Being healthy from the inside is the key to good living and as a virus creates havoc across the world, there can be no better time to stress on the importance of health than now. Unfortunately, health has taken a back seat because of our busy schedules and hectic lifestyle. As a result, in the last few decades, lifestyle disorders — like acidity, constipation, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver, obesity, thyroid, cancer and depression — have skyrocketed. We need to take charge of our health without resorting to shortcuts, like fad diets or magic pills. Creating long-term good health and staying disease-free is what we should aspire for. To achieve this, we should look at health more holistically. Here are the four important pillars of good health…

Being active

Being less active and leading a sedentary lifestyle is one of the biggest causes of most chronic diseases. When you are less active, you burn fewer calories, you may lose muscle strength and endurance. Since you are not using your muscles as much, your metabolism may be affected, your immune system will be compromised as well… the list is just endless. Being active is one thing that is common among people who have reversed their diseases. Here are two ways to make you physically more active:

1. Sixty minutes of walking, daily: Walking is the easiest, simplest and an inexpensive form of exercise. One should aspire to walk at least an hour every day. Of course you may not be able to do this in the current lockdown scenario, but once life is back to normal and it is safe to go out again, this should be a daily routine.

2. Use stairs wherever possible: Another smart and easy way to stay fit is climbing stairs instead of using elevators.

Food is obviously an essential part of our existence. Eating foods that are high in fibre, like fruits and vegetables, can help activate numerous health-promoting genes while foods with added sugars and trans fat can activate disease-promoting genes. Once in a while, eating unhealthy is not a problem; the real problem is when eating unhealthy becomes a habit. Here are three ways to incorporate healthy eating habits:

1. Seasonal fruits: Ensure you eat at least two seasonal fruits each day.

2. Seeds: Seeds like chia, pumpkin, sunflower and flax are considered superfoods and three-four teaspoons of these each day are highly recommended.

3. Junk food once a week or less: Minimise the intake of processed and junk food to a maximum of once a week.

Ten minutes of meditation either after getting up in the morning or before going to bed every night will calm us down and reduce stress levels to a great extent Shutterstock

Emotional health

Our stress levels and emotional wellness have a huge role to play in our overall health. Our thoughts are the language of the brain and our feelings are the language of the body; and how we think and feel determine the state of being and our personality. It is extremely important that we continuously live every moment in happiness, gratitude and thankfulness rather than continuously living in stress, fear and anxiety. Here are three ways to improve one’s emotional health:

1. Meditation: Ten minutes of meditation either after getting up in the morning or before going to bed every night will calm us down and reduce stress levels to a great extent.

2. Art of gratitude: Practising mindfulness and gratitude helps us release happy hormones and reduces stress.

3. Stop living in the past: Ironically, the past does not exist; it only exists in our minds. However, most people keep pondering over the past and continue to live their lives in fear, anxiety and stress. We should only focus on living in the present moment.

Today we are living in an age of information… at a time when ignorance can only be a choice. All we need to do is build good habits, which will lead to good health.

Good sleep

When we sleep, a lot of necessary cleaning, restoration, repair and regrowth occur within the body. More than the number of hours, it is the quality of sleep that is very important. Not getting adequate quality sleep at night can trigger hormonal imbalances that could lead to health issues. Here are three ways to ensure good sleep:

1. Nutmeg: Commonly known as jaiphal, it helps restore our sleep by releasing sleep hormones at the right time.

2. Pistachios: It has a very high content of melatonin, which is a sleep hormone. A handful of pistachios a day helps towards restoring sound sleep.

3. No gadget while sleeping: Ideally, one should stay away from gadgets at least an hour before hitting the bed.

Karan Kakkad is a nutrigenomics and disease reversal expert. His passion in medical nutrition led to the birth of Reverse Factor, which is backed by an extensive research in nutrigenomics — the scientific study of the interaction of nutrition and genes. Visit www.reversefactor.in for more information. He tweets @karan_kakkad