A health freak mom's thoughts on health and all things healthy
I developed a liking for cardamom when I tasted it in a Punjabi tea / Indian Masala Chai at a North India cuisine restaurant recently. The aroma of this spice is complex and hard to describe. It’s citrusy, almost menthol-like, spicy, and herbal all at the same time, and it’s highly fragrant, too. The flavor…
Some time back, I was on a low calorie diet to shed off the remaining post-baby fat I’d gained after 3 kids. While I felt very much lighter and fitter and had to send all my skirts and pants to the tailor to have the waist part tightened, something else also happened. My hormones were…
I’ve been practising intermittent fasting based on my circadian rhythm for almost a year now. On most days, I have a 12-hour fast. On some days, it’s only 10 hours of fast. At our home, the kids and I eat our dinner very early. On some days, we have our dinner at 4 p.m. when…
I’m a firm believer of having early dinners and hardly ever indulge in suppers. Our current dinner time is very early as two of my children are back from school at 4 p.m. Instead of giving them the opportunity to have snacks and then only have dinner at 7-ish p.m., I make sure that by…
An increasing amount of research has found links between poor sleep and several cancers. Getting regular and sufficient sleep are an essential part of your overall health. If that period of time when the body is busy rebooting and fortifying its defenses is chronically shortened or disrupted, this could eventually have serious repercussions for cancer…
For those who do not get sufficient sleep at night, a nap can often be the perfect solution. I need a 20-30 minutes nap by 10 a.m. on most week days as I am already up at 4:30 a.m. After 1.5 hours of doing house chores, I spend another 45 minutes exercising after the girls…
It came with no warning like many other unwelcome signs of aging the year I turned 40. Apart from the slower metabolism, smaller appetite and crow’s feet, I found myself squinting at the newspapers and books with smaller prints. I thought that my eye power had increased, so I went to the optician to have…
I wash my hair twice a day and sometimes even thrice a day as I exercise, cook and walk under the sun (thus sweat buckets!) almost every day. Thus, I have to use a mild shampoo that will not dry or irritate my scalp. I also have mild folliculitis on a few hair follicles on…
A dimple is an anomaly of the muscle that causes a dent in the cheek, especially when the individual smiles. Some people have dimples in both cheeks, others in just one cheek. Babies are likely to have dimples caused by baby fat in their cheeks. When they lose their baby fat as they get older,…
Chillies are a good source of antioxidants. Forty-two grams of the spice would account for your recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, but that would make for a pretty strong spicy curry! Chillies are also rich in vitamin A, as well as minerals such as iron and potassium. Hot-heads who ate spicy food six or…