Health And Nutrotion

Maintaining a healthy diet is the practice of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. Usually this involves consuming necessary nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food groups. Since human nutrition is complex a healthy diet may vary widely subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health. For around 20% of the planet's population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to healthy eating.


Water Needs For Health

About 50-70 percent of the human body is composed of water. The exact amount of bodily water varies according to age and the proportion of muscle-to-fat (muscle contains more water than fat.) Although water contains no calories and may have no nutrients, it is essential for life. We can survive for weeks without food, but only a matter of days without water. Because we do not store excess water, we must ensure that our daily diet contains a sufficient supply to maintain adequate health. It's extremely difficult to take in too much water. If we drink too much, our body simply adjusts by increasing the amount of liquid we urinate. However, if our water level inside our body falls too low, we experience several symptoms that warn us we may be dehydrating. The principal symptom is thirst, a reaction influenced by a group of nerve cells located in the hypothalamus, located at the base of the brain.

How Much Water Do You Really Need To Drink ?

The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration and fluid intake needs by letting thirst be their guide. General recommendations for women at approximately 2.7 liters (about 8 glasses) of total water - from all beverages and foods - each day, and men an average of approximately 3.7 liters (about 12 glasses) of total water.

About 80 percent of people's total water intake comes from drinking water and beverages - including caffeinated beverages - and the other 20 percent is derived from food.

Health Benefits of Water :

Although water contains no calories and may contain no micronutrients, it is an indispensable aid to digestion, nutrient absorption and waste-elimination. It also helps regulate circulation, body temperature and a host of other biochemical reactions. Water lubricates joints and maintains healthy skin. It's worth remembering that we can exist without food for months, but without water for only a few days.

What type of water should we drink?

For optimum health, experts recommend clean, spring water, or filtered water, and some experts advise against drinking tap water, fluoridated or distilled water. For health reasons, some experts advise us all to check the safety of our tap water supply, in order to ensure it is free from heavy metals, bacteria and other contaminants.

Choose Healthy Foods to Fit your Lifestyle.

Healthy Foods and a Healthy Lifestyle.


Eating at home usually involves more meal preparation time, this is important because preparing a good meal takes a lot more time than simply eating some junk food. If you can afford to prepare your meals at home, this can dramatically increase the quality of your meals, not only can you choose exactly what you eat, but you can choose how it is prepared and pick out the quality of the items yourself.

Any meal you eat, whether at home or while out should consist of all the basic food groups, balancing proteins, starches, greens and vegetables is a key factor to a healthy diet. Your body needs all the different food groups in order to function properly, by balancing your meals you are ensuring your health and the quality of your life.

Assess Your Lifestyle.

Once you learn which foods are good for you, you need to look at your eating habits. If the foods you eat are not healthy, you might want to work within your habits and current lifestyle conditions, since they are usually tough to change. Consider these questions, then read on for tips to help you add healthy foods:

Do you eat because you are bored, sad, or happy? Do you snack in front of the TV without even giving it much thought?
Are most of your meals eaten at home or in restaurants?
How often do you eat fast food?
Do you like to cook?
How often do you grocery shop?
Do you skip breakfast or lunch, then overeat later in the day?
How big are the portions you consume?
Do you crave sweets?
Are there foods you won't give up?

Healthy Foods to Eat.

The closer a food is to its natural state, the better it is for you. Fresh fruits and berries are great and will satisfy a craving for sweets. Whole vegetables have lots of vitamins and minerals, so choose more green, orange and yellow vegetables. Steam them to retain the most nutritional value and be careful with sauces, they may be high in calories and fats that aren't good for you.

Stick to water as your main beverage and limit soft drinks. If you get tired of plain water, add a slice of lemon or lime to add a touch of flavor. For kids, try some fruit juice jazzed up with carbonated water. Some herbal and green teas may add great benefits to your health, but avoid too much caffeine.

Great ideas for real life

Maintaining a healthy diet is the practice of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. Usually this involves consuming necessary nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food groups. Since human nutrition is complex a healthy diet may vary widely subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health.

A balanced diet comprising of healthy and diverse foods is key to promoting good health. After all, we are what we eat - Research continues to prove that eating healthy food promotes good health and unhealthy food habits lead to a diseased body.

When it comes to cooking for vegetarians, it is the red rajma with soya nuggets recipe that makes the top score. It makes a very nutritious dish, as it does an excellent blending of kidney beans and protein rich soya nuggets. Talking about the nutritional value of red rajma with soya nuggets recepie, it contains about 35 calories, 0.2-gram fats and 10-gram carbohydrates.


Red Rajma with Soya Nuggets ( Indian style).


Ingredients:


120 gm red rajma,
4 green chili,
40 gm soya nuggets,
80 gm tomato finely chopped,
15 ml cooking oil,
3 gm coriander seeds,
10 gm ginger juliennes crushed,
15 ml lemon juice,
50 gm green onion,
Sea salt.

Method:

Wash rajma and soak for 5 hours or overnight.
In a pressure cooker, boil rajma for about half an hour, or till they become tender and water gets absorbed.
Take the soya nuggets and wash them properly. Keep them aside, so that they get soaked.
Take white and green onions and chop them separately.
Roast green chilies and cut into half. Soak ginger julienne in lemon juice, for 1 hour.
Take a pan and heat some oil in it. Add crushed coriander seeds and sauté for a minute, until it starts giving a pleasant aroma.
Add chopped white onions into the pan and sauté for 3-4 minutes, or till the color turns light brown.
Add soya nuggets and toss for 1 minute on moderate flame.
Add tomatoes. Stir frequently. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, till they become like thick tomato sauce.
Add rajma and 5-6 spoons of rajma stock if available, or add water.
Bring the mixture to a boil and when it gets cooked, take it off the gas.

Garnish with roasted green chilies, green onions and ginger julienne and your delicious red rajma with soya nuggets dish is ready to be served.

Everyday chemicals can be damaging your health.

Hygiene is really important but what do we know about all the chemicals we all readily use.

Chemicals come in many forms, such as pesticides that are sprayed on food, and that is one of the main reason it is so important to wash all foods well before eating, or removing the peel.

This I cannot stress enough, especially with imports. We seem to be unaware and overlook many chemicals such as the ones used in the production of everyday goods like perfumes, deodorants, even carpets and soft furnishings, the list is endless.

But studies have shown that with all the chemicals we are using health problems are increasing, predominantly asthma and eczema.

Scientists say that from the onset of pregnancy, all use of chemicals should be kept to a bare minimum, “as it is known that some environmental risk applies in the early developmental history of the brain in the foetus and baby”.

The use of deodorant has been linked with cancer, and worryingly, teenagers seem to be continually spraying their bodies with hair spray, body spray, perfume or deodorant. Scientists say they have yet to see what other complications this will cause them in the future.