To jog or walk?

Should you walk or jog? The debate is never ending! Which one is better for you? Which one will help you lose weight faster? 

The fact remains that jogging does burn more calories than walking. But simply because of that fact, we tend to ignore walking as a great form of exercise. By placing more emphasis on jogging as a faster means to lose weight we are not doing justice to our bodies. What if we told you that walking is more than exercise? Walking is our birthright and we're not capitalizing on it as much as we should.

Advantage of jogging - It is a powerful weight loss tool, burns calories, makes you feel good (who's up for endorphins!), fights stress, helps relax your mind while your body takes over, the list is endless.

Advantage of brisk walking - Brisk walking is not very far behind, when it comes to calories burnt. In fact, a slow jog is pretty comparable to brisk walking. Brisk walking does not leave the exerciser prone to injuries, something that jogging can be known to do. Brisk walking fights inflammation and builds immunity.

Walking is one of the most natural movements that we can do. Some older, and very fit grand moms and grand dads out there will nod their heads in agreement when it comes to the fact that walking is one of the best forms of exercise as, just by walking every day for their whole lives, many of them have been able to stay in incredible shape.

Changes in physical shape - When jogging a good deal, you will be able to see weight loss from your entire body. Because of the movement, the whole of your upper body will become smaller through lots of jogging. On the other hand, after a session of really fast walking you will probably feel more strain on your hamstrings, thighs, and calves than jogging. It's true, walking leads to a pretty toned lower body.

Which one is better for fat loss - While both work your body in a similar way, jogging mostly helps in burning off excess calories. The weight loss will happen due to water weight, fat loss and some muscle mass as well. Walking on the other hand due to the constant toning and building of your legs and butt muscles, will have more weight loss from only fat loss than muscle mass.

In conclusion - Whether you walk or jog, it's important that you keep moving. When you stop moving and lead a very sedentary lifestyle, that's when you give your body the signal to shut down and eventually all the problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle start. And remember - to get any kind of cardiovascular benefits from walking or jogging, you need to walk briskly, or jog at a moderate speed. Moderate to vigorous momentum is key to all the benefits we just discussed. For added muscle tone, strength training is the answer.

Maintain your weight and stay fit and Healthy

Maintaining one's weight is just as tough as losing weight. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent your weight from fluctuating constantly. 

A few simple points to keep in mind are:

1. Have breakfast: One should eat a proper breakfast before starting the day. Follow the old saying and eat a king size breakfast. It can have lots of oats, juices, milk. Make sure you avoid fried and oily food in the morning.

2. Eat slowly: It is said that one should chew one's food about 30 times before taking the second bite. It helps in proper digestion. Digestion actually starts in the mouth, so the more you chew; the easier will the digestion process be.

3. Have meals in break: Rather than having three huge meals a day, have small meals consisting of healthy fruits and vegetable dishes. Eat at least six small meals in a day.

4. Wash it down with water: Drink at least one glass of water at intervals of half an hour. One should consume three to four litres every day to keep the body cool.

5. Exercise: One need not necessarily join the gym. Even simple exercises like walking, running, jumping, skipping can help you maintain your weight. Make sure you do at least one physical activity for 30 minutes daily.

6. Late meals are a no-no: Avoid having your dinner late in the night, since the number of activities you perform is less. Have light meals during the night.

7. No binging: If one does feel hungry, they should avoid eating fast food and snacks like chips, oily food, pastries etc.

Such simple tips can help you to enjoy life to the fullest and fittest. 

Official Indian Diet

It's a manual that has an exercise-cum-diet plan for the average Indian as per Indian Council of Medical Research norms. The new norms call for exclusive breastfeeding of babies for more than six months (revised from the earlier four), and for those with a sedentary lifestyle, an increase in vegetable and fruit intake from the present 150 gm a day to 300 gm, increase in minimum fat percentage in terms of total calorie intake from 15 gm a day to 20 gm a day, cutting daily salt intake to 6 gm, reduced usage of processed foods and drinking lots of water. Health and food experts have their say on the new food pattern....

Chef's take 
Chef Jaydeep Mukherjee says the official Indian diet looks good but he'd add more choices to it. "From a chef's perspective, the diet could become monotonous," he says, "There's plenty more that could be added to the diet to increase its appeal. The average urban Indian today is adventurous when it comes to food and I think other regional and international cuisines have a lot to offer to healthy diets."

Nutritionists 
Nutritionist Naini Setalvad finds the food plan to be good but also high in quantity, especially grains. "There are too few fruits and the vegetable portions are less. Also, there should only be one cup low-fat cow's milk throughout the entire day, including tea. For lunch, either have roti or rice and choose between dal and dahi. Fruit is not had at dinner but is an apt snack in the evening so women and men can have even three fruits then," she says.

Fitness enthusiast 
Trainer Deanne Panday says the diet works but can be tough to maintain and offers tips to make it work. "For instance, if you are having a dosa, try and make it with just one teaspoon oil or if you're having a curry or vegetable, see that it's not overdone, or its goodness will be lost. Adding a steamed fish for lunch or some fruit for breakfast to it might be a good idea. You can also add a cucumber or carrot salad and at night, if you're eating rice, drain the water from it so that so as to get rid of its starch quotient." 

Take High fibre diet...and decrease mortality !

A diet having excessive fibre, particularly the kind from whole grains, can help you live longer, a new study has claimed. 

Diets rich in fibre are already linked to multiple health benefits, including preventing gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The study, published in an international medical journal, found that eating lots of dietary fibre reduces a person's risk of dying from heart disease, infections, and respiratory diseases.

"Prior studies have focussed on the relationship between fibre intake and cardiovascular disease.

A few have examined the link between dietary fibre and mortality," says Yikyung Park, the author of the study and a member of a renowned cancer research facility. He says, "Our analysis adds to the literature and suggests that dietary fibre is associated with a decreased likelihood of mortality." 

Cut out the gluteny !!!

Your dipping performance at work could be because you have a gluten allergy. With tips from our expert, approach life anew and become a champion like Novak Djokovic

Conquering this year's Wimbledon and winning 43 matches on a trot at the start of his spectacular season has got Tennis' World number one Novak Djokovic's gluten-free diet much attention in sports journals. While Novak's improved shot-making is certainly a result of his hard work, his renewed agility, energy and stamina on court, as admitted by him and his coach, has to do with a strict no-gluten diet that he switched to after learning of his gluten intolerance last year.

Spot the allergy 
Macrobiotic Food Counselor Shonali Sabherwal says in Mumbai, the ignorance level of gluten intolerance is almost 80 per cent. "Most people who suffer from it won't even know about it," she points out. For those whose bodies can't ingest gluten, an elastic protein found in grains such as wheat and barley, the symptoms are usually quite apparent. "Thanks to our rotis, we Indians are primarily wheat eaters. If you are gluten intolerant, you will feel bloated, experience heart burns, stomach ache or have some bad reaction that makes you feel uncomfortable. Usually, people blame it on the curry, weather or something else but it could only be because they cannot digest gluten," Sabherwal says.

Once you accept the possibility of your body rebelling against gluten, it isn't tough to self-diagnose the problem. A blood test may throw abnormal levels of certain auto-antibodies or in a severe case, an intestinal biopsy will help check for damaged villi (little outgrowths that line the small intestine and help absorb nutrients through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream). Sabherwal explains, "One can develop this intolerance over time. It can cause flatulence, abdomen distention, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, bone or joint pain, depression, anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome, etc. Many suffer from the side effects for years before being diagnosed. Doctors treat these problems symptomatically. We dieticians believe we are what we eat and hence switching to the right food is the solution."

It can get bad 
Things can get even worse with Celiac disease, an extreme case of gluten intolerance where even tiny amounts drive the immune system to destroy villi. This, in turn, causes chronic malnutrition as the body cannot absorb the nutrients from food and hence a gluten-free diet remains the only cure. "For those whose systems can't stand gluten, the intestinal lining over time becomes weak and absorption of nutrients becomes difficult. Due to inflammation, the stomach gets sensitive and aggravates indigestion. As their bodies also stop absorbing vitamins, the blood's pH balance gets thrown off and it becomes acidic, heavy and sludgy, creating a suitable environment for bad bacteria to dwell and cause further complications," says Sabherwal.

Food fighters 
Finding the right alternative foods is key (see box). "The first thing I do with clients who come with indigestion or such problems, is to take them off dairy and gluten food. Also, if I find a lot of gluten figuring in their regular eating pattern, I put them off it and usually their problems are solved," Sabherwal says. Citing an instance of a middle-aged woman with chronic constipation that she treated, she adds, "After I put her off gluten and dairy products, I put her on complex carbohydrates through the whole grains to substitute the absence of chapatis. In fact, switching to brown rice is the wisest choice in such cases as its good fibre heals the intestinal lining. Few people know that Rajgira's (Amaranth) protein content is higher than that of meat and its calcium more than milk's. So the solution is in finding the correct replacement foods."

On your visits to the supermarket, avoiding packaged food that has processed carbohydrates and gluten will help. Sabherwal says, "Your body tends to crave for the wrong food. The craving and hunger makes you want to eat more. Gliadins (a glycoprotein that is a part of gluten) can cause mental depression and in some cases, it can even lead to schizophrenia and irreversible Fibromyalgia (long term joint and muscle pain)."

Nutritionist Naini Setalvad too finds that one in every three patients she consults has gluten allergy. "Gluten intolerance causes not only digestive problems, but also severe arthritis, bronchitis and asthma. When I eliminate gluten from their diets, their joint pain dissipates. Indians have multiple choices for replacing gluten-free foods from their diet and it is time they exercise it." 

Energy drinks may be dangerous !

Caffeine-rich energy drinks pose dangerous health risks and may cause seizures, strokes or even death, a study carried by the NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said Monday.
The NGO's Pollution Monitoring Lab conducted a survey from May to June which picked energy drinks randomly from markets across the country and tested their caffeine levels.
"Forty-four per cent of them breached the caffeine limit of 145 ppm (parts per million) prescribed by the government," the study said.
The study also claimed that caffeine is a psycho-stimulant and it could be doing irreparable harm to the body, which could lead to seizures, strokes or even death.
CSE's deputy director Chandra Bhushan said: "These so-called energy drinks are being confused with sports drinks, as most of them marketed and projected in a such way. Gyms, bars and clubs across the country are dishing out these drinks to their clients, claiming major health benefits. But studies show that these drinks are not made to rehydrate and replenish the body."
Consumed during intense physical activity, they can lead to dehydration.

Rich source of nutrition for heart.....Seaweed !

Scientists have identified seaweeds, that form an important element of Chinese and Japanese cuisine, as a rich new source of nutrition for the heart which could rival milk products as sources of these so-called "bioactive peptides". 

Bioactive peptides, obtained mainly from milk products, not only provide nutrition, but have a drug-like effect in treating or preventing certain diseases, reports the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry .

Maria Hayes, chemist at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ireland and colleagues Ciarán Fitzgerald, Eimear Gallagher and Deniz Tasdemir turned their attention to seaweeds as a source of protein that work like bioactive peptides, according to a Teagasc statement.

Their review of almost 100 scientific studies concluded that some seaweed proteins work just like milk products to reduce blood pressure, like the popular ACE inhibitor drugs.

People in East Asian cultures have eaten seaweed for centuries.