All posts by Sumana Rao

Don't worry about the people in your past; There's a reason they didn't make it to your future.
Quinoa couscous beetroot tikki

Quinoa couscous beetroot tikki

Eating same healthy food sometimes seems to be boring. But we all want to gain benefit from eating healthy foods. To get benefits of good health grains like quinoa, couscous and oats we can mix them with vegetables and make Indian spicy tikkis. Add potato, beetroot, spinach and spices to these grains and make it more interesting to eat. Try Quinoa, couscous, beetroot tikki. You can deep fry tikki or you can cook on tava.

Ingredients:

  1. Quinoa – 1 cup
  2. Couscous – 1 cup
  3. Oats – ½ cup
  4. Potato – 4 medium size
  5. Beetroot – 1 medium size
  6. Spinach – finely chopped ¾ cup
  7. Ginger – grated 1 tsp
  8. Garlic – finely chopped – 4 cloves
  9. Green chilli – finely cut 2 or 3 (one can use green chilli paste too)
  10. Cumin – 1 tsp
  11. Garam masala – 2 tsp
  12. Curry leaves – few chopped
  13. Salt – as per taste
  14. Chopped coriander – 1 cup
  15. Oil – for frying

 Preparation:

  1. Boil potato and beetroot mash in a bowl
  2. Cook quinoa and couscous. Quinoa can be cooked in pressure cooker, to cook couscous boil water, turn off the heat and add couscous. Keep it for 5 minutes and drain water.
  3. Now add all ingredients (except coriander) to potato and beetroot bowl and Mix well.
  4. Take 2 Tbsp of the mix and make round ball.
  5. Flatten the tikki ball in your palm to make tikki. Prepare flattened tikki and keep on a plate.
  6. Refrigerate flattened tikki for about 15 to 20 mins.
  7. *Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Slowly release tikki into hot oil and fry. Continue frying both sides till it turns light brown and appears crispy on both sides.
  8. Remove tikki and transfer to paper towel to remove excess oil
  9. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with green and tamarind chutney

*If you are not a fan of fried food, alternatively place tikkis on tava and cook on medium heat by putting little oil. Cook on both sides till tikkis turn brown and crispy.

Image: Google

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 17, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you

Bharadvaja's twist -spinal twist pose

Bharadvaja’s Twist

Yoga poses that involve twisting of the body helps to stretch the spine, provide relaxation for muscles and strengthens back. Bharadvaja’s twist is an intermediate yoga pose that reduces lower backache, also gives relief from neck and sciatica pain. Twisting helps to relieves mind stress, reduces constipation, massages abdominal organs. It is a pose that is recommended for second trimester of pregnancy. Pose helps to stretch shoulder and hip muscles. This pose needs support for hands to twist. Hence practicing the pose reduces carpal tunnel syndrome! – Healthy life

LEVEL :Beginner, Intermediate

Anatomy :Abs, Digestive System, Shoulders, Spine

Pose Type :Hip Opener, Seated, Twist

Sanskrit: Bharadvajasana (bhar-ahd-VAH-JAHS-anna)

Bharadvaja = a sage; the father of Drona, who fought in the famous war described in the Mahabharata

BENEFITS :

  • Massages the abdominal organs
  • Improves digestion
  • Stretches the spine and shoulders
  • Increases spinal flexibility
  • Relieves stress

CONTRAINDICATIONS

  • High blood pressure
  • Low blood pressure
  • Diarrhea
  • Insomnia
  • Headache

HOW TO

  1. Begin sitting in Staff pose (Dandasana). Shift to your left, bend your knees, and swing your legs to the right. Rest your right ankle in the arch of your left foot.
  2. Lengthen your spine. Exhale and twist to the left.
  3. Tuck your right hand underneath your left knee. Then grasp your upper right arm with your left hand by placing your left arm behind your back. Exhale and continue twisting the torso to the left.
  4. Gaze over your left shoulder.
  5. Stay in this pose for up to one minute. Exhale to release and repeat on the opposite side.

MODIFY OR REPLACE

  • Bring your back hand to the floor behind you, rather than grasping the opposite upper arm.
  • Alternative: Supine Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

SEQUENCING TIPS

Before:

  • Reclining Big Toe pose (Supta Padangusthasana)
  • Hero pose (Virasana)

After:

  • Flying Crow pose (Eka Pada Galavasana)
  • Koundinya’s pose (Eka Pada Koundinyasana I)

TEACHING CUES

  • Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor.
  • Press your shoulder blades together.
  • With each inhalation, lift the sternum.
  • With each exhalation, twist a little deeper.

VARIATIONS

  • Gaze over your shoulder in the opposite direction of the twist.

WATCH OUT FOR

  • Bodyweight resting solely on the twisting-side buttock: If this happens, have the student place a folded blanket under the lifted buttock (for teachers).

This article and image is published here with prior permission from beyogi.com.

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 16, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you

Brain age may predict the early death

Brain age may predict the early death !

Aging does not affect humans uniformly. Because of this reason, it is hard to predict what happens after certain age or when death happens. Some elderly people’s brains appear older than the age on their birth certificates.  Scientists around the world are working to find reliable biomarkers that can be used to measure age. In a recent study (published in J of Molecular psychiatry) researchers from Imperial and the University of Edinburgh, London used a neuroimaging technique to understand whether the brain age can spot the risk of poor health and even possibility of dying at younger age. A method for predicting someone’s ‘brain age‘ based on images of their brain could help to spot who might be at increased risk of poor health and even dying at a younger age.

The technique is a long way from being used in clinical practice. However researchers are hopeful to use the technique in near future as a screening tool for this important purpose.  Tool is hopefully will be helping to identify those at risk of cognitive decline and dying before the age of 80, providing an opportunity for early intervention.

This technique was tested on a study population of older adults in Scotland. Researchers found out that the greater the difference between a person’s brain age and actual age- higher is the person’s risk of poor mental and physical health and early death!

By combining MRI scans with machine learning algorithms, a team of neuroscientists led by researchers at Imperial College London, has trained computers to provide a predicted brain age for people based on their volume of brain tissue.

“We’ve come up with a way of predicting someone’s brain age based on an MRI scan of their brain,” explained Dr James Cole, a research associate in the Department of Medicine, who led the study.

“Our approach uses the discrepancy between their chronological age and what we call their brain-predicted age as a marker of age-related atrophy in the brain. If your brain is predicted to be older than your real age than that reflects something negative may be happening.”

Dr Cole added: “It could be that if your brain looks older than it should do, it could be an indication that something bad has happened or is happening and should put you more at risk of age-related brain disease or cognitive impairment, and the data we have so far seems to back that up, at least at the group level.”

A technique was first developed in 2010 that measures the brain volume to estimate the overall loss of grey and white matter during ageing process of the brain. Dr Cole took this basic technique and refined it by testing it on publicly available datasets of MRI scans of more than 2,000 healthy people’s brains, resulting in normalized maps which accurately predicted the person’s age.

Following this fine-tuning, it was then applied to scans of 669 people from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, a well-studied group of adults all born in 1936 who had undergone MRI scans at age 73, giving them a score for predicted brain age. In the process, the research team found a marked difference in people whose brains measure as older than their chronological age. They tend to have weaker grips, poorer lung function, slower walking speed and their bodies have suffered more wear and tear. They were worse at solving new problems, and showed poorer performance when applying logic and identifying patterns. Crucially, those with ‘older brains’ were statistically more likely to die before the age of 80, with the average discrepancy between brain age and chronological age being eight years for deceased males and two years for deceased females.

“In the long run it would be great if we could do this accurately enough so that we could do it at an individual level,” said Dr Cole. “Someone could go to their doctor, have a brain scan and the doctor could say ‘your brain is 10 years older than it should be’, and potentially advise them to change their diet or lifestyle or to start a course of treatment. However, at the moment, it’s not sufficiently accurate to be used at that sort of individual level.”

According to Cole the study’s findings support the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain as a screening tool to help identify people at greater risk of general functional decline and mortality during ageing.

This is summary of research article that was published in: Brain age predicts mortality, Cole, J et al., Molecular Psychiatry, doi:10.1038/mp.2017.62, published 25 April 2017.

Image credit: Photo by Natasha Connell on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 10, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you

How to reduce electronic device use?

How to reduce electronic device use

Ways to reduce smart devices in your kid’s life

Kids starts whining when parents ask them to go and play outside. They all into video games and smartphones.

Kids eyes are most time stuck to the screen watching something in the phone or playing games.

The fun of going out and playing in a group, going for little adventures has been reduced so much in past few years – all because they are addicted to mobile phones and computers (to play games).

How to break or reduce this addiction and what are different ways parents can wean their kids off electronic devices.

  • Reduce/limit alone time: To stop spending time on games keep your family computer in a public place rather than in a study room. This way parents can watch how much time kids play and what they are doing on the computer. Kids will know you are watching and will be reluctant to spend more time playing games. If they are on mobile phone then use for few minutes. It is hard to control use of mobile and tablets. Think hard whether your kid really needs his/her own device. If your answer is yes, then get a basic device or basic plan for kids.
  • Control password: If kids wants to download an app, tell them to use free app. Protect your credit card information by password. Don’t share passwords with kids. This way they will not have access to paid Apps. Cut them off for extra goodies on your phone, this will eventually reduce their use of mobile and tablet.
  • Reminder: To avoid fights and teary meltdown, give timings to child play on device. Remind them 10 -15 minutes before the time up. You as a parent need to be strict on timings. So, the kids will not take advantage of your nicety.
  • Who is the boss: If the child does not listen to you and throws tantrum, then show the kid who is the boss. Do this few times – tell nicely, firmly and they will follow. Take the device away and tell them next time they must listen to you. If you start noticing their addiction, take control of the situation and restrict access to those devices.
  • Fill their free time: Have a schedule for your child. Put a schedule display on your refrigerator and in kids room. For some kids video games are just distraction and diversion to get over from school stress. Instead of just taking away the device, give them alternative with some attractive suggestions. Generally, kids love to play in group – soccer, cricket, hockey, basketball etc would be interesting. Take them for good movie, let them have a play date, sleep over with friends. Encourage them to share their ideas, prepare them for short talk etc.
  • Put down your device: When your kids are around, stop looking at your social media profiles, whatsapp, twitter etc. Don’t bring your phones to dining table. Keep it away. Make up your mind to talk to your children during dinner. Let it be a family time. Set a good example. Be a role model, then kids follow your steps.
  • Don’t hand over your device to kids: Sometimes, to control kids tantrum in public, parents give their devices to kids. Or during social gathering if the kids are bored then parents’ handover their device to kids to play. Sometimes this is okay. Eventually children need to learn how to behave in public. Communicate with kids and explain them the behavioral changes that they need to have when in social gathering or in public.

No doubt, smart devices provide many benefits, including education apps. But children also are one step closer to dangerous and distractive games, sexting apps and social media apps where online bullies are on the watch. Lot of debate and advices are available on this topic, it is a big debate “when to give devices to children or when to give a smartphone to a child”.

As per experts, the longer you wait to give your child a smart device, it is better. Some say 12 is ideal age, others say 14.

However, if you see your child is getting addicted to the device, better act and make sure the addiction stops soon. It is in parents hand.

Reference: www.werindia.com

Image credit: https://images.pexels.com/photos/159395/pokemon-pokemon-go-phone-game-159395.jpeg?cs=srgb&dl=2-boy-sitting-on-brown-floor-while-using-their-smartphone-159395.jpg&fm=jpg (Free for commercial use)

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on:
« »
« »

Recommended for you

Why is difficult to lose weight?

Why Is Difficult To Lose Weight?

Low carbohydrate intake, diet, less food intake, more exercise, avoiding fatty foods, protein diet, fad diet – You  tried all these and still finding it difficult to lose weight? There are several reasons why one cannot lose weight easily after trying so many methods. Losing weight is not simple – there are many factors involved in gaining and losing weight. Why after trying hard, scale shows weight going up and not going down?

See some explanations in next few slides.

Remember – you gained weight from many years and it was easy. If you want to lose weight then patience plays a major role along with in understanding some of these facts. If you fail, it is okay – nobody is perfect. Don’t give up! Get back and understand the process, implement changes needed for weight loss and reach your goal.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

What Happens With Low Carbohydrate Intake?

What happens with low Carbohydrate Intake?

Lipogenic Enzyme and Starvation

Lepogenic enzyme and starvation

Exercise and poor diet combination

Exercise and poor diet combination

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA)

Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)

No Breakfast and Skipping Meals

No Breakfast & skipping meals?

Short Term Diet and No Weight Loss

Short term diet and no weight loss

Calorie Intake

Calorie intake

Men Are Successful In Losing Weight

Men are successful in losing weight

References:

  • https://authoritynutrition.com/
  • https://www.niddk.nih.gov/
  • http://www.everydayhealth.com/
  • https://www.verywell.com
Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 9, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you

Chickpea vegetable soup recipe

Healthy Recipe Chickpea Vegetable Soup

Here is a healthy vegan soup recipe that you must try that helps your digestive system in good condition. Chickpea vegetable soup -Mixing chickpea with vegetables in vegetable broth gives you enough nutrients of the day with protein, fiber, iron, Vitamins and calcium. Recipe calls for flavoring greens, few vegetables and chickpea – good combination of all these ingredients with spices makes the soup yummy and goes well with bread or rotis.

Two parts for the recipe: Vegetable broth preparation & Soup preparation

*You can also add other vegetables to soup– like kale, amaranthus, coconut milk, squash, nuts etc.

Part 1: How to prepare vegetable broth? You can make as much quantity as you want and can refrigerate vegetable broth up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients:

  1. Onion -1 medium
  2. Garlic- few cloves
  3. Celery- 2 inches
  4. Bay leaves – 3-4
  5. Parsley – little (dry or fresh)
  6. Thyme – little (dry or fresh)
  7. Cilantro – little (optional)
  8. Rosemary – little (optional)
  9. Turmeric – 1 tsp
  10. Tomato – 1 or 2
  11. Salt- as per taste
  12. Crushed black pepper – 2 tsp
  13. Water – 2-3 cups
  14. Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp

Preparation:

  1. In a deep vessel heat oil, add onion, carrots, garlic and celery. Fry for couple of minutes.
  2. Add salt and crushed pepper. Sauté for few minutes so that contents will get soft and slightly brown
  3. Add available greens (bay leaves, parsley, thyme), add salt and little more crushed pepper – mix well. Now add required amount of water, let the contents come to a boil.
  4. Add chopped tomato and continue cooking the contents for few more minutes. Adjust the taste according to your needs. Turn off the heat. (you can add pinch of yeast with tomato- optional)
  5. Once the contents cooled down, strain and store the broth in a vessel. When you are ready to prepare soup use the broth.

What to do with leftover broth vegetables? – You can add with vegetable juice, add into pasta or can add into gravy.

Part 2: Chickpea- Vegetable soup recipe

Ingredients:

  1. 1 tbsp vegetable oil -1 Tbsp
  2. Chopped onion- 1 medium size
  3. Grated Ginger – 1 inch
  4. Vegetable stock -Half liter
  5. Small cut carrots – 2 cups
  6. Cut green beans- 2 cups
  7. Chickpea – 1 can (or soak a ½ cup overnight & pressure cook)
  8. Garlic finely chopped – 1 clove
  9. Garam masala -1 tsp
  10. Chopped cilantro – 2 Tbsp

Preparation:

  1. Heat oil in a deep vessel, add onion, ginger and garlic. Fry for couple of minutes.
  2. Add cut beans, carrots and garam masala, continue frying for another 2-3 minutes
  3. Now add vegetable broth. Let the contents simmer for about ten minutes.
  4. Add chickpeas, salt as per your taste and mix soup well while continue heating for few more minutes.
  5. Remove and garnish soup with cilantro, serve hot with bread or rotis. Image: Google curtesy.
Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 8, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you

When is the best time to eat fruits

Which is the best time to eat fruits? Find out

Fruits are full of antioxidants and are good for health. Every edible fruit is a gift to mankind. Our digestive system adopted to fruits during evolution itself. There is enough science background and evidence to say that humans have been fruit and plant eaters from the beginning.  Including fruits in our diets has several advantages and helps in sickness and conditions. Loaded with antioxidants, most fruits supply less or zero calories. Fruits like citrus supply vitamin C that is good for cold and fever. Apple, peach and pear are good for digestion. Watermelon contain more water content and  supply Vitamins B and lycopene. Potassium is present in abundance in both banana and pomegranate. Consuming fruits helps to reduce fatigue and tiredness.

Many of us think fruit as snacks. Some eat fruits during certain occasions, festivals or as snacks at evening. People who don’t have proper knowledge, assume that fruits contain lot of sugar and can raise blood sugar level and should be eaten in moderation. There is also a notion that fruits should not be taken with meal or cooked food. Some suggest that fruits should not be consumed after meal. If you are eating fruits only in empty stomach, then you should reconsider your habit.

  • The myth which says eat fruits in empty stomach also says that eating fruits with food causes discomfort, gas and indigestion. Fact is, all most all fruits contain fiber and releases food slowly in the stomach. Eating fruits with food results in less calorie consumption. In addition, fruits can cause stomach to empty slowly. Slowing the emptying of stomach is good as we feel full for much longer and we won’t end up eating too often or end up eating junk foods. Eating fruits with meal helps you to consume less calories afterwards. This is a big advantage for those who struggle to lose weight.
  • Another myth is, If fruits sit in the stomach for longer time it can lead to diarrhea and bloating because of microbial growth causing rotting and fermentation! Well, it is not true either and it is a misleading information. When fruits reach stomach, the acid secretion (stomach acid) with low pH will act on microorganisms.
  • Our body metabolizes glucose at cellular level causing formation of free radicals that can damage body in different ways. It can result in different conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, cholesterol build up, heart conditions and even cancer.  When we eat fruits, body goes into Pro-oxidant state for few hours because of antioxidants present in the fruits. These antioxidants act on free radicals and keeps our system in good condition. In other words, “eating fruits with cooked food or meals helps to boost health by releasing antioxidant that guard our system for several hours”.
  • There is not scientific data to prove the myth “diabetic people should eat fruits 1-2 hours before or after meal”. People with sugar problems must eat fruits that are suitable for their health. Including certain fruits with breakfast, meal and dinner is good for diabetes. Fruits have mix of nutrients. Eating raw fruits will add more nutrients to body.  Precaution should be taken about processed fruits, dried fruits and fruit juices. instead eating fruits in empty stomach pair fruits with snacks or meal for diabetic condition.
  • There is also a belief that, eating fruit before or after meal reduces its nutritional value. It is not true. Our stomach is designed in such a way that it can hold food and release small amounts at a time for intestines to digest food easily.  Small intestine (which is long organ) can absorb as many nutrients as possible. In fact, both intestines can absorb twice the amount of nutrients a human consumes per day! Whether we eat fruits empty stomach or in full stomach or with food, intestine do their duty of absorbing nutrients. Our digestive systems are more prepared than we think.

Include fruits in your daily diet. Eating fruits just before meal, with cooked food or after meal all give benefits of getting nutrients to body. Eating fruits everyday is a good idea for healthy body.

Image credit: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay 

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: August 5, 2022
« »
« »

Recommended for you