Yard [0045] : More Tips On Eating Healthy

Dear Friends,

Namaste!

Let’s explore some more questions related to healthy eating:

1.    When to eat what?

·         More than half the food we eat in a day should be consumed till (and including) lunch. It is ideal to consume 60-65% of the food from 6 am to 2 pm and the remaining 35-40% from 2 pm to 10 pm. This is because the metabolism rate of the body is highest during the first few hours after waking up. Also by conducting activities throughout the day, we give our body more window to digest food than during the night when our activities (and the metabolic rate) have reduced.

·         Proteins should be eaten during the meal that immediately follows a workout. Wear and tear of our body takes place when we work out and (as seen earlier) proteins are the best building blocks our body can have. For this very reason, they should be consumed in the last meal of the day because sleep follows our last meal (ideally after a couple of hours) and the basic purpose of sleep is to rest and repair our body. And what better ingredient to repair the body with than proteins?

·         Food high in sugar (giving us instant energy) is to be consumed after physical and/or mental exertion to replenish glucose levels in our blood. The caution to exercise here is to ensure we lessen the quantity of meal so that blood sugar levels don’t shoot up.

·         When we have more work to do (again either physical or mental or intellectual or any combination of these), we should eat more. When we are relaxed, we should eat less. The reason is simple. If we want to drive long distance, we put more petrol in our car and when the car is relatively idle, the amount of petrol need not be high.

·         We must never eat immediately after or before heavy physical, emotional or intellectual activity. These things require plenty of blood to be supplied to different body parts but so does digestion to stomach! It’s best not to confuse our body by doing this one after the other!!

2.    What’s our ideal weight?

Weight at which we feel strong, light, healthy, flexible, supple, full of stamina and energy, balanced, in good shape and comfortable is the ideal weight for us. Contrary to popular belief, it cannot be determined by any mathematical formula (such as Body-Mass-Index) because the fat content and muscle content of the weight are also important. How fat is distributed over our body is also important.Everyone’s constitution is different, nay, unique! Hence what works for the goose may not work for the gander!!

So, rather than concentrating on just losing (or gaining) weight, we must go with the signals our body gives us and balance the muscle and fat in our body. (For Gentlemen, the body can have between 10 to 20% fat. In case of Ladies, fat should constitute between 12 to 25% of total weight for optimum health.)

3.    Should we never waste food?

Ideally not! Therefore we should take only as much as we can eat and bite only as much as we can chew!!

However, if for whatever reason, food remains on our plate even after our normal meal is over, we must refrain from ‘finishing it off’! Our stomach is NOT a dust-bin!!

So, the ideal scenario is taking only as much food in a meal as is needed by our body and finishing every morsel of it. The second best scenario is to leave food on plate when we should not be eating it. The worst scenario is to stuff ourselves just because the food would go waste.

We must also avoid eating stale food or food tasted by someone else even if that means we would have to throw it away. When someone tastes food, germs/bacteria/viruses/God-knows-what-else get deposited on the food and when someone else eats the same food, it may lead to spreading of infection.

4.    How much should we process our food?

Only as much as is absolutely necessary! Food is best eaten in as close to its natural form as possible. So, we should peel off a banana before eating but not cut it further. Fruit juices are a poor substitute to their natural form. For one, fruits contain fibre which juices don’t. For another, juices may contain sweeteners/preservatives. Further, oxidation of fruits is supposed to take place inside – not outside – our stomach. (What’s oxidation? If we cut an apple and leave it in open air, it will turn brown.)

We must minimize cutting and cooking. We should retain skin of vegetables and fruits where possible. We should not mix natural foods. Mixing fruits in milk or yogurt is a sure way of confusing our body!

Wiedersehen.