Prebiotics May Help You Beat Stress and Get Good Sleep

What are prebiotic really? Are they a food fad? While people were just about warming up to the concept of probiotics, there suddenly came in prebiotics claiming to be better than the other. Gut bacteria or probiotics need to feed on certain fibers in order to perform better and help improve your gut environment so as various metabolic processes can be carried out efficiently by the body. But the acidic content of our stomach most often hampers the growth of these microorganisms, along with our habits such as drinking hot…

Love Salt a Bit Too Much? It Could Be Dangerous For Your Heart

Come summer, come winter, we Indians love salty food. We can’t imagine snack time without munching on chatpata fries, samosas, chaats and other namkeens. While most of us are aware of the fact that too much salt is not good for our health, we often turn a blind eye, or forget to keep a check amidst all the celebrations and get-togethers. Just a little pinch of it can transform an ordinary dish into a lip-smacking treat. The truth is salt as an ingredient is not completely bad for our health.…

Food and Mood: 10 Foods That Can Cheer You Up on a Bad Day

We know that sweet treats or your favourite foods can make you happy and turn things around on a low day but we’re talking science. Some foods are known to transform your mood because of certain compounds that they contain. A lot of research has shown that our diet can affect our mood. The theory is simple – the food we eat can bring about certain changes in our brain structure which can affect your mood and behaviour. There are also several factors that can affect your feelings. These simple…

Yoga Can Help Fight Back Pain: 4 Effective Poses You Must Try

Back pain can be caused by simplest of things. One of the most common reasons would certainly include sitting all day long with minimal physical activity. Wrong sitting posture, excessive driving, wrong sleeping posture or just an old injury resurfacing can be few factors contributing to that nagging back pain. In some cases skeletal imbalance or morbid obesity are also to blame. “The muscles between your shoulder blades, the Rhomboid and Trapezius muscles, work hard to keep your head straight in line with the centre of gravity.  When these are…

A Super-Early Dinner Can Burn More Fat, Study Finds

Eating all your meals within a six-hour window sounds like some sort of fad diet (and a recipe for midnight fridge raids). But new research study suggests that having your dinner before 2 p.m.(!)—or skipping it entirely—actually reduces hunger cravings and boosts fat burn. Before you sign on for the super early–bird special, however, here’s what you should know. The study’s preliminary results (not yet published in an academic journal) were presented this week at the Obesity Society’s annual meeting. It’s the first human trial of “early time-restricted feeding,” a strategy in which…

10 Delicious and Healthy Protein Snacks to Up Your Energy Levels

Once, while I was travelling in Gujarat, I got myself invited to a breakfast at the home of an elderly couple. The breakfast was splendid. They served steaming, crunchy vadai, buttery aloo parathas, gajar halwa, etc. But the thing that stood out in my memory was the chilla that was served to me that morning. Hot, crisp and fresh off the tawa, it had been prepared using moong dal, not the traditional besan, and boy, was it delicious. The lady explained that she had made the clever substitution because the…