Trivendrum ‘Dosa fest’ evokes good response

The ongoing ‘Dosa Fest’ at the Keys Hotel, Thiruvanantpuram, Kerala has evoked good response.
The menu at Keys boasts a variety of dosas from the everyday ghee dosa to the exotic ‘chakkuli pitha’. The fete is on till the end of this month. Timings are from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The Methi dosa is priced at Rs. 45 while the Mysore masala dosa is priced at Rs. 65, exclusive of tax. All dosas are accompanied by unlimited sambar, coconut chutney and a special chutney of the day. A hot favourite with children is the cheese and egg dosa.

Being too skinny damages fertility more than obesity

Being too thin is worse than being too fat when trying for a baby, women have been warned.

A study found that skinny women are less likely to become pregnant than those who are overweight – including those classed as dangerously obese.

The researcher say that the amount of attention being paid to the health risks of being overweight meant that the perils of being underweight are being largely ignored.

The problem is being exacerbated by the ‘size zero’ culture in girls and young women striving to emulate the painfully thin look of models and other celebrities.

Dr Sherbahn, of the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, crunched the figures on almost 2,500 sessions of IVF carried out at his clinic over an eight-year period.

The women were divided into three groups by weight – very thin, normal and obese. The normal weight group included some women who would be classed as overweight in the UK.

Some 50 per cent of those in the normal weight group had babies.

This compared with 45 per cent of those in the obese group, which included women classed as dangerously obese, and just 34 per cent of those classed as very thin.

The women classed as very thin had a BMI, or body mass index of 14 to 18.

A woman who is 5ft 4in tall and weighs 7stone will have a BMI of 17.  One who is 5ft 10ins tall and weighs 9 stone will have a BMI of 18.

Dr Sherbahn said that while some other studies had hinted that being skinny may be worse for fertility than being fat, he was ‘surprised’ at the size of the effect.

It is known that being very thin can make it difficult to get pregnant naturally, due to a drop in the female sex hormone oestrogen.

But women undergoing IVF are given hormones, so this couldn’t be the reason for the results.

The women in all three groups produced similar numbers of eggs, so the problems for the very thin later must have occurred at a later stage in the process, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference heard.

One possibility is that the embryos found it more difficult to implant in the wombs of the very thin women because they were undernourished.

Dr Sherbahn said: ‘It could be in evolutionary terms that if people were too thin that maybe food wasn’t readily available and maybe it wasn’t the best time to reproduce and maybe the uterus wasn’t at its best.’

He added that women are likely unaware that it can be more damaging for their fertility to be too thin rather than too fat.

‘I am no expert on the sociological side of it but I have a teenage daughter and it seems that girls idolise models who are anorexic-looking.

‘It seems that the ideal body structure for young women is this overly-skinny physique and women don’t understand that there is any concern about that.’

He said that women trying to get pregnant – naturally or with fertility treatment – should try to get as close to their ideal eight as possible.

Charles Kingsland, a consultant gynaecologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and member of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘For some people, getting pregnant is very easy but for others it is difficult and it is important to look at your bodyweight.

‘There is no doubt that if it is appropriate for your height, you have a higher chance of conceiving.’

WHY OESTROGEN COULD BE USED IN DIETING

Lack of oestrogen can increase appetite and slow down metabolism – paving the way for the hormone to be used as a diet aid.

Researchers in the U.S. discovered that low levels of the female sex hormone in certain parts of a woman’s brain can lead to obesity.

The findings, from tests in mice, are at an early stage, but could have consequences for millions of post-menopausal women if the link can be proved in humans in future research.

Dr Deborah Clegg, who led the study, said: ‘Oestrogen has a profound effect on metabolism. We hadn’t previously thought of sex hormones as being critical regulators of food intake and body weight.’

Oestrogen receptors are located throughout the body, but the researchers found two specific places in the brain where they appear to regulate energy balance.

Female mice whose brains lacked oestrogen in these parts became obese and developed illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.

The simple tricks that could help you lose weight WITHOUT going on a diet !!!

Forget calorie-counting!

Number of recent studies have revealed how making several small lifestyle changes could help you lose weight without feeling deprived of the food you love. Habits such as using a smaller plate or drinking water before a meal can have a significant impact on your waistline, the research revealed.

 

Good habits: Using a bigger fork can have a significant impact on your waistline

Even the people you eat with can make a difference, with male companions encouraging women to eat less, and skinny friends with large appetites making people think they too can eat more. The latest study into the subject found that those who cook at home, rather than eat out, make healthier food choices. If the association between positive emotion and healthy food is built in the home, then that environment can serve as a reminder of that association and motivate people to choose healthier food that can make them happier.

Experts believe that such subliminal behaviour changes are more effective than regimes that require one to exercise willpower.

Dieting in general does not work, so the odds are against it. But it’s worth a try. ‘It’s better to make gradual, long-term changes to how you eat than to use your willpower to resist temptation bite by bite.

10 TIPS TO LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT GOING ON A DIET

1.  USE A SMALLER PLATE

When a fixed portion of food was eaten from a large plate, you will feel you had been give a smaller than average portion, so you tend to eat more. When the same portion of food is eaten from a smaller dish, the meal seemed more substantial, so you tend to eat less.

2.  USE A BIGGER FORK

An Italian study into the relationship between fork size and consumption found that diners who used smaller forks ate more than those given larger forks. Researchers believe those with smaller forks felt they were making slower progress in satisfying their hunger, so ate more.

3.  EAT WITH MEN

…If you’re a woman. Women eat less if there are men around. It is possible that small food portions signal attractiveness.

4.  READ THE LABELS

Those who read nutrition labels on food packaging eat around 5 per cent less fat than those who don’t bother, according to researchers .

5.  DRINK WATER BEFORE MEALS

Those who drink two glasses of water before each meal can loose an average of 4.5lb.

6.  AVOID LIGHT AT NIGHT

This includes late-night television and computer use. A study into the effects of bright light, dim light or darkness on weight-gain in mice found that those under a bright light at night gained 50 per cent more weight than those in darkness.

7.  HIDE UNHEALTHY TREATS

…And keep healthy snacks in sight. Office workers ate less chocolate when dishes of candy were moved from their desks to the other side of the room, reveals a study by Mindless Eating author Brian Wansink.

The same trick can be reversed to positive effect. A Cornell University study found that when a middle school cafeteria salad bar was moved to a more prominent position, consumption of some items increased by 250-300 per cent in a year.

8.  BE CAREFUL AROUND FRIENDS

Children eat more with a friend than with a stranger, according to a study . Researchers said that this trend, which applies to adults too, can be blamed on the fact that friends act as so-called permission-givers, and encourage one to indulge.

9.  BEWARE OF SKINNY FRIENDS WHO EAT A LOT

Worse still, are thin friends who have large appetites. A study found that participants snacked more during a movie when accompanied by a skinny person who ate a lot, compared with those sitting next to a fat person who ate a lot.

10.  AVOID ADVERTISEMENTS FOR EXERCISE

A  study revealed that participants who were shown advertisements encouraging exercise ate more than those who weren’t. The same was true of participants exposed to subliminal words relating to exercise during mealtimes.