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June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

FOR LOVE OF CHOCOLATE

If you are a chocolate lover like me

Cocoa treeyou are probably well aware of the amazing health benefits of dark chocolate. Cacao reduces the risk of heart disease, lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol, contains many nutrients such as potassium and magnesium, enhances brain function, is extraordinarily high in disease-fighting anti-oxidants, increases endorphins and boosts your mood.

However, not all chocolate is created equal.

Here’s a quick guide to choosing chocolate with the most health benefits so you can enjoy it without the guilt:

  • Choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate because milk interferes with the absorption of anti-oxidants.
  • Buy chocolate bars with a minimum cocoa content of 70% or higher. The more cacao, the higher the benefits, and the less you get of the filler ingredients which often include unhealthy sugars and fats. You’ll also be satisfied by smaller portions.
  • Look for chocolates that are alternatively sweetened to reduce your sugar intake. I am a big fan of Dolphin Chocolates, which are sweetened with malted grains.
  • Choose high quality chocolates. Most commercially produced chocolate comes from highly processed cacao that has been stripped of many of its healthy properties. For instance, the flavonoids that make chocolate heart healthy also make chocolate taste bitter and are therefore often removed. Artisan and organic chocolates tend to use minimally processed cacao powder.
  • When possible, go raw. Raw cacao is considered one of the highest anti-oxidants in the world. When cacao is roasted, it loses some of its anti-oxidant properties.Additionally, raw chocolate bars sometimes contain other superfoods as well, like goji berries or maca, and are often alternatively sweetened with raw agave instead of sugar.The raw chocolate market is thriving and choices abound. If you live in LA, you must try the raw vegan chocolate fudge cake made by Cru and sold in most local health food stores. It’s quite possibly the best dessert I’ve ever tasted!

So go ahead and celebrate your love of chocolate by treating yourself and loved ones to small portions of high quality dark chocolate.

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TV host and nutritionist Julie Daniluk reveals just how much pain is caused by inflammation and shows how to relieve it through diet.

Featuring a practical nutrition guide, menu plan and 130 easy and delicious recipes, Meals That Heal Inflammation makes healthful eating a true pleasure, including chocolate.

(Click the image to learn more about this book).

Inflammation is on the rise. Conditions such as allergies, skin disorders, asthma, heart disease, arthritis and any other condition ending in “itis” all have an inflammatory component. In Meals That Heal Inflammation registered holistic nutritionist Julie Daniluk shows how to change our immune response through diet. The first part of the book outlines the six causes of inflammation and gets to the root of the pain we experience.

She then shows how to build a healthy kitchen full of foods that will contribute to our well-being. The book’s easy and tempting recipes include quinoa salad, salmon with fennel and even key lime pie. Extensively researched, and full of information about the healing properties of everyday foods, Meals That Heal Inflammation will be a mainstay in any kitchen with a healthy focus. (Click the image to learn more about this book).

Filed Under: Good Foods, Guest Authors, Healthy Eating, Jaime Saginor Articles, Superfoods Tagged With: , , ,
January 19, 2011 By 2 Comments

Interesting Facts About Stevia

Stevia flowers

Pure stevia leaf is a fantastic food source that can be used for sweetening beverages, as well as for baking and cooking. It is:

Recommended uses:

  • as a natural sweetener
  • for diabetics diets (diabetics can safely use this product)
  • for those with high blood pressure
  • for the prevention of cavities because it is not a sugar
  • as a weight loss aid


Caution:  natural green leaf ground into a powder is not the
same as the white powder extract commonly found in stores.

And if you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that fat does not cause weight gain and bellyfat — sugars do!

The best stevia has no binders, fillers or additives. Quality stevia plants are grown in
non-irradiated, non-fumigated environments that do not use pesticides.

One of the 3 known enzymes that have significant anti-oxidant activity, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), is present in Stevia. Cancerous cells have a deficiency or a complete lack of this enzyme.  If you supplement your diet with stevia you will be helping your body to avoid or manage cancer because anti-oxidants take care of free radicals, helping to stop or reduce cell mutation into the first stages of cancer.

When you use Stevia leaf  in place of sugars in cooking and baking, the equivalent is:

2 tablespoons of Stevia leaf powder is equivalent to 1 cup of sugar
(in sweetening power)

Check this site for more information about and to order Stevia:
http://www.steviasweetsuccess.com/main/

Filed Under: Stevia, Sugar, Sweeteners Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
January 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Stevia snippets

Why Stevia shows promise in fighting hypertension, obesity, and diabetes epidemics.

  • For centuries, the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil used stevia, which they called ka’a he’ê (“sweet herb”), as a sweetener in yerba mate and medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments
  • Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, even enhancing glucose tolerance; therefore, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets
  • Possible treatment of osteoporosis has been suggested by the patent application claim that eggshell breakage can be reduced by 75% by adding a small percentage of stevia leaf powder to chicken feed
  • Medical research has found that Stevia shows promise in treating obesity and hypertension, even having an enhancing glucose tolerance.
  • 1970s, Japan began cultivating Stevia as an alternative to artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, which were suspected carcinogens.
  • It has also been suggested that pigs fed stevia extract had twice as much calcium content in their meat, but these claims have been unverified.

Source:   Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

PS  Have you also heard that Stevia is dangerous and toxic?  Here’s a report from the WHO.

In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a thorough evaluation of recent experimental studies of stevioside and steviols conducted on animals and humans, and concluded “stevioside and rebaudioside A are not genotoxic in vitro or in vivo and that the genotoxicity of steviol and some of its oxidative derivatives in vitro is not expressed in vivo.”

The report also found no evidence ofcarcinogenic activity. Furthermore, the report noted “stevioside has shown some evidence of pharmacological effects in patients with hypertension or with type-2 diabetes”, but concluded further study was required to determine proper dosage.

The WHO’s Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives has approved, based on long-term studies, an acceptable daily intake of steviol glycoside of up to 4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

Filed Under: Diabetes and Belly Fat, Good Foods, Stevia, Sweeteners Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
August 2, 2010 By 1 Comment

Using Stevia for Sweetening Everything

Stevia Plant

Stevia Plant

Since deciding to get off of artificial sweeteners and refusing to consume anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup, I have discovered Stevia.  Personally, I love the taste, although I don’t get the same response from everyone. It seems to be an acquired taste for some…

What is Stevia?

Well Stevia is a herb. It’s really delicious and sweet. And a really good substitute for any kind of sugar.

But to see what the real definition of Stevia is, I tapped into Wikipedia.

Wikipedia says:

Stevia is a genus of about 240 species of herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), native to subtropical and tropical regions from western North America to South America. The species Stevia rebaudiana, commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or simply stevia, is widely grown for its sweet leaves. As a sweetener and sugar substitute, stevia’s taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations.

So basically what they are saying is that Stevia is a herb, used for centuries for naturally sweetening foods and drinks.  There are no apparent side effects from using it. It is not a sugar so does not pack on bellyfat, and won’t overexcite your brain cells (whew, what a relief that is).

Wikipedia continues with this:

With its extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Medical research has also shown possible benefits of stevia in treating obesity and high blood pressure. Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

So it even helps us lose weight, but more than that, it is used medicinally in some populations.

For medicinal use, Wikipedia says:

For centuries, the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil used stevia, which they called ka’a he’ê (“sweet herb”), as a sweetener in yerba mate and medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments.[11] More recent medical research has shown promise in treating obesity[12] and hypertension.[13][14] Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, even enhancing glucose tolerance;[15] therefore, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

Look who’s has been using Stevia for decades. Again from Wikipedia:

In the early 1970s, Japan began cultivating stevia as an alternative to artificial sweeteners such as cyclamate and saccharin, which were suspected carcinogens. The plant’s leaves, the aqueous extract of the leaves, and purified steviosides are used as sweeteners. Since the Japanese firm Morita Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. produced the first commercial stevia sweetener in Japan in 1971,[8] the Japanese have been using stevia in food products, soft drinks (including Coca Cola),[9] and for table use. Japan currently consumes more stevia than any other country, with stevia accounting for 40% of the sweetener market.[10]

Today, stevia is cultivated and used in food elsewhere in east Asia, including in China (since 1984), Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia. It can also be found in Saint Kitts and Nevis, in parts of South America (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and in Israel. China is the world’s largest exporter of stevioside.[10]

Where to buy Stevia:

I have found that Walmart has the best deal on Stevia. Look for it in the pharmacy/supplements area. You can purchase a box of 100 packets for $6.  I paid that for 50 packets in a health food store!

 

Check out the Cuisipro Herb Keeper

Storing herbs seems simple but unless you properly store your herbs they will only last a few days. Herbs are sold in bundles and for most recipes a bundle is too much. What happens to the leftovers? If they are not used right away most of what was bought is thrown out.

Cuisipro Herb Keeper’s unique suspended tray system makes it easy to store and access herbs. Other herb keepers tend to be overcomplicated to use or drip water all over the place when gathering herbs.

The Cuisipro Herb Keeper comes in 2 convenient sizes so you can choose the one right for you; large one that handles multiple bunches of herbs and compact size for a single herb bundle.

Click the image to learn more about this product. 



Filed Under: Good Foods, Stevia, Sugar, Sweeteners Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,