Archives for July 2016

July 28, 2016 By Bansi Mehta Vora 7 Comments

Quick healthy dinner recipes

In today’s fast paced life, we are constantly chasing our goals and in the process neglecting our health and body’s needs such as rest, sufficient sleep, lots of nutrition and water. Only when we listen to our body’s needs, will it help us in return, to achieve our targets and support our daily activities.

There are innumerable reasons for not eating nutritious foods. Some of the reasons are lack of time, cooks at home or sometimes its sheer lack of knowledge on what to buy from the market, how to match two ingredients and what to do with the leftovers etc.

Well, I have tried to easy your difficulty by sharing some of the quick and easy recipes which may help you sort out dinners for all your 5 busy working days! I am sure you will love these dishes! Enjoy it guilt free! These dishes will not only do justice to your workouts but, also ensure good nutrition supply for a healthy and energetic you!

DAL KHICHDI

Serves 1; preparation time 15 minutes

Ingredients:

15gms Daliya
10gms Yellow moong dal
10gms Chana dal
25gms Bottle gourd
25gms Cauliflowerv 25gms French beans
10gms Green peas
1 Tomato
2-5 curry leaves
2 big green chilies
A tiny piece of cinnamon

2 cloves
1tbsp oil/ghee
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp mustard seeds
1/2tsp hing
1tsp red chili powder
1tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp garam masala
1tsp kitchen king masala
Salt to taste
Coriander for garnishing

Method:

Wash and soak the mentioned dal and daliya for about 10 minutes
Chop bottle gourd, cauliflower and French beans to medium sized cubes.
In a pan, put some oil, let it heat, then add mustard seeds, hing, cumin seed, curry leaves and green chilies. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and the kitchen king masala. Mix well.
Add the chopped veggies and green peas. Mix well.
Now drain and add the soaked dal and daliya mixture. Mix well.
Add about 250 ml water, mix well for a few minutes. Add salt to taste
Now transfer this into a pressure cooker vessel and let it cook for 15 minutes.
Once the cooker is done, you will notice the ingredients have been cooked leaving no water behind, if there is some water left, let it cook for another 5 minutes.
Transfer it in a serving plate, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with chilled curd.

PAV BHAJI

Serves 1; preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

10gms Yellow moong dal
10gms green moong dal
15gms white peas
10gms red gram dal
25gms cauliflower
25gms green peas
20gms green capsicum
2 tomatoes

1tbsp ghee
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp hing
1tsp turmeric powder
1tsp red chili powder
2tsp Pav Bhaji masala (or add as per your taste preference)
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the pulses and legumes for 10 minutes in hot water.
Chop cauliflower in small pcs. Mix it with green peas.
In a pressure cooker vessel, mix the pulses, legumes, cauliflower and green peas, with water and add some salt. Let it cook in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop green capsicum and grate the tomatoes and make a puree. In a pan, add some ghee and let it heat. Add cumin seeds, hing, and let it simmer. Now add green capsicum and tomato puree, let it cook. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, and pav bhaji masala. Cook this on low flame.
Check if the pressure cooker is done. If yes, remove the pulses mixture and mash it lightly.
Now add the pulses mixture to the cooked tomato puree mixture. Mix well until everything blends well and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Transfer in a serving bowl. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves and serve with multigrain breads and piece of lemon.

BESAN PANCAKES:

Makes 3-4 pancakes, preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

100gms besan flour
1 big tomato, shredded
1 big cucumber, shredded
30gms bottle gourd, shredded
Coriander leaves, finely chopped
2 green chilies (optional)

1tsp red chili powder
1tsp turmeric powder
2tsp ginger + chilies paste (if available, to make it spicy)
2tbsp curd
Salt to taste

Method:

In a bowl, take besan flour. Add shredded tomato, cucumber, bottle gourd and coriander leaves.
Add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger chilies paste and curd. Mix well. Add very little water if required. We need a slightly flowing consistency of the batter to make pancakes.
In a pan, heat 1tsp oil, spread the batter, top it with some green chilies and some coriander leaves.
Let it cook on both sides on medium flame.
Serve it with green mint chutney mixed with some curd.

ANEER FRANKIE:

Makes 3 Frankies.

Ingredients:

15gms pearl millet flour (bajra)
15gms white millet flour (jowar)
10gms whole wheat flour
Salt to taste
60gms Paneer, shredded or crushed
30gms Yellow capsicum, finely chopped
30gms red capsicum, finely chopped

30gms green capsicum, finely chopped
Coriander leaves, finely chopped
2-3tsp Kapol’s Frankie masala
1tsp jeera masala
Salt to taste
Ginger chilies paste (if available and to make it spicier)

Method:

Make a roti dough by mixing all the three flours with water, some oil and salt. Cover it and keep it aside
In a bowl mix all the capsicums and coriander.
Add salt, ginger chili paste, Frankie masala and some jeera masala. Mix well. You may add come dry mango powder if you like it tangier. Add the shredded paneer to this mixture.
Mix well and make (3) rolls of this mixture.
Using a rolling pin, make 3 rotis of the dough.
In a pan heat some oil and cook a roti. Let it cook properly front and back. As the texture changes, add some green phudina chutney (optional) and spread it over the roti. Then keep a paneer roll on one end of the roti, and gently roll the entire roti. Let it stay on the pan if you like it crispy.
Serve it with ketchup, green phudina chutney or chilled curd.

STUFFED MOONG DAL DOSA

Makes 7-8 dosas

Ingredients

10gms Green moong dal
10gms Yellow moong dal
10gms Urad dal
10gms Red gram dal
10gms Lentils
10gms Bengal gram dal

For the stuffing:

40gms Paneer, shredded
40gms corn kernels

Coriander leaves
15gms coconut, shredded
2 green chilies, finely chopped (optional)
Ginger chili paste
Salt to taste
Grounded black pepper
1tsp garam masala
Dried mango powder (aamchur) to taste

Method:

Wash and soak all the dals in 3 cups hot water for 15 minutes.
In a bowl, mash the paneer, corn and coriander leaves.
Add salt, ginger chili paste, garam masala, some grounded black pepper, dried mango powder and finely chopped chilies (optional). Mix well.
The soaked dals must have become tender. Grind this in a mixture with minimal water. We need the batter to be dense and have flowing consistency.
In the batter add some salt and grounded black pepper.
In a pan, heat some ghee, pour a spoon full of batter and spread it in round motion.
Let it cook on the bottom. Flip it, and let it cook for a few minutes. Flip it again and check if it’s slightly brown.
Then add some of the paneer and corn stuffing on the dosa. Let it cook for a few minutes.
Fold the dosa in two, or you can roll it all the way. Cut in pieces and serve with green phudina chutney or some tamarind chutney.

July 25, 2016 By Luke Coutinho 3 Comments

Why eating too healthy is dangerous for your health

Fruit diets, fruit juice diets, banana and milk diets, high protein diets, chia seed infused water, salads, Vegan food, sugarless snacks, low-fat foods, organic foods, fortified foods, innumerable ranges of organic vitamins, supplements etc……

We have it all….We also have more obesity, more cancer, more diabetes, more depression, more mental decay, more medication, more vitamin deficiencies, more time spent with doctors and in hospitals.

In our endeavor to get healthy, we may actually be doing more harm than good, if we don’t understand the physiology of the human body and mind. Too much of a good thing is bad…..even food… Yes, fruits are extremely nutrient dense foods but, it does not mean we constantly eat them.
Protein is needed, it’s good for repair, tone, muscle, recovery but, it does not mean we need more and more of it.

Many fats may be bad, but it does not mean we stop eating fat completely. It’s a very common belief that to be healthy, we need to eat more and more healthy foods.

Pure Ghee on a fresh hot wheat roti? What’s’ worse, the ghee or the roti?

Most people say that Ghee, is a fat and fat causes cholesterol and high cholesterol causes heart attacks… which really isn’t’ the case in most people who have cardiac arrests or strokes. There are many other reasons. I would worry about the roti, the wheat, where has the wheat come from, is it GMO? How processed is it?

Our beliefs about healthy foods need to be balanced with the understanding of what our body really needs and how our body assimilates nutrients from the food we eat.

A fruit diet is not going to do anything but cleansing……

Too much protein intake is going to do more harm than just repair or muscle build. This is when good food turns bad. When we have too much of even a good thing, it ceases to be good, and can in fact cause harm. There is absolutely no doubt that fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals and all things good, and that they also contain fibre, which prevents constipation and other gastric problems. But, too much fibre (for instance, when you eat platefuls of raw green leafy vegetables or salads like radish day in and out) can mess things up – big time. Excess fibre often causes bloating, abdominal cramps and gas right away.

In the long term, it can interfere with the absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, causing some serious deficiencies. Fruits also contain natural sugars, no harm in that but, too much is bad…your body only uses what it needs, the rest gets stored as fat or becomes waste and all waste is waste, whether it’s a fruit or a samosa. Waste is toxic.

Insane workouts or working out too much, I have a question for you, is it really working? are you really getting the desired body you have in mind? Or are you using exercise as a way of punishing your body because you ate too much?

It just doesn’t work, your body has a life, so does your bones, your muscles and joints and over exercising will decrease your bone density, deplete vitamins from your body , raise cortisol levels, decrease immunity and leave you with ‘STUBBORN BELLY FAT AND LOVE HANDLES’…

The body needs not more than 30 minutes of smart exercise to stay health and if your fat and you are trying to lose weight, more exercise DOES NOT mean more exercise…it means looking smartly at your food choices, your alcohol intake, your sleep, your stress levels, your sugar and the consistency of your exercise program.

Does your choice of exercise suit your body or are you just following the latest fad ?

The body needs protein to repair and build muscle, but eating excessive amounts won’t do the job better. In fact, in a diet where the protein intake goes beyond 30 per cent of the daily caloric intake, a build-up of toxic ketones in the body may occur, causing the kidneys to go into overdrive in an attempt to flush them out. This may lead to a significant loss of water and calcium from the body, causing dehydration and bone loss.

Symptoms include a feeling of weakness and dizziness, dry skin, loss of hair, low appetite, nausea and bad breath. In the long term, this may strain the kidneys, stretch out the liver and put stress on your heart too.

Weight loss efforts go bust too, as excess protein is converted into fat. Another problem is that while making protein into carbs or fat, the body converts the protein’s nitrogen into urea or uric acid. In large amounts, this can mess up your kidneys, lead to gout (a condition that causes your joints to become inflamed, tender and painful to move) and cause gallstones and kidney stones.”

Be super careful with protein shakes and bars. The body can process only about four to five grams of protein per hour, so the 50 grams you got from that protein bar or shake will take about 10 hours to digest and absorb. Also, when you replace your meals with protein shakes, you run the risk of missing the vitamins and nutrients you get from real food.

The Japanese eat soya and stay healthy and live longer. It is high in protein and has zero cholesterol. So what could be wrong with that?

That’s true, but, what is also true is that most Japanese eat only about 8 to 10g of soy protein a day, and even soya causes problems when eaten in excess. If overeaten, it may promote cancer, dementia, reproductive abnormalities, and osteoporosis and thyroid disorders. Increased consumption could also increase a woman’s total estrogen level, which is a risk factor for breast cancer.

For men, excessive soya can raise the risk of infertility, physical changes, and hormonal havoc.

The body will only use what it needs…anything in excess becomes fat or waste and both are detrimental to your mind-body health.

July 22, 2016 By Geetika Patni 1 Comment

Excercises: Pre-Pregnancy: A good start is half done!

Planning to start a family is a crucial decision, in fact a life changing one and preparing yourself well for the most important time of your life, will ensure a healthier you and a healthier baby.If you have made up your mind for the next big move, this blog will give you an insight on exercise part of this beginning.

A workout routine developed before getting pregnant will help you stay in the healthier BMI range, will help you beat stress through release of the feel good hormone-endorphins and will help you sleep better through the night, thus will create an optimal environment for natural conception. Additionally, will help you sustain a healthy pregnancy and develop your stamina for the rigors of childbirth and recovery, and finally it will assist you in getting back in shape and to your pre pregnancy fitness levels!

A good deal eh? So lets learn how you can plan your exercise regime:

A) If you are a beginner: take it easy and gradually. 20 -30 minutes minimum three times a week will be good to go.

1) Start with a low impact aerobic exercise-walking, dancing, cycling. Will race up your heart and exercise your lungs.

2) Another good one is –Swimming- will make you feel lighter and workout whole body without straining your joints.

3) Relaxing workouts include within which right postures will help in toning your reproductive organs too.

4) Pilates workout under guidance will help strengthen your core and pelvic muscles.

5) Weight training under supervision will work up your muscles to prepare them for infant care. Use lighter weights and learn correct training technique but remember weight training is to be avoided during pregnancy.

6) Practice exercises for pregnancy and active labor- will include squatting, lunges, pelvic floor exercises and breathing exercises. Starting to do them now will make it easier to continue after the big news.

B) If you are a pro: you are doing one of the best job for yourself and your fertility. But like with every other good thing, too much of it can still be doing harm than good, when you are trying to conceive. This is so because exercises are considered as stress to system and body shuts its reproductive functions in stressful events. Moreover workouts are linked to changes in a lady’s hormonal system that may interfere with implantation of a fertilized egg. Then is it fine for a man to exercise intensely during pre conception phase? No actually not. Male partner must also re evaluate his workouts and dial down the intensity of his routine so as to avoid risk of decreasing his sperm counts (which happens due to excessive heat generation during exercises).

Now the question is when do you draw the line?

Well it will depend on your BMI

#If you fall in overweight BMI range (>27), there is no reason to tone down your exercises, since obesity impairs fertility more than excessive exercising.

#If you fall in normal weight BMI range, bring down your workout intensity from vigorous to moderate. Like-If you are running start jogging and avoid vigorous gymnastics, aerobics, cycling and even swimming. Make them more leisurely so that you are not devoting more than 5 hours a week to these workouts.

#If you fall in underweight BMI range (<18), check your workout intensity and make it to a lighter tone yet again, so that along with good nutrition, you can soon move up to healthy weight range for early conception.

Now A word of caution for Female Athletes – if your form of exercise (including power yoga) is above moderate and leaves you extremely weak, winded and gasping for breath or alters your menstrual cycles, then it’s time to tone down the frequency, pace and duration of your workouts. This surely doesn’t mean you can’t run/cycle or must leave your weight lifting career, for making a baby, but then, of course this won’t be the ideal time to prepare for a marathon/triathlon or for buffing up for an upcoming championship.

Furthermore certain contact Sports like Judo, Karate, Football etc which may cause sudden jolts/falls and abdominal punching may become unsuitable when you eventually fall pregnant. So trying now to hone your skills in them or for that matter in activities like downhill skiing, horseback riding, scuba diving, mountain biking etc may not be useful. Save them for your post pregnancy to do list!

Lastly a well-rounded preparation consists of other factors too. So a Wholesome DIET, Folate SUPPLEMENTS, Sound SLEEP, No to ALCOHOL/SMOKING, Avoiding CAFFEINE and Reducing STRESS will form crucial foundation of your pre natal preparation along with,as I mentioned above, EXERCISING regularly.

Hope you find this article useful and answering all your questions regarding exercises before your Big Fat Positive. Take care and I’ll see you in the next chapter of Pregnancy!

July 21, 2016 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

Here is your guide to Nut allergy: Dos and don’t’s

Nuts! Oh…they sure can cause trouble if you are allergic to them and growing number of adults and kids alike are allergic to them. I became more attentive to it when my 3 year old daughter experienced it. The doctor identified the red rashes all over her body, as an allergic reaction to some food.

The doctor asked me to cut down on 8 foods namely eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, wheat and soy which accounts for about 90% of all the reactions.

So what type of food allergies are we talking about? It could be peanuts for one or tree nuts. (Almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashew).

Nut allergy is one of the most common types of food allergy in both children and adults. This allergy tends to last an entire lifetime, although about nine percent of children with a tree nut allergy and 20 percent of children with a peanut allergy eventually outgrow their allergy. On stopping the consumption of peanuts, the rashes never turned up, thus confirmed the nut allergy in case of my daughter.

The first thing that comes to one’s mind about having an allergy is, you picture non-stop sneezing, running nose etc. But, unlike an allergic dust or spring flower that many have, a nut allergy can cause difficulty in breathing and other serious issues including skin rashes etc. And could prove fatal at times.

Before we proceed towards, the symptoms, precautionary measures to take and substitutes, let’s quickly check out what exactly is a food allergy.

What is food allergy?

It is very important to know what food allergy is. People are seldom aware that one could be allergic to some food and that dust and flower allergies are not the only allergies that people may have.

The job of our body’s immune system is to identify and destroy the germs (such as bacteria or viruses) that make you sick. A food allergy occurs when this immune system wrongly identifies a harmless food as an allergen i.e a threat and attacks it.

When you come into contact with something that you are allergic to (an allergen), a group of cells in your body, called mast cells, release a substance called histamine. Histamine causes the tiny blood vessels in the tissues of your body to leak fluid which causes the tissues to swell. This results in a number of different symptoms.

The Symptoms may vary for person to person. Here is a list for you to go through. Basically the symptoms are divided into two categories-:

Mild symptoms which can be cured by medication

Rashes, swelling of the extremities, redness and tenderness, hivesm nausea, stomach cramps, vomitting, diarrheo and breathing difficulty.

Quick action: Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or loratidine (Claritin) can help relieve rashes and hives. Cold, wet compresses can also help soothe irritated skin.

Anaphylaxis: Life threatening

Constriction and tightening of airways, a swollen throat or the sensation of a lump in your throat that makes it difficult to breathe, Shock with a severe drop in blood pressure, Rapid pulse, Dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness

Quick Action: Emergency treatment is critical for anaphylaxis. Untreated, anaphylaxis can cause a coma or even death.

KEEP YOURSELF ALERT !!

A person with an allergy to one type of tree nut has a higher chance of being allergic to other types. Therefore, many experts advise patients with allergy to tree nuts to avoid all nuts. Here are few precautionary actions to need to take care of:

Avoid peanuts and tree nuts. This means we also need to avoid foods containing them like cookies, candies, ice creams, yogurts, sauces, Thai, Chinese and Indian dishes that often contain peanut and tree nut. One can have these without the nuts in them.
Read labels while you purchase foods from market. Keep at bay all the food products which say “may contain nuts” or “produced on shared equipment with nuts or peanuts”
Be very cautious in the kitchen while using the equipments. Knife, spoon or any vessel in which peanut or nut food preparation was used should be properly washed before using it again.
Inform about your allergy to everyone with whom you enjoy your food like your family, friends and colleagues so that they are careful while serving you food. When you visit a restaurant, be very careful to check the ingredient list or ask the manager about the foods served. Don’t feel shy and if they are not willing to share, better opt for some other restaurant. (Abroad restaurant menus do specify dishes that have nuts and warn anyone with nut allergy. But, in India we do have to ask and let the person know about your allergies)
Keep rescue medicines on you at all times — not in your locker, but in a pocket, purse, or bag that’s with you.
If your child is suffering from nuts allergy, inform this in their school.

Take care of your loved ones, by being extra careful of what they are eating. Make them happy by suggesting these alternatives such as sunflower seed butter or soy nut butter, hummus and nut free granola bars over peanuts and tree nuts.