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June 15, 2015 By Payal Choudhury 3 Comments

A “ Delight Touch- Dairy foods”

“Milk”, just the word itself sounds comforting!

The entire world of food and especially that of milk is surrounded with emotional and cultural importance. Milk was our very first food. Now, we are a nation of milk drinkers with nearly all of us, infants, the adolescents, adults and even the aged have at least a glass of milk daily.

Milk is often regarded as being nature’s most complete food. It earns this reputation by providing many of the nutrients which are essential for the growth of the human body. Being an excellent source of protein and having an abundance of vitamins and minerals, particularly calcium, milk can make a positive contribution to one’s health as a whole.

Healthy eating is a top priority for many individuals. People eat food, not nutrients – however the combination and amount of nutrients in the foods we eat can greatly affect our health. A healthy, balanced diet is essential in optimising health and reducing the risk of disease.

ROLE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS:

Making simple alterations to our diet and lifestyle can impact our bodies greatly and our long term health.

A healthy, balanced diet or as we call the ‘Food Guide Pyramid’ is made up of five main food groups and milk and dairy foods are one of these.

Dairy is the term used to describe milk-based or milk-related products. The dairy foods milk, cheese and yogurt are a natural source of nutrients such as protein and calcium and they provide a quick and easy way of supplying these nutrients to the diet within relatively few calories.

Incorporating milk, cheese and yogurt into our daily diet can contribute greatly to our nutritional intake and status.

Milk, cheese and yogurt provide the following beneficial nutrients in varying quantities

Calcium – for healthy bones and teeth

Phosphorous – for energy release

Magnesium – for muscle function

Protein – for growth and repair

Vitamin B12 – for production of healthy cells

Vitamin A – for good eyesight and immune function

Zinc – for immune function

Riboflavin – for healthy skin

Folate – for production of healthy cells

Vitamin C – for formation of healthy connective tissues.

Iodine – for regulation of the body’s rate of metabolism (how quickly the body burns energy and the rate of growth

1 glass of milk alone can make a contribution to the daily recommended intake of many important nutrients for all age groups.

Consumption of dairy products has also been associated with numerous health benefits including the following:

Bone health

-Dairy products provide calcium, which is essential for bone growth and development..

Teeth

-Dairy products contain calcium and other tooth friendly nutrients, which help teeth, grow and keep them healthy.

It is the only drink -excluding water which is recommended by dentists to be safe to consume between meals. Milk and cheese are very beneficial for weaning babies and young children as they not only provide many of the nutrients required for general growth and development, but also offer good levels of the specific nutrients needed to ensure development and maintenance of healthy teeth

No Obesity:

Milk is also not a high fat product. Whole milk contains 4% fat, semi-skimmed milk contains 1.7% fat, 1% fat milk contains 1% fat and skimmed milk contains 0.3% fat.

Reduce Blood Pressure

Dairy products help reduce blood pressure. A diet containing fruit and vegetables, low-fat dairy products and low salt helps reduce blood pressure (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension: DASH diet).

The potassium, magnesium and calcium found in dairy products are all linked to healthy blood pressure.

Cardiovascular disease

Consumption of milk and dairy has also been associated with a reduced risk of suffering a heart attack-

Type 2 diabetes

Consumption of low fat dairy products has been linked to a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Hydration

Regular fluid intake throughout the day is essential to be well hydrated. Dietetic experts recommend drinking 6-8 glasses of fluid per day. As milk contains a high percentage of water, it is a useful vehicle for rehydration.

Eating habits

People who consume dairy products have better intake of nutrients than people who do not consume dairy products. Introducing dairy products at an early age helps establish good eating habits for later in life.

Dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese, contain essential nutrients and may offer health benefits. Dairy products are high in calcium and vitamin D, both of which help to maintain strong bones and teeth. Dairy products also contain potassium, which offers heart protection and may help to lower blood pressure. In addition, dairy products are high in muscle-building proteins.

Here is a list some of the available dairy products in the market.

Butter
Ghee
Curd
Cheese
Cottage cheese
Cream
Buttermilk
Lassi
Condensed milk
Processed milk powder.
Ice-creams. And many more.

Well, a lot of variations and innovations can be incorporated with few of these items in our day to day life which eventually will enhance our lifestyle .We can split its intake in our daily meals, with a controlled portion size.

Our breakfast which ideally should be “king size” can comprise of many different variations of dairy products so as to remove the boredom and also from nutritional point of view.

Few examples of dairy products which can be introduced in breakfast are: Porridge, cottage cheese pancakes, scrambled cheese, whole wheat cottage cheese naan, cheese dosa whole wheat toast with butter, whole wheat vegetable cheese sandwiches, cheese omlette.etc.

For mid-mornings we can include buttermilk or lassi or low-fat cream mixed with fruits (lesser the amount of cream.)

Well for our main meals, we have abundant options. We can include paneer both (home-made and processed) prepared in various forms. Right from sauté paneer to traditional style, from Chinese to sizzlers.

Next we have the most credited options, that is “raita”. A combination of curd with different vegetables or fruits (with or without seasoning). Preferably unflavoured curds are the best.

We can also make different recipes of curd –fruit salad. .

Another variety is ghee-which is widely used in Indian cuisine. A slight dash of it enhances the flavour and aroma of any vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.

Dairy products are cherished by the health organizations as an essential food for bone health. But, not all dairy products are the same. Essential is the sugar content in it.

However, our health and vitality depends not only on how much dairy products we consume but, also important is their quality. Like the old Indian adage goes, ‘you are what you eat’.

June 10, 2015 By ASHWINI PRAKASH CHAUDHARI Leave a Comment

7 Minute Workout

Most of us are busy these days with no time left in hand to do regular workouts or any other daily activities. What do you mean by workouts? Spending an hour in gym or doing something on your own to be fit and healthy.

I have seen many people doing workouts in gym and spending hours there but, is it really worth it?

Getting into shape does not require spending hours in gym, FAD diet plans or using state of the art equipment. In fact, our own bodyweight is all you need to effectively exercise and achieve the shape you want. Bodyweight training works and it is inexpensive and convenient too. Let’s not make Work pressure as our excuse and find out a time either in the morning or evening for just 7 min workout.

7 min workout is a high-intensity interval training workout that includes prolonged endurance training which provides many of the fitness benefits in much less time. It directly targets the overall fitness. It helps in increasing metabolic rate. While doing the workouts your body releases the endorphin which helps to reduce stress.

This workout does not require equipment and you can use your own body weight, a chair and a wall, etc.

To burn the most amount of fat in the shortest amount of time, the following moves are best-

Jumping Jacks- This classic cardio move is a great way to warm up and it beneficial for heart and lungs. It improves strength and endurance, increases the metabolic rate and burns calories.

Wall Sit- Who needs a chair when there’s a wall? Wall Sits are great in working out the two groups of muscles in your thigh. Repetitions of Wall Sits would naturally give you thighs that can withstand prolonged strenuous activities.

PushUp – Doing Pushups allow you to provide a full body workout, allowing you to access many muscle groups at once. You can work the quads, hamstrings, calves, chest, shoulders and arms all at the same time with a few pushups. You will notice that performing push up reps regularly will help you get a more toned chest, shoulders, forearms, upper arms and wrists. It stimulates the metabolism and blood circulation, allowing you to burn more calories throughout the rest of your workout.

Abdominal Crunch – Crunches works on the rectus abdomen muscle. It is mainly just a core working exercise and burns less calories comparatively but, they move in a controlled manner, flexing and releasing the core muscles thus helping to build the abs.

Step up onto Chair – This exercise is great for targeting your quad and gluteus maximus muscles, giving you strong, powerful legs.
Squat – Squat exercises are great for a total lower body workout. They effectively work most of the major muscle groups of the butt, hips and thighs. Squats are also a versatile exercise. Squats engage the core muscles of the body. The result is a tighter, flatter abdomen and a stronger lower back.

Triceps dip on Chair – It is a triceps-strengthening and a most effective body-weight exercise. Dips target your triceps, the muscles on the back of your upper arm.

Plank – The plank exercise helps to strengthen midsection, upper-body and lower-body muscles along the front of your body. Planks also strengthen inner core muscles that support your joints. It helps in reducing belly fat, reduce back pain. At a time, it works on all your core muscles.

High Knees running in place – This is a nice warm-up. It is a great practice for runners and athletes to improve running form and develop lower body muscles. It also enhances your strength, speed, balance and flexibility. It provides you more energy, burns calories, builds muscles and enhances blood circulation.

Lunges – The lunge is an easy-to-learn, safe and incredibly effective exercise. Lunges target the quadriceps, but involve additional muscles, including the glutes, hamstrings, calves and core muscles, making them an important exercise for toning the lower body.

Push up and rotation – This exercise is great for building shoulder stabilization and strengthening your entire core. Don’t let your hips drop when you go into side rotation. Try to keep everything in a straight diagonal line throughout.

Side Plank – It works your entire core, but particularly targets an often weak muscle called the quadratus lumborum. It helps to reduce risk for lower back pains. It improves your balance and structure.

The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each with 10 secondss rest in between and proper warm up and stretching required.

Here you have to give only 7 mins to your health which is equal to 0.5% of your day to your body and you are done with your workouts.

May 7, 2015 By Ashwinkumar Rahate 3 Comments

How to Breathe Correctly During Weight Training

Exercise is essential for good health. In exercises we often give importance to the workout pattern, form and technique as it enhances the performance. Today, through this blog I would like to focus more on the breathing technique during Weight Training

Weight training is subject to moderate or high intense workout. When we exercise at the end of every set the muscles lack enough oxygen and lactic acid is produced. In a short, we are unable to do more repetitions or exercise with more weight. The universal method of breathing during weight training exercise is opposite of gravitation- exhale means lifting the weight or pulling the weight and breath out and when we come back to the starting position inhale or breath in .

Here I would like to give 2 examples

First Example is a bench press:

Bench press is known as a pushing movement of exercise. Here we are pushing the barbells or the dumbbells opposite of the gravity so we need to exhale while pushing it up. And while we bring down the barbell or dumbbells towards gravity inhale.

The Second Example: Lat Pull Down

Now we are focusing on the pulling movement. The name of the exercise itself tells us this is the pulling movement of exercise

When we pull the Lat Pulley bar down we need to exhale because weight is going up during this phase remember opposite of gravitation exhale. Again coming back to the starting position inhale.

There are benefits of breathing right while exercising. Some of these benefits include boosting energy levels as well as metabolism. We can do our exercise with more weights; correct breathing will help us to improve our posture.

April 27, 2015 By Shimpli Patil 38 Comments

Should we brisk walk before the meal or after?

As an adolescent, I was a victim of this common misconception that brisk walking immediately post meal helps burn calories. It’s quite natural to think that once we eat a meal and walk it out quickly, it will burn the calories that we just consumed. But hey! For that food to get converted into calories it requires a long process, which is called nothing but digestion. Unless and until we don’t let the food to get digested thoroughly, are we going to burn the calories? Obviously not!

Brisk walking post meal is a not a very good idea. It may cause acid reflux, ingestion or stomach upset. The reason is very simple- after the meal, our digestion process is all ready to go. Digestive juices are released in the stomach and intestine. This is the time when the stomach and intestine need most blood supply to carry on this process smoothly. Hence, the blood flow needs to be directed to this area for better digestion. If we perform any vigorous activity as simple as brisk walking after the meal, the blood circulation gets directed to our extremities which compromises the blood flow to the core region of the body, thus hampering the digestive processes.

Working out especially post dinner not only affects our digestion but may also postpone our sleep time. Workouts are a stress buster. Our body experiences an endorphin rush (feel good factor) after a nice cardio/strengthening session. Once we are on an endorphin high, we feel extremely elated and energized which tends to delay our sleep.

So what’s best for us? It’s always best to go for a brisk walk or any other workout before the meal (30 minutes prior or so). It exhausts our body’s energy stores which is then all set to fill up the stores again with a good meal. This reduces the chances of fat conversion during the meal as whatever we consume is utilized by the body cells for energy which leaves least for fat storage. In short, a pre meal workout fires up our body’s metabolism which therefore ensures better burn up of calories after we consume and digest the meal.

A similar point was proven by a 2006 study published in “Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism,” which says that people who walked prior to putting any food in their stomach and who walked hard enough to perspire burnt more fat than those who walked after eating.

Thus, it’s quite clear that in order to reap most benefits of brisk walking or other workouts, we need to schedule it prior to our meal. However, we can certainly go for a leisurely walk post meal, but again, not immediately. We can go after a 45 minutes gap. That is just to get over the bloat of eating way too much or to give your muscles a good stretch and it’s anytime a better option than promoting fat deposition by lying on the sofa watching TV. But remember, this should be a short 10-15 minute walk and not a long one.

Now that we have blown away the misconceptions, let’s implement the right thing and experience the change! Let’s Rock the pre-meal walk!