Water Facts

Did you know that a loss of 20 % water could be fatal to us? Water constitutes 60 % of our body weight.

Thus, when we talk of healthy living, the importance of water cannot be overemphasized. Some important functions performed by water are:

• Maintaining body temperature
• Transporting nutrients to various parts of our body
• Protects joints
• Maintains structure of most of our organs

Previous articles of this site have stated that many symptoms like mild back pain, low immunity, and joint pains can be controlled by regulating our intake of water.

Read More…

Eating Healthy Tip 21

Tips to reduce fat in food

It is true that type of fat that we eat is more important than the amount of fat that we eat. But many times, changing the type of fat might not suit a particular preparation. Using different flavoured oil for cooking might also face stiff resistance from family members.

It is always a safe bet to reduce the fat content in the recipe. Here are few friendly tips to reduce the fat consumption.

• Always measure oil. Try using half the quantity of you used before. In most cases this will not sacrifice the taste.
• Use non stick pan. Doing this will help in spreading the fat better. You may even sauté food in fruit juice instead of fat.
• Try using buttermilk as a base of salad dressing, instead of salad oil.
• Chill soups after preparation & skim off the fat that is floating on top. This trick can be done on many other preparations too.
• While making sandwiches, substitute butter or mayonnaise spicy mustard or mint chutney.

Click on the links below to raed realated articles :

http://www.friendly-tips.com/2009/08/09/eating-healthy-tip-14/
http://www.friendly-tips.com/2009/08/23/controlling-cholesterol-healthy-living-tip-3/

All about GI food (Part 2)

Despite the obvious benefits of low GI foods discussed in part one of this article, the change in eating habits has to a measured one. There are other factors to be kept in mind while dealing with GI levels of various foods.

A look at these examples will make the above statement clear. Carrots almost have as high a GI as sugar. Mashed potatoes have higher GI than table sugar Watermelon has an alarmingly high GI.

Does it mean that Carrots, Watermelons  & Potatoes are high risk food products ? Certainly no! Knowing the GI is only half the story.GI only tells about the effect of carbohydrate on blood sugar. GI does not indicate the amount the carbohydrate. Carrots & watermelons have a extremely low amount of carbs . We get to know the quality of food by measuring  Glycemic Load (GL). Glycemic load tells us, both the quality and the quantity of carbohydrates. Let me illustrate the point with example of apple. An apple has a GI of 40 but since it is low in carbohydrates (only about 15 grams), the GL of apple is considerably low i.e (40/100) X 15 (grams per serving) = leads to a GL count of 6.

Here are three more factors that affect GI levels in food:

• Cooking. (Higher degree of cooking increases the GI count)
• Food processing ( Foods that are highly processed require less digestion & hence have higher GI)
• Amount of soluble fiber ( Soluble fibers delay the enzymatic activity on starch & thus tend to have lower GI)

A second look at the above three points make our healthy food choices simpler. So here are three simple friendly tips for low GL foods based on the 3 points:

1. Avoid processed / convenience food, especially sugar.
2. Eat food high in fiber. Some food items that contain high amounts of soluble fiber are beans, oats & strawberries.
3. Eat lots of raw fruits & vegetable & whole grains

At last, low GL foods seem to make sense to me. These calculations in fact do not contradict older healthy eating theories; on the contrary, it complements them.

Click on the link below to read part 1 of the article:

http://www.friendly-tips.com/2010/01/12/eating-healthy-tip-18/

One of the long term solutions to stop procrastinating is to understand why we procrastinate.

People procrastinate for various reasons:

• Fear of failure
• Enormity of task
• Dislike for a particular aspect of work
• Boredom

It may take a while for one to get to the base of the problem. Once we identify the reason, overcoming procrastination really becomes easy. Getting on top of this problem is a gradual improvement process. Here are some shockers (Quick tips) that may help you to get a jump start on some types of procrastination.

• Invite friends for lunch or dinner. This is certain to help you if you have been putting off cleaning the house!
• Spend some money on what I call `Organizers’.  Lets look at some illustrations :
  1. Purchase a desk or dated box file to organize the bills that are lying cluttered.
  2. Buy cartons to pack off certain seasonal materials.
  3. Get a tool kit to finish the pending home repairs.

  The excitement of new Òrganizers’ & the guilt of expense should get the job done.

• Do a 80:20 exercise on weekend. The 80:20 rule says that we use only 20 percent of our belongings 80% of the time. This in turn means that we do not need to keep 80% of the things we process!

Take a stock of your papers, utensils, clothes today. If you have not used something in the past one year, you are probably never going to need it again. Get Rid of it TODAY. When I knew that I need not file 80% of the pending papers, I immediately got into the act of filing ( & discarding).

The best part of this 80:20 exercise is that we can look forward to the exciting shopping ahead to replace some of the things we have discarded ( urghhhh… ??)

When I started this blog, I introduced myself as `Jack of all & master of none’. Reflecting on the statement today, I realize that it was a lie. I was certainly a master at one- The art of procrastination.

The first article of this blog was written on January & I procrastinated till May to write the next article. Two books have helped me to overcome the problem to a great extent: Eat that frog by Brain Tracy & Procrastinators’ handbook by Rita Emmett. Thanks to some of their recommendations, I have overcome the problem of clutter at my office & am on my way of overcoming the financial mess of late cheques & irregular premium payments.

Read More…

Protect Yourself from Pesticides

In their greed to produce more, many farmers use much more than the prescribed levels of pesticides. The effect of these pesticides can vary among individuals. Some Individuals can tolerate much higher levels of carcinogens than others. It is the Children that are most susceptible to this.

Even the meat that we consume is no longer safe. In earlier days, antibiotics were given to animals to keep them free from illness. Later it was found that these antibiotics can increase the size & weight of animals too. Today, many farm grown animals & birds are given antibiotics just to increase weight & thus to increase profits. Some of us might be eating these steady doses of antibiotics.

Read More…

All about low GI food ( Part 1)

Many chefs, whom I know, have been steadily shifting focus from the low carb food to low GI food while planning menus. GI stands for Glycerin Index. This measures the change in blood sugar levels when we consume carbohydrates. In scientific terms glycerin index is measured in peaks. A low GI food will give a lower peak as these foods will release glucose slowly & steadily. A high GI food will have a high peak at there will be a sudden release of glucose in our body.

The change from regular food to low GI food can be a very confusing process. Thus friendly- tips.com is going to deal with this in three separate articles. This post is going explore the very basics of GI Food.

For the ease of understanding, foods can be classified into three types:

Low GI Food which has GI count of 55 or less

Medium GI food with a GI count of 56-69

A food with a GI count of more than 70 is considered to be a high GI food. Some items falling in this category are corn flakes, white rice, watermelon, white bread, potato etc. A good look at the above items will make us realize that this is what most hotels have fed us for breakfast & convinced us that we are eating a healthy meal.

Read More…

Overcoming 5 Time Stealers

If you regularly find yourself running & dashing to meet deadlines, you have most probably fallen into the deadly sins of time management.

We often try to make time. ………… read that line again. How can one make time? We can only utilize the time we have.  In this post I have tried to analyze some of these traps that one needs to avoid, because these are dangerous & hidden time stealers.

Garnishing  or Decorating:  In the process of completing projects , we give over emphasis to our own creative ideas & end up doing un-necessary things that are fun but do not add any real value to the project. The result of all this distraction is a delayed project.

The bane of Perfectionism: Some blessed beings, under the burden of ego end up spending too much time perfecting their projects rather than focusing on tasks that should already be done.

Read More…

Watch your caffeine intake

Sipping a hot Cuppa before starting work has almost become a office ritual for me. This bitter but supremely refreshing stimulant seems to clear my head for the hard day ahead. Is this psychological or does the caffeine present in my coffee really makes me more active. Most of us consume a good load of caffeine through coffee, tea, chocolate, aerated drinks & energy drinks.

Café chains have staked claims to these benefits of caffeine intake:

• Improves our mental faculty by opening up the airways for improved breathing.
• Helps control weight by increasing metabolism
• It also increases muscle strength & helps overcome chronic fatigue.
  Read More…

Foods that cure back pain

If it is true that back pain can be due to varied reasons, it is equally true that back pain can also be controlled or treated through various means. A good doctor will always recommend dietary changes that will bring relief from pain & speed up the healing process.

The food choice for someone suffering from back pain is not a very difficult one. Anti-inflammatory foods are the best bet for people like me who are looking forward to a speedy recovery.  Anti inflammation food not only controls obesity but also reduces the pain one might be experiencing at various joints.  The amount of inflammation depends on four factors:

• Activity levels
• Amount of sleep
• Stress levels
• Food we eat

The first two points are extensively covered in “reducing back pain part 1”. This article will focus on foods that can reduce back pain by controlling inflammation.

Read More…