The pollution levels this time around has been over the top. November is generally a breezy month, with the hot summers vanishing and the winters dropping in to say hello! But the pollution levels this time have given rise to an untimely smog resulting in grave danger to the health of kids and adults alike.. We can only hope that the masks save us from the inhumane conditions we are forced to live in!
Now more than ever it has become important to take care of our eating habits! It always was, but we tend to nothing till any calamity strikes us, so take this as a wake up call and ensure that you add the following to your meals.
▶ Antioxidants: All colored fruits/vegetables with peel, like carrot, apple, guava, amla, beetroot[this you can heave without peel too] etc. .
▶ Greens: The most hated, but the most important! Our Green Leafy Vegetables. We have started adding palak, methi, bathua to our roti ,add more and more greens to your meals for additional iron and antioxidants.
▶Nuts: These small wonders pack a solid punch when it comes to providing excellent amount of antioxidants and micros. They are amazing for immunity.
Though, this is not the real solution of the problem at hand. The least we can do is take care of our health and think straight about what really needs to be done about and for the environment. .
A few suggestions of what we can do take care of the environment, and this is not something that just need to be done just for a day, but it needs to done each day and every day.
▶ Of course open burning of anything needs to stop. Now this could be hookah, burning of leaves, wood [all that we read in environmental sciences is really true, it gives out carbon monoxide which is hazardous for us and the environment], and ya, that cigarette too!! [You will save yourself and the environment both, it’s a win win!!]
▶ Carpooling is a great step if we all can do that. It will save you some bucks, your time, energy, and the coughing environment too! We are already on Uber pool.
▶ Cycling to work or walking as much if possible, of course with a mask on. As a nutritionist, we would still recommend walking, you would lose that excess flab, get some physical activity which you can’t generally get because “office timings are such”, reduce your potential of getting a lifestyle disorder and be fitter and energetic than before!
▶ The long term solution would of course be to reduce our carbon foot print. Minimize wood burning, switch to LED bulbs, unplug unused power appliances, to minimize power consumption, a few easy doable things among a lot of others.
We all can do something to contribute to cleaning this mess, as some way or the other it’s our doing only. Let’s not wait for the authorities to wake up and do something, let’s not wait for someone else to come up and tell you what needs to be done, let’s not pass the buck to someone else to do the cleaning. Nothing can happen till the time we wake up and do something!
So wake up, do change, be better, make better!! Be a doer!