10 Worst Foods In Your Pantry

10 Worst Foods In Your Pantry

1. Soda and Sweetened Beverages

Some of the worst foods in their pantry are soda and other sweetened drinks because these contribute refined carbohydrate calories without nutrients. David Leopold, MD, director of integrative medical education for the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, puts any type of soda at the top of his “worst” list. Some might be surprised that sweetened teas and energy drinks rival the sugar in soda with about 50 grams of sugar per 16-ounce bottle.

2. High Sugar, Low Fiber Breakfast Cereals

Cold cereals were among the top sources of added sugar for children between the ages of 2 and 8, according to a recent report. A cereal that lists a refined grain and sugar as the first two ingredients won’t satisfy your hunger through the morning and it won’t contribute important nutrients, which come from whole foods like whole grains, nuts, or dried fruit.

3. Snack Cakes and Cupcakes

Snack cakes have three of the four ingredients we need to eat less of: refined flour, added sugars, and saturated fat. The typical snack cake serving, such as two Hostess Ho Hos, contains 228 calories, 9 grams of saturated fat, and 28 grams of sugar. Keep in mind that 9 grams of saturated fat is half the maximum daily amount of saturated fat recommended for someone eating 1,800 calories a day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines.

4. Movie Theater or Mega Butter Microwave Popcorn

The “Extra Butter” or “Movie Theater” microwave popcorn choices are some of the last products that still have shocking amounts of trans fat in them with a small serving of 3 tablespoons (unpopped) containing about 2.5 grams of saturated fat and 5 grams of trans fat. Each serving also adds at least 300 milligrams of sodium to your day’s total.

5. Chips and Cheetos

This popular snack group category made the list because they are processed with gobs of fat and sodium and usually include a refined grain. A 2-ounce bag of chips or Cheetos usually adds more than 300 calories, 20 grams of fat, and over 450 milligrams of sodium. The worst part is we tend to eat too much of them because even a 2-ounce portion doesn’t seem to satisfy our stomach.

6. Packaged Muffins and Cereal Bars

You expect Pop Tarts to be full of sugar (about 16 grams of sugar each) but you might be surprised to learn that even the more healthful sounding cereal bars or packaged muffins contain about the same amount of sugar (or more) than your typical toaster pastry. Otis Spunkmeyer brand muffins contribute about 30 grams of sugar per 4-ounce muffin, Weight Watchers muffins add about 20 grams of sugar per 2.2-ounce muffin, and a small Nutri-Grain cereal bar has 13 grams of sugar.

7. Crackers (made with refined flour)

They are so easy to eat a lot of because they are bite-size and crunchy. A few years ago crackers were held together with partially hydrogenated fat (which added trans fat) and now the trans fats are mostly gone, but most crackers are still low in fiber and high in sodium.

8. Yeast Breads (made with refined flour)

Yeast breads, from hot dog buns to Texas toast, made the “worst” list for two reasons: They are one of the biggest sources of refined flour in the typical American diet and they are also the No. 1 source of sodium among the U.S. population.

9. Store-Bought Cookies (especially the chocolate coated ones)

Grain desserts, which includes cookies, are a major source of added sugars, more so than dairy desserts or candy, according to a new report. Some commercial cookies are higher in fat, saturated fat and sugar than others but they all usually start with refined flour. The chocolate coated cookies tend to have the most saturated fat (about 5 grams per 3 cookie serving).

10. Canned Soup and Instant Noodle Cups

Some choices in the soup aisle have half a day’s worth of sodium in a serving. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend half the U.S. population, including people aged 51 and older and those of any age who are African-American or have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease, reduce their sodium to 1,500 milligrams a day.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/best-worst-foods?page=2

$1 The Value of a Dollar

When Jonathan Blaustein purchased 10 early-season organic blueberries for $1, he was a little upset by this price, because six weeks earlier he had purchased 17 organic blueberries from Chile for the same amount of money. And those blueberries from Chile were from 800 miles away but were half the cost of California berries.

Eventually, after seeing many different menus around the world with various dollar-priced meals, photographer Mr. Blaustein, 36, decided to pursue a project “The Value of a Dollar”.

So, what food can you buy if you only have $1 in your wallet? See these photos taken by Mr. Blaustein and find out the answer.

Shurfine flour

A double cheeseburger from McDonald’s

Organic grapefruit from a natural food store

Conventional grapefruit

Tomatillos from Mexico

Candy necklaces from China

Shufrine white bread

Potted meat food product

Organic basmati rice

Tea biscuits from Spain

Shrimp-flavored ramen noodles

Beef shank

Pork floss, or rousong

Fenugreek seeds from India

Saffron

Side salad with ranch dressing from Burger King

Escargot in a can from Indonesia

Early-season organic blueberries from California

Dried smelt

WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells.. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water–best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc..) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit.. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapis another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

I drink butterfly pea flower tea

Tea from Butterfly Pea Flowers (Clitoria ternatea) operates draining and support the eyesight.
The flowers containing the powerful antioxidant blue proanthocyanidin.
The butterfly flower tea tastes a bit like black tea, but the taste is quite slight.

Recipe: Butterfly Pea Flower (Clitoria ternatea) Tea
10 dried flowers per cup of tea are recommended
Scald the dried flowers with boiling water to clean them.
Drain the flowers through a sieve and pour the liquid away.
Than scald the flowers again with boiling water and let them infuse about 5 – 10 minutes.
Drain again through a sieve and serve the flower tea hot or chilled, sweeten with sugar or honey.
You can add the flowers to other fruit- or herbal tea mixes as well.
Alternatively add the infusion to fruit juice or cocktails.

http://www.the-foodist.com/recipes/clitoria-ternatea-butterfly-pea-flower-tea-recipe/

Polyphenols act as antioxidants.

Polyphenols act as antioxidants. They protect cells and body chemicals against damage caused by free radicals, reactive atoms that contribute to tissue damage in the body. For example, when low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is oxidized, it can become glued to arteries and cause coronary heart disease.

Polyphenols can also block the action of enzymes that cancers need for growth and they can deactivate substances that promote the growth of cancers. The polyphenol most strongly associated with cancer prevention is epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG.

All tea contains polyphenols. Teas and polyphenols isolated from tea have been shown in the laboratory to act as scavengers of oxygen and nitrogen-free radicals, protecting the fatty membranes of cells, proteins and DNA. However, the results of human studies of tea and polyphenols to date (2001) have been inconsistent and have yet to prove anything one way or the other as regards the value of polyphenols.
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Polyphenols in Red Wine and Green Tea Halt Prostate Cancer Growth, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (June 11, 2010) — In what could lead to a major advance in the treatment of prostate cancer, scientists now know exactly why polyphenols in red wine and green tea inhibit cancer growth. This new discovery, published online in The FASEB Journal, explains how antioxidants in red wine and green tea produce a combined effect to disrupt an important cell signaling pathway necessary for prostate cancer growth. This finding is important because it may lead to the development of drugs that could stop or slow cancer progression, or improve current treatments.

“Not only does SphK1/S1P signaling pathway play a role in prostate cancer, but it also plays a role in other cancers, such as colon cancer, breast cancer, and gastric cancers,” said Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal. “Even if future studies show that drinking red wine and green tea isn’t as effective in humans as we hope, knowing that the compounds in those drinks disrupts this pathway is an important step toward developing drugs that hit the same target.”

Scientists conducted in vitro experiments which showed that the inhibition of the sphingosine kinase-1/sphingosine 1-phosphate (SphK1/S1P) pathway was essential for green tea and wine polyphenols to kill prostate cancer cells. Next, mice genetically altered to develop a human prostate cancer tumor were either treated or not treated with green tea and wine polyphenols. The treated mice showed reduced tumor growth as a result of the inhibited SphK1/S1P pathway. To mimic the preventive effects of polyphenols, another experiment used three groups of mice given drinking water, drinking water with a green tea compound known as EGCg, or drinking water with a different green tea compound, polyphenon E. Human prostate cancer cells were implanted in the mice and results showed a dramatic decrease in tumor size in the mice drinking the EGCg or polyphenon E mixtures.

“The profound impact that the antioxidants in red wine and green tea have on our bodies is more than anyone would have dreamt just 25 years ago,” Weissmann added. “As long as they are taken in moderation, all signs show that red wine and green tea may be ranked among the most potent ‘health foods’ we know.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609171802.htm

Simple ways to reduce blood pressure

Simple ways to reduce blood pressure

Following are the simple steps to keep your blood pressure under control

High blood pressure contributes to an alarming number of deaths each year. Although it may not have apparent symptoms, high blood pressure leads to heart attacks and strokes aside from also causing kidney failure. You can reduce your blood pressure by reducing your weight (if you’re obese) and making a few small changes in your life, say doctors.

– Walk it out — Walking at a brisk pace can help lower your pressure. A good workout will ensure the heart uses oxygen more efficiently. Getting a rigorous cardio workout 4 to 5 times a week can make a huge difference. Start by incorporating about 15 minutes of exercise in your daily routine and slowly increase the time and difficulty level.

– Deep Breathing — Learning some slow breathing and meditation techniques can do you wonders. It will help reduce stress drastically and keep your blood pressure in check. Try taking out 10 minutes every morning and at night. Inhale and exhale deeply. If you can, join a yoga class for some time so that you can learn the proper method.

– Go for potassium-rich foods — You have probably heard of the negative effects of sodium on the body and potassium is an essential mineral to counter the effects of sodium on blood pressure. Fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium. Try adding sweet potatoes, tomatoes, orange juice, potatoes, bananas, peas, and prunes and raisins to your regular diet.

– Go slow on the salt — Whether you have a family history of high blood pressure or not, reducing your intake of salt can make a huge difference to your health. Before adding that extra pinch of salt to your food, think if you really need it. Try substituting salt with lime, garlic, pepper or other herbs and spices. Go slow on processed and packaged foods. Potato chips, frozen chicken nuggets, bacon etc are high in sodium. Try calculating your daily sodium consumption. Keep a food diary and you may be surprised at how much you’re taking in.

– Dark chocolate benefits — The darker variety of chocolate has flavonols that make blood vessels more elastic. Choose one that has at least 70 per cent cocoa to really reap the benefits.

– Alcohol alert — While it does provide some health benefits, alcohol can also be bad for your health. If consumed in small amounts, it can help prevent heart attacks and coronary artery disease. But, more than one or two drinks and the benefits are gone. Keep a check on your drinking patterns and if you’re a heavy drinker, start reducing slowly. Never indulge in binge drinking. Consuming four or five drinks in a row can cause a sudden increase in blood pressure.

– Tea benefits — Herbal teas are the way to go. In a study conducted, those who sipped on hibiscus tea daily lowered their blood pressure. Many herbal teas contain hibiscus or you can always opt for green tea. The effects of caffeine are still debatable. Drinking caffeinated beverages can temporarily increase pressure. The solution is to check your pressure within 30 minutes of drinking a cup of coffee to determine if it works for your body.

– Reduce work and relax — Reducing the number of hours you spend in office can help lower hypertension. Working overtime makes it hard to exercise and eat healthy. Ensure that you get out of office at a decent hour. Learning to relax by listening to soothing music (Classical, Oriental or Indian instrumental) can help.

Yellow Tea

Yellow tea was traditionally made in Anhui province and is now almost a lost tradition. One often reads that it was a rare, high quality tea reserved for the emperor. This is actually a myth; yellow tea was a workers’ tea enjoyed by many.

Anhui Province is known for it’s green teas, some which are grown around the famous Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) as well as Keemun Black (Red) tea from Quimen. Yellow tea is also made here although much of what is marketed as such is actually green tea.

Crafting Yellow Tea

First the leaves are pan fired. Two woks are used after the leaves are brought in from the field to stop the oxidation. Each wok is heated to a different temperature by the amounts of wood added to the fire underneath. One wok is used for “sha qing”, killing the green (which stops the oxidization process). The other wok is used to keep the leaves warm, without overcooking, is preparation for the rolling process.

After the initial pan firing, the leaves are then carefully hand rolled into a rough, twisted shape. The next process is the final charcoal roast.
Charcoal Fired Roasting Process – an old tradition

Bamboo baskets are used to slowly dry the tea leaves over several days. This allows for more oxidation than a green tea. Yellow tea, when you can find it today, usually is just a green tea made up of very young, spring picked leaves. Charcoal is placed on a stand inside the bottom basket, and heats the top basket holding the leaves. The leaves are tended very carefully and turned every ten minutes or so, so the drying process is evenly distributed. In the evening the leaves are covered, and the next morning the process is repeated until all the moisture in the leaves are gone.
Source: http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/Anhui_Yellow_Tea_p/yc100.htm

Chinese herb tea Wang Lao Ji

Chinese herb tea Wang Lao Ji

Wang Lao ji tea was established in the Qing Dynasty, has been more than 170 years of history, enjoy the reputation of “ancestor of Chinese herb tea”;

The Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty ,a bad Disease was found in Guangzhou, the outbreak of the epidemic, In order to save the sick, Wang Lao Ji Chinese herb tea’s founder Wang Zebang did not hesitate to put his life in trying drugs, occasionally, development of a Chinese herb tea .This Chinese herb tea can not only lift the villagers of illness, but also help the villagers out of smallpox, SARS disaster. From then on, Wang Zebang became a famous man. The emperor Wen Zong of Qing Dynasty called him up to the palace, and Appointed him as a good doctor in the king’s hospital.

In Daoguang 17 years (1837 AD), Wang Zebang’s Chinese herb tea shop was opened in Guangzhou city, since then, the Chinese herb tea named “Wang Lao Ji
During the 170-year history of the Wanglao ji ,there was a series of historical legends :

■ Empress Dowager Cixi love Wanglao ji Chinese herb tea, often drinking to keep her beauty and a good sprit to control the kingdom ;
■In the time of Hong Xiuquan’s Participating in the imperial examination in Guangzhou, he drink Wanglao ji and save his lives; In the war of defending Tianjing ,Taiping army soldiers were rewarded with Wang Laoji tea;
■ Lin Zexu destroyed opium in Humen city, Wang Lao ji tea was the most commonly used as a civil drink to eliminate heat and lift toxin with a good reputation;
■ famous Qing Dynasty scholar Liang Qichao who written in the “New World Travels”, he said: “In the United States, a can of Wang Lao Ji Chinese herb tea can sell 5 to 10 dollars”;
■ modern newspaperman Yuan Yin Xiao, Li Chunxiao couples have been in the United States more than 100 days, who saw in many hotels, at the end of every senior banquet, the waiter often give a cup of Chinese herb tea Wang Lao Ji……