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April 5, 2018 By Azra Faizan 5 Comments

Beat the heat with these 6 healthy summertime Coolers

“It was so hot!! That I had a coke to cool down….

“I just can’t do without chilled juice in this heat “

Yes, we are in the middle of April and it’s getting hotter by the day. As the heat wave increases, we have this constant feeling of being completely sapped out of our energy. This feeling lingers through the day making us lethargic and lazy.

When the temperature soars and sweat pours, we are unable to satisfy ourselves with just chilled water, and want something more? The reason being increased sweating leads to dehydration. Sweating depletes the electrolytes in the body, and hence plain water does not quench our thirst and the body craves rehydration through soft drinks and juices.The downside, however, is that these drinks and juices come with loads of sugar and chemicals.

Having carbonated beverages or powder based refreshment doesn’t actually serve the cause of dehydration. These hardly contain any electrolytes and contain high amounts of sugar, which we need only in a small amount, as glucose does help in carrying the electrolytes into the blood.

Here is the solution!! I have tried to put together a few of my favourite healthy and refreshing drinks, to enjoy all through summer, these beverages are still high in sugars, but do not contain any white sugar, they are made instead with natural and unrefined sugars like jaggery, honey, and naturally sweet fruits.

Jaggery Lemonade

Let me start with my all-time favourite, jaggery juice or lemonade made with jaggery

Some will say it’s the same as adding sugar, But NO !! Although the glucose content in both may be similar, jaggery is loaded with antioxidants and minerals like zinc, iron, and selenium. Mixed with water it has a cooling effect on the body in the summers, and also aids in digestion.

Serves 4

25 gm jaggery, crushed

1-inch piece ginger, grated

1 lemon

Water

Soaked Basil seeds (optional)

Soak crushed jaggery, add grated ginger in 4 glasses water, for 2 – 3 hours (I usually keep it in the fridge while soaking, so that it soaks and chills at the same time). After 2 hours, mix and dissolve any lumps of jaggery that might be present. Squeeze juice of a lemon in it, strain the mixture, add soaked basil seeds to have a further cooling effect, and serve.

2. Aam Panna (Raw mango cooler)

Raw Mango is an extremely healthy fruit, a godsend for the summer that is high in Vitamin C, prevents dehydration, sunstroke, reduces body heat, relieves diarrhoea and constipation and activates the liver too.

A traditional recipe, one of my favourites, since summer also brings seasonal raw mangoes with it.

Serves 4 – 6

1 Raw mango

Mint leaves

10 – 15 g of black jaggery.

Water – to dilute.

Boil the raw mango in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Retain the liquid. Peel the raw mango and scoop out all the pulp, discard the seed, and blend the pulp in a mixer with jaggery and mint leaves, strain and mix with the remaining liquid. At this point, the raw mango concentrate can be frozen into cubes and used as per requirement, 2 cubes in a glass of water. Or diluted with chilled water and served immediately.

3. Iced Green Tea with Ginger, Mint, and Honey

We already know how healthy a cup of green tea is, but what if you are not in the mood for anything hot? Let’s just make iced tea with green tea!!

Serves 6 to 8

6 cups water
1/4^th cup ginger, peeled and sliced
3 to 6 bags green tea (depending on how strong you like your tea)
1/2 cup mint leaves, tightly packed, plus extra to serve
1/4^th cup honey
1 lemon, divided

In a medium-sized pot, combine the water and ginger slices. Bring to a boil. Once the water boils, remove from heat and add the tea bags and mint leaves. Cover the pot and steep for about 15 minutes.

Strain the brewed tea; separating the liquid from the mint leaves and tea bags. Mix in the honey and juice from the half lemon into the tea. Transfer to a pitcher and cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Slice the second half of the lemon. When ready to serve, add 1 to 2 lemon slices into each glass, along with a few mint leaves and ice cubes. Once the tea has cooled, pour it into the glasses and serve.

4. Muskmelon, Coconut and orange drink.

Coconut water is a very refreshing drink to beat the torching tropical summer thirst. Its liquid is packed with simple sugars, electrolytes, and minerals to replenish dehydration conditions inside the human body, combine it with a few fresh fruits and you have a designer tropical drink.

Serves 3 -4

2 cups or ½ a muskmelon, cubed

1 orange segmented

1 ½ cups coconut water (1 large tender coconut)

¼ tsp black salt

Mint leaves for garnishing.

Combine all the ingredients in a mixer, and blend until smooth, pour into glasses, and serve immediately garnished with mint leaves. We don’t strain this juice as we would like to have it with all the goodness of its fibres.

5. Kokum Juice.

Another gem to have in your kitchen in the summer, the benefits are endless and better explained here, but, most commercially available kokum syrups are loaded with sugar and preservatives, hence a fresh version would be more beneficial.

Serves 4 – 5

150 gms kokum
4 glasses of cold water
1 pinch salt
2 tsp black salt (pink salt)
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
15 – 20 g jaggery
½ tsp black pepper powder
mint leaves for garnishing

Soak kokum and jaggery in ½ a glass of hot water for 5 minutes. Blend it with blender, drain & keep aside. Mix all ingredients together in 4 glass of cold water and garnish with fresh mint leaves.

6. Fruity lemon fizz

For all those fizz lovers, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you. And YES!!! Fizz can be made healthy too.

Serves 1 – 2

1 Tbsp any mashed fruit (strawberry/peach/kiwi/cucumber/pineapple/sweet melon/watermelon)
2 Tbsp whole sliced fruit
3/4 cup sparkling club soda/sparkling mineral water
¼ cup mineral water

1 Tbsp lemon juice/orange juice
1 lemon slice/orange slice

Mint leaves
honey or stevia if needed.

You will need a good amount of fruit per glass since this will be what flavours your water. Adding frozen fruit can be very helpful because as the frozen fruit melts into the water it easily saturates the water with flavour. Frozen fruit also chills your beverage nicely. Another trick is to gently mash some of your fresh fruit to release the flavour.
Add your fruit, sweetener (if using), mint leaves, lemon juice and water to your serving glass. Stir/mash briskly and allow it to chill in the fridge until ready to serve, add chilled club soda to the glasses just before serving.

NOTE: I have tried to use natural sugars in my recipes, for diabetics, you can enjoy the same drinks with stevia instead of natural sugars if you are looking for optimum sugar control.

Overdoing anything, even if healthy will do no one good. Hence, the ideal serving size for these drinks would be 1 glass a day. Chilled to perfection!!

So Let’s enjoy every sip of these healthy coolers!!

April 3, 2018 By Ami Shah 1 Comment

Know your Artificial Sweetners

What comes to your mind when you talk about artificial sweeteners? Some say it has zero calories, some say it has lesser calories than table sugar. One day one gentleman came to me for his first consultation and while going through his diet recall, I realized he has been surviving on artificial sweeteners for almost 3 years and he had a complaint saying that despite cutting down on sugar, he is not losing weight!

Diabetic people also feel that their blood sugar levels would get under control if they stop eating normal sugar. People have a common misconception that if they stop consuming sugar, they would lose weight. But, as a nutritionist, I can guarantee that this is not possible. An individual’s lifestyle, BMR, daily activity, stress all of these factors contribute to the weight loss process.

If you ask me, I would say that sweeteners are not safe in the long run. Artificial sweetener is a substitute for refined sugar which has very few calories.

‘Food and Drug Administration’ regulations permit any food product that has 5 or fewer calories per serving to be labelled as containing “zero″ calories. Personally, being a nutritionist, I feel that anything which is artificial acts as a foreign substance which can have adverse effects on the body in the long run. In fact, there are many scientific studies which have proven that using sweeteners especially aspartame leads to neurological disorders like Alzheimer, dizziness, depression in the long term which can be fatal.

Sweeteners however should be used in moderation. If consumed on a daily basis it can get addictive. Today artificial sweeteners and other sugar substitutes are found in a variety of food and beverages marketed as “sugar-free” or “diet,” including soft drinks, chewing gum, jellies, baked goods, candy, fruit juice, and ice cream and yogurt misleading the consumers because even though the label on the pack would show zero calories, it would have good amount of carbohydrates and free saturated fats which is not good for the body.

Today, people easily get influenced by these gimmicks without knowing the pros and cons of the product. Just because a well-known celebrity is endorsing the product it does not mean you blindly go for it. It is in no way a ‘wow factor’ nor is it very healthy. There are many leading companies which promote their products as being the healthiest because it has no calories!! There are several types of artificial sweeteners:

Acesulfame- K
Aspartame
Sucralose
Saccharin
Stevia

Acesulfame K: Acesulfame K, also known as acesulfame potassium or ace K, is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is marketed under the brand name of Sunett, Sweet One, and Sweet & Safe. It is commercially used in hard and soft candies, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, chewing gums, baked goods.

Aspartame: Aspartame is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. Aspartame is marketed under the NutraSweet, Equal and Sugar Twin brands. It is commercially used in baked goods and pre-dessert mixes.

Sucralose: Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar. It is marketed under the brand name of Splenda. It is also used in soft drinks, candies, baked goods, and ice creams

Saccharin: Saccharin is 200-700 times sweeter than sugar. It is marketed under the brand name of sweet n low, nectar sweet, sweet twin.

Stevia: Stevia is a new product gaining importance in today’s world. It is a natural-sourced sweetener. (it originates from Stevia leaves). It is 400 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia can be found in thousands of food and beverage products around the world, including teas, soft drinks, juices, waters, flavoured milk, yoghurts, baked goods, cereals, salad dressings, sauces, confectionaries, and as a tabletop sweetener.

To sum it up, use Artificial Sweeteners in moderation. As it is rightly said, moderation is the key. Rather choose for healthier ones like Honey, Jaggery watching out the portion size for each!!

April 2, 2018 By Priya Prakash 58 Comments

7 Differences between Chia Seeds & Sabja Seeds

chia1

CHIA Seeds on the left side and SABJA seeds on the right side

Chia seeds are tiny power-packed seeds that have been documented to be around since 3500 bc in the diets of Aztecs and Mayans. They had identified that these super seeds had the ability to increase stamina and energy over long periods of time.

What is the difference between chia seed and sabja seeds (basil seeds)?

Chia seed is a native of Mexico and it does not have an Indian name. However, it has time and again been confused with basil seeds which are also known as Sabja in Hindi. Be it in appearance, origin or health benefits; Chia seeds are different from Sabja in numerous ways. Both chia seeds and sabja seeds originate from the mint family and hence the resemblance.

So how do you differentiate one from the other? Below are a few simple ways that can help you do so:

Native

Chia seeds are native to central and southern Mexico while Sabja seeds are native to India and the Mediterranean region.

2. Colour

chia 2a chia2b

As can be seen in the above image, the left side is CHIA SEEDS. They are usually a mixture of grey, black, white and sometimes even brown seeds. However, even the black ones are not pitch black in colour. Instead, a dull pattern or a mosaic is visible on them. On the right side is SABJA SEEDS, uniformly jet Black in colour.

3. Appearance

chia3

Chia seeds are oval in shape and Sabja seeds are elliptical, like tiny grains of rice.

4. On Soaking in Water

chia4

Sabja Seeds in the water on the left, Chia seeds in water on the right

Chia seeds take time to absorb water. It has the unique ability to gel by absorbing over 10 times their weight. Sabja seeds swell up within seconds of being mixed with water. A translucent coat forms around the seed and it appears much larger in size when compared to a soaked chia seed.

5. Taste of Soaked Seeds

chia5

Sabja seeds in water on the top glass, Chia seeds in water on the bottom glass

Chia seeds do not have any taste of its own and can easily be incorporated in any kind of dish. Sabja seeds have a mild flavour of basil and impart the same to drinks and desserts.

6.Usage

Chia seeds can be consumed raw or soaked. Sabja seeds can be consumed only after soaking.

7. Health Benefits

Both, Chia and Sabja seeds have their own set of health benefits. They have been known to aid in weight loss due to their ability to make you feel fuller faster. Here are the most beneficial properties of the seeds.

Chia seeds

Good source of proteins and Omega 3s
The naturally low-carb and high-fibre food helps in digestion
Highly recommended for weight-loss
Promotes energy and endurance
Helps in stabilizing blood sugar levels

Sabja Seeds

One of the best body coolant
Has a soothing effect on the stomach and hence useful to combat acidity
Good source of vitamins and Iron
Helps to promote healthy skin and hair
Acts as a detoxifying agent and helps to cleanse the blood

FACTOR	CHIA SEEDS	SABJA SEEDS
Native	to Central and southern Mexico	Native to India and the Mediterranean region
Colour	Usually a mixture of grey, black, white and sometimes even brown seeds. However, even the black ones are not pitch black in colour. Instead, a dull pattern or a mosaic is visible on them	Uniformly jet Black or pitch black in colour
Appearance	Oval in shape	Elliptical, like tiny grains of rice
On soaking in water	Chia takes time to absorb water. It has the unique ability to gel by absorbing over 10 times their weight.	Sabja swell up within seconds of being mixed with water. A translucent coat forms around the seed and it appears much larger in size when compared to a soaked chia seed
Taste of soaked seeds	Does not have any taste of its own and can easily be incorporated in any kind of dish.	Has a mild flavour of basil and imparts the same to drinks and desserts
Usage/Health Benefits	Can be consumed raw or soaked. Good source of proteins and Omega 3s	Can be consumed only after soaking. Has a soothing effect on the stomach and hence useful to combat acidity.

*Chia Seeds from Naturally Yours is now available on GOQii Store.

March 12, 2018 By Palak Mittal 12 Comments

10 health and diet tips for Women

eating-healthy-and-exercising

March 8^th is considered International woman’s day but at GOQii we dedicate this whole month to focus on Women’s health. This month, I want you to sit back and relax and take some time out to focus on your health. I have carved out some easy-to-follow tips that will help you keep up with your health and fitness along with your diet habits.

Here are some of the health and diet tips every woman must follow to remain healthy and fit

Do not cut out any food groups from your diet

If you are dieting, do not think of cutting down on any food groups, be it carbohydrate or fat. Include lean proteins, calcium and other nutritional foods that will help your body function better. All you need to do is to ensure portion control and not go overboard, especially with unhealthy foods. Moderation is the key to a healthy you!

Load up on lots of water

Water is the one solution to all your health problems; it helps flush out the hazardous toxins produced in the body due to poor eating habits, sedentary lifestyle, et al. Drink lots of water or just add some lemon and honey to make it healthier. Not only will it help keep your body hydrated but also will leave your skin glowing.

Kick-start your day with a healthy and heavy breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; no matter how busy or caught up you are, take out some time to indulge in a good and healthy breakfast full of proteins to keep you energized through the day.

Do not obsess over dieting

One must not obsess over dieting. It is okay to accept your body as it is; what is important is to ensure eating healthy and keeping yourself physically fit. Focus on building your stamina and engage in exercises.

Feed your skin with healthy and natural ingredients

It shouldn’t be only your overall health but also your skin that needs some attention. For once, toss your chemical-laden commercial skincare products and use natural kitchen ingredients instead. They will help you get a gleaming skin.

Do not forget to engage in at least 30 minutes of exercise

It is not just your diet that will ensure a healthy body, but also some physical activity or exercise. It is not necessary to spend two hours at the gym, but just 30 minutes of your favourite outdoor sport, gaming, running, walking, et al can help you out.

Get yourself checked every six months

In order to take care of others in the family, we neglect minute health problems we generally go through. Take some time out and get your body checked for any suspicious growth or anything that you think should be flagged before it gets too late. Go in for a comprehensive health check up once in a year.

Do not stop yourself from indulging

Keeping yourself healthy does not mean you forget munching on your favourite foods. Indulge in these foods once in a while to make yourself and your tummy happy and going. Do make sure you don’t overeat only to ruin your diet.

Stop stressing! Include bright coloured foods to up your mood and get going

Nowadays, stress has become synonymous with us humans and one cannot avoid considering the many pressures in personal and professional lives. Load up on de-stressing foods and include more bright coloured fruits and vegetables in your diet that will help liven up your mood instantly.

Avoid smoking and alcohol

While occasional drinking is fine, making it a lifestyle habit is extremely dangerous. Not only do smoking and drinking cut short your lifespan, but also make you look a lot older and dull.

Follow these basic health and diet tips to lead a positive, fit and enduring life!