Good Klostrol Bad Choklet: August 2014

Saturday, 23 August 2014

The human brain

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The human brain is the most discussed and perhaps least understood part of our body. Some 'facts' about this organ are given below. I have no knowledge to comment on them. So accept them or check out yourself separately.
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The human brain is the single most complex thing in the known universe. Even in this time of medical wonders, we still have not been able to uncover the full secrets of this incredible organ. However, we do know some things about the most important organ in the body, and here are some interesting ones you should definitely know about:

1. The belief that humans only use 10% of their brains is incorrect. Each part of the brain has a specific function and the average person uses all the various parts of the brain.

2. Have you ever had such a headache it felt like your brain is going to explode? That's not actually your brain hurting, because the brain has no pain receptors at all. Mother nature assumes you don't need it because it's never exposed (thankfully) and is usually protected by our thick skull.

3.You must think that your buttocks are the fattiest part of the body, but it is in fact the brain with the most fat % in the body, about 60% of it is fat.

4. The brain has a texture similar to tofu, and enough liquid to fill a 2 liter (half a gallon) tank.

5. Thought creates 'pathways' that connect different parts of the brain. The more we repeat a thought, the more that pathway will become more central, wide and stable. That is why it is important not to think over and over about negative things, because they become permanent, and strong, pathways in your mind, and the chances are will force themselves on you more and more.

6. We think about 70,000 thoughts a day. A large part of these are 'automatic' thoughts that we repeat a lot, using our most 'established' thought pathways.

7. Most people dream about 4-7 dreams a night. 50% of those dreams are forgotten in the first minutes after waking. And the one we remember is usually one we were either just dreaming or a mix of all the dreams we had put together. No wonder they always seem so confusing.

8. Sleep is usually the time the brain uses to organize and put together the memories is accumulated throughout the day. And so, in many cases, before making big decisions it's better to 'sleep on it'.

9. The messages between the various brain cells (neurons) are passed in the form of weak electrical pulses. The brain creates 23 watt of electricity while awake, enough to light a lightbulb.

10. While we laugh, about 5 areas lit up in the brain simultaneously. So it's no laughing matter, laughing.

11. The reason tickling makes us laugh is that the brain becomes 'surprised' by this kind of touch, which is first interpreted as a threat. The uncontrollable laughter is actually a panic response by the body. That is why it's not possible to tickle ourselves.

12. The human brain has more 'wrinkles' and crevices than those of other animals. In this way, the brain gets more surface space, while staying at around the same size, and it is part of the reason for our increased intelligence.

13. Brain cells, or neurons, are not only found in the brain, but exist everywhere in the body the brain needs to send orders to, and all of them are connected to the brain.

14. Some archaeological findings think that our cranium has gotten smaller over the ages, but that doesn't mean our brain has become less powerful, only more efficient
15. The brain alone uses 20% of all the oxygen we breathe and over 25% of the sugar we consume. Meaning, deep thoughts might cost the body resources just like sports can. Who said chess players are not athletes too?

16. The female and male sexual hormones cause a different brain to develop. Studies have found siginificant difference in the brain functions of male and female during social situations, decision making, pressure situations and more.

17. The brain isn't fully developed until the teen years are over. Multitasking, showing empathy and good decision making are some of the skills that develop a little later. This, we're sure you'll agree - explains A LOT.

18. The brain is constantly changing. Damage to one part of it may cause that part to change to a different location in the brain, especially if you are a baby or a child. Beyond that, every thought, experience or skill we encounter and learn changes the structure of our brain.

19. Memories aren't built in a linear progression. We only remember 'pictures' or moments, and we put together a story from them ourselves. That is why it's tricky to trust your memory, because you may have done some 'editing' without knowing it.

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Some thing to relax your brain:
The best advertisement line against Pizza, Pasta, Burger, French Fries and all junk food:-
"Few moments on Lips, Forever on Hips!"

A good medical QUOTE:-
Obesity is not because it runs in the family!
It is because, no one runs in the family!

Sunday, 10 August 2014

Ebola Virus Infection

Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body.

As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding. The disease, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola virus, the highest case-fatality rate and kills up to 90% of people who are infected.

How Do You Get Ebola?

Ebola isn’t as contagious as more common viruses like colds, influenza, ormeasles. It spreads to people by contact with the skin or bodily fluids of an infected animal, like a monkey, chimp, or fruit bat. Then it moves from person to person the same way. Those who care for a sick person or bury someone who has died from the disease often get it.

Other ways to get Ebola include touching contaminated needles or surfaces.

You can’t get Ebola from air, water, or food. A person who has Ebola but has no symptoms can’t spread the disease, either.

What Are the Symptoms of Ebola?

Early on, Ebola can feel like the flu or other illnesses. Symptoms show up 2 to 21 days after infection and usually include:

·         Ebola virus em.pngHigh fever
·         Headache
·         Joint and muscle aches
·         Sore throat
·         Weakness
·         Stomach pain
·         Lack of appetite

As the disease gets worse, it causes bleeding inside the body, as well as from the eyes, ears, and nose. Some people will vomit or cough up blood, have bloody diarrhea, and get a rash.

How Is Ebola Diagnosed?

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a person has Ebola from the symptoms alone. Doctors may test to rule out other diseases like cholera or malaria.
Tests of blood and tissues also can diagnose Ebola.
If you have Ebola, you’ll be isolated from the public immediately to prevent the spread.

Handle Food Safely

Medically known as food-borne illness or food-borne disease, you probably know food poisoning as miserable -- whatever it's called. It occurs when you eat or drink something contaminated with any number of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites. And it can result in diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, which can be serious if prolonged, and can lead to dehydration. Most people rarely get sick from contaminated foods because their immune systems are strong enough to protect them. But when harmful...
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Friday, 8 August 2014

Jaggery (गुड) Nutrition

Jaggery Nutrition

Jaggery is prepared from sugarcane molasses (I think sugarcane juice); it’s the unrefined brown sugar. Better known as the medicinal sugar. It’s available in many forms like blocks, liquid, powder or small random pieces. Lets first see what is the difference between jaggery and sugar, and why should we replace sugar with jaggery.

JAGGERY

It is far complex than sugar, as it is made up of longer chains of sucrose.
It is digested slower than sugar and releases energy slowly
It is rather a tastemaker and colour maker
It contains iron, cacium, potassium, phoshorus
Jaggery helps in calcium absorption
Jaggery is ecofriendly
Jaggery aids in digestion, as jaggery breaks and becomes alkaline in the digestive system.

SUGAR

It is simplest available forms of sucrose
It is instantly absorbed in blood and releases a burst of energy
It is just a sweetner
It is source of empty calories
Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium
Sugar industry pollutes air, water and soil.
Sugar becomes acidic.

Following are the benefits of jaggery

Energy Food:

Carbohydrate being the main nutrient supplied by jaggery, foods high in carbohydrates fuels our body to produce sustainable energy through oxidation. Jaggery has more complex form of carbohydrate than plain sugar. So, it is digested and absorbed gradually and releases energy gradually. This provides with warmth and energy for a longer period, without harming the internal organs. This could be a good food supplement for fitness lovers. However it provides roughly around the same amount of energy and carbohydrate as sugar. So excess intake of jaggery is not advocated.

Cleansing Agent:
Jaggery effectively cleans the respiratory tracts, lungs, food pipe, stomach and intestines. It pulls out dust and unwanted particles from the body. It also helps in giving relief from constipation, perhaps due to presence of fiber in it.Jaggery has strong antioxidant properties and protects our body cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Apart from this, the presence of mineral potassium helps to assists kidneys to remove waste by the process of excretion.

Digestive Agent:
This may sound strange but it is true and it has sufficient scientific explanation behind this. In India, it is recommended to take a few grams of jaggery after a heavy meal of after eating meat. This facilitates digesting. What happens is that jaggery activates the digestive enzymes this speeds up digestion.

Jaggery helps in bile disorder - According to ayurveda, jaggery helps in treating bile disorders thus is useful in treating jaundice. It strengthens the liver.

Jaggery helps in maintaining acid balance - Jaggery is high in Potassium and low in Sodium helps to maintain blood pressure and reduces water retention.. This also helps in maintaining balance in your body. Infact, jaggery, when taken along with dry ginger is a known cure for acidity and gas.

Jaggery is eco-friendly - According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), sugar industry pollutes air, water and soil. While jaggery is produced by cooking sugarcane juice in an iron vessel, sugar undergoes various treatments, purification, crystallisation which not only wastes several gallons water, but also pollutes natural water source, where the wastewater is dumped! Jaggery is healthier and greener.

Jaggery helps to treat Cramps: due to the presence of magnesium and potassium. Muscle cramps result due to low level of potassium in the blood, a condition called as hypokalemia, also due to magnesium deficiency symptoms of cramps in leg as well as fatigue are normally visible.

Keeps bone healthy : due to the presence of magnesium, which is directly related to the bone density. Inadequacy of this mineral could be a cause of osteoporosis. Magnesium helps in regulation of calcium levels in the body along with vitamin D, copper, zinc etc.

May help to prevent Stroke: due to the presence of Potassium, which plays an important role in keeping the working of brain in normal state. It is of great importance in preventing the occurrence of stroke in human brain.

Prevents Asthma - Chronic asthma patients may be able to normalize their breathing with help of jaggery due to magnesium present in it that aids in relaxing bronchial muscles and normalize breathing. Even wheezing and breathlessness can be relieved through.

Increases haemoglobin - Jaggery is rich in iron and thus is highly recommended for anaemic people, helps in increasing haemoglobin., most of the iron in it comes through processing in iron vessels.

Culinary Uses

- In Maharashtra most vegetables curries and dals contain jaggery, also a pinch of jaggery is sometimes added to sambar, rasam and other gravies.
-Jaggery is specially used during Makar Sankranti for making sweetmeat called tilgul.
-It is regularly consumed as a sweetener and is a part of many sweet delicacies such as gur ka chawal (rice with gur) which is a traditional Rajasthani dish.
- Jaggery is also added to lentil soups to add sweetness to balance the spicy, salty and sour components, particularly in Gujarati cuisine
- Many sweet dishes are made by mixing jaggery with milk and coconut or with nuts like cashew.
- can be added to porridges esp in weaning food, can replace sugar in milk with jaggery for young children’s and adults.
-can be used as a preservative.
-can be added to lemon water, tea.
-Minimize your sugar intake and replace with jaggery when you prepeare sweet dishes at home.

So r u still thinking ? ..go Go ahead make a start replace white poison, sugar with jaggery.

Jaggery Nutrition

Jaggery nutrition facts reveal it to be superior than brown sugar and processed white sugar. It is a rich source of natural sugar, vitamins and minerals.

We have many forms of sugar, of which the most common type is available as refined, white and granular sugar. Unfortunately, it is linked with several lifestyle illnesses, including obesity, diabetes, dental cavities and heart problems. Thus, with the raising health concerns of using regular sugar in daily diet, nutrition experts are busy with searching alternative forms of sweetener that pose lesser health risks. And one such sweetening product is jaggery, sold as golden brown or dark brown, solid molasses. Information on jaggery nutrition facts is discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.

Jaggery Nutritional Information

Jaggery has been used as a sweetening agent in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This somewhat natural form of sugar is known by varied names in different regions. It is derived from sugarcane, sugar palm and other plant sources, which contain high percentage of sucrose, glucose and fructose. But, as we all know, white sugar is also a product of sugarcane. So, what is so special about jaggery that is not in white sugar? The uniqueness of jaggery lies in the making process. It is prepared by boiling sugarcane pulp without undergoing processing steps.
Jaggery, also known as gur, has a mineral content of approximately 60 times that of refined white sugar. One teaspoon of jaggery contains approximately 4-5 mg calcium, 2-3 mg phosphorus, 8 mg magnesium, 48 mg potassium, 0.5 mg iron, as well as trace amounts of zinc, copper, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. The corresponding values for white sugar are all essentially zero.

Calories

Since jaggery contains high amounts of sugar, glucose and fructose, the calorie count of this sweetening agent is high. Serving 1 teaspoon (4 g) of jaggery yields 12.32 kcal. In other words, including 100 g of jaggery in the diet is equivalent to providing 308 kcal. Accordingly, you can adjust the serving quantity of other calorie loaded foods.

Sugar Content

Well-made jaggery contains approximately 50 percent sucrose and 20 percent of glucose and fructose (invert sugar), which altogether comes to about 3.08 g sugar. Of the remaining components, moisture contributes to about 20 percent volume. The rest constituents include proteins, mineral, vitamins, wood ash, bagasse and other insoluble particles.

Potassium

Refer to the list of potassium rich foods, you will surely come across jaggery. As per researches conducted on jaggery nutrition, it is found that serving a teaspoon of this unrefined sugar is sufficient to give 45 mg of potassium. This high potassium and low sodium food is a healthy choice for people with hypertension and heart problems.

Selenium

Requiring in trace amount, selenium is crucial for normal functioning of the immune system. Together with manganese, it counteracts the harmful free radicals in the body, thus functioning as powerful antioxidants. Not all nutritious foods are superior enough to serve as a selenium source. Fortunately, jaggery is one such food products that contain selenium.

Magnesium

Magnesium is present in it in moderate amounts. Serving one teaspoon of this non-centrifuged sugar form is beneficial for providing 8 mg of magnesium. Thus, incorporating jaggery in the daily diet is helpful in increasing stamina level, strengthening muscles and blood vessels.

Calcium

A serving size of 1 teaspoon jaggery is useful for yielding 4-5 mg calcium. The calcium content is found to be higher in coconut palm jaggery. As we all are aware, calcium is crucial for strengthening bones and teeth.

Other Nutrients

The total mineral content of jaggery is 5 times higher than brown sugar and 50 times more than that of regular sugar. A food rich in iron, it is a healthy nutrition choice for anemic patients. Other nutrients found in jaggery are riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, zinc, chromium and copper. The plus points with consumption of jaggery are low-fat and low sodium content.

With reference to jaggery benefits in maintaining optimal health, it is also referred to as medicinal sugar. Including this in the regular diet is a simple way to provide energy, essential vitamins and minerals in their natural form. You can use it as a sweetener in recipes that call for refined sugar. And to get the same sweetness, jaggery amount should be higher than the required sugar.

In a nutshell, the richness of jaggery is evident from the fact that, it is used for replacing refined white sugar for diabetic patients. However, as with any sweetening agent, the consumption amount should be monitored stringently. It should be used in moderate amounts, and high consumption is associated with increased sugar levels in the bloodstream.