That Red Hot Thing!

Red is in! As a matter of fact it has always been in! Oh and I am not just talking about Red in your wardrobe. I am talking about the good old apple. Most of us forget, that usually in life, the simplest answers are the best ones. Answers to some of the biggest health problems can be as simple as grabbing an apple next time around you are hungry. Here’s telling you how an apple can do wonders to your health by merely replacing some of your routine food munching with the magic fruit.

1. Replace your morning tea with Apple:

Most of us need to have that morning cup of tea simply to get up from the bed and start afresh. Try replacing your morning shot of caffeine with an apple. In a study published in the journal of Foods and nutrition, it is mentioned that apple in known to be a better stimulant than caffeine and helps you stay awake and alert in a much better way than caffeine. Also caffeine tends to dehydrate your body while apple, due to its fibre content, helps to absorb more water.

2. Whiter Pearlies:

Biting and chewing and apple produces more saliva, which helps you prevent tooth decay by lowering levels of bacteria. Also Apple helps maintain PH balance of the teeth and prevents bad breath. So while an apple can't replace your toothbrush, it sure can whiten your teeth.

3. Bye Bye cholesterol, hello fibre:

Apples are rich in fibre. The soluble fibre in apples helps binds the fat in intestine thereby lowering the cholesterol levels in your body. Also the fibre in the apple help induce satiety i.e. one tends to feel full soon- over eating issue solved!

4. Curb Cancer:

The consumption of flavonol rich apples could help reduce your risk of developing pancreatic cancer by upto 23 percent. compounds like triterpenoids, in apple peel have anti growth properties act against cancer cells in liver, colon and breasts.

5. Detoxify:

Detoxification-The much hyped and most googled word around (makes me feel I should have started the article with this; would have increased the hits...sigh!) We constantly keep on having foods and drinks that tend to over burden our liver. It becomes important that once in a while we go slow and detoxify our systems. While doctors recommend detoxification, they are mostly skeptical of the fad diet way that people adopt to cleanse the system. Having combination of apple and green tea is perhaps the best way to detoxify your liver as apple provides the sufficient fibre and micronutrients, green tea helps regulate metabolism.

6. Why red is Hot! :

Red apples contain an antioxidant called quercetin. Studies have found that quercetin can help boost and fortify your immune systems, especially when you are stressed out.

So go red- its your green signal!

Choice is Always yours!

Do I stay in this blood sucking job or move out? Do I go to this party or catch up on the much needed sleep? Do I meet my friend for drinks or do I go for my jog? These are just one of the million questions that puts you in that tug of war situation every day . But the most important thing is YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE, no matter what the situation is.

Same goes for your food too! you always have a choice to cutting down on some unwanted calories and instead eating something much healthier...the only problem here is do we realise how much of junk are we actually consuming? And what is the better alternative to that. So I did a little research (in my fridge ) and these are some of the foods I found worth the battle.

1. Red Meat V/S lean Meat or chicken

If you are a beef/ mutton/ pork lover, a word of caution-You run the risk of all the fancy diseases in the world like CVD, Diabetes, of and not to mention Obesity of course.The plain reason for this is its high cholesterol and saturated fatty acid content. Switch to lean cuts of meat, cold cuts and chicken. when you go shopping, look for labels like low fat pressed meat (in meat). This simple switch will help you a dratically in your quest to stay fit and glowing.

2.  Wine V/S light beer:

I know most of you answer of choice would be wine coz we all know and have read about wine being oh so healthy (I vouch for that). But the winner here is light beer, i.e if you are trying to drop a few kilos. Most light brews have fewer calories than wine- 103 calories, on an average, per bottle versus 125 calories for a medium glass of wine. Plus light beer contains roughly two and a half times more water than wine does, which will help you feel more hydrated and full and less inclined to go to the snack bar!

3.Pasta with white sauce V/S Pasta with red sauce:

Always go for pasta with red sauce rather than one with white sauce.White sauce pasta has mayonnaise(read FAT) and refined flour. So this time don't stop when you see red!


4. The Breakfast swap

Swap from whole milk to semi-skimmed, 1% fat or even skimmed milk.Swap a sugar-coated breakfast cereal for a wholegrain breakfast cereal such as porridge or shredded wholegrain wheat cereal, with no added sugar.Swap a sprinkle of sugar on your breakfast cereal for a topping of fresh or dried fruit, which counts towards one of your five a day.

5. Mint Chutney V/S Coconut chutney:

One teaspoon mint chutney- 3 kcal Approx, one teaspoon cocnut chutney- 24 kcal.( the figures are approx) the choice is yours now!

These were just some comparisons which will come handy to you next time you are stuck in food dilemma. Now the choice is yours.
Happy eating! 

Teetotaler - Tea Teller

'Is it really jus a fad, or is green tea actually that good for people to boast about?', 'I am screwing my teeth by drinking too much tea', ' Coffee or tea? Which is better over other?' 'This is the last cup of tea I am having for the day no matter how much work pressure I have...I am ruining my health'... These are just some thoughts which come across many health conscious minds as they relish each sip of the blissful drink while secretly feeling guilty about it. So as I put down my 6th cup of tea since morning (yes I am a tea-o-holic), I thought I'd rather clear the air and doubts about tea!

I have always loved tea for the awesome energy booster kick it gives just after that one sip, but like others I too believed that it has negative effects on our health. My myths were demystified during my research work over tea and I actually came to know that tea, when had in the right way, can actually do a lot good to you.

So what’s in it for me?

• Firstly, yes green tea is as good as it sounds.The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

• Tea contains fluorine, which is very helpful in maintaining healthy teeth. Most toothpaste these days also contains fluorine. While excess is bad, moderate amount is actually doing good to your teeth.
• Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay! Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria that cause dental plaque.
• Having tea without sugar is actually known to have helped in reducing weight and burning fat. So go bitter!

To sum it up, tea is helpful in

• Cancer

• Rheumatoid arthritis

• Cardiovascular disease

• Infection

• Impaired immune function

• Keeping skin healthy and glowing

Few Basic things to know about tea:

• There are 4 basic types of tea: black green, oolong and white- these mainly differ in the way they are processed, black being the most processed and white being the least.

• The health benefits decrease with the amount of processing involved. So while white would be the healthiest. Black would be the least. But it is the green tea which is widely known and consumed for the health benefits is because it is the most palatable one. White and oolong tea are rare, difficult to store and unpleasant to consume for most people.

• Regular tea (with milk) is also very healthy to consume condition it is not heated ,re-heated and over boiled.(that means your road side tea does no good to you)

Do not overdo:
While tea has several benefits attached to it, do also keep in mind that its overdose can be harmful to you; Insomnia, dental flourosis, dehydration being some of them. So while its good to know what good the drink is doing to you, it does not give you a license to go be a tea-o-holic like me!

Cheers to a good health!

Are you (Wo)man enough to Lift weights?

More often than  not, I come across women dreading the thought of lifting weights as a part of their fitness program and I fail to understand why.  Ladies, you are genetically built in a way, very different from your counter parts, so don't think that if you lift weights and do those push ups, you'll become a hulk. You will definitely not unless you are on steroid shots! Let me tell you why weight training is a good idea for you:

1. Lifting weights burn calories. So while you take effort in doing Cardio and running on the treadmill, make sure that you also concentrate on doing some amount of weight training as it helps loose fat and develop lean muscle mass. Also make sure you follow up with a healthy low fat high protein diet to stack up on lean body mass.
2. Since doing weights helps in developing lean body tissues, it makes you more active and energetic. Women who do weights regularly, complain less of lethargy and fatigue than women who do only cardio.
3. If you are looking to loose weight, doing weight training along with Cardio, helps you achieve your target weight in a more shapely way. It is observed that women who loose weight by plain dieting/ cardio end up having a sagging body and loose skin. Muscle building helps you to tone up your muscle and make you look sexier than before.
4.  If you lift weights while on a weight gain diet you will not look fat. In reality you will be performing fat burning in the gym while building muscle. Reduce the fat around a tight, toned muscle and other will notice.
5. It increases bone density and helps fight osteoporosis.
6. It also helps in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Like I said before, you will not gain excess muscle mass like men unless you are on steroids. Men and women have different sets of hormones, And not every man who works out looks like Batista either.You need to be on an overdose of testosterone to be able to look beefed up. So any muscle gain you get as a result of diet and training will only serve to accentuate the feminine shape you already have. You will look sexy and feel better about yourself!

So don't be scared to pump up some iron yourself- trust me, you'll feel the difference.

For the Love Of Meat!

Everyday you come across tabloids and articles attacking you with gyan of how you should not have meat and chicken, and why it’s a better option to go green and turn to vegetarianism. Honestly I am tired of reading such stuff. I have reached a mental block stage where when ever I read headlines like ‘go vegetarian’ or  ‘ban non-veg’ – because to me its more of a fad rather than being a logical explaination to a drastic shift in your diet.

Now I am saying all this because I have been on the swing of off and on non veg. I had quit non-veg for four years (honestly! And been successful in that). It had been pretty difficult for me considering the hard core meat lover that I was. But trust me I din’t do it for health reasons, it was a personal choice. But 4 years, 6 kilos less(when I was in need of gaining some of it), weakness and constant bouts of fever and ill health was what was needed to wake me up to reality and tell me that “Don’t mess with your metabolism”.

Now for all the non-veg lovers, flesh is not all that bad . Seriously no need to quit non veg just coz someone else feels ite the right way to control your eating habits because trust me this trick does not work for everyone and more-so-over there are plenty of health reasons for not quitting non veg.. Heres telling you why:

•  There are innumerable health benefits of eating meat, for example it serves as a fabulous source of high quality protein, which a single vegetarian food is not able to provide. it contains all the essentiall amino acids that the body requires.
• the phosphorus content present in meat gets much more easily absorbed than that present in cereals and legumes. this is owing to the fact that cereals and legumes contain phosphorus usually in the form of phytic acid that must be hydrolyzed before absorption. Meat also serves as the main source for the intake of Vitamin B12.
•  Fish, especially the small varieties are a rich source of calcium.Egg-white is good source of protein and easily digested and chicken is the best low fat high-protein food (benefit alert: low fat high protein helps you loose fat and again lean mass)

Vegetarian or non-vegetarian, the decision depends on various factors such as cultural or dietary habits of the family, personal preference, taste and avoidance of certain foods for health reasons. Whatever the case, a well-balanced diet supplying proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals should be taken.

And keeping the theme of the post alive,  no need to chicken out on that chicken just because a fancy post in the health magazine says so!

P.S: My apologies for not posting anything for almost a year (gosh that's long..so long i don't even have a believable excuse for it ) but just to justify, blog hacking + laziness to re-activate+ password loss etc etc..kept me away from my 1st love.