Health side effects of Soy food
Over the past decade, soy has been hailed as a wonder health food. Newspapers and magazines have gone on about the benefits of soy. On multiple ocassions, when we talk to people in India wanting to start a fitness program, they’ll say to me .. “I know, I should eat soy to lose weight”. This statement amazes us!
How did soy based foods become the bane of new age health foods in India?
First of all, soy does not make you lose weight. Soy is a source of plant based protein. Nutritionists recommend it to vegetarians to increase their protein intake. An average Indian diet contains relatively low amounts of protein. So, adding some soy based protein helps to increase the protein intake. It is normally recommended to decrease some carbohydrate and fat intake and replace it with this soy based protein. The idea is that protein takes longer to digest in your system than carbs, so it keeps you feeling full for longer. Also, protein is a basic building block for muscles, so its helps muscle growth.
But to get this benefit of protein, you don’t have to eat soy. You can get protein from meat, dairy, lentils, eggs or even protein supplements.
The other point of caution is that soy contains plant hormones called Phytoestrogens. These plant hormones have shown links to health risks in both men and women. In men, it has been linked to a decrease in male fertility. Also, it promotes the production of estrogen in the body, which is a female hormone. Effects of increasing the female hormone in men results in an increase in physical feminine traits such as man-breasts, etc. A study also linked soy with lowering testosterone levels in men. Hearsay is that tofu has been given in Buddhist monasteries to reduce libido.
As we know that it promotes estrogen production (female hormone) in the body, it is not recommended for women to increase soy consumption, since increased levels of estrogen in the female body has been linked with breast cancer.
Its important to note that soy is consumed in fermented (miso, tempeh) and non fermented (tofu, soy milk, soy oil) state. The non fermented state is high in phytoestrogens. Non fermented soy products are a modern invention and consumed in large amounts.
As is obvious, that the jury is still out on the real health benefits and risks of soy. The conclusion on all of this is that if you like soy, enjoy it in moderation.
Doing crunches for weight loss? Don’t waste your time
If you’ve tried to lose weight around your belly or hips, we’re positive someone you know suggested that you do ab crunches (commonly known as sit ups). We’re also positive, that the person suggesting this would not exactly be a picture of fitness.
We say this because, there is actually a huge myth that sit-ups can help you lose weight or get a six pack.
Tropicdiver's daughter @flickr
We’ll show you how this is a myth. I first want you to understand a basic principle of losing weight or fat. To lose weight, you have to burn calories. To burn calories, you need to exercise. And exercises vary in the amount of calorie burning. Some exercises are more effective than others. The number of calories burnt per exercise is dependent on three factors- the amount of muscle moved, the distance of muscle movement.
‘Amount of muscle moved’ means that if you move larger muscles for the exercise, you burn more calories.
Say for example your thigh muscles are much larger than your bicep muscles. So, a squat (thigh exercise) burns more calories than a bicep exercise.
The ‘distance of the muscle movement’ is just that. If you move the same muscle through a larger distance, you burn more calories.
Now Ab Crunches or Sit Ups work your abdominals muscles. These are a set of 8 small muscles in your abdominal region. When you perform sit ups, it only works this set of small muscles. Since the muscles are small, the calories you burn are also small. Actually, too small to make a dent in your fight against fat!
In fact, researchers at the University of Virginia found that it takes 250,000 crunches to burn 1 pound of fat — that’s 100 crunches a day for 7 years!
So, if someone swears by doing crunches to lose weight, tell them to go take a hike. Crunches help you work those abdominal muscles, but not lose fat on that belly. To lose fat, you need to burn more calories. Crunches don’t burn nearly as much calories as other exercises, like squats or push-ups. The key to burning more calories and building muscle is to work out larger muscles, like your legs, chest, shoulders and back muscles.
So to get a six pack, keep your crunches only as an additive to your workout. Kind of like dessert, not an everyday thing.
Push Ups- Best exercise for upper body & abs
If you had to pick one exercise to build everything in your upper body, it would be the mighty push-up. There isn’t any gym equipment that can replace the old school push-up. It works your chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, back and abdominal muscles.
Strong Woman performing Push Up (fer@flickr)
Done right, it works your whole upper body, including your core. And as a test of fitness, it is probably one of the best exercises out there. A push-up tests how much strength you have in your upper body, to lift your own weight.
So, how do you correctly perform a pushup?
Kneel on a mat or the floor. Bend over placing your palms on the floor just outside your shoulders. Straighten your legs so the only contact points with the floor are your palms and the front of your soles. Keep your legs straight, and in line with your torso, ensuring your back is also straight. This is your starting position.
Now, slowly lower your body by bending your arms, till you’re almost touching the floor. Pause for a moment at the bottom, and lift yourself back into the starting position.
If you cannot perform a push-up, then make it easier by supporting yourself at the knees. So, your contact points with the floor are your palms and your lower legs. This is your starting position. Lower yourself in the same manner
This is also called a girl push-up; though I’m always impressed by women who can do full push ups. If you can’t do a proper push up, start with this, but build yourself towards doing proper push ups.
Ladies, the push up is for you too. It’s a great exercise to get those toned arms, well shaped shoulders and a hot bod. Push-ups will not only burn calories while you’re working out. But you will build some muscle, which helps you burn calories even as you sleep! And note that you will not get bulky by doing push-ups (You need the male hormone testosterone and lots of food to make your bulky. Testosterone is a male hormone, so don’t worry about it).
So, drop now and give me 30… Seriously, go and do 30 push-ups, now!
To really lose weight, get on a proper weight loss plan. Or see any of our customized fitness plans, like personal training, diabetes management, hypothyroid, pregnancy weight loss, and more..
Healthy Banana Dessert Recipe
If you’ve got some sweet cravings, try this for complete sensory satisfaction.
Ingredients: 1 slice multigrain bread, 1 tbsp honey, half banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter.
Note: All these ingredients are Fitho recommended foods.
Healthy Dessert- roland@flickr
Toast the bread, spread the peanut butter on it. Slice the banana and place it on the toast. Drizzle it with the honey.
It is just delicious, supremely satisfying and healthy. The sweetness of honey and banana will fix your sweet tooth. The peanut butter will make it decadent and the unsaturated fat (healthy fat) will keep you feeling full longer. As will the fiber and protein from the multigrain bread. Besides those, this dish is loaded with vitamins, antioxidants and minerals. It will also give you long lasting energy. Great snack to power a long workout (have it 45 minutes before your workout)
As you bite into it, its a sensory overload. Make yourself one and slowly savour the taste.
Lose weight to save the environment
Besides the basic advantages of losing weight like a healthier heart, lesser fat, healther mind and a hotter body 
.. it even helps the environment.
When you lose weight, you need fewer calories to do the same things, so you take in fewer calories. To take in these fewer calories, you will consume less food. Less food consumed, means more food for others and less pressure on the environment to produce it. This makes an even bigger dent, when you’re a meat eater. To produce 1 kg of meat, the animal/bird needs to eat a lot multiple times that amount of food. So you can eat less meat and feel good about saving the environment.
Now, most of us travel by cars, trains, planes, etc. When we weigh less, our cars burn less fuel to get from one place to another. Airline companies realize this- in 2007 there was a cost cutting proposal with a large American airline to charge over weight people the ticket cost for 2 seats, since they weigh much more and overflow into the other seat, so much that no one can sit next to them. (I’ve had a few such experiences during my years in the US) We all know that Americans are the fattest people in the world. We are far from there, but with the rapidly developing economy and easier access to food, we’re on our way to get fat. China is already facing an obesity epidemic, even among kids.
Putting this in an Indian context, an overweight family of 4 weighs about 70 kgs more than a fit family of 4. That’s more than the weight of an average Indian male.
So, if you want to rid those love handles and care about the environment, start moving and save the world!
Got some more ideas on how weight loss can save the world. Then, please comment and share with the rest of us.
Is health ignorance ‘cool’?
A personal contact recently had a life threatening experience. This guy is pretty jovial, 28 years old, is would be considered thin by Indian standards. Though, I would like to put him in the ‘skinny and fat‘ category. You’ll see why.
We’ll call him SnF. He is always willing to eat all the junk offered to him and seems like a happy go lucky guy. On a recent flight, he suddenly experience uneasiness, some chest pain, and this led to temporary paralysis neck down. Once the plane landed he had to be hauled off in a wheel chair. Was quite shaken from the experience.
His doctor thinks it could be a heart issue. SnF is also prone to genetic diabetes. So, his doctor advised he eat healthier and be more cautious of his diet. He told me about this incident, making fun of the doctor’s advice, “You know me. You think I’ll even try to eat better? I might as well enjoy what I do. Who cares about getting sick”
It made me wonder what could it be about SnF’s callous attitude towards his health- he’s not even 30 and is already facing health issues. But even then doesn’t care about taking any precautions. I think he feels that it makes him cool to seem aloof to ‘minor’ issues like health.
I meet a lot of such people in their 20s/30s who seem to throw all health caution to the wind. They’re avid smokers, drinkers and most of them are really out of shape. They know they’re so unfit, that if they attempt to improve their fitness, it could be a huge task. And they’re not willing to seem like they are trying. It is the fear of not always seeming cool that stands between them and better health.
Normally I don’t write about social issues of fitness, but this stark attitude difference between young affluent people in India and their counterparts in the developed Western countries. It might be partly attributed to the lack of physical work when you’re affluent in India. But I find this very concerning. As the Indian economy progresses, access to high calorie food will also increase, and so will obesity, diabetes and
other health related disorders.
How to really lose weight and get fit?
Find it hard to keep your weight down? At some point in our lives, most of us have attempted to improve our fitness levels- whether that meant weight loss, or muscle gain, or just better fitness level. Those lucky ones who have seen an improvement, have also seen how hard it is to maintain the new fitness level. Ever wonder why that is?
How to really lose weight (arkworld@flickr)
Its partly physiological, and partly psychological. Lets first look at weight loss/fat loss. When we are at a certain body weight, our brain and body accepts it, and figures this is our steady state and has a goal of maintaining that. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories, but that keeps your body feeling hungry. Your body is not used to your new eating style, so the brain keeps trying to signal to you to consume those remaining calories. So, it uses all means possible to manipulate you. Either you feel your stomach grumble- thats due to a hormone called ghrelin that is a signal from your body to ‘eat’. Or you start thinking about high calorie delicacies. If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll start thinking about a big chunk of rich chocolate mousse, or whatever is your weakness. It makes you grab whatever junk comes into sight. Your body sees junk food as a calorie source and a weakness for you, so it signals you to eat them.
This is also the reason that crash diets don’t work. First a very low calorie diet is not sustainable and it deprives your brain of satisfaction, so at some point your brain takess over and makes you go on a binge after your mini diet session. (and you thought that your brain was noble). As a result of a crash dieting, some people actually gain weight in the long run.
So, they key to losing weight and maintaining it, is a strong will- having control over your food related urges. A strong will also help you to exercise when you need to.
Even when you’ve lost weight, your brain will try to get you to eat more to get back to your old weight, till it gets used to your new body weight. It normally takes about 6 months for your brain to get used to the new body weight.
Similarly, when you gain muscle, you need to eat more to consume more calories to feed those muscles. But since your brain is used to consuming only a certain amount of calories, it will make you feel full (even sick) when you start consuming more. But like with weight loss, you really need to take control of that brain and eat more calories. If you trying to gain good weight, you need to ensure you’re getting good calories.
Once you’ve gained some muscle mass, your is still not used to it in the short run and tries all tricks to get you to lose it- by not making you hungry for longer periods. So, you consume less calories and eventually lose the muscle (connect between not eating enough and muscle loss). So, you need to force yourself to get those extra calories till your body accepts it. In my experience, it takes less time for the body to get used to a higher body weight. That might be the reason that some people gain weight easier than lose weight
Whatever you’re trying to achieve, its important that you be mentally strong to control the urges of your body and brain. Don’t let these urges get in the way of your resolve to be fitter.
Its important to note that having the right goal and the right information to achieve the goal is key.
Water- Health Benefits
Have you heard about the health drink that boosts energy levels, removes toxins from your body, aids in weight loss, helps maintain healthy skin, increases mental acuity, and reduces the risk of heart attack? We’re not talking about acai, mangosteen, or some gingko biloba based exotic juice drink. We are talking about good, old fashioned water.
Water Glass- good drink for health (fhandelman@flickr)
A University of Connecticut study found that men who drank plenty of water before lifting weights were able to complete 17 percent more reps in their sets than those who weren’t properly hydrated. The central nervous system slows down your muscle activation when you’re thirsty. So drinking water before, during, and after your workout will keep you from falling short of your goals due to this physiological response.
Water makes up about 70 percent of our body- Blood is 83 percent water, muscles are 75 percent water, the brain is 74 percent water, and bone is 22 percent water. There’s little doubt that water is vital to your health and performance.
So, grab that bottle of H2O and start chugging.
To really lose weight, get on a proper weight loss plan. Or see any of our customized fitness plans, like personal training, diabetes management, hypothyroid, pregnancy weight loss, and more..
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