SPECIAL EDITION: CORONAVIRUS: Malina Malkani on Eating to Stay Healthy

and some much needed inspiration. Today I'm joined by Molina mal Connie. Molina is a New York based registered dietitian and the founder of Holitarian Lifestyle. Molina, thanks so much for joining me, Thank you for having me so um. People today, of course, are very focused as we all shouldn't be, on our health and and hopefully um thinking about nutrition. Most of us are willing to do pretty much anything that we can to reduce the risk of being infected by COVID nineteen. Can good nutrition be a

tool to fight out this disease? And if so, what foods do you recommend? Yes? Um, it's a great question, and good nutrition is absolutely an essential part of keeping our our overall immune systems and sells healthy and functioning and able to mount a strong defense against diseases and infections like COVID nineteen. And what I mean by that is that people people really want to know what specific to these fighting foods as for supplements, can I eat

now to check myself against the horrible virus UM. And it's understandable because of how scary and anxiety producing this is. But it's important to understand that no individual food or supplement can provide protection against disease or sort of magically quote unquote boost the immune system UM. It's more important to understand that even a mild deficiency in an essential

nutrient can lower the body's ability to fight infections. So instead of focusing on a specific food or supplement, I recommend really paying attention to eating a balanced, wide variety of nutrients and palthy foods, including all the food groups, eating lots of fut and vegetables and protein foods like beans and like gooms and healthy fast and nuts and seeds and whole grains and babby fish uh and and a dairy or a non dairy alternative rather than you know,

having a having it be a time when you're cutting out food groups and restricted or conversely loading up on foods that may sort of paste food in a moment,

but our neutral is poor. UM. And I think it's also really important to UH to think about taking a holistic approach to overall health and wellness, So not only eating that kind of nutrients in wide variety of foods that's balanced and complete, but practicing good sleepiety and getting some exercise every day and managing our stress levels through whatever it is that helps you relax, like medication or yoga or deep breathing, being will hydrated, drinking a lot

of water, UM, and getting outside if you can, and exposing your skin to some sunshine every day. So you know, you gave us great recommendations on stocking up and eating a lot of healthy foods, including fruits and veggies. Is there any special precaution that we need to be taking right now with our fruits and veggies? Any special UM handling a prep? Do we need to be using soap

when washing these? What do you suggest? So? According to the European Food Safety Authority, there's no evidence that the flood supply is a likely source for a route of transmission of the virus, but as always it's really important to practice good food safety, for example, keeping your fresh fog and fruits and vegetables on one cutting board and using another cutting board for rab meets UM. There's no need to wash vegetables with soap, but it is really

important to wash them with water inscription. UM. And when it comes to lead degreens, if you buy them triple washed UM, don't rewash them, but certainly do wash with water inscription Great. Great, Well, that's good advice, and that saves me one step. With people stuck indoors so much. You know, we're all thinking, of course about lack of vitamin d UM. Is there anything we should be doing there or are there other deficiencies we should be worried

about right now? Yeah, Vitamin d is UM. We're hearing a lot about it right now because it is a nutrient that facilitates normal immune systems function. But so much of the population is deficient, and it really can be hard to keep levels up, especially if you know we're spending so much time indoors and complying with UM the directive to quarantine and to shelter the place UM. And so yes, it's important to if you can get outside and try to expose your skins through about fifteen minutes

of some light to day. That's very helpful. There are good food sources of vitamin D that can help. UM. Some of those include patty fish like tuna, damons which are easy to buy, canned versions of UM which are more shelf table. Egg yolks are a great food source of vitamin D. UM. Some dairy products and soy belk that are fortified and vitamin D breakfast cereals, mushrooms uh um.

And you know, if you can't meet the the r D A which is about eight hundred I used per day for food, UM, it can be helpful to the supplement as well. Yeah, you're making me kind of hungry. Actually, Um, are there other other other deficiencies we should be looking out for other than vitamin D right now? Yeah. Some of the nutrients that are really important in terms of playing important roles is supporting immune function include protein, UM,

antioxidant vitamins and E, vitamin A, zinc um. And there are other nutrients as well that do influence the usune response UM, bullennium in vitamin B sticks, iron copper. But like I mentioned before, UM, when you're eating a really healthy, balanced, wide variety of nutrients in foods. UM, usually you can meet all of the needs of these different nutrients and UM avoid efficiencies. UM. So I really recommend just following that kind of a wide variety of nutrient dense foods.

That's making that of goal, and there are definitely ways to do that using shelf stable products. It's a myth that, um, only with fresh fruits and vegetables can you meet your daily meats. You know, there's frozen vegetables and fruits which are pet that peak ripeness um, which helps preserve a lot of those nutrients. UM. Canned versions are also a great way to help people meet their needs. So it's

it's a good time to get creative in the kitchen. Well, it's great to know that it's a myth that they can only be fresh, that you think they're frozen and candor equally nutritious. They're they're definitely wonderful options. Yeah. So, um, let's talk about comfort food. Yeah, you're all seeking some comfort right now in the middle of all this. What's a good snack or comfort food that you feel is

nutritious that you're recommending these days? Well, um, one of the things that I've been recommending to a lot of my clients is UM taking the time right now to batch cook ahead because you know, a lot of the times hits at home and homeschooling is incredibly dressful and

time consuming. We're working jobs on top of it, and possibly getting care to other people who might be sick in our households, and so if you're dressed in its way and looking for comfort food, UM a great way to save its time and money, it's to batch cook some of those nourishing and easily reheatable soups and stews and cathroles, and then freezing or or refrigerating the extra UM and those going to be easily reheated in a moment um when you need something comforting and warming and

UH and available in quickly. I have a couple of recipes on my blog that I recommend a lot. One is a lemon lentil soup, and lentils are such a great way to get some of that UH plant based protein UM. And there's lots of greens in this soup as well, which has a lot of vitamin See, there's iron. There's a lot of these important nutrients that help support our health. I'm just gonna ask some recipes, so now that we know that they're on your blog, we can

tell our listeners about that. And I myself will go because lemon lentil that sounds delicious. Oh good, I hope, so I like it because it also it's a complete meal. And when we're so dressed and uh, you know, trying to juggle so many things all at once, it's helpful to have something that's just a complete meal in a bowl. And the lemonential soup also has to sakin me in it, so healthy facts and carrots and just all those good nourishing nutrients that helps support overall how we'll be back

after this break? Now, is there anything different we need to be thinking in terms of children's nutrition at this time? Um, something that might be different from advice you're giving to adults. Well, kids are not being as affected by this virus um, which is such a blessing and it's hopefully calming to a lot of people to to hear that. Um, But um, you know, it's tough for them to be indoors a lot and to not be able to you know, run around outside as much and get the same sort of

level of activity activity as they're used to. UM, and so when it comes to kids and and to everyone for that matter, but UM, it's important to take holistic sort of approach to their overall health while we're home and homeschooling, so that it includes a little bit of activity every day as maybe even some stress relief, so maybe some either meditation or moments of calm UM, and providing some structure for them that allows for all these

different aspects of the healthy lifestyle. Really uh, prioritizing sleep as well, so that all of these lifestyle behaviors that contribute to overall health and wellness, of which help you insisted as a part, are accounted for. What's the number one food to stock up on when you're making those limited trips to the grocery store. Is there one food that you're like, you've got to have that in your pantry? Oh gosh, that's a tough question because it really is

about variety and balance. UM. But if I had to pick one, I think kind of the overall umbrella of fruits and vegetables is UM is really important because fruits and vegetables when you talk about nutrient density, and by tree in density, I mean foods that offer a large number of healthy nutrients per calorie. Fruits and vegetables. UH really fits the bill. I was hoping to say broccoli because I bought a lot of broccoli and my I

do have so much broccoli. Broccoli. Saying broccoli is the number one food recommended, you don't really can't go wrong with broccoli. Broccoli is just one of those blood durful foods that has a lot to offer. My last question is maybe not a nutrition question, but what makes you optimistic in this moment? Oh gosh um. You know, as a as a dietician who specializes in nutritions for mom's babies and kids, I deal a lot with picky eating um.

And one of the silver linings of this whole situation is that as parents and caregivers, we are home with our kids, and we are we have an opportunity to really enlist our kids in meal planning, shopping, UH, cooking, food prep and all of the different behaviors and actions that over time help navigate and sort of combat some of those picky eating behaviors and enlist kids in UH understanding where our food comes from and how to prepare it.

It's such a way that it expands their palates and gets them more interested in trying new foods, um and over time, that can really help set this up for a positive relationship with food down the road. So for a lot of families, I'm really hoping this becomes an opportunity to eat together, learn more about food and um kind of right the ships in terms of of of picky eating. So true, we can develop good habits in

this moment as well. So we're we're very grateful for you for taking the time to uh set us on the right course in terms of nutrition and what we're doing here in this that we don't accidentally move into a comfort food zone that is not productive for us. So we appreciate your time. Thanks so much for being with us. So it's like pleasure. I wish everybody to that.

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