Health and Fitness

A. Choose much of what you eat from foods in their raw or natural state. Eat raw vegetables in salads, fruits, grains like unpolished rice and whole wheat bread and lean cuts of meat and fresh fish. This way you will get all the essential nutrients.

B. Good health begins with the basic ingredients of choosing fresh food full of goodness and vitamins. Do not ruin it with poor preparation and bad health habits. Firstly, that means being careful about storing the food you bring home. A bowl of fruit left uncovered loses vitamins in the light and warmth of the room. After 3 days at normal room temperature, fruits and vegetables may have lost up to 70 per cent of their vitamins A, B and D. Store food carefully in a cool dark food cupboard or in a refrigerator.

C. Meat and poultry are perishable foods. They should be kept in refrigerator for best conservation and a longer storage life.

D. Do not waste good vitamins by throwing away carrot tops, beetroot tops, cabbage hearts or other greens. They make delicious vegetable dishes when steamed for a few moments with a few fresh herbs and a little butter. The not-so-perfect bits are good for soups.

E. Get into the habit of steaming vegetables instead of boiling them. Steaming keeps all the vitamins and minerals intact instead of being drained away in the water thrown away. Do not overcook. Vegetables taste so much better when they are slightly crisp and chewy instead of a messy water-sodden lump. Almost all recipes which call for boiling can be adapted to steaming. This includes fish and meat.

F. Pots and pans! Nonstick pans are a great boon to a careful cook since it means food can be fried with minimum of fat. Nonstick pans can replace the classic frying in most recipes.

G. Decrease the amount of fat, salt and sugar in your diet. While lean meats do contain hidden fat, you can cut off all visible fat from meat and use less butter. Replace sweet desserts with fresh fruits.

H. Alcohol uses up B-complex vitamins and other important nutrients from your body. A glass of wine often relaxes tension and stimulates the palate but too much alcohol has harmful effects.

I. Freezers! Freezing is a boon. No matter what sort of diet the family is used to, freezing preserves fresh food more quickly than any other form of storage. It also keeps vitamins in their original form as far as possible. Meat, vegetables, bread, desserts, almost everything can be prepared for freezing. And it is convenient too.