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10 foods to stay healthy during winters

Winter brings a surge in sickness, but one can easily resolve a common illness in the kitchen itself. Winter is a season that is enjoyed by most people all over the world, it helps you to eat a wide variety of food without hesitation, and here are some of the foods that can be eaten during the winters that can help you get healthy and fit.

Honey, it is the ideal sweetener that can be used as a substitute for sugar in a diet that helps to improve your diet, It helps raise energy levels, prevents fatigue and helps all iot antioxidants to improve the immune system, and also has antimicrobial properties to help kill bacteria and soothe winter sore throats.

Eggs are a superior source of essential amino acids and provide ideal sources of selenium, iodine, calcium and vitamin B12, all of which are beneficial to the body’s nutrition and can be easily cooked in various ways and enjoy taste and health benefits.

Pomegranates are readily available in winters at their most juicy periods, they have many health benefits, such as the juice being abundant in antioxidants that can help keep radicals free from oxidizing. It also helps to prevent heart attacks in a human body when eaten on a regular basis.

Pistachio can be part of your winter diet, it’s one of the best winter snacks. They are a great source of potassium and are also high in vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin, which have antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects that can relieve underlying conditions leading to hypertension, as well as helping to relax the walls of the blood vessels in order to improve circulation and control blood pressure.

Sweet potatoes are rich in nutrients, although they have a high sugar content relative to regular potatoes, but the nutritional value is much higher than regular ones. They are also high in fiber, vitamin A and potassium. Regular consumption can help cure constipation and improve the immune system.

Dates are very low in fat content and help to maintain weight, they are highly nutrient-rich, and this can be easily applied to a body builder’s routine, it also helps the body stay warm during winters.

Almonds and walnuts, their daily consumption in winters will help boost the nervous system, insulin and even aid in heart attacks.

Ragi, this is the perfect way for a vegan to absorb calcium. Ragi also helps monitor diabetes and anemia, as well as insomnia, anxiety attacks and depression.

Bajra, they are high in fat, protein and fiber. It will help to strengthen the bones and joints if ingested on a periodic basis.

Green tea not only helps in weight loss but also contains the antioxidants required for optimum health, it also helps in the generation of antioxidants and in the elimination of radicals that can cause harm to the body. Daily intake of Green Tea can improve the immune system as well as the energy level.

Do diets really work?

The only healthy way to lose weight and to keep it off is to make permanent changes to one’s diet and lifestyle. Nutrition Experts can help you plan and follow diet plans which keep you healthy while you lose weight.

We all require specific amount of energy throughout the day. These calories are utilised in day to day survival and other activities one engages in. If one takes more than the number of calories required some of it is stored as fat. Conversely, if one expends more calories than they take in, some of this fat is reduced. It is a simple mathematical equation. A healthy and proper diet helps reduce weight.

Why do most diets fail?

Some diets like crash diet focus on reducing weight quick and in an unsafe manner. Problems associated with these diets range from unbalanced nutrition, weakness, vitamin deficiencies, bloating, and weight gain.

When your body is deprived of the nutrition it needs the body reacts by trying to retain more of what it is getting rather than spending it. It gets lethargic, reduces the metabolism rate to conserve energy and starts storing in anticipation of a longer crisis. This is our body’s natural survival mechanism taking action in response to us going too harsh.

The only healthy way to lose weight and to keep it off is to make permanent changes to one’s diet and lifestyle.

What is a sustainable diet?

For a diet to be sustainable it has to meet certain criteria. The most important of which is one’s ability to follow it for a long duration. If you can not fit the diet into your daily life routine it will fail. Problem with this is however that sticking to one diet is also not healthy for multiple reasons. It is very unlikely that your diet would provide you with exactly the amount of vitamins and minerals you need to live healthy. Therefore, it is very important to keep changing the diet accordingly and keep adjusting it every few weeks. The safest way to approach this is by taking the services of a certified nutritionist near you.

Get Free Diet Consultation Today

Nutrition Experts are trained and experienced at making diet plans that work and are sustainable. The expert makes your plans according to your daily routine taking into account every detail. One’s goals, dietary restrictions, vegan/vegetarian/non-vegetarian, and activity level help draft the perfect diet plans for them. They also keep adapting the plan according to one’s progress and requirements. Some dietitians even provide free diet consultations from home.

A sustainable diet can help you

Weight Loss

Maintaining a healthy weight has become a challenge in today’s lifestyle. High calorie intake and sedentary and easy lifestyle encourages rapid weight gain and resistance to weight reduction.

Prevent diseases

Weight loss has been linked to reduction of the risk of several chronic conditions including:

  • Heart Disease
  • Diabetes
  • Poor Bone Density
  • Multiple types of cancers

Improve mental health

Having good food can reduce mood fluctuations and reducing Depression, as it keeps the Hormones balanced, hormones are the fluids which helps the internal organs to function, these Hormones are formed by the food we eat so if unhealthy food in consumed the functioning of our brain changes which impacts our mental health.

Improved Memory

A healthy diet can prevent early onset of cognitive issues such as dementia and cognitive decline. According to multiple studies, the following vitamins are beneficial in maintaining brain’s health:

These can be found in some Mediterranean diets and certain types of fish. Better alternatives include health supplements specially made for boosting memory.

Active vs Passive Immunity

Types of immunity and how we can improve and boost our immune response to certain viruses and pathogens.

Definition of immunity is the body’s ability to protect itself from a foreign body. We all read this in school. With the current pandemic and associated notices there are certain new terms that are popping up. Like Active vs Passive Immunity. So what is active immunity and passive immunity, what are the differences, And which one of Active Immunity or Passive Immunity protects you against COVID-19?

What is Active Immunity?

Active Immunity is the body’s response to a pathogen after your body is exposed to it. When your body is exposed to a ‘novel’ disease agent it starts to create antibodies specific to the pathogen. These antibodies are very specialised and work only against a certain type of disease. Meaning if you are exposed to one strain of a virus and have antibodies against it, you still risk getting infected with another strain of the virus. This is why we have no effective one-shot vaccine against cold and flu.

When your antibodies encounter a pathogen, they save its signature in a ‘memory’ of sorts. These memories can persist for almost a decade and would provide lasting protection against this specific kind of disease. This method of immunity takes weeks to develop but can last a lifetime.

Active immunity can develop in two ways:

Natural Active Immunity

When someone is fully infected by a disease, their body forms ‘natural immunity’ towards it. For example, if you get Chicken Pox once it is very unlikely that you will get it again since your body develops the antibodies necessary to fight it off. This process can not be rushed or accelerated and takes time to start providing you protection against a disease. However, you can reduce the burden on your body in producing these antigens by taking appropriate supplements. Immunity boosting supplements have been found to be effective at maintaining a better immune response rate.

Vaccine-induced immunity

Vaccine Induced immunity works very similar to natural immunity but in this case your body doesn’t get fully infected by the original disease. Instead via vaccine you are given an alternate or a passive strain of an existing disease. Your body develops antibodies to the induced strain but the same antibodies also work against the disease for which the vaccine was produced.

What is Passive Immunity

Passive Immunity is protection form a disease using antibodies created outside of one’s own body. Compared to active immunity, passive immunity does not require infection, starts working immediately, and doesn’t last very long.

Much like active immunity however, Passive Immunity can be natural or induced.

Natural or Maternal Passive Immunity

When a baby is in mother’s womb, they are protected from infections by the antibodies of their mother. Mother’s antibodies are passed through the placenta to the baby’s body. After they are born, for a few months they receive continued protection with Mother’s antibodies passed through the milk.

Artificial or Induced Passive Immunity

Antibodies from a different person or animal can be extracted and injected into someone to induce a fast acting but short-lasting immunity. It is often used for very sick patients or patients with compromised immune system. An example can be how serum from recovered COVID-19 patients is being used to treat other very sick patients. This process starts helping fast as the antibodies are alive and already available as compared to active immunity which takes weeks to develop. However passive immunity lasts weeks or months and does not provide continued protection.

History of Coronavirus

In 1960s, childrens were the first to get infected by Coronavirus and suffered from acute upper respiratory tract infection. Since 2003, 5 new coronavirus strains were identified that caused significant mortality. The most recent and deadly stain of coronavirus, 2019-nCoV was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China.

Coronavirus has derived its name from a distinctive ‘crown’ like sugary-proteins that projects from an envelope surrounding the particle.

What is Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses known for causing deadly diseases in humans, animals and birds. In humans, they typically spread through droplets of fluid produced by infected individuals.

What is Coronavirus

They range from the common cold to more severe diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). In 2019, nCoV, a new strain of novel coronavirus has been identified that has previously not affected humans.

How Coronavirus is Transmitted?

Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigation on SARS-CoV suggested that it was transmitted from cats to humans and MERS-CoV from camels to humans.

How Coronavirus is Transmitted

There are several coronaviruses circulate in animals that so far have not infected humans.

What are the Common Signs of Coronavirus?

Common symptoms of Coronavirus includes; Running nose, sore throat, cough, high fever, breathing difficulties with respiratory problems.

Severe conditions may cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome and kidney failure as well.

Prevention from Coronavirus

– Wash hands regularly.
– Cover mouth and nose during sneezing or coughing.
– It is imperative to avoid all contacts with individuals showing symptoms of respiratory illness that includes coughing, sneezing, breathlessness etc.

Prevension from Coronavirus

– Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth – Avoid consumption of animal products specifically raw or undercooked
– Protect Yourself & Family from Coronavirus & similar illness:

N-95 respirator masks can fit properly on the human face and are designed to filter out microparticles from the air we breadth. N95 can filter almost 95% of particles of 0.3 microns and provide adequate prevention.

treatment for coronavirus

Body immunity plays an important role in reducing the risk of getting affected from coronavirus and similar diseases. A combination of Maxgars Tulsi,
Maxgars Colostrum and Maxgars Multivitamin can provide a protective shield to any individual. For more information call our experts.