Awareness on World Diabetes Day..........

I am proud to share with you today an email written to me by one of my dear students and a practising dietitian. I did not feel the need to even edit one word from what she has written to me . She ,in turn, has shared her own experience in the following letter and this again confirms the fact that even though we Indians are predisposed to Diabetes and with our current lifestyle will end up as the largest population with the threat of Diabetes and Heart diseases at epidemic levels, We may have been already practising the solutions traditionally........................so, today on the World Diabetes Day, I will like to tell all you friends, that, ................. Be aware of what our tradition and culture as offered us .................and make your own healthy decisions !!!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello mam........

I wanted to tell u one experiance which is worth sharing.....last sunday there was a seminar by BEST OF ADA ( American Diabetic Association) in Le Meridian for all diabetologists in maharashtra........me n sonal managed to go there n it was one of the best seminars we had attended... Many famous doctors talked about handling diabetic patients n thn the most awaited lecture was that by Dr. Julie Miller Jones. She is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Licensed nutrition with PhD in Food Science and nutrition from University of Minnesota.

She gave a excellent lecture on glycemic index......whole grains,cereals etc. Her last slide made us proud................. it said-' DIET should be the mainstay of all diabetic management.. but what diet.... TRADITIONAL INDIAN DIETS WITH SLIGHT MODIFICATION'

She said indians know the best how to combine cereals and pulses in exact proportions.........it was amazing to hear from this nutrition expert that indians are the only people who know how to decrease the glycemic load of rice by adding lots of pulses..........she said she has travelled to lot of places promoting this last slide........so its just a reminder that our kind of diet is followed by many people around the world.........so we should be proud of it and stick by it and not try being westernised or being influenced..........

If possible would you share this with our bloggers..........Tomorrow, that is 14th november is world diabetes day and so i thought this day is the best to pass this message to all that our Indian diet and eating pattern is the best!!!!

Regards,

Preeti

I would just like to add in the end that it is always better to know the fact that " Prevention is Better than Cure"................... Eat healthy, Stay Healthy and keep the known enemies at bay!!!

Diet Tips to Fight Stress

We have seen before that there are a few key nutrients which can help us in fighting stress and help us to handle it in a better way!

Let us now incorporate it as some diet tips to fight stress.

1) The first and the most important thing to follow is to have an eating routine or pattern. If the body is fed at regular intervals and according to its daily routine, it will automatically cut down the irritation levels and fluctuating sugar levels which almost always bring mood swings with them. The more the balanced blood sugar levels, the lesser the irritation and mood swings, the lesser the chances of one getting into simple pressures and stresses . Plus this also increases your productivity and helps you to stay calm and make better decisions on the work front. All this obviously will add to reducing the pressures and eventually the stress that they will produce.

This will especially help all the "Managers and Professionals" who keep on telling me time and again that they do not find time to eat when they are at work. I will like to tell them that they should regard their food equally important and I am sure this eating routine will help them fare better in stressful situations.

2) We have also mentioned before that at least 30 to 45 minutes of some exercise daily will help the body to have the "feel good " hormone running in our blood streams. This surely helps fighting stress as this will improve our reaction and response to all the stressors.

3) Many people resort to or unknowingly get into a habit of having some or the other addictive drink. This will include all the cola drinks, carbonated drinks, all the cups of tea and coffee that you may consume during the day. The "Caffeine" in all these is habit forming and is also a chemical stimulator to the body. It is seen that people actually have withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking these drinks. So.............. it is in the favor of health that the intake of Caffeine has to be brought to the minimum.

The several cups of tea and coffee and colas can be easily replaced by more healthier drinks like green tea, herbal teas, vegetable juices, thin buttermilk, lemonade , ginger-ale. I find that there are a few work places that actually have started offering these alternatives to their employees. It is up to all of us to make them available at our workplace as well.

4) Replacing the refined flour "phulkas" and white breads with healthy unrefined "rotis" or "rotla's" or "bhakris" traditionally made from native cereal flours like Bajra, Jowar, Nachani etc will help to bring in the necessary fibre, trace minerals and vitamins and of course the variety to the food to fight stress. Many shops also offer a variety of brown rice that can be easily replaced with our regular polished white rice. Adding fine quality wheat bran or rice bran to regular phulkas or rotis can improve the fibre content of the diet.

5) Another important thing is to try and include at least one seasonal fruit in your daily food regime. Using regional and seasonal fruits and vegetables will help in providing many important antioxidants and necessary nutrients to fight stress. An ideal diet should contain 4 to 7 exchanges of fruit and vegetables every day. If we just happen to jot down our last 2 days food intake, I think the obvious answer to better our diet regime would be to include more of fruits and vegetables.

6) Including enough proteins in our daily food like whole and split pulses (daals), dairy products and lean white meat is also very important to balance the food and gives excellent satiety value to food.

7) We just seem to have forgotten eating nuts and oil seeds as an healthy evening snack. These can act as a very very healthy evening snack, easy to carry, will help to fight the evening cravings and thus keep away from the tantalizing junk alternatives. A handful of roasted "chana", some peanuts, 2-4 almonds, handful of pumpkin seeds, 1-2 halves of walnuts can serve as an excellent evening snack, full of antioxidants and nutrients, to fight stress.

Also, traditional peanut, sesame seed, poppy seed, dry coconut and flax seed chutneys with food are excellent adjuncts that can be included to provide the necessary stress busters.

8) The last one on this list but a very important tip would be ........................... It is absolutely alright to include a multivitamin supplement ( Vit B complex plus some important vitamins and minerals) available at the chemist for a few days , if you know that you would be facing stressful times. And they can be anything from an exam, some family crisis, stressful situation at the job, too much travelling ...........or even getting married ;)............ It is always better to be well equipped than running into trouble later..........!!!!!!!

Managing Stress with Diet

Thanks for the valuable comments from the readers of this blog.........
Since we have struck the most talked about subject : "Stress", lets try to see how diet can be of help to ease out this situation.......

Stress is an inevitable truth of today's lifestyle and no one can escape it !!!

Unfortunately, prolonged or long term stress takes its toll on the body and can cause decreased energy levels, decreased resistance power, decreased appetite and heightened irritability. It also works overtime on our stress hormones and further taxes our heart and blood vessels too. It eventually affects all the systems of our body and accelerates the "Breakdown".

The Strategy to combat and manage stress is:

• Identifying the stressors,
• Finding ways to reduce the triggers,
• Learning coping mechanisms or skills,
• Replenishing the nutrients used by the body to fight stress.

Stress causes oxidative load on the body and gives rise to free radicals. These can be eliminated by supplying the body with nutrients which are powerful antioxidants and render the free radicals harmless.Certain nutrients are very useful in fighting stress. Including these in our daily diet can help reduce and fight stress.

Pantothenic acid(Vit. B5) : Plays a major role in making stress hormones and energy production. Food sources of Vit. B5 are, Whole grains, nuts, molasses, organ meats, green leafy vegetables, dairy products.

Vitamin C: It is an excellent antioxidant and abundantly found in AMLA ( Indian Gooseberry). Other sources of this vitamin are Guava, Capsicum, Cabbage, Drumstick leaves, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, All citrus fruits and Kiwi.

Beta Carotene: It is the precursor of Vitamin A and a powerful antioxidant as well. It is found in green leafy vegetables, carrots, apricots, pumpkin, musk melons and papaya.

Zinc: Zinc is required by the body in very small amounts but is very useful in fighting stress. We get zinc from legumes and pulses like Bengal gram, cow pea, Rajmah etc. It is also found in almonds, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, sesame and poppy seeds, coconut, mushrooms and Soybean. Animal sources of zinc are egg yolks, clamps, oysters and fish.

Magnesium: It is a very important mineral and participates in various biochemical reactions and activates a lot of enzymes in the body. It is important for our bone health, calms the nervous system, regulates heart beat, strengthens digestion and also regulates thyroid function. Natural sources of this mineral are, Green leafy vegetables, Betel leaves, almonds, cow pea(chawli), moth beans(matki), Coconut, Sesame seeds, Walnuts , figs, Apples, Broccoli, Corn.

Chromium: It is an essential micro nutrient and has been shown to fight fatigue and increase energy levels.It is found in Betel leaves, almonds, dry ginger, poppy seeds, walnuts, sesame seeds, Raw wheat germ, meat, shell fish and clamps.

Selenium:This is a trace element which works in combination with Vitamin E to produce an important antioxidant enzyme and helps the body to eliminate toxic elements from the body. It promotes energy production, increases immunity and slows down Ageing. It is found in different nuts and oil seeds, wheat germ and onions.

Vitamin B Complex: Includes Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B12. This vitamin B complex is vital in energy production and proper nerve function.They have a wide range of effects, from alleviating stress to preventing atherosclerosis.These cannot be replaced by one another and are found in milk and milk products, eggs, fish, Peanuts, sunflower seeds, Walnuts, . Vit. B1 and B3 are also found in unrefined whole grains, rice bran and some green leafy vegetables.

Lifestyle Changes to reduce Stress

• Make sure your diet has enough of above mentioned Antioxidants to fight stress.
• Having an Exercise routine of at least 30 to 45 minutes daily helps to reduce stress. Meditation and Yoga also helps fighting stress.
• Limit intake of refined, processed, convenience foods having excess sugar, salt and artificial preservatives.These actually rob the body of stored nutrients and finally increase the stress on the body.
• Limit intake of Caffeine (teas, coffee, cola drinks). Replace them with herbal teas or vegetable juices if possible.
• Do not resort to Fad diets, Crash diets and Starvation diets. These almost always create nutrient deficiencies, deplete the body and put the body in further stress.

Stress-buster Garlic

Stress is a modern BUZZ word and I am sure all of us use this word more often than our earlier generations used to. We all experience increased stress in our lives today and try to manage it, combat it and cope with it all the time.


Stress is a natural element of life and has been there ever since man has existed on this earth. But for our ancestors, stress used to exist in the form of a life threatening situation with usually a "FIGHT or FLIGHT " response. Anthropologists say that our ancestors spent their time in sport, recreation, family life, ritual and community dance and music. Stress, for them was occasional, and existed while hunting or warfare only. Their body also got enough time to regain and rebuild itself in between 2 episodes of major stress.





Unfortunately, many of us are already into the trap of continual STRESS to meet the complexities of modern civilization and our modern lifestyle. Our body is exposed to stress all the time and many of us are able to relax only rarely, are not able to enjoy even our exercise, many of us have completely forgotten about our hobbies, and whatever relaxation we may have, is of a poor quality. I have come across many people who claim that watching TV is very relaxing.......... Its time to look back and see if TV watching is relaxing or Taxing?



All of us experience the symptoms of stress in every day life like reduced energy levels, chronic Fatigue, debility, exhaustion, indigestion, insomnia, depletion of immune system, recurring illnesses, headaches, shortness of breath, back pain, muscle stiffness..... the list is endless.


So, if stress has become an inevitable part of our modern lifestyle,
Let us find if Garlic can be useful in fighting Stress.

• Crushed Garlic with milk early in the morning acts like a TONIC and builds energy slowly and steadily over weeks or months.
  
• Using garlic in everyday cooking, improves digestion and absorption of several nutrients and helps in improving general resistance and immunity.
  
• Animal trials confirm that garlic is useful in fighting fatigue and resisting environmental stress.
  
• Garlic helps in reducing the blood levels of our stress hormone significantly and helps to keep the symptoms of stress away.
  
• Clinical Anti fatigue trials on humans in Japan, have shown that garlic extracts improved the symptoms of fatigue, depression, anxiety and stress.

I honestly feel that including atleast 1-2 cloves of garlic in our diet everyday will help us all to fight the day to day stress and emerge in a better shape at the end of the day.

Heart Friendly Garlic

Turning back the body-clock to a healthy Heart .....

Garlic is the most prized food that is known to have beneficial and protective effects on the heart. Garlic is capable of cleaning the clogged arteries, can even reverse the damage, and thus heal the arteries after prolonged use. It acts in several forms and in different ways to keep the heart in good shape. Lets find out how :

Garlic as an Anticoagulant: Garlic acts as a blood thinner and prevents the blood from clotting in the blood vessels. Ajoene is a very important substance in Garlic which is as effective as Aspirin which is the conventional drug used by cardiologists worldwide to fight heart diseases. {Caution: People who are already taking aspirin should include and eat garlic under the guidance of a Cardiologist and a Dietitian only.}

Effect of Garlic on Cholesterol:Cholesterol is a natural substance which is necessary for normal health of human beings. It becomes a health risk only and only when its blood levels and proportions increase beyond the normal range. Using Garlic as food reduces the levels of LDL and Triglycerides. It also increases the level of good cholesterol viz. HDL. So, it helps to keep the cholesterol levels within limits.

Garlic as an Antioxidant: Garlic is known to have excellent antioxidant properties and has atleast 15 different antioxidants that neutralise the plaque that clog the arteries. Garlic actually inhibits the oxidation of LDL cholesterol which is responsible for the formation of clogged arteries that lead to Atherosclerosis.

Garlic as an Anti hypertensive: Garlic is known to show reduction in the blood pressure. Garlic helps to relax the smooth muscles which helps the blood vessels to dilate and reduces the blood pressure moderately.

Important tips to remember when using Garlic as a heart protective food:

• Having 2 or 3 cloves of garlic daily, either raw, partially cooked or pickled, all work well to protect the heart.
  
• Garlic cloves can be crushed and juice of garlic can be squeezed and added to a little milk. This mixture acts like an excellent "Morning Tonic".
  
• Crushing and Heating garlic cloves actually increases the release of "Ajoene". So, garlic works better in these forms when to be used as cardio-protective.
  
• DO NOT EXPECT OVERNIGHT RESULTS TO DECREASE CHOLESTEROL WITH THE USE OF GARLIC. It will need atleast one to one and half months of constant daily use to show significant effects in your blood reports.
  
  

How Much Is Too Much ?

I want to share with you, a recent experience of one of my students. She is a vibrant young girl who has just stepped into the field of Consulting , and is very responsible and eager to help each and every of her client to the best of her abilities.

On one of the usual evenings a worried girl entered her cabin........She had come in for a weight-loss consultation and on noting the primary details, was found to be 80kg for a height of 5feet 3inches........... being overweight was the biggest of worries and counseling her to inculcate good eating habits was going to be not only a tough job but a slow process too.........
The girl came from a lower socio-economic strata of the society and finding healthy options for such clients is really tough keeping in mind that there are very limited alternatives available.



On taking her personal, medical and family history, my young friend found nothing that was too off track , which could have resulted in this weight gain at this young an age.
Later, on questioning the girl about her lifestyle, all the picture became as clear as a crystal.

This girl had a family of 5 people and for their otherwise very simple lifestyle were using a WHOPPING 15 lts of oil each month. On digging deep, this heavy use of oil was one thing that was making their simple food so tasty............. or that is exactly what they felt.

I have extended all my best wishes to my young dietitian friend, as her job now is to educate the lady of this house first and the resultant effects on the family will surely follow.

After listening to this incident, I felt the most sincere urge to write on this issue because I think it will be most important for all of us to stop....... and have a look at our oil consumption as well.

There is a very simple calculation about how much is enough and I have seen in my practise that a large number of people don't know about it.

Every, otherwise normal, individual requires about 3-4 tsp of oil every day. This allowance can be used to make the tempering ( tadka), or added to cereal flour or in can be used in any other convenient way.
So, calculations for a family of 4 people for a month will require:

4 x4tsp of oil each day = 4 x 20 ml of oil each day = 80 ml per day
For one month, 80ml x 30 days = 2400 ml = 2.4 lt

• A family of 5 should use around 3 lt of oil per month.
• A family of 6................................. 3.6 lt ------"------
• A family of 8................................. 4.8 lt ------"------
• A family of 10............................... 6 lt --------"------
  
  

I think now every one of us can ..........take a deep breath.......... and apply this simple formula to individual family needs and cross check if you are on the right track !!!!!!

Hoping the result of these calculations are right for each of your families...........
Happy Eating, Healthy Eating !!!!!!!

Can, “An Apple A Day” bring the Doctor Nearer???

I love going to the market............. It kind of de-stresses and relaxes me. When I now pass the vegetable and fruit markets, I am amazed at the new varieties of fruits and vegetables that are available on the stalls. I don't remember having seen some, or having seen so many different varieties of some of them, at all when I was small.

One such fruit happens to be an APPLE. You can find sooooooo many varieties of apples now-a-days in the market. Till some years back, Apples were seasonal fruits and were readily available only in a specific season........Not now, they are available almost round the year.
They also come in such pleasing, mouth watering colors and such appealing luster and shine that you cannot resist buying them.

An old rhyme says:
“To eat an apple going to bed.....Will make the doctor beg his bread. “
A more popular one goes:
“ An Apple a Day keeps the doctor away”.

I am an ardent follower of these 2 sayings and make sure that my family eats enough apples to keep the doctor away. Being a dietitian gives me an additional advantage in understanding why these rhymes could have been true.

Apples are absolutely excellent in their nutritive value and so, very appropriately called ”king” of fruits in The Western world. Apples are rich in Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Vitamin C and B1, Beta carotene and Iron. It is rich in Pectin ( fiber) and contains malic acid too. Each of the above nutrients are valuable contributors to making apples very very healthy.

Apples are Detoxifying, Astringent and Tonic to the body. They relieve constipation, reactivate the digestive bacteria, increase disease fighting capacity and appetite. They reduce the total cholesterol and are useful to people with heart disease.
Apples have diuretic (promotes urine formation) effect so are beneficial to people with high blood pressure. They also stabilize the blood sugar levels owing to their fiber content and make a good food option to the diabetics.

Even though an apple is really a wholesome, protective fruit, there is still something that is bothering me. And I need to share this with you.

I have mentioned the eye-catching luster and shine of the apples which make them irresistible....... Where do you think it comes from???

It comes from the WAX that has been rubbed into them to make them more attractive.
There are 2 things that I do with apples after I buy them. I make sure I wash them with hot water at least twice (you can actually see the floating wax in hot water). Or else make sure that I peel them completely before eating.

A dietitian will always tell you to eat fruits and vegetables along with their skin whenever possible. Particularly so for apples, as the skin of apples has good amounts of fiber and it contains a lot of Vit. C, almost 5 times more than the flesh. But looking at the content of wax on the surface, you will have to make a choice whether to keep the skin or peel it.

I am sure you will make a good choice for yourselves and the rhyme will continue to be true for generations to come!!!