JUST TWO GOOD

EGGS AND ORANGE JUICE

For higher iron absorption
An egg contains almost 50 per cent of an adult’s daily iron requirement. But the human body can absorb only eight per cent of the iron. To improve absorption, wash down your eggs with a glass of orange juice or other Vitamin C-rich foods such as guava or pineapples.

CEREAL AND PULSES

For good quality protein
Protein in pulses is low in amino acids but rich in lysine in which many cereals are deficient. A combination of pulses and cereal proteins has a nutritive value equivalent to animal proteins. Rajma-chawal is a perfect example of vegetarian food providing class 1 proteins.

ALFA-ALFA SPROUTS AND TOMATOES

For higher magnesium absorption
Tomatoes are rich in magnesium. Alfa-alfa sprouts have a small amount of magnesium but are rich in dietary fibre and cholesterol reducing saponins.
Alfa-alfa sprouts are used to garnish salads as one they are too bland to eat in large quantities. But you can double the magnesium absorption by combining the sprouts with juicy tomatoes.

RAJMAH AND TOMATOES

For higher mineral absorption
The phytic acid in beans blocks the absorption of minerals such as zinc and iron. To help your body absorb more minerals, eat rajmah with a Vitamin C-rich food such as tomatoes. Vitamin C counters the ill-effects of phytic acid, thereby increasing your body's absorption of zinc and iron.

MIXED GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES AND OLIVE OIL

Protects you against Alzheimer's
Green leafy vegetables are rich in iron, calcium, and Vitamin A. However Vitamin A needs fat to be adequately utilised by the body. Hence, sprinkle some olive oil on your greens to help your body absorb Vitamin A that protects you against Alzheimer's.

FLAXSEED AND WHEAT GERM

The perfect multivitamin
Flaxseed is high in alphalinolenic acids ( omega 3 fatty acids), anti-oxidants, fibre, good quality proteins, and minerals. Wheat germ is high in Vitamin E and B as also proteins, chromium and manganese. Together they meet your daily requirement of a range of vitamins and are also absorbed a lot faster.

GREEN TEA AND LUNCH/DINNER

Protects against infection
Green tea has the least amount of caffeine of all the teas. Having a cup of green tea after a meal aids digestion as opposed to a glass of water. Green tea is also rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are plant pigments that protect against infection.

You can insure your wedding

IT professionals Rajiv Mehta (29) and Neha Khanna (25) got married in Mumbai on November 29, just three days after the terror attack. The couple was lucky that the wedding went as planned, and that was partly because the function was to be held in Borivili, far from the area that saw the attacks.

But luck may not always be on your side. With the frequency of such attacks, as also other risks and unforeseen accidents growing, a wedding insurance is something you may want to look at if a marriage is being planned in the family.

Event insurance plans like this is still in its nascent stages due to low awareness. “And given the sacred nature of the ritual, nobody wants to discuss or think negative. But as wedding spends and risks grow, it makes sense to cover the potential monetary loss,” says T A Ramalingam, head (underwriting), Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Such plans are popular in the West.
The policy in those countries even covers the loss of the wedding ring, the wedding gown not reaching on time and even the expenses/loss due to late or non-appearance of the photographer which may mean staging the event once again for the photograph. In India, most insurance companies — including ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Oriental Insurance, Bajaj Allianz and National Insurance — offer wedding insurance.

The policy is tailormade to individual requirements and needs. The sum insured could be of any amount. The policy should be bought 10 to 15 days prior to the event.

“All events related to the wedding — pre and post ceremony — are covered. In addition, a bundled policy which will cover all the eventualities related to the wedding functions can be purchased,” says Rajive Kumaraswami, head (reinsurance) of ICICI Lombard General Insurance.

What it covers
The typical policy provides coverage against cancellation of the wedding due to accident suffered by bride/groom, accident suffered by blood relatives resulting in hospitalisation within seven days prior to the printed/declared wedding date, and damage to property.

If the marriage hall gets flooded or there’s an earthquake, the irreversible cost of the wedding will be reimbursed as per the policy terms and conditions.

Damage to property like stage, sets, seats and wardrobe due to fire, lightning, explosion, riot, strike and malicious damage, impact damage, aircraft damage, storms, flood and inundation, burglary and theft, terrorism or other external accident can be covered. The insurance can also cover anyexpenses related to litigation brought against you by third parties injured in an accident at the event.

Fineprint of the policy
Wealth advisors say if you are opting for the policy it is important to look at all the exclusions clauses of the document. First evaluate what are the possible kinds of risks. “Then one should look at what is the appropriate cover for each of them. It would help to arrive at the sum assured that one can take. Considering it is a customised product, it is likely that the insurance company has sub limits for each of the possible risks,” says Anil Rego, CEO of Right Horizons.

It is also important to incorporate accidental cover and loss of life/disability due to acts of terrorism. Since it is a customised product, one may need to evaluate options from at least 2-3 insurance providers, say wealth managers. There is likely to be a huge variance in premiums as it is not a standard insurance. (Some names have been changed on request)

RATE CALCULATION
The variation in rates would depend on evaluation of individual risks on the following parameters:

Location
Venue (outdoors or indoors)
Type of decoration
Number of days
Number of programmes (mehendi, sangeet, cocktail)
Number of guests.

POCKET MONEY IS A LESSON IN LIFE

Meenakshee, 23, remembers with considerable fondness how, as a sixth-grader, she hoodwinked her mom into doling out money for a Hindi textbook — all of five times. “Of course, I bought the book only once and with the rest of the money, treated myself to a McDonald’s burger,” says Meenakshi with unabashed pride at her ingenuity. Her mom was obviously displeased when she caught on to the trick. Meenakshi, however, simply shrugs her shoulders and says her family anyway didn’t have a concept of pocket money. “We just took money as and when we needed it.” Now if Meenakshi were to be given a lumpsum amount for a particular period and asked to keep an account of what she spent on and how much, her mom would have known exactly what she did in her spare time too.

Pocket money is clearly not just survival and feel-good money; it is a lesson in life. Much like games that prepare children for adulthood, pocket money trains them to manage finances — a worthwhile lesson for the future. That’s how important it is.

“If you want your child to value money, put him under financial pressure,” advises Kartik Jhaveri, director of Transcend Consulting, a wealth management firm. Even if a family is super-wealthy, “don’t shell out ad-hoc money, unless there is a compelling reason to do so. Pocket money should be given like a monthly salary… Where there is no upper limit, the child’s value system gets paralysed”. Certified financial planner D Sundararajan seconds this line of thought. Not verifying where the money is going, he warns, can be disastrous. The child may learn to live off his parents and thus never get a chance to be a person in her or his own right.

Which is why, parents would do well to have a rough idea about how much is required for a child’s expenses such as transport or school canteen. Teens may have extra expenditure for weekend entertainmentand gifting. Parents must sit with their children, explain basic rules of spending and only then hand out an appropriate sum.

Now, what is appropriate? “Give a child 20% over and above what is required,” advises Jhaveri. This will give parents a concrete idea as to what their child does with the surplus. It will thus serve as an insight into a child’s personality. Mira Patel, 60, remembers giving a princely amount of Rs 200 a month each to her three daughters. “The eldest spent and saved some. My second daughter usually managed to save the entire amount. And my third blew the entire sum and never had an idea what she’d spent it on.” Accordingly, parents could tutor a child how to manage money. Here are some ideas: Encourage a child to save by proposing what could be done with a sum accumulated over time. Perhaps, he or she could buy a game of choice? Or, a child could simply be rewarded for saving a target amount with a gift.But, first of all, for sustained success of any enterprise, one requires discipline and accountability. As financial advisor Gaurav Mashruwala says, “It’s funny. We invariably expose kids to spending without being accountable. That irresponsibility lasts through one’s life.” Mashruwala thus insists that the habit of budgeting must be inculcated from the very first time a child is given pocket money. “If there is no budget, all families will struggle without exception. Like, suppose as an adult, you intend to keep aside expenses of three months as contingency fund. Now, how do you decide how much to keep aside if you don't know your expenses in the first place?”

A lot can be achieved with simple bu d g e t i n g . M a s h r u w a l a cites the instance of one Bhushan Deshpande whose father, a retired government servant, earned Rs 3,000 a month, but somehow managed to get his five children educated and married. Bhushan’s mother played no small role in this familial endeavour. She used to regularly take stitching jobs and would meticulously write down the family budget, a habit which Bhushan internalised. They started an agency to sell small-saving schemes and life insurance. In between, the family also traded in saris. Today, at 36, Bhushan holds a diploma in mechanical engineering and works for a multinational.

“You can’t say the child has no responsibility to accounting. Implications of running an account are lifelong. If he doesn’t learn accounting as a child, he never will,” cautions Mashruwala. Rakesh Shah, 10, has been jotting down his spending on a scribble pad and later loading the data on an excel sheet. A habit that has stood him in good stead and he has managed to save quite well.

That pocket money should be controlled and monitored is echoed by the entire spectrum of financial advisors. Zankhana Shah of Moneycare Financial Advisors suggests a sense of responsibility can be cultivated by helping out parents with bank work and paying bills.
But what if your child is too young to know how to write even? How do you instil in him the knowledge that money does not come free?

Seven-year-old Chinman Mehta is awarded a smilie each time he chooses to be good and a frownie whenever he doesn’t. The emoticons are drawn daily on a weekly chart pasted to the refrigerator in the kitchen. “We subtract the frownies from the smilies and the sum is the amount Chinman receives as his pocket money for the week,” says Neelima, his mother. This incentive system has worked wonderfully for the family.

On a con diet?

Some of the so-called health products just leave your wallet light, not your figure.




Christmas and New Year is only a few weeks away, which means you have the freedom to indulge in sinful desserts and spicy, high-cal meat curries. But once the guilt factor sets in, you are back to the supermarket, heading to the ‘health food’ section. With a sigh, you wean yourself from the chocolates and cheeses and fill your trolleys with expensive stuff that you think are lighter, leaner and diet-friendly.


But in reality, you may be actually spending your hard-earned money on nothing. There are plenty of ‘quack’ health foods that promise much, but do little. Unfortunately, many of us are so desperate to be trim that we happily buy into a product’s weight-loss myth. The trick therefore is to steer clear of these ‘quack’ foods and buy the genuine, tried and tested healthy ones. Here is a rundown on some of the worst offenders.

SLIMLINE CEREALS

The trickery:

They claim to have low fat content, obviously endorsed by a super slim model on the packet. You include them in your breakfast menu hoping the pounds will be knocked off.

The truth:

Many such cereals are no better than normal varieties when it comes to fat content, and some are still packed with sugar. Studies show that people who eat cereal for breakfast tend to be slimmer but you don’t need a special “slimline” product to enjoy this benefit.

You’re better off with:

A bowl of oats or nofrills bran flakes with semi-skimmed milk. Both are naturally low-calorie and high in fibre, which helps to keep you fuller for longer.

FITNESS WATERS

The trickery:


The wholesome fruit pictures make it seem ‘natural’, while hour-glass shaped bottles give you an impression of the figure you will achieve after drinking the product.

The truth:

It’s just water with added sweeteners and vitamins — often in negligible amounts — and tiny amounts of fruit or herb extracts. There’s nothing in the product that will make you slimmer or healthier.

You’re better off with:

Drinking plain boiled tap water — it costs nothing and is calorie-free.

DIET CHOCOLATE

The trickery:

They simply play on your guilt, using words such as “light” and “non-fattening”. This basically lulls you into a false sense of security and you tend to go overboard.

The truth:

These bars still contain some fat, plus those without sugar use artificial sweeteners, which some studies show can actually trick your brain into eating more in the long run.

You’re better off with:

A few small pieces of a good quality, dark chocolate to satisfy your craving. Another way to ward off the guilt is to enjoy your chocolate bar before evening.


DIET YOGHURTS

The trickery:

Yoghurt has always been associated with weight-loss, add the word ‘diet’ before it and you think you have the perfect solution in hand. But that’s where you are being misled.

The truth:

Wholemilk and organic varieties are often packed with fat, while “light” versions can sometimes contain more calories than some standard ones, with additives.

You’re better off with:

A small pot of simple, low-fat fruit yoghurt — but check the sugar content. Or just add your own chopped fruit to natural yoghurt.

FRUIT DRINKS

The trickery:

They cover their bottles with beautiful juicy fruit pictures and give tropical sounding names.

The truth:

It’s healthier than a can of cola but some of these drinks have never even seen an orange or strawberry and are made entirely from flavourings. Even the ones that contain real fruit do so in tiny amounts — and often with the addition of plenty of sugar and additives.

You’re better off with:

Pure, unsweetened fruit juice — and you can even dilute it if you're really worried about the calories.

Research links fast food to Alzheimer’s

Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

“On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain,” said Susanne Akterin of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, who led the study.

“We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol, in combination with genetic factors, can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer’s.”

Alzheimer’s disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.

While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers are also now looking at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.

In her research, Akterin focused on a gene variant called apoE4, found in 15 to 20 per cent of people, and which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

She studied mice genetically-engineered to mimic the effect of the gene, and which were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months – meals representing the nutritional content of fast food.

These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau, as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage, Akterin said.

“All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer’s can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public,” she said.