Tag: real food

Things you may not know about Celery.

Today’s post topic is Celery.

Recently a small article in the paper about Celery causing sun sensitivity caught my eye. I had never heard about this phenomenon before.

After some Internet searching, I found out some interesting facts.

In regards to sun sensitivity,

There are actually several foods that we eat on a regular basis could cause sun sensitivity. Compounds found in lime and parsley could cause a bad reaction to the sun.

For some people, just touching a lime and then exposing the skin to the sun, causes a rash.

The same phenomenon can occur after handling celery or parsley. Celery contains a compound called ‘furocoumarin’ which is linked to sun sensitivity.

Studies have been conducted to see how much of this compound a person needs to eat for sun sensitivity to occur. It was concluded that a person would have to consume a significant amount of celery. I guess if you love celery juice you may not want to drink litres of it every day.

 Then there are the health benefits,

There are a number of reasons we should eat celery. All parts of celery including the seeds, roots, and leaves can be used. Many of these a lot of people would be familiar with.

Detoxifies the Body

It acts as an antioxidant. Celery contains phthalides, flavonoids, and polyacetylenes. These components detoxify carcinogens, seek out free radicals floating in the body and neutralize them.

Weight Loss

Celery is very low in calories and is also filling due to its high fibre content. The trick is to ensure you are consuming the fibre in the celery than drinking just the juice. Regular drinking of celery juice before meals may help to reduce your weight. The fibre fills the stomach, therefore reducing the amount you eat.

Boosts Immune System

Rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, celery greatly boosts the strength of the immune system and makes it more active and efficient.

Less known benefits,

Then there are a bunch of health benefits that I had never heard of before.

Lowers Cholesterol Level

Eating celery every day may reduce artery-clogging cholesterol (called LDL or “bad” cholesterol). The phthalides in celery stimulate the secretion of bile juices, which work to reduce cholesterol levels.

Reduces Blood Pressure

The phthalides, can also lower the level of stress hormones in your blood. This allows your blood vessels to expand, giving your blood more room to move, thereby reducing pressure. It also contains potassium that acts as a vasodilator, reducing blood pressure.

Lowers Arthritis Pain

Celery has anti-inflammatory properties that help to reduce swelling and pain around the joints. Its also acts as a diuretic, which helps to remove uric acid crystals that build up around the body’s joints that can add to the pain and discomfort. It also increases the regrowth of tissue in inflamed joints

Regulates Fluid Balance

Celery is rich in both sodium and potassium, and both of these minerals help to regulate the fluid balance in the body.

Research has also shown that celery assists with Cancer prevention, reduces Asthma symptoms, improves heart health, relieves migraines and assists in managing diabetic symptoms. Who would have thought it?! (Sources: www.organicfacts.net, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

 

I personally don’t eat much celery. However after this research, I think I will be making more of an effort to eat it regularly.

Till next post,

 Live clean n prosper.

Cauliflower, is it a ‘Super food’?

Todays’ post is about Cauliflower. I found out this week that cauliflower aids the body’s detoxification system. This was new information for me.

So I’ve decided to learn a bit more about this vegetable and share the results.

Cauliflower is a member of the Brassica family, better known as cruciferous vegetables. It contains fiber that helps with the feeling of satiety, weight loss and a healthy digestive tract. It is is not only low in calories but also packed with vitamins and minerals.

May be a ‘Super food’

It seems every week experts are calling a food ‘super food’.  To be given this label the food needs to be ‘nutrient rich and considered especially beneficial for health and wellbeing’.

Well, this versatile vegetable also contains antioxidants and phytonutrients that can protect against cancer, choline that is important for learning and memory, and many other important nutrients.

Raw cauliflower is rich in the antioxidant vitamin C, which is required for tissue growth and tissue repair in all parts of the body.

It is also necessary for the formation of the important protein collagen, which is used to make skin, tendons, ligaments, scar tissue, and blood vessels.

Cauliflower contains decent amounts of vitamin K, which has anti-inflammatory properties. Studies also suggest that vitamin K aids in preventing bone loss in both men and women and that it might also decrease the risk of heart disease.

Regular consumption of cauliflower assists healthy blood circulation and aids in maintaining blood vessels, which is attributed to the presence of sulforaphane.

Aids in ‘detoxification’.

Cauliflower also contains a phytonutrient that together with sulforaphane, helps activate and regulate the function of detoxifying enzymes.

These nutrients are important for Phase I detoxification along with sulfur-containing nutrients essential for Phase II detox activities.

Other compounds found in cauliflower are very important for helping the body detox due to their function to support the liver.

These compounds stimulate what are known as ‘Phase II enzymes’, the natural antioxidant system of our body. They help trigger the liver to produce detoxifying enzymes that block free radical damage. At the same time, sulforaphane stimulates detoxification and digestion by preventing bacterial overgrowth occurring in the gut.

Sources; http://www.well-beingsecrets.com/ and http://www.mercola.com/

Minimal cooking

Cooking is harmful to the nutritional content of cauliflower. Cooking for thirty or more minutes reduces health benefits by 75%. So the lesson here is to steam your cauliflower so it’s just tender, or eat it raw.

There was so much more information available on the health benefits of cauliflower. Who would have thought that this humble and unpopular vegetable could contain so many health-promoting nutrients?

It seems that incorporating cauliflower into our daily diet would be a smart strategy to protect against many health conditions.

 

Till the next post,

 

Live Clean n Prosper

Our Home Grown Vegetables

Today I decided to write about vegetables, to be specific, our home-grown vegetables.

A couple of years ago Scott created a vegetable garden in a neglected garden bed along our fence line. Once the plants got established, we have enjoyed lovely home-grown, chemical free, vegetables.

How successfully….

Scott has tried growing several different things, some with success, some not so successful.

We have had success with Heirloom Carrots. The first time we harvested some we were quite surprised at the variety or colours that we had. Apart from the common orange, we had yellow, red, white & purple carrots, they really add colour to the plate. We continue to plant these seeds so that we always have some carrots.

Sweet potatoes have been a challenge. We planted 2 varieties, the common ‘Gold’ and the less common ‘Hawaiian’ sweet potato. The plants were quite large and healthy, but the crop was small. Hopefully next time around the results will be better.

Scott has had some great success with growing zucchini. We have had some large enough to stuff and roast.

We have not had success with growing cauliflower. As we don’t use any chemicals on our garden, our cauliflower plants were attacked by bugs and died.

At the beginning of winter Scott planted Purple Sprouting Broccoli seedlings and this week we harvested the last head of broccoli. It was quite large and really purple. It is also quite good for us.

A bit about the Broccoli,

There are differences in the nutritional values of green and purple broccoli.

The purple broccoli has higher levels of vitamin C, folate, iron, calcium, isotonic, glucolin, and anthocyanins.

Purple sprouting broccoli also contains the phyto chemicals ulphoraphane (thought to help prevent cancer) and may provide resistance against heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes. Overall, purple sprouting broccoli was found to contain higher contents of antioxidant compounds than green broccoli.

After cooking, the purple sprouting broccoli retains higher levels of antioxidant. (Sources; https://academic.oup.com/biohorizons/article/ ; https://drizzleazure.wordpress.com)

We have also had a pumpkin vine growing in our garden. It is growing quite well, taking up lots of space, and we have been looking forward to harvesting some pumpkins. However, we are not having much success.

The pumpkins are forming but don’t mature.

Scott was ready to pull up the plant. He spoke to one of his Uni lecturers who advised that the little immature pumpkins were quite good steamed.

We have since tried steaming them and they taste like button squash. So, I guess the pumpkin vine isn’t a complete failure. We are continuing to harvest the tiny pumpkins and are also going to try roasting them.

All in all, our garden is providing us with some lovely, chemical free, whole foods. By trying to grow different varieties, we eat a more varied diet.

Till the next post,

 

Live Clean n Prosper