Food Solutions for All Your Health Woes

Author Kavita Devgan walks you through common health troubles and how diet can help fix them.

The right food can solve your health woes, while the wrong ones can exarcebate them.

(Photo: iStock)

When it comes to eating right, knowledge is key. Very often we don’t know the real benefit some foods can deliver. If we did we can consciously try and include more of those to score the benefits.

Below is a list of foods that can help offset your specific problems. Try to incorporate them in your everyday diet.

Problem: Weight gain

Solution: Foods rich in pectin

Pectin is a natural fibre found in certain foods that provides bulk and digests slowly. It has the capability of absorbing water and expanding, which makes foods rich in pectin make you feel fuller than you actually are and work as effective natural appetite suppressants.

To score pectin eat these foods: lemon peel, karonda, apple, amla, carrots, raw mangoes, bananas, and pears.

Problem: Frequent cold and infections

Solution: Include pumpkin seeds

Very often this is because of severe zinc deficiency in your diet. Pumpkin seeds can come in really handy here as these underrated seeds deliver a high dose of zinc, which is good to keep respiratory infections away. Zinc is also an anti-depressant, so it helps banish creativity-killing moods and thoughts.

Problem: Dry, dull skin

Solution: Eat more tomatoes

Tomatoes help replenish our skin’s supply of antioxidants, which help scarf up free radicals whenever they make an appearance. Free radicals are highly reactive oxygen molecules that damage cells and contribute to just about everything that can go wrong with skin, from dryness to crinkles. Combine chopped onions, tomatoes, and chilli peppers for an easy to make salsa dip; add tomato slices to sandwiches and salads ’add to all soups – they only adds to the taste.

Problem: Too much stress

Solution: Target Tryptophan

Do you know how antidepressant drugs work? They stop the body from breaking down a feel good brain chemical called serotonin. This leads to

more circulating serotonin in the brain, and thus keeps stress at bay. Foods rich in tryptophan do the same too as tryptophan signals the brain to release serotonin. Think almonds, milk and banana.

Problem: Insomnia

Solution: Score some melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that relaxes you and puts you to sleep. Foods naturally rich in melatonin are: Fruits and vegetables - corn, asparagus, tomatoes, pomegranate, olives, grapes, broccoli, cucumber

Grains - rice, barley and rolled oats)

Nuts and Seeds - walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, mustard seeds, flaxseed.

Problem: Bloating

Solution: Eat natural diuretics

Parsley tea is the best-known type. Brew two teaspoons of dried leaves per cup of boiling water and steep for ten minutes. Drink up to three cups a day.

Eat foods with diuretic properties: celery, lettuce, carrots, onion, asparagus, tomato, and cucumber. And that age-old practice of adding coriander leaves over sabzi - it makes sense to go back to that practice, as these greens are natural diuretics and also aid in digestion.

Problem: Mind block

Solution: Eat avocado

These are rich in fatty acid - oleic acid, which helps to build up the coating of insulation found in white matter of the brain. This coating helps information travel in the brain and thus help boost our creative productivity. Add avocado to your salads or mash it up and place on a rye bread and eat.

Problem: Memory loss

Solution: Focus on fish

Salmon is a great brain food to eat because of the omega 3 fatty acids, which improves memory and mood and also help build the grey matter that processes information and signals to the brain. This helps nurture our creative instincts. If you are a vegetarian then include seaweeds.

These deliver essential amino acid tyrosine, which that helps in the production of neurotransmitters like dopamine, which is known to drive our cognitive control and creativity