Of Healthy Diet

Nowadays, people opt to pick ‘diet’ coke, one less slice of cheese on their burger and doing keto diets, which has been the new norm. But all these radical changes come at a certain cost – It’s the form of nutrition that crates unhealthy dietary practices. Arka Dev Biswas visits  Tamanna Chowdhury to understand how nutrition and diet actually tie back to being healthy.

Culture and misconceptions of food & health
The idea that potatoes and eggs contain a high degree of fat has been a concept everyone believes, but Dr. Tamanna suggests otherwise. “These foods contain nutrients that are essential.” In fact, the concept of being healthy has been flawed from the start. That is due to how families push certain eating habits as they find it appropriate, and after all, maintaining traditions is important!

But it should not always be the case. The greater access to information has been pushing to change this for quite a while. Obesity has become the central tenant on why health conscientiousness is important. However, there is a catch. Across urban areas, fast food dominates everything. But energy drinks own the rural market. The effects are never explicit from consuming these, but passive in nature. No matter how harmful these are, we consume them from either wish or last of choice. These can only change when people are more aware and informed about what gives them the necessary nutrition as Dr. Tamanna recommends.

Pseudo health benefits and over informed
The current generation has become self-aware of being fit, where everyone has started to join the gym and not be bulky. With YouTube and the internet providing all the information, it is easy to pick and choose one’s so-called ‘preferred’ choice. The doctor questions this sort of steps. “The plethora of information makes everyone informed and the word of mouth makes everyone go for plans like keto diets, but what happens is, they create complications and then visit us. Only when they face trouble, they come to fix it.” This is the problem of too much information. Keto diets leave the body deprived of essential nutrients and make the body weaker overtime. Nutrition and diets require to be tailor-made. It cannot be shoehorned by all as Dr. Tamanna says. “The rejection of milk and other natural foods has massively caused multiple problems to all in our subcontinent. Lactose intolerance, osteoporosis and not understanding the root problem has been due to avoiding nutritionist and dieticians. We are here to make it easier for all to be healthy, and to make it your perfect fit.” It is essential that one does not strain himself/herself by taking health actions without prior consultation with an accredited nutritionist.

Maintaining what you want and need
Staying healthy needs efforts and everyone needs individual attention. “Nutrition and diet is something that has to fit just right. Not everything is fit for everyone. You always have to adapt and know more about your body to prefect damage,” Dr. Tamanna adds. Obesity, lack of proper diet and insufficient hydration are keys to why many suffer. Consuming minimal required oils, drinking lots of water throughout the day to compensate for water loss and just maintaining a proper eating habit is all one needs. Sufficient vitamin D, water, nutrition, diet and actually understanding the bodily need is what will help individuals to have a healthy lifestyle, and not through just rejecting everything and deeming all eating habits as bad.