Tag: fitness

The So Called Heart Healthy Food Which Can Actually Clog Your Arteries!

You must have been often recommended by your doctors or elder to eat those food items which offer essential nutrients and minerals required by the human body as it helps in proper growth and development. And in order to follow those advices you often go for those food items which have healthy tag on them. You choose food items which are processed or chose oils which have the healthy tag on them. This is one of the marketing strategies of the companies manufacturing these food items so that they can attract innocent people towards their products and make some easy money. You as a health couscous personally believe that those food items are actually good for your health. But the reality is somewhat very much different from what is presented in front of you. There are several food items which you believe are healthy for your body, but generally they harm your body. We are hereby mentioning some of those food items which are not at all good for you and their side effects can eventually clog the arteries present inside your body. You should immediately stop eating these food items so that live longer and stay protected.

Healthy Breakfast Cereals: Currently there are endless brands in the market which offers the breakfast cereals. The way they are presented in front of us is quite surprising. If you are not aware of the consequences of these cereals, then you may easily get into its trap. A normal person who does not know about it believes that these cereals are extremely beneficial and provides the essential minerals required by the body. In reality, these breakfast cereals are one of the highly processed food items which have a very large amount of refined grains. Further the amount of the sugar present in them is also high. The manufacturers attract people by mentioning the “whole grain” tag. But what really happens is that these whole grains are first pulverized to form the fine flour, which has the similar effects on your blood sugar level as a refined food does. It also affects the metabolism processes inside the human body. These manufacturers add several other ingredients so that the actual quantity of the sugar added to these breakfast cereals can be kept a secret. What is more surprising is the fact that these breakfast cereals are marketed as a healthy food for the children. Parents believe that these food items will help their child with proper growth and their child will be protected against the diseases.

Low Fat Dairy Products: Now again low fat dairy products are the ones which are in so much demand now a day. Since the dairy products have a rich amount of saturated fats in them, people go for lower fat dairy products, considering them best for their health. The problem is here is that it is not the saturated fats which creates a problem in your heart. The actual problem maker is the low fat food products. If you are among such people who opt for the high fat dairy products then there are more chances that you will not be affected by obesity and the heart diseases are also avoided. You are also protected against the diabetes. The dairy products are beneficial to the human body only because of the presence of the fatty components in them. If you remove these fatty components, then they are of no use. Further, in low fat dairy products there are high amounts of added sugar, which not only affect the metabolism, but also increases the risk of abdominal obesity and heart disease. Moreover the LDL cholesterol level in the body is also disturbed and affected.

Heart Healthy Whole Wheat: Go to a grocery store and you will find several different brands offering the heart healthy whole wheat. This modern version of the wheat is not healthy and they have been actually created by the scientists by altering the genes of the plants so that a new breed can be generated which can offer much more yield. The main motto of this step was to increase the yield so that the starvation can be reduced in different parts of the world. But now this is done for economic gains. So much tampering with the genes of the wheat plant is actually making them less healthy and so there are unforeseen consequences which we didn’t want in the first place. This wheat is called as the semi-dwarf wheat and is significantly low in nutrition level when compared to the older varieties. The recent studies have shown that this semi-dwarf wheat can increase the level of the cholesterol inside the human body and also increases the inflammatory markers. The acute inflammation is the major reason for the heart diseases. The LDL particle count is also high and they also have gluten in them. All these constituents are very much harmful for your heart and you can end up losing your precious life. It’s time you stop using all these mentioned food items and protect yourself so that you can live happily.

July 30, 2014
FOOD-ball

As the FIFA fever is gripping the world with its flair and fast paced games, it makes us wonder where these players get their stamina from! Most of these players are from European and North American countries where the climate is entirely different from those witnessed in the Samba land. The temperature in Paris at this time of the year would be between 10-15°c which is much lower than the sub 40°c climates in Rio. The players are extremely fit which is natural for sportsmen but the current crop of players are fitter than any of the previous generations because of the importance given to the fitness and diet routines of these players. Every player has his own set of physics and dieticians who monitor his every move and all the food that he eats and they even decide whether the player can play the next match or not.

Sports Diets

An average footballer runs about 9-10 kilometres during the 90 minutes of a match and can lose up to 2kgs during the course of the match in this extreme heat. The amount of workload on the body is immense and in a month long tournament it can be downright gruesome! In order to overcome this, the most important thing for the players is to keep themselves hydrated. Hydration involves drinking the right amount of liquids, never too high and definitely never too low. Dehydration could affect the performance as well adversely affect the body of the player, sometimes even affecting his career. The diet consciousness came about at the end of 20th century and has picked up pace during the 2000’s. Arsene Wenger, manager of one of the most successful teams in Europe inherited an Arsenal team which was fond of eggs, fried foods and junk foods. He took it upon himself to introduce the team to light and healthier foods which saw them transform into a super power in English football!

It is a given that the performance of these players is heavily dependent on their training, skill set and extraordinary workout regimes. But no amount of skill could compensate for the need of a proper diet. A footballer or for that matter any sportsperson cannot have a long career if he/she doesn’t follow a proper and balanced diet.

Gerard Pique, the Spanish defender who is considered to be one of the best in the business, revealed his diet in an interview sometime back. He has six meals a day out of which two are heavy meals and two are snack meals and two meals between the heavy ones. He consumes foods which are rich in carbohydrates but low in calories. He also says that he avoids foods and drinks which have high sugar content.

Generally a good sleep followed by Breakfast comprising whole grain breads, milk and fresh fruits can bring about a prolific uplift in a players performance on field.

Proteins

Proteins are very helpful for a balanced diet. They can be converted to fat and stored like carbohydrates which are very necessary for quick muscle recovery thus reducing the risk of cramps and muscle tears.

Isotonic Sports Drinks

One of the huge improvements in sports diets have been the introduction of isotonic sports drinks. The science behind it is that when sodium is absorbed into blood it takes water with it which replaces the salt that has left the system through sweat. Electrolytes are the salts that are lost through sweating and these are found in isotonic drinks and getting them into the system will aid in digestion and osmosis of fluids entering the body and muscles. The energy within these drinks is in the form of glucose. Drinking this during training will help your muscles work for a longer time and drinking them after training will help your muscles recover more quickly for next training session.

The complete diet

Breakfast should generally comprise of cereals, preferably bran flakes and shreds of wheat. Bagels and blueberries are also considered to be good breakfast supplements. Lunch should generally consist of baked potatoes with beans. Sandwiches are also a good source of nutrition but the butter content should be kept to minimum and the sandwich should be a healthy filling of a proper foods. Dinners can consist of pasta, chicken, rice, baked potatoes and green vegetables.

Snacks such as chocolates can be an energy booster when taken during training but can affect the body and be stored as fats when they are taken otherwise.

The modern sportsman

It is often commented, sometimes with greed about the amount of money the modern sportsmen make through commercials and through sports. But it has to be kept in mind that in order to attain that level these men strive for years putting their minds and bodies in line. These sportsmen keep their body fit and some of them have better physique than models and actors, who spend the entire time trying to look their best. The extreme levels of fitness in modern sportsmen is due to heavy training and workout regimes and very strict and balanced diets which prevents them from eating what they like throughout their professional careers, which begin at early teens and goes on until the late 30’s in some cases. Thus while enjoying a global tournament like FIFA world cup we should pause to look at how these players prepare themselves for the big stage which could even be useful in our own lives where we often get depressed when there is one less chicken piece in our everyday briyani!

June 24, 2014
Weight loss 101

With the comforts offered by the modern technological innovations and the decline of labor-intensive jobs, staying fit and active has become a major challenge. Rise in cases of obesity and diabetes has created immense pressure on us to constantly adopt life-style changes to stay lean. The flood of slender models and bulked-up dudes on electronic and print media doesn’t help either. In wake of this, the health conscious and even the not-so-conscious try almost everything, they hear or learn from friends and internet about weight-loss, in bits and pieces- dieting, gym, running and what not. And most of the time, even after days and weeks of struggle with their cravings and laziness, they are left disillusioned. So what goes wrong?? Why is losing those few extra pounds so difficult?? The answer is – the lack of understanding of the mechanism of loss. The absence of the complete picture is a major reason why people often make wrong choices while deciding their plan of action. But you need not worry. Coming up in the paragraphs to follow is everything you need to know about body weight, fat and how our body responds when we lose weight.

The energy generated in our body, from the food that we eat, is utilized for various internal and external activities like walking, running, maintaining metabolism etc. The excess energy that remains unutilized even after successfully carrying all these activities is stored as fat in specialized cells called fat cells or Adipocytes. The fat cells develop in our body during childhood and for the rest of our life, their number remains almost constant. Thus, weigh gain is associated not with the number of fat cells present (since their numerical count remains constant even when we lose/gain weight) but rather with their size. When the body consumes more food than is required and consequently produces more energy than it dissipates (via various physical activities or body functions), more of it gets stored as fats. This causes the fat cells to swell up and appear as bulk.

Apart from the stored fat, the body has another source of energy stored in the cells called glycogen which is nothing but excess blood sugar acted upon by the enzyme insulin (responsible for regulating blood sugar levels). Whenever, energy shortage occurs in our body, the body first uses this glycogen followed by the utilization of stored fat. The released fat is acted upon by various processes and finally converted into heat, water, carbon dioxide and ATP i.e. adenosine triphosphate (energy). ATP is used by the body to meet its energy requirements, water leaves the body as sweat and urine and carbon dioxide is exhaled. This explains where the lost fat “goes” when we lose weight. So, in order to devour fat, we need to create an energy deficit in our body which can be accomplished in two ways- by consuming less food or by dissipating more energy. This brings us to the universally known mantras of weight loss i.e. dieting and exercising. So far so good.

Then why these obvious methods don’t seem to work that smoothly?? Why is losing weight so frustrating, so say the least?? Well the answer is that there are related mechanisms that interfere and affect the whole process and if not understood clearly, can greatly reduce the benefits of dieting and exercising.

1. Firstly, after the commencement of dieting, your body first loses water weight before glycogen and fat is burnt. This is why it is fairly easy to lose weight in the first few weeks and after that, it gets increasingly frustrating each passing day. The key to success here is to stay resilient and not stray in the times of difficulty. Patience always pays off.

2. When the body senses that it is getting fewer calories, it responds by storing more fat to prepare itself for famine-like situations. So, cutting too many calories or eating too less can prove to be suicidal in these situations. Don’t starve yourself, instead eat healthy food.

3. Eating too less or not indulging in weight training can make you lose muscles along with fat. This is not good news. Always remember- excess of anything, dieting included, is bad!!

4. Recent studies also suggest that high calorie and high fat food evoke responses from the brain that are similar to cocaine addiction. Consuming them in greater quantities causes compulsive eating habits. So, abstaining from such food causes very strong cravings for them. Therefore, one must not lose control during the tough times and stick with the diet plan. An alternate way is to never really turn away from such food items completely, rather cut their quantity and restrict their consumption to just once a day.

5. Weight loss has many other related implications. It might make you feel sleepy or cause you to lose sleep. Like mentioned above, weight training stresses our body. So, one need not fight sleep too much. Lying lazily for long hours should definitely be avoided but a minimum of 7 to 8 hours of sleep must be ensured so that the body gets the rest it needs. On the contrary, if you are not consuming enough calories, you will find it harder to sleep. A good solution to this problem is to have a hearty (and healthy) dinner or a glass of almond milk before you doze off.

6. Dieting can cause physical and mental stress. All this can trigger the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol.Thus, it is essential that one indulges in some sort of stress management activity like yoga or meditation.

With a little bit of self-control and discipline, you can easily get that flat belly you always wanted. So the next time you decide to put on a saree at a wedding or a bikini on beach, you don’t have to feel conscious. And remember, nutritious and tasty food choices are not mutually exclusive. They can and do go hand-in-hand. Nature has rewarded us with a host food of products that are delicious and healthy at the same time. The choice is ours to make.

June 20, 2014