health and safety: SHORTCUTS TO HEALTHY LIVING

Saturday, November 8, 2008

SHORTCUTS TO HEALTHY LIVING

BT tells you how to eat well with a little bit of planning

Everyday, without our knowledge, a faint little feeling in the stomach prompts us to involuntarily look at the clock.Then the revelation hits us — it is evening and we have not had the time to eat our lunch.
    In today's times, where a sedentary lifestyle is the rule, it's observed that the health of people is deteriorating day by day. In this city that never sleeps, people are always on the run.
Due to their busy schedules, the stress levels are high. They have started taking themselves and their body for granted. They don't even remember when they last had a proper meal. Eating healthy just requires a little planning. Here are some shortcuts to achieve a healthy body: BREAKFAST IS A 'MUST': Start your morning with some breakfast, be it a piece of fruit or a whole wheat bread to munch. Try to make your breakfast the night before. Put oatmeal into a thermos of hot water, and let it sit overnight. In the morning you shall have hot cooked oatmeal ready to eat. Similarly a hard boiled egg can be eaten in the morning. This will prevent your body from going into starvation mode. Eating breakfast everyday will also help to increase your metabolic rate.
FIVE MEALS A DAY: Have at least five meals a day in which three can be the main meals ie breakfast lunch and dinner, while other two meals can consist of foods which are handy and nutritious at the same time. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs, provides consistent energy, and maintains metabolism efficiency. Grab healthy foods such as a fruit that is high in fibre like apple, watermelon, muskmelon, orange, sweet lime, papaya and peaches. Instead of tea, coffee or cola as a mid meal, it can be replaced by fresh coconut water or buttermilk.
PLAN YOUR DINES: Some people's work demands frequenting restaurants for dinner. Since this cannot be avoided, one should plan ahead about what one can select from the menu before you walk in. Always watch out for hidden fats. Creamy soups, white breads, flaky pastries and mayonnaise-based salad dressings add unnecessary fats to the food. Try consuming broths instead of creamy soups. Instead of mayonnaise dressing, use variety of condiments and flavouring agents such as lemon, vinegar, herbs, onion and garlic to improve the palatability of your salad. Remember, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. Ask for grilled, baked, boiled or broiled food rather fried foods.
HYDRATE WHEN YOU'RE TRAVELLING: Your work might involve a lot of travelling in which air travel is one of the most dehydrating experiences. Because of this people often complain of sore throats and other respiratory illnesses. To avoid these, one should not drink caffeine, cola or alcohol before or after the flights as these are diuretics and can increase the water loss. Avoid salted snacks like salted peanuts or farsan (fried foods) in order to minimise dehydration. Try consuming lots of fluids in the form of water, fruit juice, coconut water, lime water, etc. In any case one should drink at least 12 to 15
gasses of water everyday. The stress associated with travel may slightly increase the protein requirement, so one should make a conscious effort to consume a little more protein each day.
    Good quality of food: Always remember that the quality of food you eat determines your efficiency at work. Avoid refined foods like white rice and those used to make white bread and sugary breakfast cereals as most of their vitamins and minerals are striped away. They turn into blood sugar (glucose) so fast just like sugar; they can cause a spike in our insulin level. Alternate refined flour with wholegrain flour. Substitute white sugar with honey and jaggery.
    Healthy eating habits travel more easily than it seems. Let's take a conscious decision to eat healthy, let's drink coconut water instead of cola and eat a fruit instead of a samosa when the urge to binge strikes. (The writer is a dietician and sports nutritionist)