How to build a better Sandwich

Want to know how to build a better sandwich?

Here are some healthy hand-held meals for the well-breaded lifestyle.
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FROM ITS VERY BEGINNING, the sandwich has been ultimate in regular-guy food. John Montagu's, the forth Earl of Sandwich, invented this prototypical nosh not out of culinary genius but because he was a lunatic card player. Deep into a 24-h game and reluctant to leave the table for sustenance, he instructed a servant to bring him a slab of beef between pieces of toast, and the sandwich was born. More than three centuries later, this hand-held meal remains the salvation of men reluctant to leave the card table, the sports arena or the chair in front of the TV.

Unfortunately, many of today's sandwiches are not much more healthful than old Montagu's. Usually we eat whatever will fit between two slices of bread, from fat- and sodium-laden cured lunch meals to artery-clogging mayonnaise.

I'd never suggest that you abandon sandwiches altogether. It wouldn't do much good if we did. Americans love Sandwiches. In fact, a survey found that sandwiches account for half of all lunches eaten in restaurants, 30 percent of all dinners and 19 percent of all breakfasts. Instead of admonishing you to quit sandwiches, I'd like to offer some advice on how to build them better.

FROM THE BOTTOM UP

A good place to begin is with the foundation of the sandwich: the bread. Even the spongiest, whitest of breads supplies healthful complex carbohydrates, but its best to go with whole-grain varieties, which offer the additional benefit of two times the fiber of plain white bread. For our money, whole-grain bread also tastes better.

You can get whole-grain breads in fat, crusty loaves from bakeries, and you can also get them in neat, sliced and packaged versions at your grocer's. Both are fine, but if you prefer the latter type, check out the ingredient list and buy only those breads that have a whole grain at the top of the label. On the other hand, don't let your imagination stop at bread that comes in loaves. You can also buy whole-grain bagels, rolls, English muffins and pita bread.

Now that we've got the foundation of our sandwich, it's time to select the filling.

Fish and Sea-food are the healthiest choices, since most of them tend to lower in fat than meat. A simple broiled fish fillet makes a great sandwich filler. Three ounces of cod contains only 89 calories and less than a gram of fat. Drizzle a little lemon juice on the fillet, pack it between two slices of whole-grain bread, add lettuce and tomato, then paint on a layer of spicy mustard for a delicious, light meal.

CAN THE FAT

If you prefer the convenience of canned seafood, be sure you get water-packed tuna, salmon or sardines rather than the oil-packed versions. The savings in fat are considerable:
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• Put your Spuds on a Diet
• Its not the spuds, it's the extras we shovel n that are fattening.
• Potatoes are low in fat and high in potassium, vitamin-C and fiber.
• Here are some healthy ways to dress them up-
• Instead of sour cream, top with plain low-fat yogurt, salsa or a mixture of lemon juice and ground black pepper.
• Mash potatoes with buttermilk, which, despite its name, is far lower in fat than whole milk.
• If you crave fries, choose thick steak fries. They absorb less oil.

• Leave the skin on scalloped potatoes (to keep the fiber high), and use skim milk and just a dab of margarine. 

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Three ounces of oil-packed chunk tuna usually contains 18 grams of fat, about 16 1/2 grams more than the water-packed kind.

Power Eating

Here, in order of importance, are the nutritional steps most vital to your healthy diet and the stuff that's not worth worrying about.

GET THE FAT OUT

The experts were almost unanimous in putting weight control at the top of the list - 97 percent of them gave it high priority.

If everybody in United states maintain their ideal weight, the incidence of Type-H diabetes would be greatly reduced, hypertension would be much less common and so would coronary disease. Nearly 24 cent of American men are overweight for their age and build, which makes obesity one of the country's biggest health problems.

How do experts recommend we lose weight?

75 percent said that cutting calories is Extremely Important or Very Important . 70 percent said the same about controlling fat intake. The two go hand in hand. If you cut calories, you'll cut fat. The number of calorie you eat ultimately determines how much you'll weigh, but reducing fat is important fr other reasons. It slashes the risk of heart disease by keeping arteries from choking with plaque, and it may reduce the risk of some form of cancer.

EAT AND RUN

Strictly speaking, exercise isn't a nutritional habit, but we included it in our survey because physical activity has a direct bearing on how much we eat and what happens to food once we've taken it in.
Exercise boosts your metabolism, allowing you to eat more without putting on more pounds. It also helps relieve stress and keep your heart, bones and circulatory system in top form.
Most people can fill their exercise quota with 20 minutes of brisk walking three times a week. Adding a regimen of resistance weight training fires up your metabolism to its calorie-burning peak.

DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T EAT IT

Giving up all your favorite foods and switching to a very healthy but very boring diet won't work. Nobody is going to eat food they don't enjoy for very long. If you want to eat healthy, you have to either find low-fat prepared foods that taste great or lean tyo cook your own.

KEEP IT BALANCED BUT LEAN

you've heard the old nutritionists' creed: Balance your diet among four food groups, and make sure you get the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals. These concept are certainly not passe; roughly 90 percent of those surveyed said they're still high priority. Yet those notions now clearly take a backseat to cutting fat and controlling weight.
The weakness of the four-food-groups approach is that it doesn't provide enough guidance to prevent you from eating too much fat and amassing too much of it on your body.
If you make fat-fighting your number one priority, however, it quiet naturally leads you toward fulfilling those other guidelines. If you phase out the high-calorie, high-fat foods in your diet, you're going to have to replace them with something low fat-cereals, fruits and vegetables. An emphasis on those foods moves you closer to meeting your RDA for vitamins and minerals. It can also move you closer to balancing your diet, which for most Americans is overladen with high-fat meat and dairy products.

DON'T SWEAT THE TECHNICALITIES

If you have been able to keep straight the difference between saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, here's good news: You don't have to. The trendy notion that you should trade saturated fats for heart-smarter monounsaturated and polyunsaturated ones is "putting the cart before the horse."
Most of the foods that are highest in total fat-ice cream, cheeseburgers and doughnuts, for example- are also highest in saturated fat. So if you simply cut down on all fatty foods, you'll cut down on saturated fat as well.
How much fat should you eat?
The nutritionists advice following the American Heart Association's recommendation that total dietary fat comprise no more than 30 percent of calories.

LET CHOLESTEROL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF

Cutting cholesterol scored surprisingly low. Only 14 percent of the experts rated it extremely important. It's not that cholesterol is insignificant, but, again, if you follow the priorities outline above, you'll have already taken care of it. Those polled felt that expensive concern about this issue to the exclusion of all others could lead you to eat foods that are low in cholesterol but still dangerously high in fat. For example, Potato-chips fried in vegetable oil contain no cholesterol, but 72 percent of their calories are from fat.
[ POWER EATING ]

 

DON'T FEAR SAYING “CHEERS”

The nation’s top nutritionists plainly don’t support prohibition. But they’re staunch believers in moderation when it comes to alcohol. There's no evidence, unless you are driving, that drinking alcohol in limited quantities is bad for you. Alcohol in excess (more than two drinks per day) is another story: It will destroy livers as well as lives.
 

PRACTICE SAFE EATING

While many people are worried about pesticides on fruit and vegetables, the experts rated it 34 out of 44 on their list of priorities.

More than three-quarters of the nutritionists thought it wise to avoid raw foods, particularly eggs, meat and seafood. Raw eggs and chicken can harbor salmonella bacteria, a common cause of food poisoning. Raw seafood can harbor viruses or parasites. Buy only from a reputable dealer, or avoid raw seafood altogether.

GET MORE FIBER

Insoluble or soluble? It doesn’t matter how you get your fiber. What’s important is that you do get it. People eat so little fiber, we’ll take anything. Whatever you can find – some peas in your stew – put them in!

A high fiber diet fills you up without filling you out, keeps you regular, helps lower your cholesterol level and may help reduce the risk of colon cancer. The nutritionists advocate getting at least 20 grams per day. A breakfast of oatmeal, wholewheat toast, appear and a banana would give you more than half that amount. The highest-fiber foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

MORE SURF, LESS TURF

Fish is lower in saturated fat than meat, ant the oil in fish-especially cold-water varieties such as salmon and mackerel-helps your cardiovascular-system by keeping blood from clotting and preventing hardening of the arteries. If you do eat meat, the experts recommend limiting portions to three or four ounces, choosing lean cuts such as flank steak and using low-fat cooking methods such as broiling and braising.

AVOID FADS

Many nutrition hazards you read or hear about the 11 o’clock news aren’t worth paying attention to. For example, avoiding trans-fatty acids (found in sick margarine) and tropical oils drew only moderate priority ratings from the nutrition authorities, despite their getting big play in the news. Again, it’s much more important to lower total fat intake.

Rated lowest of all was avoiding irradiated foods- 68 percent of respondents put this among the Probably Worthless, right down there with avoiding charred or blackened foods. Neather appear to pose any significant health risk. 

The 12 commandments for winter hair

"Hair is an extension of the skin, so imbalances in the body will show on the hair too," According to doctors. "Winter is the season of over-flowing kapha with an imbalance of vata which together cause dandruff and heavy hair-fall. A dry and sebaceous congested scalp leads to fungal and bacterial infections, and sebum and clogged pores makes the hair very dull." But you can beat these problems.

Follow these 12 steps by experts to ensure healthy, good looking hair all through these cold months.

FEED THE HAIR Ensure a protein rich diet with nutrients like zinc, magnesium, iron and vitamin B.Eat walnuts and almonds and check with your dermatologist about supplements containing omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Also take natural vitamin E supplements like flax-seed oil.


LIGHTLY MASSAGE THE scalp with oils like nilibhringi  simple seame oil at least twice a week. The oil should be kept on the scalp for 3-4 hours or overnight. Avoid heavy oils like almond oil.


USE SHAMPOO THAT contains vitamin E and natural ingredients like avocado oil, olive oil, lemon extract and soy protein. Or opt for a mild oil control shampoo to reduce scalp oil and dandruff.



USE AN INTENSE hydrating conditioner like the DCL conditioner, and deep condition at least once a week. Warm a few tablespoon of olive oil in the microwave, then work it into your hair as you would a regular conditioner. Leave for a few minutes, then wash. Or use curd-based hair packs at home or opt for a hair spa and deep conditioning treatment at the salon. Beer is also a very good conditioner.



USE LUKEWARM OR normal water for your shampoo. Avoid very hot waters it leads to hair loss. Avoid too much color. Use herbal hair colors like vegetal bio-colour.



SHIELD YOUR HAIR with a hat, cap or scarf. Wear it loose enough to allow scalp circulation, but not closely enough to protect your hair against chilly winds.



DO NOT STEAM your hair as it leads to the further drying.



LET YOUR HAIR dry naturally, as blow-dried hair is more susceptible to damage, and exposure to extreme conditions such as wind and low temperature can cause further damage.


TO BEAT DANDRUFF,  massage the scalp with coconut oil, leave it on for half an hour beneath a hot towel and then wash it with mild shampoo. Do this regularly. You can also use a medicated leave-on cream or shampoo with ant-dandruff properties. Kaya Anti Dandruff Leave On Lotion with botanical extracts is great solution for dandruff without dying the scalp.


STATIC ENERGY IS very intense in cooler weather. So rub a dryer softener sheet over the brush before brushing.


IF YOUR HAIR tends to become too dry in winter, go for a hair repair mask at a salon.

GO FOR THE GLOSS

Using oil treatment with lime juice will keep your hair glossy and healthy

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To add shine to your hair, apply henna and amla powder for one hour and wash t off without using shampoo and conditioner

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Running conditioned hair through a last rinse of cold water adds instant shine to your hair

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Use a leave-on serum to smoothen your hair

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Add a small amount of vinegar to the rinse water to add instant sheen

OUT WITH FRIZZ

Use a silicone-based serum like L'Oreal Lumi oil to settle fizzy hair post shampoo

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Apply conditioner for half an hour and then wash it off with luke-warm water

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Go for hair spas that are rich in protein

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Spray hairspray on a brush and brush it through your hair.