New Delhi, November 13– Our health today could be severly impacted by air pollution. With the Air Quality Index in Delhi, again hovering around the dangerous levels of 400, the air that we are breathing has reached dangerous levels. People with no history of respiratory problems are landing up in hospital emergency rooms and schools have been shut down.
As a result, they are increasingly getting affected with asthma, bronchial diseases, skin problems, mental health issues, cancer and heart disease. Pollution claims 7 million human lives each year.
There are many ways in which we can tackle the problem of pollution like wearing up mask, exercising, drawing that clean air in the morning as much as we can and eating healthy.
In our country where ‘diet’ word only crops when it has to do something with losing weight, people have not yet understood the importance of a balance and healthy diet due to lack of education and awareness. In fact, a change in your diet plan can prevent the most life-threatening diseases. Likewise, a good and balanced diet can also help you fight the toxic effects of pollution from within your body.
Dr. Priyanka Rohatgi talks about how pollution affects us and how to our diet can ensure health safety.
“Pollution adds to the oxidative stress in the body and increases the free radicals in the body which are harmful,” she says.
“So to keep the harm under control one needs to prepare body to fight these free radicals by boosting the immune system and eat more anti inflammatory and antioxidants in diet,” she underlines.
Could healthy foods be possibly determined by their colour schemes?
According to Dr. Rohatgi, yes, they can, and interestingly so.”The more deeper colours the foods naturally possesses, the more is the antioxidant effect. Easy way to comprehend is traffic light colours-red, green, orange / yellow coloured fruits and vegetables like carrots, pumpkin, bell peppers, beetroots and spinach,” she explains.
Dr. Rohatgi also advises the need to keep oneself hydrated and what to eat to reduce the presence of toxins in us.
“To reduce the toxicity – increase hydration, add turmeric, amla, lemon , basil leaves , condiments like cinnamon, cloves and aniseed. Each healthy fats like nuts and oilseeds.”