Fibre Blast

The first meal of the day needs to be high in fibre.

Consuming a high fibre breakfast with a low glycaemic index (the degree to which an ingested food causes a spike in blood glucose levels) can boost fat burning during exercise and protect your heart. Get your fat-fighting breakfast options here.

Brain Function

Research by an Iowa State University scientist suggests that cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins may lessen brain function.

Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, says the results of his study show that drugs that inhibit the liver from making cholesterol may also keep the brain from making cholesterol, which is vital to efficient brain function.

"If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters," said Shin. "Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words-how smart you are and how well you remember things," adds Shin.

"If you try to lower the cholesterol by taking medicine that is attacking the machinery of cholesterol synthesis in the liver, that medicine goes to the brain too. And then it reduces the synthesis of cholesterol which is necessary in the brain," said Shin.

The study shows there is a direct link between cholesterol and the neurotransmitter release. But while reducing the cholesterol in the brain may make you have less memory and cognitive skills, more cholesterol in the blood does not make people smarter.

Oats dalia with vegetables and curd

This has a grainy texture that flushes lipids out. Put a little oil in the pressure cooker, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped vegetables, add oats, salt, water, give it a whistle, shut off the gas, and allow it to cool. Don't open the whistle before it's cooled down: it evaporates the water-soluble B vitamins from your food. Open, mix with curd, and dig in.

Large bowl of fruits and nuts

The sadhus survived on this diet and lived for centuries. Fruits and nuts have the right combination of fibre, good fats and low calories. Essential fruits to have are papaya, apple and pomegranates. You can add banana, pear or grapes. Crush almonds and walnuts on this to make a low-cal, power-packed breakfast.

Non-fried stuffed parantha and curd

Raw vegetables stuffed in whole wheat flour, and roasted on the pan, served with curd. Smear the parantha with a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. Remember never to heat extra virgin olive oil, it loses its heart-protective and anti-inflammatory properties. The raw veggies and whole wheat flour give you the fibre blast, and the curd, vitamin C and calcium. Now go get the world.

Wheat flakes and curd/ milk with nuts

Abandon the corn, it leads to sugar spikes in your blood due to its high glycaemic load. Get all-bran wheat flakes breakfast cereal, and make your own concoction of muesli with it. Mix wheat flakes with 5 almonds and 3 walnuts, add a tablespoon of honey, cold milk or curd as per your choice and take a large crunchy bite.

Eggs and whole wheat toast

This is my fav for weight loss diets. Easy to make, easy to eat, and it combines the right fibre with protein to give your body a s-l-o-w sugar release, making lunch a lighter meal-since the hunger levels remain low. If you are a male who does not need to lose weight, add a large glass of chaas to down this treat.

Exercise at Work

Devoting work time to physical activity can lead to higher productivity, according to a study performed by researchers at Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet that is being published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The study shows that it is possible to use work time for exercise or other health-promoting measures and still attain the same or higher production levels. The same production levels with fewer work hours means greater productivity, while at the same time individuals benefit from better health as a result of the physical activity.

"This increased productivity comes, on the one hand, from people getting more done during the hours they are at work, perhaps because of increased stamina and, on the other hand, from less absenteeism owing to sickness," says Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz and Henna Hasson, the researchers behind the study.

In the study, two workplaces in dental care were asked to devote 2.5 hours per week to physical activity, distributed across two sessions. Another group had the same decrease in work hours but without obligatory exercise, and a third group maintained their usual work hours, 40 hours a week.

The results showed that all three groups were able to maintain or even increase their production level, in this case the number of patients treated, during the study period compared with the corresponding time the previous year. Those who exercised also reported improvements in self-assessed productivity-they perceived that they got more done at work, had a greater work capacity, and were sick less often.

Reproduced from Outlook Business's Wellness Column by Rachna Chhachhi.