What to Do When You’ve Eaten Too Much

Okay, maybe you’ve had a little too much during your family dinner. Maybe you’ve become way too full and start feeling a little bit drowsy. This is commonly expected during the holidays. When you’re with your friends and family, sometimes you can’t help yourself but eat a little too much especially since the food is usually too good to be true.

Struggles of Eating Too Much
When you’re having a good time, you usually end up eating too much and only realize it when it’s too late. Now what do you do? Well, there are a lot of things you can do for you to go back to your normal state when you can freely move your body and won’t have to sit down too much.

What exactly happens here? Well, what happens is you’ve gone a bit past your limit that your stomach is starting to expand and as you are trying your best to digest your food, your body ends up focusing your blood circulation on your stomach.

The Dangers of “Food Coma”
When you overeat, instead of a healthy circulation, your body then exerts extra effort on digesting all the extra food on your stomach. Now, this really depends on your metabolism. Some people can eat quite a number of plates and won’t have a hard time digesting their food because their body is constantly burning and digesting the food inside your stomach. Now, some food digest faster than the others while some food might take quite a bit of your time just for it to digest.

How do you avoid food coma? Well, one technique would be to work out about an hour before you actually eat something to keep your body pumped. Go for a little jog or some basic cardio exercises just for you to activate and accelerate your metabolism. Accelerating your metabolism is a great way for you to be able to eat more than you usually do.

Metabolism and Food Intake
The main goal is for your body to keep up with what you eat and not the other way around. Once you’re full, your metabolism goes down. A great way to activate it again is to eat fruits like pineapple for you to be able to energize your body again.

This helps normalize the flow of your blood throughout your body even after you’ve had way too much. Don’t let anything slow you down this holiday season, make sure you are in shape for any festive celebration you are to attend with your family and friends. Don’t spoil the fun, make sure your body is ready to eat a bit more than you are used to.

5 Things Your Supplements Don’t Do

Minerals, vitamins and supplements provide many health benefits, but it’s important to realize that they have their limits—and to check some of their excessive claims as part of their marketing strategy. If you think your supplements can give you the following results, think again.

1. Meal Replacement
Supplements are not meant to replace the nutrients found in food. Supplements cannot counteract excessive intake of saturated fat and cannot replace nutrients provided by foods you ignore. Also, though scientists are able to extract disease-fighting phytochemicals from fruits, vegetables and other foods, there are also many others that are yet undiscovered—ones that deactivates when extracted or can’t be extracted from the food at all.

2. Performance Boosters
Brands claiming of improving performance, whether mental or physical, are difficult to prove, and any enhancement, if there is, would be limited even in a healthy person. Although your food supplement may boost mental function in someone suffering mild to severe memory lost, it can have negligible effect on your memory or ability to concentrate. Likewise, a supplement that claims to fight fatigue is not going to turn an average jogger into an athlete, nor is it clear that aphrodisiac supplements are effective for those diagnosed with sexual dysfunction.

3. Cure-All Supplements
Up to date, no supplements have been scientifically found to cure any serious illness—including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure or STDs. However, the right supplement can help improve chronic conditions, such as osteoarthritis and migraine, and can also help relieve some symptoms. There are also supplements that can treat minor burns and of course helps avoid the development of serious illnesses in the first place.

4. Weight Loss Solution
Food supplements claiming to be weight loss solutions may be popular, but it is questionable if any of them can provide such results without regular exercise and diet. Brands promoting to burn fats will not burn enough on their own for significant weight loss.

5. Lifestyle Converters
Taking food supplements will not compensate for practices known to contribute to developing health illnesses, like lack of exercise and smoking. Optimal health needs a wholesome diet and lifestyle, especially since most of us intent on aging well physically and mentally.

Food supplements are beneficial additions to your diet. However, it only boosts supply of nutrients and aid in the improvement of your health. It doesn’t alter your diet, nor cure any health problems you may have.

How Your Desk Job Might Be Ruining Your Health

Your desk job might be more dangerous than you think it is. A lot of things that you do in your workplace could be slowly chipping away at you. From using the office printer to typing in your keyboard, the dangers presented in your office could have serious effects on your physical well-being, just as mental strains could hurt you in the long-term. For that reason, we listed down some of the ways on how your beloved desk job could be negatively affecting your health.

1. Sitting All Day Increases Your Risk to Diseases
Sitting for lengthy periods at your desk can have terrible effects on your body. Pains and aches should be the least of your concerns, as it could lead to early death. You become at risk of developing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and muscular skeletal disorders, even if you exercise regularly.

2. Being Over-Exposed to Photocopiers and Printers
When not changed periodically, photocopiers can become a source of potentially deadly ozone that could cause irritation and chest pain. Aside from photocopiers, laser printers could also cause negative effects on your health since its toner particular can get in your blood stream and lungs, which could lead to lung disease and other illnesses.

3. Using Hot Laptops May Cause Fertility Issues
Anyone could experience some skin problems caused by heat if you place your laptop on your lap instead of a desk – yet, there’s a concerning news specifically related with men. A group of researchers found that placing your computer on your lap raises the temperature of the scrotum, which then affects a man’s sperm count.

4. Staring for Lengthy Periods at a Computer Screen
Although your computer screen won’t emit radiation, the strain caused by staring at your computer screen for long periods of time may harm your vision. Other than that, endlessly staring at your monitor could also trigger migraines and headaches.

5. Typing Too Much May Cause Serious Injury
Excessive amounts of typing in a day is a well-known cause of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which is a painful wrist strain that could affect even your whole arm. CTS could get bad enough to cause muscle wasting and even permanent nerve damage.

Inactivity is now considered a bigger killer than obesity, so be sure to protect yourself. If you sit for lengthy periods at work, stand up and move around every 30 minutes. This will in getting your blood flowing and moving your body parts that you don’t usually move.

Beat the Bloat: 6 Dietitian-Approved Ways to Get Rid of Bloating

Either your belly grew or your jeans shrank – but chances are, it’s the latter. You’re eating right and working out regularly, so what’s up with the gas and bloating? Oftentimes, the culprit is obvious but other times your healthy habits are the cause. If you’re looking for quick ways to beat the bloat, we listed down some nutritionist-approved tricks that should be of help.

1. Add Anti-Inflammatory Spices and Herbs to Your Diet
Basil, cinnamon, ginger, lemongrass and turmeric are some of the favourite ingredients to help fight inflammation. All you’ve got to do is sprinkle any of these herbs and spices into your meals, and wait for them to their magic on their own.

2. Drink Healthy Teas
We don’t mean the laxative detox teas that you’ve been seeing on Instagram lately; we mean healthy teas like the freshly-boiled ginger tea or turmeric tea to help prevent inflammation instead of sending you to a trip to the toilet.

3. Consume Non-Bloating Veggies
There’s no arguing that eating vegetable is good for your health. However, some veggies contain too much fibre, and that can cause a bloated belly. For a quick cleanse, opt to eat vegetables like asparagus, chayote, squash and zucchini. Furthermore, do skip veggies like cabbage and broccoli.

4. Eat Less Grains and Beans
They may be filling and nutrient-dense, but consuming too much beans and grains will only worsen the bloating you’re feeling. Avoid eating these foods for several days to get rid of the unnecessary gas before your big event.

5. Avoid Over-Exercising
While you might be tempted to go all out at the gym for your big event, nutritionists actually discourage it. Resting from your usual workout routine will help ease inflammation and swelling. Yet, this doesn’t mean that you should completely stop exercising. Rather than doing your usual routine, perform yoga and walking exercises at a leisurely pace instead.

6. Cut Back On Your Dairy and Gluten Consumption
Most of the cheat meals that we enjoy contain these ingredients, which means you need to cut back on those meals if you want to get quick results. So even for a few days, say goodbye to pizza, candy and your other favourite processed food.

Having a bloated belly isn’t the best feeling in the world, but it shouldn’t also get the best of you. Simply follow any of the aforementioned tips, and you’re sure to bid your bloated belly goodbye.

Why You Should Never Skip Your Meals

You ended up sleeping through breakfast, working through lunch, or arriving home tired and sleepy that you headed straight to bed. Will there be any consequences? While your body’s reaction to a missed meal depends on your health, diet and age, the act of skipping even just one meal could jump-start any of the following physiological processes.

1. You’ll Gain More Weight
The link between losing weight and skipping meals are quite tricky. A research suggests you’ll lose some pounds in the short term, but you’ll eventually gain some dangerous belly fat. More studies also showed that the weight you lose every time you skip meals might actually come from your muscles, which is hardly ideal. You may have some potentially good reasons to skip meals, but losing weight shouldn’t be one of them.

2. You’ll Run Low on Nutrients
While skipping meals every now and then can be beneficial, you’ll increase your risk of developing nutrient deficiencies linked with poor mental function, fatigue and other health concerns. If you’re thinking of fasting on a regular basis, consult a registered dietitian first to ensure that you’re getting enough minerals, proteins, vitamins and essential fatty acids from your meals and snacks.

3. You’ll Increase Your Risk of Developing Certain Diseases
If you skip breakfast regularly, then you’re likely headed for trouble. A study conducted by a group of researchers in Singapore found that women who routinely skipped their breakfast increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 20 percent. Remember that our body is fasting as we sleep at night, and skipping your breakfast regularly could put a strain on your body, leading to development of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and even blood pressure problems.

4. You’ll Eat More Unhealthy Meals
Researchers found that meal-skippers tend to grab more junk food when grocery shopping compared with when they had a snack beforehand. Shoppers who visit the grocery store during their high-hunger hours (typically between 4PM to 7PM) also tend to choose and consume high-calorie meal options. Simply put, your body may crave for unhealthier food every time you skip meals.

5. You’ll End Up Skipping Exercise As Well
Although a morning workout without food offers fat-burning benefits, this equation might change later in the day. Combine your low blood sugar with a skipped meal and the physical and mental demands of your work and your other obligations, and you’ll find it nearly impossible to work out after skipping just one meal.

Although your body’s reaction to meal skipping depends on your age, diet and health, skipping your meals could cause or trigger some serious health issues. Thus, it’s crucial for you to ensure that you eat your meals regularly not just to maintain but to also improve your overall health.