Category Archives: healthy-cooking

A Pomegranate a Day keeps the Doctor Away

Move over, apples!

Pomegranates are loaded with phytonutrients with powerful health benefits. Not to mention, tasty! And quite moderate in calories, about 80 – 85 apiece.

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Prevents heart disease: Pomegranates contain antioxidants which prevent free radical damage of the walls of arteries, thus preventing heart disease. They also prevent oxidation of cholesterol, which causes plaque formation and development of coronary artery disease.

Lowers blood pressure:  Punicic acid is one of the main constituents of pomegranates that help lower cholesterol, triglycerides and reduce blood pressure.

May help prevent cancer Pomegranates can help in prevention and also in the treatment of several forms of cancer.

Helps digestion Eating a pomegranate every day is a good way to add fibre to your daily diet. One pomegranate can fulfil about 45% of the daily recommended intake of fibre, which is about 25 to 35g.

Improves immunity: Being rich in anti-inflammatory compounds, pomegranates are extremely healthy for those suffering from immune-related disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, and also for a generally healthy immune system and to stave off common illnesses and infections. They are also rich in vitamin C, which boosts antibody production and development of immunity.

Appear younger Polyphenolic compounds in pomegranates are powerful antioxidants that can delay the process of aging. Therefore, eating pomegranate keeps your skin glowing and radiant for a long time.

Lowers stress levels: Apart from reducing the body’s internal oxidative stress, pomegranates also help lower psychological stress. According to a study, people who drank pomegranate juice had lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that is increased under stressful situations.

Keeps Alzheimer’s at bay: A study showed that pomegranate juice reduces the deposition and accumulation of plaque in the brain by 50%.

All of these health benefits make pomegranate a great addition to your diet. Its easy to pack to carry along and lends itself well to adding to a salad, or smoothie, or yogurt parfait. Get creative!

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And Stay Healthy!

Eight Keys to Help Achieve Health Goals in the New Year!

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New Year, New Goals! Start where you are and proceed step by step. Follow these simple guidelines to help you on the way:

  1. Read the label before buying anything.                                                                                    If what you are buying contains more than 5 ingredients and includes a lot of unfamiliar, unpronounceable items, reconsider buying. Avoid packaged and processed foods – don’t buy anything in a box, bag or can.
  2. Eliminate partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats from your diet.                                                                                                                                                                                  These have no nutritional value and serve no purpose other than to harm your health. Keep in mind that certain products that actually contain trans fat can get away with listing 0 grams of trans fat on the label as long as the amount per serving is under 1 gram. Don’t be fooled!
  3. Avoid eating at fast food restaurants.                                                                                    If you really want to be in optimal shape and your best health in 2015, there is just no getting around the fact that you must learn to prepare food at home.
  4. Dump the sugar and high starchy foods( potatoes, rice, cookies, etc.)                            Sugar is the most inflammatory thing that we consume and most of us consume far too much. Recent studies showed sugar addiction to be a more powerful stimulator of dopamine reward pathways than cocaine!
  5. Use healthy low-glycemic fruits to satisfy sweet cravings.                                              You can make some delicious desserts in a healthy way using fruit to satisfy a sweet craving.

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6.   Eat 4-5 servings of non-starchy vegetables daily.                                                               Best bets are cruciferous vegetables, like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and leafy greens.

7.   “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself, ”            If you have to peel, chop and deep fry potatoes every time you wanted French fries then you might not eat them very often. Eating “junk food” such as cakes, sweets, and fried foods only as often as you are willing to make them yourself will automatically reduce your consumption.

Be Healthy!

Applause for the Coconut!

Mother Nature is incredibly generous in the way she provides – offering a bounty of fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients to nourish your body so you can enjoy a long healthy life.

One fruit in particular – the coconut – is so abundant in its healing properties it’s referred to as “the tree of life.”

The coconut is a “functional food” rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber – the essential nutritional building blocks for perfect health.

For generations, island people considered it “The Cure for All Illness” and consumed the meat, milk and coconut oil daily. Although this diet was high in saturated fat, Western conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease were virtually unheard of.

The islanders were instead rewarded with a lovely youthful complexion, soft wrinkle-free skin, almost no skin cancer – even with excessive exposure to year round sun – and abundant good health.

Coconut oil – a saturated fat – is chock-full of health-promoting properties – and is in no way responsible for high cholesterol, obesity and heart disease.

Finally, modern medicine and science are starting to realize this fundamental truth… and it’s been a long time coming. But sadly not before heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and a whole host of other catastrophic diseases have reached epidemic proportions!

Some oils which should be avoided:

Canola

There is no such thing as a canola in nature. Canola oil is actually a modified version of rapeseed oil. The rape plant (in the mustard family) contains cyanide-containing compounds and wild animals and even insects avoid it in nature.

The refining process of deodorizing and bleaching to become canola oil involves exposing rapeseed oil to high heat, which greatly reduces the omega 3 content (perhaps it’s only original redeeming factor).

Consumption of this “GMO Oil” has been linked to muscular disorders and fatty degeneration of the heart, kidneys, adrenals and thyroid gland.

Cottonseed Oil

Thousands of commercially produced foods contain cottonseed oil; everything from canned foods to chips and other packaged items. It is even in beverages such as Gatorade. However, cotton is not a food crop, and is therefore not treated like an edible crop but an industrial one.

Virtually anything can be sprayed on cotton plants to ward off insects and induce growth. Dangerous poisons such as trifluralin, cyanide, dicofol, propargite and naled are used on cotton crops. These work their way deep into the plants, literally transforming them into toxic organisms.

Safflower


Researchers now have evidence that it may not be cholesterol that kills, but omega-6’s. When a group of individuals replaced animal fats with omega-6-rich safflower oil, their cholesterol levels decreased, however, the rates of death from cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease increased significantly as compared to those consuming the animal fats.

Soybean

Soybean oil is highly processed and heavily hydrogenated and found in a vast majority of products on supermarket shelves. And choosing organic soy does not make it safer… as some so-called “organic” soy farms have been found to be fraudulent, passing off the GMO-product for the real thing. It’s best to avoid soybean oil completely.

Coconut Oil is safe and healthy

It’s no secret breast feeding is about the best thing a mother can do to boost her child’s immune system. What makes mother’s milk so healthy is that it contains high amounts of lauric acid and coconut oil contains nearly 50% lauric acid.

Coconut Oil Fuels Metabolism

 

Researchers have discovered that in cultures where unrefined coconut oil is a part of the everyday diet, there is less obesity and less lifestyle-related disease.

Coconut Oil BoostsThyroid

Many people suffer from low thyroid function with little understanding of the cause. It’s really no wonder because most processed foods contain iodine blockers, and iodine is essential for optimum thyroid function! Plus, without a healthy thyroid, weight loss is nearly impossible—especially for women.

Coconut Oil Protects and Beautifies Skin

People living in the tropics have beautiful, wrinkle-free skin because coconut oil is not only part of their diet—but also their beauty regimen!

Coconut oil is a naturally moisturizing cleanser—and an effective sunscreen, blocking out 20 percent of harmful rays… thanks to the medium-chain fatty acids that protect and heal the skin at the same time.

Coconut Oil Can protect the Brain

 

Alzheimer’s is on the rise. But by helping the body produce ketones—an alternative energy source for your brain, you can protect your brain from the devastating effects of this savage disease. When MCTs—medium chain triglycerides—are metabolized by the body, ketones are created. And coconut oil is rich in MCT’s.

 

Coconut Oil is Good for Heart Health

Heart disease is a scary disease often treated with even scarier drugs—like statins!
Statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) deplete the body of vital heart-nourishing nutrients and can do more harm than good. Coconut oil is full of heart-healing benefits and can help prevent the need for such drugs—and even help keep you from getting sick in the first place.
Eat Healthy and Stay Healthy.

Chicken Soup for the Lungs

Dr. Stephen Sinatra.

Every year around this time I get many questions about the best natural cold and flu treatments. This season, I’m trotting out an old remedy: chicken soup. However, it’s not your regular chicken soup. This “souped-up” chicken soup is loaded with hot spices to support your immune system and to help thin and expel mucus. People with upper respiratory viruses, asthma, and bronchitis usually produce excess mucus, which eventually gets into the lungs. This buildup often leads to bronchospasms—the constriction of muscles in the walls of the airways. These spasms can contribute to difficulty in breathing and sleepless nights. You don’t hear much about bronchospasms, but our constant exposure to airborne toxins and particles make them a real health challenge.

Mucus—Both a Blessing and a Curse for Your Lungs – The lungs produce mucus as a protective agent. It traps bacteria, antigens, dust, and other irritants that enter the respiratory passages during breathing. In this way, mucus is a blessing. However, the overproduction of mucus is a symptom of many common illnesses—including colds, flu, asthma, allergies, and chronic bronchitis. Coughing is the body’s way to get rid of the excess, but this effort can be challenging because of the thick and sticky nature of mucus. In fact, I have had patients suffer minor strokes, pass out, pull muscles, or even fracture ribs as a result of their coughing attacks.

Several years ago, I came across the work of Irwin Ziment, M.D.—a retired pulmonologist and professor of medicine at UCLA. More than three decades ago, he discovered that ancient healers used natural substances such as garlic and hot peppers, as well as chicken soup to address the problem. In fact, he routinely prescribed chicken soup with garlic and hot peppers as a complement to modern drug treatments. Treating the bronchospasms without treating the mucus is backward. As he explains it, “Bronchospasm is always accompanied by mucus, but the mucus is largely ignored by doctors; only the bronchospasm gets treated.” It’s actually the mucus that’s helping to drive the bronchospasms.

Chicken Soup to the Rescue

How does chicken soup help? Chicken soup contains a natural amino acid called cysteine. A form of this amino acid, called N-acetyl cysteine, is a powerful antioxidant that strengthens immunity. It has been one of my favorite winter supplements for years because it’s been shown to be a natural flu treatment. But it’s not enough to just eat chicken soup. You need to spike it with garlic, hot peppers, hot curry, and/or Tabasco sauce. That’s because these the garlic and hot peppers add heat and pungency, and are a knockout punch against mucus. It may sound tortuous but, according to Dr. Ziment, when properly prepared the soup should bring tears to the eyes and cause a runny nose as it loosens the mucus. I recommend a more measured approach. Start with a mild mix and work up to a level that you can handle and that is also effective at clearing your sinuses.

A strong physical reaction to the soup is a sure sign that it’s having the desired effect. A runny nose and watery eyes mean the body has been stimulated to loosen mucus at even the deepest levels—making it is easier to cough out the congestion and feel better. There may be no drug that can more effectively break up mucus in your lungs, nor any inhaler that works as deeply. The drugs that affect mucus, such as atropine, merely dry the mucous membranes. And, as the body starts to require the drugs to keep the mucus levels down, a “rebound effect” occurs. Not only does the mucus return when the drugs wear off, it often returns at levels that are worse than they were before taking the drug. In our pharmaceutically controlled medical system, I doubt chicken soup (even spiced up with garlic and Tabasco) will ever get due recognition as a standard treatment for respiratory ailments. However, it certainly should be something that doctors recommend. It’s natural, safe, and effective. It’s no wonder that it’s been such a longstanding traditional remedy.

Stay  Healthy, its simple!