Winter Superfoods: Rujuta Diwekar Recommends 3 Superfoods For Optimum Nutrition And Good Health

Winter superfoods: It's time to bring back rice on your plate, even if you are trying to lose weight

Categorising food into fats, carbs and proteins can take away the joy of eating it. A by-product of the food industry and the urge to lose weight quickly have made people give up on some time-tested, natural and healthy foods-which they probably grew up eating. Some of these foods include rice, ghee, chapati and even home-cooked deep-fried food. Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, in one of her recent posts on Instagram and Facebook, talks about 3 such foods that should definitely be a part of your diet for good health.

Winter superfoods: 3 superfoods that must be a part of your diet

These foods have always been a part of your lifestyle. But the constant urge to lose weight has probably made you give up on them. Keep reading to know what these foods are and how you can include them in your diet.

1. Rice

According to Rujuta, rice-which are now blamed to be high in carbs and cause weight gain-should make a comeback on your plate. She says that you need to get back to eating traditional white rice. It is easy to digest and works as a prebiotic (which provides good bacteria to your gut). What's more is that rice is easy to cook and super delicious to taste. Rice is the staple of food of eastern and southern parts of India.

How to include rice in your diet?

Rice are best eaten in combination with different kinds of legumes or lentils and pulses. There are as many as 65,000 variety of pulses grown and cultivated in India. The celebrity nutritionist recommends that you should include at least 12 to 15 kinds pulses in your diet. Pulses which you should be eating in winter include moong dal, toor (arhar) dal and kulith (horsegram) dal. Kulith dal is particularly good for your skin, for those suffering from gall bladder or kidney stone issues. You can also eat red chawli dal, black chana or green chana dal. Legumes like kidney beans or rajma, white chana, lobia etc can be eaten along with rice.

Make sure you include a variety of lentils and legumes in your diet. It is important for bacterial diversity, which is an essential perquisite for good health.

Dal rice is a protein-rich meal with a complete amino acid profile
Photo Credit: iStock

Also read: 5 Clever Food Swaps To Keep You Warm And Healthier This Winter!

2. Root vegetables

Winter is the perfect time to include a variety of root vegetables in your diet. Sweet potatoes, arbi (taro root), yam, beetroot, turnips, potatoes, radishes, carrots etc. They are beneficial for diabetics, women with PCOD and thyroid issues, people with Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 deficiency.

Rujuta highlights the fact that Vitamin D deficiency is linked to lack of microbial diversity in the gut. Deficiency of the sunshine vitamin can make you feel bloated, cause sleep disturbances, etc. Root vegetables are an excellent source of prebiotic bacteria, which can facilitate diversity of bacteria in gut, and keep Vitamin D deficiency at bay.

How to cook these root vegetables?

For cooking these root vegetables, you should use rock salt or black salt or sea salt. Doing this can reduce bloating effectively.

Root vegetables like sweet potatoes can provide good bacteria to your gut
Photo Credit: iStock

Also read: 6 Reasons Why You Must Include Amla In Your Daily Diet, Especially During Winter

3. Ghee

Ghee is an extremely important inclusion in your diet. You can also eat white butter regularly. Ghee is a kind of clarified butter, which is made by heating butter to separate liquid and milk solid portions from the fat. It contains polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids.

How to include ghee in your diet?

• You can pour a tsp of ghee on dal rice, sabzis and even spread it over your roti. You can eat in higher amounts along with grains like bajra, makki and ragi. Also, try and use makki or bajra atta once a week.
• If you find it difficult to prepare bajra rotis, you can make namkeen bajra laddoos with ghee, jeera (cumin), salt, etc. These laddoos can be consumed as part of lunch with dahi (curd) and some veggies.
• Ragi or nachni can easily be used for a dosa preparation. Make sure you use iron tawa (and not non-stick pan) for cooking this dosa-so that the ghee is soaked properly in the dosa. Cooking food on iron tawa also provides you with traces of iron.

Ghee includes fats that can promote assimilation of Vitamins A, D, E and K
Photo Credit: iStock

"This winter, try to eat millets at least twice a week. Prepare them at home, in the traditional way," recommends Rujuta.

The idea is to get back to eating the way our family and past generations used to eat and learning traditional and cultural methods of cooking food.

Also read: Sweet Potatoes For Weight Loss: 12 Reasons Why You Must Include This Superfood In Your Diet

(Rujuta Diwekar is a celebrity nutritionist based in Mumbai)

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.