Mr. Luke Coutinho, Co-founder of YouCare Lifestyle
It is said that foods can be as fresh as it gets when they are at their peak of quality, which means they are also at their peak of flavour. This however also gives rise to the myth that healthy foods are flavourless and just bland.
When it comes to satisfying hunger, one must listen to their internal cravings. Healthy eating does not mean consuming boring food. It can also be food that is flavourful, delectable, and healthy at the same time.
Satisfying Hunger
Satisfying hunger is an important part of life, but then listening to what your mind tells you to eat, can be the key to switching to clean consumption of food. For instance, having a pizza is a good example of what one could consider as not being healthy. However, opting for a healthy pizza is also possible.
While the pizza base itself can be a bread made of whole wheat in place of refined flour, to make it a healthier option lifting the value and taste to the tomato sauce, cheese, herbs, olives, etc. that are a part of the toppings. Similarly, if noodles are your calling, carrots, zucchini or even radish make for tasty noodle options that is balanced and leave no scope of worry for health.
What exactly is a balanced diet? To put it simply, it is a way of eating that provides and helps fulfil all your nutritional requirements in balance and based on what suits your body type and goal. It is about how well are you able to maintain healthy eating, while also allowing some room for treats and foods you truly enjoy, even better if made the healthy way with healthier alternatives.
Adding Value
French fries? How about swapping them with baked sweet potato fries or dehydrated kale chips or even if you wish to go for fries, at least making sure that the right quality of oil is used for frying? Small shifts like these made into your snacking habit, can go a long way in maintaining your health.
In the past getting over the feeling of having something sweet was tough and this would be the cause of resistance within that one could hardly stop. But now here’s the thing, one easy way to enjoy the sweet without compromising on health is to stick to natural sugars. Fruits, raw honey, dates, dried figs, jaggery, coconut sugar, dried raisins, etc. also make for alternate ingredient options.
All along, natural food products have been strongly associated with improvements in food quality and health due to reduced pesticide residues and heavy metals compared to conventional food. This clean culture has grown on account of both the availability of 100% natural food products and the availability of time to prepare meals oneself. Both are seen as being particularly important to achieving healthier food consumption.
Having said that, what we eat is just half of the story. How and how much of it we eat, our emotional state, our relationship with food, etc. also impact how we digest, absorb, and assimilate a meal. So, it’s necessary to focus on each of these aspects to extract the maximum worth from a nutritional meal that has ingredients that appeal to the taste buds.
The saying ‘you are what you eat might not always strictly translate into execution, but a meal that is both healthy and delicious will always be an ideal food choice for anyone who wants to live a long happy life as a large number of people are now realising this.
