Mistakes that sabotage a good diet

Eating healthy, eating clean can sometimes be very confusing. With more and more new information coming up every day, one cannot comprehend what is healthy and what not. However, if you understand a few mistakes that can literally sabotage your good diet, you can surely be assured of eating healthy and clean.

1. You can be wrong with juices

Everyone thinks a glass of orange juice or any other fruit juice can do wonders for your health. But the truth is that you will be better off eating the whole fruit rather than the juice.

Why? for the simple reason, that juices lack the fiber content found in fruits. The fibers slow down the digestion of sugar in the fruit whereas their absence in the juice causes the blood sugar to spike and results in insulin resistance.

Besides, packaged juices contain hardly any real fruit, all flavoring and concentrate apart from added sugar, a big wrong in eating clean.

2. Drinking your protein? na! that can be wrong too!

People like bodybuilders, gym goers drink a lot of protein shakes to get their proteins supplemented. However, protein shakes are ok for those who are on the go or for replacing meals sometimes but they cannot be altogether substituted for protein intake.

Your protein must come from your food. Meat, fish, pulses, eggs and dairy cannot be replaced by shakes since you will definitely miss out the nutritional value that whole foods provide.

Besides, protein shakes may have a lot of artificial constituents and refined sugar that can be really bad for you.

3. Can't understand food labels properly? a great mistake!

With more and more people working, many on the move, packaged food cannot be altogether avoided. However, one must make sure to read and understand the food labels.

The food labels reveal what is inside the package. Anything that has the label - organic, raw or gluten-free is not surely healthy. One must know about ingredients especially things like msg, aspartame (artificial sweeteners) etc. That can be really unhealthy.

4. Sugar may be hidden somewhere

Calorie-conscious? avoiding sweets?

Well, even though you are very careful about selecting what you eat and avoid anything that tastes sweet, some sugar may still be hiding in your food increasing your calorie intake, without you knowing about it. Foods like tomato ketchup, pasta sauce, low-fat biscuits/crackers or low-fat dairy products, sandwich bread may all be hiding sugar almost equivalent to that present in a piece of cake. You must learn about hidden sugars and its alternatives to truly understand what you are eating.

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85% Indians are Making These DIET Mistakes

The term fast food refers to those particular food items that can be quickly prepared and served instantly. From pizzas to chips, pastries, burgers, candy, soft drinks, fried and salted snacks, everything falls under fast food. There is no doubt that they appear irresistible and are equally delicious. But do you know that they can end up seriously affecting your stomach? Yes, for those who follow a diet, which is based on fast foods, it's time to know the effects of them on your digestive system.

Discomfort to the Stomach and Kidney: As fast food contains various toxic elements, chemicals and high amount of sodium, these naturally increase the risks of developing bloating, stomach ulcers and sometimes even stomach cancer. As more salt is consumed by your body (through fast food), greater amount of water will be held by the sodium, which cannot only result in swelling or bloating of the abdomen but also may cause stomach discomfort.
Fast Food Diet Increases Constipation: Dietary fiber, which is found in fruits, vegetables, seeds, whole grains, and nuts, plays a crucial role in the maintaining a smooth digestive system. Not only do they keep the digestive tract functional, but also helpsin excreting the waste out of the body. But unfortunately, when your diet becomes filled with fast food, you lack the necessary fiber intake as fast food contains little or no dietary fiber. Less fiber means less absorption of water, resulting in constipation, which causes discomfort in the stomach as well.
Peptic Ulcer May Be Next: Continuously having fast food often leads to stomach ulcers. Peptic ulcer disease or peptic ulcer is probably the most common form of ulcer that damages the gastrointestinal tract severely. For ages, intake of excessively spicy foods, alcohol and leading a stressful life have been considered to be the root cause of stomach ulcer. However, scientific studies have highlighted the consumption of fast foods too as a cause of ulcers.
It Invites Liver Diseases: The liver is another victim of regular fast food intake. If you think that the stomach doesn't have to bear the side effects of liver disease due to fast food consumption, then you are wrong. Whether it's liver disease or any kind of liver damage, it may lead to a bloated abdomen, swelling of the veins or bleeding veins around the stomach, the esophagus and even pain in the stomach, interrupting the digestive process.
Those who consume fast food regularly or whose diet comprises of mostly fast food items should consult a medical professional or a gastroenterologist to be more specific, in case they experience pain and discomfort in the stomach. Dependence on a fast food diet for long often leads to life-threatening conditions, which can only be dealt with through medical attention.

Fast Food Diet - How It Affects Your Stomach?

Ayurveda literally translates into  the science of longevity.  It not just looks at treating the symptoms of the patient, but at getting to the root of the issue for a holistic treatment. In addition to various products, yoga is an integral part of maintaining overall health in Ayurveda.

Patrons of yoga would agree that yoga has multiple benefits, not just in treating diseases, but in maintaining the overall health. The following are some of the most obvious benefits of yoga.

Weight management: Yoga normalizes body weight by multiple ways including restoring hormonal balance, reducing cortisol levels, improving depression (which can lead to binge eating), etc. Do not worry about calories not being burned during yoga. Yoga is a very good stress reliever and people who are not stressed are rarely obese.
Pain control: Whether you have a headache or back pain, knee pain or muscle pain, try specific yogasanas. There are people who would vouch for the fact that they could completely stop their pain killers with effective yoga.
Strength: Yoga makes a person strong in addition to improving flexibility. In most forms of exercises, some may give strength, others may give flexibility. But yoga is one of the few approaches, which combines the two. Range of motion of the joints is improved, healing is quicker, and ligaments and muscles are more elastic with yoga.
Brain functioning: Yoga improves memory and cognitive functioning. Because meditation and focusing on oneself is such an integral part of yoga, it promotes brain function. It improves memory, clarity of thought, attention span, and helps in decision making.
Reduces stress: By improving overall well-being, yoga is one of the best methods for stress management. This in turn leads to reduction of a host of other diseases including hypertension, diabetes, stroke, sleep disorders, etc. There is also a heightened feeling of well-being, reduced depression, better self-esteem, improved motivation, and other effects which improve overall health and happiness quotient.
Anti-degenerative effects: The body is in a constant state of degeneration and with age, this is accelerated. What yoga does is to arrest degeneration   be it the muscle mass, the skin tone, or the joint flexibility. It has a whole lot of metabolic benefits including reducing glucose, sodium, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL, and catecholamines. Simultaneously, it helps by increasing HDL cholesterol, hematocrit, hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, white blood cell count, thyroxin, total serum protein, oxytocin, prolactin, and cholinesterase among others.
Restores function: For impaired body systems, whether it is nervous or digestive, musculoskeletal or neurologic, yoga does wonders.
There is no restriction on where to do yoga. Unlike gymming, swimming, or cycling, there is no definite set-up required. So, go embrace yoga and see the benefits for yourself.

Yoga - 7 Ways It Improves Your Health!

Did you know that lack of sleep can make you fatter? Here's how.

Lack of sleep doesn't only affect your mood and concentration levels, it also affects your weight. Studies show that not getting enough sleep can be responsible for your increasing waistline and bulky frame. 

Here's how sleep impacts your weight. 

1. Sleep deprivation leads towards consumption of foods that give quick energy
When you've had less sleep than what you require, you feel a lack of energy while performing your daily chores. This can cause you to increase your intake of instant energy-giving foods like potato chips and chocolates or other foods with high carbohydrate and fat content. As a result, you may end up accumulating more kilos on your body.

2. A sleepy brain experiences difficulty in making decisions
Sleeplessness has a negative effect on your body as it prevents you from having complete control of your brain, which may ultimately make you a bad decision maker; especially when it comes to choice of food. You may lack the mental clarity required to avoid calorie-rich foods and may try to fulfil your food cravings with the first available serving of food.

Sleep deprived people are more likely to munch on late night, unhealthy snacks, which are responsible for making them fatter. Lack of sleep also leads you towards consuming foods in greater quantity.

3. The sleep-diet connection 
Sleep deprivation results in the improper functioning of your metabolism and increases the hormone 'ghrelin' (responsible for regulating the frequency of food intake) and decreases the amount of the hormone 'leptin' (responsible for indicating when to stop food consumption). More ghrelin and lesser leptin imply more amount of food consumption, which consequently leads to weight gain.

How to implement an enhanced sleep pattern in your lifestyle?

You can try out the following remedies to ensure that you get good quality sound sleep.
- To begin with, try to abstain from caffeine consumption in any form during the afternoons as it affects your sleep routine at night. 
- Design a sleep schedule for yourself and try to follow it every day, even at weekends.
- Do not consume heavy meals or alcohol before bedtime as it may result in indigestion and may make it difficult for you to fall asleep.
- Also, you can enhance the quality of your sleep by exercising daily. However, ensure that you don't exercise just before sleeping as exercising can cause your energy levels to rise, making it difficult for you to fall asleep.

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

Did You Know Lack of Sleep Makes You Fat? 

Snacking between meals for weight gain

If you are struggling to gain weight here is an all time unbeatable way to do so. Have a healthy snack right in the middle of two meals. However, if you do not snack at the right interval or have it too close to meal times, it would only result in a reduced appetite. Pack yourself some fruits, nuts, yogurts, or granola bars as snacks. 

Caution: try to avoid the easy but unhealthy junk food route. Fast food only adds unhealthy weight which will prove to be detrimental later in life.

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The Most Powerful Way To Put On Weight - Snacking Right.

Health benefits: Red Chilli vs Green Chilli

Chilies have always been known as ingredients that add spice to indian food. Without chilies, any indian food cuisine is incomplete. Both have distinct tastes and also have different health benefits. Here's a comparison between the two:

Red Chilli: Red chilies are dried and then used in food a preparation. It is spicier or hotter than green chilies.

1. Source of iron absorption - Red chilies contain a good proportion of iron which is very good for blood health. They also have a lot of vitamin c that helps the body in absorbing iron
2. Burns calories - They produce heat in the body that directly burns down calories, just like heat generated due to exercise
3. Relieves from congestion - In india red chilies are provided to a person for consumption when he is suffering from cold. It relieves congestion and helps is better respiration
4. Reduces blockage in arteries - They are very powerful antioxidants that clear any blockages in the arteries or blood vessels.

Green Chilli: Green chilies are more subtle in taste and are used as fresh spices in various food preparations.

1. Manages blood sugar levels - Green chilies tackle high blood sugar levels and control it if consumed regularly
2. Promotes digestion - Owing to the various fibers found in them, they help in better digestion
3. Good for skin - Green chilies being rich in vitamin e is a very good spice for a clean and healthy skin
4. Very good for heart - Due to a considerable proportion of beta-carotene in green chilies the cardiovascular systems stays strong and the heart too stays healthy
Both chilies have great benefits and consuming both in permitted quantities is only good for health.

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Red Chili Vs Green Chili : What's Hot?

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