In the previous podcast of the three tips I gave for enhancing immunity, one of them was exposing them to a variety of food tastes. Do you know the 6 tastes that are predominant in our foods. Sweet, pungent, salty, bitter, astringent and sour. A predominance of sweet or salt weakens the immune system. So how does this work? Studies show that people who intake higher quantity of salt responded badly to bacterial infection. They also tend to sweat more and expose themselves to infections. Higher consumption of sweet results in frequent cold and cough symptoms and makes the immune system very vulnerable. So a mix of all tastes helps one to stay health. Neem is an excellent immunity booster. Few tender leaves of neem in the morning can cleanse the digestive system excellently. Neem is good for dental health, treatment of ulcers and it even has anti-cancer potential. An astringent fruit that has immense medicinal value is Amla. It has vitamic C and is part of chyavanprash and Triphala. It nourishes the respiratory system and builds good appetite.
Just because children seem to be eating frequently, doesn’t mean that they have a robust digestive system. Their capability to digest food has to be periodically checked. Do they look dull after meals, do they resist playing in the evenings, do they appear lethargic or too restless? these things have to be observed to understand the impact of food on children. Each child processes food differently and hence nutrition should be looked at as an interaction of the food and the nature of one’s body and hence highly personalise. There are already 100s of recipe books in the market and thousands of videos online. But the key thing is to balance the six tastes as much as possible. With such a variety children also learn that life is filled with all tastes and not always sweet. Don’t we want them to have a full experience of life?
