About Tasneem Jawadwala

Tasneem Jawadwala believes if you are destined to live for 100 years, then better spend them staying healthy. Armed with a Bachelors in Food Science and Nutrition and a Post Gradate Diploma in Pediatric Nutrition, she is further specialized in dietetics, Weight Management, Nutrition Management in Children and Adolescence, Pre and Post Pregnancy Nutrition. She believes that good health can only be achieved with a permanent positive lifestyle change and not just by working out or following a diet. Daily she indulges in activities such as walking, cycling and yoga.

November 21, 2018 By Tasneem Jawadwala 7 Comments

Healthy Weight Gain

Every time I visit the gym, I see a lot of people doing really well trying to lose weight. However, the real strugglers are those who are looking to build muscles. Unfortunately, most are unable to gain muscles as they indulge in variety of foods and workouts to increase their appetite and gain weight.

Let’s see what is it that most do wrong in a weight gain program?-

I) Proteins– Gym trainers and dieticians often suggest including more proteins, some in the form of powders and others suggest natural sources such as egg, sattu, curd, cottage cheese and the likes. However, calculating the right amount of protein required is often missed. One requires around 1.25g/kg ideal body weight proteins, to build up muscles. For example if you are 60 kgs then the required amount of protein required by you on a daily basis to build muscles is 75g.

If you aren’t having enough or the required amount of protein then you will not see a difference. Hence, take out time and consult professionals who can help you calculate.

For building muscles you also need to take care that you have enough carbs, antioxidants and workout properly.

(i) Carbohydrates- While focusing more on proteins, maximum people lose focus off carbs. Don’t forget if approx 60% of your diet isn’t from carbohydrate sources, your body will utilize proteins to supply energy, hence you will lack proteins for tissue building.

(ii) Antioxidants– Fruits and salads are often flawed to be used as a weight loss diet. Vegetables and fruits are the best source of antioxidants that help in tissue repairs, prevent injuries and inflammation. So include selenium, zinc, vitamin C and Vitamin E on a daily basis.

(iii) Workout- Your workout should focus more on strength training however,make sure you still do some amount of cardio for better functioning of your heart and lungs. This will prevent you from falling ill during your program.

Foods that will help in building muscles-

Dates – They are loaded with iron, natural sugar and antioxidants. Have 4-5 dates before the workout as datescan provide you with instant energy and prevent muscle damage.
Sweet Nuts or Pulse balls (Chikkis)- These is a sweet dish made up of pulses, nuts or seeds. It isnothing but roasted whole gram, peanuts or sesame seeds and jaggery. It’s a perfect combination of proteins and carbohydrates. Munching on them as mid meal snacks would be an energy booster.
Nut shakes – A big serving of dry fruits is difficult to consume at a time, hence having them in a powdered form with milk will help provide a large serving of proteins.
Fruit smoothie – Adding a fruit to curd will help add on some antioxidants to your protein dose.
Combination of cereal and pulse – Just having a pulse at a time will really not help as it doesn’t provide us with good quality proteins but, when combined with a cereal, it will not only help us with gaining the benefits of proteins but also supply the required carbohydrates. Hence, options like dal Paratha (Pulse Flat Breads), PuranPoli (Sweet Jaggery filled flat breads), khichdi (mix of pulses and rice and vegetables cooked together) and idli (steamed rice pan cakes) should be considered.
Adding vegetables to meat – Having a separate serving of vegetable becomes difficult .The meal size may exceed if we have 1 serving of vegetable for vitamins & minerals and 1 serving of non-veg preparation for proteins. The best option I feel is to combine a non-vegetarian source with vegetables. For instance, Spinach (Palak) chicken, tomato omelet and capsicum stuffed with mince.
Peanut butter- Many often overdo with regular butter and get major changes in lipid profile but no change in weight. Ideally one should apply peanut butter on their bread slice for the right fats and protein combination.

The key rule for healthy weight gain is to go fornutrient dense meals. These healthy compact meals do not require an extreme appetite boost. Focus on healthy weight gain and be patient while you are in a weight gain program as it’s easy to cut on fats but takes time to add on muscles.

Remember, it took 9 months to give you around 3 kgs of weight while birth.

November 3, 2017 By Tasneem Jawadwala 17 Comments

Healthy options to add in Milk

There is no denying that malt based drinks are a common ‘health food drinks’ in most houses today as has been for a few decades now. There are enticing ads claiming the benefits of these health drinks and how it is nutritious for your growing child. There are ads all over in News Papers, Magazines, TV and even online.

The other day, I was watching one such TV commercial that was promoting a malt based drink. The commercial in its usual enticing style of selling the product mentioned, the malt powder when added to milk – improves the quality of the milk. I kept wondering what is in that powder that helps them improve the nutritive value of Milk.

Out of curiosity to understand more, I went through couple of food labels of malt based milk drinks, I realised that most of these powders have a cereal base (any flour including wheat flour), soy, milk powder, loads of sugar, a flavouring agent like cocoa powder, and some vitamins and minerals.

These ads are so welcoming that most give in and buy the product. And, they don’t come cheap. They cost approximately Rs 300-Rs. 500 per kg. But, do we actually need to spend so much for just a cereal based powder with so much of sugar, colour and preservatives? And do they actually improve the quality of milk? How many of us know if these claims that have been made are true? Are these ‘health’ drinks truly healthy?

The ads claim that these health drinks helps absorb calcium from milk. Well, the truth is sugar hinders absorption of calcium and also depletes phosphorus. And, most of these powders contain loads of sugar.

The most common query I have come across while dealing with children, adolescence and a few adults too is they don’t like plain milk or are worried that whether plain milk would be sufficient. Hence, I have come up with few healthy options that will increase the nutritive value of milk and a few tasty options which make the milk taste better.

Healthy options

Saffron: – Saffron milk is traditional milk in Indian families used only during special occasions, due to the high cost of saffron. The benefits of saffron are just as rich as the spice itself. It prevents cancer, helps in puberty in undernourished girls and helps grow healthy hair and skin. If this milk is had on a daily basis, it develops immunity, it prevents common cold and cough.

Chestnut (Singhara) powder– The Potassium rich Chestnuts not only good for people with high blood pressure and heart patients but, are also very useful for pregnant women. They give a feeling of fullness hence also helps in weight loss. I enjoy adding chestnut powder during summer in my glass of milk as it gives cooling effect and prevents back pain.

Turmeric: – Curcumin rich turmeric milk is one of the oldest and the best grandma’s recipes. It is the best home remedy for cold and cough. One cannot deny the benefits that turmeric milk gives as against antibiotic pills? In the west, Curcumin tablets have become a big craze and people are paying a bomb to buy and consume these tablets. On the other hand in India, turmeric is an integral ingredient in every kitchen. Let’s have yellow milk, to fight infections, body pains or just to feel fresh.

Oats: – This fibre rich cereal is always suggested in my diets for people who just have milk for their breakfast. Adding on oats completes the meals by combining the good quality protein that is present in milk with high fibre carbohydrates. Adding a fruit or dry fruits to oats porridge is like a cherry on cake.

Almonds and Pistachio powder: –Almond Milk (Badamdhoodh), just like saffron,also has traditional value to it. You also find these flavors in the market powders too. However, they come with lot of synthetic flavors. Instead, it takes just a few minutes to powder almonds and pistachios and the full packet of a kilo gets ready for a month’s use. The benefits of these dry fruits are known to most. They benefit people of all age group, from children to old age. The impact of it on brain and memory boosting makes it my favorite family drink.

Tasty options

Dark cocoa: – Those who have been bought up with common chocolate flavoured milk find it a little tough to shift to other flavours. Hence, opting for a dark cocoa powder would be a healthy option. Dark Cocoa has a lot of antioxidants that boost cardio vascular health.

Ragi – This one is my son’s favourite option as he always misunderstands it as chocolate milk. This calcium rich cereal is naturally a little sweet, and gives a perfect chocolate brown colour to the milk. Point to note- Use a small quantity (1 tsp. in 1 cup milk) of this flour as it is a thickening agent and the milk may get lumpy if used in a large quantity. Ragi porridge is a perfect drink for growing kids, pregnant women and elderly.

Fruit– Milk can be an enjoyable drink at any time by preparing it as a milkshake. Those who find it boring to chew a fruit on daily basis can surely combine it with milk. For weight watchers, combine milk with fruits like watermelon, apple or kiwi whereas weight gainers can go for some high sugar fruits like mango, banana, figs etc.

Dates: – Now this option is for sweet addicts who do not find any other options palatable because of lack of sweetness. They can freely use dates to sweeten their milk. This would be a very healthy post work out meal and filling snacks for young children.

You can also combine 2 options together, for eg:- A fruit/dry fruits and oats or pop in some flax seed powder in your singhara powder.

So if you find these options convenient for your daily milk dose, then dump those so called ‘Health Drink’ powders and “GO ALL NATURAL”.

June 30, 2016 By Tasneem Jawadwala 12 Comments

All about Snacking

It’s a very common suggestion from most nutritionists to eat “small frequent meals”. Well, however most of the people get confused about what we should eat in-between breakfast –lunch and lunch-dinner.

Ideally, we should keep eating every 2-3 hours so that our metabolism stays high throughout the day but, the question is, ‘IS IT OK TO EAT ANYTHING’?

I am sharing a few points that could help us make right choices to munch on in-between meals.

Avoid consuming cereal based products in-between meals – This is the most common mistake which I have observed in a lot of people that they snack on cereal items like Sandwich, biscuits, noodles, Puffed Rice, Steamed Rice Cakes (Idli) etc. Some of them may not be unhealthy but they add on to our servings of cereals per day. If we are looking towards weight reduction we should avoid such a mistake.However, adding cereals in-between meals would be a good option for healthy weight gain.

Add on fruits and vegetables as snacks before meals– Snacking on fruits and salads before meals help us keep our belly full and prevent overeating during main meals.

Snacks should not always be a solid– Yes we can snack on healthy drinks like coconut water, barley water, lemon water or even vegetable juices like cucumber &tomato juice or radish& lemon juice etc.They make great snack. These liquids hydrate us, therefore they are especially good for people who are not much fond of drinking water.

Pulses – like Roasted Chick Pea (Chana), Peas, Kidney beans, Whole Sprouts (moong)can be a good protein rich evening snack, if we are looking forward to have light dinners.

Dried Fruits – Serve as filling and nutritious snacks too. However, we should limit its quantity. For example if we are having almonds then 4-5 almonds would be enough. 7 raisins would make a serving or just 1-2 dates would be a good dose of energy.

Curd – Homemade curd, I would always say is the best option if you are going through any digestion problems. It also adds to our protein intake and at the same time increases our gut micro flora. Fruit yogurt or buttermilk are other options that could be considered.

This is my favourite snacking option. It looks filling and tasty but gives minimum calories. I am sure many people opt for them. These are Popcorn, Puffed rice, dried lotus seeds (Makhana) or Roasted grains. Having 1 fistful of them may not give us much calories but it satisfies our gut. They fall in the cereal group however the quantity of cereal is so less that if may not even make ½ a serving when weighed.

Snacking has a lot of benefits, but all we need to do is, keep these points in mind while selecting our snacks. So, next time, when we plan a 6 meal pattern, this is what we shall, consider for best results.

April 6, 2016 By Tasneem Jawadwala Leave a Comment

All about Snacking

It’s a very common suggestion from most nutritionists to eat “small frequent meals”. Well, however most of the people get confused about what should be eaten in-between breakfast –lunch and lunch-dinner.

Ideally, we should keep eating every 2-3 hours so that our metabolism stays high throughout the day but, the question is, ‘IS IT OK TO EAT ANYTHING’?

I am sharing a few points that could help us make right choices to munch on in-between meals.

Avoid consuming cereal based products in-between meals – This is the most common mistake which I have observed in a lot of people that they snack on cereal items like Sandwich, biscuits, noodles, poha (Puffed Rice) , idli etc. Some of them may not be unhealthy but they add on to our servings of cereals per day. If we are looking towards weight reduction we should avoid such a mistake. However, adding cereals in-between meals would be a good option for healthy weight gain.

Add on fruits and vegetables as snacks before meals– Snacking on fruits and salads before meals help us keep our belly full and prevent overeating during main meals.

Snacks should not always be a solid– Yes we can snack on healthy drinks like coconut water, barley water, lemon water or even vegetable juices like cucumber &tomato juice or radish& lemon juice etc. They make great snacks. These liquids hydrate us; therefore they are especially good for people who are not much fond of drinking water.

Pulses – like Roasted Chana, Peas, Kidney beans, Whole moong or green gram can be a good protein rich evening snack, if we are looking forward to have light dinners.

Dried Fruits – serve as filling and nutritious snacks too. However, we should limit its quantity. For example if we are having almonds then 4-5 almonds would be enough. 7 raisins would make a serving or just 1-2 dates would be a good dose of energy.

Curd – Homemade curd, I would always say is the best option if you are going through any digestion problems. It also adds to our protein intake and at the same time increases our gut micro flora. Fruit yogurt or buttermilk are other options that could be considered.

This is my favourite snacking option. It looks filling and tasty but gives minimum calories. I am sure many people opt for them. These are Popcorn, Puffed rice, dried lotus seeds (makhana) or Roasted grains. Having 1 fistful of them may not give us much calories but it satisfies our gut. They fall in the cereal group however the quantity of cereal is so less that if may not even make ½ a serving when weighed.