5 Health Benefits Of Fasting; How Does It Help?

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Hi guys, it’s May already! Time flies and we are through with 5 months of the year. Feels unreal, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I think now is a perfect time to write about fasting and it benefits. With all of us staying at home, it is quite easy to get carried away and binge-eat.

I personally have been watching my food portions during this circuit-breaker period in Singapore (lockdown/stay at home whatever you call it). Other than that, like always, I fast once a week, on Mondays. It was around 4 years back that I started fasting a day a week, on a regular basis. Initially I ate food allowed for the vrat/upwas but I didn’t feel a lot of difference. When I began fasting by limiting my food intake to minimal (usually fruits/dry fruits & lots of water), I began to see the benefits.

Fasting is a concept which has been practiced for centuries in India in the form of vrat/upwas and on special occasions. It is also practiced in other religions & cultures across the globe.

Fasting may or may not be done for religious purposes, but it can certainly be done for health reasons.

There are various types of fasting and intermittent fasting has gained a lot of traction in today’s world with a lot of people opting for it. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting. There are many different types of intermittent fasting, such as the 12 hour intermittent fasting or the 16:8 or 5:2 methods.

Irrespective of the type of fasting, the benefits attached to it are innumerable.

Here are 5 benefits of fasting:

1. Fasting improves your immune system

Fasting improves the immune system because it reduces free radical damage, regulates inflammatory conditions in the body and starves off cancer cell formation.

In nature, when animals get sick they stop eating and instead focus on resting. This is a primal instinct to reduce stress on their internal system so their body can fight off infection.

Our immunity improves if there is a faster regeneration of cells, which happens when you fast.

According to one study, a three day fast can lead to the regeneration of the entire immune system and the production of totally brand new white blood cells which have a stronger ability to fight disease.

How cool is that?

2. Fasting aids weight loss & improves metabolism.

Fasting can be a great way to lose weight as many studies have shown that fasting allows the body to burn through fat cells more effectively than just regular dieting.

Fasting allows the body to use fat as it’s primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates. Many athletes use fasting as means to hitting low body fat percentages for competitions.

Fasting also gives our digestive system a rest, and this can energise our metabolism to burn calories more efficiently. If our digestion is poor, this can effect our ability to metabolise food and burn fat. Fasts can regulate our digestion and promote healthy bowel movements, thus improving our metabolic function.

3. Fasting Can Reduce Insulin Resistance, Lowering Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes has become incredibly common in recent times with unhealthy lifestyles & high amount of sugar intake in people due to improper diet and over consumption of processed food.

The main feature of Type 2 Diabetes is high blood sugar levels in the context of insulin resistance.

Anything that reduces insulin resistance should help lower blood sugar levels and protect against type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, fasting has been shown to have major benefits for insulin resistance and lead to an impressive reduction in blood sugar levels.

Thus, because fasting is extremely beneficial in reducing insulin resistance & increasing insulin sensitivity, which can be of much significance in lowering blood sugar levels, it thereby proves to be helpful in reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.

4. Fasting Helps Clear The Skin And Prevent Acne

Fasting can help clear the skin because with the body temporarily freed from digestion, it’s able to focus its regenerative energies on other systems.

Not eating anything for a while has shown to help the body clean up the toxins and regulate the functioning of other organs of the body like liver, kidneys and other parts.

Since the digestive system gets detoxified and bowel function improves, the skin also benefits from it and flushes out the toxins it has accumulated thus becoming clearer and healthier.

5. Fasting Improves Your Brain Function

Fasting has shown to improve brain function because it boosts the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF.)

BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Ageing of brain cells can slow down, thus increasing mental alertness & awareness which helps to improve brain function.

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These were a few health benefits of fasting. There are numerous benefits of fasting apart from the 5 listed here. Fasting is known to improve heart health, reduce risk of cancer and also helps in regulate hormones. The list of it’s benefits is very long.

It doesn’t matter what type of fasting you practice; intermittent or not, any form of fasting is beneficial.

I personally have experienced feeling mentally alert and more active when I fast. My ‘fast day’ is usually more productive and more creative than the rest. I feel quite energetic as well.

Fasting should be done carefully and it does not mean starving yourself. Also, prolonged period of fasting is counter-intuitive and can cause more harm than good.

Fasting should only be done once or twice a week with regular meal days in between.

Anyone with diagnosed medical conditions and on specific medications should avoid fasting. Fasting should also be avoided by underweight people, people with eating disorders and by pregnant or lactating women.

Fasting can also feel initially tough to those who have never done it before and any extreme form of fasting should be avoided. The body takes time to adjust itself to fasting and it is important to be gentle with your body.

Tht said, I hope you found the article useful and I hope you do give some form of fasting a try, keeping in mind your health & body capability too! 🙂

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates

Hi guys, it’s Day 4 of our 10 Days, 10 Posts event.

I am sharing another recipe with all of you- Chocolate Covered Dates, stuffed with Peanut Butter.

Trust me, it sounds fancy, tastes amazing and yet is extremely simple to make. Infact, it is so simple, that I debated whether to share this recipe on the blog or not, because it is hardly any work at all. I finally decided to share it because they tasted so delicious! My husband who is my biggest critic, was quite surprised when he ate these dates and said they taste like some exotic chocolate!

Also, it doesn’t require any great skill in cooking/baking and everybody can make it!

The best part about these is that the dates add natural sweetness and you don’t really need to add white sugar. The only sugar which will be present is from the chocolate you use. You can use a darker and semi-sweet chocolate. If you are vegan like me, you can use a vegan chocolate bar or vegan chocolate chips.

Thus, this is a very uncomplicated, nutritious, mouthwatering and easy to prepare snack/dessert, perfect for those post lunch afternoons or as a quick bite with your cup of tea/coffee. It caters to all your hunger pangs & cravings!

So let’s go ahead and have a look at the recipe!

Ingredients:

1. 10-12 pitted dates
2. 2-4 tsps peanut butter
3. Melted chocolate 1 cup
4. Cocoa powder 1/2 tsp (optional)
5. Coconut flakes for topping (optional)
6. Granola or chopped almonds for topping (optional)

Procedure:

1. Take the pitted dates & make sure their slit is open
2. With a spoon fill the dates with peanut butter. Make sure not to overfill, else, the chocolate will not stick to the dates.
3. Take chocolate-chips or any plain chocolate bar and melt the chocolate in a microwave bowl. You can use 1-2 chocolate bars depending on their size. I used 3-4 tbsps of chocolate chips. I didn’t really measure, I just melted enough chocolate chips to fill 1 cup / small bowl.
4. To enhance the chocolate flavour even more, you can add the cocoa powder, if you wish to. It’s a completely optional step.
5. Dip the dates in the melted chocolate. Make sure they are covered from all sides with chocolate.
6. Remove the chocolate covered dates immediately after dipping and coating & place them on another plate.
7. Sprinkle them with any toppings of your choice like chopped almonds/ granola/coconut flakes. I used dried coconut & grated it into flakes and topped them. I also added some bits of granola from my breakfast cereal.
8. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours and serve.

That’s it! You are done!

Variation: You can even replace the peanut butter and place cashews or almonds inside the dates and then cover it with chocolate.

Do give these a try and let me know!

Catch you all in the next post.

Till then,

Dream, Imagine, Be Crazy, Be You.

Edible Flower Chocolate Cupcakes (Eggless)

Hi guys!

Show off your baking skills in 2020.

This Edible Flower Chocolate Cupcake recipe is all you need for brightening up your day!

It has chocolate, chocolate chips, edible flowers and all the yumminess you can ever imagine!

They do not contain eggs & you don’t need a piping bag to frost these cupcakes!

Sounds simple right?

When I first heard of edible flowers being used for baking, I was amazed.

It’s quite a norm to use edible flowers these days and why not? Flowers do make anything prettier, don’t they?

There’s just something about flowers that spells beauty.

So yeah, that’s why I decided to add edible flowers and bake these cupcakes.

My husband is quite fond of gardening, so used homegrown edible flowers for this one. It’s a flower called globe amaranth. I used the petals of this flower. You can use any edible flower you like. Even edible rose petals would be awesome!

Me and my husband are all for being ‘healthy’ and like the low sugar cupcakes better. Hence, I have used less sugar in this recipe. You can tweak it like I have mentioned below, as per your taste.

So sharing with all of you this very very simple and yummy recipe which I had originally made for Valentine’s Day.

Show yourself and your near and dear ones some love!

Ingredients

1. Corn Flour 2 cups

2 White flour (Maida) 2 cups

3. Sugar- 6-7 tbsps or as per taste. (I used around 4-5 tbsps sugar for low sugar cupcakes)

4. Cocoa powder 2 tbsps

5. Vanilla extract 1-2 tbsps

6. Coconut milk (or any other milk of your choice) 1 cup

7. 1- 2 tbsps olive oil

8. Baking soda 1-2 tbsps

Frosting:

1. 4 tbsps butter (vegan or normal butter)

2. 1 cup sugar.

3. 1 tbsp cocoa powder

4. 1 tbsp vanilla extract

5. Edible flowers and/or chocolate chips. (Optional). I used the petals of edible flower- globe amaranth for decoration since they have a neutral flavour and look pretty too!

Procedure:

1. Mix all in all the ingredients except baking soda. First mix the dry ingredients and then add the milk and oil. You can add water if required.

2. Preheat your oven to 180°C While it preheats you can add baking soda to the mix. Stir in one direction. Don’t stir too much. Let batter sit till preheating is done.

Batter

3. After your oven has preheated, pour your batter inside the moulds of your muffin pan. Do not fill batter completely in the moulds or it will overflow. Batter should fill around 3/4th of your muffin pan moulds.

4. Bake each batch of cupcakes for 15 min at 180°C

5. After they are done, remove the pan and then slowly remove your cupcakes from the pan.

That’s it! Now you need to decorate your muffins.

In order to decorate, you must allow your baked chocolate cupcakes to cool down first.

Till then you can make the frosting.

For frosting-

1. Let the butter soften at room temperature. Do not microwave it at all.

2. Add the sugar and stir. Keep adding powdered sugar till it starts forming a cream and starts stiffening.

3. Add in the cocoa powder & vanilla extract.

4. Add a few chocolate chips

5. Once cupcakes have cooled, frost them using a spoon. Just spread the frosting on top with a spoon. You do not need a piping bag, although you can use one if you wish.

6. Sprinkle edible flower petals on top or add some more chocolate chips for decoration and skip sprinkling the edible flowers altogether.

That’s it. Your pretty cupcakes are ready to bite into!

Enjoy!!

Hope you liked this recipe and do try it out.

See you all in my next post!!

Why I went dairy-free- This is what happened..

Food is something which is a very personal thing to each and everyone. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions on food choices based on their culture and background.

However, with the rising awareness around food and food habits, one can’t deny the benefits of eating right and eating healthy and the effect of certain food groups on our body.

I was born in a vegetarian family in India, and have been a vegetarian almost my entire life, barring a few times in my childhood where I did try to eat meat. Whether you eat meat or not isn’t the topic of this post, since any discussion about it, requires an in-detail analysis, which I shall save for another time.

In this blog post, I shall be speaking of why I cut down dairy and dairy products (and essentially turned a vegan). Irrespective of whether you eat meat or not, this topic about dairy is a must read.

Today I will share with you my journey on why I quit consuming dairy and dairy products.

Since last two years, I was having health issues. Stomach bloating, digestion issues, etc. I had never really thought about the correlation between dairy and health issues. However, as the symptoms I faced increased, I realised it was time to make some lifestyle changes.

Soon, I started noticing that post consuming any dairy product, especially milk, my symptoms increased. That’s when I realised I had lactose intolerance.

Did you know, that 70% of human adults suffer from mild lactose intolerance? The human body, doesn’t really need milk after the baby grows up.

If you don’t believe me, think about this- The majority of humans naturally stop producing significant amounts of lactase — the enzyme needed to properly metabolize lactose, the sugar in milk — sometime between the ages of two and five.

We are mammmals and for most mammals, the normal condition is to stop producing the enzymes needed to properly digest and metabolize milk after they have been weaned. That’s why you will see the young ones of mammals like cats, dogs, etc need milk only for a certain period before they wean off.

Our bodies just weren’t made to digest milk on a regular basis. Humans are the only species who drink the milk of another species well into adulthood.

Lactose intolerance can cause stomach pain and bloating, diarrhoea, muscle and joint pain, cramps, at times constipation, headaches, acne, rash and eczema. The symptoms vary from person to person and I was experiencing a few of these.

Thus, the more I researched on the topic, the more I realized that dairy is not benefical for me and thus, the process of eliminating dairy from my diet began.

It was a tough but much needed decision.

If you too are facing some of the above mentioned issues, it’s time to try and eliminate dairy from my diet.

Now, like most of us, dairy was an important part of my life too. Especially when it came to having my Chai. Through all my college days, my crazy job changes and hectic work schedules, some where tea and coffee became a much needed part of my life. It was hard to imagine my life without my Chai with milk or Coffee with milk.

So, I did a lot of research and experimented with recipes and came up with my own substitution for milk in my daily chai and coffee cups. Also, I cut down and limited my intake of these two most loved beverages. (My husband would disagree though. He still considers me a big time chai addict. Which I cannot deny 😀 )

Once I replaced the milk part, I was ready to cut out dairy from my diet. I was never really a big fan of too much cheese, nor did I like butter or ghee in my diet. Replacing milk was my single-most and biggest challenge.

I decided to observe whether I was feeling any different after eliminating dairy from my diet.

I noticed the following changes in 3-4 days of no dairy consumption-

1. No more stomach bloat
2. Improved digestion
3. No sluggishness. Felt fresh and more active throughout the day
4. No more leg cramps (which I never thought I was having due to dairy. Leg cramps reduced by 90%)
5. Mental alertness level increased.
6. Felt light from within.
7. Made my skin clearer and better.

Overall, cutting dairy out completely from my diet, boosted my confidence, helped solve my digestion issues.

If you are someone who has been facing the issues I did, do try to cut down your dairy intake and observe if you feel a difference. Of course, do take advice from your doctor or nutritionist if you aren’t sure.

You can replace your normal milk in beverages with oat milk, coconut milk and soy milk. If feel coconut milk works best with coffee and soy milk and coconut milk both go well with Chai or regular English Tea.

You can opt for no- dairy cheese instead of the normal one. Lots of options available to replace your dairy cravings. You can do your own research and see what’s available in your locality.

If you are worried about losing your calcium intake, I understan. You can always replace the source of your calcium. Did you know seasame seeds, kale. amaranth, etc have high levels of calcium?

1 glass of milk will give you 250 mg of calcium whereas just 3 tablespoons of seasame seeds integrated into your food will give you 265 mg of calcium.

There are tonnes of articles out there, where you can find lots of nom-dairy calcium sources. So worry not!

Also, it cannot be ignored that the dairy industry is cruel to animals as well. Just for that one glass of milk, a cow gets torturted. A glass of milk that you do not need anyway. A glass of milk which is probably adulterated with chemicals and contains harmful hormones injected in the cows body to make her lactate. All of this is not good for your body or the cow’s.

Thus, I would encourage all of you who read this to try and elimate dairy.

Remember, dairy is not really a necessity for good health. I encourage you to go dairy-free and see what it happens.

I’d also like to hear from all of you …

Do you agree or disagree that dairy is bad for you?

Have you faced any issues while consuming dairy?

What changes – for better or worse, have you experienced if you’ve tried eliminating dairy?

Would you like to go dairy-free for a month just as an experiment and see what it does to your body? I strongly encourage you to do that. However, no where am I suggesting that you stop consuming other healthy food groups that have been a part of your diet.

Also, if you are like me and love your coffee- Do read this quick and simple No-Dairy Coffee.