An alcohol is a beverage whose main ingredient is ethanol. Actually ethanol is the substance in alcohol that makes you feel drunk. Alcohol has got a very powerful effect on your mental state     and mood. This is the most popular and recreational “drug” available and taken by many people in the world. It can reduce shyness and self-consciousness. Hence people can act in any way without any hesitation or inhibition. People usually tend to do things which may result in their embarrassment and finally they may end up regretting the situation. Varieties of people drink in varieties of ways. Some people drink only a small amount just to maintain formality, and they are known as social drinker, while some drink a large amount. These people usually drink to get drunk, and they are known as binge drinker.

Impact of alcohol on our health and daily life

Many people enjoy drinking alcohol. They don’t find any issue or problem regarding drinking. But if you are a binge drinker or you are drinking heavily for a prolonged period then it might have serious consequences, which we will discuss later. Immediate effects of light drinking may include health related problems like nausea and vomiting. Improper intake of alcohol not only has negative impact on your health, but also affects family relationships as well as relationships and reputation in society in terms of crime and violence, drink driving and accidents. 

Some of the serious health related issues associated with binge drinkers are given below:

• Brain damage: Blackouts, anxiety and memory loss are the common problems associated with brain damage. Drinking for a prolonged period can result in serious mental problems, permanent brain damage, and alcoholism. People at their young age are more vulnerable towards this type of problems as the brain of the teenagers is still developing.

• Cancers: Cancers of the throat and mouth are one of most dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol. Although we consider smoking as the only villain for this type of problem, but unfortunately alcohol is the second largest risk factor for this disease. People may even develop cirrhosis of the liver by the intake of too much of alcohol which may result in liver cancer. 

• Heart and circulation system: Alcohol can cause hypertension or high blood pressure which in turn increases the risk of:

• Stroke or heart attack.
• Developing dementia.
• Weakening of the heart muscles, thereby affecting the lungs, brain, liver and other body systems, which may result in heart failure.
• Irregular heart beat (arrhythmia) which may lead to sudden death

• Lungs: Drinking too much of alcohol for a prolonged period may result in collapsed lungs and various lung infections. Due to this he may get exposed to pneumonia. Not only this, while vomiting due to excess drinking, the vomit may get sucked into the lungs and they may get choked.

• Kidneys: Risk of high blood pressure may lead to chronic kidney disease.

• Intestine: Heavy drinking may affect the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and nutrients. It may also result in cancer and ulcers of the colon. 

Who doesn’t want to stay fit and fine and healthy? But staying healthy doesn’t mean that you have to be on a strict diet and rigorous exercise all through the day. It is not about having lots of limitations on diet, depriving you of the foods and drinks you love, staying phantasmagoric thin. Rather, it is about having more energy, feeling great, stabilizing your mood, and improving your health. People usually tend to feel overwhelmed by the conflicting nutritional and dieting advice out there. Some experts may suggest you a nutritional diet that may be good for you, but there are some other category of experts who will suggest you just the opposite. Hence this nutritional diet is always a confusing diet. There are some simple tips on what and how to intake food and beverages, which we consider healthy, to get the taste as well as nutritional value.

You should not think that a healthy diet includes lot of complications. Rather you can maintain your healthy life by choosing some simple and specific foods and nutrients. These foods and nutrients will have a beneficial effect on your mood. The first and foremost thing which you must follow is to replace fast and processed food with the real and homemade food. Try to eat food that is pretty closer to the nature. 

When you’re thinking about nutrition, it’s very important to make proper choices with regards to food and drinks. You must go for a balanced diet. Balanced diet includes balanced protein, fats and carbohydrates. You should get the proper nutritional impacts for your calories. Hence make the best choices of food and nutrition in your daily life.

While talking about drinks and beverages, you must choose proper beverage in a proper way for a balanced diet to provide balance in your nutrition. Taking too much of coffee sweeteners, energy drinks and soda in a day will simply increase the intake of sugar. Hence, while making nutritional choices in foods always consider the nutrition which is contributed through the beverages consumption.

Advantages of cooking meals at home

People nowadays, especially the youngsters, are tempted towards the restaurant foods more than the homemade cooked food. It is always advisable to cook food at home, and take those foods, for a better diet.  Given below are some of the advantages of cooking food at home: 

• Controlling the ingredients of your meals is in your hand.

• You can buy the freshest and the healthiest ingredients for you meal, instead of simply wondering about the content of the meal on your plate. 

• You can make sure and ensure the hygiene and sanitary of the food prepared to maintain good health. 

• If you are preparing your own food then you can have the control over carbohydrates, calories, fat etc.
• You can serve and eat only how much you can eat. This will prevent wastage of food to a large extent and thereby saving a lot of money. 

• Beside the above point, you may also store the unused food, and can use the leftover food as and when required afterwards.

Acid reflux occurs when the acid in your stomach leaks up into the wrong direction, right from the stomach to the oesophagus. Some of the most common symptoms of acid reflux are difficulty in swallowing food, heartburn and sometimes there can be no symptoms as well. It may be painful, inconvenient and even uncomfortable for the sufferer.

If you don’t know how this happens, here is some information for you. When you swallow some food, it moves down the oesophagus and then passes through a string of muscle called the LOS or lower oesophageal sphincter and then lands up into the stomach. The LOS controls whatever enters your stomach and to prevent the contents of the stomach from moving back again. When the LOS gets too relaxed, acid reflux occurs. Let’s take a look at the food and drinks which you should avoid if you suffer from acid reflux.

#1: Foods containing high fat

When you have food containing fat, it slows down the process of emptying of the stomach, thereby increasing the opportunity for a distended stomach. This boosts the symptoms of a reflux. There are some common high fat offenders and they are deep fried chips and fish, fatty cuts of meat, especially lamb and pork.

#2: Citrus

Do you have a glass of orange juice or may be food after squeezing lemon? No, citrus juice doesn’t lead to acid reflux but there are certain individuals who experience symptoms of heartburn.

#3: Spicy foods

There are some people who find that too much of spices aggravate the symptoms of acid reflux. However, the evidence for this is mixed and people should be careful about their individual spice tolerance capability.

#4: Onion and garlic

Onions can definitely be one of the biggest offenders for people who suffer from severe acid reflux. Garlic can also lead to this, but that is not too common. Nevertheless, the combination of garlic and onion together can definitely become problematic.

#5: Peppermint

Do you have an idea of after-dinner mint tea because someone recommended you as a digestive remedy for acid reflux? If answered yes, this could sometimes have a worse symptom as peppermint has a characteristic of relaxing the LOS and allows the acid in the stomach to flow back through the oesophagus.

#6: Chocolate

There are again few evidences that chocolate can worsen the symptoms of acid reflux but this is usually dependent on its dose. While there are some for whom even small amounts of chocolate can cause acid reflux, there are some others who have to eat enough chocolate to suffer from the symptoms.

#7: Alcohol

This causes increased production of acid and also relaxes the LOS, thereby causing acid reflux and even worsens the acid reflux symptoms.

Therefore, if you’re thinking of making a change to your diet so that you no longer suffer from acid reflux, make sure you follow the above mentioned tips from the experts.