It is believed sometime that "if we exercise then we do not need to worry about nutritious food". Always remember that this is not at all true. If you believe that it is alright to eat one ice-cream and do some exercise, then forget it. One scoup of ice-cream gives 150 calories. Two scoups give 300 to 350 calories. If you want to burn this much calories, you need to walk for one hour or 5 to 6 kilometers. Lets talk about the basic rules of giving nutritious food to our body.
1. Diet programme, dietitian and diet books.
There are always 2 or 3 diet books among the best seller books of USA. There would be advertisements with attractive photos before and after dietition and diet programme. Somebody would talk on nutritious food and somebody to reduce weight by changing the food. Many certificates and pemplates would be published. Not all of those dietition are trustworthy and it is always advised to stay away from such programmes. This is the first rule.
2. Our beliefs about fat and the truth.
Note down one general thing. While explaining the basic rules of nutrition, remember this for the second rule. Not all fats are good and not all fats are bad. Some kind of fat gives heart-attack. The vitamins, taken from the food intake, would melt in certain kind of fat (our body get such vitamins through such fat), which are responsible to produce hormons, blood and other necessary components into our body.
A. Saturated Fat: This is the worst kind of fat. It has colestrol, which blocks the veins, resulting into heart-attack. Almost all meat products have such fat. Only 10% of daily requirement (2000->10% = 200 Calories), which is also available from only 4 spoon of Ghee (one kind of fat in India, made of butter). Vegetarian in India takes only one animal food, namely MILK. The milk, containing 1% fat, and yoghurt ,butter milk or panner, made of such milk would not harm. It is strictly note down that non-vegetarian person consumes this form of fat from almost all of his food intake (meat, chicken, fish, egg etc...).
B. Transfat: This form of fat is made by hydrogenation process of plants. It is almost as harmful as saturated fat. Many of the products available in the market is made using such fat e.g biscuit. Better to avoid.
C. Unsaturated Fat: This form of fat is not harmful like other. There are two parts. One is MONO and another is POLY. Mono saturated means olive oil and peanut oil. Poly saturated means corn, soya bean, sunflower, cotton oil. All mono saturated fats are harmless.
Golden rule: Any form of fat can be taken from 10% to 40% of total calory requirement. It is mainly applied to mono unsaturated fat only.
3. How much carbo-hydrates?
Some people take carbo-hydrate (sugar) as our enemy and stop its consumption completely due to fear of diabetics. It is not appropriate. Remember this for knowledge. Carbo-hydrates gives energy. It is necessary for our body. There are two types of carbo-hydrates.
3.1. Simple e.g. sugar, jagerine, honey
3.2. Complex e.g. from potato, rice, banana, grains, beans and beat or other vegetables.
Remeber this third rule. The amount of carbo-hydrates should be 70% or total calory requirement. For example, 70% of 2000 calories = 1400 calories should be taken from carbo-hydrates. Among that, the amount of simple carbo-hydrate should be around 100-150 calories only. (4 to 6 spoons of sugar or others).
4. Some words on Proteins
Protein is necessary for developement of body and structure. Adult person should take amount of protein in grams, which is equal to his weight in kilos. For example, a person with 75 kilo weight should take around 75 grams on proteins. A person, doing physical exercise should take more. The maximum amount should be around 100 grams, more than this amount is not advised. This is the forth rule. Protein is available from grains, beans (maximum), dry food and all non-vegetarian food, some amount is available from vegetables and fruits. It is dangerous, if enough amount of proteins is not taken.
5. Drink more, live more.
Our body has 65% to 70% water. Even 1% reduction would cause trouble for our body. Drink less and kidney would not function well, blood would not circulate properly, hormons and enzymes would not be produced enough. Dehydration cause death too. Don't wait until you feel thirsty. When you go to bathroom less and urine becomes gray or black, this means dehydration. If we drink less water, kidney can not throw some unwated material out of our body. As a consequence, whole body would be affected. Indolence, exhaustion, disease, indisposition, anemia, digestion inorder and body-pain are result of less water in our body. Fifth rule is to drink enough water.
6. Food pyramid
In order to give nutrition to our body, we have to organise our food in four groups.
1. Grains and beans 2. Milk and products of milk (yoghurt, buttermilk, panner) 3. Fresh vegetables and fruits 4. Green vegetables. For non-vegetarians, add meat, fish and chicken in the 1st group.
A. Take the measurement of how much calories are needed in following way.
1. Measure your total weight. Do nothing for a male, but multiply with 0.9 for female
2. Multiply the obtained weight from above with 24.
The result would be the total calories, needed in the complete resting position for any person. It is called BMR (basel metabonic rate)
3. If you do exercise then depending on the amount and duration of exercise, add 30% to 50% in the above obtained calory.
B. Time for food intake:Morning breakfast - lunch - evening food - dinner.
C. In calories: Morning breakfast (400 to 700 calories) - lunch (400 calories) - evening food (300 calories) - dinner (500 to 600 calories)
D. Follow third and forth food group accurately in order to obtain 30 gms. to 50 gms. of fiber and enough amount of vitamins and minerals from the food.
7. Habits of food intake:
From today onward, take one small diary and note down the foods accurately, which you take when you open your mouth, for four days. Consider following things, when you eat or drink something.
7.1 How much amount of harmful and hamrless food we eat.
7.2 How much you eat only by liking smell, colour and taste of some food, even when you are not hungry.
7.3 Eating fast or slowly is also equally important. It is the seventh rule and also important. If you eat slow, you can enjoy the taste of food. You may get digestion problem by eating fast, therefore eat slowly and when you eat remember to
7.4 Try different food everyday.
8. Relation between exercise and food:
This eighth rule should be considered and followed carefully. Whether you are young or old, whether you have started exercise recently or long time ago, it is false to believe that you can take food of any kind/at any time/of any amount. It is harmful to our body when we exercise more and do not eat enough in order to reduce weight.
9 Supplements:
Supplements must be taken very carefully. Sometimes, these supplements are sold by wrong advertisement. They say it can strenghten your muscles, remove the fat, increase digestion power, improve remembering or increase the passion. We are not fully aware of all ingredients of such products, whether they are harmful to our body or not. They may not be supplements to fill the lacks of our food intake. Therefore, it is always better to eat food instead of supplements. It is the ninth rule.
10. Processed food
There are lots of harmful material in the processed food available in the market. Such products are 1. salt 2. sugar 3. artificial fat 4. preservatives 5. colours 6. intoxicating materials. If we take such items more than necessary in order to have more taste, it is really harmful to our body.
Have a look at such items. 1. biscuits 2. sweets 3. fried food and fast food 4. soft drinks 5. ready made food 6. cold storaged and food from the refridgerator 7. all type of preservatives, colours 8. soft drinks, ketchup, fast food and sweets made from intoxicating materials 9. cake 10. pastry 11. sweets and fast food from articifial fat
This is the tenth rule.
source: www.gujaratsamachar.com
