Posted on by shreyashah

NUTRITION TIPS FOR MONSOON

While the principles for healthy living and healthy eating remain the same throughout the year, certain seasonal rules apply. Just as summer and winter bring their unique environments and nutritional needs, the monsoon creates its own set of dietary restrictions.

Eating according to the season and region is the foundation of good health. It allows not just for individuals to have better health but also contributes towards local economy and helps keep the global ecology in a state of balance.

Eating during monsoons is always a little tricky. This is the season for gastro diseases, most of which are food and water related infections like typhoid, hepatitis A (in children) and hepatitis E (in adults) and gastroenteritis (commonly known as food poisoning). So during monsoons one must be doubly careful about the food they are consuming.

So here is a guide on what you can eat during monsoon!!!

  1. No Rain, Without Grain, As for grains, the season is a good time to bring home ragi, jowar, maize or corn (so the delicious roasted bhutta is an excellent option). Say no to bakery products like bread, biscuit, khari, rusk.
  2. Leafy Vegetables, The rainy season is probably the only time of the year when I would not recommend leafy greens, Now is the time to go off palak, methi, math,broccoli, lettuce, kale and rucola. These aren’t fresh and growing naturally now. Other options for non-leafy veggies include snake gourd (tori), gourd (dudhi), pointed gourd (parval), yam (suran), apple gourd (tinda), bitter gourd (karela), and cluster beans (gavaar) along with your usual onions, turnips and potatoes.
  3. Stick to Seasonal fruits, like Pomegranate, Banana, apple, pear, plums and cherries.
  4. Restrict Seafood And Poultry: Seafood such as fish and poultry like chicken and eggs must be restricted in your monsoon diet as these foods are heavy on stomach that may lead to hampering of your digestion system by slowing down it. Apart from that, the risk of infection increases in seafood and poultry during monsoon due to heavy rains. Pulses are the best source of proteins, vitamins, minerals and even fibre during this season.
  5. Oil, Use filtered groundnut/ mustard/ coconut oils and don’t re-use the oil for cooking afterwards. Remember that without essential fat in the diet, Vit D cannot get assimilated, and also that essential fats also help in regulating blood sugar. So apart from being tasty, oil makes the food healthy too (and for everyone, heart patients, obese and diabetics included)
  6. Hydration, Continue to hydrate yourself, even if you don’t feel thirsty. It is all the more important to have your 8 glasses of water daily (as you sweat excessively too). Water makes up 70% of our body mass and is one of the most vital nutrients. During the monsoon season, we not only lose out on this water content through sweating but rarely find ourselves feeling thirsty which is why we just don’t drink enough water.
  7. Stick to easy to digest foods, as body’s digestion capability is rather compromised in this season due to high humidity. For the same reason, Eat in moderation, focusing more on lighter foods, which can be easily digested such as fruits and veggies and less of oily and spicy food.
  8. Avoid sour food items as they lead to water retention and as it is there is a tendency to retain water in the body during rainy season.
  9. During monsoon, infections are on an all-time high and immunity is on an all-time low, so include anti infection foods like ginger, garlic, onions, turmeric (haldi), methi seeds and bitter gourd in your daily diet.
  10. Probiotics help keep the gut healthy, thus help boost the immunity immensely. Daily probiotics can help restore the natural state of health that a diet of excess sugar, meat, processed foods and prescription drugs have destroyed, and keep seasonal viruses away.

HYGIENE MUSTS

  • Eat at home mostly, and when eating out or ordering out make sure it is freshly cooked food (not raw salads etc.), and ensure that you wash hands every single time before you pick up food to eat.
  • At home, do not leave food unrefrigerated longer than one hour at a time to prevent bacterial growth.
  • Be particularly careful in handling any homemade food that contains eggs, mayonnaise or salad dressing, such as potato salads.
  • And of course it goes without saying that water for drinking, cooking and dishwashing must come from a safe and approved source.

33 Replies to “NUTRITION TIPS FOR MONSOON”

  1. It’s worth the know and nice blog Dr Shreya
    You have been motivating us through your daily tips and advices all this while during lockdown.
    Keep sharing!! 👍

    Reply

  3. Thank you so much for your valuable tips also I wanted to know in monsoon can we have warm lemon water

    Reply

    1. Adding lemon to luke warm water, is a very good option as there are many health benefits to it. The two major benefits are lemons strong Anti-bacterial, anti-viral and immune boosting power and their use as weight loss aid because lemon juice is a digestive aid and a liver cleanser.
      A glass of lemon water in the morning is more than enough to boost your digestion, metabolism and immunity.

      Reply

  15. Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?

    Reply

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