A Way to Fitness: Protein Intake, Keto Diet & Prebiotic & Probiotic Pills

Health is a vastly explored yet undiscovered topic. Each day starts with a new revelation in the health industry. Health coaches and researchers find new and convenient ways to cater to the health needs of individuals ranging from busy working professionals to someone who can manage to take time out. As said many times, Health is an extremely crucial part of one’s living. It dictates the longevity and quality of one’s life. With health being such an important factor it demands proper attention and care, to give this due heed to health one takes up various regimes and practices to make sure that their physical health is in the best possible condition. This pursuit can lead an individual into believing various claims and taking up regimes that are popular but don’t exactly help. Some such regimes and trends are:

1. Protein: A candy word used to lure fitness enthusiasts into buying various courses, recipes, and regimes. Pseudo-influencers and life coaches aim to fulfill their requirement of reaching several sales and churning money out of the pockets of unaware fitness enthusiasts who wish to take care of themselves. In reality, an individual of an average weight requires as many grams of protein as their body weight om a daily basis to stay healthy. Proteins can be either complete or incomplete, complete sources of protein include meat, poultry, fish, and dairy and incomplete sources are nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, and whole grains. What bifurcation proteins are complete and incomplete is the way our body absorbs them. That is, foods that are complete proteins are digested in the body as proteins where whereas foods with incomplete proteins need to be paired with other foods like fiber to be made a complete protein and be digested as protein. Individuals who are unaware of this division and their need for protein daily tend to add protein to their diets which sometimes leads to overconsumption of just one nutrient and falling short of the requirement of other equally important nutrients to lead a healthy lifestyle. It is always advised to consume a balanced diet to holistically improve one’s health rather than focusing on just one nutrient and not seeing the desired results.

2. Keto Diet: The keto diet is a fat-intensive diet. It suggests cutting on carbs and adding more healthy fats to one’s diet. The keto suggests breaking daily calorie intake in a way where 5% of calories are carbs, 20% is protein and 75% is healthy fats from sources like oils, and unprocessed nuts. The keto diet strives to achieve ketosis, a state where the body uses fats to produce energy for normal functioning. This state is reached after the body utilizes all the carbohydrates by breaking them into glucose. Although this diet has shown miraculous results in reducing seizures in pediatric patients with epilepsy it has multiple downsides. Since it promotes eating fats and cutting on carbs, people derive the conclusion that they can now eat most of the high in fat foods which they desire. What they forget is that the diet promotes eating healthy fats not processed fats. Ketosis is extremely difficult to attain, it takes about 3 weeks for all the carbohydrates to be broken down and used and then the body reaches ketosis where it utilises fats. The only way to know if your body is in ketosis is through a blood test. Individuals with underlying kidney diseases can face renal failures if practicing the keto diet. The keto diet isn’t for everyone, it works but only for a short duration, and it is not recommended as a long-term diet solution. Following a keto diet poses threats such as kidney stones, low protein in the blood, and extra fat in the liver.

3. Prebiotic and probiotic Pills: Probiotics are the good bacteria that help in improving gut health and prebiotics are the organisms that help in spreading the good bacteria. The only problem that persists is in the way these probiotics and prebiotics are consumed, that is in the form of pills. Pills are made up of gelatine which if taken regularly can cause bloating, indigestion, and in some cases kidney and life damage. The same good bacteria (lactobacillus) can be consumed in normal food as well such as curd, pickles, and traditional buttermilk.