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February 9, 2015 By Parwage Alam Leave a Comment

Exercising Too Much – Think Twice

Is too much exercise bad for you?

Many once have got on to the fitness path think that if they do too much of exercise they will achieve their goals faster. Is this true let’s find out?

It is always said that too much of good is also not very nice, including exercise. Too much of exercising is actually damaging.

Everyone believes that “Exercising is good for him/her, and that more exercising is considered better…”, this is a myth. The fact is that too much exercise could actually harm you rather than benefit you. In the excitement of doing too much exercise one does not realize they can harm themselves. You will end up facing problems related to physical and emotional conditions such as injuries, bone loss, muscle loss and sometimes even heart failure.

Adequate amount of exercise helps you to build good muscles. Then you become an “exercise freak”, same like the eating disorder. And, eventually you get devastating results.

You lose weight, yes, but not the way you should– your body goes into starvation mode and releases cortisol (Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands in your body when you are under stress. Cortisol will increase production of a neurotransmitter called neuropeptide Y, which can increase cravings for sweet or starchy foods – bad for health and fitness).

Increased cortisol inhibits any fat metabolism and breaks your muscle mass — your body basically starts eating itself. So instead of becoming a lean, mean fitness machine, you find you’ve less strength and also a weakened immune system.

Make no mistake about it, regular exercise is probably is the biggest factor in living a long and healthy life (not discounting healthy eating).

Here are several ways to tell that you’re working out too hard or Effect of too much Exercise can lead to:

Dizziness
Trouble breathing or maintaining a conversation
Disorientation, foggy mental processing
Rapid heart beat
Dehydration
Injuries
Loss of lean muscle mass
Heart failure in the absence of proper nutrition. Your heart is a muscle and over exercising could weaken it, leading to potential failure
Weakened immune system
Cessation of menstrual cycles, a condition known as amenorrhea
Research shows that many female athletes who over train begin to experience bone loss that apparently can’t be reversed if the amenorrhea persists long enough.
Sleep disorder
Eating disorder such as anorexia
Irritability, depression and low self esteem

Here is a checklist which will help you judge on your own if you are doing too much exercise:

Make up for one missed workout by doubling it the next session
You will force yourself even when you don’t want to
When you over eat, you prefer to exercise to burn all extra calories
You set the intensity of your exercise based on your food intake
You might feel guilty when you miss your exercise session
You become very upset if you miss a workout
You always have a fear that you’ll gain weight if you miss the exercise session for a day
You will miss the pleasure during exercise
You can’t bring yourself to take a day off from exercise

So the next time you go to exercise stop worrying. Just have fun and enjoy your workout.

November 21, 2014 By Ami Shah 2 Comments

Secrets of brown rice!

It’s always said that cut down on fat and you would slim down. But, I have observed that many people despite cutting down on fat, still put on weight. The reason for this is simple carbohydrates which Indian population gorges on without knowing the facts.

Indian diets comprises more of simple carbohydrates which mainly consists of white rice, sugar, maida. There is definitely a substitute for everything.

Let’s talk about how beneficial brown rice is over white rice! The difference between white and brown rice is not that of colour alone but there is lot more to it.

How Brown rice gets converted to white rice?

The outermost layer, the hull, is removed to produce brown rice. This process avoids the unnecessary loss of nutrients that occurs with further processing. If brown rice is further milled to remove the bran and most of the germ layer, the result is a whiter rice, but also a rice that has lost many more nutrients. At this point, however, the rice is still unpolished, and it takes polishing to produce the white rice we consume.

Benefits of Brown Rice:

Rich in Selenium: A trace mineral which reduces the risk for common illness like colon cancer.

High in manganese: One cup of brown rice provides 80% of our daily manganese requirements. Manganese helps the body synthesize fats. Manganese also benefits our nervous and reproductive systems.

High in fiber: It is packed with fiber! It has been shown to reduce high cholesterol levels. It also keeps your sugar under control so brown rice is an excellent grain choice for people with diabetes. You feel satiated after eating brown rice as it is high in fiber so you tend to eat lesser in the meal, thus portion size comes into the picture.

Protection against breast cancer: The pytonutrient Lignin present in brown rice known to inhibit the growth of breast cancerous cells.

Healthy bowel function: Brown rice contains good amounts of insoluble fibre that stays in the gut and aids digestion and prevents constipation.
Great source of Magnesium: Magnesium is thought to be a key nutrient needed for healthy bones along with calcium and vitamin D.

To summarize, brown rice is a healthy substitute which is packed with whole lot of antioxidants and micro-nutrients than white rice.

October 20, 2014 By Mohammed Tufail Qureshi 1 Comment

How important are Micro-Nutrients to stay fit?

Macro-Nutrients have always been given importance for health and athletic performance but, somewhere the micro-nutrients are completely left out.

“Vitamins and Minerals”, as the name comes from a Latin word “Vita” meaning life and “amine” as the biochemist called Casimir Funk(1884-1967) who learnt about them thought that they contained amino acids, hence the word “amine”.

“Minerals” are substances that are found naturally within the earth’s crust. Vitamins and minerals are the micro-nutrients, as they are measured in milligrams or micrograms. Vitamins are called “essentials” as the body cannot produce them, they have to be consumed through our food or through the dietary supplements to get them adequately. Vitamin and minerals play a very important role in metabolism of carbohydrates and fats which are used as fuel by the muscles. They are also involved in repair and building of muscles after a training session.

For everyone who trains hard in the gym,the energy metabolism and protein synthesis is absolutely important, these functions are driven by the “metabolic enzymes”. Metabolic enzymes are substances that carry out loads of functions in the body for reproduction and replenishment of the cells. Pancreas are the primary organs that produce and release these metabolic enzymes. These enzymes are also responsible for flushing out toxins from the body and also producing energy from the nutrients that we consume.

One of major causes of wrinkles, bone loss and illness in elderly people is the inability of the pancreas to produce these metabolic enzymes due to ageing.

These metabolic enzymes require coenzymes which will initiate and aid in the function of enzymes. The B vitamins serve as the coenzymes that helps in conversion of food into fuel and energy production.

The various B complex vitamins like the Thaimin (B1) and Niacin(B3) not only help in conversion of nutrients into energy but, Niacin also helps in manufacturing hormones and regulate the cholesterol.

Riboflavin (B2) and Panthothenic acid (B5) helps in production of energy and producing red blood cells in the body. Pyroxidine (B6) is specially important for those, crazy for muscle building and body building as this vitamins helps in protein building and strengthens the immune system.

Biotin (B7), Folic acid (B9) and Cobalamin (B12) again help in conversion of nutrients into energy. Cobalamin helps in keeping the red blood cells healthy thus enhancing their ability to carry oxygen to the cells.

Important to note Biotin (B7) deficiency is generally found in people who consume raw eggs, the egg whites contain a protein called the avidin which binds with Biotin and stops its absorbtion, cooking the eggs deactivates the avidin .As well as, consuming raw eggs is risky as it results in serious health problems like diarrhea and vomiting due to presence of a bacteria called the Salmonella. So all those “Rocky Balboa” fans, need to watch out before gulping a pitcher full of raw eggs.

Vitamin A,C and E are of equal importance for a exercising indiviual. Exercise leads to development of Reactive Oxygen Species(ROS) or commonly known as the free radicals. ROS is a phrase used for free radicals produced by molecular oxygen. The production of oxygen based radicals (ROS) is harmful for all the aerobic species. These oxygen based radicals develop even during normal aerobic respiration. But, while exercising, the demand for oxygen is increased for the cells, specially during endurance training and during the EPOC(excess post exercise oxygen consumption) which is post weight training. These ROS cause cell damage, drop in immune system, bone loss and muscle loss resulting to a drop in performance. Some amount of Vitamin C and E is already there in the tissues, which is transfered into the bloodstream to handle minor stress while aerobic respiration. Having said that while exercising the stress increases tremendously as the demand for oxygen is very high, hence there is depletion of Vitamin C and E. These should then be immediately supplied through dietary supplements in adequate quantity. Vitamin A plays a crucial role not only as a antioxidant but also to improve vision.

Any physical activity depletes these vitamins and minerals, and the need for these vital nutrients increases. They have to be supplied through dietary supplements to achieve optimal performance in the workouts and to stay fit.

September 15, 2014 By MANISHA GURAM Leave a Comment

Healthy Vision

One day while going through nutrition book and while surfing the net, I was surprised to see lack of blogging and articles on one body part that is the eye. Since my childhood I have noticed that we take our eyes for granted. Just because you are seeing well and have no irritation, one does not think it is necessary to go in for an eye examination till a problem arises. Well! It can be too late! Do you know your vision keeps getting worse as you age?

While in School almost 70 % of us have faced blurred vision not able to read the blackboard clearly. Also most of us have spent out childhood sitting close to the television, rubbing eyes and these problems still persist and we still neglect them most of the times. You neglect it till it gets worse and then get spectacles without which you can see at all.

Healthy vision should be of priority since childhood. The challenge begins from viewing the black board, ability to see clearly on a computer. If neglected the same persists in adulthood. Modern day computing and internet means spending more time with your smartphone and computer screen. Two hours with computer means tired, strained feeling such as eyestrain, redness, irritation, dryness, burning, blurred vision, headaches and neck and shoulder pain.

A healthy eye is an indicator of good health. It is important to maintain healthy weight for healthy eye, being overweight or obese increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, each of these damage vessels in eye and lead to vision loss in an individual. There is a strong correlation between eyes and diseases.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes for blindness among individuals in many countries especially in the age group of 20 – 74. Therefore, it is important for everyone who has diabetes to check their eyes regularly. High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels lead to cataracts (clouding of eye with proteins and glaucoma). The shocking thing is you may not realize that you are suffering from a disease or you have diabetes mellitus until you experience loss of vision.

Lack of proper nutrients such as essential vitamins and minerals in the regular diet also results in conditions like xeropthalmia. In India, Malnutrition is serious health problem leading to night blindness- a common ailment. In developed countries like America more than 8 million people face vision problems like age related macular degeneration (AMD) that causes blindness in people in their 60s, while the symptoms show late damage occurs decades earlier. Most leading eye problems are AMD, Cataract, Diabetic retinopathy, Glaucoma, dry eyes, conjuctivits and many more…

Therefore I would say why wait till a problem arises? Dietary intake prevention and lifestyle modification plays important role in healthy vision.

Free radicals bring about oxidation which is the evil for good vision as it destroys epithelial layer in eye & deeper ones of the cornea. Antioxidants( vitamin A,C,E, lutein ,zeaxanthin & zinc) present in fruits and vegetables help fighting against these free radicals which minimize the damage to your cells.

Diet modifications:

VITAMIN C

Citrus fruits are powerful topmost antioxidants such as vitamin C, retinas of our eye require vitamin c to maintain proper nerve cell function. Vitamin C with essential nutrients slows AMD. Grapes, strawberries, papaya, orange, green peppers, Peaches, blueberries, mango, tomato, apricot & cabbage all provide Vitamin C.

VITAMIN E

Vitamin E works along with vitamin C. It is a Powerful antioxidant in nuts, cereals, wheat germ, sunflower seeds and sweet potatoes. It Protects retina from damage caused by smoking and alcohol.

VITAMIN A

Yellow orange coloured fruits and vegetables like Oranges, lettuce, bell peppers, tuna, mango, kiwis, grapefruits, dried apricots, tomatoes, peppers & raw carrots contain good amount of vitamin A.

OMEGA 3 RICH FOODS

Salmon, Tuna, flaxseed, walnuts, canola oil, soyabeans for visual function and retina development.

ZINC

Essential helper molecule as it brings the vitamin A from liver to the retina to produce melanin that protects eyes. Nuts, legumes, Oyester, turkey and crab are rich in zinc.

LUTEIN AND ZEAXANTHIN

Green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale contains Lutein and Zeaxanthin which absorb the damaging light, help retina cells off free radicals and reduce risk of macular degeneration. Eggs yellow peppers mango, kale, spinach, broccoli, green peas , sprouts.

Lifestyle modifications

We all know that in this fast moving World we can’t avoid computers and smartphones but in order to keep your eyes healthy give your eyes a break from the computer screen every 20 mins or more for atleast 30 secondss.
Make sure your lens has not expired, blink your eyes more to avoid dryness.
Quit smoking as it increases risk of cataracts.
Protect eyes from sun, ultraviolet rays by wearing right kind of sun glasses.
Remove eye makeup using coconut oil.
Use proper lighting to avoid eyestrain.
Get eyes examined regularly.
Relax your eyes by doing some eye exercises like rubbing your palm and keeping it on your eye.

We eat the right food to slim down and get into shape, but eyes are the mirror of a human soul and they are most important for a healthy life.