NewsX was joined by a panel of experts in the third episode of a special show ‘Holistic Wellness Week: The power of protein’ supported by USSEC, who discussed the significance of mental health and a balanced diet for holistic wellness.
The panel included Yogesh Chabria- a motivational speaker, counsellor and founder of COVID Saathi Helpline- Mala Paropkari and a dietician at AIIMS- Richa Jaiswal. The panellists addressed various factors concerning the health and well-being of the people.
During the discussion, one of the panellists, Richa Jaiswal, a dietician at AIIMS also threw light on the importance and power of protein and how protein is an integral part of a healthy diet. Richa also helped viewers understand the myths around poultry products that were spread when the Coronavirus pandemic broke out, poultry is actually one among the chief sources of proteins.
Touching up on the significance of prioritising one’s mental health, motivational speaker and author Yogesh Chabria said in his inaugural address that during the Covid-times, even he faced a lot of challenges. He said that people might think that it’s easy for him but being in the lockdown, he could not do a lot of things he liked like going out in nature. Yogesh expressed that people should realize that they have complete control over their mind and body. He further stressed that one should have control over their mental health.
Yogesh also threw light on how one can attain control over their mental health. He said that one should not only focus on the problems but also realize how they’re lucky in many ways.
Counsellor and founder of Covid Sathi Heaalpline, Mala Paropkari joined in the chat and shared the kind of problems that people had come across with during the lockdown. Talking about Covid Sathi Helpline, Mala said, “We launched this in April, issues have been quite different as we went into the program. At that point of time in April and May, it was more about fear, there was anxiety relating to the loneliness that came from being at home with only some family members as people were not used to be doing that. When it came to the nuclear families, it was something very new because then the husband was suddenly at home and maybe even had to participate in the household chores.”
Mala further said, “There were issues among the family members. One was personal issues, two- there were issues prior to Covid but got accentuated during Covid and three, there’s also a loss of sense of esteem because some might have lost their jobs, some might have had pay cuts. Some people have marital issues at home because of being suddenly hold up at home.”
“The individual begins to approach outsiders because there’s a lack of acceptance or acknowledgement of the issue by the family members. So the most important thing is that the family members should actually recognize and be proactive towards helping this individual who is a member of their family. So the first step is the family members understanding and accepting that one of their family members might have an issue which requires to be delt by professional counsellors. In many cases, family members ignore such warnings and tell the family members to not worry about it,” said Mala.
Mala added that under their helpline, depending upon the issue of the caller, they encourage them to schedule a session for them with trained psychiatrists or psychologists and after the call, they encourage them to go back and talk to their family and them about the issue. She said that about 40% of the callers actually needed one on one session with a professional psychiatrist and the last step would be medication by the doctors if required in any case.
Richa Jaiswal, a dietician at AIIMS also joined NewsX during this special show and shared her experience of looking after Covid patients for the last 8 months. “The first thing that I noticed in my patients after they get admitted is that they are worried about their health and their family health as well. So it’s not just the patient who is admitted that we have to take care of, the non-infected people who are at home, their health is equally important,” said Richa.
Further talking about holistic wellness, Jaiswal said that a non-infected, healthy person is just required to follow a balanced diet pattern. Richa said, “Once I speak about the balanced diet pattern, it means that the person should eat all food groups. It is really difficult to say a particular diet pattern should be followed by the particular patient, there may be certain underlying diseases so those parts should also be taken into consideration before we plan a diet”
Sharing some more details on a balanced diet, Richa said, “Just a simple well-balanced diet is going to give you sufficient nutrients to survive, perform, remain functional and lead a healthy life.”
Talking about the significance and power of protein, Jaiswal expressed, “Protein is very important for a healthy life but then again, it should come as a part of your life. It should not be over, it should not be lesser than that and then.”
Protein is an integral part of a healthy life and to attain that, Richa said, “it is important to include milk and milk products, pulses, legumes, a combination of cereals and pulses, non-veg items for people who can eat non-veg like egg, poultry, fish and lean meat in the diet. There are also certain pulses, legumes and seeds that are also a fair source of protein and once you club all these and make it a part of your diet then definitely you are going to get sufficient amount of protein.”
There were several myths around poultry that started to circulate during the start of the pandemic. Addressing those myths, Richa said, “There were many myths and people were really scared because it was unknown to almost all that how it was going to behave. People should understand that if they are taking poultry, fish or egg, it should be well-cleaned and well-prepared.”
Further talking about immunity, Richa said that immune system in itself is very complicated and there’s no easy way, shortcut or quick-fix of it. She stressed on the cleanliness of food, chewing the food properly, drinking water even during winters, including all food groups in the diet and timing of eating a meal for a healthy diet.