What makes you Fat ? Carbs, Fat or Calories !

Obesity is the latest epidemic and threatening US population with side effects like heart diseases and diabetes. People take it as a lifestyle disease and think that lack of physical work is responsible for that. But the truth is that our diet is also a major factor, which is making us fat. Those who are aware about diet have got various views. Some think that excess fat in diet makes us fat, while some think that excess carbs do it. One more group of people think that it is all due to excess calories. Here we are more concerned about diet, and will try to find which factor (fat, carbs or calories) is to be blamed for making us fat.

What made people believe that Fat in diet is real culprit ?

There were some widely spread myths that even educated people believed in and thought that dietary fat makes us fat.
Myth 1 : Dietary fat directly get deposited in body and make us obese.
Truth : Our body can't do that. First is digests the dietary fat like any other food item. Our stomach only absorbs water and glucose for instant energy (that is why we give glucose to drink, if someone faints). Infact dietary fat takes more time to get digested and make us feel full for longer duration.

Myth 2: Fat contain more calories that makes us fat.
Truth: Yes, dietary fat contain 9 calories per gram, while carbs and protein contain just 4 calories per gram. But the truth is that this property of fat makes us feel full on lesser consumption. As we told earlier that digestion of fat takes longer and makes us feel full for longer duration as well. Both of these facts automatically balances the correct amount of calorie consumption. Here you should know one more thing that digestion of fat consumes far more number of calories compared to carbs and proteins.

If you want to know more about Fat Myth then read Does eating Fat make you Fat .

Are Carbs responsible for Body Fat ?

Carbohydrates are more easily convertible to body fat compared to dietary fat. Carbohydrates can be more easily converted to glucose and increase blood sugar level and insulin level. The excess glucose which is not absorbed by muscles and other cells of body are converted into fat and deposited in different parts of body as a stored energy which can be used by body while is shortage of food. So the real fat deposited in body is made from carbohydrates.
Bread, potatoes, cookies, sugar and rice are some major sources of carbohydrates that you should control in your diet.
Now people are turning towards Ketogenic Diet , which is a low carb diet, to loose the excess fat and being slim.

Can you blame calories for Body Fat ?

Yes, but only if you are consuming more than the expenditure. In the end it doesn't matter what you are eating, what matters in the amount of calories. If you are consuming excess calories then in the end they will get deposited as fat in body. Physical activities are the best way to consume calories. You may choose any one that you like such as cycling, jogging, swimming or workout in a gym. Staying away from more carbs is better as they contain instant calories and it also makes us addict.

A balanced diet and active lifestyle that includes some daily workout is the best way to stay fit.  

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Mineral Oil is Cancerous (used in Baby Oils and Beauty Products)

What is Mineral Oil ?

Mineral oil (also known as White Oil) is a liquid byproduct of refining crude oil which is used to make gasoline and some other petroleum products. It mainly contain alkane and cycloalkanes. Its density is around 0.8 g/cm3. Term "Paraffinum perliquidum" is used for light mineral oil and "Paraffinum liquidum" or "Paraffinum subliquidum" for thicker varieties of mineral oil.
It is a transparent, colorless and tasteless oil. It best property is that it is inexpensive, which made it widely popular among a number of industries.

Mineral Oil Usage

• Veterinarian use it as a mild laxative for pets.
• Mineral Oil is a common ingredient in baby lotions, cold creams, ointments and cosmetics.
• It is used as a lubricant in enema, as most of it comes out as the stool rather than being absorbed by the body.
• Mineral oil is rubbed on wooden kitchen items in hotels and restaurants, as it reduces the absorption of food liquids into them and thus making them easy to clean and no food odors. 
• It is used as non-conductive coolant in electrical components such as transformers. So transformer oil is actually mineral oil.
• Mineral oil and detergent are mixed to make Horticultural oil, which is sprayed on plants to suffocate pests and reduce their population.
• In textile industry light mineral oil is used as spindle oil (a lubricant).
• It is also used as brake fluid in disc brakes of some bikes and cars.

Mineral Oil's effect on Health

• Mineral oil is extracted from crude oil, which itself contain various toxins and some carcinogens.
• Mineral oil is considered as comedogenic (which clogs pores on skin) and may result in acne. However cosmetic companies claim that they used highly purified form of mineral oil, which is non-comedogenic.
• According to WHO (World Health Organization) untreated or mildly treated mineral oil comes in Group 1 carcinogen.
• Due to its laxative effect, usage of mineral oil in children's foods is discouraged.
• Maximum permissible limit of consuming mineral oil is 100 mg per day, but our baking industry alone is responsible for making us ingest 80 mg per day, as mineral oil is widely used there. 
• Mineral oil as an ingredient of hair oil to act as a cheap lubricant. Some studies have found that usage of mineral oil in hair oil may impair the healthy growth of hair.
• Mineral oil-based moisturizers can increase the growth rate of tumours. 

Mineral Oil is a Carcinogen

According to cancer.gov mineral oil exposure increases the risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer, particularly of the scrotum.
22% of all petroleum based cosmetics contain "1,4 dioxane" which is an animal carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen as well.

According to a study published in Women's Health in 2011, 142 women who were undergoing C-sections were tested for body fat and post-delivery milk samples. Researchers found that both fat and milk were contaminated with MOSH (mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons).

Mineral Oil is ingredient of a number of cosmetics and comes with different label names, so that it gets harder for you to distinguish them. Some of those names are:

• Mineral oil
• Petrolatum
• Liquid paraffin
• Paraffin oil
• Paraffinum

So next time you read these labels, decide it yourself either you want to use that product or not. Some experts say that only unpurified mineral oil is harmful and carcinogen, while purest form of mineral oil is OK for health. But why should we use it when we already know that it was derived from a harmful substance. 

Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/mineral-oils
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21970597
https://beautyeditor.ca/2014/10/16/petroleum-mineral-oil-skin-products

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Flat Shoes may be damaging your Feet

If you are facing foot pain, heel pain or back pain from past few months or years, then it might be due to your footwear. Usually people ignore the fact and blame their sitting posture or physical work for foot pain or back pain. Arch support and cushioning is the basic necessity of a good footwear. Flat shoes or slippers lack these features and result in health consequences. Some of the flat footwear look cheerful and also cost less, which attract people to use them. Here our ignorance about footwear costs us.

Before you know about damaging effect of flat footwear, you must know some facts about feet to make you aware of their importance.

• Our feet has got more that 25% of bones in our body, 52 to be precise.
• During the whole day our feet bear the weight equivalent to the weight of a truck loaded with cement.
• The arch of the foot distributes the weight to the complete foot and give us proper push to walk and run as well.
• Muscles and tissues in our feet act as a shock absorber and help us in walking on any type of surface.
• It is a brilliant example of natural engineering as these bones are put into perfect alignment to bear our weight and make us walk, run, jump and climb.
• You may feel that climbing upstairs and coming downstairs is an easy task, but most of the animals can't do that perfectly. We the humans are only being that can do it perfectly with two legs without worrying about balance.

How does flat shoes damage your feet ?

• Flat shoes, sandals and flip flips usually don't provide appropriate support to sole of feet, especially the arch.
• Lack of shock absorption is another basic reason behind the damage to feet.
• Flat shoes are not bad, if they have cushioned base and shaped to support the arches of your feet.
• Plantar fasciitis, an inflammation and tear in the tissues at the base of feet, is a common health issue related to bad or flat footwear.
• If your flats are tight at toes, then they don't let your foot distribute your weight equally and make your foot bones out of alignment, which results in interior foot injury and nerve inflammation. 

30% people have flat feet due to genetic reasons, but the condition can get worse by wearing bad footwear.

Sudden increase in weight may also contribute to feet and back problems. 

Health of our legs and our overall health are heavily interconnected. Know More about this interconnection. High heels are also equally damaging for your feet. An appropriate height of heel is recommended for comfortable and healthy footwear.

No arch support, no fastening strap or laces and no shock-absorbing material are the basic reason developing feet and back problems. 

Your shoes play an important role in your life, but we ignore their importance and don't even provide proper footwear to bear our own weight. Ignorance is the basic reason behind a number of health conditions. Be aware and never wear flat shoes.

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Are Refined Vegetable Oils Unhealthy

Half a century ago soy, safflower and linseed oils were used to make paint and varnishes, but then chemists discovered technique to make it from petroleum oil, which was cheaper. At that time due to lack of any merchant to purchase their crops, farmers fed the soy and safflower to their pigs. As a result the pigs got fat. Then scientists developed a technique to purify the vegetable oils and remove their paint-like bad smell, and that process was used to manufacture refined oils. Now these vegetable oil became taste less and odor-less and widely accepted by society, as even doctors of that time preferred it over animal fat (such as butter). Refined vegetable oils were also cheaper than other traditional animal fat derived from cow milk.

The oil once used for making paints and later used to fed pigs is now being used in our kitchen. So the question is if the refined vegetable oil is healthy or not ? 

What is a refined vegetable oil ?

Refined vegetable oil means vegetable oil that has been "purified". Here purification may mean a number of treatments, such as filtered, deodorized, neutralized, treated with acid, purified with alkali or bleached. Natural antioxidants and nutrients are also removed from vegetable oil in the process of purification. Such treatment of any food product can make it unhealthy.

Some refined vegetables oils also undergo hydrogenation, which turns oil into solid state and increases its shelf life. Such hydrogenated oil contains a large percentage of trans-fat, which is considered very unhealthy. According to an estimate by FDA more than 90% of prepared cookies, crackers and frozen breakfast contain trans fats. Such readily available food items and food served in restaurants usually contain hydrogenated vegetable oil, which increases the profit but degrades the health. Next time when you purchase any packed food, check its ingredients if it contain trans fat.

Do you known that New York became the largest city in US, where restaurants are asked to go trans-fat free. 

Refined Vegetable Oil may cause Cancer

Some recent researches have found that animal fats don't contribute to heart diseases while vegetable oils do. According to a research consumption of butter has decreased from 18 lbs per person per year to just 4 during past century. Refined Vegetable oil has taken place of butter, and researchers fear that it might be a reason behind increased heart diseases and cancer cases. [1]

N‐Nitrosodi-n-butylamine is a carcinogen found in Soybean oil, one of the mostly used refined vegetable oil. Concentration of this carcinogen in Soybean oil is 290 μg/kg. Same carcinogen is also found in cheese at 20 to 30 μg/kg , in smoked meat at 3.9 μg/kg and at 0.003 μg  per cigarette. [2]

Health Facts about Refined Vegetable Oil

• Soybean oil (used in 75% of American Kitchens) increases obesity, which is directly linked to heart diseases and diabetes.
• Since introduction or refined vegetable oils in 1960s , the reported cases of heart diseases and cancer has increased tremendously.
• Soybean oil creates imbalance of Omega-6 and Omega-3 in body. Each table spoon of soybean oil contain 6807mg Omega-6 and 917mg Omega-3, while it should be in our body in equal amounts.
• Omega-6 creates inflammation, which is sometime necessary to heal cuts and wounds. But overdose of omega-6 creates unnecessary inflammation, which can cause a number of health issues.[3]  

Note: Before starting to use any new vegetable oil, make sure that you know how it is made and what are its effect on health. Your awareness can save your health and also your medical expenses.

Reference:
[1] http://www.happilyunprocessed.com/the-basics/refined-oils-and-why-you-should-never-eat-them/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_oil
[3] https://www.nutritionadvance.com/harmful-effects-of-soybean-oil/

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Importance of Warm up before Workout or Sports

It is a common fact that you must do warm up exercises before doing any workout or sporting event. But why do we need to do it ? Is there any scientific reason behind that or it is just a way to put your body in slight motion before going for actual pace. Does warm up increase your performance afterwards or decreases it by consuming some amount of muscular energy. You will get answers to such common questions in this article.

Scientific Explanation of Warm up

Warm up is low level activity done prior to more strenuous exercise. It rises body temperature and muscle temperature and alerts it to be ready for more physical activity. Blood starts flowing towards muscular areas to provide more energy to them. It prepares cardiovascular system, respiratory system and nervous system by gradually increasing their activity and demand. Sometime a sports specific workout is done by athletes to make some particular muscles more alert for the upcoming event. Warm up reduces the chances of muscle damage.

What are negative effects of avoiding Warm up ?

Some people think that their body is better than others and they don't need a warm up before workout. Implementation of such thoughts can lead to physical side effects on their body. Some of those negative side effects are described here.

• Muscle Damage: Muscle damage may occur as a result of avoiding warm up. Especially if you are going for very tough workouts, such as weight lifting. Muscles at low temperature can't bear as much weight and may get damaged as a result of bearing excess pressure.
• Capacity reduced: As a result of lesser blood supply to the muscles (due to avoiding warm up), the muscles can't work to their full potential and you will feel reduction in your capacity.
• Muscle Soreness: Muscle soreness may occur due to lack of warm up, as lesser amount of oxygen would be reaching muscles, when they are in need of more.
• Lack of elasticity: Warm up increases elasticity of muscles. Avoiding warm up results in lesser elasticity, which means lesser strength and more chances of muscle pull.
• Reaction time: Warm up reduces reaction time, thus increasing performance. But lack of warm up results in more reaction time which can result in bad performance for athletes.

How much warm up is OK ?

There is no specific time limit for warm up. It depends on what you are going to do next. If your task only involves a particular muscle set, then warm up of only those muscles is necessary. Your trainer or coach can give you the correct suggestion about it. Main motive of warm up is to increase body/muscle temperature and increase blood flow. Rising your body temperature by 2 degrees is considered sufficient. However some coaches expect you to sweat before going for actual workout.

Warm up is must during winters

Yes, you heard it right. Cold weather makes our muscles stiff and directly involving them in some strenuous exercise can cause muscle damage. So warm up is must during winters.

Never mix up Warm up with Stretching

Warm up and stretching are two different activities. Stretching can't be considered as warm up. If you directly involve in stretching without any warm up, then it may result is muscle injury. Muscle tear or strain may occur to cold muscles if you directly go for stretching.

Some common warm up exercises are:

• Jogging
• Static Running
• Jump Rope
• Free Squats
• Forward and Backward run
• High knee run
• Stretching without holding a posture

Note: Never do static stretching before a workout session, as it tells your body to relax and cool down, instead of warming up. So static stretching can cause negative side effects. You may do it after a workout session to relax your body and muscles.

Warm up is a way to tell your heart and body to be ready for some physical activity. Your muscles may mind it, if you don't convey this message. So never forget a warm up before actual workout.

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Health Benefits of Banana Flower

Banana Flower, also known as Banana Blossom or Banana Heart, is highly nutritious and often eaten as a vegetable and salad in some Asian countries. It is a maroon or purplish flower, that hangs at the end of banana clusters. They taste starchy and bitter. It has got various health benefits, which are described here.

Nutritional Value of Banana Flower (100 g)

• 51 kcal
• 1.6g Protein
• 0.6g Fat
• 9.9g Carb
• 5.7g Fiber

Calcium, Phosphorous, Iron, Copper, Potassium and Magnesium are the minerals that are found in Banana Flower.

Vitamin A, C, and E are also present in banana flower which increases its nutritional value.

Health Benefits of Banana Flower

• Prevent the pathogenic bacterial growth, thus preventing any suspected infection.
• Cures Ulcer
• Cures Anemia
• Reduces high blood pressure
• Best food for diabetics
• It is a good anti-depressant
• Reduce Free Radical Activity
• Anti-ageing effect
• Provides effective function of Kidneys
• Relieves you from constipation

Health Benefits for Women

• Regulates Menstrual Cycle
• A good food for lactating mother
• Strengthens Uterus

Banana Flower Recipe 

This banana recipe is made in some parts of India and considered very healthy, especially for diabetic patients.

• Put some oil in pan and heat it.
• Put some mustard seeds in it till it crackles.
• Add ½ tsp. of urad dal (split mungo bean or black gram) and channa dal (split black chickpeas) to it till it becomes brown.
• Add 1/8 cup of cut shallots (or onion) and curry leaves
• Add the chopped banana flowers.
• Now add a tsp. of sambar powder, ¼ tsp. of turmeric powder and salt
• Set the flame to low and cover the pan for few minutes.
• Keep checking till all water get evaporated and then switch off the flame. 
• Now the recipe is ready to be served. 

Save this image and share it to make your family and friends aware of the benefits of banana flower.

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Lyme Disease Symptoms and Treatment (Bullseye Rash)

Lyme Disease is mostly known for the bulls-eye rash, which indicates that the infection is spreading.  It is a common tick-borne illness transmitted by the bite of an infected black-legged tick, known as a deer tick. It is a bacterial infection and symptoms appear after 3 to 30 days of deer tick bite. If you have spend some time in grassy or forest area then you are more prone to such bite and infection. Timely recognition of symptoms,  appear in stages and grow severe with time, can get you an early treatment.

Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is spread by an infected deer tick, which are usually very small in size. They must remain attached to your skin for 36 to 48 hours to transmit the bacteria into your body through the bite. If you find an attached tick in swollen condition, then most probably it has done its job and transmitted the bacteria into your body. The bacteria then enters your blood stream. There are four main species of bacteria responsible for lyme disease.

• Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii (in United States)
• Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii (in Europe and Asia)

Symptoms of Lyme Disease

As we have told earlier that it takes 3 to 30 days for infection to spread its symptoms, which occur in stages. So if you have noticed a tick bite then keep examining yourself for symptoms mentioned below. If you find even a few of them, then contact your doctor as soon as possible.
Early Symptoms

• Rash: It usually appears at the site of bite in the shape of a bulls-eye. Usually it neither pains nor itches, so you need to examine it yourself. The bulls-eye can expand over days may enlarge upto 12 inches.
• Fever, headache, tiredness, body ache and chills. These symptoms are common in other diseases like flu, so people often ignore them if they have not noticed any tick bite or rash (at an invisible part of body)

Later Symptoms

• Joint pain and swelling can occur in knees and then spread to other joints.
• Other red rashes, known as Erythema migrans can also appear at other parts of body. Multiple bulls-eye rashes diffusing together.  
• Vomiting

Severe Symptoms

• Neurological problems like temporary paralysis, Numbness or weakness in limbs, neuropathy and impaired memory.
• Meningitis : Inflammation of membranes surrounding your brain.
• Irregular heartbeat
• Liver inflammation
• Eye inflammation
• arthritis and nervous system problems

Severe symptoms may take months to years to develop. It is advised to begin the treatment as soon as you notice any early symptom.

Lyme Disease Diagnosis

Diagnosis of lyme disease is hard as its symptoms are also found in some other common diseases.

• ELISA Test: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test detects the antibodies to B. burgdorferi. It is a blood test which works only few weeks after infection.
• Western blot test: If ELISA Test comes positive then Western blot test is done to find other antibodies to several proteins of B. burgdorferi.

Lyme Disease Treatment

• Oral antibiotics can be used to treat early symptoms of lyme disease. Amoxicillin, doxycycline and cefuroxime are usually prescribed as 14 to 21 day course.
• Intravenous antibiotics are recommended if the disease is spread to central nervous system, but this treatment is also known for side effects.
• Beware : Some alternative treatment practitioners use bismacine injection, which is not permissible according to FDA, as it can lead to heart and kidney failure.

Prevention from Lyme Disease

• If you are spending time in woods then it better to keep your full body covered.
• Keep checking your arms and legs for any possible tick bite.
• If you find any tick attached to skin, remove it as soon as possible to prevent the infection.
• Use insect repellent, if you are 
• Never think that you are immune, as you can get lyme disease more than once.

How to remove the tick ?
Removing the tick with right technique can also save you from possible infection. Grasp the tick gently at its head or mouth and try not to crush or squeeze it. Then pull it carefully to remove the entire tick and then dispose it of. Apply some antiseptic at the site of bite to save yourself from possible infection.

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Does eating Fat make you Fat !

Are you fed up of sacrificing your favorite dishes, just because they contain fat. Now the time has come to debunk the low-fat diet myth and let you eat your favorite butter and cheese. Harvard School of Public Health published an article named "It’s Time to End the Low-Fat Myth" to let people know about the unhealthy diet schedule that some health conscious people were following to save themselves from obesity and heart diseases. Some recent researches have found that instead of having any positive effect on health, low-fat diet was actually degrading the health.

Does eating Fat make you Fat ?

Fat has got more calories per gram, i.e. 9 calories, while carbohydrate and proteins have just 4 calories per gram. It made some old researchers think that eating the similar weighing diets with more dietary fat will put more calories into your body, but if you go for low fat diet then you will get benefit of lesser amount of calories and feeling of full tummy. For past few decades a number of doctors continued to recommend low fat diet to save their patient from obesity, diabetes and health problems. But this misconception was proved totally wrong in some of the recent researches.

A large study which included results of 21 different studies done in 2010 and involved 347,747 human subjects concluded that saturated fat consumption is not linked to the risk of heart disease. [2]

How does Fat affect your Body

Lesser known Better Facts about FAT 

Don't be surprised by the fact that low-fat diet makes negative effect on your body by reducing HDL, the good cholesterol. Eating saturated fat increases the HDL and also increases the size of small-dense LDL (which is bad for health) to large LDL (which is comparatively better). [1]

Do you know that a healthy women should have 27% body fat and a man should have 15% body fat. Why do women have higher body fat ?

So adding some saturated fat to your diet won't harm at all. Instead you will find that your lipid profile reports are improving, especially if your were on a low-fat diet earlier. If you were on a low-fat diet to reduce weight then you must know that low-fat diet has no connection with reducing weight and it can't make you slim.

If it is not Fat, then what makes you Obese ?

Why does Fat don't make you Fat ?

Usually people think that dietary fat directly get deposited as fat in your body, but this is a misconception, as our body can't absorb fat directly from the stomach and deposit the same in different parts of body. Dietary fat slows down the secretion of insulin, a hormone responsible for deposition of extra calories as fat in different parts of body. So instead of increasing body fat, dietary fat reduces deposition of body fat. [3]
When we eat fat, it consumes more calories in digestion and takes more time to digest. So eating fat consumes calories and also keeps your tummy full for longer duration. So fat-rich diet ends up in eating less due to feeling of satiation. It helps in consuming a calorie restricted diet.

Note: While deciding your diet plan, make sure not to end up consuming excess calories. In the end it is the excess calories that can cause weight gain. Consuming a balanced diet can help you in maintaining a good height to weight ration. 

Reference:
[1] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/it-aint-the-fat-people
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20071648
[3] http://www.eatnakednow.com/the-fat-question-why-fat-doesnt-make-you-fat/

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Humans are Evolved to Eat Cooked Food - Fire is the Key

"Controlling the Fire" is one of the most important discoveries that evolved us to be Homo sapiens, the latest and best species on earth. The best proof of the above fact is that no other species eat cooked food, as they tend to run away from fire. Even the strongest wild animals run away from fire as they are fearful of it. But human ancestors learned the art to control fire and that fear was long gone. This art helped us in roasting the meat and then cooking the food. But how does cooking helped us in evolving as humans ? You will get an answer to this question in this article.

The Calories

Our ancestors like monkey, chimpanzee and apes used to eat raw veg food gathered from plants and tree. Their body used to struggle hard to extract sufficient energy from that type of food. If you have studied biology then you must be aware of the fact that plant cells have cell wall, known as cellulose, which hard to digest. That raw veg food made our ancestors eat more and increased their gut size. Chimpanzee and apes have got 60% bigger gut then humans only due to this fact.

Importance of Time

As our ancestors were eating more so they need to keep searching for food, which was not only time consuming by also making them deficient of calories. As their brain was not getting sufficient calories, it was not developing as much as it should. A developing brain also needs some time, that it can spend in some creative activities, but it was impossible to get due to their always searching and eating schedule. Do you know that gorillas and orangutans keep eating for nine hours per day.

In the beginning our ancestors diverted from veg to non-veg diet as it was richer in calories and kept them full for longer duration. It made them indulge in other creative activities and during that time we learned to control fire. It was a milestone in human evolution.

How Fire helped us in evolution ?

• As the time progressed we learned to eat roasted food, which made both veg and non-veg food easily digestible. Heat made the food softer and lesser time was spent in chewing.
• We started to extract more calories from same food and got more time to explore more and develop our brain. Our brain also started to get sufficient calories and nutrients to develop itself.
• Heat treated food was also safer, as a number of pathogens were killed by heat and there was lesser chance of food poisoning. It must have given our ancestors relief from some diseases.
• Fire also acted as a tool to save ourselves from wild animals and our ancestors started to live on land.
• Fire also helped in making tools, that were later used to cut woods and make a good habitat on land.
• Fire was also used to make utensils of soil and mud, which were used for cooking and storing purpose.
• Evolution of Agriculture made humans store grain and provided them a food security. It gave them relief from hunting schedule and they reverted back to a mixed diet of both veg and non-veg.
• Fire helped them in cooking the cultivated food and made stay at a single location. It also made them using some cattle as their pet, and utilizing their milk.
• Cooked food reduced the size of our gut by 60%, when compared with our ancestors of similar stature.
• Even the size of our intestine has reduced. It is because of the fact that cooked food is easily digestible and consumes lesser time and lesser calories for digestion.
• Our smaller teeth and jaw tell about the same evolution attributed to cooked food. 

Read More about Evolution of Human Diet and Brain

Today we have evolved so much that we can't survive on raw food alone, as we don't have bigger jaws, teeth and intestine to extract sufficient energy from it. Now our digestive system and enzymes is designed to eat cooked food. Some uncooked salad won't hurt.
Sometime people tend to go towards completely uncooked food, with no salt and sugar, to be slim and get more near nature and live a disease free life. Such steps can sometimes have a negative effect on your body. So don't be your own doctor and always consult a good dietitian before making any drastic changes in your diet.

Note: Today we have become so good at processing food, that we are eating more calories than needed. It is affecting the whole humanity with a disease named Obesity. 

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Epstein Barr Virus Infection - The Kissing Disease

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) was discovery in 1964 by Sir Michael Anthony Epstein and Ms. Yvonne Barr. Acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM), also known as mono or the "kissing disease" is caused by this virus. This virus spreads through body fluids, such as saliva, which makes it getting transmitted easily through kiss, and got the disease named "kissing disease". EBV affects 90% American population at some point in life.

Epstein Barr Virus

Scientifically it is human herpesvirus 4 and belongs to herpes virus family. It is a common virus that affects humans and found all over the world. The bad news about this virus is that it is associated with various types of cancer and also connected to some medical conditions related to HIV infection.
Important :

• Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) can survive on an object (such as toothbrush or drinking glass) as long as the surface remains moist.
• Sometime symptoms may take weeks to appear after the infection.
• A person infected with EBV can pass on the virus to others even before showing any visible symptoms.
• Even when the symptoms are gone the person can spread the virus for next 18 months.
• Many people infected with EBV don't develop any symptom as the virus become latent (inactive) after entering the body.
• People with weaker immune system are more prone to showing symptoms as virus can reactivate after sometime.
• Once a person is recovered after developing the symptoms, he / she will never suffer from it again as the immunity get developed.

How to improve your immune system to combat EBV Virus

Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Causes

• Infection through Saliva : Kissing, sharing utensils for eating or drinking
• Infection through sexual contact and genital fluids
• Infection through blood transfusion
• Infection through organ transplant

First two causes of infection are most common and responsible for most of the spread of EBV virus.

Epstein Barr Virus Infection Symptoms

Epstein Barr Virus can infect a wide range of cells in human body including B cells and epithelial cells. It gives rise to various symptoms. Some of them are listed below.

• Feeling of Low Energy Level and tiredness.
• Fever
• Inflamed / swollen throat
• Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
• Enlarged spleen
• Swollen liver

Epstein Barr Virus Infection Diagnosis

EBV infection is hard to be diagnosed as the symptoms are similar to some other common diseases. However antibodies can be detected through blood test. Nine out of every ten blood tests will show positive result of these antibodies, which indicates that either the person is currently infected or recovered from a EPV infection in past. If the blood test remains positive for antibodies and the person is showing symptoms then it means that he/she is currently infected.

Lifestyle factors that weaken your immune system

Epstein Barr Virus Infection Treatment and Cure

There is no vaccine or medicine to save to from EBV infection. If you are infected with EBV then treating the symptoms is the only way to treat it. Your doctor may recommend some pain relievers and anti inflammatory medicines for such symptoms along with adequate rest. If you want to save yourself from Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) then don't share drinks or food, never indulge in unprotected sexual activity and avoid kissing (as there is nothing like protected kissing). But the truth is that it is nearly impossible to save yourself from EBV as this virus is already spread across the globe. So improve your immune system to always be ready to combat this virus.

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