Thread by @saffrontrail

🧵We are facing a terrible time with the second wave of Covid with anxiety and helplessness on every front.

There's a lot of misinformation on food/nutrition in the context of Covid.

I've prepared a diet plan to follow if you have Covid or for a proactive healthy diet. 1/14

To make it simple, here are the 3 categories of foods to eat everyday
1. Foods to improve immunity
2. Foods to reduce inflammation
3. Foods for improved mental health (our mental health is crumbling, whether we realise it or not) 2/14

CATEGORY 1 - Let us look at the immune-boosting category first.

Our gut is directly related to immunity. Gut flora consists of about 40 trillion live microorganisms and these makeup for nearly 75% of the immune system. So keep the good bacteria in the gut happy. How? 3/14

-Eat fibre rich foods like beans, dals, leafy veg, whole fruits like apple, banana (not juices), whole grains like millets.

-Prebiotic food gets converted into food that the good bacteria thrive on. 4/14

-Onions & garlic are excellent prebiotics with sulphur compounds that have antimicrobial effects.
-Eating probiotics like yoghurt, fermented drinks pumps your gut with good bacteria. Cut down on alcohol & caffeine (even tea)-->imbalance of good & bad bacteria in the gut 5/14

-All vitamin C rich foods are great for immunity-nothing fancy needed. Choose from all citrus fruits, guava, capsicum, papaya, amla. When in doubt, squeeze lime on it🍋.
-Nuts and seeds are rich in vitamin E and Zinc, both of which are very important for immunity. 6/14

-Zinc is critical to the development of immune cells and an important cofactor for many enzymes.
-Make sure every meal has some protein in it, as it is the building block of all cells including the antibodies that you need to fight infection. 7/14

CATEGORY 2 - Next is foods to fight or reduce inflammation. Inflammation plays an important role in all clinical manifestations of Covid19, one of them being lung tissue damage. Foods naturally high in antioxidants reduce inflammation. 8/14

Let’s see what’s in our kitchen. Tomatoes, turmeric, leafy greens, cold-pressed coconut oil, almonds, walnuts are all excellent to reduce inflammation.

Cut down sugar, processed foods, refined oils, excessive alcohol, processed meat, trans-fats-these increase inflammation. 9/14

-Being home all the time, it is easy to succumb to boredom related eating, which is mostly packaged foods.

-Cultivate a hobby that keeps you mentally occupied and happy such as music/painting/growing plants or catch up with friends and family online to avoid boredom. 10/14

CATEGORY 3- Mental health-boosting foods

-Eat foods rich in folates. Combine 1/2 cup cooked spinach with 1/2 cup cooked lobia (black-eyed peas) and you have covered 60% of your daily folate intake in one bowl. 11/14

-Eat all local dark green leafy veg you can find.

-Vegetables like capsicum cabbage cauliflower have a high Antidepressant Food Score.

-Don’t forget water. Water makes up over 70% of your brain. Studies show that drinking <2 glasses of water is associated with depression 12/14

Don’t underestimate the power of sleep to improve your mental health. Body repairs itself during this downtime when the metabolism is slow and it does not have to work in high power mode. Brain cells clean out the cellular waste generated during the day time. So get the 😴 13/14

TO SUM UP: 14/14
What to eat in a day #covid19

If you want to share it on Instagram, I’ve done a similar post here instagram.com/p/CNwwYwSA0cM/…