Eating Rice and Roti Together : A Crime?

The fitness industry is filled with self proclaimed Fitness Gurus such as myself . Some are professionally educated on this subject (again, such as myself) and some aren't . Also, remember , just because somebody is educated in Fitness and has a degree to show , doesn't mean his word can be followed blindly. Never hesitate to ask the  Fitness Guru  "WHY?",  for whatever advice he/she is doling out, free of cost or especially if you are paying for it. It's your right to know the RATIONALE behind What he/she is telling you to do/follow "Religiously".

It's painful to see how many people "Religiously" follow something that their expert trainer has told them to do/not do. When these people tell me , they are following this for the past 1 month , and I ask them WHY? Sadly I get no answer.

Which brings me to debunking another myth today. I tried searching for some rationale behind this belief held by most people, including myself, till I found no answer for it and hence I do not recommend this to my clients.

I say go ahead and freak out on eating Rice and Roti together. I tried hard but couldn't get an answer from any reliable credible source as to why Rice and Roti must not be eaten together.

Moreover this is one of those things which wont play a major role in your quest for a healthier life , if you aren't taking care of more important things. What's the point in avoiding Rice and Roti together, if you don't avoid Pizzas, Burgers, Frankies and French Fries. Focus on taking care of those issues. They're far more important and will make a bigger difference in your health and appearance than "Not eating Rice and Roti together"

Here's a list of common hazardous combinations and simple reasons for why they should be avoided:

1. Avoid eating Fruits with other solid foods: Fruits contain sugars. Sugars are not digested in the stomach but are directly sent to the intestine. Now, if fruits are eaten with other foods like rice, dal, roti , vegetables etc. , the sugar from them gets held up in the stomach and starts fermenting. Cool right? Ever tried getting high on fruits after a heavy lunch or a dinner? Worth a shot!
2. Avoid consuming Milk with anything else:  Milk, on entering the stomach coagulates into curd. If taken with other food, the curd insulates other food from digestive juices and hence delays other food digestion, till the curd gets digested.
3. Avoid Eating more than one type of Protein together: Different types of Proteins require different treatment with regard to digestive juices for digestion. For example: Cheese may be treated with strong juices in the first few minutes and mild juices later , Meat may be treated with mild juices initially  and with strong juices as the hours go by. So, avoid eating Meat and Eggs together, or Eggs & Cheese together etc.
4. Avoid Fats & Proteins together: Because Proteins require heavy duty digestion in action and Fats suppress the action of digestive glands .
5. Avoid Acidic fruits with Carbohydrates and Proteins: Acidic fruits like Pineapples , grapefruits, oranges, sour plums, peaches etc.  , when taken, destroy Pepsin(degrades food proteins into peptides) or inhibit digestive juices secretion , thus making it difficult for Carbohydrates & Proteins to get digested easily.

And a few tips on healthy Food Consumption: 

• Try to eat fewer varieties of food in one sitting
• Eat smaller frequent meals
• Chew your food to an almost liquid state  ( I need to keep this in mind as I am a fasr eater, for God knows what,  and I don't chew my food enough)

Now Nowww! If you know anything backed by research/evidence on the Rice & Roti myth , do let me know!

Cheers!

The 5 Variables of Life and Health

As teenagers/young adults, we all think of enjoying our respective poisons to the fullest while we're young , and restless. We think " If not now (get drunk) then when? " 

How can drinking be fun when you are old and can't do stupid things after getting drunk.Partially True.

A common misconception that we all live with throughout our lives is:  As we grow older, we become Fragile, listless, low on energy "OLD" "AGED" people who keep coughing loudly & need to walk around with a stick. And this isn't our fault because, what you see is what you believe.

What I am going to write about is surely applicable to you , me and everybody born in today's age of Modern Medicine. Advances in Science and Medicines are going to keep us alive , but may or may not keep us Kickin'! There you are... The Doctors will keep you Alive, but to be Alive and Kickin' is in your hands.

The emotional bonding of Humans amongst their loved ones, builds in a compulsive need for one healthy person to save the life/ extend the life of the sick person to the maximum extent possible. So, barring a few exceptions where the pain is unbearable ( May God give them strength to fight and recover or may their soul Rest in Peace if they don't recover)  a sick person will always want to LIVE and spend more time with his/her loved ones. However, like any other machine, at times there's only so much repairing that can be done on the human body. If certain parts are beyond repair then not much can be done. 

Our bodies are built beautifully and can live a healthy , fulfilling self sufficient life as long as we are alive, provided we maintain it  and take care of it, just like we take care of any other machine/car/gadget

So  How do we maintain our body? Where do we start? what do we do? There are so many things? Where to begin? It's all too much and can be overwhelming.

I read an excellent study on research from : Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences , Public Health Ontario and others. The study identifies 5 major variables that determine the Number of years you will live. These variables also affect the quality of life that you will live in those years.

All you have to do is take care and manage these 5 CONTROLLABLE VARIABLES for a happy, healthy & self sufficient good quality of life during your years spent together with your loved ones on earth: 

The fantastic 5 Variables are: 

• 1.) Excessive Smoking: It's on the pack. It's on the news. It's on TV. It's on the radio. Everybody knows , Smoking is injurious to health and is a leading cause of variety of Cancers. So, it's never too late to rid yourself of smoking. As a heavy smoker, smoking can be the leading cause of a lot of misery in your life. Moreover you may even be inadvertently harming others around you due to your smoking.

• 2.) Excessive consumption of Alcohol: We all know what Alcohol can do to our lives. Remember ? It killed Devdas too!! Alcohol is a leading cause of fatal Liver disease and other complications too.

Excessive Smoking & Drinking can be cause of over 40 diseases and the Fatal Four: 

                              1. Heart Disease

                              2. Cancer

                              3.Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

                              4. Diabetes

• 3.) Unhealthy Diet: What you eat is what you become. IF you eat fatty and unhealthy food, Fat and unhealthy is what you will become. I can bet my whatever you want on this. In a nutshell : Eat small meals at regular intervals. Eat every 3-4 hours. Focus on Fruits , Vegetables, sources of Proteins. Of course, you can freak out on unhealthy food once a week. That's alright.

• 4.) Lack of Physical Activity : Remember, as a child, when you fractured your hand/leg? The doc plastered up the hand/leg that was fractured. After a month, when the plaster came off , did you notice that your fractured hand/leg was significantly smaller in size/girth than the other fit hand/leg? This happens because of Muscle Atrophy. Muscle Atrophy is nothing bu loss of muscles , due to its lack of use or any other reason.Now imagine , if you don't do some form of resistance training, you are simply telling your body to throw away all the precious muscle , because you are not using it.  End Result? You need to walk around with a stick, because you never made your body Retain the muscle to support your frame. Well done! Start working out now! It's never too late.

• 5.) Excessive Stress : Today, we measure our success on parameters like Sales Targets , Deadlines,  Social Status, Relationships, Facebook Likes, Retweets,  Marriage , Health , Wealth , B-School Admissions, Pay packages , Degrees, Diplomas, Jobs, CTCs ,  Property, Share Markets , Gold Holding, Gadgets we own, News we are aware of .
  I am feeling stressed just writing and reading all the above parameters , back to back in a single sentence. Imagine, living this life. In such a life, Stress is inevitable. What we need is to effectively manage Stress and keep it from affecting our health. Excessive stress is also a leading cause of aches & Pains, mental trauma, lifestyle diseases etc. It is then, essential to practice meditation or any other activity which reduces stress and calms your mind. It could be any stress busting hobby. There! I've given you another thing you can now stress about.... How to lower the effect of stress in your life!! 

In a nutshell, following are the 5 Controllable Variables that will eventually decide how long and how well you live

1. Excessive Smoking
2. Excessive consumption of Alcohol
3. Unhealthy Diet
4. Lack of Physical Activity
5. Excessive Stress

Start by giving yourself marks , out of 10 on each of the above Variables and identify the areas you need to work on.

All the best.