INVITE THE IRON KADHAI BACK INTO YOUR KITCHEN

Today one of the major concerns during pregnancy is nutritional anemia. Incorporating nutritious foods to your diet is a must. Also cooking in a cast iron skillet/ kadhai/ tawa can add significant amounts of iron to your food and into your body. Cast iron cookware leaches small amounts of iron into the food, a few milligrams per dish. Anemic and those with iron deficiencies may benefit from this effect. In addition to eating more iron-rich foods like meats, beans and green leafy vegetables cooking in a cast iron pot is an easy way to boost your iron intake.

Acidic foods that have higher moisture content, such tomatoes, absorb the most iron. Other factors that boost the iron content of foods include longer cooking time, frequent stirring, and using a newer iron vessel.

However, not all foods benefit from cooking in an iron vessel. For example, cooking a patty or sautéing vegetables do not absorb as much iron. This is probably due to the shorter cooking time, or that they were either turned once or not at all, resulting in less contact with the iron.

Also deep-frying in iron vessels/ kadhais is not helpful. Iron can oxidize fats, causing the cooking oil to become rancid.

Foods cooked at home may vary in iron absorption based on the age of the skillet used and the amount of time the foods are heated. So, if you're looking to increase your dietary iron, use a new cast iron skillet. After all, the iron in cookware is no different from the iron in our bodies — so get smart and make your spinach (palak) tomato or beans in an iron vessel!

SHOULD I EAT BEFORE A WORKOUT

There is always a question in every person trying to lose weight, “To eat or not to eat before a workout”?  

Whether you eat or don't eat before exercise, your body burns the same amount of fat. And working out on an empty stomach can actually cause muscle loss, if you do it on a regular basis. When you're hungry, your body goes into survival mode and takes up protein away from muscle. "Our body works more on the survival instinct than physical appearance”. The loss of muscle mass over time suppresses your metabolism and makes it harder to lose weight/fat.

Also exercising on an empty stomach means you don't have the energy to put in a really good workout. Also tempting as it may seem to cut down totally on food before you head into a big calorie-burn workout- it deprives you of the fuel you need to last through a minimum of a 30-minute or hour-long workout, and you could be losing muscle mass while you're at it.

What should you eat before you exercise?

The best pre-workout snack contains some form of healthy complex carbohydrate and a protein.

If you're a morning person, a good breakfast might be a bowl of oats/other whole cereal and a hardboiled egg/ nuts. For late-day exercisers, a lunch of whole pulse with brown rice and vegetable will work too.

Also, it's not just what you eat, but when you eat it that's important. One and a half to two hours prior to working out is the ideal time to have a good snack. That allows your body enough time to digest your food. If you snack close to when you exercise, the food will just sit in your stomach. When you're digesting food, your digestive system needs blood to do that, but when you start exercising, that blood gets redirected to your working muscles. Your body takes blood away from the area where the food is and you end up getting a cramp/ plain indigestion.  If you do find yourself starving a few minutes before a workout, drinking some fruit juice with added whey protein always helps.

So, before you decide what you want to eat/ not eat to lose that fat/ weight do pay attention to the intensity and time of your workout.