You probably know about the five human senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
But did you also know that flavor is the result of a mixture of all five senses?

Smell plays the biggest role, through which we take in the aromas of foods. Try out the following: hold your nose shut while eating and you will notice, that you’re tasting “less”. The reason is simple: the aromas reach your organ in charge of smelling through the air (especially through the retronasal airway, where air passes through your mouth into the back of your nose), which only happens if your nose is open. If you have a cold, you’ll experience the same issue.

With the sense of taste we’re able to taste sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (glutamate), through the taste buds on our tongue.

Also the audio-visual impression (seeing and hearing) and the consistency (touch) play a big role in the taste experience. You’ll notice this trying out fun things like doing blind tasting with covered eyes (sight), ear buds (hearing) or trying out food in a different consistency (touch; for example, a mashed up water melon).

Whole grain foods have been an essential source of nutrients for millennia.
A cereal grain is comprised of three parts: the bran (shell), germ bud and endosperm (the nutritive tissue covering the germ bud).
The bran and the germ bud are the healthiest components of corn, because they are rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins. The endosperm on the other hand is primarily just sugar.

Why we should eat more whole grain

Whole grain contains ideally all three components (bran, germ bud, endosperm). White flour is made out of refined grain, which due to reasons of storage life only includes the endosperm and not the two important components (bran and germ bud).
Whole grain is not only rich in important nutrients, but also the type of sugar (long-chained carbohydrates) will make you feel full for a longer period of time. Consumption of refined grain products though, will make you feel hungry pretty quick.
Health wise, it’s better to eat more whole grain products and to avoid refined grain products. In the beginning it makes sense to mix both whole grain and classical refined products. That way you can slowly get used to the taste and digestion of whole grain and after a while you will make the complete change and learn to love it, since it’s not only healthier, but is also more rich in taste.

Up to 2 out of 3 people living in industrialized countries are overweight. This is a catastrophe. But it lies within the hands of those affected, to change that.

1. Definition

Being overweight means having more body fat than what is considered healthy or optimal.
The so called body mass index (BMI) plays a big role in defining overweight. It is calculated with the following formula:

BMI = ^{mass (kg)}/_{height (m)}

The definition of overweight is a BMI of 25 or more. It is then sub-classified into severity levels:
Pre-obesity (BMI 25-30) and obesity (BMI 30 or more).

2. Health aspects

Overweight is a very big risk factor for almost all chronic diseases (including cardiac and vascualr diseases, diabetes and cancer). The good thing is that there’s a way to do something about it: 1. with an iron and 2. utmost discipline. Nevertheless, consulting a health care professional is a good idea.

3. Therapy

Being overweight is generally caused by consuming more calories (through eating and drinking) than the amount that your body burns through daily activities or exercise. Therefore, the usual treatments are diet and physical exercise.

In order to have a lifestyle (food and exercise) that leads to success, it has to be implemented with no excuses (no more “I’ll start tomorrow”) and it has to be a permanent change.

There are thousands of different diets. The basic pillar of a good diet is very simple: Consuming a variety of foods, that don’t exceed the amount of calories burnt by your body.
Calories are the units used to quantify energy. The amount of calories printed on packages indicates how much energy your body will be able to extract from that food product. Yet, the real amount extracted differs from person to person. Did you know: the ideal amount of calories consumed depends on age, height, weight, gender and the intensity of activities. It can be calculated individually.

3.1. Calculating current calorie intake

As a first step it’s advisable to calculate and write down your daily calorie intake. The amount of calories for every nutritional product can be found on the package, plus, there are a lot of calorie calculator sites on the internet. In the beginning, it’s kind of annoying to look up everything, but it helps to get a quick sense for how much calories every type of food has.

3.2. Reducing calorie intake and exercise

The second step should be to slowly reduce calorie intake. If it’s done properly, then losing weight is a natural result.
Physical exercise is the second most important pillar, next to a proper diet. This change should also be done slowly and increased step by step, so the body can adapt to the new lifestyle change. In the beginning it’s good to start out with small changes such as using stairs instead of the escalator/elevator and to walk or use a bicycle more often. While watching TV a water bottle can be used as a dumbbell, but it’s important to maintain a good, straight body posture. Be creative, exercise isn’t only good for losing weight, it’s generally very healthy, makes you happy and strong. If you don’t believe it, try it out yourself!