Women's Health and Fertility

providing women's contraceptive and health care products for over 12 years

How you eat.

Besides eating smart ( the right foods ) when and how you eat is also important to your well being and that of your family. Eating dinner together every night is an opportunity to open the doors of communication

Why Are Family Mealtimes Important?

Children who do not eat dinner with their families are 61 percent more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs. By contrast, children who eat dinner with their families every night of the week are 20 percent less likely to drink, smoke, or use illegal drugs. 1

Teens who eat frequent family dinners are less likely than other teens to have sex at young ages, get into fights, or be suspended from school, and they are at lower risk for thoughts of suicide. 2

By eating with your children, it is more likely that they will eat healthier foods and more balanced meals. 3

Dining together is a chance for parents and children to talk with one another.

Parental influence and involvement is an important tool in preventing substance abuse. Regularly sitting down for a meal with your children is one way to connect with them and be involved with what is happening in their lives.

Dinner time should be happy time one where the daily stress can be reduced. The power of Laughter! Laughter helps your immune system fight invading viruses and cancers. It lowers blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol and can lower your blood pressure and decrease heart strain.

Eat as wide a variety of foods as possible. If you can count up the number of different foods you eat on your 10 fingers, you need to add more kinds to your diet. This will help you get a greater choice of nutrients and fibre sources.

Avoid long periods without eating. This will help stabilize your blood glucose levels and make you less likely to over-eat, or grab an unhealthy snack, later.

Rate your food hunger. On a scale of 1-5 (1= starving, 5= stuffed). Aim to eat before you reach “1” and stop eating before you reach “5”.

Take time to eat. It sounds obvious, but it will help you eat more balanced diet and avoid excess calorie intake. Studies show that individuals eat up to 15% more calories when they are in rush at meal times.

Chew your food. Proper chewing can aid your digestion, and has been shown to reduce symptoms off irritable bowel syndrome.

Avoid fad diets. There are no miracle foods – good health requires you to eat a variety of quality food in moderation

Never Overeat : Overeating is one of the most common and dangerous dietary habits. It often leads to obesity, which is a factor in many other diseases. When you eat more, the digestive tract and other organs get stressed, which can lead to the overworking and weakening of those areas. Always eat in moderation. In fact, eating small
meals several times a day instead of one or two large meals is probably better for most people.

Never Under Eat : All forms of under eating like skipping meals, or eating only limited foods will lead to poor nutrition. Which will eventually lead to health problems due to protein, calorie, vitamin, or mineral deficiencies. Under eating causes symptoms like lack of energy and subsequent weakness, malnourishment of internal organs, skin problems, and hair loss, apart from medical conditions like anorexia, nervosa and bulimia. So, even if you are on a diet make sure you follow a plan that does not starve you

Never Eat Late : Grandma's habit of eating dinner before sundown is actually a very healthy practice. It is best to eat earlier in the evening, ideally before dark, and not too heavily. You should also engage in some activity, both mental and physical, after dinner; and eat very little in the two or three hours before bedtime. If you have been going to bed on a full stomach, let me tell you it is a very unhealthy practice. The food just sits there, undigested through the night, so that when you wake up you feel full and sluggish. So, to add vitality in your life, start having your meals at the grandma time!

Don't let your emotions eat : Our emotions strongly influence our eating behavior. Some of us eat when upset or depressed; others cannot eat at all in this condition. But to maintain a more balanced diet, and thus a more balanced life, we need to learn to deal with our emotional states in ways other than with food

Drinking liquids with our meals is not really a good practice, since extra fluids can dilute the digestive juices, making it more difficult to break down food. But you can drink water before meals or sometime after. A Little bit of water with meals may help dissolve the food and stimulate digestive juices

Get prepared to eat : Apart from preparing the food with love and care we should take out time to prepare ourselves. By prepare we mean psychologically make our selves ready to receive nourishment, such as with a little prayer or some quiet time, This gives us a chance to get the most out of our meal.

Learn the proper way to cook foods. Cooking your food for the right time can help you restore a lot of nutritional value. Though different types of cooking requires different cooking time, we have a list of approximate time for which a food should be cooked so as to ready!