IMPORTANCE OF SALT

I have seen people gulp down gallons of water, during and after exercise, not knowing the element of danger present in not bothering to replace the salt lost through sweat.  There are marathoners and triathletes who have died of hyponatremia (low blood sodium) because of high intake of water without adequate salt replenishment.

Salt is made up of two electrically charged particles: sodium and chloride — also called electrolytes.   In your body, sodium helps keep the right amount of water inside and outside your cells and in your blood.

An athlete who feels thirsty during an exercise session drinks so much water, it dilutes the sodium outside the cells, too much water seeps into cells and they swell — including brain cells.  This can result in the athlete feeling weak, nauseous and may be fatal in some conditions.

Consuming sodium-containing sports drinks helps, but it doesn’t protect against hyponatremia because sports drinks offer far more water than sodium. The typical sports drink may have only 1/5 the concentration of normal blood serum.

When you exercise, you lose some sodium via sweat. The amount you lose depends on:

1. How much salt you sweat. Some sweat more salt than some others

2. How much you sweat. Athletes who sweat heavily lose more sodium than those who do not sweat as much.

3. How much you exercise in the heat.

It is interesting to note how too much salt causes high blood pressure.  As you know, kidneys are what regulate the sodium content in the body and they evict the extra salt through urine.   But sometimes, if your BP is a bit salt sensitive, i.e., which increases with age, your body retains more fluid in the blood and blood pressure rises.

To reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure, you should not only eat a low-sodium diet, but boost your intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium –three minerals that help counter the negative effects of sodium.

How much salt does an athlete actually need?

For non-athletes, the body only needs 500 mg sodium and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend no more than 2,400 mg sodium/day. Most easily consume 3,000 to 5,000 mg daily, mostly through processed foods.

In nature, sodium chloride never occurs in pure form. A multitude of essential major and trace elements are in its crystals. Here is a partial list of these minerals and their function in human metabolism.

Sodium: Essential to digestion and metabolism, regulates body fluids, nerve and muscular functions.

Chlorine: Essential component of human body fluids.

Calcium: Needed for bone mineralization.

Magnesium: Dissipates sodium excess, forms and hardens bones, ensures mental development and sharpens intelligence, promotes assimilation of carbohydrates, assures metabolism of vitamin C and calcium, retards the aging process and dissolves kidney stones.

Sulphur: Controls energy transfer in tissue, bone and cartilage cells, essential for protein compounds.

Silicon: Needed in carbon metabolism and for skin and hair balance.

Iodine: Vital for energy production and mental development, ensures production of thyroid hormones, needed for strong auto-defense mechanism (lymphatic system).

Bromine: In magnesium bromide form, a nervous system regulator and restorer, vital for pituitary hormonal function.

Phosphorus: Essential for biochemical synthesis and nerve cell functions related to the brain, constituent of phosphoproteins, nucleoproteins and phospholipids.

Vanadium: Of greater value for tooth, bone calcification than fluorine, tones cardiac and nervous systems, reduces cholesterol, regulates phospholipids in blood, a catalyst for the oxidation of many biological substances.

Most active people consume adequate sodium, even without adding salt to their food.  For example, you get sodium from bread (150 mg/slice), cheese (220 mg/oz), eggs (60 mg each), and yogurt (125 mg/8 oz). Athletes who sweat a lot probably need more sodium, but generally consume more, particularly if they eat fast foods. Just two slices of cheese pizza (1,200 mg) can easily replace sodium losses through sweat.

Now let’s take a look at some of the important things salt does for the body:-

* Water balance regulation and fluid distribution either side of the cells is an important function of salt.

* Salt is very important to the proper function of the adrenal glands.

* Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeat and contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure – in conjunction with water.  Naturally the proportions are critical.

* Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells. Acidity-Alkalinity is balanced constantly by the kidneys.

* Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

* Salt is vital to nerve stimulation, brain function, and for the communication of nerve cells.

* Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract. [Salt stimulates production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.]

* Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.

* Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps because it is involved in muscle contraction and expansion.

* Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

* Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm. Osteoporosis, in a major way, is a result of salt and water shortage in the body.

* Salt is vital for sleep regulation.

* Salt is a vitally needed element in the treatment of diabetics.

* Salt is vital for the prevention of gout [painful inflammation of the joints] and gouty arthritis.

* Salt is vital for maintaining sexuality and libido [sexual desire].

* Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs .

* Twenty-seven percent of the body’s salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are made up of 22% water.

How to eat lots, stay on a diet, and still lose weight

What is the first thing you are wont to do when you try to lose weight and fat? You reduce the quantity of food intake.  Yet, we see so many around us who can eat whatever they want and not gain an ounce of fat?  And the unlucky ones like you have only to watch someone eat to gain an inch around the waist line.

Have you wondered why some are so lucky and you aren’t?  Haven’t you dreamed of being able to eat as much as you wanted and still sport a skin tight sexy figure?  Better still, did you know you could eat as much as you wanted and lose weight? 

Yes, that is what I said…you could eat lots and lose weight.  But it does not mean you can eat lots of anything that you like.  There are some food you have to avoid and some you may eat lots.

Before we go into the details, we need to learn a few things about why we gain weight and fat, in the first place.

All animals that live in jungle and have the freedom to feed on their own never become overweight.  There are times in the jungle, when food is hard to come by and they lose weight. But even when the food is aplenty, they do not become fat and obese, like your pet dog or cat.

All animals, including human beings, eat to their stomach’s fill, when their favourite is served to them.  But in the jungle, animals stop eating when their stomachs are full.  And when the stomach is full, the food craving of the mind stops as well and they never over eat.

What about us, humans?  There is this guy I know of, who is addicted to drinking beer in the afternoon.  He is a site engineer and almost always facing the full brunt of the sun’s wrath.  “By the time it is about 3 pm, I am so tired and thirsty that only a chilled beer can “straighten me up”.  I go up two bottles of beer every afternoon, and then it helps me eat a heavy lunch.  I take a nap for an hour after that and get back to office afterwards”

“How many glasses of water can you drink when you are very very thirsty? I asked him

“2-3 glasses. Can’t drink more”

“Does that quench your thirst?”

“Yes, it does. But beer quenches my thirst and makes me feel good too”.

Did you see where we are going wrong when it comes to what we eat & drink, from the above conversation?

We eat and drink not just because we are hungry or thirty, but we eat because food makes us feel good, and it is not just beer. Now look at this way.  You are hungry and come to the dining room ready to eat an ox. Your mom or wife serves you, your most hated food.  Now, where did those hunger pangs go? One look at the food and you are ready to skip breakfast.

What about those animals in the jungle?  They don’t eat if they don’t find what they like to eat.  True, but whatever they like or made available to them in the jungle was prepared by the best cook in the world.  And she created that endless abyss you call your stomach.  But she, Mother Nature, also created the right kind of food to fill that infinite cavern or stomach.

And what happens to those animals that eat only Mother Nature cooks for them?  Their hunger pangs and food cravings stop the minute their stomach is full.  What about us, who cook, refine and alter the chemical composition of those good food servings, by chemically treating them or heating them or cooking them or by adding heated oil and sauce to them?  We simply do not know when to stop eating.

Yes, beer quenches your thirst and we do not know when to stop because craving does not subside even after your thirst has.  The same with chocolates, ice creams, pizza, biscuits and all those yummy, sugar rich delicacies that tease and torment your sensitive, “taste-crazy” palate.

Simply put, the animals in the jungle eat to live and we, the humans, li[o]ve to eat.  Now what happens when we fight the food cravings?  One long look at Salman Khan’s or Kareena Kapoor’s figure and we are ready to diet from the next day.  We take vows not to over eat and indulge in all those delicacies.

This is so easily said than done. You are at your aggressive best the first three days of starting the diet. You look at those who eat junk food most contemptuously and even loudly wonder why these gluttons cannot follow a healthy life style.

You will have become an epitome of everything good and healthy. You coax, persuade, cajole, pressurize, threaten and even blackmail everyone into following suit.

Now, on the fourth day, a minor change in attitude starts to happen. The sugar cravings, which were hitherto shown the back door, slowly appears out of nowhere and starts to peep out of the louver window of your “Berlin Wall” of defenses. The ever sweet, all forgiving, mouth watering, luscious beauty of a “Black Forest” cake winks at you from across the kitchen shelf.

A low moan escapes your throat, as your mind is flooded with all the memories of good moments of ecstasy, you and this cake shared. But it is only the fourth day and there is still some vestige of will power left in you.

With tears in your eyes and a last parting glance at the lovely piece of enrapturing beauty of a “Black Forest”, you move out of the kitchen and walk up the stairs to your bedroom. Your heart is laden with heaviness of having to part with someone whose only endeavor ever, was to make your palate and mind feel good.

The phone starts to ring. It is your best friend on the line.

“Hey, what the heck is happening? I haven’t seen you in three days. I am at the Priya Bakery munching a loaf of sweet plum cake. Come over fast”.

Suddenly, all your heaviness is gone. So are the guilt pangs of being tempted by that “Black Forest”. You change into jeans and ride off to meet your friend at the bakery. She was so sweet as to order your favourite delicacy and have it ready by the time you arrived. You take a long look at that “sweetie pie” on the table. A long, sigh laden with heavy emotional charge, escapes your chest. And you fall all over your “sweetie pie”

with all the passion of a woman who ran into her lover, she has not seen in months, in her bedroom.

And then you turn around to kick that dingbat Venugopal’s eight meal diet plan out of the window for a big six.

Now I have got calluses on my behind from being kicked so many thousand times by all those who cheat on the diet. And if I don’t do something about it, I would end up being the first person on earth with cancerous growth on the rump.

I think I have made one thing very clear, which is, eating what Mother Nature gives you do not make you fat, but when you overeat what you cook at home, it does inevitably make your tummy as wide as you are tall.

There are also some delicacies that you can eat lots and not put on weight even you have cooked them.  You cannot eat them raw either.  They are meat, fish and eggs. There is a very famous diet which allows you to eat meat and just meat and lose weight.  It is called Dr. Atkins diet.  But then, Dr. Atkins also cautions you against eating too much.

So how do you go about eating lots and lose weight?  The underlying principle in this theory is to stop yourself from eating to your heart’s fill or learn how to stop food cravings.  If your diet is a mixture which has just enough carbohydrates and high in protein, you can kill those food cravings to a great extent.  And yes, such a food combo will fill your tummy up so much, you will not be able eat again for hours.

The most important thing about this is to kill your hunger pangs even before they are born.  It is only when you are hungry or haven’t eaten anything for a span of 3 hours that food cravings start to haunt you. And never, if your stomach is full.

Follow these simple guidelines to make it easy for you.

1. Drink one glass of water every hour.  You could ward off a lot of hunger pangs when you are not dehydrated and thirsty. Water is also a very important ingredient in all fat loss diets.

2.  Always ask yourself if you are eating to fill your tummy or falling prey to your food cravings.  The food cravings have regular timings and intervals and so make sure, you eat some fruits or drink milk or eat some proteinous food like peanuts [not fried] an hour and a half before your regular meals.

3. All sugar laden food can play havoc with your digestion, energy production, health and good eating habits.  Try not to run into situations where you are tempted to “taste a wee little bit” of the rich food.  If you are on a diet, it is better not to eat with the family as this getting together can make you eat more than you really need.

4. Be prepared in your mind for the eventual “slip and fall”. You will cheat on the diet some day or other. So what? It is not the end of your life. It also does not have to be the end of the diet either. You start from where you stopped. After having given into temptations, you have let some steam of your mind and now try to get back to the diet and follow it strictly

5. Remember those incidents that tempted you and finally got you to side step and take the wrong track. Try not to fall into the same groove again.

6. The day you start to diet is the day your friends decide to give you a long-promised treat. It may also happen that the next day, your best friend is getting married. So what? It is not the end of your life. You enjoy, make merry, and come back with a vengeance to get back to the diet.

6. Try your best not give up exercise, whatever happens. This act makes sure that you are not going to get fatter than you are now, whatever you do.

7. Do not ever tell anyone you are on a diet. Your friends are going to laugh at you, tease you and your parents, siblings and the family are going say,  ” oh, yeah!? Now this is the 42nd time you are on a diet. Please do not make an as..er..donkey of yourself”. So if you have to say it, tell them that you are on an ayurvedic medication which requires that you stick to certain food habits.

8. Look at yourself in the mirror and try to like what you see there. I know it is difficult. It is a fat, ugly and gross looking creature that you see in the mirror. But try hard to like it. Did you do that? Ok, now TRY HARDER TO LOVE YOU!!!. It is very important to do so.  One thing all obese persons have is “lack of self esteem”.  Remember, if you do not love what you see in the mirror, no one else is going to love it either.

You cannot do anything for a person you don’t like very much, now can you? Smile at yourself with just your eyes for about two minutes in the morning and evening. Keep your face and lips from following up that smile in the eyes. And when you talk to

those people who ridicule you, smile at them with your eyes and remember you have to love yourself whatever they say. And you try to like that person too. Believe me; it helps to make things easy for you. And very fast too.

9.  Remember to smile at this fight in your mind, this tussle your sugar cravings has with your will power. Try not to be heartbroken when the will power loses out. But simply smile with all your heart. Remember, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that cannot be won over with a sweet smile.

10. Look at your sugar cravings as though you would look at a sweet little kid. Smile at all the tricks it plays on your will power and mind and very slowly you will find that you are beginning to master the craving and win the battle of the bulge in the most effortless way.

How long will it take to get me a six pack ?

A SIX PACK!!! Yes, sounds like a few decks of cards, but every young man and know what they are and want them real bad. 

So, what on earth is a “six pack?”.  Ask anyone and he will tell you that they are the six muscles you see around the stomach area or they refer to it as the stomach muscles.  But the stomach and the abdominal muscles are two different things.

The human stomach is a muscular, elastic, pear-shaped bag, lying crosswise in the abdominal cavity. It changes size and shape according to its position of the body and the amount of food inside it.

Clinically speaking, the abdominal muscles are a group of six muscles, but those are not the “six pack”, the boys refer to. The “six pack” is what you see on the outside or the most superficial of the abdominal group of muscles. That muscle is called the “Rectus Abdominis” and they are anything but six in number.

The rectus abdominis muscles are long and flat, and runs the length of your torso, starting just above your pubic bone and ending in your lower ribs.. The muscle is crossed by three tendinous intersections called the “linae transversae” and those groove like formation usually gets interpreted as a group of muscles, commonly referred to as the “six pack”.

The other muscles in the group of six abdominal muscles are  Transversus Abdominis,External Oblique, and the Internal Oblique.

A short description of all these muscles and we shall move to how to create the “six pack” effect.

Transversus Abdominis – The deepest-set stomach muscle that runs horizontally underneath the Rectus Abdominis. It contributes to you having a good posture, balance and stability. This muscle wraps around the torso, creating an effect similar to a back support belt.

External Oblique – The External Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle that runs in a diagonal line from your ribs to your hips. The external obliques, one on each side of the torso, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine.

Internal Oblique – The Internal Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle beneath the External Oblique that runs at right angle to it. Like the external obliques, the internal obliques, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine.

People spend hours each week, doing all sorts of exercise for the abdominal muscles, but funniest aspect of the story is that you do not need to exercise the abdominal muscles to get the “six pack”.

“Are you kidding?  You really mean that you can get a “six pack” without effort? Is it really that easy? ”

Yes, it is true.  But I did not say “without effort”.  With effort in the right direction, getting a six pack is as easy as breathing itself.

The first thing you need to know about the “six pack” is that, everyone has it.  You do not create it out of the blue, like “Gawd Almighty” does.  You never get to see it on the outside, like “John Abraham’s washboard abs”, because a layer of fat covers the “six pack” like a veil.  And exercising that area does not lift that veil nor does it burn the fat.

The fat around the abdominal region and the rest of the body are actually one unit.  Look at this way.  You have a bucket full of water and you start to remove water from one corner of the bucket.  It is not from where you remove the water that the level goes down, but the entire water level in the bucket.  Same is the case with fat content of the body.

Any exercise, whether it be for the abdomen or legs or hands, the fat goes off first from the shoulder area.

And usually, the last place to give up fat is the abdomen.

“Jeeezzz!! And you tell me this is easy?!!  I have to wait for the entire body to give up fat before I start to see results on my abdomen?”

It is easy and it is always possible for anyone to get a “six pack” if only they would follow the guidelines. Try it out and you will be surprised to see such fast results.

It is a simple combination of aerobic exercise and easy to follow diet.

Before you start to follow the diet recipe given below, you should learn to differntiate between hunger pangs born out of hunger and mere food craving.  You should also learn to eat to your stomach’s fill and not your heart’s fill.

1] Start your day with three glasses of water and try to drink one glass of water every hour.

2] Then eat some fruits about fifteen minutes later

3] Try to eat at least six small meals a day, with a space of about 2.5 – 3 hours between two meals.

4] Make sure it is a combination of protein and carbohydrate. For eg. 1-2 chappathi & any meat curry or one glass of milk & 1-2 slice of bread or a cup of sprouts [it contains both carbs and protein].

5] When you eat the likes of chapatti or bread or dosa or iddlis , eat only 1-2 number or just 1-2 slice of it, but eat as much as you can, the protein part of the meal like meat or egg or fish .

Ideally women should stop with one number of chapatti or dosa or anything equivalent and men, just two.  The body weight does not count at all, because most obese people have about 40% of their body weight as fat.  You do not have to feed the fat, but only the muscle.

6] Eat a veg salad with every meal. Vegetable salad serves as an efficient fat loss tool.  Ideally the veg salad should contain the following.

Tomato, onion, carrot, cucumber, snake gourd, ladies finger, beans and it is best to eat them raw. Do not remove or peel of the skin of the vegetables as the nutrients are just under the skin and on the skin. Just wash well and eat them raw. You may also make a soup out of it and drink it without sieving and filtering off the skin and the pulp

7].Avoid all sweets, sweetened drinks, sugar, curd, yogurt, chocolates, biscuits, samosa, chips, bakery food, fried food, dried fruits, soft drinks, rusk, pizza, burger, jam, sauce, cheese, paneer, samosa, butter, alcohol, beer, wine, bournvita, horlicks, boost, and such other products and all junk food

8] Do not miss any meal or go hungry.  If you do, the body may see perceive it as “threat to survival” and preserve the fat.  And also, it will burn the muscle for energy in process called catabolism. The less muscle you have, the less the energy needed to survive and this is how the body behaves on a low calorie diet.  But give the body just enough and it utilizes the food for energy and does not store any as fat.

Yes, fat is stored energy.  Exercise and an elevated metabolic rate can utilise this fat for energy and bring down its levels.  When this happens on one side, you stop supplying the body with extra energy [with a diet] which it can store as fat.  And that is how the diet and exercise combination works.

9] You also have to do some exercises like high repetition weight training or running up stairs or cycling or playing shuttle along with diet to lose fat . Make sure that you workout for about 30-45 minutes, almost non stop.

10] Very soon, the fat levels drop considerably from the abdominal region, revealing that preciously beautiful set of muscles called “six pack”.

SWIMMING MAY MAKE YOU FAT

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you look at a competitive swimmer, poised to jump in and slice through water with precise and seemingly effortless strokes of his hands? “What a great, sexy looking physique?” is what that crossed your mind, right? And yet, swimming can also make you fat. Yes, that is what I said. Swimming is one of the few exercises other than weight training that hits almost all the muscles and is one of the best exercise for the body. Yet, you could be making a big mistake if you jump into the pool hoping to reduce your body weight and fat levels. 

Let us analyse why some exercises are touted as fat burning and some other are not. We have seen the Sumo Wrestling does not bring down body fat levels though the wrestlers engage in more than three hours of exercise every day. But then, the other style of wrestling like the free style and the kind we see on WWF, where John Cena and Randy Orton scream at each other first before showing off their six pack and then engage in one of the most grueling clash of wrestling matches, do burn a lot of fat. We have seen Dorian Yates and Jay Cutler workout less than one hour in the gym to sport one the best looking wash board abs ever but a tennis player spends more than two hours playing under the sun and come off with a physique which looks like he fell into cauldron of glue and it stuck uniformly all over him. How is that they have the six pack but Sumos look like momos with the biggest ever mid section in the entire human world?

It is true that exercise uses up a lot of energy during the exercise session and much, afterwards too. Exercises involving heavy lifting and a lot of rest in between do not stimulate the body well enough to burn fat but exercises that involve continuous movement such as foot ball match or long distance running stimulate the metabolism so much so that you continue to use a lot of energy long after you have stopped exercise. Marathon runners consume anything upto 6000 calories with absolutely no fat or weight gain, while in Sumo wrestling, the training is mostly muscle and weight building in nature. They do not workout long enough to stimulate the body into using body fat for energy. It may be intense, but is usually over in minutes and is never long enough to stimulate metabolic pathways that use up your fat stores. This is one of the reasons why Sumo wrestlers, power lifters and weight lifters sport a big waistline. To make matters worse, those who are intent on strength building place no restriction on how much food they should consume and this adds a lot of fat to their bulging, protruding belly. 

So, it is the type of exercise that decides whether your body should utilize the fat stores or not. But there is something about swimming that no other exercise has and that which decides whether you will gain fat or lose fat with swimming. As you know, your body is willing to adjust to any command that you give it. Can you imagine yourself balancing on a wheel that is only about two inches wide, but that is what your body helps you do when you try it out a few times. I have always wondered what led man to believe that he may ever be able to balance himself on two thin wheels connected by a metal frame; the bicycle. But the ingenuity of the body is such that it has changed something in you that has helped you balance yourself on a bicycle. It is the same when you enter the swimming pool for the first ever time. You splash about with your hands and legs, but to no avail. You sink to the bottom before you can say jack, but a few days later you are able to stay afloat. There is no way you could have learnt that by reading a book. It is as though you were granted a wish that you cannot give to someone or help someone else with. 

A few other changes also happen when you learn to swim. Not only does the body help you with staying afloat, it also increases your body fat levels to help you swim and float. Every being that lives in water has higher percentage of fat than those living on land. One of the reason is that the fat actually makes your body more buoyant. And how does the body increase the fat content of the body? It simply makes you very hungry. Have you noticed how hungry you are, after spending some time splashing about in water? No other exercise can make you feel this way; not even heavy lifting. The effect is immediate and very profound; you need to eat immediately after a swim. 
More than ninety percent of the people give up swimming a few weeks after they have learned to swim and even those who stay longer, do not exert themselves physically long and hard enough to stimulate the body into using fat for energy. The result is an increase of body fat level. 

And those who apply themselves wholeheartedly to becoming a good swimmer, shape up their body very well. They spent about an hour swimming non stop, to and across the pool, making their body work hard, which stimulates metabolic pathways to use up fat stores for energy, for hours after they have left the swimming pool. Swimming is one exercise which uses all the muscles of the body and to build enough endurance to last about one hour of swimming in the pool calls for very intense and hard work. Those who can break the lethargy, splash themselves to work up enough stamina to swim more than 20 laps in a 50 m long swimming pool, will eventually reap the benefit and carve themselves a great physique. And those who spend an hour in water, but not even swim 2-3 laps non stop, will only get fatter and they deserve to be, as all lazy people do.