Health Benefits Of Sleep

Hello people. Today I will be talking about the benefits of sleep and why it is important to us. Sleep is important as it gives our body a rest and allows it to prepare for the next day

Before I begin, I would like to show you the recommended amount of hours an individual should sleep everyday, sorted according to age.

Newborns 12-18 hours
Toddlers 12-14 Hours
Children 10-12 Hours
Teenagers 8-9 Hours
Adults 7-9 Hours

Having enough sleep is important as:

1. It leads to better results
Be it if you are a student or a worker, having enough sleeps helps you to be more alert and fresh for the next day. Hence one is able to perform better.

2. Sleep improves memory
Students listen up! Having enough sleep makes our brain able to processing new experiences and factual knowledge better. It helps increase analytical reasoning and knowledge as well.

3. Sleep improves our mood
Have you realised that most of the reason people give for having a bad mood during the day is due to not having enough sleep? A prolonged period of lack of sleep may even lead to more serious problems like depression. Enough sleep helps take away the groggy feeling felt during the day. Therefore it is important we have enough sleep to improve our mood.

4. Sleep improves our  weight
Researchers have found that dieters who have enough sleep loose more fat! Sleep ensure the balance of hormones are well balanced so our craving for high calorie foods would be much lesser.

5.Sleep helps you live longer
Studies have shown that people who sleep less than six hours a day have high higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins. These will lead to a higher chance of suffering heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Therefore ensure you get enough sleep to prevent heart related problems and a range of other ailments

With sufficient sleep, we are one step closer to good health!

Pineapple and Starfruit Juice

A drink with a great and refreshing taste that helps dispel heatiness from one's body and relief cough and phlegm

What you will need:    
2 starfruits
300ml pineapple juice (try to use fresh pineapples instead of canned ones)
15ml honey
10ml lemon

Method
1. Rinse the starfruits, cut into slices and discard the seeds.
2. Add the starfruit slices and pineapple juice into juicer
3. Strain the juice and pour into a glass
4. Stir juice with honey and lemon added with ice before serving

Benefits:
Starfruits have high vitamin content, fibre and organic acids such as malic, citric and oxalic acids. All these components in a starfruit help dispel heat from our body, relieve cough and sore throats, dissolve phlegm and prevent constipation.

Pineapples are high in fibre and vitamin C that aid our body to prevent and fight infections. They help with movement of bowels and aid digestion too!

Tips:
When choosing starfruits, choose firm and heavy ones. Their skin should also be bright golden-yellow in colour.

Take note:
Starfruits tend to turn mouldy easily if placed in airtight containers. This is due to water vapor accumulating in an enclosed space. Hence, starfruits should be stored in areas with plenty of ventilation.

When preparing juice that has starfruit in it or serving a fruit platter that contains starfruit, one should cut them at the later moments of preparation as starfruit flesh tend to oxidise or decolourise when exposed to air for long periods. If need be, place the starfruit slices in ice water with a little bit of salt so that it would prevent the oxidation and colour change occurring rapidly.


Eat well and stay healthy!