Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating.
Your BMR does not include the calories you burn from normal daily activities or exercise.
The Body Mass Index (or BMI) is a way of seeing if your weight is appropriate for your height. The actual calculation is your weight (in kilograms) divided by your height (in metres) squared but it's also easy to read on the chart. BMI can be divided into several categories and generally the higher your BMI, the greater your risk of a large range of medical problems.
BMI charts are calculated for adults only (separate charts are available for children’s weight and heights). Inaccuracies can also occur if you're an athlete or very muscular as this can give you a higher BMI even if you have a healthy level of body fat and this BMI chart is not appropriate for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or people who are very frail.
As BMI is based on weight and height, by losing weight you will reduce your BMI and put yourself into a lower risk group. A healthy diet, including a balance of food groups, vitamins and minerals, is essential for a long and active life. Keeping it simple, body weight and shape are a balance of energy intake (dietary calorific content) against output (calorific burn from activity & exercise).
Many studies have shown that, to slowly and steadily lose weight, any diet which includes a healthy balance will work if you're motivated. Ideally a low fat, high fibre diet is best but low calorie diets, low-carb diets, meal replacement diets or simply reducing portion size will work as long as, at the end of the day, you're not taking in too much energy for your body’s particular needs. Generally, to lose 1lb /week you need to take in 500 calories less every day.
Sugar is a carbohydrate, which will eventually turn into fat in the body. Sugar affects insulin resistance and blood sugar levels in the blood, in turn spiking hunger, causing you to crave more sugary/carbohydrate foods. Sugar contains empty calories.
Sugars in any form especially forms without fiber can lead to blood sugar fluctuations and cause cravings for more carbohydrates.
Sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup contain two molecules: glucose and fructose.
Glucose is absolutely vital to life and is an integral part of our metabolism. Our bodies produce it and we have a constant reservoir of it in the bloodstream.
Every cell in the body can use glucose for energy. If we don't get glucose from the diet, our bodies produce what we need out of proteins and fats.
Fructose, however, is very different. This molecule is not a natural part of metabolism and humans do not produce it.
In fact, very few cells in the body can make use of it except liver cells.
When we eat a lot of sugar, most of the fructose gets metabolized
Antioxidants occur naturally in plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, coffee, tea, wine, and chocolate. While there are thousands of antioxidant compounds out there, you’ve probably heard of flavanols (found in chocolate), resveratrol (found in wine), and lycopene (found in tomatoes). Other popular antioxidants include vitamins A target="_blank">beta-carotene), C, E, and catechins.
Antioxidants help prevent or stop cell damage caused by oxidants. (Get it? Antioxidants.) “Oxidants are free radicals that you find in the environment, but they're also produced naturally in your body,” says Diane McKay, Ph.D., an assistant professor and researcher at Tufts University’s Antioxidants Research Laboratory.
Your body creates them to help fend off viruses and microbes, but if you have too many, they can cause serious damage and contribute to certain cancers and heart disease. You also get hit with oxidants daily from things like air pollution, cigarette smoke, and alcohol, McKay says.
These free radicals are capable of attacking the healthy cells of the body. This may lead to damage, disease and severe disorders. Cell damage caused by free radicals appears to be a major contributor to aging and diseases like:
Overall, free radicals have been implicated in the pathogenesis of at least 50 diseases.
Since free radicals contain an unpaired electron they are unstable and reach out and capture electrons from other substances in order to neutralize themselves. This initially stabilizes the free radical but generates another in the process. Soon a chain reaction begins and thousands of free radical reactions can occur within a few seconds on the primary reaction.
Basically, detoxification means cleansing the blood. This is done by removing impurities from the blood in the liver, where toxins are processed for elimination. The body also eliminates toxins through the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymphatic system, and skin.
Under this theory if toxins are too rapidly released without being safely eliminated (such as when metabolizing fat that stores toxins) they can damage the body and cause malaise.
While it is true that some of these substances, such as alcohol are water solvent for example and will largely be flushed out of the body, some harmful substances are not water soluble and tend to get stored in the body's fatty tissue.
By eliminating or flushing out toxic substances and by minimizing the amount taken into the body, one can increase one's chances of optimum health.
Water provides the body with life-giving minerals. Check the water you drink. Does it contain heavy metals? Could you be drinking water that is more beneficial for you?
Tap water may come through old pipes which can add heavy metals into the supply. Unless you are confident in the cleanliness of the pipes carrying water to your home, it may well be worth investing in drinking mineral water bottled at course or having a healthy supply of drinking water.
Toxins are basically substances that are considered to cause physical harm or damage, and which, if taken in large enough doses, can prove to be fatal.
A small amount of a toxic substance causes an increase in energy levels like an energy rush, such as caffeine for example or alcohol.
When you take small amounts of a toxic substance, such as alcohol, you may notice that you get an increase in energy levels. If you continue to drink large doses of alcohol, the next stage is often sleepiness.
If a person continues to take a toxin in larger and larger quantities until the body has become saturated with it and levels of the substance are very, very high, then the result can be fatal and eventual death, for example as with alcohol poisoning when the blood becomes saturated with alcohol.
The same is true if we take caffeine. A little caffeine can create an energy rush, if we carry on drinking it, then we get sleepy and if we take it to excess, it can be fatal. Caffeine is found naturally in some beans, such as coffee beans and cacao beans (used in making chocolate, these are beans from the cocoa tree), and is really meant to be a deterrent from the beans being eaten by invading insects. By over-stimulating the central nervous system of invading insects, caffeine tends to cause insects to collapse.
Caffeine causes the heart rate to increase, the blood vessels to restrict and the air passages to relax. It is a substance that many people feel they cannot live without, because it is an energy pick up in small doses.
You start with total carbohydrates, which in consumer jargon includes sugars, starches, and sugars. Next the list says how much of that total carbohydrate is sugar. Next is fiber, how much of the total carbohydrate is fiber. If it doesn't add up, the balance is starch. If you are counting calories, you do not count the fiber because it is a nondigestable carbohydrate.
Example:
Total carbohydrate 30g
Sugars 16g
Fiber 12g
This means there are 2g of starch (30-(16+12)). Most starches are just as easily digested as sugars, so are counted in calories. Total 18g count toward calories.
If you look at a packet of food containing starch, it may say there is 3.2g of carbohydrate of which 0.2g is sugars.
This simply means that of the carbohydrate in the food, 0.2g is in the simpler sugar form and the rest of the carbohydrate is in a more complex form.
Free sugars are simple sugars added to foods by the manufacturer or consumer. They are also sugars that are naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices. These are different to those found naturally in foods such as the milk sugar lactose found naturally in milks/ milk products and the fructose the fruit sugar found naturally present in whole fruits.
Become familiar with the different names used for sugar on labels. These are glucose, sucrose, maltose, corn syrup honey, invert sugar, hydrolysed starch and fructose. The higher up on the ingredients list any of these sugars are then the more it contains in the products.
Look for the carbohydrate on the label, and refer to the words ‘of which sugars’ and see how much sugar the item contains per 100g
The new SACN recommends that free sugar intake in the UK should account for no more than 5% of daily energy intake. Based on average population diets, this equates to:
The term free sugars will now replace the older (and confusing) term ‘non-milk extrinsic sugars’ (NMES) as well as the phrase ‘added sugars’ which is used in the US and Europe. This is in line with recommendations from the WHO. NMES includes stewed, canned and dried fruit within it’s sugar count while free sugars doesn’t count it. Added sugars covers any syrups and sugars added during manufacture to a food, but doesn’t include unsweetened fruit juice and honey like free sugars.
The blood sugar level is the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. It is also known as plasma glucose level. It is expressed as millimoles per litre (mmol/l).
Normally blood glucose levels stay within narrow limits throughout the day: 4 to 8mmol/l. But they are higher after meals and usually lowest in the morning.
In diabetes the blood sugar level moves outside these limits until treated.
Even with good control of diabetes, the blood sugar level will still at times drift outside this normal range. People with diabetes are unable to control their blood sugar levels without treatment. If they are allowed to stay high for a long period of time then a number of serious complications can arise. Blood glucose can be controlled by insulin, tablets or diet.
When very high levels of blood glucose are present for years, it leads to damage of the small blood vessels.
This in turn increases your risk of developing late-stage diabetes complications including:
With type 1 diabetes, these complications may start to appear 10 to 15 years after diagnosis.
They frequently appear less than 10 years after diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, because this type of diabetes is often present for years before it is recognised.
By keeping the blood sugar level stable, you significantly reduce your risk of these complications.
The ideal values are:
There are differing opinions about the ideal blood glucose level range and your diabetes team can give you individual advice on the range to aim for
We all need a little bit of sodium because it helps keep your body fluids at the right concentration and is needed for muscle and nerve activity. Salt (sodium chloride) is the main source of sodium in the UK diet, but the majority of us eat much more salt than we need. Eating too much salt over time is linked withhigh blood pressure, which can lead to serious problems such as heart disease or stroke.
You don't have to add salt to food to be eating too much – 75% of the salt we eat is already in everyday foods such as bread, breakfast cereal and ready meals.
Adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day – that's around one teaspoon. Children should eat less.
Salt is also called sodium chloride. Sometimes, food labels only give the figure for sodium. But there is a simple way to work out how much salt you are eating from the sodium figure:
Adults should eat no more than 2.4g of sodium per day, as this is equal to 6g of salt.
Carbohydrates are one of three necessary macronutrients that provide calories in our diets. The other two are protein and fat. Carbohydrates provide most of the energy needed in our daily lives, both for normal body functions (such as heartbeat, breathing, digestion, and brain activity) and for exercise (like biking, walking, running up the stairs and all types of resistance training). An ample supply of carbohydrates is absolutely necessary to sustain a healthy existence and a must if your goal is to reduce your body fat and enhance your fitness level.
Carbohydrates are considered simple or complex based upon their chemical structure. Both types contain four calories per gram, and both are digested into the bloodstream as glucose, which is then used to fuel our bodies for normal daily activity and exercise. The main difference between simple and complex carbs is:
Simple carbohydrates or simple sugars - These carbs are broken down and digested very quickly, but most simple carbs contain refined sugars and very few essential vitamins and minerals. Examples include table sugar, fruit juice, milk, yogurt, honey, molasses, maple syrup and brown sugar.
Complex carbohydrates - the complex carbs take longer to digest and are packed with fiber, vitamins and minerals. Examples include vegetables, whole grain breads, oatmeal, legumes, brown rice and wheat pasta.
When you eat (or drink) a simple carbohydrate or a simple sugar – whether it is a can of soda, a scoop of fat-free ice cream, or even a glass of orange juice – all of the ingested sugar quickly rushes into your bloodstream. You typically feel a quick rush of energy. Your body then promptly reacts to this sudden spike in blood sugar by calling on the pancreas to produce additional insulin to remove the excess sugar from your blood. And for the moment, you have significantly lower blood sugar as a result of the insulin doing its job, resulting in a sense or feeling of needing more fuel, more energy and more calories. And as you hit that residual low blood sugar, you begin to crave more of the quick-release, simple sugars, and hence you have just initiated the sugar craving cycle.
As this downward cycle continues, your pancreas continues to secrete insulin while it simultaneously reduces its production of another hormone called glucagon. Glucagon production, as it relates to improving your body composition, is very important if your fitness goal is to lose excess body fat. Glucagon is the only hormone that allows stored body fat to be released into the bloodstream to be burned by your muscles as energy. And when the pancreas has to elevate its production of insulin while reducing its supply of glucagon, you are basically locking-in your excess body fat. Therefore, too much simple sugar intake dramatically hinders the process of reducing stored body fat.
Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand – and despite all the negative press they receive in some of the popular weight loss books – are actually your body’s preferred source of energy. When you consume the healthy complex carbs – the ones that have not been altered in a food laboratory – they are broken down into glucose molecules and used as fuel or stored in muscle and the liver as glycogen. When the body has an ample supply of glucose fuel and glycogen fuel storage, it can run efficiently. You will then have the energy to function at your best and provided the material that your bod
The glycemic load (GL) of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person's blood glucose level after eating it. One unit of glycemic load approximates the effect of consuming one gram of glucose.[1] Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels. Glycemic load is based on the glycemic index (GI), and is calculated by multiplying the grams of available carbohydrate in the food by the food's glycemic index, and then dividing by 100.
"In fact, if you are going to eat something before bed, fruit is one of the better choices you could make." Fruits are low in calories, high in fibre, and a good source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Eating fruit is also associated with lower body weight and a lower risk of weight gain.
Eating fruits right after a meal is not a great idea, as it may not be digested properly. The nutrients may not be absorbed properly either. You need to leave a gap of at least 30 minutes between a meal and a fruit snack
Eating Fruit Immediately After Meals
The damp, acidic waste of the fermented food accumulates in our digestive tract where it can affect our digestion – hampering the excretion of our digestive juices, the absorption of nutrients and potentially contributing to indigestion, food sensitivities and gut inflammation.
If it continues to accumulate, it can “overflow” from the gastro-intestinal tract into our subtle channels and tissues where it obstructs cellular nutrition and waste disposal. This in turn can cause the manifestation of disease, according to Ayurveda.
Rules For Eating Fruits
• Eat fresh fruit separately from other foods, especially heavy foods like dairy foods and grains.
• Wait for at least half an hour before eating some other food.
• Some fruits can be eaten as a snack all day long, but some shouldn’t be eaten in the evening.
• However, the most suitable time to have a fruit is morning: it should be the first food of the day and eaten on an empty stomach. All fruits except for citrus ones can be eaten in the morning (bananas, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, kiwi, and mango).
• Watermelon should be eaten strictly on its own. Melon is a separate snack too.
• All berries (cherries, grapes, blueberries, and raspberries) except for strawberries are good for breakfast, but they should not be eaten in the evening with an exception of grapes.
পুষ্টিবিজ্ঞানের রীতিতে সকাল বেলা আপেল খাওয়ার উপযুক্ত সময়। কারণ, আপেলের খোসা আঁশ ও পেকটিন সমৃদ্ধ। অনেকেরই অপর্যাপ্ত ঘুম, দেরিতে ঘুম ইত্যাদির কারণে হজমজনিত সমস্যা দেখা দেয়। তাই সকালে ঘুম থেকে উঠে আপেল খাওয়া সবচেয়ে ভালো। তাই সুস্থ থাকতে হলে সকালে চায়ের কাপের বদলে একটি আপেল তুলে নিন। আর যদি চা একেবারেই ছাড়তে না পারেন তাহলে চা খাওয়ার পাশাপাশি একটি আপেল খান প্রতিদিন।
সকালে তরতাজা হওয়ার পাশাপাশি সারাদিন কর্ম উদ্দিপনা জাগাবে একটি মাত্র আপেল। অন্যন্য ফলের তুলনায় সকালে আপেল খাওয়া অন্ত্রের ক্রিয়া সুষ্ঠভাবে নিয়ন্ত্রণে সাহায্য করে। আপেলে প্রচুর পরিমাণে ফাইটো নিউট্রিয়েন্ট ও অ্যান্টি অক্সিডেন্ট আছে। সকালে নিয়মিত আপেল খেলে শ্বাস-প্রশ্বাসের সমস্যা দূর হয়। সপ্তাহে অন্তত ২টি বা তার বেশি আপেল খেলে হাঁপানির সমস্যা কমে।
২০০৪ সালে নিউট্রিশন জার্নালে প্রকাশিত একটি আর্টিকেলে বলা হয়েছে যে সপ্তাহে ৫ টা বার তার বেশি আপেল খেলে ফুসফুস ১৩৮ মিলিলিটার বেশি বাতাস ধারণ করতে পারে। যা অন্যদের তুলনায় অনেক বেশি। এছাড়া এর পেকটিন ল্যাক্টিক অ্যাসিড সুরক্ষিত রাখতে এবং কোলনে উপস্থিত ব্যাকটেরিয়া ভালোভাবে বৃদ্ধিতে সাহায্য করে। যা পরবর্তিতে পাচনতন্ত্রের স্বাস্থ্য ভালো রাখতে সহায়তা করে। এছাড়াও পেকটিন টক্সিনের পরিমাণ কমাতে এবং ক্যান্সার সৃষ্টিকারী উপাদান কারসিনোজেন্স দূর করতে সাহায্য করে।
বিকাল বা রাতে আপেল খাওয়া হলে তা হজম ও অন্ত্রের কাজে ব্যাঘাত ঘটায়। এর অর্থ হল, রাতে আপেল খাওয়া হলে গ্যাসের সমস্যা হয় এবং পরে অনেকটা সময় অস্বস্তি সৃষ্টি করে।
পুষ্টিগুণে আপেল খাবারের মধ্যে বেশ উচ্চস্থানে থাকলেও এই আপেলের বীজের মধ্যেই লুকিয়ে রয়েছে মারাত্মক বিষ। যে কারণে আপেলের কাণ্ড এবং বীজ ফেলে খাওয়ার নিয়ম প্রচলিত রয়েছে। চিকিৎসকরা জানিয়েছেন, আপেলের বীজে অ্যামিগাডলিন থাকে। যা আমাদের শরীরে উৎসেচকের সংস্পর্শে এসে সায়ানাইড উৎপন্ন করে। শরীরে চিনির সঙ্গে সায়ানাইড মিশে হাইড্রোজেন সায়ানাইডে পরিণত হয়। যা থেকে মৃত্যু পর্যন্ত হতে পারে।
সায়ানাইড অন্যতম কুখ্যাত বিষ। সারা বিশ্বে রাসায়নিকের সাহায্যে আত্মহত্যা ও খুনের ঘটনায় এবং যুদ্ধক্ষেত্রে সবচেয়ে বেশি ব্যবহৃত হয়েছে সায়ানাইড। এই রাসায়নিক মস্তিষ্কে অক্সিজেন প্রবাহ রুখে দিতে পারে। আপেল ছাড়াও এপ্রিকট, চেরি, প্লাম, পিচের মতো ফলের বীজে সায়ানাইড থাকে। এই সব বীজের শক্ত খোলসের মধ্যে অ্যামিগাডলিন থাকে।
২০০টা আপেলের বীজ বেটে খেলে (১ কাপ) খেলে তা শরীরের পক্ষে ভয়াবহ হতে পারে। সায়ানাইড আমাদের হার্ট ও মস্তিষ্ককে অচল করে দেয়। কোমায় চলে যাওয়া, এমনকী মৃত্যুর ঘটনাও ঘটতে পারে। বেঁচে থাকলেও হার্ট ও মস্তিষ্ক কোন না কোন ভাবে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত হবে। সাধারণভাবে সায়ানাইড শরীরে গেলে হার্টঅ্যাটাক, শ্বাসরুদ্ধ হয়ে যাওয়া, খিঁচুনি, অজ্ঞান হয়ে যাওয়ার মতো সমস্যা হতে পারে। অল্প পরিমাণ পেটে গেলে মাথা ধরা, বমি, পেট ব্যথা, দুর্বলতা দেখা দিতে পারে।
ঠিত কতগুলো আপেলের বীজ শরীরের জন্য ক্ষতিকারক হতে পারে তা নির্ভর করে ওজনের উপর। সাধারণত ০.৫ থেকে ৩.৫ মিলিগ্রাম সায়ানাইডই মানুষের শরীরের জন্য বিষাক্ত হয়ে উঠতে পারে। আপেলের ধরন ও ব্যক্তিগত সহ্যশক্তির উপরও ক্ষতির পরিমাণ নির্ভর করে। ১ গ্রাম আপেল বীজ গুঁড়োর মধ্যে ০.০৬-০.২৪ মিলিগ্রাম সায়ানাইড থাকে।
আপেলের বীজ গিলে ফেললে খাদ্যনালী বা পেটের কিছু সমস্যা হতে পারে। তাই সাবধান থাকতে বীজ পরিষ্কার করে ফেলে তবেই আপেল খান। যদি ভুলবশত আপেলের বীজ মুখে চলে গিয়ে থাকে, তা হলে বোঝা মাত্র মুখ থেকে ফেলে দেওয়াই ভাল।