Food more than just calories

My face when someone says if I follow any diet?

If you have PCOD, lose weight, 

If you have a hormonal problem, lose weight,

If you want to be healthy, lose weight.

 

Being healthy doesn't mean losing a few inches. 

 

Yes. When you start taking care of your body, you might lose weight. But, if your goal is to lose weight, it can be achieved by harming your body as well.

Food that we eat is more than just calories in:

 

1. Quantity of food to eat differs from person to person:

 

Modern science states a diet to remain healthy, but it keeps changing. It depended on age and gender. But, some people (of the same age and size) require more food than others.

When you were a baby, your mom pats your back to make you burp. Do you know why?

That's the indication of satiety. Your stomach needs to be only 1/3 full. The rest 2/3 of the space is for air and digestive juices.

So some people need three chapatis to feel full some need five.

2. Rules while eating:

 

Food should be hot(so that it is easily digestible), appropriate quantity(based on your activity level, height, weight, and many more), without talking, without distraction(concentrating on the food), eating slowly in the right mindset(being calm).

When you follow these rules, your body will guide you to how much food you need and indicates satiety.

3. Digestion varies depending on the time of day:

 

In the morning, when digestion is slowly increasing, consume fruits and vegetables, fats, and grains(still not heavy on the stomach).

During mid-day, the digestion is the highest, so you can eat the heaviest meal.

At night, digestion is the lowest so, eat foods that are easy on the stomach.

4. Cooked food is best for digestion:

 

Raw foods take a lot of digestive enzymes to digest. But in the west, it is advised to eat raw salad because they think cooking will destroy the vitamin and minerals.

The nutrients get absorbed by the body only after proper digestion. The body can digest easily only when the food is hot and cooked.

That doesn't mean you can reheat cold food. Food(after being cooked) becomes stale in a few hours. Meaning: it loses its nutrients. 

So, it is equalizing to eating empty calories.

5. The process before cooking is equally crucial:

 

Not only is cooking the food important. The way it is prepared before cooking is also equally important.

Have you ever thought about why we soak rice?

When we soak rice in water, the water gets absorbed into the rice. The water in the rice heats the starch during cooking.

The amount of time taken in soaking affects the texture of rice. 

For example, if it is oversoaked, the texture becomes squishy.

Also, the rice is rinsed to remove the thin layer outside the rice. It is difficult to digest by the stomach.

Tip: After washing the rice, soak the rice for 30 mins and drink that water. It will reduce the heat in the body, thus curing ulcers and pimples.

6. Fasting:

 

Sometimes abstaining from eating and giving rest to the body is equally important compared to eating.

Fasting, in the modern era, is seen as a social activity. People used to fast to raise awareness. 

But fasting was practiced for centuries, during Diwali, Navratri, Eid, etc.

You experience fasting on a day-to-day basis also. You abstain from eating for 9 to 10 hrs between dinner to the next day's breakfast.

When fasted in the right way, it is more powerful than medicine.

During fasting(abstaining from grains, fruits, vegetables, milk products), the body focuses on self-cleaning and uses the stored food for energy. The body starts using protein only when it enters starvation mode(when the body uses all the stored food)

The body removes toxins in the form of sweating and excretion. When there are excess toxins, it is removed by pimples, vomiting, diaherria, and many more.

During fasting, our body removes toxins from our body in the form of pressure to poop, bad breath, or acidic urine in the morning.

 

There is more to show food is more than just calories

I will do a new blog about it later.