Mumbai rains: 8 ways to stay healthy during monsoon

Here are 8 ways to stay fit and healthy when it rains like cats and dogs in Mumbai

Monsoon may be the best time to enjoy pakodas and tea, but monsoon is again that time of the year when you need to pay extra attention to your diet plan. Monsoon related diseases generally arise due to unhygienic food and drinks, lack of exercise, and change in temperature. To keep you healthy and make way to swing in the charm of monsoon, we have listed some easy steps. Take a look below and enjoy Mumbai rains:

• Drink warm beverages: Warm beverages like green tea, ginger tea or jeera-water are good to drink during the rainy months. Soups are also a good drink, though lighter soups like clear soups are preferred to the more heavier broth like soups.

• Avoid raw leafy vegetables: Raw vegetables, especially the leafy ones, like spinach and cabbage are good to avoid during this season. Bacterial activity is heightened during monsoon and all kinds of worms abound. So unless you are very sure that you have cleaned the produce thoroughly, it is a good idea to stick to cooked vegetables.

• Stock up onions and garlic: Onions and garlic have antibacterial and anti fungal properties, so including those in your diet during the monsoons is a good and healthy idea. Turmeric is one of those all weather Indian spices that can help boost immunity further during the rainy season.

• Limit dairy products: Limiting dairy products like milk and paneer during the rainy season can also help, as these dairy products are contaminated easily. However, limiting dairy products intake does not mean keeping yourself completely away from such calcium rich food items. Look for good quality curd, especially the probiotic ones. This is because probiotics in curd give it natural protection and allow it to protect your digestion too.

• Exercise indoors: Outdoor exercise is not always possible during monsoon season. However, there is always a chance of exercising indoors. Buy some indoor exercising devices like treadmill, cycle, and weight lifters, and keep you physical activity going.

• Practice yoga: You might be a prey to respiratory tract disorders during monsoon. So, practice yoga during monsoon to boost immunity, retain a flexible body, and get accustomed to change in weather conditions.

• Binge on healthy snacks: Continuous change in temperature during the rainy months has a chance of adversely affecting the body’s metabolism. Rather than surviving on junk food, binging on healthy snacks can keep the body’s metabolism in place. Munch almonds, peanuts, cashews, fruit salads, and, onions and cucumber salads, to attain healthy immunity during the monsoon season.

• Avoid fruits and juice at roadside stalls: Roadside stalls cut fruits well in advance. And, cut fruits that are exposed to the monsoon air for a considerably longer time, gets contaminated with air. These fruits, when consumed, result in stomach infection like amoebiosis, and diarrhoea. Fruit juice available at roadside vendors may be made from water, which in not purified. Again, consumption of such drinks is injurious to health. Prepare juices at home to stay on a healthy diet.

According to Ayurveda, the body finds it difficult to digest heavy foods during the monsoon. While it is believed that Jains fast purely for religious purposes during these four months, called Chau-masa or Chatur-maas, there may be health benefits to doing so as well, since digestion gets a much-needed break.

(With inputs from Mr. Mahesh Jayaraman, Co-founder, Sepalika)

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