Sattva : Issue 07

Covid Crisis, Comfort foods, Nutrition for Covid, a Korean drama recco & more

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Through this fortnightly newsletter, I want to bring to you all things good, which will make your life better. My focus will be on topics such as mindfulness, productivity, slow living and sustainability, accompanied by genuinely useful recommendations of products, books, music, links to read, and of course food and recipes. Through these, I hope to instil some Sattva in your life.

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COVID Crisis

We are in the midst of the worst of times with the number of Covid19 cases spiralling, a complete lack of resources to match the needs, an inevitable collapse of the healthcare system and people all around us losing their near and dear ones to the second wave.

I have two requests to make of you, dear reader. 

Vaccination: If you are eligible to get vaccinated, please register on https://www.cowin.gov.in/home and get the process started. Today at 4PM, the registrations start for everyone in India above 18 years of age. There are high chances that the site may crash, or you may not get the OTP. Kindly do not lose hope. Keep trying over the next few days.

Getting vaccinated is our number one priority right now. Don’t stop with yourself. Please convince the naysayers and fence sitters, those who work for you, extended relatives etc. Respond to each of their concerns in detail until they are convinced to take the vaccine. We are safe only if everyone is safe.

Donations: Today if you are in the comfort of your home, it is the biggest blessing. Please consider donating to all those not so fortunate or privileged. Here are some of the resources that list the charities that need our help. 

1. https://donate.indiacovidresources.in/

2. For those with an international credit card, please go through this sheet which has all the places that will be able to accept your donation. 

Do listen to this eye-opening 20 minute talk by Dr. Ambarish Satwik on definitive preventive measures that need to be followed with a dogged discipline right now and also why masking at home is not something to joke about. 

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Comfort food for the soul

I made pasta for lunch yesterday

When babies cry, feeding them breast milk (or formula for that matter) either puts them to sleep or makes them stop crying. Like breast milk, most common comfort foods, sweet or savoury, are a combination of some kind of sugars (carbs) and fat. Eating these foods when we are feeling stressed out, anxious or low, gives us the same comforting feeling we would feel as a baby being fed milk when hungry or agitated.

Ingredients like flour (or bread), butter and sugar were the first things to vanish from supermarket shelves the world over each time a lockdown was announced during the pandemic. Eating food that you like, releases the feel good hormone dopamine in the brain, making us crave for more of these foods. For us Indians, comfort food is usually rice in combination with dal, curry or yoghurt, biryani, toast with salty Amul butter, anything made with potatoes, instant noodles etc. It could also be cheesy carbs like pasta or pizza. 

While the pandemic rages around us, it is normal to seek refuge in comfort food. Food is possibly the only thing right now that makes us feel like something is in our control. We all need a respite from the claws of anxiety that are clutching at us so if you feel better with a mug of hot chocolate or steaming hot khichdi with ghee or your neighbourhood shop’s samosa, don’t feel guilty about it. Do not beat yourself up for eating comfort foods in these times.

At the same time, do take care to eat some of the nutritious foods that keep your body healthy during these times.

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Taking care of nutrition during Covid

I had shared these tips on Twitter and Instagram a week ago and people found them quite helpful. Here it is in a nutshell. 

Focus on eating these three categories of foods everyday

1. Foods to improve immunity 

What to eat: 

*FOR THE GUT: Gut flora consists of about 40 trillion live microorganisms and these makeup for nearly 75% of the immune system. Eat fibre rich foods like beans, dals, leafy greens, whole fruits like apple, banana (not juices), whole grains like millets. Prebiotic food gets converted into food that the good bacteria thrive on. Onions & garlic are excellent prebiotics with sulphur compounds that have antimicrobial effects. Eating probiotics like yoghurt, fermented drinks etc directly pumps your gut with good bacteria. 

Cut down on alcohol & caffeine (even tea) imbalance of good & bad bacteria in the gut.

*VITAMIN C: All vitamin C rich foods are great for immunity. You don’t have to eat anything fancy. Choose from citrus fruits, guava, capsicum, papaya, amla etc.

*VITAMIN E AND ZINC: Nuts and seeds are rich in vitamin E and Zinc, both of which are very important for immunity. Zinc is critical to the development of immune cells and an important cofactor for many enzymes.

*PROTEIN: Make sure every meal has some protein in it, as it is the building block of all cells including the antibodies that you need to fight infection. Tofu, beans, eggs, dairy, lean animal protein (fish, free range poultry) are all foods you can choose from. 

2. Food to reduce inflammation 

Inflammation plays an important role in all clinical manifestations of including Covid19, one of them being lung tissue damage. Foods naturally high in antioxidants reduce inflammation.

What to eat:

*Let’s see what’s in our kitchen! Tomatoes, turmeric, leafy greens, cold-pressed coconut oil, almonds, walnuts are all excellent to reduce inflammation. 

*Cut down on refined sugar, processed foods, refined oils, excessive alcohol, processed meat, trans fats, all of which increase inflammation. 

*Being home all the time, it is easy to succumb to boredom related eating, which is mostly packaged (inflammatory) foods. Cultivate a hobby that keeps you mentally occupied and happy such as music/painting/growing plants or catch up with friends and family online to avoid boredom. 

3. Mental health-boosting foods

Our mental health is crumbling in the current times, whether we realise it or not. The good news is that we can do something about it.

What to eat: 

*Eat foods rich in folates. Combine 1/2 cup cooked spinach with 1/2 cup cooked lobia (black-eyed peas) and you have covered 60% of your daily folate intake in one bowl. Eat all local dark green leafy veg you can find.

*Vegetables like capsicum, cabbage, cauliflower have a high Antidepressant Food Score. 

*Don’t forget water. Water makes up over 70% of your brain. Studies show that drinking <2 glasses of water is associated with depression.

*Don’t underestimate the power of sleep to improve your mental health. Body repairs itself during this downtime when the metabolism is slow and it does not have to work to running your body in peak time. Brain cells clean out the cellular waste generated during the day time. 

Find this on Twitter and Instagram and share it with your people. 

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A heartwarming Korean food drama 

Let’s Eat 1 and 2 on Netflix is a Korean drama centred around mouth watering food and heart warming characters (and dogs) you get invested into. I watched 2 first and then 1. It is slow paced, but it eventually grows on you.

You learn a thing or two on how to truly enjoy food without worrying about anything else. The cute and feisty dogs Vara ( short for Che Guevara) in Season 1 and Happy in Season 2, will make you smile.

Did I say the food is to die for? I am a vegetarian and yet I was blown away by the aesthetics of the food which is a lot of seafood and meat.

I was in isolation for 4 days after some suspect symptoms (no fever) last week, because it took that long for my test results to come back. This series took my mind off the gloom, made me laugh and cheered me up a lot. I cannot recommend it enough.

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A guest on The Seen and the Unseen

I have been listening to the podcast The Seen and The Unseen (TSATU) for a while now. Each episode is 3 hours or longer in duration and I savour it over the week, while walking, cooking, doing dishes or doing any other mundane chores. The personal stories of the guests have always fascinated me. I have also been equal parts intimidated and in awe of how deep, knowledgable, talented the guest speakers on TSATU are. So when the host, Amit Varma asked me a few weeks ago if I was game to be a guest on his podcast, I was equal parts "oh yay" and "no way".

Lock me up in a room and I can write for hours. Ask me to sing and may be I can. But how on earth am I going to talk for 3 hours or more. Did I even have that much stuff to share about my life and my book that I could be a guest on TSATU?

I put my ever-present doubts aside and agreed to be a guest. Amit's thorough research into your life and work, his gentle prodding and meaningful questions made it effortless to talk about myself, even for a non-speaker like me. I was unwell on the day of the recording, uncertain if I will be able to sit up and talk for so long. But just having this free flowing conversation, as though with an old friend, made me forget that I was unwell and we motored on.

On this podcast, I speak about the things that I have rarely shared on social media. Talking to Amit was like taking a deep dive into my own memories. I do hope you will listen to our conversation. It may help take your mind off the mayhem around us for a while. May be even find something silly in the stories to laugh over. Podcast link |You can catch it on whichever platform you listen to podcasts.

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I would love your feedback on the newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience. See you in two weeks time!

Nandita Iyer

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog: https://saffrontrail.com

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