Food & Health - Facts revisited

You are what you eat. It may appear to be a hyperbolic statement but there are volumes of facts in it. Your mood, susceptibility to diseases, speed of aging are all related to your food habits.

Aging is a cumulative process that collects over the years of wrong eating and precipitates with age. If you get heart disease at the age of 30 instead of 60, it's time you had a second look at your diet and lifestyle. If you get menopause at 40 instead of 50, look at your eating patterns.

Aging is a natural part of life. But the rate at which you age is in your hand and in your kitchen. Remember food is not for your fun, its for nourishing this body you carry around. Feed it the right nutrients and you will be glad you did that for a long long time.

Nobody has fully understood the fact related to aging. Scientists proclaim that most of the process related to aging is because of oxidative damage caused by free radicals in your body. These toxic chemicals destroy cells in your body, making your bones brittle, reducing muscles and wrinkled skin. Ironically, free radicals are release as by products of metabolism and respiration - essential for producing energy in our body.
OK, so what can we do to reduce these free radicals from our body? Eat right food and supplement some vital nutrients with vitamins. Additionaly, stop smoking and reduce alcohol.
Now, you must have heard of anti-oxidants. If you haven't take a look on the vitamins shelf in your super-market. Half of the shelf must be filled with various anti-oxidant concoctions. These chemicals are the enemies to free radicals. Actually 99% of free radicals are diffused by anti-oxidants manufactured by body itself. It's the 1% that accumulates over the years and creates trouble at an old age.
You can help the body by supplying it with additional anti-oxidants that take care of most of the 1% free radicals that keep damaging cells in your body. OK, here are some top food habit changes you need to make today:

One glass of vegetable/fruit juice everyday.
5 servings of fruits or vegetable everyday.
Cut down on saturated fat. No butter and ghee. Use canola oil for frying and olive oil for all other purposes. There are butter flavoring powder available for people who just can't live without that aroma. If you crave for Samosas, prepare it yourself. Throw away the oil that you used for deep frying. Oil once heated to high temperature will turn rancid and create more free radicals in your body.
Tea is good. Both black and green tea are supposed to have good amount of anti-oxidants.
Cut down on concentrated sweets and sugar. They are useless calories, no nutrients and they actually promote the release of free radicals.
Take a couple of ozs of red wine once in a while. Red wine contains lot of anti-oxidants and there have been studies that report lowering of heart disease risk in people who consume red-wine regularly.
Stop smoking completely.

Compilation: Rajiv Anand

The information provided by khanakhazana.com - health is not intended to replace the medical advice of your nutrionist, dietician or health-care provider. Please consult your health-care provider for advice about a specific medical condition