Listen to your body

Anjali Mukerjee

Does your stomach feel bloated all the time? Do you suffer from acidity and digestion? After partying till late night, especially after drinking alcohol, do you wake up the next morning with a headache? Do you also suffer from major sugar cravings, or have a low immunity? Does your tongue remain coated; do you feel irritable all the time? Do you come back from work dead tired? Do you find you are unable to lose weight even when you are trying very hard? This is your body's way of telling you that it needs help.

Our diet, nutrition and over or under intake of various foods are mainly responsible for our health or the lack of it. As we party, eat out, consume large amounts of foods, junk or processed, we ingest many toxins, as these may contain chemicals and/or other synthetic items. 

Along with processed foods we also take in artificial flavourings, sweeteners, artificial colours and preservatives found in diet colas, soft drinks, ice-creams, chips and snacks available in the market. These chemicals and toxins build up in the liver and eventually get into the blood stream. The blood transports these harmful substances to various organs, muscles and joints. Thus, our entire system gets `chemicalised' or full of toxins and the body organs begin to malfunction. The stored toxins can cause headache, joint pains, bloatedness, skin rashes, hair loss, dry skin etc. A poor functioning liver can cause water retention, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, unstable blood sugar levels. Therefore, people who eat copious amount of junk food can suffer from dizziness, light headedness, sugar cravings, low blood pressure, and low glucose levels. All this can cause fatigue. If this continues for a long time, it may even lead to depression. 

When things seem to be going wrong for you and you find that you cannot control your cravings or your state of health anymore — you need to take a hard look at your eating habits. 

Way forward

Once you have realised that your system is not functioning as it used to, or as it should, this is how you should begin:

Water: Begin your day by drinking at least one litre of water after waking up. Without adequate water your cells shrink and get dehydrated. These are unable to flush out the waste matter and toxins out of the body. Drinking water helps to cleanse the kidneys, induces diuresis, and purifies the blood. By drinking water, you can greatly reduce your chances of acquiring disease.

Fast for one day in a week: This is applicable to only those of you who are leading a life of excesses. That means, eating restaurant food frequently, not exercising, drinking alcohol, smoking, consuming fried and sugar-laden foods, keeping late nights etc. Fasting helps to give rest to the digestive system and allows the body to reserve its energies for cleansing the body of toxins and rebuilding tissues that need healing. While fasting, eating only raw food diet comprising fruits and vegetable juices helps in yielding high energy. Fasting also helps to eliminate wastes.

Avoid getting constipated: You can avoid this problem by including lot of fibre in your diet or by taking isabgol (psyllium husk) regularly. Eating papaya, prunes, spinach and wheat bran also helps in better bowel movements. There are some herbal remedies like triphala and kayamchuran, which help in preventing constipation. By clearing your bowels every day, you will avoid the growth of unfriendly organisms in your large intestine. These unfriendly bacteria invade our bloodstream and make us seriously ill. 

Eat freshly prepared foods: In the case of most cooked foods, especially non-vegetarian dishes, never reheat these more than once. Bacteria breed in stored and cooked meats. When you eat these foods, the bacteria (read toxins) enter your body and overload the immune system. If you eat such foods occasionally your body can handle it and flush out these toxins gradually. But if you eat non-vegetarian food in restaurants three-four times in a week, then you are overloading the liver with toxins and it may not be able to detoxify effectively. This will cause many health problems. 

If done right, nutritional science has a powerful healing effect on the body. Give it a try it to believe in it.

—The writer is nutritionist and founder director, Health Total