Budget Your Food

It’s the budget special issue, it’s time that your plate also looks budgeted.

Every clinical research has shown that if we eat 20% less calories than what we are supposed to, we can avoid most of the lifestyle diseases and reduce our ageing process. Hence, for example, if as per your height and BMI calculator, you should be consuming 2000 calories, and you consume 1600 calories, you activate your anti-ageing gene called SIRT1. This gene reduces the accelerated ageing process and reduces the risk of lifestyle diseases and certain types of cancers, simply because calorie deficit reduces inflammation levels. Of course, it also matters what you eat in those deficit calories. So here is what your plate construct divided as per percentages of calorie intake, should look like:

25% proteins. Lean proteins like tofu, moong dal, oily fish, organic eggs are the best.

25% vegetables. Since vegetables are really low in calories, don’t go by the percentage, for them to become 25% of your entire meal, almost 40% of your plate needs to be full with 1-2 vegetables and a salad. You could also add a vegetable soup.

15% carbohydrates. Excess carbohydrates have been linked to most lifestyle diseases including heart disease, type two diabetes, obesity and certain types of cancers. Even if you think you are eating healthy carbohydrates, the quantity of these needs to be limited to just 15% of the calorific intake in your meal. On the other hand, eliminating carbohydrates has been linked to chronic fatigue, brain fog and kidney damage. So do not eliminate carbohydrates completely. Especially for those who have heard that the keto diet works for weight loss, there have been cases of kidney issues with those on the keto diet.

10% good fats. Most of us miss this. We feel a healthy eating program should not have fat and this could not be further from the truth. Of course, your plate should not have saturated fat like butter, ghee, coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut curry. Leave those for your once a week indulgence. On a daily basis, unsaturated fat like extra-virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil and fish oil are hormone balancing, heart-healthy, gut repairing and bring in mental calmness for those who have stress and anxiety.

25% of the plate empty. In Ayurveda, this is called Akash. The human body is a subset of the earth. It is nurtured by Akash, Vayu, Agni, Jal, Prithvi - space, air, fire, water and earth.

We focus on breath (Vayu), proteins and oils (Agni), water (Jal), vegetables & fruits (Prithvi) but not on self–space for self-nurturing (Akash). Akash is the time/space) for self, the empty space in our plates. We can choose to activate Akash via portion control, not eating after sunset and keeping aside 20 min post-lunch for ourselves.

Over and above this, a lot of calories are consumed as snacks. Replacing biscuits with cut fruits and evening fried snacks with a handful of nuts or a small bowl of murmura bhel ensures a healthy snacking habit while keeping calorific intake down. Budgeting your food to the requirements of the health of your body helps create a healthier mind and body balanced together. Excess food, excess work, less or poor sleep and higher stress levels are all anti-nutrients that destroy our immune system. Practice Akash and watch yourself becoming leaner, more energetic and more productive at work.