10 everyday things with unexpected health benefits

Think you know what’s healthy and what’s not? You may be surprised. While we all know the basics of healthy eating and exercise, there are many unexpectedly healthy things you may not be aware are good for you. Here are our top 10 surprising things that can make you healthier.

Taking photographs

If you find yourself getting snap happy on a holiday or night out, this may be no bad thing. Research suggests that recalling good memories and having a positive view of the past can help boost happiness levels and health, yet according to separate research we find it more difficult to recall good memories than bad ones. If you have trouble focusing on happy memories, try compiling some photo albums of your favourite moments for an instant health and happiness boost.

Stress

While we all know about the health dangers of long-term stress, stress in short bursts can actually strengthen your immune system. In cases of acute stress, the body prepares itself for danger or threat (the fight-or-flight response) through the release of hormones including cortisol, which causes a short term boost to the immune system. So next time you find yourself getting tense before a job interview, presentation or big sports match, take consolation in the fact that you are doing your immune system a favour.

Surfing the internet

Think that browsing Facebook and searching for celebrity gossip is a waste of time? Think again. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that searching the web helps boost brain health in those middle-aged and older, and could even prevent some of the effects that ageing has on the brain. The study found that browsing the internet stimulated the areas of the brain that control language and memory as well as helping to improve decision-making and complex reasoning.

Crying

We all know that laughter is good for us, but the surprising news is that shedding some tears could also do wonders for your health. Researchers at the University of South Florida found that 88.8 per cent of people feel better after crying, while it has been suggested that crying helps release the chemicals that build up in our bodies during times of stress. So, next time you feel yourself welling up after a weepy movie or emotional day, give your health and mood a boost by letting the tears flow.

Getting married

Multiple research studies and statistics suggest that those who are married live longer than singletons due to the fact they experience less social isolation. Furthermore, while it’s never a standalone reason for raising kids, research suggests that if you decide to start a family you could boost your health even more. A study of over 1.5 million men and women found that having one to two children reduces your risk of numerous conditions including cancer, alcoholism and heart disease.

Housework

It may not be your favourite activity, yet keeping your home clean and tidy could help you stay fit and healthy and keep off those extra pounds. According to a poll on household chores, the average person walks more than 22 miles and burns off 50,000 calories a year while cleaning their home, making it a great alternative to the gym. Furthermore, research funded by Cancer Research UK found that doing household chores can reduce women’s risk of breast cancer by 30% in pre-menopausal women and 20% in those post-menopause.

Having a big bum

If you regularly spend hours in the gym trying to trim inches off your thighs or bum, it may be time you stopped and showed your curves a little appreciation instead. While you may despair of your curvy rear end, research shows that fat stored in this area mops up harmful fatty acids, contains an anti-inflammatory that prevents arteries from clogging, and cuts your risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Dirt

With the soaring popularity of anti-bacterial hand gels, clothing and washing products, it is easy to believe that dirt is the ultimate enemy. However, while it is generally good to pay attention to hygiene, a little bit of dirt could be better for you than you think. Contrary to popular belief, being sterile doesn’t keep you healthy and in fact research suggests that exposure to friendly bacteria found in soil can actually help boost the immune system and alleviate depression.

Beer

While many of us associate beer with beer bellies, drinking this popular tipple in moderation could actually have more health benefits than red wine. Research studies have shown that moderate consumption of beer can help reduce risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and dementia. On top of this, beer is rich in many nutrients, including magnesium, selenium and B vitamins, and contains a cancer-fighting compound found in hops.

Your friends

It seems to be relatively rare that the things we love are good for us, yet in the case of our friends this is definitely the case. Research suggests that your friends can help you live longer by reducing feelings of depression, stress and risky behaviour, and encouraging you to look after your health. In fact, a study by Brigham Young University found that having a good social network boosts your survival chances by 50 per cent, while having few friends affects you longevity as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Tips to lose weight naturally

Weight loss remains a major health issue for many of us despite the onslaught of weight loss tips and medical aids that surround us.

Most of the contemporary solutions border on providing unrealistic weight loss solutions or are too time-consuming. Drastic dieting is never recommended since it can leave you malnourished and damage your body in an unredeemable manner. In order to lose weight naturally, i.e. without using any magic pill or gymming like a maniac, use the following tips:

Consider Whole Grains As Your Friends

Try to eat a larger concentration of foods made from whole grains (rotis, whole wheat breads, cookies and oatmeal) rather than refined or processed foods. Whole grains are more complex for the body to metabolize, taking a longer digestion route. This keeps the body busy for a longer period, ensuring that energy is released throughout the day. This helps to decrease the frequency and intensity of hunger pangs, particularly the sugar cravings.

Psychological Preparedness

Don’t be shy about your weight loss goals. In fact, use the people around you to your advantage. Announce it amongst your friends and family that they should thwart you every time you are headed for a bit piece of creamy cake or a cheese-loaded pizza.

Know Your Food

You need to be more alert when picking up packaged food items. Remember that non-saturated fats and essential fatty acids are the good kind of fats that your body needs for its basic functions. Food items bearing labels of low-fat or low-sugar might not necessarily contain lesser calories. Instead, try to make smarter substitutions. For instance, you can choose eggless baked items and juices without sugar.

Use Water As A Weight Loss Tool

Try to drink water every time you get hungry or you are about to have a meal, i.e. just before a major meal like a lunch or dinner. This is a simple and effective way of instantly quenching your hunger to a certain extent. More water also raises the metabolic rate or the rate at which the body uses calories, meaning you are losing more calories per hour.

Manipulate Yourself To Reduce Food Intake

Try to eat slowly, breaking your food into more bites. This will ensure that you derive more pleasure out of each bite, allowing each morsel to provide more satiety, ensuring your calorie intake at the dining table remain limited. Rather than taking single, big servings, try to take numerous small servings. This helps to establish the perception that you have been serving yourself repeatedly and also makes you more conscious about the amount of food you are about to consume.

Use Fiber To Your Advantage

Try to include more fiber in your diet. This should include soluble and insoluble fiber for ensuring that the digested food in your intestines absorbs more water. This in turn ensures that the feeling of being full is achieved quicker. Insoluble fiber is found in leafy salads that also help you limit your food intake naturally. This is because the raw state of most salad ingredients means that you need to chew a lot more. The extra chewing and salivating that accompanies it helps to control the hunger pangs for a few hours.

Overcome Your Snacking Habits

Snacking is perhaps the biggest sin a dieter can commit. To ensure that you stay away from the urge to bite into a chocolate or cookie, keep your mouth busy with sugar-free chewing gum. Try to sip iced or hot herbal teas prepared with minimal amount of sugar throughout the day. These are low cal aids that help to establish the feeling of feeding yourself without consuming too many calories, preventing the urge to snack.

Keep Away From Salt

Salt is responsible for retention of water within the large intestine. Further, salt tends to keep our blood pressure high, making us more prone to sweating. These factors raise our thirst and the tendency to consume beverages, including teas and colas, which contain sugar.

Burn Your Sugars

If you cannot do without your daily intake of sweet or sugar-concentrated items, try to snack upon them during the morning hours. This ensures that the body will be using the calories extracted from your favorite milkshake throughout the day, reducing the number of calories stored as fat.

Exercise Easily

You don’t need to take upon heavy gym routines to exercise your problem areas. For instance, climbing up and down the stairs is one of the easiest, most accessible types of cardiovascular exercise that works-out your hips, legs and thighs beautifully. Combine this with undemanding calorie-burners like brisk walks, walking to the nearby market, walking when talking on your mobile and taking upon more household chores.

Weight Loss Precautions You Shouldn’t Ignore

Maintaining your body frame is vital at the time of losing weight. Weight loss often causes loss of vital protein, weakening the muscles that are necessary to maintain the elasticity of our tissues. To ensure that you don’t lose too much of your lean muscle mass, ensure you consume egg whites on a daily basis. Avoid the yolk since it contains a high amount of cholesterol.

5 Reasons Why Dieting Will Not Help

Dieting remains one of most commonly-used approaches towards weight loss . Most researches in this niche point towards a global pattern wherein dieters easily lose up to 10% of their weight during the initial phase of dieting, only to see themselves unable to lose more weight or find the fatty deposits slowly surface, again. Weight-regain is very common among chronic dieters and visible, healthy weight-loss is found among a discouragingly low proportion in this group. Here are 5 reasons why Dieting is mostly, bound to fail:However, it might be heart-breaking for many to realize that Dieting is least likely to help you lose weight, particularly sustained and effectiveweight-loss.

1. Restricted Calories=Lowered Metabolism

You need to understand that the rate at which your body metabolizes or uses the energy sources in the form of calories is directly affected by your range of physical activities across the day and eating patterns. Drastic reduction in calorie intake means that you are slowing your metabolism. This is because when the body finds increasingly lesser calories at its disposal, it slows its metabolic activities with the aim of conserving calories. Conservation is done in the form of more fat deposition. A lowered metabolism ensures inability to continuously lose weight.

2. Enter Starvation Effect, Exit Effective Weight Loss

Low Calorie diet regimen leads to lowered metabolism which in turn means less energy to carry out your daily range of activities. Further, the obsession to deprive yourself of your favorite foods means the tendency to avoid social gatherings. This kind of alienation and the lethargic feeling due to lowered metabolism can turn into primary reasons for stimulating depressive tendencies. Such folks are more prone not to exercise and develop long-term psychological problems due to continued deprivation which further reduces chances of sustaining weight-loss in the long-term.

3. Dieting Doesn’t Help You Develop Long-term Weight-loss Lifestyle

The dieting approach is flawed at its core. It doesn’t encourage you to plan your meals, look for healthier, more nutritious food choices or develop beneficial lifestyle habits like exercising regularly. Dieters tend to have lowered energy levels and extreme mood swings, making them incapable of exploring or endorsing such healthy lifestyles.

4. Dieting Weight Loss Is Lean Body Weight Loss

Diets that drastically restrict the caloric intake usually tend to facilitate more of lean body weight loss. Lean weight is different from fat weight. Lean Body Weight Loss is achieved via loss of carbohydrate and protein deposits in the body that also causes loss of lean muscle mass. This means that a severely dieted person can have high levels of body fat!

5. Dieting Cannot Resolve Weight Gain Factors

Dieting does little to resolve the issues that are inducing the weight-gain or fat deposition. This includes causes like reaction to medications like anti-depressants or hormonal substitute pills. People tend to gain weight because of long-term stress or
anxiety as well as because of medical conditions like hypothyroidism. Women who are beyond the age of 45 and those who entered menopause are naturally prone to gaining weight and losing muscle mass. Dieting cannot deter such chronic, weight-gain factors.