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Healthy Vs Unhealthy Breakfast!

Breakfast cereals like corn flakes and wheat flakes are popular breakfast choices.

You don’t need to cook them at all.

All you need is to put them in a bowl and pour cold milk on them and eat!

They are crunchy, sweet, often flavoured with chocolate and are tasty.

Oats are another choice as a breakfast.

Oats are also a easy to cook breakfast but they need to be cooked in milk or water for a few minutes.

And they aren’t sweetened.

Oats are not edible for human beings in their natural form.

Oats too need to be processed to make them edible for us.

But the process of preparing oats and breakfast cereals like corn flakes or wheat flakes is entirely different.

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Oats:

Oats in their natural form are made of the same three components that all cereals are made from, viz. the bran, the germ and the endosperm.

Like in all cereals, the bran and the nutrient rich germ contain all the fibre, vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, plant compounds or phytochemicals and some complex carbohydrates, about twenty five per cent of the proteins in the whole grain, all the good fats, while the endosperm contains mostly starch and seventy five per cent of proteins. The endosperm does not have any fibre or vitamins and minerals or antioxidants or phytochemicals.

The groat or the kernel of oat grain are contained in a double layer of bracts or hulls that protects the groat while it is developing but dries up and lacks any nutrition once the groat matures.

Oats are inedible for humans when contained in the hulls.

When processing oats, only the good quality oat grains are selected for processing, cleaned of impurities and other grains and then dehulled in a impact dehuller and polished and then sent to a kiln in which the grains are subjected to slow drying and partial toasting by hot air.

This destroys the enzyme systems that can harm the healthy fatty acids within the grain bran and germ, and turn them rancid. Thus the healthy fats in the grain are rendered safe.

After kilning the oats are subjected to steel cutting or steel cutting and flaking.

In both processes there is no harming of the nutrients within the grain.

Thus the complex processing coverts the healthy oat grain from a form unfit for human consumption to a form wholly edible and palatable to us, while retaining all the good nutrition in the grain.

So the processed oats retain all the good nutrition in the original grain

Also it is rich in soluble fibre that helps lower our blood sugar and cholesterol and thus protects us from diabetes, heart disease and strokes.

This is the reason why oats are a healthy breakfast option.

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Breakfast Cereals: Corn Flakes and Wheat Flakes:

When breakfast cereals like corn flakes or wheat flakes are prepared, the whole corn or wheat grains are ground and the healthy bran and the nutrient rich germ in the whole grain are separated from the endosperm. It is the endosperm that is then used for making the breakfast cereals.

The separated endosperm contains only starch and 75 per cent of the protein in the grain.

But it lacks all the fibre, vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, plant compounds or phytochemicals and the good fats and some complex carbohydrates and 25 per cent of the proteins that the whole grain originally had, as they are removed when the nutrient rich germ and bran are separated from the endosperm.

The endosperm is then cooked and ingredients like sugar, salt, cocoa and water are added to it.

The cooked endosperm is then subjected to processes like extrusion at high temperatures and then it is dried and shaped in different shapes to make them attractive, especially to children.

Thus the breakfast cereals like corn flakes or wheat flakes contain only starch, some protein and extra added sugar and salt and are unhealthy.

Some manufacturers may add a little whole grain flour to the endosperm so that they can claim that the breakfast cereal is whole grain.

But that bit of whole grain does not make the cereal healthy.

And if you still must eat them, check if one helping or serving contains less than 5 gm added sugar and at least more than 3 gm fibre.

And even then eat them very moderately.

Being crunchy and tasty, you can easily eat much more and consume far too much sugar and salt and unhealthy, simple carbohydrates.

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Verdict:

So the jury and the verdict is that while it is healthy to eat oats in breakfast, it is not healthy to eat breakfast cereals like corn flakes or wheat flakes

Please also read the articles ‘Basics Of Nutrition’ and ‘Effects Of Rava And Maida On Health‘.

Excess Sugar Harms Every Tissue Of The Body

Sugar is nearly hundred per cent simple carbohydrate and provides no other nutrient.

It therefore has no nutritional value and plays no role in our nutrition.

Excess sugar consumption adversely affects every tissue of our body.

Sugar is metabolised in the liver and excess sugar is converted into fat and this leads to excess accumulation of fat in the liver. This can lead to a condition called non alcoholic fatty liver disease. This leads to inflammation of the liver tissue and eventually scarring of it which can lead to liver cirrhosis and will finally need a liver transplant.

When we eat calories that the body doesn’t need immediately, these excess calories are converted into triglycerides, a circulating fat in the blood and stored in fat cells in the body. Body releases energy from this store of triglycerides when the body needs calories between meals.

When we eat excess sugar regularly, the blood levels of triglycerides increase and this leads to raised levels of LDL or the bad cholesterol in our blood.

Sugar also inhibits an enzyme that releases energy from triglycerides.

This leads to further increase in the blood triglycerides levels.

Thus eating excess sugary food increases the levels of triglycerides.

LDL cholesterol causes plaque formation in the walls of the coronary and brain arteries and leads to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

HDL cholesterol clears the LDL cholesterol deposits from the coronary and brain arteries and removes them to liver which breaks it down to be removed from the body, thus preventing heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Excess sugar in your food increases the levels of the LDL or the bad cholesterol and suppresses the levels of the HDL or the good cholesterol in the blood.

So the high levels of LDL cholesterol and low levels of HDL cholesterol lead to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Excess sugar leads to raised levels of insulin in the blood and this causes inflammation and damage to the arterial walls all over the body, they thicken and become hard and less elastic.

This puts excess pressure on the heart and raises the blood pressure. Inflammation also damages the endothelium, the innermost lining of the arterial walls and this leads to platelets and white cells of the blood clumping together and forming clots and plaque formation in the arteries and heart disease, myocardial infarcts and strokes.

Eating sugar causes a surge of a feel good chemical called dopamine to be released in the brain. It gives you a feeling of pleasure. The brain doesn’t release the same amount of dopamine if you eat complex carbohydrate foods or even fruits. And gradually you need more sugar to get the same amount of dopamine surge to get the same amount of pleasure. This is the reason why you get the cravings for eating something sweet from time to time in a day.

It is because they have been accustomed to eating excess sweet before and used to the pleasure derived from eating them.

This may explain the strong cravings for sweets that many people feel when they try to lose weight on balanced, wholesome food. It is because they have been accustomed to eating excess sweet before and used to the pleasure derived from eating them.

Eating a cookie or a candy gives you a burst of energy due to sudden surge in blood sugar but soon the cells absorb the excess blood sugar and you experience sugar crash, translating into a low, jittery feeling.

Continuous consumption of excess sugar has been linked to depression.

Excess sugar also leads to dental caries.

Excess sugar also causes inflammation of the joints and increase the joint pains. It is also linked to increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Excessive sugar intake leads to increased excretion of calcium, magnesium and potassium in urine and loss of calcium and magnesium lead to osteoporosis.

Research has also proved that excess sugar consumption also reduces the availability of active Vitamin D in the body, increased calcium loss from bones, poorer quality of bone formation and increased risk of fractures.

Earlier researchers thought that salt is more damaging to the bone health, but now they have found out that sugar is the bigger threat to the bone health!

It also increases the levels of cortisol as well as insulin in the body, high levels of both hormones are damaging to the body.

It also damages the collagen and elastin fibre in the skin those keep the skin looking younger and wrinkle free. Damage to these tissues leads to wrinkling and ageing of the skin.

High sugar intake raises the blood sugar which causes inflammation of the skin as it causes in all other tissues of the body. So it causes inflammation in the skin of the scalp too and this leads to drying up of the scalp, dandruff and damages the hair root follicles, leading to hair loss, thinning of hair and loss of quality of the hair.

Excess sugar also adds excess calories to your daily intake. Calories coming from sugary liquids like tea, coffee, aerated cold drinks do not satisfy hunger like solid food can. Thus you tend to consume more solid food, as the brain doesn’t register the liquid calories, adding too many calories to your food and this leads to weight gain.

Excess sugar also causes inflammation of the fat cells which release harmful chemicals which cause weight gain.

This in turn is detrimental to the health of your joints and vertebral column and leads to diseases like osteoarthritis of the knees and degenerative diseases of the vertebral column like prolapse disks.

Cholecystitis is common amongst the obese, especially women.

Obesity also leads to hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and strokes.

And you can consume sugar not just under the name of sugar but also under the names of jaggery, honey, glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, corn syrup, maple syrup, beat sugar etc. fifty or sixty names.

So stop eating too much sugar and sweet foods.

Also read article ‘Basics Of Nutrition’ on this website.

Eating And Living Heart Healthy!

India is home to the world’s largest number of heart disease patients.

We Indians are genetically more prone to develop heart disease and that is to ten years before the people of the developed countries.

We not only catch heart disease early but it also appears to progress faster in our people.

The number of our people dying of heart disease and strokes is significantly higher than people of the Western world.

According to the Global Burden Of Disease study, the age-standardized death rate of Indians per 100000 due to coronary heart disease is 272, way higher than the world average of 235.

It is vital for us to eat heart-healthy food and lead a heart-healthy lifestyle to prevent developing heart disease and strokes.

In a heart-healthy diet, we primarily have to rely on a vegetarian diet.

Luckily the majority of Indians are vegetarians and those who eat non-vegetarian food also eat it only in a few meals a week, unlike the Western people who eat it in every meal of the day all week.

That is the reason why eating a heart-healthy vegetarian diet is far easier for us than for Western people.

In a heart healthy diet, we need to eat whole grain cereals and pulses, ample fresh vegetables and fruits, moderate amounts of preferably mono unsaturated fatty acid dominant, cold pressed groundnut or olive oil, and skimmed milk.

It is maybe easier to eat either groundnut or sesame seed oil in India and olive oil in the West.

Most of us have whole grain cereals in the form of chapati, rice, bhakri, and pulses in the form of dals, varan, amti, usal and vegetables in both lunch and dinner.

Thus we must have cereals, pulses, and vegetables in both lunch and dinner.

In addition, we must keep our consumption of salt low, shift over to using the above oils and start eating ample fruits.

If you are a fish eater, it is very beneficial to eat sea fish 200 gm twice a week for getting adequate amounts of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

But few amongst us eat non-vegetarian food and even fewer eat fish. Because of this, only a few can eat fish adequately enough.

Omega 3 is also available in supplement form for those who don’t eat fish, but as a rule, most nutrients are better absorbed and assimilated by the body from food than from nutritional supplements.

And if you are taking omega 3 supplements, you must watch your lipid profile as some of these supplements develop high levels of heart-healthy HDL cholesterol. Levels of HDL cholesterol higher than normal too can be harmful to the heart.

So you must take omega 3 supplements only under the advice and supervision of your doctor.

Omega 3 fatty acids lower the levels of your triglycerides and prevent or reduce inflammation and improve the health of the endothelium of the arteries and keep you heart-healthy.

But the health of the heart depends upon many other factors too.

Pure vegetarian people have been known to stay heart-healthy till their nineties and beyond.

In a heart-healthy diet, we can eat one whole egg three or four days a week, preferably on days on which we don’t eat any other non-vegetarian food. But you should consult your doctor about eating eggs if you are suffering from heart disease.

In non-vegetarian foods turkey, goat meat and skinned chicken can be had in moderation, the less the better. Lamb, beef, and pork are best avoided as they are high in saturated fats and cholesterol.

It is advisable to keep the consumption of sugar, jaggery, honey, ‘rava’, ‘maida’, refined corn flour, sago, cream, ghee, butter, cheese, full cream paneer, groundnuts, coconut, sesame, fast food like pizza, burger, wada, fried snacks like chips, French fries, ‘bakarwadi’, ‘chakli’, ‘shev’, ‘farsan’, bakery products like bread, biscuits, cakes, pastries to the minimum.

Hydrogenated oils or vanaspati ghee and bakery products made from it and fried foods have trans fatty acids which are very harmful to the heart. They are best avoided.

Dry fruit nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, pistachios are high fat (50 to 60 percent fat), high-calorie foods.

Most heart disease patients are overweight or obese.

So they are better off avoiding dry fruit nuts.

Avoid mayonnaise, ketchup, and sauces like soya, barbecue, oyster, Worcestershire sauce as they are high in salt and sodium.

Also avoid frozen foods like ham, salami, sausages, nuggets, and also frozen vegetables. They too are high in salt and sodium.

Avoid ice creams and desert sweets or ‘mithai’.

Eating on these lines will keep your sugar, salt, saturated fats, cholesterol, and calorie consumption low and help you lose weight and get heart healthy.

In addition, you must look to improve your lifestyle, maintain healthy hours of meals, take adequate rest, sleep adequately and at regular hours, exercise regularly, walking too is an excellent exercise, if possible practice ‘pranayam’, meditation or yoga Nidra to be happy and peaceful.

Lose weight if you are overweight or obese.

Stop smoking and consuming tobacco in any form, it is harmful to heart health in any form.

Minimize or stop alcohol.

These guidelines will help protect you from hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and strokes.

Please also read the articles ‘Basics Of Nutrition’ and the ‘Good And The Bad Fats’ on this website.

Rampant Iron Deficiency Anaemia In Women And Children!

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 35.7 percent of children and 46.1 percent of women in India were anemic in the year 2016.

The numbers have gone up to 68.4 and 66.4 percent respectively, in the year 2019.

This is an alarming rise. And children seem to have overtaken women in this regard.

Iron is an important mineral that our body needs for various functions like oxygen and carbon dioxide transportation, metabolism, growth, normal cellular function, synthesis of hormones and connective tissue, and DNA.

Deficiency of iron causes anemia, fatigue, lack of energy, hampered physical and mental growth in the growing age, lowered immunity, and impaired cognitive development.

We get iron from our food like most other nutrients.

The iron that we get from animal source foods is heme iron while that we get from vegetable source foods is of the non-heme iron. The heme iron has greater bioavailability, that is, it is better absorbed by our body than the non-heme iron which has lower bioavailability, that is, it is not as well absorbed by our body as the heme iron.

That means even if the amount of iron present in the vegetable source foods is greater than that available in animal source food, the body utilities the animal source iron better.

The best sources of non-heme iron are pulses like soya, peas, various beans, and lentils like tur, masur, matki, chavli, mug, most vegetables, especially leafy vegetables like spinach, fenugreek, amaranth and grains like rajgira, and cereals like wheat, bajri or pearl millet, jowar or sorghum, nachani or ragi or finger millet, oats, etc. Fruits like apricots, dates, peaches, prunes, currants, raisins, pears, figs, apples are also good sources of iron.

Dark chocolate is also a good source of non-heme iron.

Our bodies can utilize non-heme iron better when we consume vegetable source iron-rich foods along with Vitamin C-rich foods. So including tomatoes and bell papers and citrus fruits and guavas in our food will help us utilities the non-heme iron better. Indian gooseberries and guavas are the richest sources of Vitamin C.

The best source of heme iron is animal liver and red meat. This heme iron is the best source of iron for us. The safest red meat to consume is goat meat, even better than poultry.

Shell fishes, oysters, and also some other fish like tuna, salmon, and crabs are also good sources of heme iron. Fishes with scaly skin are better sources of heme iron.

The richest source of iron is clams (‘tisrya’, a shell fish delicacy). They are also rich in Vitamins C and B12.

So for an ill, anemic person with normal blood cholesterol levels, clams, goat meat, liver, oysters, and fish could just be the best nutritional support on his or her way to recovery.

Cooking food in iron vessels also adds iron to our food. We can use this to add iron to our food.

Only avoid cooking acidic food with a lot of tomatoes, lime, vinegar, or tamarind and dessert delicacies in iron vessels as they may develop a metallic taste.

Use iron vessels to cook food quickly, avoid prolonged, slow cooking in iron pots.

Once cooked, always immediately remove the cooked food from the iron vessels to steel or glass vessels, don’t leave it in the iron vessels as it will add metallic taste to the food.

Apart from iron, we also need to include adequate Vitamin B12 and folate in our food to fight of anaemia.

The above animal source foods plus milk will also provide ample Vitamin B12 to such a diet.

The only source of Vitamin B12 in the vegetarian diet is milk. Vegetarian people need to drink at least two and half cups of milk to get adequate Vitamin B12.

Adding ample green leafy vegetables to food will add sufficient folate to such a diet, the other important nutrient that helps us fight off anaemia.

Please also read the article ‘Basics Of Nutrition’ on this website.

Why Walking Is The Best Weight Loss Exercise At Home!

Today the pandemic has forced millions of people all over the world to work from home.

And many of them are working more than twelve hours a day.

Naturally  they are leading a very sedentary life.

With the result, many have ended up gaining a lot of weight during the pandemic.

And many of them have not even visited their doctors for their regular check up for conditions like  hypertension, diabetes, or even heart disease, for the fear of getting infected.

And most people believe that they have to take up heavy strength training exercises to lose weight.

But they have to go to gyms to do them.

Also one needs to wear a mask and maintain distance from others to prevent getting infected and exercising with a mask on can be dangerous as it causes hypoxia when the body actually demands more oxygen.

And many gyms are air conditioned and lack ventilation.

That increases the chances of getting infected with Covid.

And they believe that home exercises cannot help them to lose weight!

That isn’t true at all!

Researchers have long known that cardiovascular exercise helps us lose weight and lowers our blood pressure, blood sugar, total cholesterol and the bad cholesterol, the LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increases our good cholesterol, the HDL cholesterol.

Raised levels of total cholesterol and LDL or low density lipid cholesterol and triglycerides lead to clot formation in the coronary arteries causing blockages in them causing heart disease.

Healthy levels of HDL or high density lipid cholesterol clears the clots from the coronary arteries and protects us from heart diseases.

Brisk walking, jogging, running, dancing, aerobics, working out on treadmill and elliptical trainers, cycling and swimming are cardiovascular exercises.

Many people believe that only heavy strength training exercises can help them lose weight and for that they have to go to gyms.

And most people can buy some free weights and keep them at home, but few can have gym machines at home.

Many people also believe that floor exercises like squats, lunges, sit ups, crunches or yoga can help them lose weight and they can do these at home.

But let us compare the calories burned in walking, strength training and floor exercises.

Walking can burn between 250 to 350, even 400 calories if truly brisk, strength training 180 to 250 calories and floor exercises 120 to 180 calories per hour.

And we can easily walk for one, one and half or two hours spread over the day, at our convenience.

You can hardly do more than an hour of strength training or floor exercises, and those too not without breaks, so the real time actually comes down below one hour.

Most people under my care walk 8 to 10 km or more, daily, effortlessly once they get fit!

These people tend to burn 400 to 500 calories daily and lose weight happily while getting fit and healthy.

Gaining a little extra muscle weight due to strength training helps improve metabolism and helps us burn a few extra calories day long, but still they are not on par with what you can burn in cardiovascular exercises.

And benefits of brisk walking are the same as those of high intensity cardiovascular exercises like running, dancing, aerobics, working out on treadmill and elliptical trainers, cycling and swimming.

So you can see how effective walking can be even at home!

This means walking can make you slim, fit and healthy without the risk of injuries.

And there is no need of visiting a gym, a trainer or any special equipment.

There is no need to learn any new technique.

All you need is to wear proper shoes and begin to walk.

US Government guidelines recommend 150 minutes of ‘moderate’ exercise or 75 minutes of ‘vigorous’ exercise each week. Walking 100 steps a minute constitutes moderate exercise while 130 steps a minute constitutes vigorous exercise. In terms of distance covered per hour, 4.4 km/hour constitutes moderate exercise while 5.7 km/hour constitutes vigorous exercise.

Researchers have found that most people walk at over a hundred steps per minute when asked to walk at their comfortable pace, that is they already walk at moderate pace. So taking them a step ahead at a time, to 110, 120 and 130 steps per minute is not very difficult.

So the best plan is to begin walking regularly at home at your normal, comfortable pace and time and increase pace and time as you get fitter. In fact, your speed and distance increase automatically as your fitness improves!

And you can walk within small distances of twenty feet or so.

You can also walk between two rooms or through more rooms.

If there isn’t space enough to walk you can march in one place.

Soon your energy levels and mood improve, and you start enjoying walking at home. You look healthier and your skin starts glowing with the new found health.

You can soon walk for thirty to forty-five minutes twice a day consistently very much within your home, it gives you better metabolic rate than walking once day.

Once you get fitter, you can also jog on the spot at home if there is not enough space, or slow run if there is enough space. This will be a higher intensity exercise.

You can also use a motorised treadmill or an elliptical cross trainer or an exercise bike at home.

In short, walking is the magical exercise that can make you slim and healthy without the fear of injuries. And you must walk even if you are slim!

Weight loss of every four kg has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by 6.25 mm and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mm. So you can see how valuable the weight loss is.

Cardiovascular exercise including walking has also been shown to improve ventricular mass and wall thickness, reduce arterial stiffness and improve endothelial function.

Endothelium is the innermost lining of the arterial walls.

The endothelium produces small amounts of nitric oxide which keeps the endothelium smooth and slippery, allowing the blood to flow smoothly and preventing inflammation of the endothelium and clot formation by white cells and platelets, by preventing them from attaching to it.

It also relaxes the smooth muscle cells of the middle layer of the arterial wall, below the endothelium, preventing their spasms and keeping arteries open.

It means walking at home can keep your coronary arteries healthy.

In simple words, cardiovascular exercise including walking help us lose weight, lowers our blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and improves our HDL cholesterol levels and keeps our arteries healthy and protects us from heart attacks and strokes!

And we can walk, jog or slow run to get slim, fit and heart healthy, very much at home!

Also read the articles the ‘Science Of Exercise’, ‘Walking To Be Slim And Healthy’ and the ‘The Safest Exercise In The World’ on this website.

Walking Is The Safest Exercise For All Ages!

Today millions of people all over the world are obese and most of them are struggling to lose weight by either starving under various treatments or working out heavily till they are badly injured.

We have known for a long time that cardiovascular exercises lower your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, low-density lipid cholesterol or LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.

They also raise your good high-density lipid cholesterol or HDL cholesterol.

Experts say that regular strength training exercises also help lower blood pressure and sugar.

But in high-intensity strength training exercises, especially if people hold their breaths when straining to lift heavy weights, and people naturally do that, there could be a sudden spike in their blood pressures, which could sometimes even be fatal!

And that is the reason why experts recommend higher repetitions with lower weights than fewer repetitions with heavyweights.

And they also recommend that people with uncontrolled hypertension should be cautious while lifting heavyweights.

Doing strength training exercises without a well-trained instructor most often leads to injuries than lowering blood pressure and sugar.

And for that, you have to visit gyms regularly.

But strength training lifelong in gyms is not possible for most Indians.

And injuries are common in gym-goers in India.

Also let us compare the calories burned in walking, strength training and floor exercises.

Walking can burn between 250 to 350, even 400 calories if truly brisk, strength training 180 to 250 calories and floor exercises 120 to 180 calories per hour.

And we can easily walk for one, one and half or two hours spread over the day, at our convenience.

You can hardly do more than an hour of strength training or floor exercises, and those too not without breaks, so the real time actually comes down below one hour.

Most people under my care walk 8 to 10 km or more, daily, effortlessly once they get fit!

These people tend to burn 400 to 500 calories daily and lose weight happily while getting fit and healthy.

Gaining a little extra muscle weight due to strength training helps improve metabolism and helps us burn a few extra calories day long, but still they are not on par with what you can burn in cardiovascular exercises.

And average gym goer who spares an hour or an hour and half in a gym daily, is hardly expected to gain more than a kg or two of muscles over a period of months , ladies even less than men.

The best exercise for almost everyone, of all ages, in most circumstances, is walking!

You don’t need any trainers or specialized equipment, or to visit gyms to walk.

And it is good enough to not only lose weight effectively but also to get optimally healthy!

All you need is proper clothes and appropriate walking shoes. And the desire and motivation to walk!

And you don’t need special training or technique to walk.

All you need is to wear good walking shoes and begin to walk!

US Government guidelines recommend 150 minutes of ‘moderate’ exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. Walking 100 steps a minute constitutes moderate exercise while 130 steps a minute constitutes vigorous exercise. In terms of distance covered per hour, 4.4 km/hour constitutes moderate exercise while 5.7 km/hour constitutes vigorous exercise.

Researchers have found that most people walk at over a hundred steps per minute when asked to walk at their comfortable pace, that is they already walk at a moderate pace. So taking them a step ahead at a time, to 110, 120, and 130 steps per minute is not very difficult.

So the best plan is to begin walking regularly at your normal, comfortable pace and time and increase pace and time as you get fitter. In fact, your speed and distance increase automatically as your fitness improves!

Here is a note of caution, when you walk at 120 or 130 steps per minute, you are likely to suffer from knee pain, if the muscles around the knees are not strong enough. That is the reason why you ought to take up knee strengthening exercises along with your walks.

If you are very unfit, even walking on the spot at home (like marching) for as little as five minutes at a time is good enough. Do it twice a day, morning and evening, and add one session of five minutes both times of the day every few days, as you get fitter and stronger. Gradually build it up to thirty minutes in the morning and thirty in the evening, either at home or outside. You gather pace as you get more and more fit. And it all happens naturally, you don’t have to do it intentionally.

Your energy levels and mood improve within days, and you start enjoying walking. You look healthier and your skin starts glowing with the newfound health.

If you are already walking, walk for thirty to forty-five minutes twice a day consistently, it gives you a better metabolic rate than walking once a day.

You can also use a motorized treadmill for walking.

Walking lowers your bad, low-density lipid (LDL) cholesterol, which leads to heart disease, increases your good, high-density lipid (HDL) cholesterol, which helps ward off heart disease, lowers blood pressure and blood sugar, protecting you from diabetes and heart disease.

The benefits of brisk walking are the same as that of high-intensity cardiovascular exercises like running or dancing or aerobics or cycling. Plus it ensures against injuries.

In short, walking is a magical exercise that can make you slim and healthy without the fear of injuries. And you must walk even if you are slim!

Beginning to exercise alone can bring down your blood pressure by 3.5 and 2.0 mm respectively.

Shifting from high fat, high sugar, low fiber diet to low fat, low sugar, high fiber diet brings down your systolic blood pressure by 5.5 mm and diastolic blood pressure by 3.0 mm Hg.

Weight loss of every four kg has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by 6.25 mm and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mm.

Cardiovascular exercise including walking has also been shown to improve ventricular mass and wall thickness, reduce arterial stiffness and improve endothelial function.

The endothelium is the innermost lining of the arterial walls.

The endothelium produces small amounts of nitric oxide which keeps the endothelium smooth and slippery, allowing the blood to flow smoothly and preventing inflammation of the endothelium and clot formation by white cells and platelets, by preventing them from attaching to it.

It also relaxes the smooth muscle cells of the middle layer of the arterial wall, below the endothelium, preventing their spasms and keeping arteries open.

In simple words, cardiovascular exercise including walking keeps our arteries healthy and protects us from heart attacks and strokes!

Also, read the articles ‘Science Of Exercise’ and ‘Walking To Be Slim And Healthy’ on this website.

Losing The Dangerous Belly Fat Assuredly!

Most people want to lose their paunch or belly fat because it is ugly and causes discomfort and inconvenience in common daily activities requiring bending down to pick up anything from the floor or tying the shoelaces.

What they don’t know is that it is more lethal than the excess fat anywhere else in the body!

It can cause hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and strokes, PCOD, breast cancers and cholecystitis and many more chronic diseases!

But it is no different from any other fat in your body in that it too can be knocked off as assuredly as any other fat in the body, only if you knew how!

It can be done any time you wish, doesn’t matter how long you have had it.

To understand this, you have to understand the following facts.

How do we gain fat?

We gain fat when we eat more calories than we burn in twenty-four hours. The unused calories are converted into fat and stored away in the body in different places, for future use.

Where does the body store the extra fat?

The body stores the excess fat in fat cells in different fat depots all over the body, a little more in some places than others, tummy, hips, thighs, chest, back, and arms being the more preferred places.

Different people store their excess fat in different places. Generally, men tend to store more fat in the upper body, above the waist, while ladies tend to store more fat in the lower body, below the waist. The former is called the ‘apple-shaped’ or upper body obesity and the latter the ‘pear-shaped’ or lower body obesity’.

How do we lose fat?

When we eat fewer calories than we burn in twenty-four hours, we draw the additional calories from the excess fat that we had stored up previously exactly for such shortfalls and the fat store reduces. This means we lose some of the stored fat and our weight drops proportionately.

This fat loss is generalized, that is we use up some fat from fat stores from all over the body.

So how do we lose belly fat?

If we burn more calories than we eat and have more fat in your belly, more fat will be lost from the belly area than in other areas, but since there is more fat in the belly, it will take some time to lose all of it. So you have to be patient.

How can we burn more calories?

Walking, jogging, running, swimming, cycling, dancing, in short, cardiovascular exercises burn more calories than floor exercises or working out with weights, that is strength training.

Do abdominal exercises help burn abdominal fat?

No. Abdominal exercises like ‘sit-ups’ and ‘crunches’ can tone up the abdominal wall, but they can’t selectively burn the excess fat in the abdomen. Plus they burn fewer calories than the cardiovascular exercises.

And excessive ‘sit ups’ and crunches can cause injuries like muscle tears, hernias, and prolapsed disks.

Is belly fat bad?

Presence of excess abdominal fat leads to hypertension, high blood sugar, high levels of total cholesterol and low density lipid (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides and it also lowers the good cholesterol, the high density lipid (HDL) cholesterol, leading to diabetes, heart disease and strokes.

Presence of abdominal obesity increases the incidence of PCOD, breast cancer and cholecystitis in women.

It is also associated with other chronic diseases and some other cancers.

It also invites hernias and back problems by causing an abnormal drag on the vertebral column.

Corona kills the pot-bellied obese easier than slim and fit people.

So how can we lose our belly fat assuredly?

The simplest way to lose our belly fat, or in fact, excess fat anywhere in our body and our excess weight is to eat our own healthy, normal, everyday food a little better balanced nutritionally and sensibly and at least walk regularly.

Don’t fall for very-low-calorie diets sold under the garb of so-called magic slimming machines or medicines or meal replacement shakes or ‘revolutionary’ diets sold by commercial slimming treatments or take up mindless exercises and protein supplements.

Don’t waste your time doing hundreds of ‘sit ups’ and crunches and risk getting injured.

Also read the articles ’Basics Of Nutrition’, ‘Designing A Healthy Weight Loss Food Plan’, and ‘Simple Steps To Slimming’ on this website.