How To Balance Your Diet By Colours, Flavours, and Texture?

 Rainbow Colours

With the onset of summer, suddenly you start observing fruit and vegetable markets crowded with a variety of lush green vegetables and colourful fruits. A plate full of fruits and vegetables resembles a rainbow in the sky plus their consumption provides the required nutrients for your body.

Health and nutrition balance

To keep yourself healthy, a well-balanced diet is of utmost importance. A healthy diet supplies all the necessary nutrients and energy needed by our body to work efficiently. A lack of healthy and well-balanced diet can lead to fatigue and diseases. A healthy diet should contain vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Although cooking at home is the best option, be it working couples or students, a fast-paced lifestyle doesn’t permit that much leisure where one can take time out for cooking. Read-to-eat and ready-to-cook food is fast becoming an inescapable part of our busy lives. Frozen foods, vegetables, parathas and dairy products are some of the processed foods that can be considered healthy and well balanced. According to food experts and dieticians, there are many foods that can be regarded as healthy regardless of being processed or not. Yoghurt, peanut butter, frozen meat and vegetables, tomato puree, soups, smoothies, etc. are among the few great options for a quick as well as a healthy meal.

Colours

The colour of our food greatly impacts our visual perception. The visual appeal as well as aroma when combined together produces strong craving, thus making the appearance of food a very crucial aspect.

In this age of social media where food also needs to be appealing and only then it will be “shareable,” eye-appealing and bright coloured food is a must. Any loss of colours due to oxidation, extreme changes in temperature, moisture or storage conditions needs the addition of food colourings to provide the desired shade and appeal. Food colours are also used for artistic or decorative purposes. They are available in natural as well as artificial forms.

Flavours

Combine aroma with taste and you’ll get the flavour. The aroma is the intake smell of food through our nose and taste happens via several receptors in our mouth. The human tongue can decipher multitudes of tastes like salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami when combined with different aromas. With changes in food production process and requirements, there is growing interest in functional foods delivering health benefits and reducing synthetic additives. Due to the demand for clean-label products, the role of natural flavours has also fairly increased. Flavours are now being extensively used by food manufacturers to attract more consumption of their products.

In India, only FSSAI-approved (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) flavouring and colouring agents are authorized to be used in food products. FSSAI defines flavourings as natural flavours and flavouring substances, nature-identical flavours and artificial food flavours. These flavours and colours can be added as per the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).

Texture

Texture can make or break the characteristics of food which is why the top flavour companies in India and around the globe make use of it to create better products. While taste is king and flavour remains the most important and is most among developed senses. However, the texture of food does matter. We all have preconceived notions about certain foods, like soft, crunchy, or mushy. And if it doesn't feel that way while you chew it, you won’t like it.

Finally

Be serious with your health. Make sure that you follow a healthy and green diet by incorporating fruits, vegetables, healthy snacks and functional food in your diet.