A great alternative to refined sugar, honey is packed with essential nutrients and is really delicious to eat. There are many health benefits of honey. It can be easily added to any diet as a topping, say for fruit salads, ice-creams or as a spread. But are you aware that the jars of this tasty golden liquid can sometimes not be honey at all but syrup that tastes exactly like honey? So, How do you evaluate if you are buying real honey?

In order to boost profits, honey manufacturers dilute their product with adulterants such as flour, syrup or molasses and even sand and chalk. If you want to get the most out of this tick liquid, you should buy only pure honey.

What Is Pure Honey?
Real honey is not produced in factories but from bees. Usually, organic and natural honey are referred to as pure honey. However, it is not always feasible to tell if the honey is pure by just looking at it. Natural honey is made only by honey bees and when these bees are fed only at organically grown flowers, the honey they produced is classified as organic.

What Is Fake Honey?
Also known as artificial, adulterated or impure, fake honey contains additives including corn syrup, glucose, molasses, sugar syrup, dextrose, invert sugar, flour or starch apart from the floral nectar.

How To Find Fake Honey?
Listed below are a few simple tips that you can carry out at the comfort of your home to determine whether the honey you are buying is genuine or fake.



Read The Label: In addition to buying well-known and reputed brands of honey, ensure that you check the label for the logo and brand name. This will guarantee that the jar you pickup is not only good quality but also genuine. The label on the jar should list only one ingredient, honey, no additives, or flavourings.
The Warm Water Test: Add a teaspoon of honey to a glass of warm water. If the honey is pure, then it will sink to the bottom of the glass as a lump or stick to the spoon when the mixture is stirred. If the honey is adulterated with any kind of syrup, it will dissolve in the water.
The Thumb Test: Put a drop of honey on your thumb. If it spreads or spills, then it is not pure. Pure honey is thick in texture and would remain intact on your thumb.
The Flame Test: Honey is inflammable and easily catches fire. Dip a dry matchstick in honey, then strike the matchbox. If the matchstick lights with ease and continues to burn, then the honey is pure. Due to the moisture present as an adulterant in fake honey, a matchstick dipped in fake honey will not light easily.
The Foam Test: Add 2-3 drops of vinegar essence to the honey and mix well. If it becomes foamy within 2-3 minutes, then the product you have purchased is not pure and contains additives.
The Tissue Paper Test: Put a drop of honey on a piece of tissue paper. If it gets absorbed and leaves the paper wet or a watermark on the paper, then it is adulterated and not pure honey.
The Heat Test: If the honey is pure, then on heating, it will caramelize. However, fake honey tends to form bubbles on heating and does not caramelize.
The Bread Test: Pure honey when spread on the bread, makes the bread hardened within a few minutes. On the other hand, the slice of bread remains soft and moisturized if there are any additives present in the honey.
The Crystallization Test: Pure honey has a natural tendency to crystallize over time because of the presence of glucose oxidase, an enzyme that removes water/moisture from honey. Fake honey does not become thick, when stored.
The Egg Yolk Test: When honey is mixed will egg yolk in a bowl and both are blended together, the yolk looks like it is cooked. However, fake honey does not produce this effect on the egg yolk.
You might sometimes be able to spot fake honey by its taste and smell, though not always. Honey being a natural product and produced from the nectar of different flowers, it does not always taste or smell the same. It is also not possible to taste honey before buying it if as the product comes in a sealed bottle or jar. Therefore, it is recommended to only pick branded or organic honey to ensure that the honey you are buying is pure and genuine.

Honey - How To Spot If It Is Fake Or Not?

Cheese vs butter- what should be a part of your daily breakfast?

Both cheese and butter taste great, but when it comes to making them a part of your daily diet, you must keep their nutritional content in mind. Check how they rate nutritionally.

1. Calorie content

Butter is much higher in calorie content than cheese. While 100 grams of cheese have 349 calories, the same amount of butter comprises 717 calories. Moreover, 306 of the calories present in cheese are in the form of fat, while 713 calories come from fat in butter.

2. Fat content

Cheese and butter are both made from milk, but their fat content differs due to their different methods of preparation. 100 grams cheese contains 32 grams of fat, with 18 grams of saturated fats and 1.1 grams of trans fats. On the other hand, the fat content of butter is 81 grams per 100 grams butter, with 51 grams of saturated fats, and 3.3 grams of trans fats. This is the reason why butter is mostly avoided by people who aim at maintaining optimum weight.

3. Vitamin and protein content

There is only 0.8 gram of protein in butter, in comparison to 18 grams in the same quantity of cheese.

However, both cheese and butter are rich in vitamin a and choline, containing about 945 ius and 2499 ius vitamin a per 100 grams respectively. Vitamin a is known for improving your vision, boosting immunity and promoting cell growth. Also, vitamins e and k, and folate are present in small amounts in cheese and butter. They ensure good health of your red blood cells, help in blood coagulation and in maintaining bone metabolism (the process of forming new bone tissues). Additionally, cheese also contains vitamin b6, b12 and betaine.

4. Mineral content

Ample amount of minerals like calcium, phosphorus and potassium are present in both cheese and butter, which help in strengthening your muscles, minimising the chances of osteoporosis, maintaining acid-base balance in your body and diminishing the chances of heart diseases. Moreover, cheese also contains iron, selenium and zinc in smaller amounts, whereas butter has traces of fluoride, zinc, selenium and magnesium, which enhance your immunity and promote fertility among both men and women.

5. Energy giving capacity

Butter being rich in fat can boost up your energy level instantly. While cheese also provides your body with energy, it does not have an instant action like butter.

If you would like to consult with me privately, please click on'consult.

Cheese vs Butter- What should be your daily breakfast preference?

Protein is said to be a building block for the body. That being said, a high protein diet can either have some great results to show, or some terrible consequences. As long as a person is willing to learn more about it, only the former will appear!

When a person thinks of a diet which is high in protein, the automatic association is with the famous Atkins diet. This diet is not only high in the amount of protein consumed but is low in the relative amount of carbohydrate.

Who is it for?

A high protein diet is best if a person is looking to build little muscles and does not consume enough protein in his or her current or normal diet. However, studies have found that only professional endurance athletes showed any benefits from a hike in their consumption levels of protein, and that too they could have received these benefits by just eating more food. So, it is fair to say that the normal person is not likely to need more protein than what he or she already gets from his/her diet.

It can be bad too, in addition to this, if a person has an amount of protein which is beyond what is good for him or her according to the activity level, it can be quite bad. This is because a lot of the sources of protein from which most people fulfil their requirements also happen to be quite high in terms of the saturated fat content, which can put the heart at a great amount of risk. Moreover, gout can also occur and it is something that is not curable but can only be managed. A person who is considering the prospect of going on a high protein diet should take these possible side effects into due account prior to making his or her decision regarding the same.

The modest increase in the protein part of a person s diet can be good, and there are a variety of ways a person can increase it by having some simple munch food items such as almonds. Things like these can serve well as snacks and can go a long way in preventing a person from overeating on something less healthy just due to his or her being ravenously hungry. Another option is Greek yogurt and chia seeds, which can be added to almost anything! 

Making small changes in the diet can help in fulfilling the protein requirements. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dietitian-nutritionist.

High Protein Diet - Things You Must Know!

Water effectively constitutes 70-75% of human bodies and keeps us protected from many harmful things. But many people have a frequent question: is it alright to drink water before you brush your teeth? Will it harm your body? Let us discuss the same in this article.

Many people believe that they should not drink water before brushing their teeth because of the bacterias present in saliva after you wake up. But this is a myth and it does not have any scientific logic. When you drink water after waking up before brushing, your saliva goes with the water down into the stomach which results in the killing of the bacteria due to the high acid content inside it. Therefore there is absolutely no harm if you drink water before brushing teeth.

If you are familiar with Japanese culture then you must know that the Japanese drink two glasses of water every morning immediately after they wake up. Drinking water immediately after you wake up without brushing your teeth does not harm you in any way. Doctors always recommend drinking two full glass or at least one, on an empty stomach. There are several benefits your body receives when you consume water every morning after you wake up.

Drinking water every morning has its own long list of benefits. Let us have a look at them-

Boosts your immunity- Drinking water every morning strengthens your immunity system. Helps you to fight diseases and germs much better.
Clears the bowels- After your drink water in the morning, you will get an urge of flushing out your bowels. This way the bowels remain clear and you do not face any constipation issues.
Speeds up metabolism- Your metabolism gets boosted when you drink water resulting in faster digestion and metabolic rate. It also keeps you hydrated through the day.
Prevents headaches and migraines effectively and it also helps in preventing colon infection because your bowels get cleared easily.
Helps in weight loss- Drinking water every morning helps you to lose weight by a significant margin due to the fact it occupies the stomach killing the desire to eat much in the morning.
Beneficial for skin- Increase in the freshness of your skin complexion which water delivers if you drink it every day in the morning. It flushes out the toxins and dead cells which helps in increase of new and fresh body cells.
Thus as you can see the long list of benefits you will receive if you drink water every day after you wake up.

Is It Alright To Drink Water Without Brushing Your Teeth?

It is a known and proven fact that eating while consuming alcohol is necessary. One tends to grow hungrier, the more he or she drinks alcohol. This is because alcohol has the attribute to stimulate one s appetite in such a way that one would have you craving for food that is rich in salt and high in fibre. Consuming only alcohol ignoring the hunger would lead to several diseases like pancreatitis and issues with the liver.

Though the appetite of an individual during alcohol consumption tends to incline towards snacks like pizza, french fries, nuts and cheese cubes, it is wise to opt for healthier food choices. Salty food can worsen the dehydration effects of the body. And as the body tends to be dehydrated during drinking, it is better to avoid salty food. High-fibre food items are not good for the health either. It delays the digestion process, which is not a good sign for the body. Also, it is also not advisable to eat food in large portions before going to bed, especially after alcohol intake.

There is a variety of healthy food that one can eat along with alcohol

Soup: A clear soup, like chicken clear soup or vegetable clear soup, which has a broth-like texture, is a healthy choice. Creamy soup with cream of chicken or cream of mushroom should be avoided as it would make one heavy, thus delaying the digestion process.
Rice: Plain rice is said to be one of the best food that is easy to digest, paired up with a light vegetable dish. It is very nutritious as well.
Chicken sandwich: Grilled chicken sandwich without cheese and mayo is a healthy food tip as it contains sodium.
Popcorn: Popcorn does not contain fat, neither is it high-fibre. It is the best low-calorie food to go along with alcohol and it tastes really good too.
Wheat crackers: Wheat crackers contain whole grains. It is full of complex carbohydrates, which help the alcohol to absorb easily. It also consists of Vitamin B, which like potassium, gets reduced with the consumption of alcohol.
Banana: It is rich in potassium. Though an individual would never have a banana along with alcohol, it is healthy as the level of potassium should be taken care of while drinking alcohol.
Wheat bread: Wheat bread toast can be consumed with alcohol without butter or cheese. It is an alternative to wheat crackers for those who do not prefer it.
Oats: Cooked food is easy to digest with alcohol, so a pot of cooked oatmeal can be a healthy accompaniment. It can be spiced up a bit to add flavour.
Salad: Salad is refreshing and healthy at the same time. It can be bland, but it is better to have healthy salad as an accompaniment than having salty food with alcohol.
Milk cereal: Cereal, especially whole grain cooked with low-fat milk, is healthy.
By being aware of the right eatables, the ill effects of alcohol can be mitigated to a large extent.

Alcohol - 10 Healthy Foods that You Can Eat With It!

5 diet myths debunked!

The term 'diet' immediately makes you think of a starving and depriving weight-loss regimen. But diet simply means what food we eat in the course of 24 hours, one week or one month. Nonetheless, certain myths have arisen surrounding this term too and which have been debunked here:

Myth 1: cutting carbohydrate helps you lose weight

You need carbohydrates for energy. A minimum of 130 grams of carbs is recommended each day which is a far cry from low carb diets that start with 20 grams or less. Fat diets aside, what matters is how refined the carbohydrates are. Refining removes grain's fibrous coating, which leads to faster food digestion. That&#x2019;s why whole fruits with their fiber and nutrients are good choices despite their simple carbohydrates. The idea is to cut back on refined carbs such as soda and foods made with white flour while loading up on healthier carbs like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Myth 2: diet foods help you drop pounds

If you scan labels for the lowest calorie and fat counts you might be doing yourself more harm than good. Pre-packaged diet foods have a lot more sugar and trans fat. As with carbs, it is the quality of fat and not the amount that matters. Monounsaturated fats (nuts, olive oils, avocados) and polyunsaturated variety (in corn, soybean) help your cardiovascular system and improve weight loss. Trans fat and saturated fat have been linked with heart disease and even cancer.

Myth 3: the more you cut calories, the more weight you will lose

If you cut your calories too far you'll end up decreasing your metabolism and muscle mass. To get the most out of calories you should choose whole foods like fresh meat and fish, and whole grains that are as close to their natural state as possible. They have higher nutrient density than refined foods as they pack more vitamins and minerals into fewer calories.

Myth 4: dairy products make you fat

A dairy-rich diet can double fat reduction and weight loss, and help prevent weight gain. Three servings of low or non-fat dairy a day is recommended every day. A cup of milk or yogurt or 1 and a half ounces of cheese equals one serving.

Myth 5: brown equals whole grain

Whole grains reduce your risk of many chronic ailments, from obesity, diabetes to cardiovascular disease. The extra fiber in whole grain is essential. Whole grain foods tend to be richer in vitamin b and e than, refined grains.

If you would like to consult with me privately, please click on 'consult'.
Related Tip: 85% Indians are Making These DIET Mistakes! Are You One of Them?

If You Diet for Weight Loss, Here are 5 Myths You Might be Living With!

Don't wait any longer, manage your Obesity Diet online with a Lybrate doctor today

Consult for Obesity Diet - Online and Easy!

FilterClear All

COMMON SPECIALITIES

COMMON ISSUES