About Luke Coutinho

Head Nutritionist and Master Coach, motivational speaker, published Author of ‘Eat Smart, Move More, Sleep Right – Your personal health coach’, sold globally, Luke has been involved in nutrition and fitness even since he graduated from IHM with specialization in food science and nutrition. Luke is an ‘International Collaborator ‘with the University of Yale, Griffin – Prevention research center, CT, U.S.A and practices in the field of nutrition, health, preventive and alternative treatment. Luke speaks at forums like the YPO, WPO, EO, etc worldwide on disease, nutrition, fitness and lifestyle. He encourages and helps people steer away from conventional medicine and uses natural foods. He believes in a lifestyle change and helps and coaches people to make ‘shifts in their lifestyles to achieve their health goals.

January 24, 2019 By Luke Coutinho 2 Comments

Inflammation – What you should know?

When you think pain, think inflammation. Inflammation is a good thing. It’s your body’s way to rise up to fight germs/bacteria/infections, heal bruises when you fall, heal torn ligaments/tissues/tendons etc. Once it does its job of fighting out these invaders or foreign organisms, the inflammation should reduce to normal. The problem is when that doesn’t happen.

Have a torn ligament or muscle pulls that your struggling to heal? Seen the best doctors, therapists etc., and still not fixed? Struggling with arthritis and joint pain? Check your CRP (C-Reactive Protein) levels and focus on reducing inflammation. The cure is in reducing inflammation.

Many of us live with chronic inflammation and that’s dangerous. It’s also the reason people –struggle to lose weight, experience painful joint pain, age faster than normal,feel tired thru the day. Also with chronic inflammation there are higher chances of heart disease, Alzheimer’s/dementia, struggle with diabetes, feel depressed. Lowsilent inflammation can destroy your nerves and cellular health, suppressing and weakening your immune system, leading to deadly diseases like cancer, etc.

What’s scary is the fact that you can be extremely healthy and fit, but silent inflammation could

be eating into you from inside, which is one of the many explainable reasons why cancer or heart attacks can strike down a healthy and young human being.

Checking cholesterol levels, Vitamin D3, B12, SGOT, SGTP is imperative, but what most people miss out on is checking their CRP levels. (C-Reactive protein). This is such an important protein level to check and a simple blood test will cover that for you.

CRP level will tell you volumes about the amount of inflammation you have in your body. In my years of experience what stands out in a cancer report of a person is an increase in CRP levels and white blood cells and the immediate action is to reduce inflammation thru food and lifestyle change.Diseases breathe in inflamed environments, in environments that are acidic and in environments where there is less oxygen supply to the cells.

Over training causes inflammation.Vigorous exercise, inconsistent exercise and high intensity training which is not planned for your body type will make your CRP levels soar and kill your immunity, which is why many trainers ask their clients to take a Vitamin C and E post workouts. Running marathons without proper nutrition causes massive inflammation.

Chronic stress, Improper nutrition (high fat foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, doughnuts, white sugar, aerated drinks, salty foods, packaged foods), Smoking causes inflammation. I’ve seen CRP levels fall in a smokers blood report within 10 days of kicking the butt.

How to keep your inflammation in check:

– Smart and moderate exercise

– Meditation and controlling your stress and BP levels,

– Nuts and seeds,Green leafy veggies and fruits.

– Good fats (like nuts, olive oil, coconut oil).

But, it has been proven that a small amount of alcohol can actually lower CRP levels.

-Vitamin D3, Curcumin (turmeric extract) is one of the best spice based inflammation fighters

January 11, 2019 By Luke Coutinho 1 Comment

Ginger and How It Can Benefit You

Ginger is native to India and China. Ginger has been important in Chinese medicine for many centuries, and is mentioned in the writings of Confucius. It is also named in the Koran, the sacred book of the Muslims, indicating it was known in Arab countries as far back as 650 A.D. It was one of the earliest spice known in Western Europe, used since the ninth century. It became so popular in Europe that it was included in every table setting, like salt and pepper.

A common article of medieval and Renaissance trade, it was one of the spices used against the plague. In English pubs and taverns in the nineteenth century, barkeepers put out small containers of ground ginger, for people to sprinkle into their beer — the origin of ginger ale. In order to ’gee up’ a lazy horse, it is the time-honored practice of Sussex farmers to apply a pinch of ginger to the animal’s backside.

Ginger has long been ascribed aphrodisiac powers, taken either internally or externally. It is mentioned in the Kama Sutra, and in the Melanesian Islands of the South Pacific it is employed ‘to gain the affection of a woman’. Conversely, in the Philippines it is chewed to expel evil spirits. Ginger is a known diaphoretic, meaning it causes one to sweat. It was recorded that Henry VIII instructed the mayor of London to use ginger’s diaphoretic qualities as a plague medicine.

I can go on about the amazing health benefits of this root. Over the last few years, I have used and shared this remedy with so many clients and friends for so many conditions, and it has never failed to produce the desired results.

Be it any ailment such as the following

Flu
Common cold and cough
Stomach pain
Menstrual cycle pain
PMS
Digestive disorders
Cancer ( building immunity and cellular health)
Headaches and migraine
Lowering cholesterol
Controlling high blood pressure
Boosting immunity and cellular health
Arthritis, joint and bone pain
Ginger has anti-aging properties
Ginger stimulates blood rush to sexual organs

You can use ginger in food or just have it plain. I like it best in a cup of warm herbal brew.

Try this simple and healing herbal brew –

1-inch piece of ginger washed and peeled.

Boil it in water for 10 minutes with 2 cloves
Add a slightly split cardamom

Optional: Fresh lemongrass / Fresh basil for flavor

Simmer for 15 minutes

Strain and pour out into a mug. Add 2 pinches of powdered cinnamon,1tsp of organic raw honey or jaggery.

Sip hot.

This drink will boost your immunity and make you feel better almost instantly. Make it part of your lifestyle. To get a healthy lifestyle coach, Click Here!

Disclaimer: Always check with your doctor especially if you are pregnant or have gall stone issues, before using ginger.

December 12, 2018 By Luke Coutinho 7 Comments

Exercise is good for you. But exercise Smart

exercise-smart In our zeal to get fit, sculpt an attractive body or lose weight, we may tend to overdo it when it comes to the exercise we choose.

When you find yourself struggling to get the body results you want, one enrols themselves for more complex and intensive training’s, longer hours in the gym, fad diets and crazy supplements.
What we need to remember like everything else is that our body parts and organs have a life. There will be natural wear and tear as we age and that principle remains the same for all of us. It’s true that the right amount of exercise can delay this and keep degeneration at bay and that’s what ensures us a better quality life as we age. A life free of knee/back/joint pain.

The media including Hollywood and Bollywood have blown the whole concept of exercise way out of proportion. Everyone wants to read about diets or exercise regimes of these super stars. Spending 2 hours in a gym or working out thrice a day is apparently what you need to get a model like a body or that of your favourite actor.

Extensive spinning, extremely heavy weights, running more than a marathon in a year, MMA mixed with weight training, kickboxing integrated with weights, etc… all require special nutrition plans if you are really into all of this.

These are great forms of exercise and we would all like to think of ourselves as long distance runners etc.. But, is your body prepared for it? Are your knees ready to take the massive stress that he can put the body thru? Is your back strong enough to brace impact and support you for the rest of your years without giving way?

Getting involved in intensive exercise is not your solution or compensation for binge eating over the weekend.

Your knee has a fluid (synovial) that runs around it and as this dries up due to stress (exercise) improper sleep (recovery) and poor nutrition. you will be left with excruciating pain that will severely alter your lifestyle.

Exercise smart is the way forward.

Short but productive workouts. 1 hour is a number. Break away from it.

The best workouts get over in 25 – 30 minutes saving you a valuable 30 minutes of your day to use it for things that are meaningful to you. Tough to break from it if you have always been a “1-hour” gym person but, try.

After 45 minutes of exercise, your body generates ‘cortisol’ a stress hormone, that tells your body to ‘STORE FAT’. This becomes counterproductive to your whole goal or working out.

Body builders and athletes have longer training schedules because they have supporting sports nutrition plans and they sleep over 8 hours for recovery.

Exercising smart is:-

Keeping a day of recovery between intensive workouts or allowing for enough muscle recovery time,
Doing max sets with minimum rest between sets (depend on your fitness goal),
You should be maxed out post 30 minutes and you should feel energetic,
Warm up and cool down will allow you toe more productive.

Break away from traditional exercise methods. Mix it up, challenge and push your body.

Consistent walking, is one of the best exercises ever, something that works beautifully with a balanced nutrition plan and great sleep. You can lose fat and tone up.

Consistency is key.

Meeting and exceeding the 10,000 steps daily is one of the best benchmarks when it comes to your walks. Re-evaluate your exercise schedule and how you feel after each workout.

Don’t just think ‘ NOW’, consider the future years as well.

August 28, 2018 By Luke Coutinho Leave a Comment

What Antibiotics and Pills can do to your body?

The over prescription and wrongly prescribed antibiotics and medicines kills’ thousands of people worldwide every year. It is even said that the number of deaths caused by long term and incorrect use of these medicines are higher than road accident deaths.

Not only can it cause something like death, but the bigger problem is overuse of antibiotics and medicines causes our bacteria to become more and more resistant to these drugs, eventually they stop working, and then the need for more powerful drugs that do more harm, come into the picture.

Antibiotics, first used in the 1940s, are certainly one of the great advances in medicine. But overprescribing them has resulted in the development of resistant bacteria, that don’t respond to antibiotics that may have worked in the past. Plus, whenever kids and adults take antibiotics they run the risk of side-effects, such as stomach upset and diarrhea or even an allergic reaction and the immune system gets weaker and compromised.

We need to remember that antibiotics can only work on bacterial infections and diseases and not viruses. The body’s immune system can fight off some viruses before they cause illness, but others (colds, for example) must simply run their course. Antibiotics do not work against viruses.

So if you are taking antibiotics for colds, coughs, virals, it’s so wrong and harmful.

Every time you swallow antibiotics, you kill the beneficial bacteria within your intestines. When you do so, you upset the delicate balance of your intestinal terrain. Yeasts grow unchecked into large colonies and take over, in a condition called dysbiosis.

Yeasts are opportunistic organisms. This means that, as the intestinal bacteria die, yeasts thrive, especially when their dietary needs are met. They can use their tendrils, or hyphae, to literally poke holes through the lining of your intestinal wall.

These result in a syndrome called leaky gut. Yeasts are not the only possible cause of this syndrome. Some scientists have linked non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as naproxen and ibuprofen to the problem. Given their ability to alter intestinal terrain, antibiotics also likely contribute to leaky gut syndrome.

In addition to possibly causing leaky gut syndrome, I believe that parasitic yeasts can also cause you to change what you eat in that they encourage you to binge on carbohydrates including pasta, bread, sugar, potatoes, etc. So, it should come as no surprise that weight gain counts as one of the telltale signs of antibiotic damage and subsequent yeast overgrowth.

By altering the normal terrain of the intestines, antibiotics can also make food allergies more likely. An array of intestinal disorders can ensue, as well. Sadly, most doctors claim ignorance concerning their patients’ intestinal disorders rather than admit that the drugs they themselves prescribed actually caused the disorders to begin with.

Tons of antibiotics are fed to livestock on a daily basis, purportedly to proof them against bacteria. This practice not only possibly contributes to antibiotic resistance in humans — many experts feel weight gain, and not disease prevention, is the real reason antibiotics are so widely used. Fat cattle sell for more than thin cattle. That’s all very well, but imagine what the antibiotics thereby possibly present in dairy products could be doing to our children’s health.

Remember, antibiotics are dangerous mycotoxins — fungal metabolites. Just as importantly, medical experts have written articles maintaining that these drugs kill people. But, other experts insist on remaining skeptical as to the problem, even though these same experts readily recognize the link between weakened immune systems and death.
Also, keep in mind the post-antibiotic importance of restoring the intestinal terrain with plain yogurt and probiotics. If you are experiencing bloating, belching, gas, constipation, diarrhea, GERD, or other intestinal problems then probiotics can play an important role in restoring your intestinal terrain.

That a new generation will grow up knowing of the dangers inherent in taking antibiotics is a good thing. That doctors will continue randomly prescribing fungal toxins should teach us the importance of knowing medical facts before blindly accepting any prescription. Please study the antimicrobial benefits and the immune system stimulants that nature provides. Know also that, in some instances, antibiotics may become necessary.

I can’t stress enough the importance of consuming foods rich in natural probiotics, especially if you have an infection of any kind. Your gut serves as your second brain, and even produces more serotonin—known to have a beneficial influence on your mood—than your brain does. It is also home to countless bacteria, both good and bad.

These bacteria outnumber the cells in your body by at least 10 to one, and maintaining the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria forms the foundation for good health—physical, mental and emotional. Most disease originates in your digestive system. This includes both physical and mental disease. Once you heal and seal your gut lining, and make your digestive system strong and work properly again, disease symptoms will typically resolve.

I encourage you to use nature and lifestyle changes to heal yourself and your children and use antibiotics and medicines only when you really need them.

Like I always say, ‘ The human body is designed to heal itself, if we give it a chance’