Eat Best, Leave the Rest!

In the current circumstances of the global pandemic it has become necessary for every individual to keep a track of his health. This includes eating healthy food along with every other precaution needed for our health. Healthy food is important because as the old saying goes "you are what you eat". In our busy schedules and fast lives, we often end up eating as per convenience instead of eating healthy. Many times, we eat to please our taste buds and remain quite unaware about the health hazards that such eating habits might pose.

In order to remain healthy, our body needs every natural element whether it is vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber or even fat. Each of these nutrients has their own individual role to play in the physical and mental development but we are supposed to choose them wisely in order to create a well-balanced diet. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a nutritious diet can boost our immune system and help us to fight off symptoms.

Eating a healthy diet is not about strict limitations, staying unrealistically thin or depriving ourselves of the food we love. Rather, it is about feeling great, having more energy, improving our health, and boosting our mood. In recent decades, lifestyle is considered as an important factor of health. According to WHO (World Health Organization), 60% of related factors to individual health and quality of life are correlated to lifestyle (The WHO cross-national study of health behavior in school aged children from 35 countries: findings from 2001-2002.)

The significance of a balanced diet cannot be emphasized enough for a healthy lifestyle. And healthy lifestyle can be attained by keeping into consideration to meet all the essential nutrients required by the body. In particular, these nutrients are building blocks for the development and over well-being especially for children. The "Prevention Institute, California" reports that good nutrition not only contributes in growing children's physical development but also affects their cognitive development. Children who consume unhealthy food can have trouble concentrating, become easily fatigued and are likely to face difficulties in learning which can lead to behavioral and social problems. Now-a-days the convenience of eating out is overshadowed by the poor nutrition offered at most chain restaurants. A 2013 report by "Center for Science in the Public Interest" found that 97 percent of the kids' meals at the top chain restaurants have failed to meet basic nutrition standards.

These days, many of our systems and customs seem to be organized in a way that separates the different facets of heath for example, a nutritionist might recommend ways to eat healthy, and a therapist might recommend ways to cope with stress, but often, there is little to no crossover guidance for fitting the piece together as a whole because as B.K.S. lyengar says,

 Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.

A life towards happiness requires a healthy body. The more we eat healthy the less natural it feels to reach for a piece of or a bag of chips when we get hungry. It is not a matter of depriving ourselves of our favorite snacks, but simply a conscious recognition of respecting what is best for our body in the longer run.