The Beauty of Juicing

"Bottoms up." This is my catch phrase before during my high school times when I frequently juice my veggies and my fruits so I could extract most of the nutrients. I have these big white juicer that I bought. I tried to juice all sorts of fruits and vegetables and I drink them individually.

I heard that Juicing help me get the most of the nutrients I want because minus the fiber the juice contains all the nutrient and it is easily absorbed by my system. It is also a good way to compliment a healthy diet and it will eliminate the tedious munching. A one day detox of fruits of vegetables guarantees health benefits like smooth skin and a boost in your immune system over long term practice. You just have to plan it for a day and make sure you are not doing anything tiring.

The only downside is when you are juicing these vegetables most of them dont taste good thats why children hate them on their plate. I tried drinking bittergourd (ampalaya) and white radish. The bittergourd is known to cure a lot of ailment including diabetes, it felt like after I gulped the first sip it numbed my tounge of taste because it is so bitter. Although its the case I simply drink it since I know it would be good for my over all health.

The real challenge though is drinking the white radish vegetable. They said that drinking it would eliminate most bacteria including worms in your system. Though that alone sounds encouraging, when I drink the glass it felt like I gulped down a bottle of muriatic acid. Their are times I actually spit the juice because of the taste. It felt like I am drinking a polyjuice potion in the book Harry Potter where Hermione actually dropped the bottle containing the potion due to the disgusting taste.

The only solution I come up with is mixing it with fruits. Yes it is possible that you can mix both vegetable and fruits to counteract that yucky taste of vegetables. Vegetables are more dense with nutrients compared to fruits, but on the brighter side fruits are more tarty and palatable compared to vegetables.

To sum it up to benefit mostly from juicing and if you would want to gain the most benefits in juicing, try to combine delicious fruits with gruesome tasting vegetables. This way you could have the best of both worlds with fruits and veggies, and get that beauty with no hassle from juicing like shiny hair, sparkling eyes, and so on so fort.

Strawberry the Skin Food

One of my most favorite fruit is strawberry. A fruit that grows on small shrubs on cold temperature climate. I like the hint of sweetness that it give and most of all its great to mix with most food like, shakes, salads, and chocolate fondues. When you purchase them on the produce section of the supermaret make sure you get the one that is the most freshest and mold free. This fruit is highly perishable and can last only for a few days in the fridge, having one of them contaminated with molds will damage the other fruits.

Thankfully this food is also one of those great food that can contribute greatly to your beauty and well being. Its high vitamin c content can help greatly in protecting the colagen and elasin structure of your skin making it more firm and lowering the risk of having bruises. It also helps to fight the side effects of pollution which is great because this fruit is handy you can snack it anywhere. Strawberries are known to have high amounts of ellagic acid, an acid that fights hydrocarbons derive from smoking which in turn damage our skin and lungs in the process

Just make sure you wash this fruit whenever you serve it so you wont consume the pesticides and dirt that comes along when it is harvested. Its most healthy when you serve it together with probiotic yoghurt and along with fruit salad served with grape vinaigrette. A dark chocolate fondue will be ok as well for those nights you want to get cozy and healthy with your partner. If ever these fruit is not in season healthy alternatives for it is raspberries, blueberries, oranges, and kiwi fruit.

Getting Healthy and Beautiful with ORAC

While munching the piece of fruit that I am eating I was thinking how much nutrition was I getting. Of course the fibre do its magic by helping in my digestion and all but what about the nutritional contents. Fruits and vegetables that we eat have different nutrient level but which is the most beneficial to consume on a regular basis to get the most and contribute to better health and beauty?

I came across with this findings about the anti oxidant level a food can provide to person. Its this research called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Aborbance Capacity) which measures the level of anti oxidant a food possess. Anti oxidants fights free radicals which we get on a daily basis from exposure to all stressfull factors like the sun, pollution, and even exercise. The list goes on from where to get free radicals. Too much free radicals contributes in developing cancers and disease that can naturally occur in the body.

To get the most nutrition according to the scientist who conducted the ORAC research we must have 3000 to 5000 ORAC units on a daily basis to create an impact on our plasma and tissue antioxidant capacity. Sadly we do not consume enough and at best we get only a dose of 1200 units a day by consuming 3 fruits and vegetables a day. Its even sadder because I rarely see people consume a lot of fruits and vegetables.

The following is the table I have come up with the fruits and vegetables with the highest ORAC value that could possibly help us pick the produce with better value.

FOOD and ORAC VALUE

Barley 1275
Dark Chocolate 656
Prunes 289
Raisins 142
Blueberries 120
Blackberries 102
Kale 89
Dark Honey 82
Strawberries 70
Alfalfa 49
Brocolli 45
Beets 42
Orange 38
Grape 37

To get the ORAC units from the list just multiply the ORAC value by 10. Grapes have 37 ORAC value times 10 it is equivalent to 370 ORAC units. This ORAC values shown above is equivalent to a serving of the fruit and vegetable.

The test conducted to measure the Orac Value of this Fruits and Vegetable also states that consuming regularly foods with high Orac Value slows down the process of agingboth the brain and the body. Which is why it could really help also in maintaining Beauty in a longer term

Ramping up your daily consumption of fruits and vegetable by eating 5 to 9 servings specially the ones with high ORAC value will contribute greatly to reducing the chances of you developing age old diseases. Just make sure you eat a variety of the fruits and vegetables from the list I enumerated because diffirent antioxidants and nurients contributes differently to the body. The key is always variety.

Healthy Jambalaya

One of the major carbohydrates we Filipino's often consume is rice. Its our most eaten carbohydrate and second to that we consume mostly bread and rarely we eat legumes or fruits as a primary source of energy. The sad thing about it is that we consume only white rice which is reduced of nutritional content because it is too polished to improve the taste. I have posted blog a month ago about the health benefits of brown rice and why should we eat it despite the fact that its more pricey and less palatable because of its texture.

Just recently I have experimented this recipe that I got from a Food Magazine. Its called a Jambalaya. My friend Don Don who likes to cook a lot approves to give it a try since he is the one who have a fondness for cooking. Although we thought it may not turn out as delicious as its white rice countepart version but nevertheless its more healthy.

The following is the recipe I have followed :

Healthy Jambalaya

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups of cooked ham
1 medium onion sliced and quartered
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers. Any color combinatin will do
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup Brown rice uncooked
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried leaf thyme
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 pound peeled, cleaned, and cooked shrimp

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in medium heat over a large deep skillet.

2. Put the ham and cook it till slightly brown, then saute in onions, bell pepper and garlic ; cook them till tender

3. Put the tomatoes and tomato paste, water, rice, bay leaf, salt, thyme and cayenne pepper. Stir to mix the ingredients well till its boiling. Then reduce from medium heat to low. Cover the skillet and simmer it for 30 minutes. Stirring the food from time to time.

4. Put the shrimp and mix it in. Simmer for a few more minutes to let the shrimp flavor to sink and enhance the flavor.

After cooking it. It the turns out delicious despite the husky texture of the brown rice. I would recommend this recipe to my friends who wants to maintain a healthy body. The good thing about jambalaya is it contains a lot of tomato which is a rich source of lycopene and the shrimp content makes it great because of its high selenium, zinc, and protein content. The lycopene, selenium, zinc, and protein makes its perfect enough to be a skin food and the rich vitamin B complex content of brown rice makes up for a healthy nervous system.


(recipe source : SL Agritech Corporation)

Dairy & Soy Milk for Perfect Curves

I was visiting a friend of mine who lives in a nearby town during the weekend when I chance upon her husband who just arrive from the States. The guy was a foreigner who stand 6 feet tall and with good stature. But what I find funny is that my friend who stand only 5 feet is helping her husband to walk.

I ask my friend what is wrong with her husband and why is she guiding him in walking. My friend whispered that her husband has weak knees. The husband often laments and wonders why he had weak knees despite the fact that he's a fanatic of drinking milk, which means he gets a lot of calcium. I wondered myself what could be the cause of the malady.

Lunch came, and my friend laid down all sorts of barbecue and delicious meat viands and rice to match. I asked my friend if is there's a feast because she is serving around 3 dishes for our meal. My friend said that her husband likes an assortment of dishes when eating and that's why she cooked a lot.

Then like a bright bulb - the answer hit my head. I remember talking to a health buff at my gym and he advised me to always keep a good balance between protein and calcium because they have adverse effects towards each other.

The husband loves eating protein so much. He eats it, and drinks it at the same time in the form of milk. Too much protein is not good for calcium because it depletes it. The fact is, taking more protein than your body needs causes your blood to be acidic, which causes the kidney to neutralize the acidity by throwing calcium out of the body.

Yikes!!! How am I supposed to grow beautiful when in fact I love drinking milk too; and likewise I love eating a hefty serving of protein during my meals. If additional protein intake would cause my bones to weaken due to the lack of calcium supply then how would I look beautiful and not look like a walking Question Mark.

Thankfully, the health buff gym buddy provided some answers. He advises to take one gram of protein per kilogram of my body weight. Although this is not an exact science but anything that goes beyond twice as much the prescribed consumption is considered an overdose.

Like most things - balance is a necessity. Same goes for taking in protein from meat and veggies. Yes, there are different opinions that claim meat is better over vegetables as a protein source. Some even say that milk can cause diseases because cows nowadays have been injected of hormones to enhance their growth. Not to mention being fed with grass that has pesticide. Meanwhile, others says that vegetables also has insecticides and the source itself is not complete to replace meat protein.

Quite confusing...

Nevertheless, my advice, just keep a good balance for both meat and vegetables. Be sure that you get your food from clean and quality sources. I believe that moderation has always been the key to maximizing the health benefits of food.

Beautiful Breakfast Drink

When I wake up in the morning, I'm sometimes cranky and lack energy specially when I didn't get enough Zzzz's . So what I usually do before I go to work is to drop by my favorite coffee shop and get a big serving of my favorite hot drink usually flavored with vanilla and chocolate.

All these years I always thought that there is nothing wrong on getting my morning mood booster from something sweet. Sometimes the regular indulgence caused me to get sugar crashes that's why I limit myself to no more than one large cup in the morning.

Then while I was browsing over a magazine. In there, I read an article from a renowned doctor in the field of cosmeceuticals, Dr. Perricone. He says that sugar toxicity can cause accelerated aging.
I almost stopped drinking my beverage upon reading the article. Knowing that my drink is not sugar free and there is that nagging question in my head that the body can't function without sugar. I really had a lot of contrasting thoughts with this new founding.

According to the article, sugar, if consumed regularly in high quantities can actually cause inflammation to the cell membranes. They attach to the collagen which is the natural cementing substance of the skin and cause them to cross link with each other. With this process being accelerated with each consumption of sugar causes faster skin wrinkling. Oh my gosh!!

I instantly asked the counter if they have sugar-free drinks and to my delight they do. I ordered the new drink on my next visit and to my surprise the sugar-free drink is also fat-free. Wow that's a double win!!! Sexy and wrinkle free. :)

Of course its impossible to avoid sugar completely but reducing the consumption can lessen the risk of early wrinkling. Sugar is not bad at all because your body needs it to function. The article simply says to just get your sugar from fruits and vegetables.

To make your breakfast drink most beneficial - try telling the counter to mix either skim milk or better yet, soy milk. You'll get lesser fat which is another contributing factor to wrinkling. This is because soy milk contains natural isoflavones which is an antioxidant that fights cancer. Yet another reason to say CHEERS in the morning!!! :)

Fruity Pinkish Flush

On my first article I would like to talk about something every boy and girl would probably like. Something that would make an ordinary skin look great. Something that could make a head turner out of you. A clear sign that simply say you could be in great condition. It's none other than a skin in the pink of health.

Have you ever wondered why some people got that great countenance brought about by healthy pinkish skin. It maybe genetics for some but what if you could have that same asset? What if you could leave the house without make up all of a sudden because your boss calls you or for whatever emergency that may arise? Ain't it wonderful to step out of the bed knowing with no fuss you look great.

Okay, enough about daydreaming and let's work on that coveted pinkish hue. I will divulge one of the first techniques I have personally experienced and will vouch on the actual results. This procedure is not the only path to achieve a pinkish skin but its one of the fastest and most natural way.


Drink a glass of tomato juice everyday!

Hahaha! The first reaction of my friends when i suggested this is "NOT IN A MILLION YEARS." At first I thought when I was drinking it, I'm gulping down spaghetti sauce minus the cheese and meat. Not a very pleasant experience though without the pasta too but like some food - you could actually gain that acquired taste over time through regular consumption (like wasabi, raw blue cheese, etc)

A variant in drinking this beauty potion is mixing it with lemon juice to add some kick on the benefits. The time it took me chugging this wonderful concoction is three weeks.

After this time frame you will notice the pinkish flush I told you. By then you will be more than willing to include this fruit juice to your daily diet.

You may wonder why is this miracle achieved?

Tomato juice contains lycopene, a naturally occurring substance in your skin found in small amounts. Lycopene also plays a role in the pigmentation of the skin which may be the reason why we get the flush when regularly consuming this beauty food.

No adverse effects have been reported on over consumption but like most things, we should do it in moderation. With regards to the taste, just think of it as something like exercise - no pain, no gain! :)