Winter Food - What to eat and What not to!

Drops of water fogging your window, cold breeze accompanied. It is the time of the year again when you take out the raincoats and make a splash or two in the water. It is the rainy season and as much as you might like to indulge in all kinds of food experimentation this season, you need to be careful about certain things.

Start your day with a cup of coffee or tea. People try to take tea to be active when the weather is cloudy. Limit the consumption of tea for 2 to 3 times.  Instead take green tea, black tea or lemon tea. You could also have coconut water instead of coffee or tea. If the day is to be energetic start the days with breakfast like idli and dosa which contain proteins.  Take seasonal fruits like banana and orange which contain Vitamin C. Oranges, Sweet lemon, Guava, Lychees, Cherries and Pomegranate are other options which can be taken too. Take these fruits at snacks time for better results.

For lunch, start off with a soup. You could prepare hot and spicy soups at home. It is really good for the rainy season. Fresh vegetables which are boiled well are good for any season and are easily digestible. Bottle gourd, Pumpkin, Bitter Gourd and Drumstick are all considered to be good for this season. You could spice up your food with turmeric, basil and fenugreek.

Wheat, Jowar and millets are a must in this season as it is all high level energy foods. Fat is also not present in them. These can be taken in the form of roti’s or porridge. Avoid food which have low or in some cases no nutritional values in them. While foods like noodles and bread are nice to eat, they do not have much nutritional values. Use less oil, ghee, butter, sugar and jaggery as possible. If it is raining take food made with pulses like green gram, chick pea, and Bengal gram.

Corn is also very good for this season. You could have roasted corn with lemon and salt or if you are the kind who experiments, you could also try out recipes with corn as the base. That would be fun too. Oats is also highly recommended during this season. You could have it hot just with milk or give it the form of Upma. Use as much ginger, garlic, lemon, mint apart from regulars like onion and green chillies in your dishes. They are all good for health too and would make all your dishes taste better.

Also, do not forget to take hot milk before you go to bed. You will get good sleep this way.

What not to eat:

You might get tempted to eat hose tangy chaats or the parathas, but it might not be a good choice this rainy season. They are not easily digestible and might cause stomach upsets. It is better that you have curd in the form of buttermilk this season.