Authored by Soumita Biswas, Chief Nutritionist, Aster RV Hospital

It is important to stay healthy during the quarantine by practising good nutritional habits, mindful eating and doing enough physical exercise. By reducing your portion sizes, adding a good amount of protein in your daily menu, avoiding high-calorie foods and binge eating, you are more likely to avoid weight gain and prevent infection. In order to achieve a healthy and strong immune system, we need to focus on getting healthy overall. The following are some important tips to develop and sustain good immunity during the lockdown –  

• Be active physically: As there is not much chance to access the gym or a nearby park to do physical exercises, indoor workouts are the only option to burn out the calories. Engage yourself with indoor jogging or skipping at home. Doing house chores is also a good option in this lockdown period. Aim to get at least 40-45 minutes of physical activity per day.
• Maintain your body clock: In our normal routines our body clock is quite disturbed due to irregular eating patterns & irregular sleeping times, but we should use the quarantine time now to get our system back in order.
• Manage stress: Some types of stress are known to weaken the immune system and make us more susceptible to infection. During this pandemic please do not stress or panic as this could make you more prone to infection, hyperglycemia, hypertension or any metabolic diseases
• Limit your addictions: If you are addicted to alcohol or cigars, this is the perfect time to get rid of all these. Immunity is a major factor to fight against COVID 19, and we must avoid alcohol as it suppresses our immune system
• Take extra steps to avoid infection: Wash your hands frequently and use sanitizer if required. Pay extra attention to food safety while you prepare meals in order to reduce bacteria spread. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating. Thaw food in the refrigerator, in cold water or in the microwave. Cook fish or chicken thoroughly and keep raw and cooked foods separate. Avoid cross-contamination by using separate chopping boards or knives for vegetables and non-veg items.
• Stay hydrated: Make sure to drink around 10-12 glasses of water/day, you can especially focus on drinking warm water during this situation as it is helpful to fight against COVID 19.