All posts by HealthyLife

HealthyLife is a part of www.WeRIndia.com, an all India – centric website (https://healthylife.werindia.com) and is solely owned and operated by WeRIndia.com. It is a Indian nutritional portal providing educational articles.This nutritional port was launched on February 5th, 2015.
Home remedies of sweet flag

Home remedies of sweet flag

Sweet flag also known as baje, vacha and scientific name is Acorus calamus.

Root has a warm taste, bit bitter, pungent, gives unique fragrance and is aromatic. Its active principles are taken by boiling water, steeping in oil or by preparing paste.

Sweet flag root is useful for many conditions and traditional medicines uses sweet flag for various purposes and illness of the human body. However, it is not recommended in high dosage.

Home remedies of sweet flag :

For babies health issues:

1. Babies suffer because of bloated stomach and gas. This might be because of indigestion. Take a piece of sweet flag/vacha/baje and burn it slightly in flame. Cool and using water prepare paste by rubbing the root on a grinding stone. Mix a very little paste of this in milk and feed baby. It soothes baby’s tummy.

2. Sometimes due to white tongue toddlers does not develop taste for food and they refuse to eat. Prepare a paste of acorus and take a pinch of the paste and give it to toddler. This helps them not only getting back taste bud also, increases their appetite.

3. Mix sweet flag paste in honey and give little to toddler. This helps in controlling cough and sore throat. Also, if you are worried babies does not communicate orally, this remedy helps. It also helps in controlling diarrhea.

Make sure there is no fungal infection in the root before using it. And do not give more than ¼ tsp of sweet flag at a time for babies.

4. Traditional use of sweet flag teething bracelets for babies: Acorus has antimicrobial properties. For this reason in India beads prepared out of the sweet flag is used in baby’s bracelet. It smells good too. When babies bite the beads, the extract from the beads enters their system, keeping away all illness!!

Hair lice control:

Hair oil prepared from sweet flag is good for controlling hair lice. Sweet flag oil is a natural insecticide and is good for the scalp skin. To prepare hair oil, soak and steep dried sweet flag in coconut or sesame oil and keep it under sunlight for few days. Drain the oil and use it on hair. Alternatively, warm the dried sweet flag in any of these two oil and strain the oil and use it for hair application to control hair lice.

Indigestion:

Not only for babies and children, sweet flag is good for adults too. During indigestion to a cup of warm water add, little ginger powder and little sweet flag paste. Add little honey and drink. It reduces stomach pain, flatulence and other indigestion problems.

Memory boosting and to release stress:

Sweet flag has a calming property and soothes nervous system. In Ayurveda sweet flag is recommended for epilepsy and depression conditions. It also acts on brain cells and boosts memory. Boil sweet flag root in one cup water and strain the water and drink.

Massage oil:

Acorus oil can be used as a remedy for headache and to get relief from arthritis pain. Steep pounded sweet flag root in coconut oil and expose it to sun light for a week or so. Let the contents release in the oil. Use this oil and give massage to body parts and joints to get relief from the pain.

Other uses of sweet flag :

  • It removes phlegm, clears congestion, helps in insomnia, chronic bronchitis, and bronchial asthma. It also tranquilizes the mind!
  • It is helps to reduce stomach acidity and eases heartburn and dyspepsia.
  • Chewing of root helps to reduce toothache
  • Smokers can get help of sweet flag to quit smoking by chewing the root.
  • During drug withdrawal, it can also blunt gastric upset.

Before using sweet flag make sure that it does not interfere with the medicines that you are prescribed from your doctor and seek recommendation.

Grandma’s home remedies – Grandma online. www.healthylife.werindia.com

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acorus_calamus_002.JPG,

Attribution: H. Zell / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 18, 2017
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You can drink this plastic

You can drink this plastic

The threat the whole world including the oceans facing is use of plastic. Do you know worldwide every year nearly 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed? Island of Bali which is a beautiful place is also no exception for this threat. Much of the plastics that dumped by China is washes towards Bali shores. A local surfer Kevin Kumala tried a solution for plastic problems.

While watching, motorcyclists wearing disgusting vinyl ponchos that do not decompose the biology graduate thought of a solution to create a better plastic that would not leave trace behind.

Kumala used cassava a common root vegetable that grows in Indonesia to make a mimic of plastic. Kumala and his friend both studied bioplastic and took a note of new materials used in bioplastics like corn and soy starch. Using cassava starch, vegetable oil and organic resins they devised their own recipe that resulted in 100% bio-based material – both biodegradable and compostable, breaking down over period of months both in sea and land. It also dissolves in hot water.

As per Kumala, this bioplastic leaves no traces of residue. It dissolves in water and one can drink that water too as it causes no harm – Kumala claims. It also passed oral toxicity test and is harmless to sea animals.

The company Avani was launched in 2014 to sell the Cassava -plastic ponchos. In three years’ company made its mark by selling Eco products to various purposes. Today, Avani Eco produces company sells four tons of material a day including plastic bags, food packaging and even convers for hospital beds!!

The Entrepreneur has hopes on producing more eco plastics as the demand is raising. With help of reliable investors, they want to make it big. Says Kumala “Govt of Indonesia is supporting us and we are working with them to create a roadmap to be plastic-free by 2018”.

The notion of reduce, reuse and recycle has always been preached but it is crucial to implement this with “replace” says Kumala.

If you visit Company’s website this is the information you will find:  Avani bags are made from purely 100% bio-based material and it is also widely considered as one of the lowest cost for cassava-based bioplastic as well as having distinguishing features as below:

  • 100% made from renewable bio-based, not oil
  • Compostable and biodegradable
  • Safe to consume for land and marine animals
  • Can be recycled along with paper
  • Customizable shape and design
  • Can be dissolved in a matter of less than 150 days when discarded in bodies of water.

The cost of biodegradable plastic is much higher. However, to overcome green premium barrier for bioplastic industry, young entrepreneur like Kumala need support. Per Kumala -Indonesian Govt’s preferential purchasing schemes in favor of bioplastics can help to overcome the “green premium” as a barrier to growth.

Do you know? The plant derived materials are also derived from raw materials such as corn and potato starch, so manufacturers claim they are sustainable as well as biodegradable. Shrimp shells and Algae are two of the many emerging feedstocks in bioplastic industry.

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References:

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 17, 2017
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Scale pose

Scale pose

Scale Pose: Tolasana -Seated, lifted and arm balanced pose is tolasana or scale pose. It is often a part of Ashtanga yoga. This pose is excellent for core and abdomen strengthening. The abdominal exercise helps in strengthening and improving digestive organs.  It is also helps in engaging bandhas. Bandha in yoga refers to body locks. The two bandhas’ that you need to engage in this pose are Mula and Uddiyana bandha. Mula bandha is contraction of perineum and Uddiyana is contraction of abdomen to the rib cage. One need to be extra careful while doing this pose while focusing on bandhas. If you are new to Yoga then you need to know that Tolasana is an advanced pose that should be performed under supervision. Before performing the pose learn how to do full lotus pose and warm up the abs, hip flexors and shoulders by doing few Sun salutation, dandhasana and plank poses – www.healthylife.werindia.com

Anatomy: Abs, Hips, Wrists

Level: Advanced

Pose Type: Arm Balance, Core, Hip Opener

Sanskrit: Tolasana (toe-LAHS-anna) tola = balanced, scale

BENEFITS

  • Strengthens the arms and wrists
  • Strengthens and tones the abdominal muscles
  • Reduces stiffness in the knees and ankles
  • Stimulates the digestive system
  • Opens the hip joints

CONTRAINDICATIONS

  • Shoulder or wrist injuries
  • Ankle, knee, or hip injuries

HOW TO

  1. Begin in Padmasana (Lotus pose).
  2. Flex your feet, pressing your ankles into your thighs.
  3. Place both of your palms on the floor, next to your hips.
  4. Exhale and press down firmly through the palms of your hands. Engage the abdominal muscles, and lift the buttocks and legs off the floor.
  5. Stay in Scale pose for 10 to 15 seconds. Then slowly lower yourself down onto the mat. Switch your leg crossing, and repeat on the other side.

MODIFY OR REPLACE

Alternatives:

  • Padmasana (Lotus pose)

Modifications:

  • To lift up with ease, place blocks underneath your hands.

SEQUENCING TIPS

Before:

  • Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend)
  • Ardha Purvottanasana (Reverse Table)

After:

  • Ardha Purvottanasana (Reverse Table)
  • Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Fold)

TEACHING CUES

  1. Do not push yourself into this posture. If you feel pain in your knees at any point, come out of the pose.
  2. Keep your spine straight, reaching the crown of your head toward the sky.
  3. Keep your chin parallel to the floor.
  4. Lower your shoulders away from the ears.

VARIATIONS

  • Lolasana (Pendant pose)

WATCH OUT FOR

  • Not breathing !!

This article and image is reproduced here with permission from https://beyogi.com

 

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 10, 2017
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Shoe care tips

Shoe care tips

Your feet health depends on your shoe too! Taking care of your shoe is important because you don’t want to end up in some type of foot ailment.

When you are working, depending on type of work you might need to wear proper shoes. Some places need special types of shoes to protect feet. Buying and wearing shoes is an investment.  When you buy shoes make sure it fits properly to your feet. If not, you might end up in blisters that can take time to heal.

After buying costly shoes it is important to take care of shoes and maintenance of shoes depends on their texture. If you keep shoes clean it will protect your toe nails and feet. If not, you may end up not only with stinky shoes also it can cause microbial infections!! It becomes a hygiene issue.

How to take care of your shoes? Here are few tips.

1. Before wearing shoes, make sure that your feet are clean and wear socks. Trim your toenails and keep space between toes clean and neat.

2. Shine shoes if you keep wearing them. Shine the shoe after you buy them and before wearing them. It is important because, it not only protects the shoe, it also gives good impression about yourself when you are at work or in public.

Smelly feet problem?

  • If your shoe is giving bad odor, put baking soda inside the shoe and let it sit overnight. Baking soda absorbs the odor
  • Another way to remove odor from shoe is use mixture of white vinegar and water. Use a rag to clean inner surface using this mixture and leave it to dry.
  • Use black tea bags – boil the tea bags and cool them. Place the cooled tea bags inside the shoe overnight. Wipe the excess decoction that may sit inside the shoe using dry towel.
  • Don’t be lazy… wear clean socks!

 3. To remove scuff marks from shoe surface use non-gel toothpaste. Apply a little and use soft cloth to rub the surface.

4. If shoes are wet during rainy or snow season, insert newspaper or paper towel inside the shoe – paper will absorb the moisture. If not, microbes will grow inside your shoe. Keeping the shoe near the heat source spoils the shoe material.

5. Use petroleum jelly to keep your shoe in condition. Apply little Vaseline jelly so that shoe will retain its longevity.

6. To remove salt from the shoe surface use 2/3 of water and 1/3 vinegar mixture. Dip a rag in the solution and dab it on the shoe surface. Use a towel to dry the surface.

7. If you are wearing leather shoe, while you keeping the shoe on rack insert a cedar shoe tree to absorb moisture. It also removes the odor from shoe.

8. Add a rubber sole to protect the original sole of your dress shoe. It protects the original sole and gives extra cushion that feet need.

9. Give rest to your shoes. If can afford have one or two more pairs of shoes and rotate shoes each day.

10. Cleaning and maintenance of different shoe materials: Cleaning the shoes depends on the fabric material. If you use leather shoe polish and condition it. Suede should be brushed. Use stain guard to protect the fabric. Use fabric shampoo to wash your canvas shoes. Avoid using washing machine. Washing machine can damage the shoe.

11. Shoe storage: Store the shoes that you don’t use often in a proper box. Always keep shoes back in shoe racks. Don’t keep shoes near heat source after your exercise or if they are wet. Use one of the above-mentioned method to remove water or sweat and make sure shoes are dried properly before placing them rack. If not, you might end up in toe fungus or rashes.

Now a day there are many types of shoes available including for those who are diabetic. Understand and learn how to keep your feet and shoes clean and microbe free.  Sometimes smaller wounds can end up in major foot ailments.

Grandma’s tips: www.healthylife.werindia.com

Image credit: https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-emqdb (Free for commercial use)

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on:
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Tips To Reduce Eye Strain

Tips to reduce eye strain

Eyes gets strained due to various reasons. Insomnia, late sleeping, staring at screen, watching TV continuously, traveling, looking under microscope (students and lecturers) etc. are few reasons. It can also cause puffiness. Sometimes puffiness is due to age and weakened muscles around the eyes. Salty food, allergy reactions, crying, stress – all these are also reason for puffiness.  Grandma has listed several tips to reduce strain on eyes.

  1. Use palms to soothe eyes: Rub your hands together for 15 to 20 seconds to warm them a little. Gently position palms over closed eye lids. Hold for few minutes and breath. This will help to rejuvenate eyes and gives rest and relaxation to eyes
  2. Muscle relaxation:Take a deep breath while raising both shoulders and squeeze eyes and fists. Keep eyes closed. While tightening, and releasing the voluntary muscles in shoulders and fists, involuntary muscles of eyes will release and relaxes to take out strain
  3. Chilled spoons: Keep two steel spoons in a wet paper towel and fold it. Place this in refrigerator. After few minutes remove the paper towel and spoon. Unwrap the spoon. Place the spoons one on each eye. When the spoons become warm again repeat the process of chilling and placing it on eye lids. This helps to reduces the puffiness and removes tiredness around eyes.
  4. Tea bags: Tea has natural astringents (tannins). Place two tea bags in wet paper towel and place in refrigerator for half an hour or so. Remove the paper towels containing tea bags and place them on each eye for few minutes. Don’t remove the paper towel- if not tea bags may stain your skin. Repeat the process to get rid of puffiness and tiredness.
  5. Stop wearing eye makeup: Till your eyes feel better, stop wearing eye makeup. If you must then go with light make up.
  6. Castor oil and olive oil: Warm little castor oil or olive oil and apply on eye lids and around eyes. Wash eyes after few minutes.
  7. Cucumber slices: Keep cool cucumber slices on the eye lids. This will help to reduce puffiness and soothes eyes.
  8. Focusing on thumb: This exercise helps to release stress. Hold one arm straight in front of you in a loose fist. Point the thumb up. Now focus on the thumb. While focusing on the thumb slowly move thumb towards your nose until you can no longer focus on thumb. Then take a deep breath. Repeat the exercise 10 times a day. This helps the vision as well as releases stress on eyes.
  9. Eyes rolling: Sit up in a straight position and without moving head roll your eyes up and down and sides. Then slowly circle your eyes in clockwise direction. Repeat the process 3 times and relax the eyes. Next time circle the eyes counterclockwise direction.
  10. Blinking: Take a break from your work and blink few times. Repeat this few times in a day.
  11. Massage: Gently, using your fingertips massage your upper and lower lids 15 to 20 seconds. While massaging upper lids, massage the muscle above the eyes and similarly when massaging lower lids massages the muscles and cheeks beneath.
  12. Early morning sun rays: Stand in a place where early morning Sun rays falls on your face. Close eye lids and let sun rays fall on your eyes for few minutes. Feel the warmth and slowly open and close your eyes and roll the eyes up – down and sideways. This helps in relaxing eye muscles and reduces strain. Don’t wear sun glasses or eye glasses while doing this exercise.
  13. Massage between two eye brows: Using finger tips gently massage the space between the two eye brows. Hold finger on the center and gently press and release to take out any tension as tension can also be the reason for your eye stress.
  14. And, with all these tips try to get enough sleep every day. Sleep is a good remedy for tired eyes!

Grandma’s tips: www.werindia.com

Image credit: Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 9, 2017
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Spicy Kodubale

Kodubale Karnataka special

Kodubale is a type of murukku or spicy rings from Karnataka.

It is a traditional snack item and many households will make and keep it for everyday snack purposes.

It carries some calories because it is a deep fried food item.

Serving size: About 30 gram, Calories = Approx -146

Ingredients

  1.  Maida/all purpose flour-1/2 cup
  2. Roasted gram flour -1/2 cup
  3. Rice flour – 1/2 cup
  4. Fine semolina – 1/4 cup
  5. Ajwain– 1/2 tsp
  6. Sesame seeds – 1/2 tsp
  7. Asafoetida– a pinch
  8. Curry leaves – Few fine chopped
  9. Salt – to taste
  10. Oil/butter – 1 Tbs
  11. Grated coconut -1/4 cup
  12. Cumin seeds (for grinding)
  13. Dry chili – few (6-8)
  14. Vegetable oil – for frying

 Method:

  1. Prepare kodubale dough by mixing rice flour, all-purpose flour, roasted gram flour, semolina, ajwain, sesame seeds, hing, chopped curry leaves and salt in a bowl.
  2. Heat oil or butter for a minute and add to the above mix and mix well
  3. Grind grated coconut, cumin seeds, dry red chili with ¼ cup water to a paste
  4. Add this paste to flour mix and prepare dough. Dough should not be too soft or nor watery. You should be able to roll it using your fingertips. Knead the dough properly.
  5. Take a small lemon size dough and start rolling it on a flat surface. Apply little oil on the surface and roll the dough like a rope. Banana leaves are preferred surfaces to get good taste. Prepare about 5 inches of dough rope and join the two ends of the rope to form a ring shape. Make sure the edges are sticked together to form a “O” or ring shape.
  6. Now heat oil in a deep pan on medium flame
  7. Pick the rings from the surface and carefully drop them in the heated oil for deep frying
  8. Fry the kodubale for few minutes or till the oil bubbles stops
  9. Remove kodubale from the oil and place them on a tissue paper to remove excess oil
  10. After cooling you can store kodubale in air tight container for few days. Or serve hot kodubale with tea or coffee as evening snack.

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Reference: www.werindia.com

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 8, 2017
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Toxic countries in the world

Most toxic countries in the world

One of the greatest threat we, humans are facing today is continued emissions of greenhouse gases due to climate change. Year 2016 was officially named the hottest year on record with temperature having not been warmer 115,000 years. There was a huge crack in the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctic region.

It is the duty of every country to launch plans to tackle climate change in order to save mother earth from catastrophic situation and consequences. US President Trump’s recent policy changes is a setback to previous administration effort to change the massive global problem.

Per the World Meteorological organization, today’s world is almost 5 times as dangerous and prone to catastrophe as it was in the 1970s due to the worst climate change. Climate change is a reality today and is having a huge impact on all countries with extreme climate events.

International Energy Agency and WHO released a data earlier this year showing the most toxic countries in the world and these countries need to do the most to limit their impact upon both human health and environment. The ranking was based on each country’s performance with respect to five different factors.

  • Per capita energy consumption
  • Air pollution
  • Per capita Carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion
  • Per 10,000 capita – deaths attributed to air pollution
  • Renewable energy production.

Eco Experts, an UK based Company created the toxic map based on the research data. In a press release, Jon Whiting from The Eco Experts said that “This research is a way of naming and shaming the worst offenders around the world. Their lack of action against emissions not only puts their populations at risk of deadly pollution-related diseases but also threatens the future of our planet. These threats are not distant concerns for future generations; their effects are being felt now and lives are already being lost. This research highlights the need for every country to act fast and put more investment into renewable energy alternatives.”

 Important Findings:

In order to determine which geographical locations are highly toxic an UK based Company studied air pollution data from 135 countries. They also considered carbon emissions, energy consumption and other factors as stated above.

  • Unlike previous years these recent finding tells that West will be also impacted by climate change similar to Asia and Africa.
  • Russia, Italy, France, Spain Luxembourg, Belgium, Croatia, Portugal – all feature in the worst 20 global countries for death rate from extreme climate on average per year over the past 20 years
  • When looking at the 20 top economies, France, Italy, Russia and Spain alarmingly have high death rates from extreme weather condition events.
  • Saudi Arabia was ranked as the world’s most toxic country due to its highest air pollution levels. Other oil rich countries Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE made into the top list as well.
  • Russia, Italy, France, Spain, Germany and USA are also in the worst 20 countries for overall deaths per year on average over the last 20 years!
  • Surprisingly USA ranked 66 ahead of other countries such as China, Canada and Russia. However, it ranked worse than India and UK!!
  • Another big surprise is countries like Norway and Iceland consume more energy than others.
  • The least toxic countries are present in Africa – Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Cameron.

In the present scenario, what we can see is, the climate change is having a huge impact on mother earth and most of it human made disaster. Pollution may not clearly visible to the eye but its impact is. Instead of being ignorant we need to understand what is that we are doing wrong and take corrective action for it.

 References:

  1. http://blog.theecoexperts.co.uk
  2. http://www.trueactivist.com/
Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: August 7, 2017
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Ajwain leaf bajji

Doddapatre leaves bajji

Previously we have given two grandma’s doddapatre recipes: chutney and tambuli

(Visit: https://healthylife.werindia.com/vegetarian-recipes/grandmas-ajwani-leaf-recipes ).

Another delicious snack recipe for all seasons is grandma’s doddpatre or ajwain leaves bajji.

Ingredients:

1. Gram flour = 1.5 cup

2. Ajwain/doddapathre leaves with petiole (stalk) = 15

3. Chili powder = 1 tsp

4. Asafoetida = a pinch

5. Cumin seeds =1/2 tsp

6. Salt= per your taste

7. Rice flour= 1 tsp

8. Chopped curry leaves = 1 Tbs

9. Cooking oil

Method:

1. In a bowl mix gram flour, rice flour, salt, chili powder, cumin seeds, chopped curry leaves.

2. Remove any clumps present in the gram flour.

3. Add water and mix well to desired consistency (not watery). You should be able to dip leaves in the batter and drop on oil.

4. Wash doddapatre leaves in running water.

5. Heat oil in a deep pan.

6. Dip individual leaves in the spicy batter and slowly drop in the oil.

7. Fry bajji on both sides – should be slightly crispy.

8. Remove bajji from oil and transfer to paper towel to remove excess oil.

9. Serve hot doddapatre bajji with tomato ketchup or green chutney of your choice.

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Recipe: www.werindia.com

 

Author: HealthyLife | Posted on: July 31, 2017
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