Pineapples: The Healing Fruit Of The Tropics (Includes A Recipe For Pina-Banana Orange Smoothie)
April 29, 2006
For a natural and tasty way to improve your health and boost your healing capacity, add fresh pineapple and pineapple juice to your diet. Pineapples are nutritionally packed members of the bromeliad family. This delightful tropical fruit is high in the enzyme bromelain and the antioxidant vitamin C, both of which plays a major role in the body’s healing process.
Bromelain, a natural anti-inflammatory with analgesic properties, encourages healing, promotes well-being and has many other health benefits. Bromelain is very effective in treating bruises, sprains and strains by reducing swelling, tenderness and pain. This powerful anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect can also help relieve osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and reduce postoperative swelling. Additionally, bromelain can relieve indigestion. The enzyme contained in fresh pineapple helps break down the amino acid bonds in proteins, which promotes good digestion.
Pineapples also provide an ample supply of vitamin C, a commonly known antioxidant that protects the body from free radical damage and boosts the immune system. Vitamin C helps build and repair bodily tissue and promotes wound healing. The body uses vitamin C to help metabolize fats and cholesterol, absorb iron, and synthesize amino acids and collagen. Collagen is one of the primary building blocks of skin, cartilage and bones. Vitamin C also decreases the severity of colds and infections.
Furthermore, due to its high vitamin C content, pineapples are good for your oral health as well. Recent studies have found that vitamin C can reduce your risk of gingivitis and periodontal disease. Besides increasing the ability of connective tissue to repair itself, vitamin C also increases the body’s ability to fight invading bacteria and other toxins that contribute to gum disease. Periodontal disease, which destroys gum tissue and underlying jaw bones, has been linked to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
So if you are searching for a natural way to enhance your body’s healing mechanisms, promote overall good health and tantalize your taste buds, pineapples are the way to go. Choose the fresh fruit because it has the most healing properties. Unfortunately, most of the bromelain in canned pineapple is destroyed due to the heat used in the canning process.
When choosing a fresh pineapple, do not judge ripeness solely based upon color. There are several varieties on the market that range from green to golden yellow. The most important factor in determining ripeness is smell, let your nose help you decide. Ripe pineapples give off a sweet, fresh tropical smell. Avoid pineapples that give off an unpleasant odor or have any soft spots or areas of dark discoloration. Once home, let the pineapple sit on your counter at room temperature until ready to use. This will preserve its sweet and tangy flavor.
To prepare pineapple, you need to peel it, remove the eyes (the thorny protrusions within the puffy squares of the skin) and the fibrous center. One way to do this is to remove the top of the pineapple with a sharp knife. Then cut the pineapple lengthwise into 4 wedges (quarter it) and place each pineapple wedge horizontally on a cutting board. Carefully cut the fruit from the outer skin, and cut out the eyes and fibrous center core.
Another way is to cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple, place the pineapple vertically (upright) on a cutting board and carefully slice off the outer skin. With a sharp paring knife or the end if a vegetable peeler, remove the eyes. Don’t cut too deep, just enough to lift out the section that contains the eye. Then, slice the pineapple crosswise and remove the fibrous core individually with a cookie cutter.
Once the fruit is prepared, it can be diced and eaten fresh, added to salads and entrees for an exotic flavor, or made into tasty tropical drinks and smoothies.
To get you started, try Monique N. Gilbert’s delicious, nutritious, cholesterol-free smoothie recipe. It’s high in bromelain, vitamin C, beta carotene, potassium, thiamin (vitamin B-1), riboflavin (vitamin B-2), iron, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and soy isoflavones.
Pina-Banana Orange Smoothie
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1 frozen banana
1 cup fresh pineapple
1/2 cup soymilk
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
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Place all of the above ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy. Makes about 2-3/4 cups (2 servings)
Copyright © Monique N. Gilbert - All Rights Reserved
Monique N. Gilbert, B.Sc. is a Health, Nutrition, Weight-Loss & Lifestyle Coach; Certified Personal Trainer/Fitness Counselor; Recipe Developer; Freelance Writer and Author of Virtues of Soy: A Practical Health Guide and Cookbook. http://www.MoniqueNGilbert.com
She has offered guidance in natural health, nutrition, fitness, weight-loss and stress management since 1989. She has received international recognition for helping people get healthy, manage stress, lose weight and keep it off. Through her coaching program and writings, Monique motivates and teaches how to improve your well-being, vitality and longevity with balanced nutrition, physical activity and healthy living. For more information, visit her website.
Butterfly House in the Flower Garden
April 29, 2006
Whenever you decide to look for a butterfly house for your flower garden, you first have to determine what it is you actually want. A search for butterfly houses will yield two different types. There is the type of butterfly house that contains butterflies and their nectar plants. These type of butterfly houses are actually structures created for the specific reason of providing a safe and enclosed space in which to study the butterflies.
It can vary from a playpen-size for individual study to a medium-sized net-drapped area to large green house-like structure for scientists’ study. We even have large enclosures open for public viewing, education and delight. If you find this a delightful prospect to walk in a large “cage” with hundreds of butterflies surrounding you, consult your local museums and zoos for information. This being the information age, check online too.
As part of your children’s, or your own, education, you may wish to raise some butterflies from caterpillar in a small butterfly house. Live butterfly kits are readily available and come with all you need to raise the caterpillar to a butterfly, usually a Painted Lady. Of course you may be able to collect the eggs from your own garden and raise them in your own home for your education and enjoyment. Please find a proper resource to guide you in this prospect if you should choose to do so.
You may also wish to create your own butterfly house of this type in your own flower garden. This can be done by means of mosquito netting drapped over an easily portable structure such as a light weight greenhouse structure or some type of tall stakes. Just surround whatever flowers are providing the nectar source at the present time. Don’t forget the small puddles as water sources for the butterflies, too.
The second type of butterfly house is actually a hibernation box. It is usually a tall, 6 inch diameter box mounted on a post which is then set into your garden. The front of the box has half inch slots through which the butterflies can enter the house. The front also swings open to allow you to place some twigs or, preferably, some rough bark within the house. This allows the butterflies a good gripping surface.
Place the box near some host plants for the type of butterflies in your area. This will provide incentive for the butterflies to lay eggs on the host plants in your flower garden in the spring.
The top of the butterfly house may be opened so you may observe the hibernating butterflies and record the numbers and types of your hibernating guests. If you are very lucky, on a warm winter’s day, one of your guest may actually step out of the butterfly house. If this occurs, sugar water or home-grown flowers may keep it occupied until the day starts to cool. At which time, the butterfly will make its way back into the butterfly house in your flower garden.
© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson
Find more butterfly garden articles and gardening tips for Flower Garden Lovers at our informative website.
Small Kitchen Remodeling Ideas
April 29, 2006
Any remodeling idea for a small kitchen must address the following issues: counter space, storage, built-ins, and pantry.
In order to make better use of your kitchen floor space, you need to put up the maximum amount of counters. Plan your design with deeper counters to cover as much of the area not occupied with appliances with counter space if the difference in floor space is a matter of a few square feet.
Squeeze as many cabinets into your design as possible. Deep cabinets that can hold plates should be located near the dishwasher, and large cabinets with slide-out drawers should be placed near the oven.
Another space-saving device is to include built-in facilities. You can have built-in ovens, microwaves and storage for small appliances. This will make your kitchen appear less cluttered. Built-in storage for foods like potatoes and onions and bread storage cabinets will also give the kitchen a cleaner look. You can also opt for waist-high, sliding shelves that hold mixers and toasters. Your small appliances can remain hidden in these shelves and still be easily accessible.
If there is no room for a pantry in your kitchen, consider converting a closet outside the kitchen area to store your cutlery, pots and infrequently used items. You can also include rollout pantries that can be pulled out to view the items you have, but rolled back into a space.
Choose a large sink. It will be easier for you to clean bigger pots and pans. Moreover, a large sink is a great place to stash your dirty pots. A large sink can also serve as a utility sink, too.
You can increase the efficiency of your small kitchen by putting a wire basket on the inside the cabinet or under the sink to hold trash bags and other frequently used items. You can mount an instant hot water heater on the sink to replace the sprayer or soap.
A tile back splash on all the walls above the counters, stove and sink make the kitchen easier to clean.
Kitchen Remodeling Info provides detailed information about kitchen remodeling ideas and costs, including small kitchen remodeling ideas, kitchen cabinet remodeling, and more. Kitchen Remodeling Info is the sister site of Bathroom Remodeling Web.
Choosing Wooden Toys For Children
April 29, 2006
Wooden toys are one of the best alternatives for the huge number of toys made of plastic and other synthetic materials that you can find in all toy stores.
In addition, most children’s wooden toys are handcrafted. This makes them look wonderful. Not only that they are great toys for children, but they are also incredible works of art.
Wooden toys in the past
People started being preoccupied with manufacturing toys for their children many thousands of years ago in order to keep children busy while parents were working.
Because modern materials like plastic andrubber were not yet discovered, the only material available to be used at creating child toys was wood.
Although rudimentary at first, children’s wooden toys became very popular with children from rich families in Egypt and The Roman Empire.
One such case was that of a ten years old girl from a wealthy roman family. She was mummified and put to rest in her tomb alongside with her most loved things.
One of her personal objects found was a wonderful wooden toy doll. It was really carefully carved and varnished, proving that parents in the Roman Empire were preoccupied with the quality of the wooden toys they choose for their children.
It is not known whether other materials besides wood were used to manufacture toys in that period.
Wooden toys in the present
Nowadays, toy manufacturing is a huge industry. Although wood is no longer the main material used to make child toys, wooden child toys are still very popular.
The reason is simple: wooden toys are great toys.
They have many advantages over other types of child toys. Here are just some of them:
Wooden toys are ecological. Wood is a natural product and it’s biodegradable. Manufacturing wooden toys does not involve as much pollution as other toys. Also, because wood is a natural product, wooden toys aren’t dangerous to a child’s health.
Wooden toys are more resistant to shocks than other toys. Some children destroy toys regularly. Because wooden toys can’t be damaged that easily, their life expectancy is bigger.
Wooden toys look wonderful. Children’s wooden toys are usually handcrafted, meaning that parents that like handmade objects can consider these toys works of art, as well as toys.
Read the whole article on choosing children’s wooden toys.
Eugen Lisov is the creator of http://www.Child-Toys-Guide.com, a site that helps parents worldwide to choose the best toys for their children. Please feel free to browse my site; it will only help you when choosing toys for your child.
After WLS: Walking for Wellness
April 29, 2006
Step for step, mile for mile, walking is the best cardiovascular activity you can include as part of your weight loss surgery success story. Walking is easy, accessible, inexpensive, individual and effective. It is the gold-star sport for real people with real lives. Formerly stigmatized as cheap transportation and a senior citizens’ sport it is now a credible and fashionable form of exercise. And it’s been around for a long time ? anthropoids stood upright and put one foot in front of the other thousands of years ago and we haven’t looked back since.
Now validated, as a vigorous fitness activity walking has become America’s most popular physical activity with over 20-million people stepping out regularly. Studies abound touting the benefits of walking: including weight loss, lowered risk of stroke or heart disease and improved mental well-being. While it may sound trite, 30-minutes of walking a day will keep the doctor away.
Be sure to record your walking activity beginning on the very first day. Find a notebook, a journal, or a computer program where you can record your time and distance each day. This may sound silly the first week when you are taking 5-minute walks, but very soon you will rejoice at your progress if you have a record of where you began.
To achieve maximum benefit from this walking program, you will need a good pair of soft athletic walking shoes, preferably with ankle support. I suggest you get these prior to surgery so you don’t have the "no shoes" excuse to put-off your walking program. Give them to yourself as a gift acknowledging your bravery and courage to make this positive change in your life.
Next, plan where you will walk. Raise your hand if you already own a treadmill! Mine was stored in a forgotten corner of the basement, bought with the best intention, but abandoned for a number of excuses. Get that old friend out and put it where you’ll use it. most treadmills for home use are rated at a 250-pound weight limit. Fresh out of gastric bypass surgery, most of us exceed that limit. Fitness equipment manufacturers say that if the weight limit is exceeded, but at a slow pace for short duration, the treadmill should not be damaged. I say, take your chances and walk on the treadmill. It won’t take long before you drop below the weight limit and in the meantime you are becoming stronger and fitter by taking short walks on the machine.
If your climate and neighborhood are equitable plan a walking route out-of-doors. Prior to surgery measure your route by the quarter mile. One determined patient I know walked one driveway further each day until she made it all the way around the block. Counting driveways is how she marked her progress. Good for her!
Do you prefer to walk in the climate-controlled mall? Plan a walking route there ? just be sure to swiftly step past the bakery and candy store. Many malls have early hours when people can gather and fitness walk without having to navigate around shoppers.
For best success sip water throughout your walk. Wear comfortable clothing for easy movement. Avoid exercising in extreme weather ? too hot or very cold.
Now equipped with great shoes, comfortable clothes, a walking route and a journal to record your progress you are ready to take your first step! Here is my plan to walk your way into a healthier life.
Copyright © 2005 Kaye Bailey - All Rights Reserved.
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often.
Whatever Happened to Christmas?
April 29, 2006
Remember when no one started Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving?
Wisconsin author LeAnn R. Ralph remembers it very well.
“When I was growing up on our dairy farm forty years ago, the stores didn’t put up Christmas displays until the day after Thanksgiving. No one was really thinking about Christmas shopping before that,” Ralph said. “In fact, my mother felt so strongly about it that she didn’t even like to hear the word ‘Christmas’ until after we had finished eating Thanksgiving dinner.”
Ralph’s new book, Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm), celebrates Christmas during that simpler time.
“Back then, happiness was baking cookies, decorating the Christmas tree, and eating lefse that my mother had made,” Ralph said.
Lefse (pronounced lef’suh) is a flat potato pastry brought to this country by Norwegian immigrants who settled in Wisconsin. Ralph’s mother was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, and their 120-acre family farm was homesteaded by Ralph’s great-grandfather.
“When I was a kid, people enjoyed simple pleasures. The Sunday school Christmas program was an event at the little country church just down the road from our farm that was attended by nearly everyone in the neighborhood,” Ralph noted.
“At the time, if someone had told me the Christmas season was going to change so drastically that you would eventually get Christmas catalogs in the mail in August and September - and that you would find Christmas decorations on sale in August and September, too - I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said.
“I also would have never thought that dairy farming would change so much. I always took it for granted that we lived in ‘America’s Dairyland,’ but today, most of the small family dairy farms have disappeared,” Ralph noted.
According to statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture , Wisconsin has lost two-thirds of its dairy farms since 1969. Forty years ago, Wisconsin had 60,000 dairy farms. Today, only about 20,000 dairy farms remain.
Nation-wide statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture show the same trend. In 1969, more than a half a million dairy farms operated in the United States. Today, only about 80,000 dairy farms remain.
“As far as I was concerned, one of the best parts of Christmas was going out with my dad to cut a Christmas tree. We had small stands of pine trees planted around the farm to stop soil erosion. We would walk around until we found a nice tree, and then we would cut it and bring it home,” Ralph recalled.
Ralph’s book, Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003; ISBN1-59113-366-1 ; trade paperback; 153 pages), features 20 stories set on her family’s farm during the Christmas season. Story titles include “The Lefse Connection,” “Milkweed Pods and Poinsettias,” “Wintergreen,” “White Christmas,” “Jeg Er Sa Glad Hver Julekveld,” “The Most Perfect Toboggan,” “A Candle for Christmas,” and “A New Year Unlike Any Other.” The book also includes recipes for lefse, fattigman (a Norwegian cookie, pronounced ‘futty-mun’), julekake, and Christmas cookies, as well as instructions for making candles out of old crayons, as featured in the story “A Candle for Christmas.”
“Several years ago a story of mine about my dad making ice cream was published in an e-mail newsletter. The title of the story was ‘Dad’s Favorite Recipe,’ and for several weeks after that I received e-mails asking for the recipe. That’s why I decided to include recipes in the book for some of the foods mentioned in my stories,” Ralph explained.
About The Author
LeAnn R. Ralph is the editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer (the quarterly publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Assoc.) and is the author of the book, Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (Aug. 2003); trade paperback. For more information about Christmas In Dairyland, visit http://ruralroute2.com
