Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Man Friday of Rains!

Everything about the rains is just so beautiful! The cool weather after the scorching heat, the wind in your hair, the little drops of water trickling down on the cheeks, the trees swaying in happiness, little kids hoping in the puddle, young couples entrenched in the moment of love..everything about the rains makes you fall in love with it. The last thing you ever want to happen is to fall sick and miss all of it, and unfortunately this is the first thing that happens to most of us :) 

What we forget is that while rains bring a lot of relief from the heat, it also makes our body highly susceptible to infections.This is majorly because the air around us becomes moist and humid, which makes the environment very conducive for infectious germs and micro organisms to breed multiply and spread around. The best way to prevent getting bed ridden is to build your immunity and let your body's defense mechanism take care of you.

Ascorbic Acid Or Vitamin C is the easiest way to make sure that your Body is well guarded and Immune to most of these common infections and illnesses. Its the Man Friday of Monsoons! Vitamin C being an anti oxidant, also helps in preventing carcinogenic cells to multiply hence reducing the risk on cancer in your body. And since we are talking about anti oxidants, say hello to a young and beautiful skin too!;)

Recent studies show that a dose of 500 mg per day is required to take care of an adult body requirement. This is way higher than the RDA prescribed 75-90 mg / day. So unless you are having enough portions of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet, It is recommended that you take supplements of Vitamin C. Also, being a water Soluble nutrient, it can very safely be consumed even in a little excess as any additional amount will get passed out from your body in the form of urine. So don't worry, it is the safest nutritional supplement :)

Some quick tips to pump up vitamin C in your diet-
  •  Include a lot of Fruits and vegies in your diet, specially raw. But make sure you clean them well before eating coz hello, its the season of germs. 
  • Include- Indian Gooseberry(amla), Lemon ( you can use the juice to sprinkle over food preparations), orange, bell peppers, Guava, Kiwi, Cabbage family, Papaya and Strawberries.
  • Do not re- heat, over heat and over cook food. This leads to lot of wastage of essential vitamins, especially water soluble vitamins.
  • Do not throw away the water after boiling vegetables. Use the water in the preparations or use it in soups.
  • Try to keep the length of the vegetables in salads as long as possible. Chopping the veggies finely make them loose their vitamins more easily. Also cut them just before you are about to eat them
  • you can opt for Vitamin C supplements if you think you are not doing justice to your dietary consumption.
So stack up on that Vitamin C this monsoon and don't let your sneeze ruin a romantic moment :) Stay healthy, stay happy!