Many of us have enjoyed eating in restaurants and fast-food chains. However, planning, preparing and eating healthy meals with your family at home is a lot easier, especially in most areas in our country that are under health quarantine due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and are required to stay at home. In addition, it can help control the family’s budget and offers many great benefits including the improved overall health of the whole family. Besides, cooking together as a family gives time to connect with each other, strengthen family bonds, work together and be informed of the food choices preferred by each member.
During this time of pandemic crisis, planning healthy family meals is essential mainly because we need to strengthen our body’s immune system to fight off the viruses. It might take time and effort at first, but once you get used to it, meal planning will seem so easy and it is a better choice for many important reasons.
In planning meals for a day or a week, one should consider the nutritional value, taste and flavors, amount of food to prepare, time and difficulty of preparing and cooking the foods and the cost of ingredients. It is important to list down all the things or ingredients that you’ll be needing and using. By these, you can manage your time better at the grocery stores and minimize your time being outside meeting different people. It can also help you save some money and relieves the stress of wondering what to cook at the last minute.
Planning meals ahead can also help in portion control of food served and it will make you less likely to overeat. It can also reduce the amount of food waste since you are only buying what you need and what are planned. Most importantly, planning meals can help you avoid poor and unhealthy food choices that can interfere with your health goals. Emphasize fruits, vegetables along with other nutritious foods in your planned meals to keep your body and immune system functioning optimally.
Plan and develop healthy meals for you and your family consistent with the 10 Kumainments, NNC’s nutrition and health guide. This advocate aims to promote positive nutrition practices and encourage the adoption of a healthy lifestyle for the Filipino people. Another guide is the DOST-FNRI’s Pinggang Pinoy, a plate-based food guide that features the right proportion of food that contains the right nutrients needed by the body on a per-meal basis.
Meal planning is a helpful way to ensure you and your family are eating a wide variety of nutritious foods every meal, enjoy more meals cooked using healthy ingredients and ensure that you’re getting the right nutrients needed by your body that can help reduce the risk of having chronic lifestyle diseases and COVID-19. (NOILaurito/OIC-NPC Flores)
