Health
I Stopped Consuming These 5 Things, And My Body Is Thanking Me!
You may not know that these very regular items stocked up in your pantry, are doing more harm to you than good.
As someone who was born and brought up in a culture of cooking foods fresh (Indian by birth!), moving to Europe was no less than a culture shock, where cooking is not taken as a necessity, but a leisure activity that people do only to unwind and relax.
On the other hand in India, cooking is a mandatory activity to be undertaken three times a day, every single day no matter what!
In India we have a culture of cooking and consuming foods fresh. Whatever we cook in the morning, we consume by night. Or maximum we consume it the next day. But maximum foods are never stored to be consumed after three or four days. Most of them are thrown out instead!
Only a handful of fermented foods, pickles or chutneys that have a longer shelf life, are preserved and consumed for long time.
After moving to Europe, I realised that it was a common practice to eat packed and processed food. Or just heat something in the oven and consume it, without seeing how long it was packed or how many weeks old the meal really is.
The Indian in me would die a little, every time I went out with my European friends and they picked up wraps and sandwiches from supermarkets to consume.
My health saw really drastic changes after I came to Europe. While in India, I maintained a steady weight even without working out much, because the foods I was consuming were (maybe) lighter on my stomach and easy to digest. Most of it was fresh so I had lesser health issues.
After moving here, initially I fell sick a lot, because we were not cooking meals that frequently at first. We were consuming a lot of bread-cheese (typical Dutch meal!) that my body could not take, because it was a completely new thing for me. It was equivalent to serving a Dutch person, roti-bread with curry three times in a day.
After a lot of experimentation and building habits like cooking my meals fresh, I stopped consuming these five foods and I could feel that my body is thanking me.
Processed Breads
Luckily, the Netherlands is a country where you can find artisan breads like spelt, sourdough, meerzaad (more seeds) very easily in almost all supermarkets.
I switched from buying the regular processed white or brown breads, to buying sourdough or whole grain, or spelt breads. I could instantly feel the difference in hardly a week. My digestion improved, and I was less bloated.
Processed Cheese
Same with cheese as not all kinds of cheese is healthy or suitable for your gut. Some people cannot digest blue cheese and some people are advised not to consume certain types of cheese if they have digestion issues.
Initially, I didn’t pay much attention to what I consumed, but after doing some research, I realised that I should only stick to a handful of cheese varieties and not try everything in the supermarket. Because bacteria are more likely to grow in many types of cheese, it can pose harm to your gut and stomach if you’re not used to consuming such type of food.
I consume only cheddar, parmesan, ricotta and cottage cheese.
Biscuits and Sweet Treats
I developed a habit of hogging on biscuits and sweet snacks every time I was feeling bored or even a bit hungry. This made me put on kilos like anything! Before I could realise what I was doing, I was fat.
Not fat-shaming anyone here, but for me, adding up layers of fat on my body is not something that I personally see as healthy, because it starts to affect my health overall. I feel less active and more lazy. I feel out of breath and easily tired.
I consciously stopped eating biscuits and sweet stuff, and discovered that I had more energy throughout the day. I wasn’t as tired or lazy as I felt otherwise. Sugar makes you slowdown, and if you don’t believe me, try cutting down sugar for just one week and see the difference for yourself.
Fried, High Salt Snacks
Chips, crisps, or snacks that are full of sodium and salt are the first choice of many people who think that if they’re not consuming sugar, they’re consuming something healthier.
While in reality, it is not so. The snacks that you assume are healthy, are more harmful for your heart and cholesterol levels because they contain heavy oils and high sodium content.
The high salt in them makes your body retain water and make you feel bloated and heavy. Your face will seem to be swollen, and you will find that even though you haven’t gained weight on the scale, you have gained inches.
Completely avoiding high salt foods helped me stay hydrated and also stay less bloated.
Carbonated Drinks, Especially Sparkling Water
I was never really a fan of coca-cola anyways, but I started drinking a lot of carbonated water to help with digestion because in Europe it is a common practice to drink sparkling water. It is rather a part of staple diet for millions of people here!
The digestion issues caused by high sugar and high salt foods will not disappear by topping it up with carbonated water. It will only ‘feel’ like the gas in the water is helping you push things down your gut, but in reality it is doing more harm than good.
There are many studies that prove the ill effects of carbonated water on your teeth and oral health. While there are also many studies that say that there is no proof of carbonated water being bad for your health.
Consuming sparkling water or plain water is absolutely your personal choice, but there’s a reason why our rivers, lakes, and fresh water sources do not contain carbonated water — because humans were not supposed to consume it!
Whatever nature provides us with, is what’s the best for us. That’s what we believe in India at least.
If something is unnatural or if the shelf-life of a food is extended by adding man-made chemicals into it, it is not safe for human consumption.
You may not feel the effects of it right now, but it will show up sooner or later in life in the form of diseases that your body will carry.
There is a theory in India, where it is believed that you should eat your food like medicine, if you never want to consume medicine in your life.
That is why, as per natural sciences such as Ayurveda, most of the foods recommended for the healthy life of a human, all come from nature and all are prescribed to be cooked well in order to be digested properly by our system. Ayurveda also recommends a vegetarian diet, but rich in diary and whole grains.
There are evidences of people living a disease-free, medicine-free life in India, for as long as eighty to ninety years, because they only consumed fresh, natural, and seasonal diets all their lives.
Sometimes we need to go back to our roots and culture to understand life to its fullest, and with food, the relationship is never that simple.
What does your culture say about food and eating habits? Share in the comments below.
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![Mehek Kapoor](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="40" height="40"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>){kind=small}
