Dr. M. R. Krishnamurthy is a primary care physician with 42 years of experience. After completing his MBBS, he has worked in the U.K. and Canada, and he currently practises in Jayanagar.
What is healthy diet? What should we eat to remain fit, and in what quantities? Dr. Krish answers all these questions for us.
The most important thing about prevention of disease, especially chronic disease, is the food you eat. It should consist of mostly plant-based food, even if you are a non-vegetarian. Breakfast is a must and each of the other meals or snacks should be basically consumed roughly 4 hours apart.
My usual recommendations are - 1. Breakfast before 9 AM 2. Lunch 1 PM 3. Snack (seasonal fruit) 5 PM 4. Dinner 8.30 PM 5. Your total consumption of vegetables (raw and cooked included), should be at least 250 gms. 6. Fruit at least 250 gms Avoid dry fruits as they are high in calories and you tend to eat more of it compared to fresh fruits.
Nuts are high in calories as well and should be limited to 30 gms per day. Oil consumption should be not more than 20 ml per day, or 1/2 litre per person, per month. Avoid fried food, packaged food (biscuits, cakes, chips, puffs, etc.) as they contain disease causing trans fats. Milk and milk products (curds, cheese, panner) should be low fat and limited to 1/2 liter per day (includes coffee, tea, etc.) Full fat milk, milk sweets cheese and panner are the biggest cause of the obesity epidemic in India. Totally avoid all juices and smoothies as most of the fibre is removed and the sugar gets absorbed very quickly. same goes for packaged noodles and anything that comes out of a packet. It has chemicals and preservatives and very little nutrition.
This article was originally published in TheTeacher.in magazine in the month of July, 2018.