Nutrients & more...

In today's world, hectic lifestyles have triggered a host of health related issues. Some of these directly relate to our eating habits. The most common thing to do on a busy day is to skip breakfast and postpone lunch. Irregular meal timings and skipping meals have become commonplace. Occasionally, skipping a meal is okay and does not have any major effect on the body. However making it a regular habit is bound to trigger some negative changes in our metabolism. The body tries to adjust to this irregularity by lowering the BMR(basal metabolic rate) and conserving energy by storing the food.   Why do we skip meals? The most common reason cited for this is " Lack of time ": Too much work, too little time is an oft repeated excuse. This is like saying that you don’t have time to fill the fuel tank as you are too busy driving. My suggestion for the super-busy is - "Don’t skip breakfast" . You are eating after an entire night’s fast and the first meal of the...

The lasts few post on this blog have been focused on nutrition, but now its time to talk about physical activity which goes hand in hand in shaping our lifestyle and is linked with the state of health. Eating the right foods is important , but to get the maximum health benefits we have to include exercise in our daily routine. Today I'm going to talk about the simplest and easiest exercise of all times… Walking Why walk? 1. A brisk walk of 30 min./day helps prevent or delay the onset of some of the major lifestyle diseases like osteoporosis , type 2 diabetes , peripheral vascular disease (PVD) , cardio-vascular disease and stroke . Plus, it'll give you strong bones and toned legs. 2. It improves your blood circulation which gives a boost to all organ systems of the body including the immune system. 3. Easy to do . No training required. 4. Anytime anywhere exercise -You can walk anywhere from your own balcony to pavements to gardens and beaches. 5. No special e...

Most eating preferences are habits, influenced by a person’s lifestyle.   When TV viewing  replaced our entertainment options, it did not only revolutionise our free time activities, but also modified our eating habits to a large extent. Family meals started moving around our favourite soaps. Playtime got reduced by cartoons. Holiday treks  were replaced by movies and popcorn. Research has linked excessive TV viewing  to obesity especially in children. The proverbial "couch potato" image is scientifically true.Research also suggests that we tend to eat more food and remember less about what we ate when we are busy watching TV.   So how does one get out of this habit?  Ideally switch off the TV, computer etc. and concentrate on just food while eating.   "Hey, I'm supposed to have small regular meals, you cant seriously mean that I switch off the TV every single time I eat?? What about the evening snack time?"   True, TV viewing is such an integral part of...

A few days back I was talking to my cousin and it turned out that both of us were on a cooking spree. On the top of it we were gorging on desserts. Why would we do that? As newly married women, things like new people, new job, relocation, rearrangement of priorities and new responsibilities were our main concerns. As it has been said “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.” So there we were, eating and sharing our concerns. Mental stress and depression are by far the major reason when many of us reach out for comfort foods. As Peter De Vries stated “Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.” Comfort foods are generally foods which trigger our memories e.g. some broth which your mother cooked when you were ill. Or, they can just be your favourite foods. Most of the time, these are loaded with calories. A number of hormones and neurotransmitters are involved in regulating our mood. Serotonin is the one which has been extensively researched upon. It is one...