A healthy diet is basically a balance of all essential nutrients. Nowadays, inclusion of artificial feeds, junk food from early stage of life leads to childhood obesity and early onset of lifestyle diseases like diabetes.
Its always advisable to adapt to traditional healthy food . Naturally grown vegetables, fruits without pesticides are always the best option. Moreover, our north-eastern region is abundant in leafy greens which have medicinal properties: Fresh mustard greens, spinach, amaranthus, curry leaves ( Naraxingo paat ), shunkvine ( bhedailota ), heart leaves ( mosundari ), Methi or fenugreek Manimuni or centella asiatica, Vitex negunda (Posotia), Mejenga or sichuan pepper leaves etc are few of them . These leaves improve immunity, fights against inflammation and has many other specific properties which fights individual diseases. Our traditional "jhal annja" which is cooked with a medley of herbs like Bhedailota, curry leaves, posotia, black pepper ( jaluk ), Manimuni, etc with fresh fish like Stinging cat fish ( Xingi maas ) ,climbing perch fish ( Kawoi maas ) or local chicken is a home remedy for people with post viral asthenia . It is also offered to mothers after delivery, as it helps to tone up the body and help lactation. Similarly, a lot of locally available vegetables like raw banana ( kash kol ), banana flower ( koldil ), banana trunk or posola are rich source of iron and dietary fibre. Each of locally available Assamese kitchen essentials like outenga ( elephant apple ), Thekera (garcinia ), Omora, Aamlokhi or gooseberries are good source of Vitamin C and beneficial for diabetes patients.
