Healthy Eating
Developing a health eating routine into your lifestyle is not only good for your health, but it also allows you to experience a variety of flavors while still adhering to a nutritious eating plan.
Simple But Useful Steps for Weight Loss
Tiny leaps will lead to big changes
Cutting down calories abruptly can have deleterious effect on body and mind. Eating less than usual suddenly will results in mood swing, headache, irritability and even depression. Limiting calorie slowly and gradually will give our body time to adjust and minimizes side effects as well.
Replace the refined carbs with protein
The biggest culprit in out diet lately has been the foods loaded with refined carbs: most breads, pasta, pizza, muffins, cakes, bagels, breakfast cereal, bottled juices, soda and ice-cream, the list goes on. Ditching those with healthy replacements like chicken, turkey, veal or beans will keep us filled and satisfied for long time and helps us shed some pounds simultaneously.
Stay away from bottled juices
Though as labeled rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants the sugar content of the fruit drinks, including natural fruit juices and smoothies, is unacceptably high. The high sugar content will spike the blood sugar level excessively high which will cause a surge of insulin, which will generate fat and increases our waist line. To avoid, try to make your own smoothie with the ingredients you like or just eat real fruits.
Drink plenty of water
Enough scientific evidence are there to prove that drinking water boosts our metabolism. In a landmark study published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers have found that drinking just 17oz water metabolic rates jumped by 30% for both men and women. Dehydration known to cause headaches which sometimes causes stress eating. The National Academy of Medicine recommends that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly about 13 cups (3 liters) of total beverages a day and for women is about 9 cups (2.2 liters) of total beverages a day.
Fill up the gaps with healthy snacks
Between our big meals in a given day, there is enough break to spike our hunger up to such a limit that can lead to overeating in lunch or dinner. Fills those gaps with healthy snacks like nuts, Greek yogurt, celery with hummus or just a fruit. Always have something around to grab a bite when you feel hungry.
Losing weight is not easy and changes take time. The goal should be creating healthy habits because the effect of those will be lifelong. Remember it’s a journey and if you are on track destination is just on the horizon.
Could a Mediterranean Diet be The Secret to Living Longer?
Contributed by Tirtho Banerjee
Many studies over the past few years have started to show that a diet similar to that commonly found in the Mediterranean region of Europe could be crucial to living longer. The Mediterranean diet consists of fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, olive oil, and moderate red wine consumption. Most notably absent are the excess of meat, saturated fat, and dairy that are most commonly found in Western diets. Many studies over the past few years have started to show that a diet similar to that commonly found in the Mediterranean region of Europe could be crucial to living longer. The Mediterranean diet consists of fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, olive oil, and moderate red wine consumption. Most notably absent are the excess of meat, saturated fat, and dairy that are most commonly found in Western diets. The core reason of aging has been a hot topic of research for a while now, and one major cause has been the shortening of the telomeres, the edges of our chromosomes. The shortening of the telomeres is a gradual process that occurs from the repetition of DNA replication, and the resultant lack of genetic information is generally equated with the weakening the human body with age that we generally define as the traits of aging. Eating a Mediterranean diet has been seen to slow the shortening of the telomeres and cause people to “slow down” more slowly. The Mediterranean diet has also been found to decrease inflammation, possibly by regulating the chemical signals that induce it. Inflammation is a common trait of aging that is directly affected by the incorporation of a Mediterranean diet into people’s lives.
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