National Pizza Day can be healthy

Happy National Pizza Day!

You can still enjoy a pizza, just limit the number of toppings and stick with healthy ones, mushrooms, onions, tuna, pineapple etc.

What's your favourite topping?

How Black Tea Works Miraculously For Your Skin

Tea is often treated as a stimulant. When you are busy at a work that requires high mental ability, you unknowingly consume a lot of tea. Any gathering, dinner party or luncheon remains incomplete without tea. This beverage not only relieves you from stress but also offers some other health benefits.

• How Rich is the Black Tea?

Black tea contains minerals like zinc, potassium and magnesium. Other nutrients like vitamins C, E and B2 are also found in this tea. Some traces of tannins, polyphenols and essential oils are present in tea.

These nutrients help tea to protect from risks of cancer. Particularly polyphenols play the major role as they neutralize free radicals and promote longevity.

Tannins found in black tea have antioxidant properties. That is why the color of the tea is dark. Tannins can also protect you from hazardous effects of the environment. These compounds can provide immunity against the harmful bacteria entering your body and improve blood circulation in the brain. These are some of the benefits which tea provides inside the body. What about the outside? Some studies have proved that this tea works effectively in reducing pimples and mimic wrinkles. Therefore, purchase Assam black tea without ado.

• Black Tea Keeps Skin Healthy 

Tannins and polyphenols present in tea help in fast regeneration of skin. This tea also offers protection from mimic wrinkle and premature aging of the skin.

Black tea can be easily used for preparing homemade beauty recipes. Here are some best tips for using black tea for your beauty routines on a daily basis. Beforehand, you need to buy tea online.

• Tips for Fighting Against Mimic Wrinkles

First, you have to brew tea and freeze it in form of ice cubes. Take some of the ice cubes and rub on your skin to attain the proper tone. The areas where you will be sliding the ice cubes are neck and face. Perform this procedure during morning and evening. Tea in ice form keeps the moisture level in your skin intact. The procedure is refreshing and makes your face appear smooth.

• Acts As Compressor for Oily Skin

If oily skin is your problem, you can use tea for tightening pores, freshening up your skin and providing radiant, natural glow to your face.

• Follow These Steps

Take one teaspoon of tea and put it in a mug. Add hot water and steep for around fifteen minutes. After that, use a strainer for straining the tea. Dip a muslin cloth or soft face cloth into the brewed tea and squeeze the cloth. Keep the cloth compressed on your face for around twenty minutes. Then wash your face with lukewarm water and apply moisturizer. Repeat this procedure every three to four days. You will find that your skin has become tight, as pores are less open.

• Getting Rid of Cellulite

Some studies have found tea bath effective for skin. Taking tea bath twice a week helps at toning body and getting rid of cellulite naturally. For that, you need to take four tablespoons of tea in a mug and pour one liter of boiling water. Allow the tea to steep for twenty minutes. Strain the tea and transfer the extract into the bathtub.

You can see that black tea not only provides energy, it also works well for skin rejuvenation.

Source:Soham Daga

5 Healthy Ways of Adding Almonds to Your Daily Diet

Nuts are known to be healthy - they are full of essential nutrients and minerals that are good for your well-being. These are a bite-sized nutrient package that most of us do not include enough of in our diet. Nuts are a great option if you're looking for a quick fix to eat healthier.

Amongst nuts, almonds are considered to be one of the healthiest. A handful of these nuts have protein, vitamin E, fibre, riboflavin and many other essential nutrients that ensure a wholesome and healthy life. Almonds are nutrient rich and also make a delicious snack that offers natural goodness in every bite.

In fact, an interesting study published in the England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) revealed that people who ate a 28g serving of nuts such as almonds, at least seven times per week had a 20 percent lower all-cause mortality rate (death from any cause) compared to those who did not eat nuts.

Almonds are also a weight-wise snack which has been proved in various scientific research studies such as the one published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study found that study participants consuming 43 grams of dry-roasted, lightly salted almonds every day experienced reduced hunger and improved dietary vitamin E and monounsaturated ("good") fat intake without increasing body weight.

Hence, to make sure you reap all these benefits of almonds, here are 5 healthy ways of adding almonds to your daily diet:

Make the Healthy Swap

We are all familiar with untimely hunger pangs. It is difficult to ignore them and we often end up wondering about healthy alternatives. A handful of almonds can be just that! Keep them handy and you are good to go. Start with replacing that bag of cookies, in your drawer/bag that you gobble down while at work, with some wholesome almonds. Easy to store in a jar or mint box, these tasty nuts can keep you from consuming unnecessary junk in between meals and help maintain a balanced diet.

Power breakfast with almonds

Almonds make a great addition to any meal. Since breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, you can make it wholesome by adding these nuts to your favourite choice breakfast. These not only add a healthy crunch to your breakfast but also help enhance its nutritional value.

Post Workout Snack!

While exercising every day is essential for a healthy and fit body, it is also important to keep a check on the post-workout snacks we consume. More often than not, we find ourselves reaching out to anything and everything to munch on, post a workout session. However, what we do not realize is that we end up gaining back the calories we burnt at the gym right before. Hence, introducing a habit of munching on almonds post a rigorous exercise helps keep a check on this, in addition to providing essential nutrients and taste.

'Chai' Time with Almonds

Taking a break with a hot cup of chai or coffee is an everyday ritual for all of us. Be it at home or at our workplace, we always make time for that well-deserved cuppa. However, our chai time experience is never complete without its accompaniments. However, like we all know how unhealthy our regular fried namkeen is, some dry roasted and flavoured almonds can be the healthy choice to make. The delicious crunch of almonds can complement your hot beverage at any time of the day. You can also try different almond snack recipes such as the Sweet Chilli Almonds recipe, for a flavorful chai time.

Top your Salad with almonds 

Salads - a go-to choice for weight watchers, can be made healthier and taste better by adding almonds in it. Especially since the concept of salads is no longer limited to the raw greens, various, exciting recipes can be prepared using healthy vegetables and fruits which almonds sprinkled over them. One such salad you can try is the almond, oranges and roast pumpkin salad.

Source: Anurup A

Sneak in a workout

Sneaking it past the regulators – how manufacturers continue to influence our kids

Sneaking it past the regulators – how manufacturers continue to influence our kids

Dr Sally Norton, NHS weight loss consultant surgeon and UK Health Expert offers some food for thought.

www.vavistalife.com 

 We all want our kids eating healthier – and the government seems to agree with us for the most part. Advertising high sugar and fat foods and drinks in TV adverts during kids viewing has been legislated against since 2007…..but the problems is that there are lots of ways around this! For lots of big junk food/drinks companies, the TV ad legislation is just a tiny bump in the road, especially when they have these sneaky moves up their sleeves…

Sneaky move #1
Forget the adverts – just show unhealthy foods and drinks within the programme itself. The legislation covers adverts but not programme content.
Research from 2014 on the frequency and type of food and drink portrayals in children’s TV programs, shown on non-commercial channels (BBC and RTE) identified over 1000 food and drink cues in 80 odd hours of programming. These cues accounted for almost 5% of the total broadcast material with unhealthy foods accounting for close to half of food cues and sugary drinks making up a quarter of drinks cues. The cues were frequently associated with positive factors, seldom with negative outcomes.

Does this make a difference to kids behaviour – well, yes. Why else would manufacturers pay for product placement within programmes? As the researchers say, parents, policy makers, and physicians should be aware of this and ensure that this type of content is balanced by more frequent and positive portrayals of healthy foods and behaviours.

Sneaky move #2
Link your adverts to programmes that aren’t billed as kids programmes but are most certainly watched by lots of them…like the popular, family-orientated talent shows. Guaranteed to reach those impressionable consumers…and you’ve also got their parents right there ready to respond to the requests for the food and drink they are being tempted with. A study in 2011showed that our kids could be bombarded by up to 11 junk food ads during one hour of family-orientated TV shows, and I can’t imagine those stats have changed all that much!

Sneaky move #3
TV is outdated – any self-respecting kid will be on-line. Luckily, manufacturers are investing in social media and other on-line expertise to target your kids in places you probably don’t know exist! A study by the Children’s Food Campaign, of 100 websites featuring food likely to be bought or requested by kids, found that over 80% of online adverts were associated with foods classed as less healthy and therefore not allowed to be advertised during children’s TV programmes. Yet over 75% featured kid-friendly characters, competitions, downloads and links to social media apps that directly engaged with kids… because the internet regulations don’t prevent our kids being targeted and manipulated in this way.

Watching videos via media channels like YouTube also gives companies the chance to advertise to kids without the pesky problem of TV advertising regulations.

Sneaky move #4
Find yourself a celebrity to promote your product for you. Doesn’t have to be a real one – a cartoon character will do, particularly if it’s one from a popular kids TV show or film. Kids love a celebrity. And if it’s a sports celebrity you have a double whammy! The association with health and fitness will make your product appear healthier too. What a winner!

Action On Sugar is constantly looking at ways we can work to reduce childhood obesity, and pinpoints the issue of celebrity-endorsed junk foods… As they state, “Celebrity endorsement is wrong and gives the wrong message, particularly to children.” Instead, celebs should use their position in a more responsible way, to promote a healthier lifestyle, surely?!

Sneaky move #5
Just pick a national icon and advertise there. Preferably a very large one. Something family-friendly, and seemingly wholesome, with thousands of visitors – like the Coca-Cola London Eye, for example. It will associate your product with fun and warm, fuzzy feelings. Not only that but the tourist board will help with your advertising too!

Sneaky move #6
Freebies. Kids are suckers for brightly-coloured plastic toys – something based on the latest popular TV show or film is usually a winner (think Sneaky move #4). Countries like Brazil have started to fine companies that promote junk food through the use of toys/freebies, but here in the UK, there’s no such penalty that I am aware of.

It goes to show really that our kids are never totally safe from exposure to unhealthy foods and drinks. So be more aware of how they are being targeted and take steps to reduce the opportunities for them to be indoctrinated. If they are old enough, get them to make a game of spotting the tricks that are being used so they are aware of this manipulation. And ensure that you promote healthy messages wherever possible to counteract this pervasive marketing trend. Ultimately, though, we need the government to take this issue much more seriously….though I’m not holding my breath.