Lets talk about how to grow goji berries

how to grow goji berriesVegetarian Times - The new superfoods

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:00:00 GMT
February 1, 2007 -- You may not be 100 percent sure of how to pronounce ACAI, GOJI BERRIES, MANGOSTEENS or YERBA MATE (we'll get to that later). Chances are, you got...

My Transformation . . . . and , well being w / one ....

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT
Friday, October 17, 2008





My Transformation. . . . and, well being w/one smoothie a day?

My

how to grow goji berriesJunk Food or Junk Diet?

The week-end arrives; you heave a sigh of relief as you now have a couple of days relaxation before you face the pressures of work again. Or do you? Saturday morning - you make the family a cup of coffee to start the day, then it is off out to get the shopping done. You get back late in the morning and realise that you have to get the kids to their swimming club or drop them off at their music instructors place. Too late for a decent lunch, by the time they are organised it will be time to go. So you stop and all have a burger on the way. The traffic is a nightmare, by the time you get in and put your feet up, you find it is time to collect the kids. You are so tired now with all of the rushing about that you really can't be bothered with preparing a meal so you pick up a family chicken meal from a well-known fast food outlet. Sunday arrives, great, a bit of space, time to prepare a big cooked breakfast. By midday, things are getting tense again so you go for the pizza with some low-fat chips and some salad ...

Sounds familiar? Well let's have a look at the score. Firstly, what is a good diet? Basically, one which contains the nutrients that your body needs, in the correct amounts. The latter is the key to a healthy lifestyle. The main things your body needs from food are proteins (for growth and repair), carbohydrates (for energy), fats (gives a store of energy and the fatty layer protects and insulates yoiur body from impacts and temperature loss), vitamins (for good health), minerals (for the correct functioning of your body systems) fibre (aids digestion and production of faeces) and water (70% or so of the body is water).

So let's have a look at a burger meal. Does it supply the nutrients you need? The answer is yes. The burger itself contains some meat, so there is the protein, some minerals and fat, the burger also contains fillers and those, plus the burger bun provides carbohydrate. The salad that comes with the burger meal provides fibre, water, vitamins and minerals. The fries provide more fat and carbohydrate and the main bulk of the water comes from the drink. There you have it, burger meals give you all you need!

The problems lie with the quantities of these nutrients. There is inevitably too much fat and carbohydrate compared with the other nutrients. And there is way too little fibre. The vitamin and mineral proportions are very low, unless you have a shake with the meal, which will increase the proportion of dairy product based minerals such as calcium. To get out of that one, you need to make sure that your next meal makes up for this out of balance meal. For your evening meal therefore, you should eat a low fat, high fibre meal, plenty of veg, cooked lightly or eaten raw so as not to destroy the vitamins. If you must eat between meals, snack on fruit or veg.

A further problem is the use of additives. For instance the addition of salt improves the flavour of food so naturally manufacturers put it in. As a result, eating processed food increases your salt levels - increases blood pressure and leads to heart problems for one thing. A little salt is necessary; it provides your body with the mineral sodium, needed in small quantities. Preservatives are another issue here, allegedly there in small enough quantities not to be harmful, what happens if you eat processed food all the time? Worth thinking about.

Antioxidants are important too. They help to prevent damage to the cells of your body, damage that can lead to cells becoming cancerous. Teas are a very good source of antioxidants. Ordinary (black) tea provides some but a lot of the beneficial constituents are lost during the fermentation process. Unprocessed, pure organic teas like Green Tea or Oolong (the latter is only partly fermented) are the best. Therefore, instead of coffee in the morning, try tea, it is more beneficial. Tea also contains the caffeine, but not as much as in coffee. You might have to drink more but think of the extra benefits to your health. Also, Green tea is thought to inhibit the absorption of cholesterol. The high levels of animal fats in burgers inevitably mean more cholesterol so there is another good reason for switching from coffee.

I hope that you can now see that simple changes to your diet can make your hectic lifestyle more healthy. And don't feel too bad about the odd burger or other fast food, just learn to compensate.

All the tea in China? Not quite but we do have a good selection of Green tea, Puerh tea and other Chinese teas!

Making Good Choice For The Last Meal Of The Day

When attempting to lose weight dieters will not only need to construct a diet plan they'll also need to think about each and every meal or snack, especially if they are trying to stick to a specific calorie intake. I have found some people struggle when it comes to selecting a good choice for the last meal of the day. Some people can be influenced by what they read or hear which may lead to a bad choice. Some of the ideas they hear are; don't eat after 8pm, don't eat certain food items before bed or the last meal should contain specific nutrients or a specific combination of the macronutrients. Listening to all the many "rules" about what we should or shouldn't eat can be very confusing for anyone trying to lose weight.

The last meal can be important to get it right in order to lose fat stores. The correct choice is important because before sleep the body's metabolism slows down and we burn fewer calories. The body is also at a point where many nutrient-storing enzymes are active, this means that food high in fats, or even essential oils can cause them to be stored in fat cells. Even a meal composed mostly of carbs with little or no fat can cause some of the sugar to be converted to fat for storage. Another problem is if the meal has a high G.I. (glycemic index) as this releases insulin and causes the cells to take up any fat present in the meal.

The last meal may change from day to day depending on what you've done or even what you've eaten during the day. What could be considered a "bad" choice may be ok one day if there is a change in the nutritional status of the body.

Here we will provide some guidelines as to what would make a suitable last meal that helps limit any fat storage.

Some guidelines as to what the last meal should be made up of:

• Choose natural, wholesome foods
• Low Glycemic index food
• Low in fat
• Low in calories
• Contain high quality protein, up to 35 grams
• Low in sodium
• High in nutrients

If you've been working out intensely during the day then you may be able to get away with a snack higher in calories, or even high in protein. If you've not eaten much during the day then maybe try eating more of a high quality protein meal to help replenish any muscle protein loss.

In any case I believe the last meal should still contain low G.I. foods or maybe even contain no carbs, I would also try to keep the fat content quite low, probably less than 5 percent total.

Some sample meals and snacks I may include as my last meal:

• Fruit such as pear, plum, apple or prunes
• Low-fat yoghurt with cherries
• Tuna salad
• All-Bran or Muesli with skimmed milk
• Fettuccini (pasta) with tuna
• Lean chicken breast (small portion) with sweet potato
• Fresh fish with broccoli, cabbage and green peas

To help keep calories low try to only have small portions. In the example of a meal lean chicken with sweet potato try cooking then simply split the quantity into two or three meals and snacks. This way you can eat little and often but still have a low calorie, low fat, and low G.I. meal.

The listed foods above may not be the best for everyone, it may be best to think about your personal food preferences. Remember to omit foods which you may cause an allergic reaction!

Wayne Mcgregor has a degree in nutrition and dietetics, a diploma in fitness training, and a wealth of experience in helping people to lose weight and build muscle. His website provides hundreds of free weight loss articles, sample diets, tools and charts of calorie content of different foods.

http://www.weightlossforall.com

The Mystery Of Polish Sausage - What Is Kielbasa?

Without a doubt the word Kielbasa has worldwide recognition, yet it is also often misunderstood. Kielbasa is the general Polish name for sausage. You cannot walk into a Polish store and say: please give me a pound of kielbasa. The sales lady, surrounded by 50 different kinds of kielbasa, will inevitably reply: yes, but which one? There are well over 100 types of kielbasa, and the word itself is meaningless unless followed up with the proper name: Kielbasa Rzeszowska, Kielbasa Krakowska, Kielbasa Tuchowska, Kielbasa Mysliwska, etc. It is like going into a deli and asking for some cheese. Sure, but which one: American, Provolone, Swiss, Gorgonzola, Gouda, Muenster - you have to provide some details. There is no specific sausage called kielbasa but there are many sausages that carry the word kielbasa as part of the name.

We know of only one sausage that carries the word "Polish" in its name and that is the Polish Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona). This is probably what the first immigrants brought with them to America. The problem we face here is that you can find Polish Smoked Sausage in almost every supermarket in the US, and no two are made the same way. Yet Polish Smoked Sausage has been well defined for centuries and everybody in Poland knows what goes inside. We do not intend to become judges in this matter, but instead rely on Polish Government Standards for Polish Smoked Sausage. These rules have remained unchanged for the last 60 years.

Before we anger many people who have been making Polish Smoked Sausage in their own way for years, let's clarify something further. It's perfectly fine to add an ingredient that you or your children like into your sausage. You still have the full right to say that you made a better sausage than the famous Polish Smoked Sausage. You may say that your grandfather who came from Poland made the best Polish sausage in the world and we honor that. Maybe he used chicken stock instead of water or maybe he added something else. What we are trying to say is that he was making his own version of the known classic or some other Polish sausage and it could have tasted better for you and your family. We do not dispute that fact. You can of course add anything you like to your sausage, but it will no longer be the original Polish Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona) or any other brand named sausage. Once you start changing ingredients, you create your own recipe and you may as well come up with your own name.

1. For centuries Polish Smoked Sausage was made of pork, salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram (optional). Then in 1964 the Polish Government introduced a second version of the sausage that was made of 80% pork and 20% beef. All other ingredients: salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, and marjoram remain the same in both recipes. The marjoram is optional but the garlic is a must.

2. The meat is cured before it is mixed with spices. In the US Cure #1 (sodium nitrite plus salt) is used, in Europe Peklosol (sodium nitrite plus salt) is common.

3. The sausage is stuffed into a large hog casing: 36 - 38 mm and formed into 12" (35 cm) links.

4. The traditional way was to cold smoke it for 1 to 1.5 days (it had to last for long time).

5. In most cases it is hot smoked today

A little test was performed to see how large American manufacturers make Polish Sausage. Four sausages called Polish Kielbasa or Polish Sausage were bought at the local supermarket in Florida and each of them was produced by a large and well known meat plant. The number of ingredients and chemicals used varied from 10 to 20 and different combinations of meats were used: pork-beef-turkey, beef only, pork-beef. Except the name, none of the sausages had anything to do with the original.

It seems that for the manufacturers any sausage that is smoked (or have liquid smoke added) and stuffed into a 36 mm one foot long casing can be called Polish Smoked Sausage or Polish Kielbasa. It becomes quite clear that manufacturers put any ingredients they like inside of the casing and the name Polish Kielbasa is used just for credibility and to gain the trust of the consumer.

The problem is futher magnified by various sites on the Internet that provide countless recipes for making Polish sausages. Yet the mysterious Polish Smoked Sausage is embarrassingly simple to make and all it needs is pork, salt, pepper and garlic.

Adam Marianski has co-authored two books on meat smoking and making sausages. He runs the web site Wedliny Domowe where you can find more about making quality meats at home.

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