Diet, Disease & Nutrition - Part1: WATER

This is a hot topic, isn't it???

So, whats the big deal about Nutrition?

Nutrition is where we get our energy from. Its about why we eat, what we eat & how the food we get, affects our body and health. More so, because Nutrition is the next biggest revolution.

Do you know as per World Health Organisation (WHO) research conducted in 2003, only 27% of deaths in India are on account of Infectious diseases and over 73% were attributed to modern day lifestyles diseases like Cardio Vascular Diseases, Cancer, Diabetes, Bone related Problems & Respiratory problems which are all due to improper nutrition. (Deaths due to dieseases only were considered)

http://www.who.int/
http://www.fao.org/

The question is;
How do I bridge the gap? How do I compare my present food intake with the optimum requirement?

Read along as I would give you some details.

Food can be divided into two distinct groups of nutrients:
1. Macro - Water, Carbohydrates, Protein, Fiber and Fat
2. Micro - Vitamins and Minerals, Phytonutrients


Macro Nutrients:

Water:

Did I say Water? Yes I did.
About 60% of body made up of Water. So, the importance of water cannot be undermined. Because, you can live without food for days or sometimes weeks at a time, getting subsistence levels of nutrients by digesting your own muscle and fat. But, without water, you'll die in a matter of days, more quickly if you're in a place which de-hydrates you fast.

What does water do?
1. Regulates body temperature
2. Provides Cushion / Acts as a Shock Absorber
3. Maintains Blood volume
4. Lubricates & Cushions joints
5. Carries Nutrients and Wastes
6. Helps in formation of Cells & Nutrients
7. Participates in Chemical reactions like Digestion, elemination & respiration

How much water do I need to consume?
A dietician would tell, "Equivalent to the energy spent by the body" or "Pregnancy and lactation, exercise, hot environmental temperatures, dry climates and high fiber diets all increase needs for more water". But how much is it exactly? About 2 to 3 liters of water per day.

Special Needs during - Pregnancy & Lactation:
Inadequate water consumption can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, and decreased mental alertness in pregnant women. To the fetus it can mean inadequate nutrient transport, poor waste product removal, an excessively warm maternal environment and insufficient fluid in its amniotic sac. All these effects of dehydration jeopardize fetal growth and development, and in some women can bring about preterm labor and delivery. So, pregnant and lactating women would need an additional 300ml water per day than they'd consume otherwise.

So, whats the best source of Water?
Its Water offcourse. However, it can be a total of Water you drink, milk and fruit / vegetable juices. Leave out coffee, alcohol and other diuretics, they don't count.

As Madhurie Singh said...

Good job Gautam!

May I add here a small experiment I tried after watching Discovery TV. It said whether you drink enough water or not, body has a mechanism to adapt in a weeks' time.
I guess our body does adapt as I could see that my thirst did reduce but the effect on the skin was horrible. It started to look wrinkled!!!
So yes you are right, water is the most important nutrient for healthy living.

Next -> Protein, wait till I post...karo karo thoda intezaar

3 Idiots & Our Dreams!!!

Do you have a Dream/Passion? Do you follow it or have allowed it to escape your thought?

Well, I've had people tell me, oh, dreams never come true. Passion is a rich man's past-time. Is it? Off course dreams don't come through, if we don’t' work them. Yes, we can't follow a passion, if we can't make time for it.

Who do you think comes in our way to follow our dream or pursue our hobby? 99.99% of the times it’s us. Why do I think so?

If our boss says, he'll pay overtime to spend 2hrs extra at work every day, we readily agree to do it. Do we even realize, we're allowing him to exploit our valuable time-bank as he's not allowing us to spend that quality time on our dream/passion. Thereby restricting our long-term growth and assuring our loyalty to the job. We're allowing him to mine our time. The same time, if we could invest in ourselves, may be by doing a certification, follow a passion, work on our dream, do a bit of community service, take a music lesson, spend time with our parents, wife or kids or for that matter our friends etc.. we’d be a better person in the long-run. But, we can’t say ‘No’. We’d rather earn now than think long-term. That’s the difference between an ordinary person and an entrepreneur. We stop dreaming, we stop short of realizing that there’s something beyond just a career/job.

Do we all have time to spare, a survey conducted amongst the top businessmen and entrepreneurs says, "Yes, we all do. Some recongnize it, others don't." So, its how we utilize this spare time, un-productive time, which determines where we go in life. If we allow TV, Beer Bar, Movies to exploit our time & money, well, god save us. Can we delay these things to achieve our dreams or follow our passion? Offcourse we can, if only we could decide.

Was it like that from the time we were kids? No, it wasn’t. When we were kids, we wanted to be a Pilot, an Astronaut, a Lorry driver, a Doctor, Movie star et al in a span of few hours. Why? How? Cause, nobody told us back then, that you can't dream because they don't come true. We were prepared to put in whatever it took. So, what changed when we grew up? We had our parents, teachers, society and peers either stealing our dream/passion or discouraging enough that we not only forgot our dream, but we forgot dreaming all together.

I would like to quote a small story here:

Once upon a time in small village in the northern part of Russia, lived two friends, Ikan and Ivon. They were the best of the buddies’ in-spite of being separated by 5years. Ikan was 7 years and Ivon 12years. They would always play near the lake, sometimes catching a little fish and releasing it back into the lake. They would climb a nearby hill, eat fruits, trouble the other kids, but all in good fun. Then came winter and most of the children were generally indoors. But not Ikan and Ivon, they were fun loving and they would still be found playing near the frozen lake.

One evening, while they were at play, Ivon slipped and fell into a small hole in the frozen lake. Ikan was scared, he called for help and since it was getting dark, all the villagers were either home or on their way back. Time was running out, Ikan thought that if he can’t help his dear friend, no one else would. So, he used a small twig and started to widen the hole. Putting in a lot of work, Ikan managed to pull Ivon out of the lake.

The village head, a very old man had by then organized a search party after their parents raised an alarm. The search party found the two boys near the lake shivering and exhausted. The villagers then put a small fire on the lake-bed for warmth and asked the boys about, what had happened. Upon learning about the incident, no-body were prepared to believe that a 7year old boy could have used a small twig to widen the hole and managed to save his friend much older and obviously heavier than him. They narrated this to the village head who immediately announced a reward for Ikan and asked the villagers:

“Do you know how a small boy could save his heavier friend?”… after a brief silence he said

"Because, Ikan didn’t have people like you, telling him that he could not do it!!!"

That's what I liked in the movie 3-Idiots, we all 'WOW' at it, can we do it> Secret of the ages is, "Just do it!!!"

So, come out of the excuse mentality, follow your dream, at the least make an effort. As someone said:

“Shoot for the stars, you’ll at-least end up on the Moon.”

TRY? Please don't!!!

Something I learnt from my experience with people.

Try - This word assumes that you are going to fail at whatever comes after the word try. For example, "I you'll try and finish this work today..." this really means, "I know you aren't going to get to this. Statistics prove that, 98% of people who say that they're going to 'try' for something seldom do that.

Would you feel good, if???

1. The Pilot of the airline you're flying said, ' We'll try to have a good take off and landing or We'll try to give you a good flight?'

2. The Armed forces chief said, " We'll try to defend our country "

3. The Bride/Bridegroom said, "We're trying to get married on 28th Feb, and we request your presence." Would you attend such a wedding?

So, next time you want to use the word 'try', don't 'try', instead use firm words like ->

I will make it or
I wont make it.
I will do it.
I wont do it.

Clarity of purpose and words gives your life a clear direction.

Only time we're ok hearing the word 'try' is by a doctor operating a sick patient and when everyone's given up hope, more so beacuse doctors always 'Practise'