, it is important to consciously eat more protein rich foods such as soya milk, tofu, paneer, dal and nuts. We need 0.8g protein for every kg body weight and hence protein intake should be at least 80% of the optimal requirement for normal bone growth and a healthy body.
One important aspect of diet that we usually overlook is fiber. Fiber helps for normal passage of food through our body and also helps in digestions. One should include fruits like apple and oranges, breakfast cereals, barley and oats along with beans and potato for fiber intake.
The next aspect of a diet is water. One should drink at least 6 glasses of water daily. Many people only drink water after exercising or during extreme thirst. One should make it a point to continually be sipping water throughout the day to keep the body hydrated and to flush out all the toxins from the body. Drinking water also helps keep the skin fresh and glowing. So, instead of looking at beauty regimes or when tackling skill problems, the first step should be to drink water.
The most underappreciated aspect of diet is sleep. Our body needs at least seven hours of sleep, and for kids, nine. Adequate amount of sleep ensure our body cells get regenerated and our brain gets rest. These are a few simple aspects of life that should one follow daily, and these show fast results, with improvements being seen from the very start.
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