Here are commonly consumed Indian pulses: Chickpea (chole, hummus) Kidney beans (rajma, refried beans) Pigeon peas (toor dal used in sambar, some dals) Mung beans (yellow dal) Mungo beans (urad dal used for idlli, dal and dosa). Each has a slightly different protein content and yields slightly different amounts of energy. Pulses are a ...

A friend gave us a pack of figs as a gift. We carelessly popped 2-3 as a snack as we flitted around the house. We stick one piece on a weighing scale. The number? 20 grams. We look at the label on the pack. Each fig we popped in was 55-60 calories. That's a 150-180 calorie snack that we didn’t even count as a snack. That’s 8-12 percent...

There is a versatile measure we use day in day out that can subtly sneak in more energy into our daily eating than we realise : Spoons. Spoons come in two sizes: A teaspoon holds 5 ml. A tablespoon holds 15 ml. It is easy to underestimate the amount of energy some foods can provide in one tablespoon. To state the obvious: there are sou...

AI.COACH: Good morning Adarsh. Time to wake up. You have received sufficient dose of REM and deep sleep. Adarsh: Shut up. I have a long day. I’ll be up in five. AI.COACH: Hi Adarsh. It’s 3 pm. I detect maximum muscle pliability and oxygen saturation with optimal joint mobility. It’s time to hit the gym. Adarsh: Shut up AICOACH. AINetfl...

Holidays, shopping, work, travel, friendships, gym equipment, clothes, books, bags, watches, hobbies, exercise and food. A few of the things we consume every single day. There is of course more to add to the list. But let’s start there. You can judge consumption on some simple parameters. Excess, like porn, is easy to call out. You’ll ...

Changing the question can change how we see the problem. Here are the questions we tend to ask: * How to become fit ? * How to improve stamina ? * How to become stronger ? * Do I need to stretch more? * How do I strengthen or stretch to get rid of pain? Here are more direct questions: * What kind of stresses is the body subject to when...

“The superior satiating effect of potato compared with rice and pasta in a mixed meal was consistent with its lower energy density.” From Zhang et al 2018, Subjective Satiety Following Meals Incorporating Rice, Pasta and Potato To the fan of the South Indian Thali, the potato fry is a very distinct beast from sambar rice. It would be s...

Here’s what every sentient human being knows about health and wellness: 1. Eat protein 2. Eat vegetables 3. Train everyday 4. Sleep enough and consistently 5. Drink enough water 6. Calorie surpluses make you fat 7. Calorie deficits can help you lose weight 8. Too large a calorie deficit is bad for you 9. Muscle is good 10. Body fat bey...

All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison. —Paracelsus, 1538 I am not going to talk about how water or any food can be poison if you consume enough of it. Instead I want to talk about the all or nothing mentality that pervades efforts to improve health and well being. Her...

The heart is a muscle that get’s oxygen and nutrient rich blood to the body. It clears carbon-di-oxide out of the body and moves waste to organs that can deal with it. It is akin to a pump/motor complete with intricate plumbing and electrical. A healthy heart: * Ensures blood reaches all the cells in the heart. The heart is beating all...

The only thing most of us love more than food is to make more money. Here is how you can get better returns from what you put on your plate. Carbohydrates are the liquid cash holding portion of your portfolio. You want as little/much of your local currency as you need to get you through a day or two. It is unproductive to hold too much...

*Is it to burn fat? *Is it to gain muscle? *Is it to feel better? *Is it to look better? *Is it to fit in a dress you've always wanted? *Is it to fit in a dress you used to wear? *Is it to be part of a community? *Is it a hobby? *Is it your idea of play? *Are you just looking for a new playground? *Is it a sport you like? *Is it someth...

One in three adults aged 50 and over dies within 12 months of suffering a hip fracture. Older adults have a five-to-eight times higher risk of dying within the first three months of a hip fracture compared to those without a hip fracture. This increased risk of death remains for almost ten years. - Sharon Brennan-Olsen summarising thre...

* Word : Chemophobia * Meaning of the word : Chemophobia (or chemphobia or chemonoia) is an aversion to or prejudice against chemicals or chemistry * Use it in a sentence: Some purveyors of protein bars also play on people’s irrational chemophobia to peddle their own chemically enhanced protein bars as better for you. CONTEXT * Protein...

Why do we need a study to show us that sitting for 8 hours a day is not useful or productive for our joints. Humans are a fairly bright lot at getting into the best positions to get things done. You could have a conversation sitting, walking or lying. You could drink a coffee or eat a meal sitting or standing. Lying or sitting works fo...

85 per cent of girls and 78 per cent of boys get less than the 1 hour of recommended activity level a day. -WHO We don't move enough. There are more cars, bikes, buses, trains, planes per head than in the past. Life is convenient to the point of being counterproductive. Our ancestors had to walk more and more of our ancestors were farm...

Satiety and satiation are two of the most abused terms around. Satiation is what you feel at the end of a meal and stops you from eating more. Satiety is how full you feel between meals. This can keep you going for longer between meals or leave you raiding the fridge shortly after a meal. Two foods of equal nutritive value could provid...

Paneer, a favourite Indian cheese, is quite different from cottage cheese. Cottage cheese, popularised in America, has a very crumbly texture as opposed to the firm texture of paneer. The macros are entirely different. Cottage cheese might be for vegetarians what chicken breast is for non vegetarians. The common ground is the absence o...

GI is a measure of how quickly a carbohydrate laden food is converted into glucose and enters the blood stream. The value is assigned relative to glucose which the body uses as fuel. To compare GI value of different foods, you take foods containing an identical amount of digestible carbohydrates and compare how quickly those are broken...

The t-bell is a compact and versatile lifting implement. It’s a long 2 inch diameter rod with a hole on top to fit a knurled handle that you hold to lift the t-bell. You remove the handle to load plates on the t-bell. The t-bell is a terrific tool to teach the deadlift and the squat. You can row it too but there are better tools for th...

Working out is too often reduced to the outcome of how you look. Training at the gym can be an experience that can help shape how your body works and moves. The how you look part is a small part of the outcome. Training is about controlling the environment and objects you interact with to produce predictable outcomes. Case in point a m...

The English language is versatile. One word can come to mean many things. Ducks can go quack quack or you can duck your spouse’s jab. Rockets can take us to the moon or the price of cheese can skyrocket. Metabolism is another word that has come to mean very many things. Metabolism, by the book, is the complex chemical processes the bod...

Walking around with weights in each arm is a very underrated exercise. It is also the simplest way to make a walk more challenging. As an exercise, it transfers quite well to everyday life as improved grip strength means grocery bags, dogs tugging at leashes and packed duffle bags feel lighter than they actually are. Farmers carry hand...

Here is a nifty bit of marketing from a purveyor of bicycles. They are selling the idea that cycling can make your kids (or you) taller. Exercise cannot help you become taller. If you were malnourished or severely immunocompromised (suffering repeated bouts of infections) during the growing stages of your life, you might not attain the...

At our gym, we have over twenty different objects to make you more efficient and effective at the acts of pulling, pushing, squatting, carrying, lifting, throwing and jumping. This is not a flex. OK, maybe it’s a small flex. But do we really need all those different objects in our gym? There are gyms that swear by barbells and only bar...

Strength training almost always involves some form of planking. The plank could be in the form of a push up or it could be a plank held as a plank. Lots of folks pride themselves on holding planks for long durations. But being an impatient trainee myself, I enjoy making planks harder. The ab wheel is a popular tool found in gyms and ho...

All our equipment is just as shiny and terrific as the day we made it. And it got me thinking that Madras is a terrific place to build things.. there’s a lot of scrap yards, plenty of lathes, CNC machines, talented welding workshops and small factories with laser cutting machines and press brakes for folding thick pieces of metal . Ove...

Our interaction with the food we eat every day is romanticised to our collective detriment. A food can taste good, it can make you feel good and it can evoke memories. But calling it a relationship is a stretch. Let’s call it what it is: A transaction. We transact for our food. The way we pay for transport. We pay for shelter. We pay f...

3% fat means in 100 grams of milk there is 3 grams or 27 calories of fat. 4.8+3.3+.7=8.8 grams Let's tally the total of the protein, minerals and carbs in 100 ml 8.8 grams translates into 8.5 % SNF (solids not fat) 100 ml of milk weighs a little more than 100 grams. but the total weight of protein, carbs, and fat tallies up to only 9 -...

We don’t do transformation stories at mealmapper, but this was too good to pass. 1. What did you eat? At least 102 species of plants mostly leaves and lots of fruit. By fruit I mean figs. Like kilos of figs a day. Not the dried, tough chewing gum crap homosapiens eat. Softer, watery figs which feel like a baby’s bum. Speaking of baby b...