FOOD & HEALTH

Photo Credits - Cliff Booth

YOGA FOR GUT HEALTH

B y S u n i l M a l h o t r a S t o c k I m a g e s

We all know that Yoga is extremely beneficial for our mind, body and soul. Yoga helps keep the mind calm, and stomach active for better digestion, detoxifying and rejuvenating the gut to perform at its best. Not only identifying good healthy foods but the incorporation of Yoga into your fitness routine goes a long way to have a good, positive effect on your digestion and gut health. Your gut or gastrointestinal system is a complex and interconnected mesh of organs like the mouth, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, gallbladder, liver, colon rectum and small intestines. Yoga targets your entire system to ensure good gut health. This Yoga Day, we give you some Yoga Asanas to detoxify and rejuvenate your gut to perform for your overall good health.

1. Uttanasana: This yoga asana not only stretches the calves, hamstring and hips but also lends strength to your thighs and knees. It calms the brain and relieves it of headaches and even insomnia. It helps de-stress you and releases signs of mild depression as it reduces fatigue and anxiety. It greatly improves your digestion while helping relieve the symptoms of menopause.

2. Ustrasana This asana considerably strengthens your back and shoulders while opening up your hips and stretching your deep hip flexors. The expansion of the abdominal region helps in improving digestion and elimination while also expanding the chest and being beneficial in the respiratory process. Ustrasana noticeably reduces fat on the thighs, improves your body posture, relieves your back pain and helps loosen up your vertebrae. 3. Chakravakasana This asana specifically targets the abdominals and spine which involves moving the spine from a rounded position to an arched position. This asana supports your back and eases the pain.it helps you maintain a healthy spine and helps you in long hours of work n front of a computer. It virtually helps you keep a good posture and is a great stress reliever.

4. Vajrasana It is instrumental in keeping the mind stable and calm, curing digestive acidity, and gas formation relieving knee pain and strengthening thigh muscles while easing back pain. It helps with urinary problems and helps strengthen the sexual organs. 5. Trikonasana Trikonasana is an amazing exercise it greatly improves the flexibility in your pelvic and spine region. It helps you gain balance and strength too. As this asana involves the whole body, the benefits accruing are immense like treating neck sprain to simulating your blood flow, improving your digestive system, the flexibility of your spine, alignment of your shoulders, strengthening your ankles and palms, destressing you and relieves gastritis, acidity, flatulence and your indigestion.

Regularly bringing yoga into your fitness regime and monitoring the quantity and quality of your food intake will certainly help you maintain good gut health.

Photo Credits - Gustavo Fring

MAXIMISE THE BENEFITS OF YOGA WITH THESE DIET HACKS!

B y S u n i l M a l h o t r a S t o c k I m a g e s

If you want to boost and maintain your digestive power, follow a yogic diet to be at your healthiest best. Having some supreme quality foods and regular yogic practice in no way guarantees great digestion rather even equally or more important is the way you eat. Even if you are not a yogi you will soon find out that these daily practices will light up your digestive fires or Agni. The inherent strength of your Agni helps determine your ability to digest the kind of foods. The lower the intensity of your Agni, the lower the power of your digestion which due to the impaired digestion leads to a manifestation of a multitude of diseases. For religiously treading the path of yoga you need a healthy body which you can achieve by following these practices:

1. Scrape your tongue Soon after brushing your teeth each morning scrape well your tongue to remove the overnight accumulated toxins from your tongue. Each area of your tongue relates to a different organ. Scraping your tongue gently massages each organ thus stimulating the digestive system before you are ready for breakfast.

3. Drink a cup of Hot water before breakfast: An important ritual to follow before breakfast is sipping a glass of hot water to rekindle the low Agni and also to help move your bowels and flush out the toxins.

2. Eat a warm, oily, creamy or oleaginous breakfast Agni being naturally low in the morning you need to take a warm and moist breakfast like oatmeals for example or a toast nicely covered with almond butter or even ghee for those who can take it as these level out the dryness of the toast.

4. Have your meals at a fixed time every day The digestive system appreciates a routine like having your meals at the same time every day. This leads to the body expecting food at those regular times and strives to get its digestive juices ready for the impending action. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day helps regulate your eating habits.

5. Make lunch your biggest meal Surprised? Wasn ’t that supposed to be breakfast? No, as the Agni at noon time is in sync with the Sun and both burn brightly at noon time. Have your biggest meal at lunchtime and eat even healthy to digest foods such as proteins or salads helped in proper digestion by the Agni within you which is at a high this time of the day. 6. Before breakfast and lunch have some Ginger: Ginger as we all are aware is a great appetiser. Ginger is super stimulated for your digestive fire. Simply marinate thin slices of ginger in some squeezed lemon juice with some Himalayan salt to add taste and just have a few both before breakfast and lunch. 7. Drink a lassi after lunch: Although yoghurt itself is heavy when churned with water and made into a lassi the yoghurt very easily assimilates itself and blended with some cumin makes for a real good digestive drink. You refrigerate the lassi before lunch then taste it out and bring it to room temperature and consume it after eating. There are numerous benefits of Yoga but to enhance the same you have to be very cautious of your diet and adhere to it to gain maximum and favourable results.