HEALTHY EATING PLATE: 8 Foods to Include in Your Meals

Fill half the plate with non-starchy vegetables (salad, sabzi, cooked greens), a quarter with complex carbohydrates (roti, rice, millets), and a quarter with protein (dal, paneer, eggs, chicken, legumes). Add a small fat component (1 tsp ghee, a handful of nuts) and end with a small portion of curd. This provides all macronutrients with appropriate proportions.

5 servings daily (approximately 400 g) is the WHO recommendation. In Indian meals, this means at least 2 vegetable-based dishes per day - one cooked sabzi and one raw component (salad, kachumber, or sprouts). Include a variety of colours to ensure diverse phytonutrients.

Rotate between dal (lentils), paneer, curd, sprouts, tofu, chickpeas, rajma, and seeds. Combining a legume with a grain (dal-roti, rajma-rice, chole-puri) provides complete essential amino acids. Vegetarians need to be intentional about protein distribution across all three meals rather than concentrating it in one.

A small amount of ghee (1 tsp) per meal adds fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), butyrate for gut health, and improves absorption of fat-soluble phytonutrients from vegetables and spices. It also reduces the glycaemic impact of accompanying carbohydrates. The issue arises with 3-4 teaspoons per meal, not 1.

Fruit is best eaten as a between-meal snack rather than with main meals, where it may cause digestive discomfort for some people. 2-3 servings of whole fruit daily is optimal. Choose low-GI fruits (guava, jamun, papaya, berries) if managing blood sugar, and eat whole fruit rather than juice to retain fibre.