Breakfast: A Good Start To Your Day For A Health And Beauty Boost

Breakfast is an essential part of maintaining overall health and beautiful skin. Here are some options to make your breakfast interesting and super healthy,

The lifestyle has a great influence on health and beauty. If the lifestyle goes against the natural cycle of the body, it takes us further away from good health and good looks. It has been seen that a lifestyle that is close to nature helps to increase our level of physical fitness and sense of well-being. A natural lifestyle means living in harmony with nature. We have seen that the further we go away from nature, the more we suffer.

Healthy Lifestyle Is Key To Maintain Health And Beauty

Let us have a look at our modern lifestyle.

We go to sleep late, so getting up early becomes a real problem. Inadequate sleep leaves us with feelings of fatigue and lethargy. Already behind schedule, we somehow manage to get through the morning chores. We find no time to exercise and we have no time for breakfast. We somehow gulp down a cup of coffee and rush to work, battling through traffic and then dealing with the consequences like stress and anxiety, fatigue, aches and pains. Then, we meet the hectic demands of work, have endless cups of tea or coffee and somehow manage to grab a bite of lunch, perhaps consisting of a hamburger, a samosa and coffee, or aerated drinks. Such foods are most inadequate in terms of nutrition. After work, we face rush-hour traffic again. Then there is socializing. While eating out, dinner is served late; we eat rich, spicy food and heavy desserts. By the time we get home, it is late and we are exhausted. We somehow manage to get to bed with a heavy meal, to catch up on some sleep. The next day, this whole cycle begins again.

Breakfast Is A Must

First things first - never skip breakfast. You can have a light lunch, but breakfast is a must. You need the energy for maximum efficiency for the day. So, what foods should constitute your breakfast? The processed foods and cereals that are available nowadays should be chosen with care, because they may be high in sugar or salt and low in nutrition. Canned juices may also be loaded with sugar, essences, colour and preservatives. While these foods may provide you with energy, one must wonder about the nutritional values of such breakfast foods and their long-term effects.

Natural Foods For Better Health

It would be much better to have freshly extracted fruit juices. In fact, fruit and vegetable juices, freshly extracted, not only ensure a supply of valuable nutrients but are assimilated and absorbed by the body very easily. They also help to cleanse and purify the system and prevent the accumulation of toxic residues. Fruit and vegetable juices are best taken freshly extracted and diluted with water. In fact, it's a good idea to reduce consumption of tea and coffee and instead, have freshly extracted fruit and vegetable juices, lassi, buttermilk and clear soups.

We should supply our bodies with valuable food elements that are absolutely necessary for good health. Cut down your intake of sugar, starch and fried foods and increase your intake of natural foods, like fresh fruits, raw salads, sprouted grains/dals, seeds, unsalted nuts, cottage cheese and curd. Keep to unprocessed and unrefined cereals, like whole-wheat, unpolished rice, broken wheat (dalia), millets, oats, and unprocessed 'sooji.' Have fresh fruits, whole wheat bread, or make upma or poha out of sooji, dalia or oats. If you can have a bowl of sprouts, there is nothing like it. Sprouts can be mixed with cottage cheese (paneer), cucumber, tomatoes, mint, lemon juice, seeds, nuts and even chaat masala to make a delicious breakfast salad.

Say No To Refined Sugars

According to Ayurveda, the daily diet should not contain refined sugars, which may give the body an energy boost, but it has a devitalizing effect in the long run. Fresh, organic foods are recommended by Ayurveda so that the body is supplied with nutrients. They not only provide a good start to your day but contribute to good health and fitness.

(This article is authored by Shahnaz Husain, a Padma Shri Award recipient and pioneer of the Ayurvedic beauty movement and the head of a global network of franchise ventures and 375 formulations)