How to eat right to ensure a healthy mother and baby

While no foods or dietary supplements can prevent or cure COVID-19 infection, healthy diets are important for supporting our immune systems. Good nutrition can also reduce the likelihood of developing other health problems as it plays a remarkable role to safeguard against disease-causing microorganisms. Let food be the medicine and medicine be the food.

Good nutrition is one of the best steps to ensure a mother and child’s immune system remains strong and healthy.

Breastfeeding during COVID-19 is crucial: Breastfeeding improves survival and provides lifelong health and development benefits to new-borns and infants. Active COVID-19 has not been detected in the breastmilk of any mother with confirmed/suspected COVID-19. Therefore, it’s unlikely that COVID-19 would be transmitted through breastfeeding or by giving breastmilk that has been expressed by a mother with confirmed/suspected COVID-19.

Variety of foods and regular meals for children: Children, from six months of age, need to eat from at least four food groups each day including fruit and vegetables, grains, pulses and nuts, animal and dairy products and staple foods, such as rice. They also need to drink plenty of liquids, such as breastmilk and clean water to keep them hydrated. As they have small stomachs, they need to eat regularly, and the types of food and frequency can be slowly built up over time. Foods from the family meal that are mashed or pureed using a clean spoon or other implement can also be given.

Eat Right, Eat Safe, and Eat Healthy: What to focus on?

1. Eat fruits, vegetables, legumes (e.g. lentils, beans), nuts and whole grains (e.g. unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat, brown rice or roots such as potato), and foods from animal sources (e.g. meat, fish, eggs and milk).

Ensure a good dose of fresh fruits and vegetables. (Source: Representative image/Pexels)

2. Water is essential for life. It transports nutrients and compounds in blood, regulates your body temperature, gets rid of waste, and lubricates and cushions joints. Drink 8–10 cups of water every day.

3. Consume unsaturated fats, such as vegetable oils, like sunflower, corn, or canola, and peanuts, rather than saturated fats, such as butter, coconut oil, cream, and cheese.

4. Vitamin C is the defence cell’s contribution to the human immune system. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to include citrus fruits in the diet like Grapes, Amla, even dried or pickled, oranges, lemon, papaya, etc.

You can add citrus fruits to your water for added nutrition. (Source: Representative Image/Pexels)

5. Limit daily salt intake to less than 5 gm (approximately 1 teaspoon), and use iodized salt. Avoid foods that are high in salt and sugar. Limit the intake of soft drinks or sodas and other drinks that are high in sugar.

6. Zinc is an essential mineral for good health and required in small quantities. It metabolizes nutrients, maintains your immune system and grows and repairs body tissues. But, the body doesn’t store zinc, therefore, we need to eat enough zinc-rich food every day to ensure we are meeting our daily requirements.

7. Lifestyle changes: While proper nutrition and hydration improve health and immunity, they are not magic bullets. It is important to stay away from smokes, alcohol and embrace a routine that includes exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight. Don’t Compromise on Sleep; a good snooze time of 7-8 hours is the best way to help your body build immunity. Also, try to minimise stress. These are testing times, and prolonged periods of staying indoors may have its implications on one’s mental wellbeing.

(The writer is Associate Director – Nutrition, Tata Trusts.)

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