Dec 2019 – HealthOpinia

Read: ~ 3.0 min (Words: ~ 510)

Our body clock, metabolism and digestion interact in complex ways – meaning it’s not just what we eat, but when we eat, that matters.

When young adults or working men gain weight, oftentimes it’s blamed on the substitution of home-cooked meals for ready meals and fast food.

Recently scientists are wondering an additional suspect: circadian disruption, brought about by a culture of late-night eating, drinking, and inconsistent sleep patterns.

Simple view till recent considered weight gain as a simple matter of the quantity and type of food consumed, and its offset with the number of calories lost on account of exercise. However increasing evidence points to the importance of timing of food intake.

The idea that our response to food varies at different times of day dates back a long way. Modern science suggests that there is plenty of truth in that ancient wisdom.

Recent studies suggest consuming most of the daily intake calories at breakfast helps a great deal in loosing weight than eating most of most of those calories at dinner. Modern day lifestyle may result in more than thirty percent of our our calorific intake after 6 pm.

Complex bodily processes, such as the absorption, digestion and metabolism of various nutrients, fats and carbohydrates from the food call for well-timed coordination of numerous sub-processes in the stomach, liver, pancreas, gut etc. If the signaling and switching between this circuitry gets jumbled up, the system becomes less efficient and weak, and over the long term may even get impaired leading to risk of diseases.

The “circadian” clocks in the body are tuned to regularly anticipate the events in our environment, such as availability of food. In turn, this infers that different biochemical reactions are more favored at specific times of the day, allowing internal organs to switch and align.

It’s only in our interest that we try best for greater consistency in the timing of our meals and other functions like sleep.

Original BBC story: Click here

HO Notes:

Circadian rhythm is one of the fundamental natural constituent of our bodies and minds. Any consistent adverse violation of that is bound to negatively affect our physical and mental health.

Almost every animal, including humans, evolved on this planet with a very strong 24-hour rhythm in light and darkness, and the associated rhythms in eating and fasting.

At HO, we offer sound time-tested advise for health recovery and gain through improvement in lifestyle and aligning it with the natural rhythms. If interested, please feel free to contact us.

Read: ~ 2.0 min (Words: ~ 350)

What if there is something in your cupboard that could extend your life ? What if there is a super-food that would make you live longer? And what if it’s cheap and widely available in the supermarket ?

Naturally it reduces the chances of debilitating heart attacks and strokes as well as life-long diseases such as type-2 diabetes. And it also helps keep your weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels down. What could it be ? ? ?

It’s FIBER ! A major study has been investigating how much a humble fiber one really needs be eat. And the study found that there are huge health benefits.

The evidence is now overwhelming and fiber is a game-changer that people have to start doing something about. It’s well known for stopping constipation – but its health benefits are much broader than that.

How much fiber is needed? : Well … a minimum of 25g of fibre per day is an “adequate” amount. The real benefits come from pushing it past 30g.

The problem? : Most people are eating less than 20g of fiber a day. The amount of fiber in any food is relatively less. Fiber is present in fruit, vegetables, wholegrain bread, pasta, pulses such as beans, lentils and chickpeas, as well as nuts and seeds. But a banana that weighs about 120g has only about 3g of fiber.

Increasing fiber in diet is not as easy as it sounds. The tips and tricks range from cooking potatoes with the skin on to adding some chickpeas, beans or lentils in a curry to increasing portions of fruit or vegetables.

Fiber makes one feel full and has an effect on the way fat is absorbed in the small intestine. But more importantly in the large intestines, the fiber feeds the gut bacteria, which have many healthy effects for the whole body.

Original BBC article: Click here

HO Notes:

Fiber is an essential constituent of any good diet and results in ample health benefits as well a positive lifespan effects. However given our modern lifestyle and food habits, there is a need to make deliberate efforts to maintain the recommended level of fiber in the diet. Our health is closely linked to the health of our gut and health of our gut is closely linked to the sufficient amount of fiber in the food.