Easy ways to include vitamins in your diet

Health experts suggests some easy lifestyle changes to get your daily dose of vitamins.

It is important to consciously include immunity-boosting vitamins in our diet. However, the impact of rapid urbanisation and unrealistic body images have affected people’s lifestyles in a great way and we are facing an epidemic of vitamin deficiencies, particularly Vitamin D and other fat-soluble vitamins.

Easy ways to include vitamins in your diet (Polina Tankilevitch)

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Kavita Devgan, Nutrition Advisor for Tetley Green Tea Immune, suggested, “Vitamin C tops the list as it is known to be an important antioxidant too besides having a role in immunity. One of the easy ways to get it is to include Vitamin C infused green tea in your daily routine. Second on the list is vitamin D, which helps in reducing inflammation and has a role in immune function.”

She revealed, “Our body makes this vitamin on its own when our skin is exposed to sunlight so it helps to get enough sunlight (20-30 minutes exposure to sun daily); salmon, sardines and egg yolks are some rare food sources of vitamin D. Finally Vitamin A is also known as an anti-inflammation vitamin also helps enhance our immunity. Sweet potatoes are the best source of carotenoids.”

Bringing her expertise to the same, Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan, Head of Wellness and Wellbeing at Columbia Pacific Communities, recommended five lifestyle changes to get your daily dose of vitamins:

1. Adequate exposure to sunlight can help a person improve their Vitamin D levels. 10 AM to 3 PM is the ideal time to get maximum Vitamin D.

2. Including seasonal fruits and vegetables in the diet can greatly improve an individual’s overall health.

3. Nuts and oilseeds such as sunflower provide good fibre content along with fat, facilitating the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and supporting the gut flora to produce Vit B12

4. Include complex carbohydrate foods such as parboiled rice and hand-pounded rice, in your meal plan. These are rich sources of Vitamin B complex.

5. Introduce foods such as avial (mixed vegetables cooked fresh coconut, curd and coconut oil), vatha kuzhambu (curry made with sun-dried berries and cooked with gingelly oil) and sambar with ghee, in your cuisine. These foods are highly nutritious.