There has been a long ongoing controversy about whether fruit juices are healthy or not. Most people consider them to be a great option to complete their daily fruit requirement since they are much easier to consume.

Lots of people replace soda and carbonated drinks with fruit juices thinking that they are moving towards an healthier option. There are even detox diets which claim to help you lose weight by just drinking fruit juices. They might help you in the short run but the fact is there is not much difference between a tall glass of fruit juice and a bottle of any carbonated drink minus the fizz.

Almost every food that we buy from a supermarket or grocery store or even a restaurant is packed with preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and many other additives.

While it is a necessity to buy these food for the sake of convenience, choosing the wrong products with the wrong type of additives can cost you your health. These are the top 11 food additives that need to stay away from your diet. Even though some of them are approved as safe for consumption they still pose a great health risk.

There is a lot of confusion regarding whether or not stretching before and after exercising is required.

The other day I met a woman outside an Ayurveda centre (I was there to get a head massage) and while waiting for the cab we started chatting. She told me she was there to get treatment for her nerves. As we started talking further she told me that she was a fitness freak and used to lift really heavy weights without stretching and suffered from some nerve damage issues because of that.

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Even in India where tea is almost a staple drink in most houses, coffee has its own special place. For some people, their day does not start without their morning cup of coffee.

Coffee has been known to boost energy levels and increase attention and focus. This is no more a myth, even research has proven that coffee can have some serious health benefits.

Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular trends in the Health and Fitness Industry. Often referred to as a diet, intermittent fasting is actually an eating pattern which became popular in the UK in 2012 with the BBC2 television documentary Eat, Fast, and Live Longer.

Gradually with the help of books and internet, the Intermittent Fasting wave has spread across the world. It has become a trend even in the United States’ Silicon Valley.

Breakfast is not just the first meal of the day but the most important one too. We Indians are lucky to have a huge variety of options available to include in our breakfast. But sadly we are either feasting on buttery paranthas or eating processed cereals such as cornflakes. They are obviously not going to help you stay healthy in the long run.

These 5 innovative breakfast recipes that I am going to give you have been a part of my life since the past 3 years and have been recommended by dieticians and nutritionists themselves. So, forget repeating the same old thing daily for your breakfast and dig into some mouth-watering healthy food.

Metabolism is often confused with the term metabolic rate in the health and fitness world. Metabolism includes all the chemical reactions that take place in our body which keep us alive and functioning whereas the metabolic rate is the number of calories our body burns even when it is at rest.

Most people who seek out ways to lose weight know that improved metabolism can end their cycle of never-ending diets followed by weight gain. The higher your metabolism the more calories you burn and the easier it is to lose weight and avoid putting it on again. Having a high metabolism not just helps you lose weight but it makes you feel good about your body overall, you are more energetic both mentally and physically. However, the speed of metabolism depends on a variety of factors, including age, sex, body fat, muscle mass, activity level, and genetics. Men tend to burn more calories than women, even while resting. And for most people, metabolism slows steadily after the age of 40. Some estimates suggest that it actually slows down by 5 percent every decade after your 40th birthday.

According to WHO’s 2018 report over 300 million people worldwide suffer from mental health issues. Mental health is probably one of the most ignored health issue in India. With a population of 1.2 billion India has slightly more than just 43 Government-run mental Institutions.

When it comes to countries, India is the most depressed country in the world, according to the World Health Organisation, followed by China and the USA. India, China, and the US are the most affected countries by anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

Even with such shocking results, depression is still a stigma in the Indian Society. India is on the verge of a mental health crisis but the attitude of most Indians towards this issue isn’t helping much. The West has started taking it seriously there are counsellors at schools, colleges, offices, etc. but here in India we still link mental illness with black magic, demonic possessions, etc.

This is a well-known fact that reducing carb intake can lead to weight loss. A low-carb diet can give faster results than a low-fat diet and may even help to maintain weight loss.

The “DIRECT” study compared low-carb, low-fat, and Mediterranean-style diets and found that after 2 years, weight loss and maintenance were better for low-carb and Mediterranean-style diets as compared to low-fat diets. (1)

Even though going on a low or no carb diet seems obvious, it’s not that easy. A low carb diet can make you go nuts because your body depends on carbs as the main energy source. However, another approach which is popular among athletes is carb cycling. This gives you the benefits of a low carb diet and on the other hand, it also lets you feed your body with high carbs on few days.

Counting calories is by far the most overrated concept in the diet industry. Every diet you can think of till today is based on the simple yet stupid idea of calorie counting. In her 1918 book “Diet and health”  Lulu Hunt Peters introduced this concept and insisted that you should eat everything keeping in mind the calories, so you don't eat a slice of bread but you eat 100 calories of bread. “Diet and Health” was the first book on dieting to become a bestseller.

Even after 100 years, we are still stuck in that same place. Every year new diets come and go leaving us fat or even fatter. Some of you must be new to dieting, starting the trendy keto or paleo. Why not? After all its ‘IN’ these days. I have no doubt all newbies must be seeing some fabulous results. Even dieticians, trainers and some experts, recommend restricting calorie and to some extent,  it does work then why bother?