Nutritionist Nikhil Chaudhary was in Kolkata to deliver a talk on ‘Reversal of Diseases by Diet and Lifestyle’. The session was organized by the Lions Club of Calcutta Tollygunge and Lyons Range District 322 B2. The Kolkata Mail correspondent Priyanka Dutta caught up with the nutritionist in an exclusive chat on how diet and lifestyle can help in reversing diseases. Excerpts..

How important has immunity become after the global pandemic?

Nikhil Chaudhary –Immunity was always important, but we realized its importance after thousands of people started dying due to Covid. Even now the importance of immunity and health is underrated. Along with fighting infection, immunity saves us from cancers, inflammatory diseases, allergies, parasites, and more. It is instrumental in quick healing too. A lot of deaths could be easily delayed by a couple of decades by boosting our immunity.

A healthy person is not the one who does not fall ill. Anyone can get infected or fall ill. A healthy person is one who recovers faster. Therefore immunity plays an important role there.

How can diet and lifestyle help prevent diseases like Diabetes, heart and liver ailments, cancers, and others?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Diabetes, Heart disease, Liver ailments, and even cancers are not genetic in most cases as is widely believed. Most of these diseases run in families due to similar food and lifestyle. There are a lot of case studies and research to show that diet and lifestyle can prevent as well as cure even extreme cases of cancers, heart disease, and liver ailments. Reversing diabetes, fatty liver, and hypertension in most cases is a lot easier.

In fact obesity, fatty liver, diabetes and fatty liver are all due to eating high-calorie processed foods and a sedentary lifestyle over a long period of time. When we eat more food than our body needs and keep eating it multiple times, we accumulate fat. When our body is unable to accumulate fat, the excess energy keeps floating in the blood and we call it diabetes. Eating low-calorie, high-nutrient foods and exercising solve the problem.

Cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease and cancers. Eating raw or soaked nuts and seeds helps increase HDL, popularly known as good cholesterol. Eating high-fiber foods and pooping well help reduce cholesterol.

I do not believe much in calorie counting. I focus on natural high-fiber foods which automatically modulate digestion and absorption to reduce the total energy intake of the body. Prevention of these diseases is much easier than reversing. Small efforts bring big results.

What kind of diet is ideal?

Nikhil Chaudhary –There is no ideal diet or standard diet. Sometimes the body needs more energy and at other times our system needs rest. But some of the best practices would include:

• Eating foods high in fiber and mostly plant-based
• Avoiding food in liquid form except for green leafy vegetable juice and herbal tea
• Including Sprouts every day
• Including a lot of vegetables
• Including a lot of spices and herbs
• Including fermented foods
• Practicing periodic water fasting (if not constipated or not suffering from acidity)
• Must include nuts and seeds
• Replace grains with lentils, legumes, and pulses
• Drink only mineral water

The best results are always seen when we include more and more variety in our diet, avoid processed foods of any kind and reduce sweets and high carbohydrate foods. Practice intermittent fasting if it does not cause constipation or acidity.

Is crash dieting a good thing to do?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Crash dieting is not recommended and not useful in any way. Reducing the energy intake drastically could lead to:

• Slower metabolism – Our body tweaks its metabolism according to our food intake. Reducing our energy intake drastically could lead to slowing our metabolism so much that whatever less we eat could result in fat accumulation.
• Breaking Muscles – People often lose weight when they go on a crash diet. But the weight loss is majorly muscle mass and not fat. Muscle cells require a lot of energy. Reducing caloric intake immediately puts the body in energy-saving mode. One way of doing it is to reduce energy expenditure by reducing muscle mass. In the long term, it could lead to diabetes, weakness, and other health problems.
• Stress – Not eating nutritious food especially very low-energy food could lead to immense stress. Mood swings and depression are common attributes of crash dieting.
• Constipation and acidity – It is common and logical that our body will keep making us hungry and try to absorb maximum nutrients from what we eat when we eat less. Constipation and acidity are commonly seen in people who adopt crash diets. This could also cause long-term problems like ulcers, Barrett’s esophagus, cancers of the gut and esophagus, liver toxicity, allergy, piles, etc.

A crash diet is neither a healthy nor an effective way of weight loss. The best way to lose weight and gain health is to exercise well and eat a whole food unprocessed diet containing a lot of vegetables, legumes, pulses, nuts, and seeds.

People think that following a diet means gorging only on healthy food and leaving aside tasty food. Is that true?

Nikhil Chaudhary- It is a myth and has multiple aspects.

The problem of the world is not that they are eating unhealthy foods. The problem is that they are eating ‘only unhealthy’ foods. Even the common breakfast at home like Idly, Dosa, Uthapam, Poha, Bread, Instant/ rolled oats, milk, etc are unhealthy.

When we start eating unprocessed natural foods, even grapes seem extremely sweet.

It is not possible to live like a saint and avoid everything for most of us. Social life, networking, travel, and most importantly our own cravings need to be taken care of. What I suggest to my audience is that they should maintain a healthy diet, lifestyle, and environment on a daily basis. Clean your house. Maintain a routine. Occasional indulgence won’t hurt. But it should strictly be only outside the house.

Start with inclusion, not exclusions. When you want to start a health routine, don’t focus on eliminating unhealthy things. First, start with including healthy foods, sleeping on time, and exercising. Everything will eventually fall in line.

Most importantly people are very creative and can make healthy foods tasty. Green juice could taste like Pani puri, guacamole, chillas, red rice biryani, fig-dates-seeds laddu, stuffed paratha, a variety of salads, and green chutney are just a few examples that could be a part of your daily life. The list of tasty healthy food is unlimited.

Are supplements bad for our health?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Most supplements are not necessary. Some supplements like Vitamins, Minerals, and Probiotics are safe to consume. Helpful too.

I do not recommend any protein shakes or supplements otherwise. I propagate natural unprocessed forms of food and supplements and do not find any place there. However, some people may have specific needs like bodybuilders and athletes. I do not cater to that segment. For normal people, it is not advisable, not pocket friendly, and could also cause health problems. These are highly marketed and endorsed, so don’t fall trap of it. If you are following a dietary regimen of a celebrity and being influenced by them, then please make sure you follow their exercise regimen also.

For people at large, it’s a big no.

There is a growing tendency to consume supplements for enhancing immunity. Is that a good idea?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Natural ways are best to boost immunity and research has found some amazing insights about it:

• People who are exposed to nature and get cold often are more immune to viruses and bacterial infections. It is a way our body trains and identifies infectious agents and destroys them more quickly as they already have antibodies for them. This could also be the reason why people in slums and villages were not as affected as affluent highly sanitized people during the pandemic.
• Consumption of Vitamin C boosts immunity and certain immune cells cannot function optimally without it.
• Vitamin D and sun exposure boost immunity to a great extent. It is highly anti-cancerous and reduces body cholesterol too.
• Spices and herbs are amazing at blood thinning, and immunity boosting and act as an anti-inflammatory for the body.
• Consuming a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and whole foods automatically provides all the required nutrients our body needs.
• The number of nutrients and anti oxidants provided by 1 kg of celery would cost tens of thousands of dollars in supplement form. And yet we would not be able to harness all the benefits provided by celery.

We still do not understand and have not identified all the health-promoting ingredients in natural foods. It is best to stick to natural foods and avoid supplements. Pocket friendly too.

How can we incorporate natural foods into our diet to maintain a good lifestyle and keep diseases at bay?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Some practices that helped my patients to incorporate natural foods and maintain a healthy lifestyle are:

• Learn how things work and what are its effects – The following anything blindly won’t be sustainable for a long time. Knowledge is empowering. My patients continue to lose weight even after the consultation is over. I give them learning sessions during the consultation and insist that the consultation should not stretch beyond 3 months.
• Build a routine – Routine makes everything effortless. Do you have to take efforts to do something that you do daily? Most likely not. Because it is an automatic process. Build habits that stick and become automatic. One of the easiest things all my patients are able to follow easily is starting the day with salads. It is now automatic.
• Follow a plan – If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. Without a plan, you will always be in confusion. A written plan either by yourself or an expert will make your life very easy. Always make it a habit to plan your days, your diet, your routine, your exercise regimen, your future, everything. Your grocery shopping, sleeping time, wake-up time, mobile switch-off time everything will automatically align on its own.
• Avoid shopping from places where you are more likely to buy unhealthy processed foods. Even if it costs a little more, try to buy from vendors and local shops. That will reduce your unwanted expenditure on junk foods.
• Avoid outside dinners – Dinner is the riskiest meal when eating outside. Socialize over breakfast, lunch, or snacks. Avoid dinner meetings as much as you can. This will also help you maintain your night and morning routine.
• Clean your house – Do not eat or even keep any processed foods at home. Eat healthy every day. Indulgence should be limited to outside the house only. Uninstall all food delivery apps. If you want to eat, go out and eat.

Ultimately it all boils down to knowledge, efforts, and awareness. But it is always easier for educated and successful people to follow a healthy diet and lifestyle compared to others. To each, their own, the formula works. Whatever it may be, take baby steps and move towards a healthier and disease free future.

What tips will you like to give to maintain a good lifestyle?

Nikhil Chaudhary- Learning and understanding is important. I suggest to start with following changes in your life:

• Calculate the number of minutes it requires for you to finish all the compulsory work that you do at night after finishing work. This includes dinner, family time, discussion etc. Then fix the earliest time you can come home or log off everyday. Accordingly fix a time to switch off your mobile and finish up all the compulsory work, switch off the lights and go to sleep. Most people can go to sleep by 9:30-10:00 pm. This allows you to get a good 8 hours of sleep which detoxifies your liver and boosts your immunity.
• When you wake up between 5:30-6:00, it allows you to exercise, take sunbath, laugh, play, have your morning salads, get ready on time and start work on time.
• Walking bare feet on the ground and on rough surface helps proper blood circulation and reduce blood pressure as well.
• Create habits. One by one. It works like magic.

Trying to start everything in a day will not work. Focus on things you are able to do and add one thing at a time. Don’t get disheartened by what you are missing out. We must become better than yesterday, every day.