‘Smell, touch, relish food; don’t eat while watching TV, mobile’

Nagpur: Modifying dietary habits and making corrective lifestyle adjustments is one of the best ways with which all age groups can ensure holistic health in the long term, said integrative nutritionist and health coach Neha Ranglani.
“Having food is like instilling life in our bodies. We should give top priority to the act of having food. Unfortunately, this is the most neglected part of our routine,” she said adding that this neglect is bringing various lifestyle disorders to us.
She said, “Try this. Dedicate time for having food. Smell, touch, taste, relish your food, stimulate your senses, enjoy the aroma, admire the food, and you will feel the difference.”
Terming ancestral practices like praying before food, maintaining silence while eating and concentrating on food as the best, she appealed to people eat with hands, sit on ground while having food and keep TV and mobile phones away from dining zone.
Ranglani spoke on ‘Prioritising mindful eating: The new mantra for holistic family health’ in a public awareness campaign organized by the Almond Board of California in Nagpur.
“It has become our habit to eat packaged or processed readymade food throughout the day. We can replace unhealthy wafers, oily snacks and sugar-filled candies with dry fruits like almonds. Snacking on healthy foods like almonds not only keeps us from munching on junk foods but also ensures that our body gets nutrition, as almonds are a source of 15 nutrients such as vitamin E, magnesium, protein, riboflavin, zinc.
“Problems like constipation, acidity, bloating will end when we start eating mindfully. Weight reduction, diabetes reversal, fat loss everything is possible with proper dietary habits,” she said.
Speaking on the ‘International year of millets’, she said it’s the best initiative. “Our ancestors used to eat different millets during different period of the year. Due to this, wheat consumption was limited. Nowadays, we are overeating wheat in various forms, right from breads to burgers. This has resulted in many problems. Having millets replacing wheat would be a healthy idea,” Ramtani said.
Film and television actor Mrinal Kulkarni was also present for the campaign. She said eating almonds is a part of her daily routine and has played an important role in maintaining her health as well as beauty.