Can eating bananas lead to weight increase?

December 26th, 2011 Rosn Dhakal

When you want to lose weight, you start looking at the items you eat and try to eliminate certain foods that can increase your weight. However, bananas are not the item that you need not eliminate from your diet to lose weight. Bananas are an important source of some essential nutrients which are essential for your body. In fact, many health experts include bananas in diet of people who want to lose weight.

A medium banana has about 115 calories and is an important source of some essential nutrients. Some of the essential nutrients that a banana contains include 450 mg of potassium, 1 gm of protein, vitamin C and essential dietary fibers. A medium banana also contains 30 gm carbohydrate, of which 19 gm comes from sugar and 8 gm comes from starch.

Even though bananas are fat-free, they have high sugar content. Natural sugar is broken down into glucose to meet the immediate requirements of the body. Once the immediate energy requirements are met, the excess glucose is stored in skeletal muscles and liver. This glucose is used to meet the future energy requirements of the body. If the capacity of your body to store glycogen exceeds, the remaining glucose gets stored as fat.

Eating bananas is usually a part of balanced diet program and will not make you fat. About 70 percent of banana’s weight is water and it also has high fiber content. Such foods are called low-energy-dense food and these foods are usually suggested by health experts to people who want to lose weight.

So should people who want to lose weight eat bananas? Yes, they can eat bananas in moderate amounts as it does not lead to weight increase. When you eat many bananas, it will create calorie surplus in your body. These calories will eventually get converted into fat and will lead to weight increase. Even though eating bananas does not result in weight increase, it is not recommended for people who are suffering from diabetes.

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Healthy diet can reduce the affect of genes that cause heart attack

October 24th, 2011 Rosn Dhakal

Even though many people are aware of the health benefits of eating healthy food, most people don’t know that eating the right food that mitigate the risk of heart attack. In a recent research that was conducted by Sonia S. Anand, it was found that diet that is high in vegetables and fruits can help in reducing the risk of heart attack.

Many people have a high risk of heart disease because of their genetic structure. The finding of the research conducted by Sonia S. Anand who is McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada can help people who have genes that can cause heart problems.

On an average 1 in 2 people carry at least one copy of genes that can cause heart problems and 1 in 5 people carry two copies of this gene.

Sonia and other researchers evaluated how diet could affect the chromosome 9p21 that was one of the main causes of heart attack and other heart diseases. The team studied how both healthy and unhealthy food can have an impact on these chromosomes. For the study, the team evaluated the affect of the diet on 27,000 people that included South Asians, Arabs, Latin Americans, Chinese and Europeans.

To arrive at the conclusion, the researchers conducted two different studies – the FINRISK that was conducted in Finland and the INTERHEART. For INTERHEART, the researchers conducted study on 4,294 who did not have heart attacks and 3,820 people who had heart problems. For FINRISK study, the researchers studied 18, 125 people who did not have heart attacks and 1014 that had heart problems.

For the INTERHEART study, the researchers made a table that gave scores to people based on the food they consumed. The scores took into account the fruits and vegetables consumed by people and the unhealthy food like salty snacks, fried foods and meat consumed by people.

For the FINRISK study, the participants were given a questionnaire that had 130 food items. The participants were given scores based on the food consumed by them. People who consumed fruits, vegetables and berries were given a higher score when compared to people who did not eat healthy food.

Researchers found that heart attack risk in people who ate unhealthy food was 30 percent more than people who did not eat healthy food. When people ate healthy food it lowered the effect of the genes that caused heart attack.

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How to eat healthy food at a restaurant

October 14th, 2011 Rosn Dhakal

If you are one of those who loves eating out, then this article will help you in maintaining your health. Most of us love eating food in our favorite restaurant because it gives us a break from our daily routine. However, eating out everyday can have serious health consequences. Therefore it is important that you take special care when you eat in your favorite restaurant.

When you eat home food, you are aware of the ingredients used and the health benefits of the ingredients used. However, it is virtually impossible to find the ingredients used by the manufacturer in your favorite restaurant. Most of the ingredients used by the cook are camouflaged by the tempting aroma and the delicious taste of the food. Therefore it is important that you keep a tab on the food you eat in the restaurants.

When choosing a beverage, it is in your interest to opt for mocktails or fruit juices when dinning in a restaurant. Fruits are recommended by most health experts as it is nutritious and help in removing the antioxidants from the body. Avoid ordering aerated drinks that are acidic and contain artificial sweeteners that can harm your body. If fruit juices are not available, it is best that you drink normal drinking water.

When ordering starters, you can order a dish that is made from fresh vegetables, white meat or fish. Also, make sure no preservatives have been used to prepare the dish. If salads and sprouts are available in the restaurant, make sure you include them in your order. When eating in a restaurant, you must avoid foods that have high levels of saturated fat and trans-fat. Also avoid eating deep fried food and foods that have high salt content. You must also avoid eating foods that contain butter and other high fattening agent that can adversely affect your health.

If you love eating deserts, it is best that you avoid desserts that have high chocolate and sugar. It is best that you order deserts that contain fruits as it will reduce the calorie content of the desert.

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