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Pinch of salt

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Sometimes, it’s nice to take life -read food -with a pinch of salt. Or even a few more. Somewhere down the line, salt has gotten a bad rap. It has been battered and bruised in advertisements and dragged through the proverbial mud on the doctor’s table. The condemnation this condiment has been receiving over the years has been confounding.

Yes, an excess of salt is bad but there’s actually no need for more than the daily requirement of 3 grams a day or a little less than a teaspoon. (And since this is the upper limit, a little less can be consumed).But there’s also absolutely no reason to go without it. We need a little salt or sodium every day. Sodium is crucial to maintaining the fluid balance in our bodies, to help send nerve impulses as well as assist with contraction and relaxation of muscles.

What are the different kinds of salt out in the market? And what sets them apart? A few facts.

SEA SALT OR CELTIC SEA SALT

This is an unrefined, unprocessed salt with a unique flavour profile. Sea salt, as its name suggests, is made from evaporating sea water.

ROCK SALT OR HIMALAYAN PINK SALT

`Kala namak’, that nimbupani staple, is found in the Himalayan regions. Again, this is unrefined and adds an interesting dimension of flavour to whatever you prepare.

GARLIC OR CELERY SALT

These flavoured salts are the magic that happens when table, rock or sea salt are combined with dried garlic or celery. They will make a beautiful contribution to your next dish.

REFINED IODIZED SALT

You probably already have this, but just in case you don’t, this is your usual table salt that is mixed with io dine, which has a crucial role in preventing intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The above differ mildly on mineral content and taste but it’s incorrect to assume that one is healthier than the other. And it’s best not to consume salt to get your daily quota of minerals when fruit and vegetables are far better sources for this vital micronutrient.

The only thing to ensure is that you aren’t doing on your daily salt intake. Do remember that there are hidden salt mines buried deep within your favourite packaged and processed foods. Salty foods include additives that contain sodium. Like cold cuts, bacon, microwave or ready to-eat meals, cheeses, soups… the list goes on. Do check the nutritional label when buying these foods, especially if your doc would like you to clamp down on the sodium.

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In Lose Weight

Slips don’t lie

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You know you shouldn’t. And yet, three days into your new diet, you are wiping the crumbs of a very crumbly cupcake off your face. Oops! You had no choice, you reason with yourself, because it was your best friend’s birthday, and, well, one couldn’t hurt, right?
Right. Small slips rarely have any great calorific impact ­ so long as you are able to quickly burn it off. But left unattended, many `slips’ can pile on as calories before you even realise it. It takes 3,500 un-burned calories to gain a pound of weight, and the more slips you have without doing anything about it, the more the calories go unburned, and in turn, the more weight you gain.

But this is not about setting sail on a guilt trip. The larger point of this article is to understand what derails your intentions to eat healthy. And you’d be surprised at how innocuous it may be.

CAN’T SAY `NO’ TO AUNTIE

Social pressure is one of the key reasons our diets fail time and time again. Without realising it, that loving bua or neighbour or host, who is pushing you to eat her laddoos -because she equates food with love -is setting back your efforts to lose weight. And while she may definitely have your best intentions at heart, it’s important to gently let people know that it is not compatible with your health plan at the moment. If they genuinely love you, they will respectfully withdraw. Be strong. The more you say No, the more people will understand.

ARE YOU DIETING?

So many people don’t want to look like they are dieting on social occasions. They would actually eat stuff they never usually eat. While it could come from being self-conscious about dieting, the fact is that it’s more   important to think about what you want. Don’t worry so much about what people think: even if you do incur comments initially, these will slowly slide to a stop as people find other things to talk about.

THE HOLIDAY FROM HEALTH

A lot of people, who go on vacation, seem to take a holiday from healthy eating too. There’s no point working hard to shed the kilos before you leave only to find yourself back to square one on your return. Most cuisines have healthy, low-fat options. Enjoy your holiday but don’t make food a part of the vacation experience. Sightsee, shop, walk around and spend quality time with your loved ones: there are other ways to enjoy your time off.

PACK SAYS `LOW-FAT’

One of sneakiest detailers to any healthy diet can sometimes be something you least ex pect: foods marked `low-fat’. Low fat doesn’t always mean low calorie. It’s also important to be vigilant about the other ingredients that go into low-fat products. Sometimes manufacturers add sugar to add to the taste -which adds to the calorie count -or sometimes eating double of something which has 50% less fat, pretty much amounts to same level of fat being consumed. It’s definitely something worth thinking about.
Enjoy your new lifestyle but whatever you do, be aware of what causes you to get off the healthy eating wagon. Because slips, after a point, don’t lie.

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In Articles to munch on

Raising the bar

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It seems harmless enough and does its best to tell you how healthy it is. But if I were you, I’d be suspicious of the average snack bar. I am referring to the granola bars, protein bars, health bars or fruit bars. Even The New York Times said in a recent article that they can be as calorific as dessert.

 

What started off as an innocuous effort to add more fibre and nuts to i your daily diet has now become a multibillion dollar industry, where the last thing you’re getting is health. To understand how healthy your snack bar is, read the nutritional label: you’d be surprised. To me, an ideal snack bar should be brimming with the goodness of nuts, seeds and nuts, seeds and healthy ingredients that are not so fat and calorie-dense. Have you thought of making your own?

Add more seeds:  Pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds, watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds experiment with the abundance of this fundamental snack bar ingredient. Apart from containing good fats, seeds are fantastic sources of fibre, protein, minerals like zinc and vitamins like Vitamin E. They add a fabulous texture and taste that you will feel in every bite.

Reduce the nuts: Ensure that the seeds to nuts ratio leans more heavily in favour of seeds. Nuts like almonds, cashew, walnuts and macadamia, while healthy, are calorie-dense and need to be used sparingly. A tiny handful per bar should suffice, and abstain from high-fat nuts like cashews.

Puffs: For added texture and bene fits, you could also try quinoa puffs, rice puffs, wheat puffs and other similar foods.

Dates to bind: Commerciallly made snack bars use caramelised sugar or syrups for binding, but it’s better not to use sugar because it will completely negate the good work. How about exploiting the sticky and gooey texture of dates or figs? It’s flavourful and natural.

Season: Go creative with seasoning like sea salt or even sprinkles of paprika if you really like it tangy. At the end of the day, it’s your bar.

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In Lose Weight

Waste makes waist

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Nothing is as satisfying as seeing the food you have worked so hard to cook get quickly consumed by your loved ones. There go the potatoes. All done. And it’s so nice to see your kid polishing off his plate with the last of the buttered pav. But what’s this? Lurking at the bottom of the dish you got as a wedding present is one spoonful of chicken curry. You look up and ask your family if they’ll finish this last teensy weensy bite. But they’re all shaking their heads vehemently, pushing their plates away, looking fit to burst. What do you do? You can’t let it go waste. How horrifying! In goes the spoon, up goes the chicken right into your mouth. Instead of let ting it stay in the dish, you eat it yourself, ignoring the warning your stomach is sending to your brain -that you were done 10 bites ago.

As Indians, we’re culturally ingrained not to waste. We were raised to finish our food and clean our plates. Wasting food was seen as the ultimate sin of excess and an ultimate insult to the preparer of the food who would, more often than not, look wounded as half-empty plates were sent back to the kitchen.

But trying to not waste could be one of the sneakiest ways the weight piles on.

Think about it this way. Let’s assume that you are eating a little bit of leftover food every night to `clean up’ either yours or someone else’s plate. Even if you eat 100 extra calories a day, that’s 36,500 extra calories a year. And if it takes 3,500 extra unburned calories to gain a pound of weight, simply preventing food from going to waste could lead you to gain five kilos over the course of the year. Five kilos. It’s not too late. Prevent waste from going straight to your waist with the help of the WAIST method:

  1. WAIT

It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send a signal to your brain that you are full. To prevent overeating, try to stop eating when that feeling of fullness starts.

  1. ASSESS

Combat the problem of wastage by not cooking too much to begin with. Estimating quantities takes time and practice and a little heartache but there’ll soon be a time when y o u ‘ r e cooking just the right amount.

  1. IGNORE

Leave someone else’s food alone. If they’ve wasted it, it’s their problem. Not yours.Your meal is done.

  1. SERVE

Don’t serve yourself too much to begin with. You can always add more later but it’s harder and more tempting -to `not waste’ if you’ve piled on too much food to begin with.

  1. THINK

Leftovers can provide a fabulous foundation to your next meal and there are always creative ways to tackle them.

And don’t fret. If nothing works, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll just get it right the next time. Both for the food, and for your body.

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

Post pregnancy weight loss – help me!

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Dear Pooja,
I am a 33-year-old woman. I have two children — while my first born was a normal delivery, i had a C-section for my second one. However, both were premature babies, born at just seven months. After my deliveries, I started gaining weight and from 60kgs, I reached 76kgs. I admit I do not have healthy eating habits — irratic timings and junk food are to blame. This has caused health problems like high cholesterol, spondylitis, spine problems and fatigue. I’ve finally reached a point where I want to follow a healthy diet and lose weight. What foods should I eat and what should I absolutely avoid? Please help.

 

Aaliya just so many of us women forget all about our body and its needs when motherhood dawns on us that we wake up just when too many alarms signs are screaming in our face- diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and the list can be long. Maternal fat does not have to be eternal. We must realize that by ignoring our health and nutrition it will take a toll on the health of the whole family. Only a women that has a good diet can have good energy levels, good moods, less pms, better memory, more patience and understanding, better multi-tasking, more alertness and isn’t that what we women are all about? Family, children, work and the many relationships we marry are all before us, but don’t put them before your health. Post delivery focus on basic good nutrition and exercise. Anyways it’s never too late. Do get in touch with a good nutritionist so that she can plan a healthy weight loss diet keeping all your health parameters in mind. Sadly I wont be able to do the same through this space.

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

I am tired of FAD diets – help me!

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Dear Pooja,
I am a 26-year-old woman and have been dieting  (I eat only two meals -lunch and dinner) for the last couple of years now. However, the amount of weight loss is rather slow. I have tried different diets (the GM diet helped me to lose 4 kgs last year but now i am the same) but none of them have worked so far. What should I do?

 

Sadly my dear, you are losing out only your healthy burning muscle mass not the unhealthy storing fat. When the body is not fed frequently and adequately, it drops its metabolic rate and moves into a compromised burning state where it is unable to breakdown fat as a source of fuel and therefore survives by breakdown the next available source- muscle. This too leads to weight loss but after a while plateaus as the body cant let go of too much of its muscle mass. Any diet that starves you can only lead to loss of muscle never fat thus all your previous weight loss attempts have failed. To start up (and for the last time ever) eat to lose. Divide your meals into four main meals plus three to four fillers depending on the number of hours you are awake. Eat little but eat every two hours – that is the best way to keep your metabolic rate up and thus use fat as the reverse fuel- helping you lose weight gradually but permanently because as the fat mass decreases it increases inherent metabolic rate making it easier to maintain the lost kilos. Happy eating!

 

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

Open heart surgery – diet tips?

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Dear Pooja,
My father, 72, had an open heart surgery a few weeks ago and is better now.  He did not have a heart attack, and he does not have diabetes nor high BP. What are the kinds of foods he can have now to gain back his strength? He is slim and had been otherwise fit always and is a vegetarian.

Your father can most easily be the best example to what I say over and over again ‘You are what you eat’ being a wise eater thus the absence of any excess weight baggage and like you said fit always’ and therefore is metabolic disease free even now. The reason for an open-heart surgery could very well be age related plague deposition as the most noticeable characteristic of vascular ageing is the change in the mechanical and structural properties of the vascular wall. Now to help him regain his strength first focus should be on better quality proteins – being vegetarian please ensure you are giving him one-two servings of dal/pulses/sprouts daily – low fat milk and its products and if possible introduce some quinoa and soyabean weekly. Vitamins are another point to emphasis thus ensuring no micro nutrient deficiency leading to delayed healing. Two-three servings of vegetables plus an additional raw veggie juice daily (minimum three colours of vegs) along with two-three servings of fruit daily should do the trick. Ample hydration, adequate sleep and slow walks for about 15-20 minutes a day should help in better recoup and recovery. Check with your doctor or nutritionist for basic multi vitamins and some B12 as well as omega 3-6-9 supplements since he is vegetarian. Always keep the faith in the magic and the powers of healthy frequent eating and may he have a long healthy life ahead.

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

What should I eat every two hours?

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Dear Pooja,
I have erratic work hours and don’t get to eat on time. I do carry small snack pouches with walnuts, almonds, anjeer and small boxes of kurmura. I munch on fresh fruits between meetings sometimes. These help me through the day. However, after seven in the evening, sometimes our conference meetings last for continuous hours (8pm to 11pm). I know it is not right to eat late but staying up for so long  (I reach home by midnight) makes me very hungry. What is the ideal food / drink that i can have before i sleep? I cant go to bed so hungry but I dont want to eat anything heavy or anything too sweet.

 

So happy to hear that you have learned the magic of eating small frequent snacks through the day and carry a handbag as heavy as mine – stuffed with more food than any other little things! LOL! Keep that up!

Of course you can’t sleep on an empty stomach – no one can. I know people have their own busy chaotic schedule and food doesn’t fit into the pattern many times. But you are doing a great job through the day and you could continue doing the same through the latter end as well. I’d suggest you should have your dinner early just before you enter these long marathon meetings. It could be simple frankie wraps or stuffed rotis or mixed rice with sprouts and veggies or a sandwich (all of these taste fine even when eaten cold). Through the meetings you could just gobble down a biscuit or some chana on your way in or out  of a quick loo break – that way you still eating two hourly. And then once your home you are not ravenous since you ate a filling meal at 8pm (and every two hours in between) so now you could have a warm soup or a bowl of dal or a cup of milk with little fruit immediately as you reach. By the time you unwind and get into bed a good 30-45 minutes have passed and you are then good to call it a day and snooze! Good luck! And never stop the small frequent snacking.

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In Articles to munch on

GET REAL. REALLY.

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January. No month bursts with as much promise as this one. A fresh start to the year, a clean slate. It’s when gym memberships increase, when resolutions to get healthier spike. But come June or July -or even February or March -and your enthusiasm dims… till it’s December again.

AGAIN

Why does this cycle repeat itself? What is it about new year resolutions -especially the ones that seem to be made for fitness -that fail? I think the answer lies in not just understanding your body but also your mind.

UP AGAINST AGE-OLD HABITS

If you have never -or barely -exercised in the previous year, you can’t expect to suddenly hit the gym six times a week, and subsist on kale, lettuce and fresh air when the clocks turn over from December 31 to January 1. Your body doesn’t understand calendars, it understands repetition  eat healthy long enough, exercise regularly, and your body slowly begins to form healthy habits and expects, sometimes even craves, a lifestyle that’s leaner and greener.

SEEKING INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Changes that stick are changes that you introduce gently, patiently and systematically. Good habits take time to form. And how much time it takes varies from body to body. Your body and mind will take time to adapt to your new lifestyle. At times, this may frustrate you because your unfit habits try to latch on for as long as possible.

Pick yourself up everytime you slip. Make a fresh start. You may fail a 100 times, but you need to succeed just once to get yourself going. Setting new habits is one of the hardest things to do. Also, the time frame to reach a healthy goal varies from person to person. Some bodies respond quickly, some take time. But everyone always gets there.

YOU HAVEN’T PLANNED WELL

Fitness and weight loss require planning, thought and organisation. Have you selected the right meal plan that fits your existing eating habits? Do you have access to healthy ingredients? Are you prepared with healthy snacks in your bag in case you feel hungry during the day? If you are a working professional or can’t cook, do you have the support system or arrangement to get healthy food?
Have you chosen a fitness programme group that’s right for you (not too advanced or strenous)? Is the gym too far away from your home or office?
You need to make access to fitness convenient for you. You don’t fit your life to fitness, you have to fit fitness into your life. It’s called the battle of the bulge because it takes time and hard work until fitness becomes a permanent part of your life. Remember that it is not you against someone else  it’s you against you. If you set your own bar and compete with yourself, you will always win because it’s your race. On your terms.

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In Articles to munch on

THE BIG FAT MYSTERY

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We know how fat gets into our body. We eat cakes laden with cream, samosas laden with oil and malai kulfi laden with, well, malai. Food high in fat is a sure way for fat to eat its way into ou body through our mouth, sit in places we do not want it to sit and stay stubbornly put until we do something about it. But do you know how fat leaves the body?
What happens when the extra jiggly bits on your arms, your thighs, your abs start looking slimmer because you have been working out or dieting, or both? What happened to the excess fat that you had accumulated? Where has it disappeared? Any guesses? Surprisingly, not many qualified doctors, nutritionists and fitness trainers know the correct answer. Welcome to The Big Fat Mystery.

WHERE DOES THE FAT DISAPPEAR?

To understand where fat goes, we first need to understand what fat is.

Fat tissue is composed of lipids  biological molecules made up of compounds of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon that store energy in their bonds. When we exercise or make successful attempts to burn fat, the molecules are broken apart, the enerd gy stored in these l bonds is released.

But when this hap pens, where does the extraneous `padding’ that lines our bellies and bums go? r Well, while the energy is released, the hyg drogen, carbon and oxygen in those molecules still remain in your body.

What , becomes of them?
How do they get released?

The same way they came in. We exhale it. Biolo gists at the University of New South Wales (Australia) have now conducted in-depth research on where the mass of your fat goes after you burn it inside your body. For every kilo of fat you burn, 80 per cent of that mass is released as carbon dioxide when you exhale. The rest of the 20 per cent is released through wa ter  urine, sweat or tears, if you really hate to exercise.

FACT OF THE `MATTER’

Why this happens is quite simple really. Remember, matter cannot be destroyed it can only change form. For example, ice and steam are just changed, altered states of water. In other words, if we accumulate fat in terms of actual physical visible fat, it needs to change its form to another if it has to be expelled during the burning process.

And why does this matter? It’s good to understand what happens to the fat that you are burning because when you are on that treadmill, huffing and puffing away, you will know that every breath you exhale is a sign of fat leaving your body, and that you are inching closer to losing those inches.

When you are exercising at a pace that’s optimal for fat burning, know that the sweat you see on your clothes is not just sweat, and exhalation is not just exhalation.

It’s a sign that a particular mass of fat has truly been expelled from your body. And depending on how disciplined you are -it’s not going to return soon.

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