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Platelets are some of the smallest cells in the bloodstream that protect the body from excessive loss of blood, in case of an injury. These cells look like plates in their non-active state. In the case of a wound, these cells travel to the site of injury and bind the damaged blood vessels, thereby forming a blood clot. In its active state, the platelets develop tentacles like a spider.

There are various reasons why ones platelet count may be low. It can be caused by viral infections, vitamin deficiencies and aplastic anaemia or even a drug-induced state as in the case of chemotherapy.Now, that you know how important platelets are, you certainly dont want your count to be low, at any time. Here are a few food options that you can incorporate into your routine to improve your platelet count:

Papaya leaf juice/extract:It has the ability to increase platelet production, which takes place in the bone marrow. Papaya leaf extract has been shown to increase arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase in the body and this particular enzyme promotes platelet production with an increased number and differentiation of megakaryocytes.You could wash the leaves, take out the centre vein and crush the leaves in a grinder, add a little bit of water and consume every six hours daily. Half cup, thrice a day, is advised.

Wheatgrass:Wheatgrass is rich in chlorophyll, which helps to renew red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Drink around 50 ml of fresh wheatgrass juice or mix a teaspoon of wheatgrass powder in a glass of water and consume in order to increase the low platelet count.

Sesame oil:The cold-pressed oil version is beneficial in increasing platelet count. Sesame oil has properties that can raise platelet levels naturally. It helps in reducing free radical damage, inflammation in the body, and helps improve blood circulation. Drink around one tablespoon of high-quality cold-pressed sesame oil at least once a day. It can be rubbed externally on the lymph node areas as well several times a day to help increase platelet count. In addition to this, cold-pressed sesame oil can be used for cooking.

Amla:Indian gooseberry/amla is a rich source of Vitamin C that helps in increasing the immunity as well as the platelet count. It is advisable to drink 150 ml of fresh salsa juice or mix a teaspoon of amla powder in a glass of water, and have it once a day.

Omega-3 fatty acid:Omega-3 fatty acid-containing foods include fish, eggs, walnut, flaxseed and flaxseed oil, tuna and wild salmon, etc. Omega-3 fatty acid foods boost the immune system and can naturally increase your platelets.

Pumpkin:Pumpkin is a vital food to improve low platelet count. It is a good source of Vitamin A that supports the bone marrow for proper platelet development. It also regulates the proteins produced in the cells, which is important to raise the platelet level. You can consume pumpkin soup/juice once a day.

Beetroot:This is one of the best dietary methods of increasing platelet count. Being high in natural antioxidants and homeostatic properties, beetroot can not only raise haemoglobin levels, but also your platelet count within a few days. Incorporate it in smoothie form or salad form to get maximum benefits.

Aloe vera:Aloe vera gel stimulates macrophages that combat viruses and other foreign bodies. The antioxidant of aloe vera also makes it an effective remedy for increasing low platelet count.

Deepika RathodThe writer is a clinical nutritionist with a focus on healthy lifestyle choices

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Here's what you can add to your diet to maximise self-defence - The New Indian Express

POPSUGAR Photography / Matthew Kelly / Claudia Totir I've Lost 15 Pounds on the Noom Diet App, and Here's What I Eat in a Day

Editors note: The opinions in this article are the authors, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft News or Microsoft. MSN Health Voices features first-person essays and stories from diverse points of view. Click here to see more Voices content from MSN Lifestyle, Health, Travel and Food.

I'm a fitness editor, and I live a pretty healthy lifestyle - I exercise five to six days a week, eat a whole-foods-based diet, and get at least seven hours of sleep a night - but in January of this year, I found my weight creeping up on the higher end of what I find comfortable. I've struggled to keep weight off my whole life, and thanks to my bipolar II medication, general stress, and love of happy hour, this has only gotten harder as I've gotten older.

I also have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), which means I need to be careful with my weight: women with PCOS are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance (and women with PCOS have a harder time losing weight, which makes this all a fun cycle).

All of that being said: I wanted to check out the Noom weight-loss app to see if it could help me shed some pounds and get back on track with a healthy lifestyle. Created with the help of registered dietitians and other experts, the Noom app aims to not only help you lose weight, but also change your behaviors and reevaluate the thought processes behind the decisions you make. Each day includes new articles on topics such as portion control, staying motivated, identifying your social triggers, and how to decode a restaurant menu.

Noom also includes a daily calorie target, which adjusts based on how much activity you got that day (you manually log your exercise or sync up to your Fitbit or Apple Watch). One of my favorite features of Noom is the comprehensive food log where you type in what you ate and track your daily calories. If your food isn't in Noom's database, you can manually add the nutrition information. It also provides a color-coded breakdown of your food based on how calorie-dense they are: green (fruits, veggies, most whole grains, complex carbs), yellow (lean meats, starches, eggs), and red (typically processed junk food but also healthy calorie-dense foods like oils and nuts). You are supposed to aim to eat as many green and yellow foods as possible and limit your red foods to 25 percent or less of your diet.

The biggest adjustment for me was keeping track of everything I ate. Sure, I eat a pretty well-balanced diet, but I'm often tempted by treats in the work kitchen or all of the tasty snacks sent to my office. After hours, it's easy for me to let one glass of wine turn to three and get carried away with the free chips and salsa. Signing up for Noom really helped me figure out where I tend to overeat and track the true size of a healthy portion: 1/4 cup of almonds is a good-sized snack. Half a bag is not.

Video: How to avoid gaining the COVID-19 pounds (Courtesy: Buzzs60)

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After four months on Noom, I'm down 15 pounds! Not as fast as I would have liked, but I do realize that slow and steady wins the race. I didn't do anything radical aside from read the Noom articles, log my food, work out, and pay attention to my daily calorie budget. Although every day is different for me food-wise, here is an example of what a typical day of eating looks like.

My daily calorie target depends on how much activity I've done that day. If I've worked out and walked 10,000 steps, my calories will be closer to 1,500-1,600 a day. If I skipped a workout and laid on the couch all day (hello, hungover Sundays), my calorie target is closer to 1,200-1,300 a day. Here is an example of a day where I had a moderate workout:

Breakfast: protein smoothie (430 calories)

1 scoop Vega One All-in-One Nutritional Chocolate Shake (170 calories)

1/2 banana (52 calories)

1 tablespoon Perfect Keto Pure MCT Oil (130 calories)

1.25 cup 365 Organic Almond Milk Unsweetened (50 calories)

1 cup baby spinach (7 calories)

3 flowerets of raw cauliflower (9 calories)

3 giant frozen strawberries (12 calories)

Lunch: breaded chicken breast with quinoa and broccoli (405 calories)

3 ounces chicken breast (175 calories)

1/4 serving 365 Everyday Value Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs (25 calories)

1 teaspoon olive oil (40 calories)

1/2 cup cooked quinoa (111 calories)

1 cup roasted broccoli (54 calories)

Afternoon snack: almonds and collagen water (180 calories)

17 Blue Diamond Gourmet Almonds, Rosemary and Sea Salt (120 calories)

Vital Proteins Collagen Beauty Water, Strawberry Lemon (60 calories)

Dinner: baked salmon with quinoa and broccoli (397 calories)

3 ounces cooked salmon (195 calories)

1/2 cooked quinoa (111 calories)

1 cup steamed broccoli (55 calories)

1 pat of butter (36 calories)

Daily total calories: 1,412

Image source: Noom app

On this day, I did a pretty good job of loading up on mostly green foods, a nice amount of yellow foods, and limiting my red foods. I know some of my diet staples are red (like MCT oil and almonds), but I'm going to keep eating them - I just pay attention to the portion sizes.

I tend to eat the same things over and over, which is one way people find weight-loss success: it takes the guesswork out of having to plan so many meals each week. I also try and meal prep on Sundays, and on this particular day, I made big batches of quinoa in the rice cooker and broccoli (both steamed and oven-roasted) to last for lunches and dinners. I also baked breaded chicken breasts for lunch and salmon fillets for dinner to get my protein in.

My protein smoothie can sometimes be my biggest meal of the day. I make a calorie-dense smoothie like this after my big morning workout to refuel my body and keep me full well until my late lunch. Sometimes I need to supplement with a mid-morning snack, but most days I'm satisfied until 2 p.m. or so.

If I have a day where I know I'm going to be getting drinks after work or want to make room for a delicious chocolate chip cookie from the break room, I make adjustments in my diet the rest of the day. Maybe I'll skip the MCT oil in my smoothie or forgo an afternoon snack. Sometimes I'll trade in my quinoa at lunch for double the veggies or leave out the butter on top. Every little tweak or adjustment counts toward my daily calorie target. And while I didn't reach for something sweet after dinner on this day, I usually have some type of dessert each day that's less than 100 calories: a square of dark chocolate or a dark chocolate peanut butter cup from Trader Joe's.

I have never felt deprived doing Noom and I always listen to my hunger cues. Noom has really opened my eyes to what an accurate portion size is and how to plan your meals around your daily calorie target. I still have a little ways to go to hit my goals, but tracking everything in Noom makes it easier.

Slideshow: Healthy and inexpensive ways you can de-stress at home (Provided by PopSugar)

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I've Lost 15 Pounds on the Noom Diet App, and Here's What I Eat in a Day - MSN Money

As US cases of COVID-19 near 1.7 million, we continue to learn more about the nature of the disease, including the factors that influence susceptibility to COVID-19 and the severity of symptoms.

Some of these risk factors, like age and certain health conditions, are beyond our ability to control.

Others, we have a shot at improving.

For example, reports of new cases continue to show that the people bearing a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infections are people of color, including Black and Hispanic populations. The Navajo Nation now has the highest per-capita infection rate in the US. Importantly, the risk factor here is not race, but rather racism, a tenacious feature of most social and political systems in the US. Aggressively addressing systemic racism would have innumerable benefits for communities throughout the countrynot the least of which would be improved health outcomes in the face of a pandemic.

Another population with increased susceptibility to COVID-19 is composed of individuals with poor nutrition and higher rates of diet-related conditions like type 2 diabetes. This is no small populationnine in ten adults fall short of daily recommendations for fruits and vegetables, and about six in ten US adults are living with one or more chronic diseases. Again, people of color are disproportionately represented, reflecting deeply rooted racism within the food system. And again, the potential benefits of reducing this risk factor go far beyond COVID-19: an abundance of research supports the notion that better nutrition translates to better overall health and longevity and lower healthcare costs.

Tackling big issues like racism, poor nutrition, and resulting diet-related health disparities may seem daunting in the midst of meeting the immediate needs of a country in crisis. But its critical that we act nowand theres a policy opportunity ready and waiting that could help.

While the government scrambles to find solutions to the sudden financial instability and food insecurity facing millions of families, another process is quietly proceeding in the background that could have enormous implications for diet and health for years to come. By the years end, scientific experts and federal agencies will have developed the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americansan opportunity to take decisive action to address diet-related health disparities for good.

Nutrition programs have become front-page news in recent months as more of us face financial strain and struggle to put food on the table. Anti-hunger and public health groups have petitioned the federal government to meet the burgeoning need by providing more funding and flexibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), school meals, and other nutrition programs. And it appears that The Heroes Act, the new stimulus package passed by the House last week (now awaiting a response from the Senate), would deliver. The bill would boost maximum SNAP benefits by 15 percent, provide additional pandemic benefits to families with school-aged kids, and help schools cover the costs of adapting their food preparation and service to provide grab-and-go meals for kids and community members, among many other things.

The importance of the federal safety net in mitigating the effects of this public health crisis cant be overstated. But we would be foolish to assume that even the strongest safety net is anything more than thata safeguard that prevents people from hitting the ground when they fall.

But what if we could also plan ahead by making substantial investments in addressing diet-related health disparitiesparticularly for conditions like obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetesthat would not only improve the health and quality of life for millions of people today, but could also better protect our most vulnerable populations from future pandemics?

In other words, what if we could develop nutrition policies that prevented more people from falling in the first place?

The federal government has been publishing new editions of the Dietary Guidelines every five years since 1980. The primary purpose of these recommendations is to inform the national nutrition programs, like SNAP and school meal programs, that serve millions of children, families, seniors, and veterans every year and are now helping many more weather the COVID-19 crisis.

The Dietary Guidelines is based on the work of a committee of leading health and nutrition experts, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, and typically reflects the best available science. In fact, the core advice of the guidelines has changed little over the last 40 years: recommendations typically call on Americans to consume more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains; limit foods that contain high amounts of sugar or sodium; and develop healthy eating habits based on moderation and variety.

But anyone who eats can tell you that knowing whats healthy and eating whats healthy are two different things entirely. There are dozens of barriers that can keep your plate from looking like MyPlate, not least of which are the accessibility, affordability, and appeal of healthy foods. It doesnt help that a multi-billion dollar food industry can (and does) spend an inordinate amount of money on research, development, and marketing to best exploit human psychology and physiology to make sure we keep eating whats in the best interest of food companies, rather than our health.

At the risk of redundancy: all of these challenges are magnified by systemic racism that often keeps communities of color in poverty, living in neighborhoods inundated with fast food options and lacking in quality food choices, disproportionately exposed to junk food marketing, and subject to experiences of discrimination throughout systems ostensibly designed to support them.

And the guidelines havent ignored these factors entirely. Recent editions have begun to acknowledge the role that the systems and environments around us play in guiding decisions about our diets. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines dedicated an entire chapter to this issue, outlining the roles and responsibilities of the public and private sector (like ensuring that places like schools, workplaces, and other food service establishments make it easy for people to eat healthfully) and identifying sector-specific solutions to help address household challenges to healthy food access. If fully implemented, these interventions could go a long way toward improving public health and resilience to outbreaks of contagious disease.

But heres the thing: five years after making these recommendations, the federal government still hasnt invested a dime in them. All the while, poor diets continue to plague the US population and diet-related disparities persist. The Dietary Guidelines is a rigorous, science-based document. But when it comes to addressing diet-related health disparities, thats all it is.

Im not the first person to speculate that the current COVID-19 pandemic will leave lasting impacts on our daily lives long after its most immediate threats have passed. Nor am I the first to suggest that, if were thoughtful, we might be able to shape this new world order to reimagine, rather than restore, the social and economic conditions that have left so many communities uniquely vulnerable to its consequences. But unfortunately, foresight is not the Trump administrations forte. Absent significant political pressure, our federal government is not likely to make the investments needed in nutrition research and practice to ensure that the future looks different when the next pandemic arrives.

Thats why its critical that the public speaks up and demands that investments in national nutrition become a public health priority. If we want the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to leave us better prepared for the next pandemic and to help see us through this one, we need to ask our elected officials to start investing in actionable recommendations to address diet-related health disparities now. For the guidelines to achieve their full potential impact, there needs to be a robust and consistent implementation effort across all federal agencies, including federal nutrition programs; better coordinated and funded federal nutrition research; and comprehensive proposals to effect policy, systems and environment changes that support the social determinants of diet and health.

Well know more about the recommendations included in the next edition of the Dietary Guidelines on June 17, when the Committee previews the findings of its scientific report via webcast. By mid-July, the public will have the opportunity to view the scientific report in full and provide comments to the federal agencies that will develop the final guidelinesincluding input on the importance of thorough implementation. Check back on our website, or visit dietaryguidelines.gov, to stay up-to-date and learn how to make your voice heard in this critical process.

August de Richelieu/Pexels

Posted in: Food and Agriculture Tags: child nutrition programs, COVID-19, COVID-19 and the Coronavirus Pandemic, Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025, nutrition, public health, SNAP

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Investing in Dietary Guidelines Will Leave Us Better Prepared for the Next Pandemic - Union of Concerned Scientists