Fun Facts

It is common to hear advice from friends, well-wishers and other people to reduce the intake of fat content in our daily consumption, especially if you happen to be slightly overweight or obese and find difficulty moving around with a heavier body.

While some amount of fat intake is inevitable and also necessary for the body, it is the excess fat content that is a cause of concern, because excessive stock of fat in the body is one of the reasons for putting on weight. Another reason for putting on weight is not burning enough calories in relation to the amount of energy you muster from the food you consume.

Fat is not only responsible for putting on additional weight. It is considered harmful as excessive fat might lead to coronary heart diseases and atherosclerosis. Fat is further classified into unsaturated fat and saturated fat. Saturated fat contains only saturated fatty acid radicals. Some common examples of food that contain a higher proportion of saturated fat include dairy products such as cream, cheese, ghee and butter and other products such as coconut oil, chocolate, and palm kernel oil. Some of the animal fats such as lard, tallow and fatty meat also contain more of saturated fat.

While we cannot totally avoid consuming some or all of the above-mentioned products, what we can do effectively is to reduce the content of saturated fat and replace with effective alternatives that are free from saturated fat or have low saturated fat content.

1.While preparing food involving meat, please ensure that you choose only leaner cuts of meat and also remove fat content in the meat wherever it is possible to remove.
2.You can try to downsize the intake of meat content in your daily diet program
3.Avoid using butter or margarine for cooking and instead replace them with olive oil or vegetable oil
4.Avoid using meat in stir-fries and instead replace that with nuts or tofu.
5.While eating sandwich, try to replace the cheese, which gels with sandwich, with avocado slices.
6.Avoid using fried potato and instead eat more of baked potatoes. Adding low-fat yogurt instead of a sour cream along with potato will be better.
7.Look for milk with lower-fat content instead of the normal milk that has more fat.
8.Use more of buttermilk in mashed potatoes and salad dressings, and avoid adding butter or mayonnaise.
9.Reduce or eliminate the use of meat, if you a non-veggie, and groundnuts, if you are a veggie, while preparing casseroles. Instead you can use more of vegetables such as beans.
10.If you are fond of desserts and ice creams after a meal, try to replace the ice cream and desserts with low-fat frozen yogurt.

The above-mentioned suggestions, if implemented and practiced, can help you avoid the ill-effects of saturated fat and will help in avoiding heart related diseases or other health related problems.

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Do you know which disease or ailment is one of the major causes for death, especially among the children living in a town or city?

It is Asthma – a type of lung condition that is chronic and gets aggravated when exposed to smoke, very cold air and some types of pollutants.

This chronic disease is a puzzle to the doctors as they could not pin-point one major reason or a cause for the incidence of this disease, at the first instance. It has been found that asthma is prevalent in some families for generations and as such, this disease is tabled as a hereditary one, though there is no concrete evidence, and as such, hereditary might be one of the factors. What all doctors agree is that asthma is basically a disease related to the lung and prefer to treat it only in such a manner.

What are the symptoms of asthma?

The major symptoms of this lung-related disease include chest tightness, trouble in breathing, and wheezing. These difficulties arise because the tiny muscles present in the path leading the air into the lung portion constrict, making it difficult to inhale or exhale, or in other words, causing broncho spasm.

Though this is a chronic disease, there is no reason to worry or fear, as you might experience an asthma attack only on specific occasions such as exposure to smoke or other contaminants present in the atmosphere, and if you are free from these hassles, you are a normal person and, as such, need not panic or worry.

It has been found that asthma attacks disappear after a period of time. Some thing like the problems of wheezing or chest tightness that is experienced in early years, especially among children, might not be a problem after the child grows up and the immune system gets stronger with age.

What could be the possible remedy for this lung-related disease?

As is with any other disease, prevention of the disease is the best than searching for treatment and remedies. In the case of asthma, the disease is related to lungs. You try to identify the triggers that cause some breathing problem or wheezing and stay away from those triggers. If you fear that cold climate or very cold air might affect your breathing, then protect yourself adequately in cold temperature and do not expose yourself to very cold conditions or air without precautions.

How to treat or overcome asthma?

As the disease is primarily related to lung and lack of immunity to outside atmosphere, there are no specific kinds of foods that can help you overcome or eliminate asthma.

As such, the golden advice of consuming more of vegetables and fruits in your daily intake of food can be followed to overcome this chronic problem. You can stand better-off if you consume at least 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. It would be better if your daily intake include some amount of Vitamin C, in the form of citrus fruit, because Vitamin C is found to be effective in promoting a more healthy immune system, especially among children.

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Some people complain that they experience pain in the upper right abdomen when the gallbladder contracts to release bile after a meal.

One of the possible reasons for this pain in the right abdomen might be due to the presence of gallstones in the gallbladder in our body.

What are gallstones?

Gallstones are nothing but hardened cholesterol or tiny mass made up of bilirubin and calcium. As part of the digestion process, the liver produces a substance called bile to digest fats in the small intestine. This bile in concentrated form is stored in the gallbladder and contains high levels of cholesterol and the pigment bilirubin. The fluid and the pigment precipitate in the gallbladder as crystals to form stones, and these stones are called as gallstones.

How gallstones form or develop?

Gallstones can develop in both sexes, but they are most common in overweight middle-aged women. They also tend to run in families. Women, especially those who have borne children, are thought to be particularly vulnerable because of the high levels of blood cholesterol and bile that develop late in pregnancy and in the weeks following childbirth. It is also believed that the female hormones progesterone and estrogen, whether occuring naturally or taken in oral contraceptives, may play a role in gallstone formation. Crass weight-loss diets are believed to be another precipitating factor.

Symptoms of gallstones

Many people never know that they have gallstones because there are no symptoms. For some, however, the presence of gallstones can cause pain in the upper right abdomen when the gallbladder contracts to release bile after a meal.

Treatment for gallstones

The usual treatment for gallstones is the surgical removal of the gallbladder called cholecystectomy. This procedure can be performed by conventional surgery or by laparascopy, which involves a tiny incision and a brief stay at the hospital. Another option is a procedure called lithotripsy, which uses shock waves to break up the gallstones.

How to avoid gallstones

Gallstones are formed of cholesterol. As such, it is advisable to eliminate fats and cholesterol from their diets. One should maintain the habit of eating breakfast every day without fail and also take meals in small quantities more frequently than resorting to one-time heavy meal.. People with gallstones should avoid foods that cause them discomfort. Their diet should emphasize starchy foods, with lots of fruits and vegetables, moderate servings of protein, and small amounts of fat. Alcohol should be used in moderation as the gallbladder disease also affects the liver and the pancreas.

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