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Fitness
 good health
Meals that work for women
Most working women neglect their basic nutritional needs. Ironically, the busier you are, the more crucial it is for you to eat healthy. Making healthy eating a part of your life can be tricky but it is essential
Dr. Anjali Mukerjee
Consume more fresh fruits and vegetables. Carry fruits, raisins or nuts to office to snack on whenever you feel hungry |
From
family to office, women today are masters at multi-tasking and
juggling but when it comes to eating a balanced diet, many neglect
their basic nutritional needs. Take the case of 29-year-old Ashwini.
Happily married with a five-year-old son she came to me feeling edgy
over her weight gain. Her marketing job kept her on her toes all day
and she insisted she never overate. A look at Ashwini's day clearly
indicated that her demanding routine was the cause of her problems.
It's a similar story for
many women — leaving for work with a cup of coffee hurriedly with
some biscuits or cheese and toast, another two cups of coffee or tea
at office, lunch is usually eaten out with friends or clients or some
sandwiches or a dosa from a fast food outlet. Another cup of coffee in
the evening with some cake or cookies shared with colleagues, perhaps
followed by a small bar of chocolate to get rid of those gnawing
feeling of irritability that creep up. Dinner is often ordered from a
restaurant because your cook plays truant and you're too tired to
cook. Result? You're having too much sugar, fats, processed foods and
caffeine that will make you feel anything but good.
Weight gain, poor
concentration, restlessness, irritability, low energy, hyperactivity,
allergies, frequent colds, earaches and food cravings are all
manifestations of a poor diet.
Making healthy eating a
part of your life can be tricky if you are a working woman. Time,
habit and convenience probably determine your food choices.
Understandably ready-to-eat food packets or frozen foods do seem very
tempting - they're convenient and time-saving. Unfortunately most
packaged and processed foods are full of sugar, fat, preservatives and
contain little or no nutritional value.
Ironically, the busier
you are the more crucial it is for you to eat healthy. And healthful
eating need not be too time consuming; all it requires is some
awareness and planning. You might be surprised to learn that the
poorer your diet the more cravings you will have for sugar, refined
foods and caffeine. Interestingly, your cravings and taste buds are
influenced by habit so if you reach for a carrot stick instead of
chips every time you crave for something crunchy, your body will soon
start asking for carrot sticks. The more you attune your body to
eating nutritious foods, the more your body will crave it - even to a
point where you crave for fruits and veggies the way you do junk food
More than two cups of coffee daily can cause insomnia, stress and a fast heartbeat
Idli-sambar is a good option while travelling or eating out
Carry a
tiffin; Avoid eating out at fast-food outlets |
Some easy ways to fit
healthy eating into your life would be to wake up a little earlier
every morning so that you can fix yourself a healthy breakfast. You
could carry some fruits, raisins or nuts to office to snack on
whenever you feel hungry.
If you order food or eat
out frequently; here are some pointers to opt for healthy choices.
Restaurant food is
usually high in calories, fat, salt and sugar. However, it is possible
for you to make smart choices while eating out by keeping the
following in mind.
A restaurant that offers
seafood is a good choice. Choose dishes that you can have grilled,
baked, barbequed, steamed or roasted. Request that your food be
prepared in less oil and that sauces, toppings, dressings and cheese
be served separately. You could have a salad dressing made of olive
oil and vinegar. If you're having a sizzler avoid the sauce and French
fries, if you're having soup avoid the ones that are corn, cream and
white sauce-based and settle for clear soup. Always have whole wheat
bread instead of white bread. Have tandoori rotis instead of naans
and dals without extra butter toppings or 'tadka'. Avoid
fried foods and sugar totally.
When travelling out of
city: Your daily menu could be like this — for breakfast you could
have fruits or milk with some cereal. For lunch have a sprout or pasta
salad with a clear soup or an idli-sambar or tandoori rotis
with some vegetables. For dinner opt for steamed chicken or fish with tandoori
rotis and some vegetables
Smart
daily choices:
n
Stress on variety: By eating the same foods everyday for
breakfast or lunch you're likely to develop a sensitivity to it which
in turn could intensify your craving for it. An optimum diet consists
of fresh foods that are high in complex carbohydrates and fibre, low
in fat, salt and sugar and moderate in protein.
n
Eat more complex carbohydrates and whole foods: Ideally complex
carbohydrates which are the body's fuel should constitute 40-50 per
cent of your diet. Consume more fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and
whole grains and reduce your intake of simple carbohydrates such as
refined sugar, maida and alcohol — they're high in calories and low
in food value. Similarly avoid 'refined' foods such as white bread and
settle for whole foods, which are those from which no part has been
removed or chemically altered. Whole foods nourish the body with their
vitamin, mineral, protein and fat content.
n
Reduce fat and sugar intake: Just about one tablespoon of
vegetable oil fulfils the body's daily requirement of essential fatty
acid. And don't be fooled by 'cholesterol free' packages — most are
laden with calories and fat. Go easy on saturated fat that is found in
animal protein, dairy products, coconut and palm oils. Likewise, you
can derive all the energy your body needs from fruits, grains and
other carbohydrates instead of sugar.
n
Reduce caffeine and salt intake: Limit yourself to 1-2 cups of
coffee daily' anything over that could wear down your adrenal glands
and stress your body causing restlessness, insomnia and a racing
heartbeat. A good way to kick the coffee habit is to withdraw slowly
by mixing half decaffeinated coffee with your regular as you cut down.
Herbal teas are a healthier option. Likewise, the body's daily salt
requirement is just about one fifth of a teaspoon. To prevent a salt
overload avoid processed, packaged or canned products. Excess salt
over works the kidneys and contributes to water retention and
potassium loss.
Above all, eat in a
relaxed atmosphere, eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly, never
skip breakfast and eat smaller meals more frequently.
The writer is a
nutritionist. She treats obesity and related health disorders online.
She can be reached at ask@health-total.com / www.health-total.com
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Health Capsules
Sugary
drinks may up uterine cancer risk
 Washington:
Postmenopausal women who consume sugar-sweetened drinks are at a
higher risk of developing cancer of the endometrium -— the lining of
the uterus -— a new study has warned.
Researchers found that
postmenopausal women who reported the highest intake of
sugar-sweetened beverages had a 78 per cent increased risk for
estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer (the most common type of
this disease). The more sugar-sweetened beverages a woman drank, the
higher her risk. "Other studies have shown increasing consumption
of sugar-sweetened beverages has paralleled the increase in
obesity," said Inoue-Choi, who led the study at the University of
Minnesota School of Public Health. "Obese women tend to have
higher levels of estrogens and insulin than women of normal weight.
Increased levels of estrogens and insulin are established risk factors
for endometrial cancer," said Inoue-Choi. Researchers used data
from 23,039 postmenopausal women. Between 1986 and 2010, 506 type I
and 89 type II endometrial cancers were recorded among the women
studied. "Too much added sugar can boost a person's overall
calorie intake and may increase the risk of health conditions such as
obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer," Inoue-Choi added.
The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &
Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer
Research. — PTI
Chew more, eat less
People who increased the
number of times they chewed their food before swallowing ate less over
the course of a meal, says a new study. Slow eaters tend to be
slimmer. But researchers didn't know whether asking people to chew
more would change the amount of food they ate.
Steroid injections
risky for preemies
Steroid injections given
to pregnant women before they deliver a premature (preemie) baby may
increase the risk of the child developing behavioural and emotional
problems later in life, say researchers. Mothers, who are expected to
give birth prematurely, are often given an infusion of glucocorticoids,
steroids that mimic the natural hormone cortisol, to try to help the
baby's lungs mature more swiftly.
Plant nutrient
cocktail kills cancer cells
A new study has found
that a combo of six natural compounds in vegetables, fruits, spices
and plant roots killed 100 per cent of sample breast cancer cells
without toxic side-effects on normal cells. "A primary cause of
both the recurrence of breast cancer and deaths is a group of cancer
stem cells that evade therapy. These, often multi-drug-resistant,
cells have the ability to generate new tumours," Madhwa Raj, LSU
Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, said. The research team tested 10
known protective chemical nutrients found in foods like broccoli,
grapes, apples, tofu, and turmeric root before settling upon six —
curcumin known as tumeric, isoflavone from soybeans, indo-3-carbinol
from cruciferous plants, c-phycocyanin from spirulina, reservatrol
from grapes, and quercetin, a flavonoid present in fruits, vegetables,
and tea. The researchers administered these six at bio-available
levels to both breast cancer and control cells. They tested the
compounds individually and in combination. They found that the
compounds were ineffective individually. When combined, though, the
super cocktail suppressed breast cancer cell growth by more than 80
per cent, inhibited migration and invasion, caused cell cycle arrest,
and triggered the process leading to cell death resulting in the death
of 100 per cent of the breast cancer cells in the sample. The
researchers observed no harmful effects on the control cells. The
study is published in the Journal of Cancer.
Premature births
rising in India
Twenty-one per cent of
the babies born in India are premature and the numbers are rising both
in rural as well as urban areas, says a report. The report was
released by the Indian Foundation for Premature Babies (IFPB) to raise
awareness on pre-term births, a leading cause of infant mortality in
India. "The paradigm of premature deliveries in India is changing
and it has become a disease of the marginalised as well as the
affluent," said Dr Lata Bhat, Fortis hospital. Around three lakh
pre-term babies die annually in India. Late marriage, stress, junk
food, lifestyle diseases all lead to infertility among urban women.
They are then forced to go for assisted reproductive techniques to get
pregnant which at times cause premature deliveries. In rural areas,
infections at the time of delivery, poor health of the mother and
advanced maternal age are the culprits. "Birth spacing, treatment
of maternal infections, steroid injections, antiseptic cream for the
umbilical cord and antibiotics to treat newborn infections can saave
three-quarters of premature babies," said Dr Neelam Kler, Sir
Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.
 Tylenol in pregnancy
may affect growth
Expectant mothers often
take Tylenol, with the active ingredient acetaminophen, to deal with
back pain, headaches or mild fevers during pregnancy. But frequent use
may be linked to poorer language skills and behaviour problems among
babies, says a new study. As the most popular over-the-counter drug in
the US, Tylenol has been extensively studied in relation to premature
birth and miscarriage, with no connections found.
TV impacts cognitive
development
A new study has
suggested that preschoolers who have a TV in their bedroom and are
exposed to more background TV have a weaker understanding of other
people's beliefs and desires. Researchers from the Ohio State
University tested 107 children and their parents to determine the
relationship between preschoolers' TV exposure and their understanding
of beliefs, intentions, and feelings, known as theory of mind. Parents
were asked how many hours of TV their children were exposed to,
including background TV. The children were then given tasks based on
theory of mind. These tasks assessed whether the children could
acknowledge that others can have different beliefs and desires, that
beliefs can be wrong, and that behaviours stem from beliefs. The
researchers found that having a bedroom TV and being exposed to more
background TV was related to a weaker understanding of mental states,
even after accounting for differences in performance based on age and
the socioeconomic status of the parent. However, preschoolers whose
parents talked with them about TV performed better on theory of mind
assessments. "Children with more developed theories of mind are
better able to participate in social relationships. These children can
engage in more sensitive, cooperative interactions with other children
and are less likely to resort to aggression as a means of achieving
goals," researcher Nathanson said. The study is published in the Journal
of Communication. — Agencies
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