Healthy Life through herbal food

Ancient civilization of tamil people recognized food as medicines and their day to day lunch comprised of various of types of herbal leaves and vegetables and herbal spices such as turmeric, ginger root, papaya extracts garlics etc. along with cooked parboiled hand pounded rice. Their morning breakfast mostly comprised of cooked rice choked in water overnight with onion and raw chilly. Their day to day activities were strenuous which coupled with their traditional herbal food made their life simple and healthy.

The advancement of science and technology has made the life of common man less strenuous and created more opportunities and resources to eat junk food as also inhale polluted air due to mechanisation thereby making life less healthier. This has also resulted in putting up more weight and obese.

Obesity has become a global epidemic and India ranks among the top- 10 obese nations of the world where 120 million urban Indians are seriously obese. The health consequences of obesity involves the risk of developing adult onset type II Diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and arteriosclerosis, hypertension and some forms of cancer. Successful treatment of obesity requires an integrated approach that involves dietary and behavior modification along with exercise A variety of diets have been tested to manage obesity and meal replacements have been shown to be an effective strategy for weight loss in obese subjects.

Nowadays we find that there are numerous food supplements claiming to contain herbal products under different brand names. They also call their products as meal replacement or food supplement for weight loss, diabetic control etc. after due experimentation of the products. In most cases they had tested their products in volunteers and proved the effectiveness of their products. In most cases they have even obtained FDA approval.

In these days of fast life such products have come as god sent to otherwise high income middle class working population. However they should be aware of such products choose the right products and keep themselves fit for carrying on their day to day activities.