Is Drinking Juice Good For You?

Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and leafy greens is recommended for better health. They are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber and more. These sources of food are vital in helping keeping our weight down, improving our heart health, cutting down the risk of chronic diseases and generally keeping us healthy and fit.

The food pyramid that shows what foods we should eat and how much, shows vegetables, fruits and greens right at the bottom occupying the large base. That means a large part of daily diet should comprise, foods from this group.

With our busy lifestyles running from schools to office to after-school activities, gym classes, client meetings and more, we hardly have time for a decently put together meal. Our diets suffer from a significant lack of nutrient-rich food.

As a result more people than ever before are turning to juices to power their lifestyles. Instead of trying to eat 5-7 servings of salads, veggies and fruits we are drinking more juices. A whole new industry has developed around fresh juice with – special juicing machines, juice bars serving fresh juice, juicing recipes, books and more on the subject cropping up. Continue reading “Is Drinking Juice Good For You?”

An Awesome Six Pack Abs Diet

Look if we want to achieve six pack abs then we have to eat the correct food right. I am going to share with you what foods are good for us and what foods are bad and why we need to stick to our six pack abs diet.

Firstly let me explain how the body works regarding body fat.

The #1 mistake people make is counting calories, your body needs calories to function and when it is starved of calories then it stores what calories it does get in the form of fat. So do not starve your body of calories.

OK now I have got that one of my chest here are the best foods to eat in your six pack abs diet:

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Healthy Living For a Healthy Life

Having a healthy living is the most important factor in our life. Most of us know that living with a healthy body is the best path to live happy, to feel better, and to look better. Healthy living will lead us to the point where we can enjoy life to the fullest until we grow old and will never experience anything that might harm us or give us pain.

In this article, we will take you in the world of healthy living and healthy lifestyle. It is very simple and yet it provides you the easiest way on how to develop yourself up for a better and healthy person. In addition, we will provide you essential information that can be incorporated to your everyday life.

At present, most of the people in the world have fear of different diseases, and we are commonly looking for the best prevention. One of the best preventive measures to avoid disease is a healthy diet. Remember that prevention is better than cure; this famous line can be applied to anything in this world. Continue reading “Healthy Living For a Healthy Life”

Carp Love French Fries?

In the fall of the year normally the last week of September my son, brother, I and a friend takes a 3 hour trip to McConnelsville, Ohio. This is a fall fishing trip in which normally we stay about three days. We fish an area owned by AEP (America Electric Power Company) this area is open to the public; all it takes is a permit that you can print out from their web site. AEP has around 300 lakes to fish some are very small while others are over a mile long. But this is not a story about fishing in the AEP area this is a story about the Muskingum River Carp and Catfish.

Each day we track around on the AEP area and then in the evening we go back to our hotel, the Three Sisters Inn on NW 60. That’s the great thing about our trip; we fish for Bass all day then around 4:00 pm or so we head back to the hotel clean-up a little then get something to eat. Because of the time it takes to get back to the lakes and the fact that across the road from the hotel is the Muskingum River and the hotel has is own docks we had to try a little river fishing. We usually never fish for Carp but we figured “hey why not”. I did not come on this trip to sit around the hotel room and watch TV, I can do that at home.

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Burmese Salads – Tenderly Tossed by Golden Hands

One of my many favorite places to eat in Rangoon, Burma is at an excellent Burmese fresh salad bar on the street right next to Sule Pagoda. It opens in the evenings as the parking spaces empty, spilling off the sidewalk and across the street.

This place is famous in Burma for the best hand-tossed rice salad in Rangoon and probably the world. It is the Golden Hand Tossed Salad Bar.

Low plastic tables and stools filled with contented customers are out in the street. At the far edge of the sidewalk are lined up a couple tables. On these tables jars of different ingredients are placed on a shelf. Behind the table, laughing and chatting, lovely Burmese ladies with long delicate fingers are mixing your salad up to order.

I pull up a tiny stool, with my knees around my ears I have a look at the menu on the low table. Pickled Tea Salad, Pickled Rice Salad, Pickled Ginger Salad…I don’t even bother reading any more, I know what I want. A young lad with a longyi pulled up and tucked around in back comes bouncing up and I ask for rice salad. Continue reading “Burmese Salads – Tenderly Tossed by Golden Hands”

Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking by Susan O’Brien Review

When you want to lose weight it can be very hard to find recipes that are as nice as your mother used to make, but not quite so fattening. With 200 recipes, this book holds out a lot of promise for diabetics or people like me who want to lose weight. Now, by sugar-free it doesn’t mean that the food produced will be entirely sugar-free, merely that you don’t add unnatural sugars.

My first impressions of this book are great. It looks good, and is certainly easy to read. The instructions are, I think, also very easy to follow. As cookbooks go it is also reasonably entertaining.

The recipes cover all the main meals, and even some snacks to keep you going through the long day.

If you have to avoid certain foods because of medical conditions it is ideal. In fact, recipes are generally free of gluten, sugar and usually dairy. Continue reading “Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking by Susan O’Brien Review”

Why the Food Pyramid Sucks

Have you ever had one of those moments… Someone asks you a question which seems to be really simple, yet you know if you answer it, it opens up for a 100 more questions?

After explaining to my friend about my feelings on why counting calories doesn’t work, I think he was having a little bit of a paradigm shift regarding his health, nutrition and weight loss. I had just created a monster and I knew more questions would come flying at me!

The penny had dropped and all was not as it seemed in the world of weight loss and marketing. He began to understand that nutrient dense food was of the utmost importance when it came to weight loss, not counting calories. He also began to realize that most of his daily diet consisted of food that was not nutrient dense. It was loaded with refined grains, white flour and starch like breads, pastas, rice etc.

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Processing of Sugar From Sugar Palm

Sugar palm or kaong is abundant along river banks of Philippine archipelago. It has sweet yummy sap coming from its cut male flower. It has sugar content ranging form 10 to 20 degrees Brix. This characteristic makes it possible to process it into sugar. Kaong sugar is healthier compared to regular sugar and other substitute. It has low glycemic index (GI) of 35. Having low GI value, it is safe for diabetics. Kaong sugar can be use for coffee, tea, baking and cooking.

Low-GI foods are slow to digest and absorb. This cause gradual rise in blood sugar and insulin levels, and have proven benefits for health. It was shown to improve both glucose and lipid levels in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. They have benefits for weight control because they help control appetite and delay hunger. Low GI diets also reduce insulin levels and insulin resistance.

To produce kaong sugar:

1. Get freshly harvested kaong sap. The taste should be sweet, not alcoholic and not sour. Alcoholic and sour taste are results of fermentation. This occurrence will prevent you in achieving powdered kaong sugar. Color should be white, not yellow or gray. If refractometer is available, the sugar content should be between 10 to 20 degree Brix. Continue reading “Processing of Sugar From Sugar Palm”

How To Make Coconut Wine or The Process of Making Tuba Wine

Introduction:

In the northern part of the Philippines, coconut wine or tuba is referred to as Lambanog. It is made of pure sap (no bark mixed), milky white in color or almost colorless. It is usually consumed fresh as it easily turns sour. Some are distilled to make a harder and more potent alcoholic drink. In Visayas Islands, particularly in Leyte, tuba or coconut wine is made of coconut sap mixed with Barok (The bark of a red mangrove tree, and according to Wikipedia a red lauan tan bark tree) which serves as colorant and preservative that offset fermentation.

The step by step guide to making coconut wine or tuba wine: Continue reading “How To Make Coconut Wine or The Process of Making Tuba Wine”

Coconut Vinegar Benefits and Uses

There seems to be not enough exposure on the uses and health benefits of Natural Coconut Vinegar.

The whole world needs to know more about this unique and tasty product which is a traditional food in the Philippines and many other Asian countries. The versatility and goodness of this vinegar can be enjoyed in so many ways and I’m going to share some of them with you.

Coconut Vinegar is traditionally collected in the Philippines, by tree climbers who climb to where the stem that bears the flowers and fruits are, and cut the ends of the stems so it doesn’t bear fruit anymore. The remaining stems are then placed inside cylinders to catch the nectar (locally called “tuba”) that seeps out, which would normally feed the growing fruits.

Tree climbers go from tree to tree each day collecting the nectar caught in these cylinders. Once collected, the nectar ferments in about 40 to 60 days with the colour changing from a cloudy white, to a clear yellow to a brownish colour which is a natural occurrence of the fermentation process. Continue reading “Coconut Vinegar Benefits and Uses”