We hate to say this, but did you know that your festive feasting might make you fat for life? You’ve read us right.
Studies have found that on average, we gain about 0.32kg over the course of the festive season (that’s about ½ of the average weight gain per year in a couple of months alone!). With average people consuming about more than double of their recommended daily calorie allowances in a day on Christmas alone, that number is not that surprising.
Because knowledge is power, find out what’s in your Christmas Dinner and beat the post-Christmas gym crowds.
Baked Potato
No potatoes don’t count when you’re talking about your daily vegetable intake. But we sure love them. Soft and fluffy with crispy skin, drenched to high heavens with rich sour cream and liberally sprinkled with cheese, scallions, chives and bacon bits. Baked potatoes probably rank among in the tops of “foods that we’d like as our last meal.”
Each potato contains about 20.4g of carbs, and when you’re looking to avoid the weight gain, carbs are not your greatest friends. So it’s best to avoid them altogether or share them with a friend.
Calories: 278 kcal, 300g
Honey Glazed Ham
A Christmas staple, mouthwatering honey glazed ham is the defacto festive dish. They’re a pretty good source of protein but are still considered a processed food (ham is processed with nitrates, which adds the salty flavour and prevents the growth of harmful bacteria). It’s best to not overindulge in this festive treat.
Calories: 360 kcal, 3 slices
Roast Turkey
Turkey is low in fat and a great source of protein. It is an easily accessible source of vitamins and minerals like iron, zinc, phosphorus, potassium and B vitamins. But stay clear of the sugar-laden sauces and fatty gravies!
Calories: 236 kcal, 3 slices
Cranberry sauce
A great companion to roast turkey and ham. Cranberry sauces are delish paired with salty ham and turkey. The lowdown on it is that Cranberries are a great source of antioxidants, vitamin E, K, and C, and dietary fibre! But your typical cranberry sauce probably come from a can and the average canned cranberry sauce contains about 105 grams of sugar (that’s about 26 teaspoons of sugar!).
The best way to have your cake and eat it too would be to make your own sauce! Using fresh or frozen fruit and less sugar can make for a way healthier accompaniment. Mix it up with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg for a lil twist to your festive faves.
Nutrition facts: 110 calories, 25 g carbs, 3 g fibre, 0 g protein, 0 g fat
Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread men
Classic festive treats, sugar cookies and gingerbread men are what most of us look forward to among the array of Christmas treats available. But laden with sugar, butter and frosting, it’s best to keep the treats to a minimum.
Calories: 340 kcal, 4 slices
With the upcoming festive season, we all want to look our best. But from skincare to dieting to fashion, it takes a whole lot of effort to even think about looking good. That’s why we’re here to help, with 21 days to Christmas, we’ve got you covered with beauty tips to look and feel your absolute best for the festivities!
Skin
People in skincare circles will wax lyrical about the magic of oils (remember the craze for argan oil?), but beauty comes from within and there’s no better way to take care of your skin than through your diet.
A 2008 study by the Institute of Experimental Dermatology in Germany revealed the wonders of skin-loving oils on your diet. Researchers found that women who consumed 2.2g of flaxseed or borage oil supplements (why flaxseed oil? - it contains essential fatty acids that are great for skin!) a day experienced a significant increase in skin moisture and reduction in roughness.
Salmon, flax seeds, olive oil, walnuts and blueberries are great foods to eat when you're looking for improving your skin!
Hair
Nobody wants to go to a party with frizzy, lacklustre hair, follow these tips and step up on your haircare routine for soft, luscious locks - just in time for the season.
A happy scalp is the key to healthy hair, so go easy on the shampoo as it most often leaves your scalp parched while stripping the grime and dirt from your hair. Switch to sulphate and paraben free shampoos and treat your hair and your scalp with Coconut Oil!
Coconut Oil is rich in vitamin K and vitamin E along with fatty acids like lauric and capric acid which help to reduce dandruff, fight fungus and bacteria and make keep hair follicles happy and healthy.
Our favourite way of using Coconut Oil as a treatment would be to heat up a tablespoon or two of coconut oil with a couple drops of essential oils and massage it into the hair and scalp. For an intensive hydrating treatment, wrap your head with a towel and leave it on for a couple of hours or overnight.
Concoct your own potion for glossier hair! We absolutely love essential oils when mixed in with coconut. Sandalwood and Geranium oils are great for moisturizing and conditioning while oils like Rosemary help to boost hair growth!
Get your own glow this Christmas
Specially curated to help you look your best this festive season, Kinohimitsu's Get That Glow Kit is a quick inside-out beauty fix. A 10-day beauty regime, each set contains 5 bottles of UV Bright Drink to help you prevent and combat UV damage in the day and 10 sachets of Prowhite to repair and nourish your skin while you sleep. Step out of the shadows and unveil your glow this Christmas!
GIVEAWAY
We're giving away a set of the Get That Glow Kit so that you'll get your glow just in time for the festive season!
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) places an extremely high importance on liver health with a belief that medical practitioners who are able to treat the liver are skilful enough to treat a hundred ailments. TCM practitioners believe that the liver with helps to regulate qi or vital energy along with the flow of emotions, thus affecting the health of your entire body.
TCM Herbs, some of which are great for your liver!
Despite being hundreds of years old, those traditional beliefs are not unfounded! Your liver is one of the largest organs in your body and is the ultimate multitasker when it comes to your health. It does everything and anything from filtering your blood to lending aid in the digestion of your food and even helping you fight off nasty infections! It is also the only organ in your body that has the ability to regenerate itself by creating new tissue! Talk about amazing right?
With such a big workload being carried out by our liver, you can bet that you’ll feel the after effects when it’s not working well. TCM principles link liver health to acne and body odours while Western medical sciences have found that liver diseases could lead to problems in other areas of the body such as the heart, highlighting the importance of good liver health for overall wellness.
The scary thing is that you often don’t notice the signs when your liver starts falling sick. The symptoms start out small, fatigue sets in, maybe in the middle of the day, and you soon find yourself constantly tired.
So if you’re feeling bloated, sluggish or nauseated all the time and can’t seem to lose weight no matter what you try (just some symptoms of an unhealthy liver). Maybe it’s time to look at your liver health.
Alcohol consumption is the number one cause of liver damage. As your body cannot store alcohol, when you drink, your body focuses on processing and metabolising the alcohol ahead of other processes. Heavy drinking or drinking too fast will put a heavy burden on your liver cells and in the long run, could cause fatty liver disease and inflammation. This is because the liver gets diverted from its other functions and focuses mainly on converting alcohol to a less toxic form, and this causes fatty liver disease, inflammation and in the worse cases, permanent damage like cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) which leads to the loss of liver function.
It’s already common knowledge that smoking is among the unhealthiest habits out there. For smokers- both first and second hand - the inhalation of smoke and the chemicals in it reach the liver and cause oxidative stress, which produces damaging free radicals. In the liver, the stress can cause a condition known as fibrosis in which the excess scar tissue is developed inside the liver from attempts to repair itself.
2 am working on a project or a big presentation for the morning after, we’ve all been there. Acne and oily skin are just some of the consequences of late nights at the desk, but besides the obvious fact that being deprived of precious sleep is not great, the late nights can take a toll on your liver as well.
Studies have shown that sleep deprivation can, like smoking, cause oxidative stress to the liver. Even though the consequences of this oxidative stress is not as severe as smoking. Staying up can cause your body to inefficiently process fat, leading to weight gain and problems like diabetes, heart disease and more.
Let us help!
Inspired by the philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kinohimitsu Be Liva is formulated with Cordyceps and Schisandra extract, scientifically proven, liver-loving ingredients that are rich in antioxidants to help combat oxidative stress, support your liver and improve your immunity!
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It’s universally understood that kids are attracted to bright and vibrant hues on sweets and candy bars, but instead of taking in your colours from artificial food colouring and empty calories, why not go the natural route and get your hues from nutrient-packed natural sources instead? After all, good eating habits are developed from childhood.
The concept of eating a rainbow in your diet helps to make the idea of healthy eating way more palatable, especially for kids who might be picky eaters.
But why a rainbow though? The different pigments in plant-based foods help to protect the plants from environmental stresses and disease, acting like a sunscreen or protective barrier of sorts.
So for kids, eating the rainbow helps to:
1. Ensure optimal nutrient intake
Each food of a different hue offers a unique blend phytonutrients that help to boost your health by promoting heart health and strengthening the immune system among other benefits.
So by “eating the rainbow”, you get the fullest range of nutrients that the plants have to offer, ensuring that your kid grows up to be that best that he or she can be!
Nutrition by colour:
Red fruits and vegetables are rich in a natural plant pigment known as Lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that helps protect your body from the chemicals you unknowingly ingest such as pesticides. It also helps to keep your eyes happy and healthy!
Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables have a pigment known as Carotenoids that can help reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease while improving the immune system.The treasure trove of nutrients in these fruits and vegetables include manganese, potassium, vitamin A, fibre, and magnesium.
Green fruits and vegetables are power packed with plenty of vitamin A, C in addition to other important minerals like iron and zinc. Leafy greens such as spinach and broccoli are also excellent sources of folate, a vitamin that helps prevent cognitive decline and anaemia!
Blue and purple fruits and vegetables are coloured by natural plant pigments called Anthocyanins. Found in great quantities in blueberries, grapes and raisins. Anthocyanins help to protect the body’s cells from damage with its powerful antioxidant qualities!
2. Beat boredom
Kids are known to get bored of things (especially food) fast and egg sandwiches for lunch can get old real quick. Get your kids excited about their next meal and promote healthy eating habits while curbing unhealthy ones with the vibrancy of fruits and vegetables!
Lunchbox inspiration to try out!
3. It'll make them smarter!
People who don't eat regularly or have a diet consisting of foods that aren't healthy will experience side effects like a lack of concentration and memory loss. That's why a healthy diet of good, nutrient-rich food is highly important especially for children of school-going age.
Studies have found that students who had a quality diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables performed way better on standardised tests as compared to those on a diet with less nutrition. So good food = academic performance.
For a quick boost of rainbow nutritional goodness, try Kinohimitsu Superfood+ and Superfood+ Kids!
Read more about how Superfood+ can help your family here!
Made with 22 unique multigrain with superfoods like Wheatgrass and Spirulina from all 7 colours of the rainbow, Superfood+ contains all you need to stay happy and healthy!
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