A delicious and delightful cup of Tea
Posted by msterilinn on Mar 5, 2008
The internet is a fabulous place to discover unusual items and unique gifts. It simply amazes me how much smaller the World seems, yet how much more is available than one could have ever imagined. I am definately one who looks for things that are extraordinary or different, and I do believe the Teaposy Tea Set most certainly falls into this category.
The Teaposy Blooming Tea Gift Set is a tea set where the tea is actually contained within dehydrated flowers. This flowering tea set also comes with six vacuum-sealed, handcrafted, natural herb flowers that are ready to blossom when immersed in hot water. The Teaposy Blooming Tea Gift Set is an artful fusing of aesthetics and some of the world’s finest white needle tea, rich in antioxidants, and infused with Jasmine. Take a few moments to view this video, and see if you agree that this blooming tea set is a gift to be remembered…
Antioxidants in Beans and Berries.. yumm!
Posted by msterilinn on Mar 1, 2008
As an avid bean and berry lover, I found the following article to be quite interesting. I have been taught to follow the example of our veggie eaters in the animal kingdom, as Nature truly shows us the way to optimum health and healing. My family enjoys the delights of dining on every color of the rainbow. I suppose science will catch up someday…
‘Berries, Beans Top ‘Best Antioxidants List’
(HealthDayNews)
A variety of veggies, fruits and nuts battled it out this month for the top spot on a new list of the 20 most antioxidant-rich foods, ranked by nutrition scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In the end, small red beans won the day, narrowly beating out wild blueberries as the food with the highest concentration of disease-fighting compounds per serving.
Antioxidants fight damage to cells from rogue molecules called “free radicals.” Experts believe this assault on cells may fuel killer diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and even aging itself.
The new Top 20 list, published in the June issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, “is a relative ranking of the capacity of foods to interfere with or prevent oxidative processes and to scavenge free radicals,” explained list co-creator Ronald L. Prior, a USDA nutritionist and research chemist based in Little Rock, Ark.
Prior and his colleagues used the most advanced technologies available to tabulate antioxidant levels in more than 100 different types of fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and spices. Their Top 20:
* Small red beans (dried)
* Wild blueberries
* Red kidney beans
* Pinto beans
* Blueberries (cultivated)
* Cranberries
* Artichokes (cooked)
* Blackberries
* Prunes
* Raspberries
* Strawberries
* Red delicious apples
* Granny Smith apples
* Pecans
* Sweet cherries
* Black plums
* Russet potatoes (cooked)
* Black beans (dried)
* Plums
* Gala apples
There’s “still a lot we haven’t learned” about why some foods are richer in antioxidants than others, Prior said. Even though the small red bean came out on top, “we don’t have a lot of information on beans,” he added.
Berries are better understood. “The components that contribute a lot of the antioxidant activity are what are called anthocyanins, the compounds that give many berries their dark blue color,” he said.
In fact, color may be key to spotting foods that fight free radicals, said Roberta Anding, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman and a nutritionist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“If you’re looking for the best places to get antioxidants, I will usually tell folks to look at the colors of the rainbow,” she added.
For example, “you’ll find lutein with some of the yellow pigments found in corn; orange can be the pigments from the carotenoid family that are found in cantaloupe, butternut squash and mango; red could come from things like lycopene, found in tomatoes and watermelon. And then the darker colors — the purples, blues, in berries,” she said.
But Prior cautioned that just because a food has proven to be antioxidant-rich in the USDA’s lab, that doesn’t mean all those nutrients will be successfully absorbed by the human digestive tract.
“As we learn more and more, we’re finding that, depending on the chemical makeup of antioxidants in different foods, some of them aren’t apparently absorbed as well, or else they are metabolized in a form where they are no longer antioxidants,” he said.
Whether a food is eaten fresh, frozen, processed or cooked can also affect its antioxidant potency — for good or ill, he said. Blueberries are best when eaten fresh rather than cooked in a pie, for example. On the other hand, research has shown that gentle cooking raises the antioxidant power of tomatoes, he noted.
Although experts are working hard on the project, ongoing efforts to come up with daily dietary guidelines for antioxidant consumption will be “a long process,” Prior said.
“How antioxidants behave, how they act within the body, the dose-response — we just don’t know enough about it,” he said.
For her part, Anding said people shouldn’t get too hung up on gorging on one particular food, but “cast your net widely,” eating generous daily servings of a variety of fruits, vegetables and other wholesome foods.
Looking over the USDA’s list, Anding suggested creating what she called an antioxidant “power salad.”
First, she said, “put together a salad with a variety of mixed greens. Then I’d throw in some dried cranberries or blueberries from the health food store, toss in a few nuts, with a low-fat salad. Again — choosing from the colors of the rainbow.”
The Chocolate lover in me…
Posted by msterilinn on Jan 10, 2008
Hmmm… let’s talk about Chocolate! Life on this planet would just not be the same if there was no chocolate. When they say chocolate is the food of the Gods and Goddesses, I simply have to agree.
Did you know chocolate is good for you?
The flavonoids in chocolate that laboratory studies demonstrate to have powerful antioxidant effects are called flavanols and procyanidins. These two compounds come from the flavonoid “family” that includes resveratrol, found in grape juice, and EGCG, found in green tea. When people consume these substances in chocolate and cocoa, the antioxidant status of their blood increases.
This rise in antioxidant levels helps protect us from damage to the heart and blood vessels, while it also guards our DNA from damage that can lead to cancer.
In addition, the flavanols and procyanidins in chocolate improve the function and flow of blood vessels and help control inflammation.
The antioxidants in chocolate have generated a lot of interest because studies show that these compounds are more powerful antioxidants than EGCG in tea, which is a strong antioxidant.
A cup of hot or cold cocoa may sound like a health drink loaded with antioxidants, but almost all cocoa drink mixes contain cocoa treated with alkali (also called Dutch cocoa) to produce a darker, richer taste. Unfortunately, this process drastically reduces flavonoid content.
Unless you find a chocolate mix made with untreated cocoa, start with plain cocoa (not Dutch) and add your own sweetener and milk to make a flavonoid-rich cup.
Surprisingly, the fat content of chocolate is not a reason to avoid it. Technically, chocolate contains saturated fat, but the particular type of saturated fat – stearic acid – is unique because it does not raise blood cholesterol.
Studies show that neither dark or milk chocolate is a cholesterol concern in moderate amounts. But keep in mind that other ingredients added to some chocolate candies can change their nutrition impact.
Most importantly chocolate is so very delicious and it makes one feel so good!
So, if you did not satisfy your chocolate urges with that special Christmas chocolate gift, just remember that a rich, dark. chocolate is good for any occasion, or just because. Feel free to indulge to your hearts content! You might have to work out a bit more, yet it is totally worth it, from my point of view.
If you’re looking for romantic Valentine’s Day gift ideas, have you tried Fannie May chocolate gifts? Fannie May stands for premium quality chocolate. Their Valentine’s Day Hearts are traditional on the outside, but the candies inside are anything but ordinary! Nestled inside a heart, a common symbol of romantic love, show that special someone how you feel with these delicious, quality chocolate assortments.
