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During the holidays, many youngsters tend to lose all sense of time and discipline, especially when it comes to meals. This also happens to those who are traveling. They have no idea when to eat what. Irregular meal times can lead to lowering of the metabolism and cause acidity. Also, when the meal is too late and the gap between meals is too long there is a tendency to overeat or you lose control and eat anything you see, especially fatty snacks or sweets, even though you have resolved to avoid these foods.

The ideal time to eat breakfast is between 8 and 9 am. If you wake up very early,

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Happy New Year to all the readers of HealthAndLife.in!!

And with the New Year come resolutions, but not all of them guarantee good health for 2010 and the years after. Here are some suggested  health-related resolutions that people should focus on. As we all know, small things add up to big difference-makers over time. Also, this advice will benefit anyone following it from the immune system to emotional well-being.

GET ENOUGH SLEEP

It is one of the most neglected aspects of our health. Few people get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep, and we know that lack of sleep has been linked to a deficient immune system, increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and (more…)

It may not be the season for oranges, but this fruit is known to have several benefits and is among the most popular fruits around the world. Oranges can be had not only as a snack but also as a major recipe ingredient in various dishes. Nowadays, orange juice is an integral part of a healthy breakfast — thus promoting a healthy start to the day.

They’re mainly available in two categories — sweet and bitter, with the former being the type most commonly consumed. Generally, an orange should have smoothly textured skin and be firm and heavy for its size. These will have higher juice content than those that are either spongy or lighter in weight. (more…)

Most people who plan to lose weight and start a weight-loss regime (including diet), wonder whether they need to cut out all added sugar from their food intake in order to lose weight.

Sugar by itself does not contain fat in its chemical composition. And when it is consumed along with coffee or tea, and milk and curd, it does not register as fat in the body and thus is irrelevant to the ‘lose weight, quit sugar’ stuff . It comes in as carbohydrate food, which is immediately used as energy. Similarly, if you have a couple of teaspoons of jam, jelly or honey, the sugar is used up as energy. However, if you eat candies, with sugar content equivalent to about 3-4 teaspoons of sugar or take 300 ml of a soft drink (roughly 7 tsp of sugar) the excess sugar is converted to fat.

In short, as long as you are not diabetic you may safely consume 3-4 teaspoons of sugar every day, distributed through the entire day, and still lose weight. Moreover, giving up sugar completely and substituting it with a sweetener is not recommended, as they can have harmful side effects even though they say that such artificial sweeteners help to lose weight. What you could do, though, is give up sweet treats like cakes, ice cream, candies, pastries and other sweets instead. (more…)

This revelation of the effects of smoking, especially on your eyes is astonishing. An approximate amount of 4000 chemicals present in the cigarette smoke gets into the bloodstream of smokers and may cause damage to the eye. It can even cause the thinning of the membrane covering the eye, (conjunctiva) resulting in bloodspot and irritate the eyes.

Age-related macular degeneration and other diseases have also been linked to effects of smoking. The causes of macular degeneration are not completely understood, but smoking is believed to be the main preventable risk factor. Smoking directly is linked to the rising of intraocular pressure that can lead to glaucoma and accompanying optic nerve damage. Although the effects of smoking stretches to several eye diseases, including nuclear cataract and thyroid eye disease, the most common cause of smoking related blindness is age related macular degeneration, which results in severe irreversible loss of central vision.

How does smoking damage the eyes? (more…)