Saturday, January 24, 2009

Health Benefits of Miso Soup


The benefits of miso soup are the following:

1) It is a great source of trytophan, manganese, vitamin K, protein, zinc, copper and dietary fiber.

2) It can help prevent breast cancer.

3) It helps boost immune function.

4) It helps boost your energy level.

5) It helps strengthen bones.

6) It helps increase the integrity of your blood vessels.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Strawberry Sherbet Recipe


Ingredients


1 pint strawberries

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup strawberry fruit spread

2 tablespoons non-fat yogurt


Directions


Hull berries and cut in half, if large.


Arrange on baking sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze until solid, about 40 minutes.


Once frozen, they can be used right away or frozen for several months, stored in an airtight plastic bag.


Put frozen berries in food processor with sugar.


Pulse processor on and off several times to chop berries.


Process continuously until berries are minced into tiny chips, stopping often to scrape down sides of work bowl with rubber spatula.


Remove cover, and add fruit spread and yogurt.


Process until mixture is smooth, about 5-8 minutes, stopping as necessary to scrape down sides of work bowl.


Can be served immediately or frozen.


Let soften slightly before serving. When ice crystals form, let soften just enough to spoon back into work bowl.


Process again, until smooth.


Makes 3 Cups.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Benefits of Omega 3


Benefits of Omega 3


1. Freedom from pain and inflammation. Omega 3 fish oil fatty acids, particularly EPA, have a very positive effect on your inflammatory response. Through several mechanisms, they regulate your body's inflammation cycle, which prevents and relieves painful conditions like arthritis, prostatitis, cystitis and anything else ending in "itis."


2. Better brain function and higher intelligence. Pregnant and nursing mothers can have a great impact on the intelligence and happiness of their babies by supplementing with omega 3 fish oil with DHA. For adults, fish oil improves memory, recall, reasoning and focus. You'll swear you're getting younger and smarter.


3. Feeling better with much less depression. Making you smarter is not all that fish oil does for your brain. Psychiatry department researchers at the University of Sheffield UK, along with many other research studies, found that fish oil supplements "alleviated" the symptoms of depression, bipolar and psychosis. [Journal of Affective Disorder Vol. 48(2-3);149-55]


4. Lower incidence of childhood disorders. Just to show how fish oil fatty acids leave nobody out, studies show that children (and adults) with ADD and ADHD experience a greatly improved quality of life. And those with dyslexia, dyspraxia and compulsive disorders have gotten a new lease on life thanks to fish oil supplements.


5. Superior cardiovascular health. Fish oil's DHA, EPA and DPA have also been proven to work wonders for your heart and the miles and miles of arteries and veins that make up your cardiovascular system. They help lower cholesterol, tryglicerides, LDLs and blood pressure, while at the same time increasing good HDL cholesterol. This adds years to your life expectancy.


6. Protection from heart attack and stroke. When plaque builds up on arterial walls and then breaks loose, it causes what's known as a thrombosis, which is a fancy way of saying clot. If a clot gets stuck in the brain, it causes a stroke and when it plugs an artery, it causes a heart attack. Research shows fish oil fatty acids break up clots before they can cause any damage.


7. Reduction of breast, colon and prostate cancer. And finally, fish oil has been shown to help prevent three of the most common forms of cancer – breast, colon and prostate. Science tells us that it accomplishes this in three ways – by stopping the alteration from a normal healthy cell to a cancerous mass, by inhibiting unwanted cellular growth and by killing off cancer cells.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Holistic Touch Therapy


Krystal Wellness is proud to offer Holistic Touch Therapy Lympathic Detox Massage. This massage was designed to drain our lympathic system of toxins and other impurities. The lympathic system is our body's natural drainage system / sewerage system which helps facilitate the removal of unwanted substances out of the body. Among such substances include harmful pathogens which cause illness and disease.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

David Corfield's Battle Against Alcohol


NEW statistics show that over a third of men and one fifth of women are putting their health at risk through excessive alcohol consumption. Many, like David Corfield, won't recognise it's a problem until it is too late.

After a successful liver transplant, he talks to Carmel Thomason about being given a second chance.

The premature death of George Best proved that alcohol can destroy the most gifted and fittest among us.

However, as David Corfield found out to his cost, you don't have to be a an alcoholic like the former Manchester United legend for drink to take its toll.

Four years ago, aged 52, David was diagnosed with chronic cirrhosis of the liver. From then, it was less than two years before his health deteriorated to such an extent that a liver transplant was his only hope of survival.

Unexpected

"When I thought of someone who had cirrhosis of the liver I imagined an alcoholic ' basically, someone who didn't do much except drink, every day, from morning 'til night,' David remembers.

We all have our preconceptions, but it doesn't always happen like that. In David's case, he knew, in the months leading to his diagnosis, that perhaps he was drinking more than he should, but he had no idea of the consequences would be.

'I thought I was in control, but now I look back and think, was I?'' he admits.

'I'd never consider myself a person who got up in the morning wanting a drink. I could go out, down five or six pints and then not touch a drop for three or four days without a problem.

'I held a steady job with the police for 30 years, I was never drunk on duty and I wouldn't have a drink for a good time before I went on duty.

But, at the weekends, by gum could I put some away ' not falling over or anything like that, just too much drinking so that my liver couldn't recover.

It's easy to get into a culture where you can take a drink, you can walk home fine, you don't cause any trouble, so you think it's OK. But if you can drink 10 pints and still stand, that should be telling you something.

Your mind and your reflexes may be becoming more tolerant to alcohol, but that tolerance is not necessarily carrying on with the liver. I just didn't realise that at the time.'

Problem

David feels that the growing accessibility of alcohol, particularly the rise of drinking alcohol in the home, has made it easier for people to get into a habit of supping too much without realising.

As a young man, alcohol was seldom found in the home and finances restricted his drinking to going out no more than twice a week.

'When I was younger, it was a case of when you could afford it you would go out and have a drink,' he says.

'Now alcohol is much more available. In the last four or five years, I would enjoy a drink every night. I was on a regular day job and it was easy to come in from work and go and get a can out of the 'fridge.

I didn't drink shorts, I never have done. But, again, that's a fallacy people fall into. What I was doing, unconsciously at the time, was starting to drink three to four pints, every single night. It's like anything else, it creeps up on you and smacks you round the head.'

In 2001, David broke his back in an accident and three months later retired from the police.

Alcohol was already an everyday part of his life but the accident and other stressful circumstances only compounded this.

Habit

"There were circumstances where, when I look back on it, I used alcohol as a crutch,' he admits.

'When I was on the sick I could have three to four pints at dinnertime and another three to four pints at night ' it mounts up.

Towards the last two years, I drank far too much, I've no bones about that for whatever reason. You can't make excuses and I don't try to, but I got into a situation where I was drinking too much and my liver could not recover.'

The first hint David had that something was wrong came six weeks before his diagnosis, when he spotted some yellow in the corner of one eye.

The following day it was gone, and he put it to the back of his mind. However, a few weeks later, David could ignore his symptoms no more when his skin turned yellow from head to foot.

'When I got to the doctor, I said, 'I've had a fall, my legs have swollen up' and eventually I got the courage to say, And I think I've been drinking too much.' It wasn't easy.

'The doctor said, 'Yes, I think you have. Do you want an ambulance now?' I nearly fell off the chair.

'I was admitted into the trauma unit and the first consultant who saw me said, 'My God, the last time I saw a face like that was on George Best.' It started to come home then. I've not drank since and I don't intend to.'

Shock news

It soon became clear that a transplant was David's only hope. He worried that, because his condition was caused by alcohol that he would not be offered the chance.

However, in April, 2004 a suitable donor was found and David had his six-hour, life-saving operation.

'If they give you a liver they've got to put trust in you, which I'm so glad to say they did in me,' he says. 'I can't believe I'm sitting here now. I'm so lucky. I don't take anything for granted in life.

'I've not touched a drink since I was diagnosed and it's the best thing I've ever done. The doctors told me that organ donations suffered after the revelations of George Best.

Yes, that was George and God bless him. He was a wonderful person but he couldn't stop drinking and there's a big difference.

There are a lot of people out there, like myself, who say 'yeah, I've been stupid', but I've got a new liver and by goodness I'm looking after it.

'I'm not saying that people can't still go out, have a drink and enjoy it. But as Christmas approaches all I'd say is, think about it.

Careful

'You've got the opportunity to drink every day and every night. Your mind might cope but think what your liver's doing.

'If you've had a lot to drink, leave it for a week. Let your liver recover, because it's the most forgiving organ in the body. I didn't and I ended up with a transplant.'

-Published in the Manchester Evening News December 4, 2006

Monday, January 19, 2009

About Green Tea


About Green Tea

-Made from the leaves of Camellia Sinensis
-Originated in China but is popular in Oriental cultures
-Green tea was brought to Japan by Myōan Eisai, a Japanese Buddhist priest
-Consumption is China dates back to 4,000 years

Benefits of Green Tea

-Helps in combating free radical damage from the body's own metabolism, diet and from pollution
-Helps oxidize fat which helps in weight loss
-Helps increase sensitivity for insulin which is good for diabetics
-Helps in preventing metastasis of cancer cells
-Rich in antioxidants

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Kiwi Nutritional Information



Kiwifruit, fresh, raw
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 60 kcal 260 kJ
Carbohydrates 14.66 g
- Sugars 8.99 g
- Dietary fiber 3.0 g
Fat 0.52 g
Protein 1.14 g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.027 mg 2%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.025 mg 2%
Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.341 mg 2%
Vitamin B6 0.63 mg 48%
Folate (Vit. B9) 25 μg 6%
Vitamin C 92.7 mg 155%
Calcium 34 mg 3%
Iron 0.31 mg 2%
Magnesium 17 mg 5%
Phosphorus 34 mg 5%
Potassium 312 mg 7%
Zinc 0.14 mg 1%
Manganese 0.098 mg
Percentages are relative to US
recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient database