NEW DELHI, SEPT 27
Pitching for a healthy and balanced diet, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged people to give up mindless eating and replace it with nutritious food.
Apart from having a fitness routine, it is essential to have a healthy and balanced diet, he said in a Facebook post.
Noting that rapid urbanisation and modern lifestyle have drastically altered the eating habits of the people, he said it is high time “we take control and mend our dietary habits”.
“We should not eat for palate alone. Let’s remember that we are what we eat and food is for nourishment. Let us replace mindless eating with having nutritious and protein-rich food,” he said.
With the COVID-19 pandemic throwing normal life out of gear, people realised the importance of returning to age-old traditional dietary habits, he said.
From time immemorial, our elders thoughtfully included various health-enhancing spices and other ingredients in our meal to suit each season and region, he observed.
“A silver lining of this pandemic is the fact that more and more people are resorting to freshly cooked home-made organic food,” he wrote.
Naidu reminded that people have to follow the concepts of “dinacharya” – daily regimes and “ritucharya” – seasonal regimes to maintain a healthy life.
“The food prescribed by our ancestors is time-tested and in accordance with the requirements of the geographical regions, climatic conditions, and seasons,” he said.
The Indian way of life has always been to eat seasonal, locally available food, a principle that is also endorsed by the traditional Indian systems of medicine, he pointed out.
