A well-balanced diet can help Diabetics who are recovering from a post-COVID-19 infection. It is very important to meet the increased nutritional requirement of your body because it helps in replenishing your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Few modifications in your daily routine which will help Diabetics in early healthy recovery are:
- Consume plenty of fruits and vegetables:
Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants present in vegetables and fruits help in speedy recovery. Try to consume a minimum of 5-6 servings per day from the fruits and vegetables.
For example, you can simply have 2-3 servings of whole fruits in a day and 3-5 servings of seasonal vegetables in any form may be cooked, sautéed, steamed, boiled, raw salads, or in snacks.
- Protein-rich diet:
A normal adult male/female during this phase should have at least consume 1gm/kg body weight of protein per day.
Vegans can include 2-3 servings of thick dal, milk & milk products, nuts, and seeds/day. Besan(gram flour), sattu, lentils, peanut, paneer, cheese, mushrooms, white sesame seeds are the best options where as non-vegetarians can include all of these along with lean meat like eggs, chicken, fish in their diet.
- Healthy fats to meet the increased energy requirement:
Make your meals energy dense by adding fat and oils like ghee, cheese, avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds. Can include 20-25 gms of fat per day.
- Adding Calcium to your diet:
Include food products such as lotus seeds (makhane), Ragi, soybean, milk& milk products, calcium-fortified food items (flour, milk), figs, raisins, almonds all are excellent sources of calcium in an Indian diet.
- Prefer Germinated or fermented grains and pulses for Zinc:
All the grains and cereals are rich in zinc whereas Germination and Fermentation of those grains also increase the zinc content in them. Zinc helps to stimulate insulin action thus helps in controlling sugar specially amongst insulin resistance people.
- Super fighter Vitamin C: Vitamin C helps in enhancing our immune system and fights off the infection in the body.
Therefore consume citrus foods and vegetables like orange, lemon, sweet lime, guava, broccoli, bell peppers, tomato, and green leafy veggies as they are rich in vitamin C.
- Consume small and frequent meals:
Include small 6-7 meals in a day. Eating small and frequent meals helps in fulfilling your nutritional requirement as well as prevents spike in sugar levels and GI-related complications like gastritis, bloating, heaviness, acidity.
- Drink plenty of water:
Consume 3-4 Liters of water daily, also try to keep bottle handy so that you can keep track on it.
- Limit the intake of tea/coffee and caffeine-rich beverages:
Excessive caffeine increases heart rate, blood pressure, and leads to dehydration. On the other hand breathing difficulty, fatigue are the major symptoms affecting people during post-COVID infection So, to get early relief from these symptoms to try to avoid caffeine-rich drinks as much as possible.
Diabetics can consume 1-2 cups of tea or coffee per day without sugar.
- Quit smoking and drinking alcohol:
Smoking directly damages your lungs and lowers down the strength and capacity, making you susceptible to furthermore infections. Alcohol consumption suppresses the immune system therefore smoking and alcohol consumption both should be avoided.
Therefore minute changes by Diabetics in their daily lifestyle can help them to recovery fast from COVID-19 INFECTION.
EAT WELL
STAY WELL.