Try and use skim milk if you don't like the taste of reconstituted powdered skim milk. Heat whichever milk you get (cow's milk has less fat content than standard or whole milk) and refrigerate it for 24 hours. Remove the malai from the surface, strain the rest of the milk and use. Curd, too, should be made from this milk. If you find the curd is on the thin side, thicken the milk with some skim milk powder.
In the 1890s and early 1900s chemists Wilbur Atwater and Russell Chittenden began the research of measuring food as units of heat that could be produced by burning it. This is how the calories in food are determined; by how much heat can be made by burning the food. So, the calorie count in a particular food is the amount of energy (heat) that the food makes in our bodies.
The first time this information was used in relation to a healthy diet was in 1917 when a physician named Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters published a revolutionary book entitled Diet and Health, with a Key to the Calories. In this book readers were introduced to the concept of thinking of calories as a unit of measurement and so began the world’s fascination with counting calories.
When making sweet dishes, use artificial sweetener wherever possible. Or use part sugar and part sweetener. You can use the product you are familiar with, saccharin, aspartame, either liquid or tablets. In any case, it is better for health to avoid sweets: substitute with lots of fresh fruit which are healthier and lower in calories than say for instance halwa, ice-cream or other high calorie desserts.
Here are also ways of cooking foods that can lower their calorie count. Baking, broiling, brazing and boiling can produce a much lower calorie food when used instead of frying. This is because there is no need to add extra fats to make the meat tender. If fats have to be used, low calorie margarines and oils can be used to replace their higher calorie counterparts. There are many different kinds on the market that offer up to half of the calories as their original counterparts and still work well as a cooking fat.
Using a mix of these techniques can produce foods that are not only lower in calories, but also taste just as good as the original.
Low calorie cooking - Part II
Low calorie cooking - Part I
To turn a high-calorie dish into a low-calorie one just requires you to think differently. Usually dalis boiled and then tempered (vaghar, tadka, etc) with fried spices. Instead of doing this, add your onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic (whatever you generally use) to the dal when you are about to boil it. Then the tempering can be made with very little oil, whether it is jeera, rai or even just red chilli powder.
All kinds of koftas, which are fried, can be baked instead. Either you can bake the item in a pan and, when done, cut it into squares and put the curry on top or you can make roundels of the mixture, put them on a baking sheet or tray and bake.
The microwave oven also makes for easier fatless cooking in many cases. Some dishes are more conveniently cooked in a microwave. In addition, of course you can make dishes in larger quantity and freeze them for later use (if you have a deep freezer). These can then be thawed and reheated in the microwave oven.
For example, a traditional chocolate cake is very high in calories, but if we replace the sugar with sugar substitute and the icing with low calorie whipped cream, we can lower the amount of calories in the cake dramatically.
Sugar substitutes are usually the most common way of making a recipe low calorie. No real studies had been done on the benefits of sugar substitutes until 1994 when The Sweeteners Directive of the European Union was adopted and sugar substitutes began to be regulated and studies were introduced on the major benefits they posed to a low calorie diet.
Sugar substitutes are usually genetically altered sugars, or artificial sugars made in the lab. There are also natural sugars that have been found to have less calories than traditional cane sugar. One such sweetener is organic agave nectar, which is a natural sweetener extracted from the blue agave plant, or piña
There are several other ways to reduce calories in food in addition to sugar substitutes.
To replace high calorie fats, sauces and creams to add flavor to foods, many substitutes can be used. For example, herbs and spices, which are, for the most part, calorie free can be added to dishes such as mashed potatoes, meats and fish.
All you need to know about heart disease - especially Food
Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart ?
Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar
Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans: No
Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?
Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.
Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?
Ans: Yes
Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.
Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints .
Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?
Ans: Extremely rare
Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age (I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?
Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.
Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?
Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.
Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?
Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.
Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?
Ans: Yoga helps.
Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?
Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.
Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?
Ans: All oils are bad .
Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.
Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.
Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.
Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.
Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, edentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.
Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?
Ans: Yes.
Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child
Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What precautions would you recommend?
Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.
Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?
Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.
Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?
Ans : No.
Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?
Ans : No.
Qn: How would you define junk food?
Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala dosas. size=5>
Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?
Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.
Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans : No.
Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?
Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.
Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?
Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.
Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?
Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.
Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.
Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.
Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?
Ans : No.
Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?
Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.
Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?
Ans : No.
Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?
Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.
Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?
Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkup if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ...
Diet tips for healthy teeth
Fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheese and milk are foods for strong, healthy teeth. Foods with a lot of sugar are can be bad for teeth. Sugars in food stick to the teeth and bacteria (germs) gather in the sugar and cause plaque. Plaque can melt the surface of teeth and cause decay. The sticky sweets tend to get stuck in your teeth and then combine with the bacteria in your mouth to produce acids that attack and damage tooth enamel.
Try these healthy snacks that don't attack your teeth:
- Celery & carrot snacks with hommous or avocado dip
- Vegemite crackers with cheese
- Plain yoghurt, fresh fruit and nuts
When you do eat or drink a high-sugar snack there are tricks to minimise the damage to your teeth. After your snack, rinse your mouth with water, eat a small piece of cheese or chew some sugar-free gum. Cheese provides calcium to replace the minerals lost by the bacteria produced acid, and helps to even up the bacterial balance in your mouth. Chewing gum stimulates the flow of saliva. If you choose to have a soft drink, use a straw. This will limit the amount of sugar touching your teeth.
The best drinks for teeth are plain water or milk. Drinking coffee and tea will stain your teeth and dry your mouth out. Drinks high in caffeine inhibit your saliva's ability to combat tooth decay. Acidic fruit juice, such as orange juice, can also attack your teeth. This is because it alters the acidic balance in your mouth and leaves your tooth enamel vulnerable. To avoid damaging your teeth, remember to wait at least an hour after consuming acidic food or drink before brushing your teeth.
Diet food that is easy to prepare
Here are some better ideas for cheap, healthy and easy to prepare alternatives:
* Delicious sandwich - 100% whole grain bread, canned tuna mixed with a small amount of lite mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes and lettuce.
* Heat up some frozen vegetables like green beans and carrots served with nutmeg and slivered almonds.
* Make a peanut butter sandwich with 100% whole grain bread.
* Whole grain cereals like Cheerios or Shredded wheat (not the pre-sweetened kinds) with low-fat milk and just a sprinkling of sugar or better yet, sliced fruit.
* Nibble on raw carrots, broccoli or raw green beans. They make great replacements for fattening chips. You can dip them in vegetable dips or even your favorite chip dip.
* Fresh fruits like apples, pears and oranges are easy to keep and taste great.
* Nuts like almonds and walnuts make delicious healthy snacks.
* Buy some salad stuff. Lettuce, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, nuts, cheese, and left over meat can quickly be combined into a variety of tasty combinations. Stick with low fat dressings, vinaigrettes or lemon and lime juice to sprinkle on top.
Another important tip is to watch your portion sizes when you eat in restaurants. Many restaurants serve huge portions, so take half of your dinner home in a to-go container. The next day, all you need is a clean plate and a microwave for another tasty meal.
What to eat to prevent cancer
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off
sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it
is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but
only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in
colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes
the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer
feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk,
cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid
environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a
little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock
antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to
people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice,
whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline
environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable
juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular
levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To
obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable
juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or
3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40
degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high
caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties.
Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy
metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
Weight Management - Raw Food Diet Part III
Raw foodism (or 'rawism') is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. Depending on the type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selectıon of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains), eggs, fish, meat, and unpasteurized dairy products (such as raw milk, cheese and yogurt).
Health gets so refined and perfected with a raw food diet that a person notices effects of all types. The result is an important source of information about nutrition and quality of food. A raw foodist (or 'rawist') is a person who consumes primarily raw food, or all raw food, depending on how strict the diet is. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits.
For example, it is noticeable that sucrose (table sugar) goes into fat production rather than immediate energy. Sucrose splits into glucose and fructose. Muscles use glucose but not fructose. So the fructose probably goes into fat. The usual claim is that sucrose is split by acid in the stomach. However, sugars are absorbed very rapidly, and there is often not much acid in the stomach, particularly with a raw food diet, which means sucrose is probably entering the blood as a disaccharide quite often. Dextrose (d-glucose, which is natural glucose) is a much better sugar, since it can be used by every cell in the body.
One very obvious improvement resulting from a raw food diet is in the digestive system. Raw food digests marvelously well, so a person does not notice the acid, bile and residual effects of digestion that go with a cooked food diet. Adding a little bit of cooked food to a raw food diet doesn't work well, because acid is then produced in the stomach, and it is bad for raw food. Acid and raw food tend to create indigestion.
Benefit of eating banana
Bananas. Containing three natural sugars -- sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute work-out. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.
But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
Depression:
According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.
PMS:
Forget the pills -- eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
Anemia:
High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.
Blood Pressure:
This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potas sium yet low in salt, making it the perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Admin. has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.
Brain Power:
200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.
Constipation:
High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
Hangovers:
One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey.
The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.
Heartburn:
Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.
Morning Sickness:
Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.
Mosquito bites:
Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.
Nerves:
Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system. Overweight and at work?
Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs.
The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.
Ulcers:
The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases.
It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.
Temperature control:
Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):
Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.
Smoking:
Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
Stress:
Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.
Strokes:
According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!
Weight Management - Diet Food Part II
The process of making a diet version of a food usually requires finding an acceptable low calorie substitute for some high calorie ingredient. This can be as simple as replacing some or all of the food's sugar with a sugar substitute as is common with diet soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. In some snacks, the food may be baked instead of fried thus reducing the calories. In other cases, low fat ingredients may be used as replacements.
In whole grain foods, the higher fiber content effectively displaces some of the starch component of the flour. Since fiber has no calories, this results in a modest caloric reduction. Another technique relies on the intentional addition of other reduced-calorie ingredients, such as resistant starch or dietary fiber, to replace part of the flour and achieve a more significant caloric reduction.
This arises because calories from these foods are much harder for the body to breakdown and process. In other words, it takes more effort for the body to burn these foods than the food's calorie count. This gives such foods a tremendous natural fat-burning advantage.
For instance a piece of cake consisting of 400 calories may require only 130 calories to be digested by our body, resulting in a net gain of 270 calories which will be added to our calorie count for the day. However, if you ingested a negative calorie food that has a calorie intake of 200 calories, yet it requires 250 calories to digest then you would be burning 50 more calories than you ingested.
This theory is flawed because it assumes that you have the time to select foods that have negative calorie content and that you will be able to follow this approach for the rest of your life- which is not practical or sound. Your body needs nutrients, and these negative calorie foods usually contain lots of fiber but very little protein, fats and essential nutrients needed by the body.
Weight Management: Obesity Part I
Research shows that overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults and, therefore, are at greater risk for associated health problems. In fact, 60 percent of overweight five- to 10-year-old children already have at least one risk factor for heart disease. While all children and adolescents are at risk, those belonging to certain ethnic population groups may be more predisposed to overweight than others.
This ideal body weight varies for each individual. It is up to every individual to take the initiative to ensure that his or her body weight does not vary more than 2 kilograms of the ideal body weight.
The objective of any weight management program is to bring a person’s body weight within the ideal body weight range, and to maintain it there. The program revolves around ensuring a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. Successful weight loss can be brought about through a combined nutritional and behavioral approach. The diet of the person should be well balanced and suited to his or her needs. This should be combined with an exercise program for effective results.
The objectives of diet modification in a weight reduction program are:
* To bring about a gradual weight loss.
* To maintain desirable weight and good nutritional status.
* To correct faulty food habits.
In order to achieve these objectives, suitable diet modifications must be made.
Energy: The energy intake must be reduced suitably to meet individual weight loss targets. A decrease of 1000 Cal daily is required to lose about one kilogram weight per week. On an average, a 1000-1200 Cal diet is used for weight reduction in women and 1500-1800 Cal diet is prescribed for weight reduction in men. Generally speaking, if you are overweight then reduce 500 Cal per day in your actual daily intake. If you are obese then you should reduce 1000 Cal per day in your actual daily intake. Another approach for determining energy requirement is based on body weight and activity.
Apply and apple cider vinegar
It also makes a very refreshing drink, hot or cold, with or without honey - this should take the place of normal tea and coffee which are so habit-forming and unnecessary commodities.
Try using cider vinegar where lemon juice is required e.g. in making mayonnaise, or just sprinkle some on a salad before serving; sprinkle on pawpaw for a refreshing breakfast, or just use on potato chips.
The apple juice fed animals had more neurotransmitters produced in the brain important for memory signaling. Likewise the animals tested did better in memory and learning evaluations.
What’s the implication of the Study in out daily practice?
With the baby boomers reaching the age where we fear the era of forgetfulness… this study is pretty reassuring. The antioxidant properties in apple may have helped in increasing the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain that improved the outcome in terms of memory.
I usually recommend apple as fruit serving to my patients with diabetes because it has a lower glycemic index- meaning it does not significantly increase ones blood sugar. With this new data on apples… I may have helped them unknowingly in helping preserve their memory!
Other vegetables and fruits may have similar outcome but for now, foods rich in antioxidant properties like apple are known to possess properties that may prevent cognitive decline due to dietary and genetic deficiencies and aging.
An Apple A Day Keeps Your Mind Being Blown Away!
Barbecue Food Safety Tips
* Marinate food in the refrigerator. Don't taste the marinade or re-use it after raw meat has been added.
* Keep flies away! Cover trash containers, and do not store meat wrappers and other trash, even for a short time, in open cardboard boxes or uncovered containers.
* Do not store food containers out in the open; rather, place them in the shade.
* Keep plates, cups, utensils and food covered until ready to use. * Don't wear loose finger or wrist jewelry or false nails while working with food.
* Pack plenty of paper towels for cleaning hands and surfaces at your picnic.
Salt and your health
Since ancient times, salt has been used to flavor and preserve food. Early trade routes and many of the first roads were established for transporting salt. Many ancient civilizations levied taxes on salt. Salt was considered so precious that it was traded ounce for ounce for gold. In ancient China, coins were made of salt. In the Mediterranean regions, salt cakes were used as money. Ancient cities such as Genoa, Pisa, and Venice became salt market centers. By the fifteenth century, salt was obtained by boiling brine from salt springs, and many towns and cities in Europe located near such sources. During the eighteenth century, the efficiency of the boiling brine process was improved by using coal instead of wood as fuel. Because of its coal supply, England became the leading salt producer in the world. Early colonies in America were dependent on England for most of their salt.
Blood pressure is a sign. When it goes up (or down) it indicates an underlying health concern. Changes result from many variables, often still poorly-understood. High blood pressure is treated with pharmaceuticals and with lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise. The anti-hypertensive drugs are all approved by regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To be approved, these drugs must prove they work to lower blood pressure. Whether they also work to lower the incidence of heart attacks and strokes has not been the test to gain approval (it would take too long to develop new drugs), but the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has invested heavily in such “health outcomes” studies.
Salt/sodium can hide in many foods. One teaspoon of salt contains 2,000 mg of sodium. The following suggestions can help lower salt intakes:
* Eat fewer salty snacks such as potato chips, nuts, cheese and pretzels.
* Read the "Nutrition Facts" panel on food labels to see how much sodium you are eating.
* Read the label. Look for the words, low-salt or reduced-sodium on products to replace those with high salt.
* Use fresh or frozen vegetables instead of high sodium canned
* Avoid pickled products like sauerkraut, deli meats, sausages and canned fish.
* Use herbs and spices like garlic powder, thyme, oregano, and basil to flavor food and use less salt. Season meat with lemon juice, bay leaf, crushed red pepper and rosemary. Season chicken with sage, seasoned vinegar and ginger.
* Limit the use of high-salt soy sauce, meat tenderizers, seasoned salt, and Worcestershire. Look for salt-free herb blends for cooking.
Can you eat too much carrot?
Carrots, is one of the many cases where it is true; you will turn a bit orange. Carrots are orange because they have lots of a colored biochemical (a "pigment") called, cleverly enough, carotene. Pure carotene has a deep orange color. It dissolves in oil but not in water, and it is stored in body fat. Carotene also absorbs ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun that can damage body tissues such as skin. The skin of people who intentionally consume pure carotene does change color, but just a little. They don't look like walking carrots, but rather the overall change in the color of their skin is measured by a device that measures the amount of each color of the rainbow that the skin reflects.
I'm pretty sure that carrots, like many vegetables, contains beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is converted to Vitamin A in the body depending on how much is needed so you can't overdose on it. But yes too much can turn your skin yellow/orange.
Many of the red, orange, and yellow pigments in colorful foods act in similar ways to carotene. Another example is the red color in ketchup, called lycopene. Some deeply green foods, like spinach and broccoli, have several colors including carotene. People who consume colorful foods, which are rich in these compounds, tend to have skin that is slightly less sensitive to the sun, though no one should stay in the sun too long just because they ate a big bag of fries with ketchup.
Human Foods that Poison Pets
Chocolate toxicity
Chocolate contains theobromine, a compound that is a cardiac stimulant and a diuretic. When affected by an overdose of chocolate, a dog can become excited and hyperactive. Due to the diuretic effect, it may pass large volumes of urine and it will be unusually thirsty. Vomiting and diarrhoea are also common. The effect of theobromine on the heart is the most dangerous effect. Theobromine will either increase the dog’s heart rate or may cause the heart to beat irregularly. Death is quite possible, especially with exercise.
Onion and garlic poisoning
Onions and garlic are other dangerous food ingredients that cause sickness in dogs, cats and also livestock. Onions and garlic contain the toxic ingredient thiosulphate. Onions are more of a danger.Pets affected by onion toxicity will develop haemolytic anaemia, where the pet’s red blood cells burst while circulating in its body.
The danger of macadamia nuts
The toxic compound is unknown but the affect of macadamia nuts is to cause locomotory difficulties. Dogs develop a tremor of the skeletal muscles, and weakness or paralysis of the hindquarters. Affected dogs are often unable to rise and are distressed, usually panting. Some affected dogs have swollen limbs and show pain when the limbs are manipulated. Dogs have been affected by eating as few as six macadamia kernels (nuts without the shell) while others had eaten approximately forty kernels. Some dogs had also been given macadamia butter.
Many Dog Care Experts and famous veterinarians agree that feeding your dog commercial dog foods puts them at a higher risk of premature death! It is suspected that around 87% of deaths can be attributed to the pet foods!Your dog may seem to be very healthy, but by the time any symptoms start to appear it's too late! Their organs are no longer able to function and they suffer agonizing deaths with no hope for a cure! Dog food manufacturers are literally lying to you to sell their products. Many advertise to be 100% nutritionally balanced foods while at the same time they ignore many essential nutrients that your dog needs for a long healthy life. Meat by products are even a very misleading ingredient. These are meat products, but are often rotting, molded and diseased scraps of meat that are used to make pet food! Before meat by products are shipped from slaughter houses they are denatured. The denaturing process includes spraying the meat scraps with a disinfectant or citronella!
