Towards the end of month of October, there is a significant increase in the level of air pollution. Smog decreases the air quality and makes it difficult to even breathe properly. Air pollution has negative effects in the form of health diseases like respiratory allergies, asthma, cancer, etc. With the harmful effects of air pollution and Coronavirus, it is important to take care of yourself. This includes consuming a nutritious balanced diet. Onlymyhealth started a campaign Myrighttobreathe to spread awareness about air pollution. This initiative is to inform people about the diseases and other things associated with it. Air pollution has negative effects in the form of health diseases like respiratory allergies, asthma, cancer, etc. Onlymyhealth editorial team talked to Dr. Megha Jaina, Clinical Nutritionist, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi, about antioxidant rich foods that can help in combating the increasing air pollution.
Antioxidant rich foods to combat air pollution
Even some food items might help in minimising the effect of air pollution. Eating right food is one of the measures that individuals can take at home to fight the harmful effects of increasing air pollution these days. As per Dr. Megha Jaina, some antioxidant rich foods to protect yourself are:
1. Berries
All the berries including blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries are considered as highly nutritious fruits. They have the highest amount of antioxidants present in them. In fact, berries even help in reducing oxidative stress in the body.
2. Amla juice
Amla juice is the most beneficial in such situations. It keeps our blood count optimum and once our blood count is optimum and our vitamin C is optimum, we don't fall pray to any of the infections. It has more antioxidants than a pomegranate. You can even get Amla juice easily in the market but it is preferred to take it out naturally at home.
Also read: Diet To Combat Air Pollution: This Is How Asthma Patients Should Consume Giloy
3. Nuts
Several nuts are considered as one of the most rich antioxidant food items. Nuts, especially almonds and black pepper are also antioxidant rich and help in combating air pollution. The combination of this in the morning with tea or coffee is very good. It goes like 7 almonds and 3 black pepper.
4. Fruits and vegetables
An individual can also consume all the seasonal fruits and vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin. So, basically there should be all the colours like we have in a rainbow diet. Seven colours have to be included everyday in the form of fruits and vegetables. And the people who are prone to respiratory problems, they shouldn't be taking them raw. They should be taking a stew or soup kind of a thing because sometimes raw fruits and vegetables will trigger their respiratory problems.
5. Turmeric milk
Haldi or turmeric milk is also very important because turmeric again is a very great antioxidant in our Indian diet, which takes care of all the inflammation especially respiratory. Turmeric does not just give colour to your milk but is loaded with antioxidants. It is used for many other purposes like cold and cough too.
Also read: How Air Pollution Affects Fertility? Expert Tells Its Causes and Effects
What food items should be avoided?
All the junk food, cold drinks, maida products, basically foods which don't give your gut a very good health. As these foods take atleast 72 hours in digesting, which means your gut is not healthy. And once your gut is not healthy, it means the toxins are lying there. So, you're again a potential candidate for all these problems. Therefore, all these deep fried things, sugary things, maida products and cold drinks have to be avoided.
These were some antioxidant foods that you can have to fight increasing air pollution. In conclusion, Dr. Megha Jaina said, "Since the pollution is very bad, all the food products like the raw things are also affected because of the pollution. So, whenever we talk about antioxidants, we have to be very careful regarding using them. Therefore, the proper washing of vegetables and fruits is very important before eating any of the raw fruits and vegetables."
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