A Dream that has come True!!

Once there was a world which was full of life. A little girl emerged from the beautiful world and grew up all these years and entered a world which is quite different than what she saw and what she dreamt off. Her education supported her views and became her strength and helped in nurturing her thoughts. It did not take much time to realize the importance of converting the science behind nutrition into a practical module which could be handy to the public in gaining real health. Health is not a mere absence of disease. According to her, real health is when a person feels happy and stress free (that could be physical, mental, social or emotional) by the end of each day after doing all the day’s routine. It’s a dream to see such a scenario these days as stress in various forms has taken a stroll and is ruling the kingdom. Sooner stress management has become a challenge for many and ended up as one of the predisposing factors for many of the lifestyle diseases. The global burden of diseases was on the up scale and the healthy practices of humans was on a downscale

There came a time where there is information abundance. It's like sinking in the ocean of knowledge and people are just swimming across the ocean of information. Some are picking up whatever they felt ok and others end up into confusion rather than getting any clarity. It's very few, who end up showing at the right shore. The real challenge begins when people who are on the right shore try to apply the knowledge that they have learned but finally end up failing mostly because of lack of motivation.

Then came the era of crazy limelight of various food stuff. She always used to wonder how can only one product be in the limelight and turn the world around it. Thanks to the marketing companies who are making this possible and dragging mankind to a state where the real meaning of health does not exist anymore.

In the framework of on and off limelight foods, stress everywhere, now the super challenge has begun, which was against all these. She fought for almost a decade to tell people not to run behind the foods which are in the limelight and she continues doing the same even today.  Don’t buy the stuff which is marketed on television. They just increase your expenditure but do not improve your health. 

Her extensive research has emerged into fabulous findings and based on the scientific data, she started her journey of her health mission. It's a mission of imparting the right knowledge through a practical learning approach, which is feasible and doable to each and everyone.

The abundance of information, the constant marketing strategies of commercials, the impact of peer groups on the clients has only ended up in countless counselling hours. People ask questions like which oil is best to use and there is no such oil which is ‘’only the best’’. Then why the world is behind olive oil claiming its benefits, was the most commonly asked query by many. Nature is more smart and created foods as per the region and requirement of the species. But, humans fail to understand that logic and the rat race of getting the best is never ending which resulted in the limelight of various foods. The simple logic that olive oil works across the Mediterranean region, where they use it as a salad dressing and for mild cooking and yes, it is good. How one can fit the same to the Indian scenario where olive oil being a high smoking point oil, doesn’t support the Indian cooking style. Moreover, why one should import and pay a heavy price if there are counterparts which are equally superior. The mustard oil, groundnut oil, sesame oil, all are MUFA oils (medium chain fatty acids). The earlier generations have used them and stand out as an example of great health status. This has become a motto for the lady to counsel people about the food stuff which is locally and seasonally available. Be it fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses or oils, one should use the local produce because Nature has built in it for the people over there. That’s economical, fresh and suitable for the climatic conditions in which one lives on.

The struggle began, it’s easy to use a pen rather than raise a voice. Still she is doing it all through the years telling people why not to run behind any which is not approachable. Instead identify the treasures around and lead a healthy life. There is no need to run for chia seeds if one is aware of the benefits of watermelon seeds/pumpkin seeds/sesame seeds. There is no need to rely only on oats, if one understands the precious golden grains available around like sorghum (jowar), finger millet (ragi), pearl millet (bajra), wheat, rice etc. We studied while doing my double masters degrees that coconut oil is a saturated fat. Suddenly it has become a healthy fat now and people began drinking coconut oil. Yes, it has certain anti-inflammatory properties, which help in healing and smoothing but exaggeration of anything leads to a disorder and ultimately to a disease. Then the millets make their entry. Millets have been the staple food in certain parts of Andhra Pradesh since hundreds of years. Because the region is drought prone and lack of water makes the cultivation of other grains impossible. It makes people rely on this sole source and hence it becomes their staple grain. Suddenly, it has become a super food as someone marketed it. Yes, it's good and a super food but to whom and to what extent is the necessity to realize. 

The examples go on and on to show the countless acts of people to rely on one food which rules the world at that time. How can one think that a single food can change their state of health, always thought of that lady who is a dedicated health practitioner. How can people forget the basic principles of balanced diet with all nutrients and the importance of it? How can people forget their own eating patterns, always remained an open ended question to her. 

She always believed that learning was a continuous process and travelling across Europe for almost a decade helped the lady to learn different cultures and people’s attitudes, behaviors and practices across the world. One should learn the things by observing and pick a few which suits them in their locality is the lesson one should learn across the globe. 

Nature can take a role and dictate something if necessary and the lady is happy to witness the change that she aspired of all these years. It's happening at a greater force and speed across the globe. This has impacted people so much that everybody is left with no other options than just following Nature. It's evident now that humans are bound to their homes, their locality, their region, their country.

She can see a ray of hope which is raising the health graph of people. Suddenly, the illness graph (other than corona) is showing a down trend, outpatient wards are no longer required. People prefer to eat what is available within their arena and everything home cooked, have plenty of time to be with the near and dear, no travel stress, free from pollutants to an extent. All these factors are slowly resulting in a stress free atmosphere and making people improve their status of health unknowingly and at the same time helping Nature to recover and regain. She strongly believes that whatever we give, it will bounce back in leaps. Nature is regaining its strength only to bounce back and offer the best. Take the lesson and learn to respect the need of the hour. The lady can only aspire to see a glorifying world full of happiness, health and peace.

Discover Daily Detoxing!!

Detoxification or Detox is the body's natural cleaning process. It’s the physiological removal of toxins from the body. Detox is mainly done by the Liver in our body. However, intestines, kidneys, lungs, lymph and skin do promote the elimination or cleaning as well. 

While you are detoxing, your body focuses on releasing toxins, so you might feel suffocated because you have all the toxins travelling throughout your body. To understand it in a better way, say for example you think of deciding to clean a house which is very dusty over years. When you start sweeping the dust, it spreads across and all in the air and you may feel suffocate to breathe. You will feel better when everything is totally cleared and clean. Likewise, when we think of cleaning up the toxins, you will feel the ill effects of the detox process till the toxins move out of your body. 

Need For Detox:

The theory behind the detox lifestyle is that your body is unable to get rid of the toxic substances that you ingest every day. These toxins hang around your body and cause various ailments. The signs of toxic overload include fatigue, headaches, nausea, skin problems, constipation, aches and pains, food cravings, low energy levels and mood swings. 

When this system is compromised, impurities are not filtered properly and if every cell in the body is adversely affected then a detox plan can help the body's natural cleansing process.

If you’ve been eating a fairly processed diet for many years, you might be surprised to find that a lot food might have gotten stuck, turning toxic. In addition to leftover food matter in the body, we all are constantly affected with various pollutants from water, air and from the products that we use. We inhale, ingest and come into contact with these chemicals and they get stored in the tissues and cells throughout our body. Many of these toxins demonstrated cancerous, reproductive and mental health effects. 

Four Easy And Simple Steps To Detox Daily:

So let's discuss the four steps in detail about detoxing daily.

Infused Waters: 

Start your day with any fruit or vegetable infused water. Put few slices of any fruit or vegetable and infuse it in a litre of water over night and start your day with that detox drink. The best and easy to use regularly is the lemon detox water. 

Detox drinks help to boost energy, cleanse the liver, aid weight loss, reduce inflammation and promote skin health. There are a number of detox drinks made with various fruits, vegetables and spices, which not only cleanse the body but also provide vitamins and minerals for the essential bodily functions. 

Exercise:

Moving the body helps us to circulate both blood and lymph. The more they circulate the more the liver and lymph nodes can do the job of cleansing and purifying the blood and lymph. The digestive system works well and consistently with exercise. Another way of detoxifying by exercise is by reducing the subcutaneous fat. 

Toxins get stored in the fatty tissue in the body. When fat tissues are reduced, toxins are released and they can be eliminated through the cleansing organs. Gentle and low intensity aerobic exercise is good for detox because it helps the body moving, heart pumping and lungs breathing deeply but within the fat burning zone. Carry an exercise where in you can breathe evenly. The exercises which stimulate the lymphatic system are of great help in detoxification like the one bouncing on the trampoline. 

As you follow this detox lifestyle try to get at least 30 minutes outside a day. This can help you with faster healing and reduce stress. The fresh air in the early hours reduces the stress hormone cortisol levels and helps one to fight against anxiety and depression. And also help you avoid with the vitamin d deficiency. 

Herbal Teas:

Incorporating a cup of healthy tea into your daily regimen can bring significant health benefits from boosting the health system to detoxifying the liver. Use ginger, lemon and mint to make your own detox tea. If looking to lose weight, detox teas helps to increase your metabolism and reduce inflammation as well. 

Detox Diet:

On a detox diet, you give up foods that make your body toxic and instead eat and drink foods that help your body to remove all the toxic substances all by itself. 

It’s vital to practice healthy diet on a regular basis. Eating a standard three meal pattern diet which is devoid of all processed foods, with 2-3 mid meals of salads and fruits on a long run is what is required. This kind of short and frequent meals with a balance between cooked and raw foods, helps one not only in detoxification but also to maintain health in long run.

The only type of detox diet that is worthwhile is the one that limits processed foods, high in fat and sugary foods and replace them with more whole foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

The human body is an expert in getting rid of all toxins regularly. Our bodies were naturally meant to cope up with such toxins. Adopt this detox lifestyle everyday to improve your (your family's) overall health.

Hormones and Weight Loss!!

Many people say, "am eating right and exercising, but I still can’t seem to lose weight". The same diet and fitness plans that have been working since years is suddenly not working now. You might not realise that fluctuating hormones could be a culprit and balancing your hormones can help you in weight loss at any age.

The hormones has its impact on many things like our mood, our appearance and of course our weight too all the time. They fluctuate regularly and also this continues for the rest of our lives. The more we understand them, the better we can manage them. So let’s understand how hormonal imbalances hold you back from weight loss and how we can balance hormones naturally to maintain a healthier weight.

ESTROGEN:

Estrogen is a female sex hormone. Estrogen imbalance, also called Estrogen Dominance, in your body can slower your metabolism and the ability to store fat increases.

How to naturally balance estrogen for weight loss:

To lower estrogen levels naturally, eat 200-300 grams of vegetables per day. The fibre which is present in the vegetables helps you to remove the estrogen from your body. Women, who seek to lose weight, include 35-40 grams of fibre per day but increase the amount gradually to avoid stomach upset. Another important point is avoid red meat and all processed foods from your diet.

INSULIN:

Insulin is a hormone that has many functions but to put it in a simple way, it works as a key to allow cells to take in nutrients. After food intake, when the blood sugar levels rise, insulin is released and act as a key in lock, opening the cells to absorb the excess glucose.

When your body can’t shuttle sugar to the muscle cells to utilize (because of physical inactivity), the liver converts the excess glucose into fat, for safe storage in your fat cells.

How to naturally balance Insulin for weight loss:

Drink at least 500 ml of water every morning before you eat anything. This acts as body’s natural flush.

Managing carbohydrate consumption work remarkably well to keep insulin levels low. Get enough protein and try to eat small and frequent meals.

Include those exercises which particularly use the stored glucose in body like high intensity interval training or heavy weight lifting.

CORTISOL:

Cortisol is known as a stress hormone. It is released in response to stress in our body. Because of the multiple stress factors in day to day lives, the cortisol levels are constantly elevated. The increase in cortisol levels increases the glucose levels in blood which trigger the fat accumulation especially in the abdominal region.

This stress hormone can also mess with another hormone called leptin, a hormone responsible for making us feel full and satisfied. This means that when we are too much stressed, we end up eating more than we actually need.

How to naturally balance Cortisol:

Reducing stress, limiting coffee and tea, not over exercising and getting decent amounts of sleep are all ways to reduce your cortisol levels.

LEPTIN:

Leptin is a hormone that is released by fat cells. Its primary function is to tell our brain that we are full or satiated. This acts as a signal to stop eating. When leptin signalling is working properly, your appetite is suppressed and your desire to eat stops.

When you are overweight, with a lot of fat, lots of leptin is produced. One side with the elevated leptin levels and the other side the insulin resistance (due to physical inactivity) the receptors stop receiving the signal and you overeat. This leads to weight gain.

The high levels of insulin in the bloodstream actually block the signals from leptin from reaching your brain. So keeping insulin levels low helps in leptin signalling. Reducing body fat levels over a period of time, results in less leptin being produced and released.

How to naturally balance leptin for weight loss:

Balance your leptin levels by getting enough sleep. Deprivation of sleep lowers your leptin levels and actually increases your body’s desire for fatty and carbohydrate rich foods. If you suspect leptin imbalance, make sleep your priority.

Others ways to balance leptin include taking omega 3 rich foods such as fish and sea foods, nuts and seeds. Limit the intake of simple sugars and exercise regularly.

The bottom line is, if you have been struggling to lose weight but can’t figure out what’s possibly wrong, then your hormones has to be blamed. You can consult a doctor to test your hormones levels and consult a dietitian to make long term positive changes to the diet to have a harmony in your hormones. 

Fruit Myths! A Basket Full of Misconceptions!!

Since my childhood, am always a fruit lover and used have them in abundance and also a variety of them. Now when people around me often come up with various ’beliefs’ about fruits then I started researching more about the true facts. Fruits are the natural power houses giving us many essential nutrients along with energy and fibre. So today, I wish to pen down some very important points about fruits and busting some common fruit myths.

Let’s discuss now what the right time to have a fruit:

The best time to consume fruit is as a mid morning or mid evening snack. This way, we can help ourselves, as the calories disseminate throughout the day and also help in better absorption of nutrients. 

The problem of combining fruits with other main foods is, - the nutrients in fruits are very small and we need them in minimal quantities, so they are called the micronutrients. When the food is digested and nutrients in gut are ready to absorb, often the macronutrients compete and does not permit the micronutrients to enter the stream. So most of the time eating fruit with other foods does not ensure the bioavailability of these nutrients in the blood. So eating them separately helps. 

There are certain micronutrient absorption enhancers which help them to move ahead. For example for better absorption of iron, vitamin c acts as an enhancer.

Eating fruits instead of your main meal:

Most of them think as fru­­its are low on calories, they can have as many as they like. Fruits contain simple sugars and also fair amount of calories. Some are low in calories but not all. Few are very high in calories too. A single sapodilla(sapota) may provide around 90 calories. Eating a bunch of four is equivalent to a large meal. Unknowingly eating excessive intake of fruits results in excess calories. It’s not advisable to eat much after 8 pm as our metabolism slows down as the day progresses and is the slowest by bedtime.

Fruits during cold and cough will worsen it:

This is the most common myth people carry and always avoid fruits whenever any one has a bit of infection. This is actually not true. Fruits are rich in vitamin c and other micronutrients which help in building immunity and therefore help us fight against cold and cough 

Whole fruits Vs Juices:

A lot many people think drinking fruit juice is as good as eating a whole fruit. Be aware that you are missing so many other important nutrients like vitamins, minerals and fibre. Drinking juices is a convenient option but not a wholesome healthy one. Juices, being a liquid, remain in tummy for a very short time releasing quick energy where as a fruit helps in disseminating the energy slowly, which further helps in maintaining your weight and health. 

Fresh Vs Canned:

Anything fresh is always healthier than anything that comes in tins as it contains preservatives, high sodium levels and sugar content. That adds to your weight and water retention issues too.

Locally grown Vs Imported:

Always look for seasonal and locally grown produce. Locally grown fruits have to be sold within a time frame and due to this reason they are available during the season at a cheaper price. Imported fruits appear attractive but they contain fewer nutrients. Besides, the imported varieties appear to be brighter and fresher than the locally available fruits, but this is due to preservation. As fruits spoil during transportation due to handling and packing, there are modifications to help them survive the journey better. 

One universal truth is all fruits and vegetables are healthy foods. Different fruits have different things to offer. While all fruits offer fibre and energy, each fruit has its unique nutritional profile. Red, yellow and orange fruits are rich in antioxidants. Whereas fruits which can be eaten with skin such as guava, are rich in fibre. Bananas and sapodilla (chikoo) give instant energy. Kiwis and grapes increase your fluids. Melons are refreshing fruits soaked with nutrients. Therefore do not limit yourself and omit any fruit from your diet.

General Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle! Part 3!!

Two things have an important role to play in leading a healthy lifestyle. The same applies for disease management and preventive health too. One is diet and the other one is exercise. Diet I discussed in detail in my last two parts of general dietary guidelines post. Now am going to discuss in detail about Exercise and Lifestyle Changes.

Let’s discuss about exercise first. As we know the importance of meal timings, meal quantities and meal quality, exercise also has certain factors to be considered like the time of exercise, the type of exercise and the duration of exercise. These factors have a deciding role to play in achieving your set targets.

We might have often heard of people saying, if we start on some activity like dance or yoga or gym or any form of exercise and if we stop, we will put on weight. Here I want to tell you that it’s not because that you stopped the activity. It’s because you lost the balance between your intake (food) and your output (exercise). You followed a certain diet and exercise, and then might have stopped the exercise but the diet pattern might have continued which results in an imbalance of excess intake and less expenditure, leading to weight gain. The key point here is, maintaining this balance everyday is very important.

Coming to the exercise timing, we always have a debate on what is the right time to do it. Anytime is better than not doing anything. Timing has to depend on what you have to achieve. Say, it’s just for maintenance and general well being, doing it any part of the day is fine. But if you have specific goals like weight loss, hormonal imbalance like thyroid disorder, PCOS etc, and then it’s recommended to do it in the early morning.

Let’s understand how it helps if you do it in the morning. Once we have dinner and sleep, we have a long gap of time by the time we wake up and our blood sugar levels will be normal by the time we get up. So we have chances of using more from the stored calories from fat.

• When we start a work out, first 10 minutes we use the use the energy from the blood glucose.
• Till next 20 minutes, we derive the calories from the stored form of glucose i.e. glycogen.
• After 20-25 minutes, then we start burning our fat. 

If we do it in the evening, our blood sugar levels will be high as we keep eating something or the other throughout day and our body uses the glucose which is readily available in the blood rather than going to the fat stores. I mean who doesn’t want quick fixes? So, you have better chances to burn your calories from fat if you can do it in the morning rather than evening.

Second thing is duration of exercise. For fat or weight loss, always do a prolonged activity. Duration should not be less than 40 minutes. Then only fat burning comes into play and you can get efficient results.

Another important point is your breathing. We often observe people either talking to one another or over phone while walking. It’s not a healthy way of doing your workout. Remember one thing, how much ever intensive workout you may do, if you don’t supply the necessary oxygen via breathing, you cannot burn your fat.

Fat burning is a chemical reaction which is aerobic in nature and doesn’t happen in the absence of oxygen. So whatever workout you do, make sure you take in lungs full of oxygen to improve your efficiency to burn your fat and your stamina to live. Our lungs capacity is 2 litres and we hardly take half a litre of oxygen in each breath. So keep an eye watch on your breath. Remember, if you can have a control over your breath then you can have control over anything else.

The third point is the type of exercise. We basically have three types.

• Aerobic exercises which include brisk walking, running, jogging, swimming, skipping, aerobics, zumba etc.
• Anaerobic exercises include strength and muscle training.
• Flexibility exercises which include stretching exercises like yoga.

It’s always good to make a combination of these three in a proportion which can aim at giving you the desired results. Seek counselling from a trained exercise expert who can guide you in a better way to achieve your results.

Lifestyle Changes:

Lifestyle changes play a major role in the health and wellness of a person. Exercise we do for a hour in a day and rest all 23 hours is how we lead our lives. Living sedentary lifestyle has a direct negative effect on health. In today’s life, when we have more choices than ever in almost every aspect of our lives, most of us choose to be stationary. That’s why we are always tired, always stressed and always struggling to lose weight.

The World Health Organization estimates that a lack of physical activity is associated with 3.2 million deaths a year. Sedentary lifestyle leads to various lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hormonal disorders etc. It will end up with loss of muscle and bone strength also.

So, how to combat a sedentary lifestyle?

We need our bodies to maintain lean muscle tissue so we can perform our daily tasks without hurting or taxing our bodies. In a long time this kind of living becomes extremely difficult where in performing ordinary events like grocery shopping or picking up things, become much more difficult. 

The problem with our sedentary lifestyle is that even if you exercise regularly, it might not be sufficient to combat all those hours you spend sitting at work. People spend so much time not moving, that even those 30 minutes at the gym aren’t enough to counteract all those hours at our desks

The good news is that you can prevent the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, even if you do work in an office environment.

• Have walking meetings. Keep your brain engaged and legs moving by scheduling walking meetings with your team.
• Try heading to outdoors solo next time when you need to brainstorm or to be creative.
• Being up on your feet and not sitting in a chair can spark your creativity as your body sends blood to the brain. Plus, you can walk to lose weight at the same time.
• Walk and talk instead of sending emails. Now we even see people chatting sitting next to each other. Cut back on the electronic clutter, and walk over to your colleagues’ desks to get the details instead. These ways will help to keep your body active.

Need more new Ideas? Try these:

• Gossip on the phone while walking around the house instead of sitting on the sofa.
• Start taking stairs and avoid escalators
• Always get your glass of water instead of asking someone else.
• Pick up your lunch instead of ordering delivery.
• Do some stretches instead of lounging while watching TV.
• Engage yourself in hobby time. Gardening is one of the best hobbies for stress relief. It gets you outside, in nature and away from problems.
• Get up and dance the next time when your favorite song comes in radio or TV.

You might have to sit several hours a day, but there is no reason why you can't take a stand and change your sedentary lifestyle. The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm. All the advice in the world will never help until you help yourself. So help yourself with these lifestyle changes.

General Dietary Guidelines for Healthy Lifestyle! Part Two!!

Along with the importance of meal timings, it’s also equally important to keep our diet balanced with all the essential nutrients in recommended proportions. Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and stabilizing your mood. 

One should not make drastic changes when they decide to go healthier. This will always end up as unfinished tasks and people often lose the confidence on diet concepts as well as themselves. It’s important to analyse your existing eating pattern and start making slight changes. As your small changes become habits, you can continue to add more healthy choices.

Don’t be over concerned about calories. Make simple changes first. Think of adding colour, variety and freshness to your meals. Focus on avoiding packaged and processed foods.

It’s very important to focus on how you feel after eating. This will help you to add on more new healthy habits and tastes. It is really important to take this practice further, as it helps to continue for a long time.

People often get mistaken their thirst sensation for hunger. Drinking water helps to flush out the toxins and other waste products. I will share a magic secret about thirst for people who don’t drink water. Water has a thirst quenching nature. The more we drink the more we feel like drinking. So, you just make a start, it will take off on its own to the healthy way.

Eating alone, especially in front of the TV or computer, often leads to mindless overeating. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly and stop eating before you feel full. The key to a healthy diet is moderation. Moderation is eating as much as your body needs. It’s also about balancing all the essential nutrients like carbohydrate, protein, fat, fibre, vitamins and minerals.  

Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy to the body. 45-65 % of the total calories that we take everyday should be from carbohydrates. Brain consumes only glucose and it requires continuous supply of glucose, which can be supplied by carbohydrates. So, carbohydrates should not be restricted too much. It’s always recommended to take the necessary.

Now it’s important to decide upon the type of carbohydrates. There are two kinds simple and complex. 

• Simple carbohydrates are simple sugars, honey, chocolates, sweats, all processed foods etc. These types of carbohydrates are not so healthy. These should be minimised.
• Complex carbohydrates like whole grain cereals are good for health as they also give the necessary micronutrients and fibre, which are missing in the polished rice. Include whole grain cereals like whole wheat, brown rice (unpolished or semi-polished rice), ragi, oats, brown bread, quinoa, barley etc. 

Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable. If whole grains like brown rice and whole wheat flour don’t sound good at first, start by mixing what you normally use with the whole grains. You can gradually increase the whole grain.

Proteins are very important as they are the building blocks of the body. There are millions of cells in the body which have a wear and tear process throughout life. Apart from this, protein is an integral part of most of the enzymes and hormones which regulate the major functions of the body. 

• The best protein sources are egg, meat and meat products, milk and milk products, pulses and legumes. The protein from non-vegetarian sources is good and abundant but for people who want to lose weight needs to be very careful in choosing the foods as these non-vegetarian sources also contain lot of fat along with the protein. 
• So, choosing the right source of protein is utmost important. Adults need 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. According to your body weight, distribute your protein intake among the three meals. 

A concern to be addressed in today’s world. People think that carbohydrates are starchy and not good and not required and proteins are the best. Carbohydrates are starchy if you chooses the refined ones. Coming to proteins excess intake is always damaging to the body as the end products of protein metabolism like urea, ammonia and uric acid are harmful and increases the work load of kidneys in eliminating them. This coupled with less intake of water worsens the condition

Fat is the third nutrient which is important. Fat is a very essential nutrient and has got many functions to perform. We take this particular nutrient in excess most of the times which has got many health hazards. So recommendation and limitation are very important in the management of weight and also health.

Fat is also of different types. Irrespective of the type of fat, they provide the same calories but the health effects are different. There are three types of fats namely saturated fats, mono unsaturated fats and poly unsaturated fats.

• Saturated fats include ghee, butter, hydrogenated fat (vanaspathi or dalda), coconut oil etc. These type of fats tend to increase the cholesterol levels in the body and they trigger the onset and progression of cardio vascular diseases. So, it’s always good to avoid or use in moderation (should not exceed 5%of the total fat requirement). 
• Mono unsaturated fats include olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, mustard oil etc. 
• Polyunsaturated fats are found mainly in many fish, nuts, seed and oils from plants (any vegetable oil like sunflower, safflower etc). There are two fractions called omega-3 and omega-6. Maintaining this ratio is very important and this depends on the choice of foods again (refer a dietitian for more information). Using combination of oils is important to maintain health.

Vitamins and Minerals are called as micronutrients as their requirement is very minimal but that minimal quantity should be supplied daily to manage the bodily functions. Vitamins and minerals are the essential components of many enzymes and hormones. They act as catalysts in most of the biochemical reactions in the process of releasing energy. 

• As we eat everyday and energy release also happens every time, it’s important to supply the micronutrients also. Sometimes we eat properly every meal still we may feel weak. In such instances doctors may suggest to take B-complex tablets. Why? It’s not because they supply the energy directly but they aid in the supply.
• We get these micronutrients mainly from fruits and vegetables and also from whole grains. Include 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Fibre is a non-nutrient but very essential and does many functions in the body. There are two types of fibres soluble and insoluble. 

• The soluble fibre has a cholesterol lowering effect may be subtle, still, it reduces the risk of heart diseases. It also lowers or at least stabilizes the blood sugar (glucose) levels.
• The insoluble fibre functions believed to prevent constipation and to reduce the risk of colon cancer.

The sources of fibre are grains especially whole grain cereals, fresh vegetables and fruits. No animal foods provide any fibre. If you haven't been eating enough fibre, it's wise to increase your intake slowly. Sudden increase can cause problems like gas, bloating, diarrhoea etc. It's also important to drink plenty of water when eating lots of fibre. Otherwise, it may irritate your digestive tract.

Developing healthy habits will be easy if you do it together. Always have a family meal time. It motivates each other to adopt the healthy approach and you can relish the benefits together too.

General Dietary Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle! Part One!!

Healthy lifestyle includes a balanced diet and active physical life. Active physical life does not merely mean exercise. It’s about staying active all through the day along with a piece of exercise.

Let’s talk about healthy eating here.

Healthy eating includes

• Eating the right type of foods and right quality foods

• Eating the right quantities of foods

• Eating the right foods at the right time

The meal timing is very important as it can affect the human metabolism. The meal timing has got a role to play in the energy balance and weight maintenance.

Large meals’ taking twice a day is not so advisable. Short and frequent meals are good for health. To understand this concept we need to understand the process of digestion and energy release. The food when enters the stomach takes around 2-3 hours time to digest and this solely depends on the type of food that we take. A heavy fatty meal may take up to 4 hours where as a simple meal may take up to 3 hours. 

The time of meal and the time that takes for digestion and the timing of energy release are important in the management of weight. 

Early breakfast, followed by lunch and early and light dinner are idealistic with in between mid meals. Small and frequent meals helps in slow and sustained release of energy which further helps in easy disposal of the released energy without depositing into fat stores as the small portion of released energy is easy to spend.

One more important point is our physical activity should be matched as per the food intake. For example, take the case of typical housewives who start their day’s activity early in the morning and tend to work long hours and majority skip or have a late breakfast. The logic here is as long as they are working there is no energy supply as there is no intake and once they have their intakes there is no further activity. This pattern of days plan may provoke a person’s body to store more of unused energy as fat or adipose tissue. 

So, planning the meal frequency has a critical role to play in weight management along with the type and quantity of foods that are consumed. 

Another most commonly observed cause of weight gain is late dinners, which we can observe in all major fields of work. Because of the work demands and raising stress levels, managing healthy eating and maintaining active physical activity has become a challenge. Late and heavy dinners result in increased energy supply. People usually have late dinner and plan to sleep immediately or may be within a short while. Whereas the food that they had, takes some three hours minimum to digest and metabolize and release the energy. By the time the energy is released the body will be in resting phase and then what will be the fate of this released energy? 

The tendency of our body is when the muscles are in active state (when we work or physically active) the released energy is disseminated and used up by the muscle groups. Whereas when the body is in resting state, the released energy i.e. glucose can’t just remain in blood as it also has got its normalcy values. Blood cannot hold more than 80-120 mgs of glucose per deciliter of blood. If it’s more than that (expect in post meal state) then we are called Diabetics. So now this excess glucose has to find an alternate route when the body is in idle state. Here the only alternate source is the excess energy gets converted into fat and gets deposited at the various parts of the body. There is no limitation to store fat in the body. This excess fat in terms of triglycerides gets stored in the body and the increases the risk of various disorders and diseases.

So to avoid all these negative consequences one has to manage the meal frequency timings and meal quantities and also keep oneself active throughout the day. 

Human body is an intricate mechanism combined of various systems. All these systems have a systematic functioning to achieve the efficiency of performing their duties. Imagine disturbing our digestive system daily with a different pattern of food intake with different quantities, with different timings how can we expect that system to function efficiently? Not only that, each system is dependent on others for overall functioning. Disturbing one system by us does not stop there, that in turn disturbs the functioning of the other coordinated systems also and similar kind of pattern in long run results in the onset of a diseased state. 

So, timely quantified meal intake is very important and this aspect requires immediate attention to draw from each one of us. So check your food and activity patterns with a simple assessment from a certified nutrition counselor to help and serve yourself better.