Wellness & Healthy Food Tips I Learned from a Nutritionist

15 MAY ‘26

Keep reading to know...

01 Your Diet Is Only As Strong As You Make
02 What You Really Need to Know About Nutrition
03 Finding Nutrition in the Mundane
04 Here’s Why Your Skin Will Thank You One Day
05 Growing Up As The Daughter Of A Nutritionist Has Its Perks

When I introduce myself, I seldom forget to announce that I grew up believing potato chips and chocolates are inaccessible. It's not as though I never saw them, I just rarely ever indulged in them. I know what you're thinking, which 10-year-old doesn't eat junk food? I'm here to tell you that we exist. This rare breed of kids that grew up in an environment of balanced meals, flax seeds and forced mugs of milk. Don't worry though, my mother doesn't hate me, she's just a Nutritionist. Growing up with her was challenging and rewarding in ways that altered my brain chemistry. Today, I'm healthy, I have great skin and I have this incessant need to calculate my protein intake.

Wellness is a concept that children aren't really told about until suddenly you're 16 with acne and an addiction to aerated drinks. You never stop to think about your lifestyle because no one ever told you that you should. You never calculate your carbs until all the women around you are gunning for flat stomachs and taking reformer pilates. Your world changes in the blink of an eye, you're grown up and nobody even mentioned nutrition. It's daunting being a teenager around girls who seem like they're better than you in every shape and form. It's hard to grow up and suddenly be conscious of your body, your lifestyle and your choices. It's a universal experience. I had the same insecurities but the only difference was that someone in my home was monitoring everything I consumed.

My mother is a force of nature. Nothing ever gets past her. As a child, my mission was to hide the alarming amounts of chocolate I was consuming. Hers was simply to ensure I ate only whole wheat multi-grain bread, quinoa and lentils. She needed my lunch to just be healthy food like vegetables, a roti, rice, lentils, salad and topped off with buttermilk. She needed my evening snack to be fruits and my dinner to be interestingly healthy. She would come up with the most absurd recipes and manage to feed me something that I would never dare to question the contents of. My childhood was a series of Greek, Italian, Indian, Lebanese, Peruvian dishes you've never heard of. She would switch out ingredients in recipes for healthier alternatives. She would mix anything she felt like and my brother and I would have no choice but to eat it. My normal meals were exotic to an outsider.

With a mom like that, you'd assume I grew up health-conscious. Maybe I should be a fitness enthusiast but I like a packet of potato chips as much as the next person. I'm not a gym girl, I'm not the person that would pick a salad over a burger and I'm definitely not as careful about my well-being as my mother. But, I do have a nutrition trick or two up my sleeve that only growing up with a nutritionist can teach you.

The author shares how growing up with a nutritionist mother shaped her awareness of balanced meals, healthy habits, and a mindful relationship with food and wellbeing.
It highlights simple nutrition principles and daily habits like balanced meals, mindful snacking, protein intake, hydration, and understanding food labels and fats.
The article explains how consistent healthy eating improves skin, hair, and overall wellness, while emphasizing moderation and sustainable habits over strict dieting.

01Your Diet Is Only As Strong As You Make

Sonali Shivlani, aka my mom's not-so-humble-opinion is, "a diet is a term that was coined with good intentions and eventually turned into something you hate to think about."

It's not about starving yourself, it's not about being rigorous and it's definitely not about being so harsh that you hate yourself if you cheat on it. My mother always says, "everything is okay as long as it's in moderation." That's the mantra I follow. My daily meals are simple, healthy and yummy. Here's what they are:

Breakfast: Sometimes I eat a mixed berries, chia seeds, oats, granola and yogurt bowl. Sometimes it's buckwheat pancakes with chocolate and strawberries. On days when I'm lazy it's just a few boiled eggs and on days when I need some more carbs it's avocado toast.

Lunch: My lunch has historically been the same ever since I could pick up a spoon. It's balanced, it's low effort and frankly, it reminds me of home. I always eat vegetables, dal and rice and I always try to have a bowl of yogurt.

Snack: I try to keep myself indulgent and happy with my evening/midnight snack. Sometimes it's a fruit, sometimes I just have cookies and milk and sometimes I go full-cheat mode and have instant noodles.

Dinner: Here's where I get creative. I try to keep things exciting by making new healthy dishes that are only healthy if you look closely. On the surface, they're pretty colourful meals that get you the nutrition you need without letting you in on the secret. Maybe it's Bourbon Pecan Chicken or maybe it's a baked potato stuffed with cheese and veggies but it's always always something fun.

02What You Really Need to Know About Nutrition

It's not as simple as eating healthy because what really constitutes as healthy? Do we even know? Are we aware enough to make sound decisions? Here's what my mom always followed:

Always read labels. If you don't understand an ingredient, research it.

The average active person needs 1 gram of protein per kilogram of their weight. Let that sink in.

Not all fats are a hard-no. There are good fats and bad fats.

Gaining weight is not always bad. Maybe you're just gaining muscle.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Don't skimp on it.

Processed food and frozen food is exactly as bad as they say it is. No one is sugar coating it.

If the expiry date is too far into the future, maybe you ought not buy it.

Indulging yourself isn't bad, shaming yourself for indulging is.

03Finding Nutrition in the Mundane

The tricks I speak of so fondly are things my mother imbibed in me without realising I was actually paying close attention. And here I am willing to reveal all my secrets.

Firstly, basic flour is replaceable in almost every recipe. You just have to be bold enough. Instead try whole wheat flour or dare I say buckwheat flour.

Sourdough bread is not just fancy but also so much healthier for your body.

If you add chia seeds to your smoothie or acai bowl, you literally won't even know they're there.

Pasta sauce is an art. Just mix your favourite cheeses and greens to make a blend. You'll consume broccoli on a random Tuesday and not know that you did.

Sesame seeds are a protein boost to any meal. Just sprinkle them on or blend them in a sauce and you're good to go.

A flavourless protein powder goes a long way. One scoop in any meal is enough to increase your intake.

Hydration is key. It keeps your skin and lips healthier. It keeps your gut clean and frankly, a cold glass of water is just so tasty.

Wellness isn't about running marathons, just do the workouts you genuinely enjoy and you'll be okay.

04Here’s Why Your Skin Will Thank You One Day

"Beauty care has always been expensive but what if I told you that nutrition can actually make you glow," says Shivlani. And, here's how it actually does:

Cutting back on excess sugar and ultra-processed foods can help prevent breakouts and uneven texture.

Regular, balanced meals keep blood sugar stable, which can influence hormones linked to acne and skin flare-ups.

Gut health matters too: probiotic-rich foods like yogurt or fermented vegetables can support digestion, which often reflects in the skin.

Staying hydrated consistently is one of the simplest habits for maintaining skin elasticity and natural glow.

Foods high in antioxidants, like berries and leafy greens, help protect skin from dullness and environmental stress.

Omega-3-rich foods such as salmon, walnuts, and flaxseeds can reduce inflammation that often shows up on the skin.

Healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil help nourish the scalp and keep hair from becoming dry or brittle.

05Growing Up As The Daughter Of A Nutritionist Has Its Perks

Someday I'll be telling my daughter to eat her greens and I'll think of my mom and how much I rebelled against her nutrition regimes. But I'll be in my forties not looking a day over thirty and somehow it'll all make sense. The years of balanced meals, wellbeing talks and forced consumption will suddenly seem worth it. The idea that being healthy doesn't need to be rigid will sink in, the concept of a diet will not be something I choose to hate and the fond memory of potato chips will continue to haunt me because some things never really change.