Growing Your Own Herbs

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing
an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and
maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as
significant, you’ll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh,
delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First you’ll want to choose the herbs that you’ll plant. You might have a
hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the
best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your
kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save
money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit
of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary,
sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that
the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and
stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy
plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot
deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing
all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your
plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy
the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much
easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you
can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow
at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an
open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of days.
The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive
plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it
can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant isn’t well
established, it isn’t healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks
like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well
established for at least several months before taking off any leaves. This
wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant
will produce healthily for years to come.

Once you’ve harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you’ll want to use
them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the
process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing
them on a cookie sheet and baking them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4
hours. After they’re sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can
consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively
flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a
plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it
will absorb the taste of the herbs. During the first few days of storage,
you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has
accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If
moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew
while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably
consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work
at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want
to grow. But after the initial hassle, it’s just a matter of harvesting
and drying all your favorite herbs.

Variety in your New Vegetarian Diet

You’ve weighed your options carefully, studied the pros and the cons, and decided that the vegetarian lifestyle is right for you. But where do you start making the changes? Do you go ‘cold turkey?’ Do you adopt a more gradual approach to transitioning to vegetarianism? However you choose to make the change, you can begin to achieve the health benefits of vegetarianism by significantly cutting down on the amount of meats consumed, and making vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains the focus of your meals.
Choose whole-grain products like whole wheat bread and flour, instead of refined or white grains. Eat a wide variety of foods, and don’t be afraid to try vegetables, fruits, grains, breads, nuts, or seeds that you’ve never tried before. Experiment and explore! You may discover a new favorite or two, and learn fresh new ways to liven up more traditional vegetarian dishes. Many vegetarian foods can be found in any grocery store. Specialty food stores may carry some of the more uncommon items, as well as many vegetarian convenience foods. When shopping for food, plan ahead, shop with a list and read food labels. And if you decide to eat dairy products, choose non-fat or low-fat varieties, and limit your egg intake to 3-4 yolks per week.
Becoming a vegetarian can be as easy as you choose to make it. Whether you enjoy preparing delectable, delicious meals or choose quick and easy ones, vegetarian meals can be very satisfying. If you get in the habit of keeping the following on hand, meal preparation time will become a snap:
-Ready-to-eat, whole-grain breakfast cereals, and quick-cooking whole-grain cereals such as oatmeal, whole-grain breads and crackers, such as rye, whole wheat, and mixed grain and other grains such as barley and bulgur wheat
-Canned beans, such as pinto, black beans, and garbanzo beans
-Rice (including brown, wild, etc.) and pasta (now available in whole wheat, spinach, and other flavors) with tomato sauce and canned beans and/or chopped veggies
-Vegetarian soups like lentil, navy bean, or minestrone
-A wide variety of plain frozen vegetables, and canned and frozen fruit
-Fortified soymilks and soy cheeses, should you choose to not eat dairy
-A wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, which should be the core of any diet
As you learn to experiment with foods and learn that a meatless diet doesn’t have to lack variety, you’ll find your decision for vegetarianism was not only wise, but easy and fun come mealtime.

Raw Foods Diet is Beneficial to Your Health

The benefits advocated from eating such a diet seem endless: lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels, eliminating cravings, preventing overeating, purging the body of accumulated toxins, balancing hormones, maintaining blood glucose levels and reversing degenerative diseases.
Followers of a raw diet cite numerous health benefits, including increased energy levels, improved appearance of skin, improved digestion, weight loss and reduced risk of heart disease, just to name a few. Proponents believe that enzymes are the life force of a food and that every food contains its own perfect mix. These enzymes help us digest foods completely, without relying on our body to produce its own cocktail of digestive enzymes.
There can be some side effects when you are first starting a raw foods diet. Some detoxification effects may be experienced as your body attempts to shed some toxicity. This may include occasional headaches, nausea sensations and mild depression. If these symptoms persist, you should seek the help of somebody who is experienced with detoxification symptoms.
Following a raw food diet means that you have to carefully plan your meals to make sure you don't fall short of essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. In some instances it might be appropriate to consider taking dietary supplements, especially when just starting out. You'll need to invest in some appliances so that you are able to prepare the food, if you don’t already have them available. A durable juicer, a blender and a large food processor make raw food preparation a breeze. You may also want to look into purchasing large containers to soak sprouts, grains and beans, as well as for storage. A durable juice extractor for your fruits and vegetables
The smoothest way to begin a raw foods lifestyle is to slowly transition into it. Try starting off by eating approximately 70 to 80 percent raw foods in your diet. Have fruit and salads throughout the day and a cooked vegetable meal with a salad in the evening. This should help make the transition easier on your body and hopefully lessen side effects associated with detoxification. This is an emotional time as well, so you should allow yourself plenty of time to make the switch. Journaling during the process can help. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling the positive effects of a healthy, detoxifying raw foods diet.

The Health Benefits of Green Tea

How do you fit a miracle in a cup?

For 4,000 years, the Chinese people have been using green tea as treatment for everything from headaches to depression.

Today, studies are conducted in Asia and the west in order to produce hard evidence of the health benefits of green tea. In the 1994 edition of the Journal of National Cancer Institute, the results of an epidemiological study stated that one of the health benefits of drinking green tea is that it can reduce the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by up to 60%.

The rich presence of catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the reason why green tea has so much health benefits. A powerful antioxidant, EGCG can not only inhibit the growth of cancer cells but can also destroy them without harming healthy cells.

The University of Purdue has also concluded a research on how a certain compound present in green tea can stop cancer cells from growing. Still another health benefit of green tea is its ability to lower down cholesterol levels and improve the ratio between good (HDL) cholesterol and bad (LDL) cholesterol.

The EGCG in green tea is a health benefit substance that can lower down LDL cholesterol levels and stop blood from forming abnormal clots (thrombosis), a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes.


Green tea has more health benefits compared to other Chinese teas like oolong and black tea, all of which come from the plant Camellia sinensis. What makes green tea different is the process by which it is made. Green tea owes much of its health benefits to how the Camellia sinensis leaves are steamed. The steam process keeps the EGCG health benefit of green tea from oxidizing. With oolong and black teas, however, the leaves are fermented instead of being steamed, thus causing the EGCG health benefit to transform into another less medicinally potent form.

Aside from medicinal value, green tea can also offer other health benefits, especially in the fitness field. Drinking green tea can cause a person to burn down more calories. A recent study on the health benefits of green tea shows that the drink can help dieters. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999, men who take both caffeine and green tea burn down more calories than men who only take caffeine or a placebo.

Another health benefit of green tea is its bacteria-destroying properties. The health benefit of green tea in this area is that it can help prevent food poisoning and also prevent tooth decay. The substances found in green tea kill the bacteria causing food poisoning and those that cause dental plaque to form.

Well known for its countless medicinal and health benefits, green tea is nothing short of a miracle.

Eliminate seafood

It’s actually pretty easy to eliminate red meat and poultry from our diets. When you give any thought whatsoever, the reasons are so compelling to stop eating them. Your reasons may be physical, because you need to lower your cholesterol or blood pressure. You may want to reduce your risk of cancers that may run in your family, and eliminating red meat from your diet is an important way to do this. You may also find that the way we mass-produce meat and poultry for consumption in this country is repugnant to you. If we really thought about the way meat and poultry is raised, we’d never eat the stuff again. We’re consuming flesh that’s been produced from enormous pain and suffering. Even the smallest life has value on this earth; mass producing these animals to slaughter and eat them degrades their lives and degrades our own in the process of eating them.

It might feel like it’s carrying things to far to eliminate something as elemental as a shrimp or a scallop. But think about what we dump into the ocean where this food comes from. All our waste and trash gets hauled into the ocean, if it doesn’t go into a landfill. Think of the millions of gallons of oil that have been dumped from oil tanker accidents. Think of the impact that the erosion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere has had on every living thing on the planet. There are toxic levels of mercury in fish and seafood, so much so that if you’re a woman contemplating getting pregnant, you most definitely shouldn’t eat fish. Your risk of producing a baby with birth defects is extremely high if you do.

It can be hard to let go of fish and seafood, because this has a similar texture to red meat and poultry. It’s flesh after all, even though it’s marine flesh. It might take longer to eliminate fish and seafood from your diet, but keep at the effort. If you’ve been realizing the benefits of eating more vegetarian, then it’s really a small step to take to eliminate this last piece of animal flesh from your diet. Imagine how good you’ll feel about yourself and what you’re doing for the planet when make that last step and eliminate all meat and animal products from your diet.

Chinese Green Tea for Weight Loss

For most people, the Chinese green tea is a stuff of legends. Chinese green tea has been known to be very beneficial to human health. For thousands of years, Chinese green tea has been talked about and written about because of its countless positive effects.

According to legend, the first person to ever taste Chinese green tea was the Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 B.C. It was said that while boiling some water for drinking, some leaves fell into his pot from a tree nearby. Chinese green tea leaves when boiled smelled and tasted so wonderful that Shen Nung even urged his people to drink it. The fame of the Chinese green tea did not stay at one place for long. It is believed that in A.D. 800, Chinese green tea was brought to Japan by monks who studied Buddhism in China.

What makes Chinese green tea different from all other teas?

Chinese green tea is produced from Camellia sinensis, the same plant where the oolong and black tea are derived. Yet, even though they all come from the same herb, the Chinese green tea truly stands out as an exceptional health drink. So what makes Chinese green tea different?

The difference lies in the method by which Chinese green tea is produced. Oolong and black tea leaves are traditionally oxidized and then dried while the Chinese green tea leaves are steamed and then dried. This method of producing Chinese green tea actually preserves most of the beneficial antioxidants present in it.
Chinese Green Tea for Health
While it is already common knowledge that Chinese green tea has several health benefits, modern scientists were able to provide several concrete proofs of the positive effects of Chinese green tea. Chinese green tea antioxidants are said to be the ones responsible for making the Chinese green tea very beneficial.
Recent findings show that the antioxidants in Chinese green tea can reduce cholesterol levels in a person; can improve how blood vessels function; and can reduce blood lipids. It was also discovered that Chinese green tea can have an anti-inflammatory effects and may provide protection against cardiovascular diseases.
Chinese Green Tea for Weight Loss
Significant findings were made that pointed to the benefits of Chinese green tea in weight loss. According to the researchers of the University of Geneva, Chinese green tea has thermogenic properties which aid much in weight loss. In their study, they investigated the weight loss benefits of Chinese green tea by observing the interaction between the caffeine in Chinese green tea and a compound called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). When these two substances in Chinese green tea react, thermogenesis of the body increases by four percent. The tendency of Chinese green tea to enhance metabolic rates has given people reason to believe that Chinese green tea has weight loss benefits as well.
Another study concerning the weight loss benefits of Chinese green tea was also conducted. The results of the research showed that Chinese green tea drinkers have a better propensity for weight loss. Drinking Chinese green tea allows the body to burn an additional 70 calories a day, a feat that weight loss enthusiasts would relish.
Today, Chinese green tea is widely available as a beverage and as an ingredient for weight loss products.