Thursday, May 30, 2013

LOVE eating mushrooms? Think twice

To all people who love to eat mushrooms:

You cannot eat more than 200g mushrooms per month. Mushrooms absorb the heavy and toxic metals from the earth and stores it. Heavy metal does not get excreted and stores in YOUR body if you ingest mushrooms, and puts a heavy heavy burden on your kidneys.

And this is one of the causes of kidney diseases.

Also, one of the solutions to minimise the nuclear contamination level after the Chernobyl incident, is to grow mushrooms in the affected areas. Now we know why.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Love pizza but have to watch your calories? Here's the solution for you!

Carrot Crust Pizza

Ingredients:

Crust: 

3 medium carrots 

1 clove garlic, 

minced 1/4 cup mozza cheese, 

shredded 1 egg Toppings 

2 Tbsp pizza sauce 

2 Tbsp onion, finely chopped

 2 slices bacon, cooked & diced 

2 Tbsp green pepper, diced 

2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, shredded 

 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400. 

Line a pizza pan with parchment paper. 

Set aside. In a food processor, blend carrots until very finely chopped. 

Take the processed carrot and, using a cheesecloth or clean piece of material (like an old shirt or tea towel), strain as much water (carrot juice) out of the carrots as you can. 

Place the strained carrots into a bowl - you should have about 1 cup of carrot. Stir in garlic, Mozza cheese, and egg until well blended. 

Using a spatula, spread out carrot mixture onto prepared cookie sheet to about an 8 inch circle. 

Bake at 400 for 10 - 12 minutes, until just starting to brown around the outside and top appears dry. 

Top as desired. Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes. 

Turn oven to broil and broil for an addition 1 or 2 minutes to brown/crisp things up - keep an eye on it that it doesn't get too brown. 

Remove from oven and let sit for a minute or two. Use the parchment paper to slide off pizza tray. 

Cut and serve. 

 

Nutritional info: 

CRUST ONLY - 237 Calories, 10.8 Fat, 19.8 Carbs, 16.5 Protein. 

CRUST AND TOPPINGS - 394 Calories, 20.7 Fat, 26 Carbs, 27 Protein. 

That is for the ENTIRE pizza. It is a single serving. Have you ever eaten an entire pizza for 400 calories? Well....now you can :D 

Source 

 

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Monday, May 27, 2013

Grilled Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing


 I'm not a big salad person, but darn I;m drooling over this one...


INGREDIENTS

GRILLED CORN, AVOCADO AND TOMATO SALAD
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
2 ears of fresh sweet corn
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
HONEY LIME DRESSING
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp honey
Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
Dash of cayenne pepper
DIRECTIONS

GRILLED CORN, AVOCADO AND TOMATO SALAD

Remove husks from corn and grill over medium heat for 10 minutes. The corn should have some brown spots and be tender and not mushy. Cut the corn off the cob then scrape the cob with the back of your knife to get the juices. Set aside and let cool. Slice the tomatoes in half. Dice the avocado and chop the cilantro.
HONEY LIME DRESSING

1
Add all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
2
Combine the sliced tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and grilled corn and honey lime dressing and mix gently so everything is evenly coated. Be careful not to mash the avocados. Let the salad sit for 10-15 minutes to let flavors mingle. Enjoy.


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Good cheese? Bad cheese?

Most of us love to eat cheese. It's the great-tasting staple that transforms bread into a sandwich, salad into a Ploughman's lunch and pasta into macaroni cheese. But is cheese good for our health?

According to the National Dairy Council, it supplies 12 pc of the calcium in the British diet and is a fine source of protein and nutrients - including vitamins B2 (riboflavin), B12, A and D. It's also a good idea to eat cheese after a meal as it neutralises mouth acids and helps minimise tooth decay.

But cheese can also be perilously high in fat and saturates, and some of its critics also charge it with causing catarrh and allergies.

But cheeses aren't all the same. In fact, they have a huge variety of nutrient values, so read our guide to see how your favourite cheese rates on a scale of one to five.

Brie Per 100g:
calories 319,
fat 26.9g (saturates 16.8g),
calcium 540mg
Despite its fat-laden reputation, Brie is less fat-rich than Cheddar or Stilton and has good levels of calcium. It is also a reasonable source of zinc, needed for a healthy skin, immune system and reproductive health. The soft rind is rich in vitamin B1 (thiamin), so it is best to eat it rather than throw it away.
Health rating: ***

Camembert Per 100g:
calories 297,
fat (saturates) 23.7g (14.8g),
calcium 350mg
THIS rich and creamy cheese actually has a third less fat and a quarter less calories than Cheddar. It is unusually high in folic acid and, for a soft cheese, is rich in calcium. The edible rind is rich in thiamin, which is needed for energy release and healthy nerves.
Health rating: ***

Cheddar Per 100g:
calories 412,
fat 34.4g (saturates 21.7g),
calcium 720mg
CHEDDAR is one of the highest-fat cheeses, which is bad news considering it's also one of our favourites. However, it is a great supplier of calcium and provides respectable quantities of zinc. Orange Cheddar is simply white Cheddar with added orange colouring.
Health rating: ** to ***

Half-fat Cheddar Per 100g:
calories 261,
fat 15g (9.4g),
calcium 840mg
THIS IS not only lower in fat than normal Cheddar, it's also higher in protein, calcium and zinc. On the downside, it's lower in the fat-soluble vitamins A and D.
Health rating: ****

Cottage Cheese Per 100g:
calories 98,
fat 3.9g (saturates 2.4g),
calcium 73mg
THE only truly low-fat cheese, with about the same fat content as skinless chicken breast. The reduced-fat version is even more virtuous, with only 78 calories per 100g, making it ideal for slimmers. But cottage cheese is very low in calcium compared with other cheeses.
Health rating: ***

Cream Cheese Per 100g:
calories 439,
fat 47.4g (29.7g),
calcium 98mg
THIS is about the unhealthiest cheese of the lot. It has a level of fat and saturates equal to double cream, but a calcium content of only a seventh of that of Cheddar.
Health rating: *

Edam Per 100g:
calories 333,
fat 25.4g (15.9g),
calcium 770mg
EDAM has a medium amount of fat and calories but an excellent calcium content - higher than Cheddar. Unfortunately, its sodium content is particularly high - a factor to take into account if you have a family history of high blood pressure.
Health rating: ***

Feta Per 100g:
calories 250,
fat 20.2g (13.7g),
calcium 360mg
CLASSIC Greek cheese made with sheep's milk and may be suitable for people with a cow's milk allergy. Has a middling amount of calcium but fewer calories than half-fat Cheddar and only a third more fat. However, has a very high sodium content: 100g supplies two-thirds the recommended daily intake for women.
Health rating: ***

Flora Alternative To Cheddar Per 100g:
calories 409,
fat 34.5g (8.5g),
calcium 700mg
Made using technology that swops some of the highly saturated buttermilk for sunflower oil. Has as much calcium as full-fat Cheddar but 60 pc less saturated fat and 90 pc less cholesterol. But it is still a high-fat product and should be eaten in moderation.
Health rating: ****

Mozzarella Per 100g:
calories 301,
fat 25g (19g),
calcium 515mg
THIS is a medium-fat cheese which can be disproportionately high in undesirable saturates. However, has a good calcium content and its stringy nature means a little goes a long way.
Health rating ***

Parmesan Per 100g:
calories 452,
fat 32.7g (20.5g),
calcium 1,200mg
RICHER in protein than many cheeses and contains about the same amount of fat as Cheddar. It is amazingly high in calcium and just 10g grated over pasta supplies 15 pc of the recommended daily allowance (RDA).
Health rating: *****

Philadelphia Per 100g:
calories 313,
fat 31g (19.4g),
calcium 110mg
THIS full-fat soft cheese has marginally less fat than Cheddar but is much lower in calcium. A healthier alternative is Philadelphia Light with only half the fat and saturate content. Both contain the additive E410, a stabiliser made from locust beans.
Health rating ** (full fat) *** (reduced fat)

Ricotta Per 100g:
calories 185,
fat 14.8g (9.3g),
calcium 210mg
A FRESH, unripened cheese made from the whey of cow's milk, ricotta is naturally much lower in fat than many cheeses. It contains low to medium amounts of calcium but is also low in salt, so is a good choice for people watching their sodium intake.
Health rating **** 

Stilton Per 100g:
calories 411,
fat 35.5g (22.2g),
calcium 320mg
SIMILAR in fat and calorie content to Cheddar, but has less than half the calcium content. It can also be very high in sodium, but a plus point is a high amount of folic acid, now thought to lower heart disease risk. Weight for weight, Stilton has the same amount of this vitamin as broccoli.
Health rating: ** to ***

Swiss Per 100g (approx):
calories 400,
fat 30g (20g),
calcium 1,000mg
Typical Swiss cheeses such as Gruyere and Emmental are very high in protein, with a correspondingly high mineral content. A matchbox-sized piece (30g) provides more than 40 pc of the RDA for calcium and one-tenth of the RDA for zinc. Health rating ****

Easy and yum bacon cups!


What you need:
  • bacon
  • cheese
  • cupcake/muffin tray
  • oven
  • spring onion and seasoning
Pop the tray into the oven, when the edges of the bacon is crispy and the cheese have melted, take it out and enjoy!

Of course, as a health care worker I will not be recommending this recipe to any clients/ patients. However, here is a healthier alternative choice.
  • replace bacon with ham or macon
  • replace cheddar or gouda cheese with brie

Thursday, May 23, 2013

4 Foods Renamed So That You Might Actually Eat Them

All of us have foods we don't want to touch. It's not that we're picky eaters; it's just that Brussels sprouts and broccoli are gross, no matter how badly the first lady wants us to enjoy them.
But what really makes us picky eaters is foods we won't touch simply because they sound gross. That's why marketers are able to laugh at us from their penthouses with gold-plated toilets -- they can sell us anything. With the right name.


#4. Chilean Sea Bass Used to Be Patagonian Toothfish

For some reason, this adorable little swimmer, despite being undeniably delicious, just didn't move a lot of units. Because a fish is really only as delicious as the number of people who buy it, a change was obviously in order. Lee Lantz was the man to make that change happen. Disillusioned with his paltry toothfish sales, he just up and changed the name of the hideous-looking seabeast to Chilean sea bass, which, for all intents and purposes, it absolutely is not.

Dead-eyed stink-brick might have been more accurate.
Originally, the newly renamed fish was sold solely to make what had to be the most scrumptious fish sticks ever, so it wasn't the best marketing strategy. But then the Four Seasons in New York added Chilean sea bass to their menu, and a culinary sensation was born.

#3. Dried Plums Used to Be Prunes

Prunes have a very bad reputation. Let's not mince words: They're associated with helping old people move their bowels. That's not a sexy distinction.
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Nothing says "erotic" like regularly punishing your toilet.
To get around this, the California Prune Board, who you might remember as the band that frequently opened for the California Raisins in the '80s, decided to change the name of their product to what it really is ... dried plums. Great news! The FDA was all for it!
Swept up in the excitement of possibly breaking the chains that bind their product to elderly constipation, the prune board took it a step further and decided to change their name to the California Dried Plum Board.

When that move was given the green light as well, the board got cocky. In one of the most audacious requests in the history of food, they asked the FDA, presumably with a straight face, if they could change the name of prune juice to dried plum juice. The FDA literally had to spend your tax dollars to issue an official response to the request, in which they informed Big Prune that "dried juice" would be a contradiction in terms.

#2. Canola Oil Used to Be Rapeseed Oil

Shockingly, this name change wasn't the result of the public's reluctance to cook with rape, although we have no doubt that the name still would have crippled product sales. So it's a good thing that a shockingly knowledgeable public somehow knew, without the aid of the Internet even, that rapeseed oil contains erucic acid, which, as you know, sounds like something scary as shit that you shouldn't put in your food.
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"The rapeseed is coming in well, but our pedophile bushes are struggling."
What people didn't know was that the stuff they were selling was actually a contaminant-free hybrid of rapeseed oil. So, they renamed it canola oil and kept the switcheroo so quiet that it took a series of chain letters to expose the secret.
This was a sneaky success, but seriously, who's going to buy rapeseed oil anyway? They had no choice.
Getty
Nobody's ever been canola'd in a frathouse bathroom.

#1. Sea Urchin Used to Be Whore's Eggs

The Japanese, eaters of all sorts of disgusting things, had been eating whore's eggs for a really long time. As if you needed further proof that the USA leads the way in being a bunch of prudes, allow us to be the first to tell you that folks here in the States have been eating "whore's eggs" for a long time also. The only difference is, because we have some kind of irrational fear of whores, we call them uni here, and that's a stupid name, because what they really are is sea urchins.
Getty
Easily the third least whorish creature of the ocean floor.
Uni is a delicacy here now. In fact, it's so popular that you should get off your computer right now and take up diving. Urchin divers make $2,500 a week. That's almost as much as a good whore makes



Read more: http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-foods-renamed-so-that-you-might-actually-eat-them/#ixzz2U6vQhikH
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

5 Ways to Trick Your Brain into Eating Healthy

The human brain is a complex device -- and we figure that, like all devices, there's always someone out there who has figured out how to hack it for their own benefit. More specifically, scientists bent on never having to diet again have discovered extremely simple techniques that you can use to trick yourself into having healthier eating habits. For example, you can ...

#5. Use a Bigger Fork

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Using a bigger fork makes you eat less food, as weird as that sounds. It's not that your wrist will be too tired to keep shoveling stuff into your mouth; it's that you'll simply feel full with less food than if you were eating with a regular-sized fork.
In one study, researchers invaded a restaurant over several days and gave random customers different types of forks. Half of the customers were given forks 20 percent larger than average size, while the other half were given forks 20 percent smaller. The researchers went through the diners' plates when they were done and measured how much food was eaten off of each of them, which isn't creepy at all.
Getty
Why go to a restaurant to look at a stranger's food when you could just join Instagram?
What they found out was that the people who were given larger forks left significantly more food on their plates than those with smaller forks. But why would larger bites make you eat less? Because sight plays a huge role in our eating habits. We rely on visual cues to guide us when we're eating (i.e., how much food we see on the plate), since it takes our nervous system a while to realize whether we're really full or not.
So, if your senses are telling your brain that you should be satisfied, the brain will decide that, what the hell, you might as well be. When you use a bigger fork, you'll see yourself making bigger dents in the overall food on the plate, fooling your brain into believing that you're overeating. With a smaller fork, the transition from "a lot of food" to "hardly any food at all" is more subtle, so you keep on snacking well past the point your thunder thighs would appreciate.
Getty
Next thing you know, your dining room has no furniture.
However, the "use a bigger fork" trick only works at regular meal times, where your goal is to eat until you're satisfied. If you're snacking (where your goal is to eat until your pants explode), using a bigger fork will simply make you eat more food.

#4. Look at Healthy Food While You're Eating Something Else

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Here's a simple trick to lose a few pounds: Keep healthier food around ... and don't eat it. Just let it sit there, looking disapprovingly at the pizza you're gorging on.
Getty
You smug motherfucker.
Why? It turns out that just having healthier food on your table makes you a more conscientious eater. According to researchers from Cornell University, even if you don't choose the healthier alternative in front of you, you're still going to make healthier choices than if you didn't have that fruit or salad there at all.
In their study, they went to a school cafeteria over several days and put different side options on the lunch line. On one day they placed sugary meals like applesauce and fruit cocktail on the counter, and on the next there were healthier things like green beans and bananas. Naturally, most of the students ignored the obvious attempt to make them eat better and just chose what they would normally choose.
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It's like putting heroin next to an algebra textbook. Which would you choose?
Or at least that's what the kids thought they were doing. What the researchers found is that on the days when green beans and bananas were presented to them, even if students didn't take those items, their overall meals became healthier than on days when they were offered sugary items.
It's a priming effect -- just by being reminded that healthier food exists, subconsciously the kids felt guilty for not picking that food and ended up eating better. In other words, it's for the same reason you're less likely to curse when there is a priest sitting at your table.
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"Did you hear the one about the priest ... and the altar boy ... who, uh, enriched each other's lives in a totally platonic way?"

#3. Pretend You're Eating Fatty Foods

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You might have seen recent studies that found that diet products are bad for you, and not just because of all the chemicals that make bacteria grow in your stomach. One reason appears to be that diet soda and other low-fat products make you fat because you believe that they don't.
Getty
And before you even ask, no, the same argument does not apply to condoms.
The way a meal is labeled is more important than you think. In one experiment, researchers gave people cookies that were labeled either medium or large and told them that they could take as many as they wanted. The catch? The medium and large cookies were the same size, and since people trust their brains more than they trust their guts, people who were eating the "medium" cookies ate more than those who were eating the "large" cookies, simply because they thought they were making a healthier choice.
But this isn't a purely psychological thing; there's actually a real bodily effect going on here. In our guts, we have this hunger hormone called ghrelin, which is pronounced "gremlin" with a thick Jamaican accent. Ghrelin, essentially, is what makes you eat -- more ghrelin in your system means more appetite, and less means you feel like those two slices of pizza were enough. But here's the thing: How much ghrelin is produced depends not just on how much you've eaten, but on how much you think you have.
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"You see me eating four pieces of chicken, I see me eating only 20 percent of this bucket."
In one study, researchers from Yale University gave each subject a 380-calorie milkshake and told half of them that it was a high-fat 620-calorie milkshake, while the other half were told that it was a diet milkshake at 140 calories. Blood samples were taken while the subjects drank their milkshakes to record their ghrelin levels.
The results were clear: People who thought that they were drinking the high-fat shake had a significant decrease of ghrelin, while those under the assumption that they were sipping the sissy-boy shake had no ghrelin response at all, meaning they were still just as hungry as they were before. By tricking yourself into thinking that you're eating more, you can stop your body, both mentally and physiologically, from wanting more food. But there are also external things that can help you control your appetite ...

#2. Pay Attention to the Size and Color of Your Plates

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One common technique to make yourself eat less is simply using smaller plates -- not just because they hold less food, but because they make each plate seem fuller than it really is, which tricks your brain into thinking you've eaten more. What you might not know is that even the color of the plate impacts how much you eat.
Wikimedia Commons
Finally, you'll get some use out of your $500 "investment."
Researchers decided to test this idea during a college reunion, possibly because there are few social events where people will more systematically attack a buffet table. Attendees could get either a red or a white plate, and then they had the option of serving themselves pasta with tomato sauce or Alfredo sauce, which are red and white, respectively. This wasn't part of some patriotic theme: The researchers wanted the food to either blend in with the plate or stand out.
The experiment found that when people had plates that contrasted with the color of their meal, they served themselves 22 percent less food (32 grams) than those who had similar plate and food colors. So if you're trying to kick that eggplant habit, for example, simply throw away all your purple plates, and voila!
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Even the potent Acapulco Aubergine cultivar is powerless against color coordination.
To take it a bit further, they also recorded the tablecloths of the serving tables (which were either red or white) and saw that again, when the food contrasted with the cloth background, people served themselves 10 percent less than others. It works for the same reason as the "smaller plates" trick: It's called the Delboeuf illusion, an optical effect where something will look bigger if you closely surround it with a larger object that contrasts with it. The more your plate contrasts with your food, the more you'll think you've served yourself and the less you'll end up eating.
But what if you feed exclusively on burgers and rarely use things like plates or forks? Believe it or not, there's still hope for you ...

#1. Eat With Soft Lighting and Music

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We mentioned before that there is a reason restaurants play music while you eat -- music affects mood, and mood affects eating habits. Well, if restaurants are trying to use this to brainwash you into spending more, can you use it to your own advantage, diet-wise?
Totally. Researchers, apparently as part of an ongoing dare to see who could spend the most days in a restaurant, set up shop in a fast food joint and measured how much diners were eating from their meals by weighing their trays as they came and went.
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"Also, we'll need to measure any BMs you've taken in the past 24 hours."
After assessing the average amount of food eaten, the researchers tinkered with the restaurant's lighting and music, making both a few notches softer. Once more, they looked at how much food the people were eating. The difference was significant: Under the softer lighting and music, customers ate 18 percent less food (even though they ordered the same amount), consuming an average of 775 calories, compared to 949 calories. So why does this happen?
Bear in mind that those people didn't just eat less -- they were also more satisfied with the smaller amount they consumed. The diners rated their experience as significantly better than those who'd eaten under the usual brighter lights and louder music.
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This is why Olive Garden doesn't set up shop at a Slayer concert.
As it turns out, this isn't just a case of people wanting to get out of there faster when their senses are being assaulted from all directions, although that's certainly a factor. According to the researchers, since it's easier for you to enjoy your meal when your environment is calmer, you take slower bites and end up eating less overall. On the other hand, the lights and music stress you out so you eat more, and faster (note: fast food restaurants want you to leave quickly so it frees up a table).
So, if you're trying to lose weight, that gives you two options: Eat at fancy restaurants only, or start wearing thick shades and noise-cancelling earphones to Burger King.


 


Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20264_5-ways-to-trick-your-brain-into-eating-healthy.html#ixzz2U0KjnkOP
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