Archive for the ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ Category

Super Food

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Spirulina are floating filamentous cyanobacteria with cylindrical trichomes in left-hand helix. Spirulina grows naturally in tropical and subtropical lakes with high pH and high concentrations of carbonate and bicarbonate. It is commonly used as food supplements. For centuries Aztecs have been eating Spirulina. The earliest record reveals that it grew in Lake Texcoco, and was collected and sold as food.

The first Spirulina manufacturing factory was established in 1970s. Recent years it has become a popular thing in the world, and has been approved by the FDA, WHO and other medical authourities as health food. Spirulina is rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals. It contains Lysine, Cysteine, Methionine, Phenylalanine and Threonine, whic are important amino acids that can only be acquired by human beings through food. Spirulina is also a very rich source of Vitamin B-12.

Chlorella is a single-cell green algae which is part of Chlorophyta family. It is spherical in shape, about 2 to 10 um in diameter. Chlorella contains a fibrous and indigestible outer shell and inner nutrients. The dried Chlorella contains about 45% protein, 20% fat, 20% carbohydrate, 5% fibre, and 10% minerals and vitamins. Therefore many people believe it is an attractive food source because it is high in protein and other essential nutrients. More importantly many of its health benefits have been discovered by researchers around the world.

Wheatgrass also contains 20 amino acids, several hundred different enzymes not found in other foods, as many as 90 out of 102 possible minerals, vitamins and other important nutrients. It is a great supplement for people on diet, for sports people, and for people who want to maintain a healthy immune system. It should mention that nowadays many people like to buy wheatgrass powder to make juice by themselves.

Some nice healthy food

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Many published studies discussed medicinal benefits of goji berries, including its antioxidant properties, its potential roles against cardiovascular, inflammatory, and vision-related diseases, its neuro-protective properties, its roles as anticancer and immunomodulatory agent. Research have found that goji contains many nutrients including 11 essential elements, 22 trace dietary minerals, 18 amino acids, 6 essential vitamins, 8 polysaccharides, and 6 monosaccharidesm.Cacao nibs are from Cacao Seeds, and are made by peeling and breaking the cacao seeds. Cacao nibs are the middle thing prior to chocolate. There are two types of cacao nibs. One is from roasted cacao beans, and the other is from raw caco beans. These cacao nibs are introduced in the following.

The roasted cacao nibs are made from the process whereby the cacao seeds are roasted in large, rotating ovens, at temperatures of about 210-290F. Roasting lasts from half an hour up to two hours. The heat brings out more flavour and aroma, and it dries and darkens the seeds. Then seeds are cracked and winnowed, that is, their outer shells are cracked and blown away, leaving the crushed and broken pieces of cacao seeds - “cacao nibs”. At this point, we have something edible and really chocolatey.

Maca is an herbaceous biennial plant or annual plant in Bolivia and Peru. Mostly it is known as Peruvian Maca. Maca grows on high mountains, and grows well only in very cold weather and in poor soil. It has been discovered that hypocotyls is one of the major constituents of naturally grown and organic maca root on mountaineous area. As hypocotyls do not form in greenhouses or in warm climates, cultivated maca in other areas than Andean mountains don’t have same content of hypocotyles and other nutrients as the naturally grown and organic maca root.