PEAKLIFE

 Bringing in the idea of eating right using ancient methods and understanding the portion of ingredients helps balance your mind and body. 

By Chef Rishim Sachdeva 

 “Let’s take a moment to respect nature’s creation and flow with nature in terms of using ingredients and produce that is seasonal”

Vibrantly colourful, fresh, and full of value, the body is like an artist’s canvas – it displays what you create with it. Smart eating, or rather eating correctly has often surfaced as “the” way to live and with good reason. Do you recall our forefathers approaching medicines with caution and always turning to natural remedies first? Targeting their quality of life is close to impossible but will and shall always be a benchmark for those who aim to truly attain health nirvana.  The fact that healthy eating is a way to a better life has always been preached over centuries, but being a millennial in 2019, how do we really approach smart eating? Without a manual for holistic living and concentrating on an overall emphasis on a ‘happy you’; awareness is key when it comes to making choices for food and lifestyle.

Understanding an ingredient inside out to know the nutrition it could offer you is an easy feat today with technology by our side. Mindfulness with regard to origin, availability and proper consumption is essential as we satiate our appetite with healthier alternatives and make informed decisions. For smart living, you should inculcate fresh produce in your diet to the extent possible as nothing can make up for the taste, nutrition that fresh ingredients could lend to a dish. I strongly believe and suggest that one must remember that everything tastes better and is healthier if eaten in the right season! Strawberries in May are not going to taste like the strawberries in January! Let’s take a moment to respect nature’s creation and flow with nature in terms of using ingredients and produce that is seasonal. 

For surplus produce, I would advise turning to preserving for the greater good. Our forefathers always preserved surplus harvest to be used later in the winter months and simple preserving techniques can help you with store vegetables, fruits for months; all without the use of refrigeration or complicated sterilization process.  

Laying emphasis on one’s own health, it is important to take a good and long look at the superfoods needed to stay healthy. Eggs, Legumes, Nuts, Seeds, Greens and Yoghurt tops my list of go-to items for a healthy and smart shopping list. A regular intake of dill also helps the brain in the long run as it reduces inflammation. Laying emphasis on a balanced diet, I believe that one should always listen to one’s body and decide how ‘smart’ he/she is eating.

Looking smart while eating and eating to look smart are two similar yet very different scenarios! Impressively, enough, creativity in the kitchen is a positive trait that I always acknowledge and want to advise others to look out for too. Being a strong advocate of home cooked food, I would also say that be experimental to try fun techniques to cook starting from roaring to braiding to a simple quick grill. 

Appreciating the creativity that chefs today put into plating the perfect meal that not only looks but also tastes great goes a long way in believing that healthy food can also look great. I strongly feel that being mindful of what we eat is pivotal because food is nutrition and it should be treated like that. Busting the myth of healthy food not being tasty, I believe that taste is an extremely personal and unique sense and what one may find overpowering, the other may find subtle. Find what works for you and tweak it to suit your lifestyle. 

Fibre is again an absolutely underrated and often forgotten component of a healthy diet and offers a plethora of advantages. Keeping one full for longer, aiding cholesterol and blood sugar levels; it is a blessing for our digestive health.  

Essentially smart eating should not be followed as some go to fad diet but should be considered a lifestyle change that needs to be followed consistently. With a long-term goal of good health, I am a strong advocate that our mind plays a pivotal role in our choice of smart eating and it is essential to train the mind to stay cautious. One should pay attention to choose food that fuels your brain. Instead of offering a list of ‘smart foods’ that you absolutely must buy, I recommend in creating an individual list that will work for your mind, body and soul to make you ‘smart’.

(The author Chef Rishim Sachdeva is the host of ‘Fit & Fast- Fuel Your Brain’ in Living Foods. His expertise on the show goes beyond food as he interacts with specialists and addresses multiple topics on mental fitness which require more than just a nod in todays’ busy life.)