Nutritional Mealtime Habits

Adopting nutritional mealtime habits go a long way in maintaining your overall fitness. Youngsters today are under the impression that when elders guide them about eating the right food, they are actually referring to the boring ‘dal chawal’ foodstuff but that’s only a misconception.

Well, one thing that parents can do to promote healthy eating habits is that they should encourage the idea of eating family meal, in which the entire family sits together and eats the meal. The basic idea of having a family meal is that the parents can act as the role model for kids and induce them to eat healthy foods.

Fresh fruits and green vegetables should be incorporated into the daily food intake, as they provide the nutrients that are necessary for the body. A fabulous idea that can develop the interest of your child in healthy foods is to present nutrient rich food beautifully. To say for example if fruits are presented in the form of colorful fruit salad, definitely the child would get tempted into trying it, owing to the fact that it looks good.

Motivate the child to eat healthy nutritious snacks like yogurt, peanut butter and celery, or whole-grain crackers and cheese. If your child likes to eat non-veg, then prefer serving lean meat. Eating fiber food is very beneficial, as it keeps your digestive system good. So, give your child whole-grain breads and cereals.There is a need to alter your cooking method, in the sense, that instead of frying food item, opt for methods like boiling, grilling, roasting and steaming. Fatty foods are not good for health, therefore the food items that fall into this category, should be avoided to be served at home.

Well, the idea is not to deprive your child from his/her favorite food item, but to make him learn as to how to lead a healthy lifestyle. If the child gets lured by fad foods, its not that he/she is prohibited from consuming it, but there is definitely a need to moderate the quantity of unhealthy foods. As important is to eat healthy nutrition rich food, equally vital is to eat in a balanced manner, because excess of everything is bad. So, eat healthy and increase the longevity of your life.

Tips On Effective Dieting

When it comes to weight loss, usually the first thing that comes to the mind is dieting. More often than not people get tempted to shed those extra kilos by starving themselves for a few days. However the health experts don’t recommend such dieting, the weight lost through crash dieting comes back as soon as people start having their scrumptious meals. Moreover, dieting can make the body weak debarring it of required nutrients. It’s better to diet consciously and in fact in a healthy manner. There are some healthy dieting tips, which if followed sincerely, can definitely enable you to maintain a vigorous body.

Drink Plenty Of Water – The most effective diet tip is drinking lot of water, as water is the most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Water works as a natural appetite suppressant by keeping stomach full with no possibility of dehydration, which leads to hunger cravings. It also helps in flushing out toxins from the body and keeping it hydrated. It facilitates mobilization of stored fat by helping the kidneys flush out waste.

Make Sure To Eat Breakfast – Most of the people think that by skipping breakfast, they would avoid extra calories; thus it will reduce their weight. But this is absolutely wrong. Once you skip breakfast, it will make you hungrier later in the day leading to distorted satiety signals (in which it’s hard to make out when you’re full). It actually results in eating more. In case you don’t get time to have breakfast, have a liquid meal to fuel your body.

Increase Your Fibre Intake – Eating foods rich in fibre helps to keep food moving through bowels. Like water, fiber rich foods bulk you up and make you feel full. As a matter of fact, a person can lose around 10 pounds a year just by doubling his fiber intake. High fiber foods are usually low in calories and fill you up quickly. So, eating more of fiber rich food means you’re having fewer calories. On an average, a person consumes about 8g of fiber every day, but many health experts suggest 25g. You can start your day with a high fiber cereal; prefer eating fibre throughout the day.

Eat Healthy Fats – Most of the experts assert that fat causes obesity, raises your cholesterol and causes heart disease, but this is not exactly true. The point to consider is, if fat is that bad, why it makes part of our natural diet chain? So, here comes the answer. Fat provides the body with essential fatty acids (like linoleic and linolenic acids), which are required for normal reproduction and growth, over and above for production of prostaglandin, a hormone like compound that regulates blood pressure, blood clotting, and inflammation. A healthy diet suggests eating healthy fats, which includes cold-water fish, mackerel and salmon, nuts, and olive oil.

Lean Protein – Few people know that protein is a great weight control tool. Due to its immediate satiety factor and for keeping full for longer periods, protein acts as a tool to weight management. It helps in balancing out carbs by preventing insulin spikes that can cause a drain in energy and sugar cravings. Protein also helps in maintaining muscle mass, which is vital in the fat burning process. A person must take at least 20% of calories in the form of proteins.

Green Tea Weight Loss Benefits

Green tea is a special kind of tea processed only from the leaves of Camellia sinensis. It is very beneficial for health as it has undergone minimal oxidation during making. This tea basically originates from China, however now it has become extremely popular in many other Asian and European countries because of its proclaimed herbal qualities. Doctors even claim that regular consumption of green tea helps in minimizing the risk of heart disease and many kinds of cancer. However, the most widespread use of Green tea is done to treat obesity.

How Does Green Tea Work?
Green Tea is said to be an excellent fat burner. It regulates the glucose level in the body by keeping a check on the blood sugar level. It hampers the function of amylase, which is an enzyme that converts starch into sugar leading to cut on the excess availability of sugar to body. Green Tea also enhances the metabolism rate and thus, leads to fat burn. A component called catechins in the Green Tea is also said to lower the surplus cholesterol level. Green tea is also said to inhibit fatty acid synthase and controls appetite, which overall helps in drastic weight loss.

How To Use Green Tea?
In order to derive the benefits from Green Tea, you need to use the green tea in a proper way. On a general you should use 2.25 grams of tea per 150 gm of water, or about one teaspoon of green tea per cup water. Green Tea is preferably brewed in an earthen pot with its lid covered. Timings for brewing Green tea depend upon the quality of the tea. High quality tea needs to be brewed for less time while low quality tea require a little more time to brew.

Theanine and Caffeine in Green Tea
Theanine and Caffeine in Green Tea are the two main elements that make Green tea an efficient product for weight loss. Though the caffeine content in the green tea is less as compared to black tea and coffee, interestingly it acts high on metabolism. The caffeine content in the green tea is very efficient in increasing metabolism rate and burning fat. Theanine, which is the main amino acid in green tea, is also equally responsible for weight loss as it induce relaxation and the release of dopamine in body, leading to weight loss and a feeling of well being.

How Much Of Green Tea Is Enough?
Now when you have understood all the benefits of Green tea and its use, the million dollar question is that how much of green tea should you use daily? Now different scholars answer it differently. Some Chinese homeopathic practitioner asks to consume about 10 cups a day while many other tell to limit the use to 2 to 3 cups a day. On an average, extracts of all the results say that it is best to consume about 4 to 5 eight ounce cups of green tea per day.

Causes Of Rapid Weight Gain

One of the foremost reasons of being overweight is overeating and less exercising. In another words, people gain weight when they eat more than they can burn off. However this conventional diet knowledge is not always true; there could be several other causes of rapid weight gain. Sometimes people do a lot of diet as well as exercise still they don’t find the weighing scale’s needle going down; this is probably a call to check out the reasons of sudden weight gain. No need to dishearten yourself as everything has a solution, but before that, find the reason of your weight gain.

Hypothyroidism – Probably this is the most common factor found in people who are overweight. Actually deficiency of thyroid hormone can reduce metabolism of food, resulting in loss of appetite and modest weight gain. Weight gain occurs owing to fat accumulation and fluid retention caused by protein deposits in the body. The symptoms of hypothyroidism are fatigue, lethargy, swelling of the face, puffy eyes, dry skin, decreased sweating, poor memory, slow speech and husky voice, weakness, intolerance to cold and headache.

Deficiency of Essential Fatty Acid – Essential fatty acids are good fats that are required by the body to produce hormones and maintain the body’s metabolic rate. Its deficiency may result in cravings, mainly for fatty foods. Some initial signs of deficiency are often dandruff, dry hair and dry, scaly skin. Such deficiency is also associated with problems like arthritis, eczema, heart disease, diabetes and premenstrual syndrome.

Food Sensitivity – After eating a particular food, it is possible that reactions to foods are not immediate. After hours later, symptoms like bloating and swelling in the hands, feet, ankles, abdomen, chin and around the eyes, can appear. Much of the weight gained is fluid retention, which occurs due to inflammation and the release of certain hormones. Besides, fermentation of foods, especially carbohydrates, in the intestines can result in a swollen belly and gas production.

Cushing’s Syndrome – It is a disorder caused due to excess of the hormone cortisol. In this problem, fat accumulates in the face, abdomen and upper back; while the arms and legs usually remain slender. Some of its other symptoms are muscle wasting and weakness, thin skin, poor wound healing, easy bruising, high blood pressure, glucose intolerance, purple “stretch marks” on the abdomen, menstrual irregularities, and hair loss in women.

Prescription Drugs – Any hormone replacement therapy and intake of oral contraceptives containing estrogen can result in fluid retention and increased appetite. Steroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antidepressants and diabetic medications are some other drugs that can cause weight gain.

Kidney, Heart or Liver Disease – Any disease in these organs causes fluid retention, which results in general puffiness all over the body, particularly the eyes and ankles.

Emotional Eating – Some people retort stress or depression by eating excessively. Sources of stress may not be always evident, but may still influence eating habits and cause weight gain.

Blood Sugar Imbalance – Intake of simple, refined carbohydrates can bring about quick variations in blood sugar levels. For instance, eating chocolate increases the amount of sugar present in the blood. The hormone insulin is released, causing sugar to be stored away and blood sugar levels to be lowered; it triggers cravings for more sweets so as to stabilize blood sugar balance.

Note: Organ enlargement, like an ovarian cyst, and obstruction of lymph fluid, can also lead to weight gain. The above mentioned conditions should be properly diagnosed by an experienced doctor because disease may not always be accompanied by evident symptoms.

Easy Fast Weight Loss Ideas

In today’s world, where everybody is getting conscious about looking good, it has become all the more necessary to keep oneself in shape. If you have a good figure, not only it enables you to flaunt your body, but also it helps in boosting your confidence level. For some people, obesity becomes a serious cause of concern, thus affecting their mental fitness.

There are several reasons as why some people are overweight. It is interesting to know that your metabolism rate has a major impact on your weight loss program. People with low metabolism have a hard time in losing weight because of their slow metabolism fat gets stored in their bodies. There are some people who suffer from the problem of hormonal imbalance, but one of the major causes of obesity in people is their unhealthy eating habits and inadequate exercising.
Given here are some easy and fast weight loss ideas:

Make water your favorite drink. A person must have a minimum of 8 glasses of water in a day. Avoid taking soft drinks or carbonated beverages; moreover replace them with water. Water helps in reducing weight in the most effective manner.
Don’t stuff yourself with food in a single sitting; instead have 5 to 6 small meals or snacks in a day. Eating several small meals helps the body to release less insulin, which keeps blood sugar steady and helps to control hunger.
Make a habit of walking. Instead of driving car to the nearby market, prefer walking down. Walking is more important for people in sedentary jobs. Walk for at least 45 minutes every day; it helps in burning extra calories.
Keep small plates for serving food because a study shows that the less food put in front of us, the less food we’ll eat. So downsize your food plates and coffee mugs, and say goodbye to those extra calories.
Eat more vegetables during meals as water-rich foods like zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers reduce your overall calorie consumption. Some other water-rich foods include soups and salads; they are good source of nutrition.
Use vegetables to make hefty meals. Like pasta salad loaded with vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes can be eaten twice. Same applies for stir-fries; add vegetables to make a fluffier omelet.
Avoid taking white foods as they contain large amounts of carbohydrates, which may further lead to weight gain. Replace white sugar, white rice, and white flour with whole grain breads and brown rice.
Switch to ordinary coffee because coffee drinks at shops has extra calories, owing to whole milk, whipped cream, sugar, and sugary syrups. A cup of regular coffee, having skim milk brewed with good beans, tastes great and moreover has fewer calories.
Use skimmed milk as it is high in calcium and low in calories. For coffee, use nonfat powdered milk.
Prefer eating cereal for breakfast five days a week. Following this, you will consume more fiber and calcium, and less fat than those who eat other breakfast foods.
Prefer having meals at home. We’re more likely to eat more – in fact, more high-fat, and high-calorie foods- when we eat out than eating at home.
Try to eat slowly and put your fork or spoon down after every bite. Drink water often and talk about your day with your partner. If you eat slowly, you would feel contended with your meal.
Eat only when your stomach wants food. Usually out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration; many of us unnecessarily have food. If you want to have something specific, it’s probably a craving, not hunger.
Prefer flavorings like hot sauce, salsa, and Cajun seasonings rather than butter and creamy or sugary sauces. These flavorings not only provide flavor with no fat and few calories, but the spicy ones also turn up digestive fires, causing your body to burn more calories.
Eat fruit rather than drinking fruit juice. Eating whole foods will keep you satisfied for longer period of time than juice. Moreover, fruit juices are very high in calories.
Eat equal portions of vegetables and grains at dinner. A cup of cooked rice or pasta has about 200 calories, while a cup of cooked veggies has just 50 calories. This will help to avoid a grain calorie overload, and high-fiber veggies will help satisfying your hunger.
After every two hours, get up and walk around the office or your home for five minutes. A brisk five-minute walk after every two hours will you’re your body active.
Once a week, make a habit of washing something thoroughly – could be floor, windows, shower cabin, bathroom tiles, car, etc. It helps in burning out about four calories for every minute spent in cleaning.
Take a walk before dinner and it’ll not only burn calories, but also cut down your appetite.
Prefer not eating with a large group as we tend to eat more when we eat with other people, probably because we spend more time at the table. When eating in groups take a note of time and leave the plate, as and when you have had enough.
Skip watching TV for an hour and go for a walk instead. Or else, you have now time to finish your domestic chores.
Take most of the calories before noon because studies tell that the more you eat in the morning, the less you’ll eat in the evening. Moreover, you will get more chances to burn off those early-day calories than late-night calories.
Order alcohol by the glass, not the bottle. This way, you’ll be more aware of how much alcohol you’re intaking. Alcohol is high in calories, however moderate drinking can be good for your health.
Stock your refrigerator with low-fat yogurt. Cut down 500 calories a day from your diet and eat yogurt three times a day for 12 weeks. It will help you lose more weight and body fat.