Benefits of Eggs – Why Should You Eat Eggs

Eggs are considered as the best nutritious item. Apart from being nutritious, eggs are a super food which contains large amounts of vitamins and minerals. Eggs are loaded with protein and a variety of minerals that are beneficial to the human body. In fact, one egg contains 13 essential nutrients, including protein, choline, folate, iron and zinc. Egg protein a good source of high-quality protein, providing 6.3 grams of protein, per egg that is 13% of the daily value for protein.

Here we tell you some amazing health benefits of eggs :

Boosts Brain health: One of the health benefits of Eggs are they  good source of choline. Choline is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system and cardiovascular system. During pregnancy, egg is essential for proper fetal brain development and decreased neural tubes defects.

Promotes Weight Loss: Eggs can help you to lose weight by controlling the rate at which your body absorbs calories. When managing your weight, choose foods that provide the maximum amount of nutrition for the least amount of calories. Eggs are a great nutritional value for those trying to lose weight and maintain healthy weight.  Health benefits of eggs  can lead to weight loss and decrease in waist circumference.

Improve Eyesight: Another health benefits of eggs is that it is helpful in improving in eye sight . Lutein and zeaxanthin are antioxidants found in egg yolk and are believed to help improve eyesight and reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (leading cause of blindness in people over age 65 years) as well as the risk of cataracts.

Improve Your Cholesterol Profile: Not only have studies shown that eggs do not significantly affect cholesterol levels in most individuals, but the latest research suggests that eating whole eggs may actually result in significant improvement in one’s blood lipids (cholesterol) profile – even in persons whose cholesterol levels rise when eating cholesterol-rich foods.

Energy Booster: Including protein rich egg in your meals and snacks helps sustain your energy level and curb hunger, cravings and unhealthy snacking. Protein is a most filling nutrient.

Prevent Blood Clots: Eating eggs may help lower risk of a heart attack or stroke by helping to prevent blood clots. The anti-clotting egg yolk proteins inhibit clot formation in a dose-dependent manner – the more egg yolks eaten, the more clot preventing action.

Promotes Healthy hair and nails: Eggs promote healthy hair and nails because of its high sulphur content and wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Many people find their hair growing faster after adding eggs in their diet, especially if they were previously deficient with the foods containing sulphur or Vitamin B 12.

Healthy pregnancy: Choline is an essential nutrient that contributes to fetal brain development and helps prevent birth defects. Two eggs provide about 250 milligrams of choline, or roughly half of the recommended daily intake for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Helps prevent bone loss: Phosphorus is the second most abundant mineral in the body (next to calcium) with 85% found in bones and teeth. Bone loss is not only caused by lack of calcium in the body; it may also be caused by a deficiency in phosphorus as both minerals work together to build strong bones and teeth.

‘Eggs are not only low in calories but are packed with nutrients that are essential to healthy living. They are an ideal food at every stage of life, as well as being easy to cook and enjoyable to eat.’

 

Does Early Dinner Help in Weight Loss

Many diet plans, nutritionist and people recommend eating dinner at 6-7 and eat nothing after that. Is it practical and how long can an average person stick to this routine to lose weight? How much weight can you really lose from this? What happens when you get back to eating at 9 :00 pm?

Broadly metabolism gets affected by three things: quality of food that we eat, how much gap do we give between meals and how much physical activity do you manage to get in your daily routine. A light snack can take you 2 hours to digest and a large meal can take upto 4 hrs to digest. At night our physical activeness reduces and  therefore might make the metabolism dip slightly.

We know that metabolism is the rate at which the body burns the food to produce calories for energy and digestion. This rate of metabolism can be accelerated or slowed down with the help of food and exercise. When our body gets food at regular interval it fastens the metabolism as it gets into the mode of sufficient food and digests food faster. The metabolism slows down when the body doesn’t get food when it’s hungry and slows the rate at which calories burn. Also more muscles in the body increase the metabolic rate and exercising and other activities also burn calories which revs up metabolism.

In India where our lifestyle is different along with meal timings, so would dinner at 7 pm work best for us? Usually evening time we like to snack and then eventually have dinner by 8-9 pm. But some people who have early dinner don’t eat the evening snack. To understand the scenario better what if one eats dinner at 7 pm. Then ideally they should sleep by 9-10 pm. This also means the next meal will be at 8-9 am next morning. Eating dinner so early causes a gap of 12-14 hrs between the two meals. This gap results in slowing down the metabolism which essentially makes you start storing calories than actually burning them.

When you are planning your meal for dinner keep it light and simple. Eat less or avoid starchy foods. Eat less of carbs and add protein rich food like eggs, meat, beans, legumes etc. Have your meal 2 hrs before sleeping and avoid mid night munching. Also exercising is important to lose weight. By watching what you eat and exercising you could lose 1 kg a week!

 

List of Healthy Snacks

Are putting on weight due to snacking? We all know that eating at odd hours leads to weight gain. But how do you deal with hunger pangs without starving yourself. To answer one of the most common dilemmas of how to control snacking we have put together a list of healthy snacks alongside some not so healthy snacks. This is done to explain why you should be eating this and not that.

Before we move on to the healthy vs unhealthy snack list you need to understand snacks are just fillers or small bites. Most people eat snacks like a meal and thats where the problem starts. When one samosa becomes two or one sandwich becomes two sandwiches.

To elaborate a little bit more here are some points to note

While snacking eat slowly and enjoy every bite that you eat. Eating slowly makes you chew the food properly and eat less also. This helps you in managing portion and not over eating.

Don’t snack on empty calories even though you can manage the portion because it will add no nutrition and only calories.

You could choose low fat dairy, eggs, seeds and nuts, fruits and veggies as a snacking option.

Lets further explain it with an example on how to control your calories better if you are on a weight loss routine. A man weighing 80 kgs and 175 cms would approximately require 2000 calories in a single day. To break it further he would have a daily quota  of 250 calories for 2 snacks in a day. While a women weighing 50 kg and 5 feet 2 inches would require approximately 1400 calories in a day and 175 calories each for snacking twice in a day. This means you can divide your snack for once during mid morning and once in the routine evening. But remember snacking includes your tea/coffee/coke/lemonade etc! Read more

Low Calorie Breakfast Options

Make your breakfast options healthier and satisfying. Start eating breakfast which offer low calories and helps you lose weight. Eating breakfast will keep you active and full helping you avoid munching in between. If you skip breakfast you could be slowing your metabolism which would affect your weight loss process.

You could make breakfast options simpler and easily available to not skip it and eat healthy and stay fit. Here are some breakfast options that would keep you active and keep you full to avoid mid-meal munching.

Curd and a fruit: If you are the one who doesn’t like eating breakfast and are always in a hurry to run to the office then this the easiest breakfast option. You don’t have to prepare anything or cook it either. Just carry it or even buy it on your way. A good combinationof carbohydrate and protein providing approximately 250 calories. Curd (Yogurt)provides satiety which helps to keep hunger away till its time for next meal.

Brown Bread and Egg: Eggs are possibly the most versatile as well as being the most nutritious breakfast protein. They can be poached, scrambled, fried, soft-boiled, hard-boiled or made into an omelette. Egg is low in calories and saturated fat yet is full of vitamins A, B,D, E and minerals such as calcium, iron, potassium, selenium and magnesium. Brown bread is rich in nutrients providing a feeling of fullness, thereby reducing the risk of overeating. Egg with 2 slices of bread provides approx 220 calories.

Sprouts with buttermilk : Sprouted seeds, legumes and grains are a cheap and easy way of increasing your intake of vitamins and minerals. Germinating seeds and grains increase their nutritional value. The vitamin C content of wheat increases sixty percent during sprouting. Sprouts are filled with antioxidants, they are full of protein, chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Buttermilk is lower in fat than regular milk, because the fat has been removed to make butter. It is also high in potassium, vitamin B12, calcium, and riboflavin as well as a good source of phosphorus. Approx calories 270 calories.

Oats in low fat milk: Oats, like other cereal grains, are valued primarily as a source of carbohydrates which provide calories for energy needs. It contain soluble fibre beta glucan which help to control your sugar and cholesterol levels. Oats have a higher concentration of well-balanced protein than other cereals. It also helps in keeping bowel movements regular. Approx calories 240 calories.

Nuts and Fruit: Nuts are a Super source of Non-animal, digestible protein Breakfast options does not have to be the one which has to pass through the oven. Eat some nuts and a fruit at breakfast with a glass of milk. When eaten first in the morning, nuts help start proper digestion for the rest of your day. A fist of nut along with a fruit provide approx 200 calories.

Whatever you prepare for yourself, choose a healthy option to keep you full and meet the nutrition requirement.

You can also use Fitho’s calorie counter to search for your food, calculate its calories and see its full nutrition facts.

 

Resistance Training Tips

No pain, no gain ! Have you read it on some t-shirts, gyms or might have heard weight lifters say it. It is true to gain strength, endurance, build lean muscles and lose fat resistance training is very beneficial. It is simply resistance of the muscles to weight applied on it. More the weight better the results of resistance training would come out to be.

Resistance training can be done with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, cables, body weight etc. Some of you looking for quick weight loss, toning your body for summers, weddings or any important occasion resistance training can get you into the shape fast. Being consistent in training the muscles grow with bone mass as well making you stronger and resistance to more force. One basic fundamental of resistance training is progressive overload. The term means that you increase the workload overtime as the muscles get accustomed to the weight and the objective of gaining mass and power.

Tips for resistance training

Motivation: Resistance training pushes you to new limits. Everytime you do resistance training it will test your guts and your resistance to bear the pain and complete the workout. You have to be consistent in following your routine and stay motivated.

Weights: Weights help provide resistance to the muscles and increasing more weight will increase in strength and power and build great muscles improving the physical appearance of the muscles. If you want to tone up your body resistance training could work well for you.

Diet: Muscles require protein to recover from the wear and tear caused by the training. Rich diet with protein rich foods should be included to help the muscle repair fast and grow in strength and mass. Balance your diet with carbohydrates for energy.

Rest: Like us muscles require rest too. As too much resistance makes the muscle tear and wear and thus needs time to repair. Rest is equally important for muscles to grow and resist more stress on it.

Resistance training is a great way to get active. It gets you into shape and makes you all the way more powerful. It is not only with weights but resistance can be offered to the body with elastic bands and other things. Weak people, old people, inactive people looking for a makeover resistance training can get you strengthen up and get going.

Healthy Food For Kids

Kids need a filling and nutritious diet for growth and unhealthy foods will slow down their growth if the daily nutrition is not met accordingly. From carbohydrates for energy to go non-stop through out the day, the amino acids from protein to build muscle and recover them, vitamins and minerals for healthy functioning of organs and chemical reactions in the body
and fat for good cholesterol and cushioning of organs.

Though kids like foods that are surprising and delightful to their taste buds. Get creative with your recipes and start making your food nutritious and attractive. Here are foods for kids to kep them healthy. Give your child plenty of options ranging from chocolates to everything that they like.

Cornflakes with milk and fruits: We all feed our kids with cornflakes but make it more healthy with adding fruits to it. Include the fruit that your kids like eating. Strawberry, grapes, nuts, seeds, apples, bananas etc. This meal will provide your kid with carbs, protein and essential vitamins and minerals along with iron to improve metabolism.

Eggs: Eggs provide a lot of satiety and protein, vitamins and minerals. Make it healthier by adding a slice of cheese or add a few slices of vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber etc. The meal will keep the kids feel fuller and have lots of nutrition for a good growth.

Sandwiches: What about adding a slice of lean meat for non-vegetarians and cottage cheese for veggies ? Play around with your stuffing options with boiled mashed potatoes, cheese slice, tuna or vegetables. Choose whole grain bread or multiflour bread to make it more healthy.

Drinks: Say no to aerated drinks including the cola’s and sweetened sodas as they would add empty calories which is not healthy for a childs growth. Provide other varities from fresh fruit juice, lemonade, buttermilk, banana milk shake, mango shake and other shakes with fruits, nuts and seeds.

Walnuts: For healthy functioning of mind omega fatty acids are equally important. Walnuts, flaxseed and fish products like salmon, tuna etc are rich sources of omega 3 fatty acids which are important for developement of childs brain.

You can pick lots more  healthy options for your child. Keep foods providing empty calories and junk that add no nutrition away from their diets. Use less oil in the food and avoid fried foods. Follow these basics and keep your kids healthy.

 

How to Build Muscles

If building muscle is what you want then here is some basic information on muscles and how to exercise them effectively to get the size or definition you are looking for.

What is the most basic function of muscle. Muscle apart from physical appearance is important for movement, to maintain posture and is known as the source of power in the body.

They take care of everything from walking to keeping the blood flowing. The best part about muscles are that they are  long-lasting, they are self-healing and are able to grow stronger with exercise.

There are three types of muscles in the body. Cardiac muscles in the heart take care of the pumping and functioning of heart, second type are the smooth muscles that are found in the walls of the arteries and intestines and lastly the skeletal muscles which cover our outer body, and are often exercised strength and physical shape.

The skeletal muscle is what we want to develop and not the other two smooth and cardiac muscles. Here are tips to build stronger muscle. Read more

How To Gain Weight

Are you lean and thin and want to gain weight to look muscular and a well proportioned body. Gaining weight is not difficult once you understand the right approach to  achieve your target. The basic of weight gain revolves around the calorie requirement and the calorie consumed with a smart choice of foods for them. One needs to consume extra calories in order to gain weight.

Often people get confuse while trying to gain weight and increase the fat intake resulting in disproportionate distribution of weight, constant feeling of sluggishness and over a period of time can become vulnerable to lifestyle diseases caused by being over-weight. While the other approach is to stick to a healthy diet routine along with the correct exercise that ensures substantial calorie intake and even distribution of muscle gain all over the body, respectively.

If you are interested to know how to get started on a weight gain plan here are some easy tips for you to follow:

Read more

How to Control In-between Meal Snacking

We ensure that most of our meals are healthy. The problem comes when we crave food in between meals. If you feel hungry so often then you certainly need to watch out as eating more  food whether healthy or junk leads to weight gain.

The biggest trouble with in between snacking is that one craves something that is satisfying and ready to eat. Unfortunately we dont find having salads or fruits as snacks satisfying enough. While junk food or fattening foods manage to hit the spot, instantly satisfying the hunger pang. Gradually these small food breaks stop having the same satiating effect. After sometime the portion size increases  giving way to more food cravings and constant need to eat something Most of the times this snacking is psychological, as in we condition ourselves to feeling hungry even after having proper meals. Here are some reasons and tips to keep the hunger pangs in control, making you eat less.

Untimely Meals: Not having meals on time is a big factor in making you feel hungry at odd times . The body follows no patterns and gets used to giving a call at random times which pushes us to eat more than a usual meal. Time your meals and eat food with high fiber and protein to keep you feeling fuller.

Breakfast: People who don’t have a balanced and satisfying breakfast often find themselves bingeing on odd time. The unsatisfaction of the previous meal  makes the mind want for more and eating unhealthy. Have a good nutritious breakfast with satisfying food. Read more

Food With Fat For Health Benefits

Fat has an important role to play in the smooth functioning of body just like how protein is important for muscle building, carbohydrates for energy and vitamins and minerals for other nutrition. The minimum requirement of essential fat for men is 2-5% and women is 10-12%, anything below which physical and psychological health would be effected. When one consumes fat more than the daily requirement it then it gets stored in the belly, thighs and all over the body. Fat helps in healthy cell function and keeps the skin healthy and stores energy in the body and provides 9 calories per 1 gm of fat.

Essential fat is required for brain functioning, bone marrows, central nervous system muscles and healthy functioning of the body

It provides cushion to internal organs of the chest and abdomen.  These essential fats are often confused with the bad fats that increase the LDL bad Cholesterol. Essential fats actually increase the HDL good cholesterol levels improving heart health and improves the flow of blood in the arteries.

Here is a list of Fatty foods for good health

 

Read more

5 Meal ideas to Stay Fuller

Eating nutritious food is important, but how much and when to eat is vital too. Staying fit is easier than its perceived to be. Eating the right food at the right time will not only meet your daily nutrition requirement but keep you fuller through out the day keeping you away from all the junk and empty calories we binge on otherwise.

Research shows than men who ate meals with higher amounts of protein than the average meal, when they were trying to lose weight felt fuller throughout the day; they also experienced a reduction in late-night desire to eat and had fewer thoughts of food. This is especially important with regard to the Indian vegetarian diet that can be extremely carbohydrate heavy, with little high quality protein, to ensure long term satiety that protein provides.

Proteins can make you feel fuller for a longer time but this doesn’t mean that you only consume protein. The body requires a balance of protein, carbohydrate and fats.

Few sources of protein for your diet:

Eggs: Eggs are highly satiable and makes you fuller for a longer time and proving vital minerals and vitamins with fat and provides the energy for basic functioning. It takes care of the calorie intake and is healthy for the body.

Fish: It is not only rich in omega fatty acids but provide ample amount of protein to make you feel longer. Some salmon in lunch or dinner or your desired meals will help you stay away from hunger and nourish the body as well.

Sprouts or Beans: For veggie lovers sprouts and beans can be a part of your diet. Eating sprouts in your diet will fill you up and keep irregular food cravings away.

Soy Products: Soy milk offers outstanding nutrition, along with their health benefits. They provide balanced nutrition of high-quality protein and carbohydrates, low in fat with no cholesterol and very low in saturated fat.

Dairy Products: Dairy Product vary to milk, cheese, cottage cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, buttermilk etc. Dairy products tend to be good sources of calcium, protein and healthy carbohydrates.

Meat & Poultry: Meat and poultry products rank one of the highest for proteins. They contain ample amount of protein and help keeping you feel fuller for a longer period of time.

Add some protein to your diet to keep you feeling a little fuller for a longer time. But ensure that you eat a balanced meal.

7 Muscle Building Foods

We all know what muscles are and what are the basic functions that a muscle perform. Secondly, we also know it that by lifting weights and doing high intensity workouts we can build muscle. But do you know that to build muscles, along with the timing of nutrition, there are some foods that are more effective than others at helping you build muscle.

Below are a list of foods essential to building muscle:

Eggs: Rich source of protein and provides important vitamins and minerals.

Nuts: They are rich in fibre, Omega 3 fatty acid (lowers LDL levels) antioxidants such as Vitamin E and selenium

Beans: Apart from being a rich source of protein, it is also a good source of both soluble and insoluble fibre.

Yoghurt: Rich in protein and carbohydrates, and good for muscle recovery & growth.

Milk: A rich source of protein , calcium, phosphorus, riboflavin and other essential amino acids.

Fish: Contains omega -3 fatty acids and good source of protein.

Water: Water is essential to deliver nutrients to your muscles for growth & repair. So, water is key to building muscle.

Including these ingredients in your diet will recover your muscles and tissues and provide your muscle with nutrients to keep your muscles pumping for longer time.

Sunlight for Weight Loss

Now that you know that vitamin D helps in weight loss. The next question is how do you use this information to lose weight. Seems like you could just take a Vitamin D supplement, and take care of it. Turns out, it’s not that simple. Read on to find out…

Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has recommended a daily of 200 International Units (IU) till 50 years. However, if you are above 50 years of age then you would require 400 IU of vitamin D.

Naturally vitamin D is limited to small amounts in fish oils, eggs, and milk. Although pasteurized milk is fortified with vitamin D, dairy products made from milk, such as cheese and ice creams, are generally not fortified with vitamin D. Food thus provides marginally low amounts of vitamin D.

Turns out that to get enough Vitamin D in your body, you just need to spend some time in the sun. Exposing yourself to sunlight, helps your body produce vitamin D. UV rays from the sun trigger vitamin D production in skin.

Too much unprotected exposure to the sun can be harmful, so all you need is Read more