Proper Method of Eating

What’s the Proper Method to Eat?                                       

Copied from http://propermethod.blogspot.com/2014/06/proper-method-of-eating.html

So this is the First Question that I am going to answer in this blog. Why this? Why start from eating? Well this is the first thing every human being does after birth and keeps on doing it till death. Taking food is the basic requirement of human body. Without food the human body gets weaker, and eventually all the systems stop working.

Everybody need food but eating food the proper way gives you health benefits and let's your body make the most out of it. Let's see the proper method for eating to benefit from it. Yes, eaten improperly will cause you lots of lots of trouble... believe me!

Choosing the Right Food

The first step involved in proper methods to eat is choosing the right food. When it comes to food nature has given us a number of options for example we have:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Dairy products
• Meat Products
• Seafood

So, where should we start from? The best way to answer is to understand the composition of these choices and our body needs. In simple words our body need

ü  Vitamins

ü  Minerals

ü  Proteins

ü  Carbohydrates

We need most of these things in our daily routine and to get the right amount of these, the food we choose should have the right amount of the necessary elements.

Eating the proper amount of right food will put your body in the healthy gear. Your body will have natural resistance towards diseases and you will be able to avoid certain life threatening disease like heart problem, high blood pressure, high cholesterol problem, obesity etc.

Eat a balanced Diet

According to Harvard School of Public Health ^[1] we should include a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products in our food in order to keep you strong and healthy. Try to eat a diet of 30% Vegetables, 20% Fruit, 20% Carbohydrates (wheat, rice, and corn), 20% Protein (found in meat, beans, and legumes), and 10% Dairy products. USDA’s Food Pyramid or My Plate are good examples of balancing the food.

Don't Skip Meals

Most of us think that skipping a meal will make them lose fat quickly but no please do not skip any meals rather reduce or completely stop eating those unhealthy ready to eat meals. Breakfast, starts your metabolism (the set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms ^[2]) early in the morning. 

You will also want to make sure to eat at regular intervals, to help make sure your body has the fuel it needs to run all day. Focus on eating foods which deliver lots of vital nutrients to your body. These are foods rich in vitamins and minerals. You can try citrus fruits, dark greens like kale and spinach, grains like brown rice and quinoa, lean proteins like lentils and chicken, and calcium rich dairy products like low-fat cottage cheese.

Drink lots of water every day

Drink lots of water every day

This is very important. You may think you are hungry when, in fact, you are really just thirsty. It also makes your liver and kidney a lot happier. Eight 8oz glasses of water are recommended for most adults. Depending on the weather and climate you may need more or less. Water being the only thing even when used in excess most probably won’t cause any problems.

Don't eat a huge meal

It’s very reasonable to want to eat a delicious meal more than you need. Remember these eating huge meals causes stomach upsets and makes you feel sick. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to give you a stomach full signal so the best time to stop eating is when you satisfied not when you feel full. Give it some time you will get the full stomach signal from your brain.

Eat the My Plate Way

This comes straight from Harvard School of Public Health and USDA. When it’s time for dinner, most of us eat off of a plate. So think of the Healthy Eating Plate as a blueprint for a typical meal, for yourself and your family. It’s similar in concept to MyPlate, with colorful quadrants reserved for vegetables (green), fruits (red), protein (orange), and grains (brown). But unlike MyPlate, it offers important messages about diet quality, not just quantity:

• Fill half of your plate with vegetables and fruits.  The more color, and the more variety, the better. Most Americans don’t get enough vegetables, especially the dark green and red-orange types, or fruits. On the Healthy Eating Plate, just like the Healthy Eating Pyramid, potatoes and French fries don’t count as vegetables.
• Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains—not just any grains: MyPlate tells you to reserve a quarter of your plate for grains. But grains are not essential for good health. What’s essential is to make any grains you eat whole grains, since these have a gentler effect on blood sugar and insulin than refined grains. Whole grains include whole wheat, brown rice, oats, barley, and the like, as well as foods made with them, such as whole wheat pasta. The less processed the whole grains, the better: Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and in turn, has a greater impact on blood sugar than more coarsely ground or intact grains. So choose steel cut oats instead of instant, sugared oats or choose whole wheat berries instead of whole wheat bread.
• Pick a healthy source of protein to fill one quarter of your plate: On MyPlate, the “protein” quadrant of the plate could be filled with a hamburger or hot dog. The Healthy Eating Plate, in contrast, acknowledges that some protein sources (fish, chicken, beans, nuts) are healthier than others (red meat and processed meat).
• Enjoy healthy fats. The glass bottle near the Healthy Eating Plate is a reminder to use healthy oils, like olive and canola, in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Limit butter, and avoid unhealthy trans-fats. Though the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 acknowledges that Americans need to consume more plant oils, these healthy oils are nowhere to be found on MyPlate.
• Drink water, coffee or tea. On the Healthy Eating Plate, complete your meal with a glass of water, or if you like, a cup of tea or coffee (which also are low calorie and have health benefits)—not the glass of milk  that MyPlate recommends. Limit milk and dairy products to one to two servings per day and limit juice to a small glass per day. Skip the sugary drinks.
• Stay active. The figure scampering across the bottom of the Healthy Eating Plate’s placemat is a reminder that staying active is half of the secret to weight control. The other half is eating a healthy diet with modest portions that meet your calorie needs. Since two out of three U.S. adults and one in three children are overweight or obese, one thing is clear: Many of us have been choosing plates that are too large.

How to Eat With Chopsticks for food lovers

Well Eat the food the way its meant to be eaten but with forks its too dificult. Watching others using chopsticks can make it look so easy, but when you try it, you end up asking for a fork. Here's how to say goodbye to that fork for good and put those chopsticks to work!

Steps

Pick up the first chopstick with the middle finger and thumb.

Stiffen your hand for a firm grip. Have the broad end of the chopstick lay on the part where your thumb and index finger connect. Rest the narrow end on the tip of your ring finger, and hold it in place with the tip of your middle finger. (Hint: try holding it the way you hold a pen to write. It might rest on your ring finger or your middle finger, held in place by your index finger. Place the chopstick then lift your index finger so it can hold the second chopstick.)

Grip the second chopstick with your index finger.

Place your thumb over the second chopstick. Adjust your grip to a more comfortable position. Make sure the narrow tips of the chopsticks are even with each other to help prevent them from crossing or being unable to "pinch" the food.

Hold it steady.

This chopstick should not move when you attempt to pick up food. Alternatively, hold the first chopstick steady and move the second (top) chopstick by moving the tip of your index finger up and down while the thumb remains relatively steady, acting like a pivot point. The top chopstick remains pressed to the index finger from the tip through the first joint. The movement comes from flexing the joint closest to the knuckle. Straightening your index finger opens the chopsticks and bending it closes them, with perhaps a slight flexing of the thumb to keep the chopsticks lined up with each other. (Note: this alternative is different from the photos in how the top chopstick is held. The movement comes from the top chopstick, not the bottom one, so the top chopstick is held so that it can be moved easily. Use the method that is comfortable for you.)

Practice opening and closing the chopsticks.

Make sure the broad ends of the chopsticks do not make an "X" as this will make it difficult to pick up food.

Pick up food at a good angle (try roughly 45 degrees from the plate); slightly lift it up. If it feels unstable, put it down and try again.


Tips

The difference between looking like a stupid American & looking like a refined cultured person is showed to Chinese people when you hold chopsticks. Do not hold the chopsticks close to the end. The farther away your hands are from the food, the better.

Start out holding the chopsticks in the middle or closer to the tips while you get used to the movement and keeping the tips aligned. As you become more comfortable and confident, try holding the chopsticks closer to the broad ends.

While it may seem easier at first to hold the chopsticks near their tips, holding them further back means that they are closer to parallel, which helps to scoop food (like rice) from below.

You'll also be able to pick up larger pieces of food (see photo #3 above).
This is the correct way to hold chopsticks. Ultimately, however, if you can comfortably pick up food and bring it to your mouth, you are effectively using chopsticks.

Alternatively, you can grip the lower stick (from photo #1) with the tip of the ring finger but resting on the pinky nail bed. Then your thumb will lock this stick into place. The upper stick will move up and down to grip the food.

Another alternative is to grip the two chopsticks together like a pencil, then use the top fingers to push the sticks into a criss-cross position (and back again) to pick up your food.

Take the chopsticks home to practice using them. Follow the steps above and lift a peanut, a pen, or a piece of fish. Try eating dinner with them.

Floppy and/or sliced foods like cold cuts or sliced cheeses are good to practice on. They're more forgiving than cubed foods while you're learning to keep the chopsticks lined up and how much pressure to apply.

Apply a firm but gentle pressure on the food, just enough to keep the food from falling from the chopsticks. Too much pressure is more likely to cause your chopsticks to cross at the narrow ends unless they're perfectly aligned and could launch your food across the table.

Be patient as it takes a while to learn to use them correctly. It is perfectly permissible to ask for a fork or spoon if you get too frustrated.

Wood or bamboo chopsticks are the easiest to use because of the gripping texture at the tip. Plastic ones will be harder to use. Metal chopsticks, as favored by the Koreans, are the hardest of all. Master one, and move up to the next. The next time you go out, your hosts will be impressed!

When getting food out of a bowl used by others, use the larger ends of the chopsticks. This keeps germs from your mouth, which would be on the smaller ends, from getting into the rest of the food.

When you lose control over anger about not being able to do it, stabbing the food onto the chopstick may help.


Warnings

Avoid sticking your chopsticks into your rice straight down. It's bad manners, because it resembles the incense that family members burn to mourn a dead relative. It also resembles the manner in which rice is symbolically offered to the dead in Japan and China. When you are finished, put the chopsticks over the bowl and lay them flat.

Avoid passing food with chopsticks. As in the previous warning, this resembles a section of the traditional Japanese funeral, where the family members pass bones using chopsticks. Instead, when passing food, place the food on an intermediary plate, preferably using a serving utensil or, if none is provided, turn your chopsticks around so the ends that have not been in your mouth touch the food, then give the plate to whomever.

Chinese etiquette says that you may lift your personal rice bowl close to your mouth with one hand, as you use the chopsticks to push the rice into your mouth. However, Korean etiquette says this is very bad form! Be aware of the people you are eating with, and what the customs are.

Do not cross your chopsticks. In Chinese cultures, this is a symbol for death. Always lay them parallel to each other.