Is Your Diet Harming Your Health? Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar Shares Key Signs to Watch For

In today's world, a busy schedule makes maintaining a balanced diet a secondary thing. Convenience becomes the first preference over healthy eating habits. Processed foods, sugary snacks, and caffeinated beverages are frequent substitutes for wholesome home-cooked meals. While these quick fixes may satisfy a person for some time, the long-term effects on health are not realized until they become grave.
A bad diet, high in refined sugars and poor-quality fats and low in the essential nutrients that can include vitamins, minerals, and proteins, increases chronic diseases such as heart conditions, diabetes, and depression. Apart from the physical aspects, poor nutrition can also affect your mental clarity, moods, and energy levels.
Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar shares some minute indicators of poor nutrition that most of us miss. Catching such red flags helps in taking proper remedial steps to improve your health.
Red Flags of a Poor Diet As Identified by Rujuta Diwekar
- Reliance on Cloud Kitchens: If all or most meals come from cloud kitchens and not the home kitchen, that is a red flag.
- Non-Local Food Choices: Your diet includes lots of foods with English names but not usually local and traditional.
- Excessive Supplements: When your intake of fat, protein, and fiber comes from pills and powders, it means there aren't enough nutrient-dense foods in your diet.
- Tense Meal Times: If meals cause stress or anxiety, this means that your relationship with food has to be improved.
- Physical and Hormonal Changes: Regular injuries, irregular menstrual cycles, and other hormonal imbalances can be a sign of poor nutrition.
- Sleep and Cravings Problems: Wasting nights fighting cravings or unable to sleep indicates that your diet is unbalanced.
Effect of a Poor Diet:
A bad diet can severely affect your energy levels, digestion, mood, and health. These changes may seem to occur gradually, but they can be very dangerous if not corrected in the long run.
How to Improve Diet:
To regain physical and mental health, focus on adding more whole, nutrient-dense foods to your diet. Prioritize local, seasonal ingredients as much as possible and achieve a balanced diet with the necessary vitamins and minerals. Small, sustainable changes that foster home cooking and reduce processed foods make a big difference in health.
You can feed your body the best and feel energized, balanced, and ready to thrive by being proactive when you see these signs.