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Volume No.

439

Eating foods to which you are intolerant is like continually stubbing your toe - the discomfort will become worse over a period of time and eventually the damage can become permanent. Check out this week's article on Dealing with food intolerance.

In Fitness,

Namita Nayyar

Poor nutrition and fad diets are the downfall of many a workout. Carbs stored in the muscle as glycogen are the primary fuel for activity. Drastically reduce the carbs you consume and your body will have less energy. Also, going too long between meals can also cause fatigue.

To beat this, follow a diet that consists of about 20 percent protein, 60 percent carbs and 20 percent fat. Break your daily calories into several snacks and meals of 200 to 400 calories each, spread through out the day. Eat a protein-carb combo such as yogurt and fruit one to two hours before exercising.

Confidence

You are not an object to which bad things just happen, a passive nonentity hoping, like a garden slug, to avoid being stepped on.

You are the culmination of millions of years of evolution of our species, of your parents' dreams, of God's image. You are a unique individual who, as an active actor in life's drama, can make things happen. You can change the direction of your entire life any time you choose to do so.

With confidence in yourself, obstacles can turn into challenges and challenges into accomplishments. Shyness then recedes, because, instead of always preparing for and worrying about how you will live your life, you forget yourself as you become absorbed in the living of it.
 

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Rice Pancake

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 500 g rice flour

• 500 ml water

• salt to taste

• 1 tsp chilli power

• a pinch of asafetida

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 100 ml oil or ghee.

Directions:

• Boil the water in a pan add the salt, chilli powder, asafetida and cumin seeds. Add 10 ml of the oil and the rice flour and mix well. Remove from heat, cool and knead the dough till soft.

• Divide the dough into soft. Divide the dough into small balls and roll each out like a pancake.

• Cook on a hot griddle on both sides till done. Drizzle with ghee or oil and serve hot.

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

• Calories 146 kcal

• Proteins 1.9 g

• Fat 5.7 g

• Minerals 0.2 g

• Fibre 0.05 g

• Carbohydrates 21.7 g

Dealing with food intolerance

Many people find that they start to suffer from food intolerance as they grow older. This is partly due to long-term exposure to an irritating substance and partly due to the fact that the digestive system becomes less efficient with age. Eating foods to which you are intolerant is like continually stubbing your toe - the discomfort will become worse over a period of time and eventually the damage can become permanent.

What is food intolerance ?

A food intolerance should not be confused with an allergy. An intolerance occurs when the body finds a substance difficult to cope with, whereas an allergy to a substance is an active fight that involves the body's immune system.

Although there are many different types of food intolerance, some foods are more likely to cause intolerances than others. They include soya products, caffeine, chocolate, orange juice, tomatoes and food additives. Two foods that commonly cause intolerances are cow's milk and wheat (or other grains).

If you have an intolerance to cow's milk, this means that your body finds it difficult to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk. As a result, lactose moves through the intestines undigested and when it reaches the colon, bacteria start to ferment it, producing gas. The result may be abdominal discomfort, flatulence and diarrhoea.

An intolerance to wheat and grains means that you have difficulty digesting the protein gluten. Gluten intolerance can cause weight loss, loss of appetite, abdominal cramps and poor vitamin and mineral absorption from food.

Detecting food intolerances

You may already suspect that you have an intolerance to a particular food, simply because you suffer discomfort when you consume it. To confirm that this is the case, try eliminating the suspicious food for a month before re-introducing it to your diet. Keep a daily diary of your symptoms and note whether they return when you re-introduce the food. Alternatively, you can seek the professional advice of a doctor, dietician or naturopath.

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