Eat Well to Breeze through Monsoon

When monsoon comes it releases chemicals, viruses, allergens, toxins, polluted water and all of a sudden the temperature goes down for which our immune system is not prepared to fight with. While you must take regular precautions, like boiling water, and avoiding street food, or food prepared in bulk, here are a few specific guidelines about eating during the rains.

The cool weather may tempt you to gorge on fried bhajiyas, but exercise discretion. The cardinal rule is that you must not eat when you are not hungry, because by doing this you invite indigestion and accompanying illnesses. The digestive system gets weakened due to dehydration in summer. This leads to low digestive power. This is further weakened by vitiation of doshas and dhatus due to monsoon. Hence, following a diet which increases your power of digestion, and strengthens the digestive system, would be beneficial in the rainy season.

Foods to select in monsoon

• Wash all fruits and vegetables, thoroughly, before you cook or nibble a single bite.
• Drink warm beverages. Add mint or ginger or dry ginger powder to tea.
• Include naturally sour food (not fermented) like tamarind, tomato, lime, thin buttermilk and kokum in your diet.
• Prefer eating Moong dal, especially the watery kind, is easy to digest. Add more of garlic, pepper, ginger, asafoetida, sonth, turmeric, coriander and jeera to your platter to enhance your body’s digestive power and improve immunity in monsoon.
• Vegetables recommended during the rains: bhindi, dudhi, parwal, suran, roasted baingan, and karela.
• Non-vegetarians should go in for lighter meat preparations like soups and stews rather than heavy curries.
• Go for astringent, mildly bitter and mildly pungent foods this season.
• Drink only boiled and filtered water. And take plenty of water, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Dehydration is a possibility during the monsoon too.

Foods you must avoid to breeze healthy through monsoon

• Avoid eating food straight out of the fridge. Fresh foods are the best, but if you like to store cooked food in the fridge, heat it gradually and thoroughly before eating.
• Avoid leafy vegetables.
• Say a big no to street food in monsoon

Dr. S. V. Tripathi, Ayurveda Expert, Moolchand Medicity

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