HOW TO STAY IMMUNED DURING COVID-19?

Healthy Balanced Diet during Covid-19

Covid-19 Pandemic has been a serious challenge to the human kind. Parallelly, it impacts upon the living style of people around the world. Starting from physical to mental activities as well as the food intake of people. It is definitely difficult to maintain a proper diet during this pandemic,as gratifying as before.During this Covid-19, taking a proper balanced nutrition apart from practicing a hygiene life is very important. Good nutrition will definitely keep us fit and help to make us more immune to prevent, fight and recover from infections.

 According to WHO , the tips for maintaining a healthy diets are:

1.Eat plenty of seasonal fruits

Eating a variety of fruits always end up boosting your immunity. Fruits containing Vitamin-C like strawberries, oranges, pineapples,grapes etc have a lot of antioxidants to boost your immunity. Fruits like papaya will help you improve your digestion and enhance immunity as well.  

2. Include green leafy vegetables, eg. spinach,curry leaves, cabbages etc 

Because once they mix with the powerful stimulative spices, they become very effective to strengthen your immune system; which provide calcium, iron and other valuable nutrients which have an effective value in your body. Add vitamin-C and vitamin-D to yours diets.

3. Limit salt and sugar intake

Limit your salt intake to less than 5g and use iodized salt. Avoid foods which are high in salt and sugar which lower your risk of overweight, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

4. Eat moderate amounts of fats and oils

Prefer white meat over red meat. Avoid processed meats because they are high in fats and oils. Try to consume saturated fats like fish, avocado, nuts, olive oil, soy, canola, sunflower and corn oils. Also includes peanuts,sprouts.

5.Include legume and lentils everyday

These are easily available great source of proteins. They can be consumed everyday which definitely boost your immune system. Moreover have a meal having combination of beans and grams.

6. Stay hydrated

Start your day with taking 2-3 glass of lukewarm water.Drink at least 8–10 glass of water every day.Also you can add other drinks like fruits and vegetables which contains water. 

7. Take a glass of Turmeric Milk  everyday

Take a glass of milk everyday with some haldi in it which boost your immune level very high. Also, include Turmeric as much as you can in your food.

Also read| Is Bubonic plague another pandemic?

TIPS:

• Avoid hazardous substances and harmful alcohol use.

• Breastfeed babies and young children.

• For snacks, raw vegetables and fresh fruits ranks the top.

• Also, you can add black pepper and cumin in your diet as cumin helps to increase metabolism and improve digestion and black pepper cleanses the body entirely and help developing body's defense mechanism.

• It has been found out that moderate intake of protein, vitamin C, vitamin D and other nutrients for COVID-19 patients who are still in the recovery phase or people having mild symptoms,is very helpful.

• Lastly, "A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything".  A good sleep is incredibly important for your health. A healthy adult needs between 7-9 hours of sleep per night for a good health.

Sources: #HealthyAtHome-Healthy Diet by WHO

               Nutrition Advice by WHO EMRO

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