Holistic lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho’s mantra to building a robust immunity lies in tweaking our lifestyle to get into a rhythm of better sleep pattern, nutrition intake, workout regime, and emotional wellness. “Our lifestyle is the magic immunity pill,” he says about his new book The Magic Immunity Pill: Lifestyle, co-authored by actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra. The free downloadable digital book was recently launched by the Kitaab platform of the Prabha Khaitan Foundation and published by BUUKS. The book focuses on emotional wellness, quality sleep, balanced nutrition and adequate exercise to build a strong immune system. DH Living gets the celebrated coach to reveal a few nuggets about amping up immunity for a healthy lifestyle:
What according to you, comprises the immunity pill?
Our lifestyle holds the key to our immunity. Over the years, we have realised that our immune system forms the basic foundation of health. Without a strong immunity, we are susceptible to every single disease and health condition, right from a common cold, falling hair to something as complex as cancer. Our immune systems are dependent on four pillars:
Balanced nutrition that suits our body.
Adequate physical movement and activity.
Quality sleep and rest that enables recovery.
Balancing stress and anxiety.
What’s your mantra for good nutrition?
Nutrition is overrated and hyped and that makes us feel that it is a very complicated and confusing process to eat healthily. The secret behind eating healthy is to keep it simple. Eat what your grandparents and parents grew up eating. The kind of food that your parents and grandparents grew up eating will mostly be simple foods like — rice and dal, khichdi, vegetables cooked the simple way etc. This is exactly the kind of food our body needs now. Even though times may have changed because of the so-called modernisation, the basic needs of our body haven’t really.
How does one shop smart for healthy food?
Know your source, know your vendors and know where your food is coming from. This allows complete transparency between the consumer and vendor and hence a farmers market is a great platform for that. Read nutritional labels and information, because a lot about the product can be revealed through the labels. Shop local and seasonal. You do not want to shop for exotic fruits that have been flown in from the West and pumped with preservatives. Lastly, eat simple and shop for simple foods. Have indulgences but eat home-cooked simple foods 90% of the time which include fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, millets, pulses, lentils and legumes.
The pandemic has seen many go without their favourite foods. How does one fix cravings because people are also high on emotions now?
First off, we must avoid addressing emotions with food. Heal emotions with emotions.
Fixing an emotion with food will only lead to a vicious cycle that can have its own undesirable results — like emotional eating, eating disorders, etc. Food is not the answer to making one feel happy. Yes, certain foods can help alleviate your stress, like bananas, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, but it doesn’t mean one gorges on them.
If one is feeling high on emotions, then it is necessary to sit back and reflect on the root cause of these emotions, and then find a way to deal with it mindfully, either through acceptance, prayers, positive affirmations, letting go, etc.
What’s the link between inflammation and the immune system and what kind of foods can get one to stay healthy even if they have an underlying health condition which makes it necessary for them to eat more carefully to support their immune system?
Inflammation and immune system are tightly linked. Inflammation is our immune system’s response to any stimuli that our body considers as foreign, like a pathogen, virus, damaged cell, etc. When they attack or enter our body, our immune system gets activated and arrives at the site, releases inflammatory substances like cytokines to carry out certain protective mechanisms. Thus, inflammation is a protective mechanism. The problem is when this inflammation is chronic to our low immunity and faulty lifestyle.
Supporting immunity needs only the basics. Fresh and locally grown fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, cold-pressed coconut oil and ghee (in calculated quantities), basic Indian spices and herbs like ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, holy basil, whole grains, legumes, lentils. Give your immune system the basics of nutrition, movement and exercise, the required rest and recovery, balanced emotions and you develop a great immunity. The immune system doesn’t need anything fancy.