Dr. Sunil Jain

Many of us thrive on the diet rich in processed fast foods as we hardly get time to cook a wholesome meal for ourselves in this fast-paced schedule. Moreover, the junk foods hardly have anything to contribute to our body while the baked goods strip off all the essential nutrients. These are some of the prime reasons behind vitamin deficiency. Even though that doesn’t mean that it will leave your body impaired or lead to any disease, but it can prevent some organs from functioning properly.

This is because vitamins are regarded as co-contributors for all the essential biochemical reactions within the body. Fatigue, shortness of breath, weight loss and irregular heartbeats are some of the well-known signs of vitamin deficiency, but you should be aware of the unusual vitamin-deficiency signs as well.

1. White and red acne on the arms, thighs, and cheeks: This means that your body is not just deficient in Vitamins A and D, but some essential fatty acids as well. If you spend long hours in air-conditioned spaces and live in a region high in pollution, you are more likely to suffer from these deficiencies. You should eat a lot of fishes, eggs and green leafy vegetables in this case. You should consume dairy products since they contain healthy fats along with all the fresh fruits and vegetables you can think of.
2. Tingling sensation followed by numbness in the hands and feet: This indicates that your body is deficient in B vitamins such as B12, B6, and folate or B9. It is a health issue directly connected with the peripheral nerves and their ending on the skin. These symptoms may be accompanied by depression, anemia, fatigue and even hormone imbalances. Foods like eggs, mutton, chicken, nuts, wheat germ, brown rice, grains, and sprouts are an excellent source of vitamin B.
3. Cracks at the corner of the mouth: This is a common symptom indicating a deficiency of B vitamins along with iron and zinc. This problem is mostly seen among vegetarians since they do not eat enough iron, zinc and Vitamin B12. It could also mean that you are cutting down on some proteins required for your immunity building owing to excessive dieting. You should include more poultry products, tomatoes, lentils, and peanuts. Make sure that you eat dairy products such as paneer, yogurt, and ghee or clarified butter.
4. Muscle cramps along with throbbing pain in calves, arches of feet and back portion of the legs: If this is the case with you, then you are not just deficient in vitamin but calcium, magnesium and potassium as well. This may also happen if you are training hard since you are likely to lose more minerals through heavy sweating. Have a lot of fresh fruits, dry fruits and vegetables to fix these issues.

The key to avoiding such problems is to have a balanced meal every day. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Dietitian/Nutritionist.

Walnuts belong to the tree nut family, along with brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, and pistachios. Each has its own unique nutritional profile.

One-quarter cup of walnuts, for instance, provides more than 100 percent of the daily recommended value of plant-based omega-3 fats, along with high amounts of copper, manganese, molybdenum, and biotin. Some of the most exciting research about walnuts includes:

1. Cancer-fighting properties

Walnuts may help reduce not only the risk of prostate cancer, but breast cancer as well. In one study, mice that ate the human equivalent of 2.4 ounces of whole walnuts for 18 weeks had significantly smaller and slower-growing prostate tumors compared to the control group that consumed the same amount of fat but from other sources.

Overall the whole walnut diet reduced prostate cancer growth by 30 to 40 percent. According to another study on mice, the human equivalent of just two handfuls of walnuts a day cut breast cancer risk in half, and slowed tumor growth by 50 percent as well. 1

2. Heart health

Walnuts contain the amino acid l-arginine, which offers multiple vascular benefits to people with heart disease, or those who have increased risk for heart disease due to multiple cardiac risk factors.

If you struggle with herpes, you may want to avoid or limit walnuts, as high levels of arginine can deplete the amino acid lysine, which can trigger herpes recurrences.

Walnuts also contain the plant-based omega-3 fat alpha-linolenic acid (ala), which is anti-inflammatory and may prevent the formation of pathological blood clots. Research shows that people who eat a diet high in ala are less likely to have a fatal heart attack and have a nearly 50 percent lower risk of sudden cardiac death. 2

Eating just four walnuts a day has been shown to significantly raise blood levels of heart-healthy ala, 3 and walnut consumption supports healthful cholesterol levels.

Separate research showed that eating just one ounce of walnuts a day may decrease cardiovascular risk, 4 and among those at high cardiovascular risk, increased frequency of nut consumption significantly lowers the risk of death. 5

3. Rare and powerful antioxidants

Antioxidants are crucial to your health, as they are believed to help control how fast you age by combating free radicals, which are at the heart of age-related deterioration.

Walnuts contain several unique and powerful antioxidants that are available in only a few commonly eaten foods. This includes the quinone juglone, the tannin tellimagrandin, and the flavonol morin. 6

Walnuts contain antioxidants that are so powerful at free-radical scavenging that researchers called them" remarkable" 7 and research has shown that walnut polyphenols may help prevent chemically-induced liver damage. 8

In another study, researchers found that nuts, especially walnuts, have potent antioxidant powers. Walnut polyphenols had the best efficacy among the nuts tested and also the highest lipoprotein-bound antioxidant activity. The researchers concluded: 9

" nuts are high in polyphenol antioxidants which by binding to lipoproteins would inhibit oxidative processes that lead to atherosclerosis in vivo. In human supplementation studies nuts have been shown to improve the lipid profile, increase endothelial function and reduce inflammation, all without causing weight gain"

4. Weight control

Adding healthful amounts of nuts such as walnuts to your diet can help you to maintain your ideal weight over time. In one review of 31 trials, those whose diets included extra nuts or nuts substituted for other foods lost about 1.4 extra pounds and half an inch from their waists. 10 eating walnuts is also associated with increased satiety after just three days. 11

5. Improved reproductive health in men

One of the lesser-known benefits of walnuts is their impact on male fertility. Among men who consume a western-style diet, adding 75 grams (a bit over one-half cup) of walnuts daily significantly improved sperm quality, including vitality, motility, and morphology. 12

6. Brain health

Walnuts contain a number of neuroprotective compounds, including vitamin e, folate, melatonin, omega-3 fats, and antioxidants. Research shows walnut consumption may support brain health, including increasing inferential reasoning in young adults. 13

One study also found that consuming high-antioxidant foods like walnuts" can decrease the enhanced vulnerability to oxidative stress that occurs in aging" increase health span" and also" enhance cognitive and motor function in aging" 14

7. Diabetes

The beneficial dietary fat in walnuts has been shown to improve metabolic parameters in people with type 2 diabetes. Overweight adults with type 2 diabetes who ate one-quarter cup of walnuts daily had significant reductions in fasting insulin levels compared to those who did not, and the benefit was achieved in the first three months. 15.

Do you often feel lethargic and tired? Has your partner been complaining about your not so great performance in bed? Are you not enjoying your sex life life off late? If yes, then you need to think about your behavior as the resons for such a behavior could be many. Well with some basic tips you can certainly add zing to your life.

Here are some sex positions that you can try to make yourself relaxed and lithe, enabling your body to function properly.

1. Squat pose: This yoga position works by improving your pelvic joints and targets your inner thigh muscles, abdominals, and your pelvic floor. The pose is also found to be beneficial in stimulating your spleen and sex glands (gonad). For this, you need to stand with your feet wide apart and your toes facing outward. Join your palms together in front of your heart, and slowly bring them down in the direction of the mat, stopping just before you touch the floor. Position your biceps behind your knees so that they are spread out while helping your spine to maintain its stretched position.
2. Chair pose: In this pose, your pelvic region is targeted and helps you to establish a better control over your sexual organs. It works by lifting your pelvic floor as you go about lowering your tailbone. Begin by bringing your feet together before assuming a sitting position. Keep your tailbone stretched when you lift your pelvic floor to stretch the spine.

You can also try some foods to rev up your sex life:

1. Almonds: Almonds have always been associated as stimulants. They are rich in nutrients and other minerals that help in boosting your sexual health and also aid in the process of reproduction.
2. Strawberries: They not only look delicious, but are rich in folic acid, one that keeps away birth defects in women.
3. Figs: Though this fruit may look funny, they serve as excellent aphrodisiacs and boost fertility. Filled with both soluble and insoluble fiber, they are equally beneficial for the heart.
4. Citrus: Apart from its excellent taste, this fruit is rich in with vitamin C, antioxidants and folic acid, which help in the reproductive health of men.
5. Spinach: This green vegetable is filled with plenty of advantages, but it is also beneficial for the bedroom. It reduces exhaustion and fatigue and provides the much needed energy.

Man had been a hunter-gatherer for thousands of year prior to discovering that settling down and engaging in agriculture did have its merits, especially by the way of an easier lifestyle! Many people today are going in for contemporary diets which are plant based. But what exactly does that mean? And are there benefits which make the effort worth one’s while?

A plant based diet has a pretty large variety of benefits. While it was a rather predominant belief in the years gone by that animal protein was essential for proper nutrition of a person, this is something that has long been debunked. As a matter of fact, plant based diets have been found to be worthy of providing the same level of protein to a person, but just without all the side effects that eating meat has. Who wanted those side effects, anyway? It is not like they are worth bearing with just for the taste of the meat!

The environment is saved a lot of strain as rearing meat for human consumption is very hard on it. It is quite a startling fact that meat oriented emissions are higher than what is emitted by planes, trains and trucks and the like. Taking into due account the fact that tens of thousands of people are up in the air at any given moment and millions are crisscrossing countries by road, can you imagine what sort of emissions those are, then? This thought was enough to cause the Beatle Paul McCartney to start a campaign to make Mondays in the UK meat free!

Meat is generally known to be more expensive than vegetarian or plant-based options. This is especially true when it comes to cities as the meat has to be kept refrigerated while it is transported until it is bought. So, for a person who is looking to save a reasonable amount of money, by going to a plant based diet, he or she would be doing this almost without the intention to do so!

Losing weight is not an easy task, to say the least. However, with a plant based diet, this task is made quite a bit easier! There are various types of fat and it must be said that not all of them are bad for the body. As a general rule, it is rare for meat to contain as high a level of good fats in relation to bad fats, as vegetarian food does. What this means is that the entire effort to lose weight just got a lot easier; all that is required is a rational choice when it comes to a person’s diet! If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dietitian-nutritionist and ask a free question.