The next time your stomach’s a little under the weather, or you’ve just been dining on too many calories and need a filling meal that gives you respite – you need to assemble just two main ingredients – curd and rice – and make a simple yet tasty dish, curd rice! Oh, and curd is just another name for yogurt!
You likely learned about zinc – a type of metal – in chemistry class when you memorized the periodic table. Or maybe you have slathered on some thick, white sunscreen with zinc oxide in it? (Zinka sunscreen was all the rage in my middle school!) Perhaps you reach for a zinc supplement when you feel a cold or flu coming on?
We all like to go on a healthy diet every now and then, and by a healthy diet, we mean eating healthy and banning sugar. That said, hunger can give birth to cravings and cravings can derail those healthy dietary changes in an instant…
Why do we crave junk food?
It’s getting colder, and comfort foods seem to be everywhere. Those comfort foods that are full of sodium and/or loaded with pounds of sugar are staring you down; what do you do? I’ll tell ya what you do—you get out of that situation, as fast as you can. I know it can be difficult, but you don’t have to succumb to those temptations that are lurking at every corner. I’m not just saying that, either. For me, there are two food groups—sweet and salty. Whenever I eat something savory, it has to be promptly followed by something sweet. You wouldn’t want me to feel imbalanced, would you?
It’s no secret that the nutrition world has fallen in love with fermented foods. Yogurt, long heralded for its probiotic qualities, now has a lot of nutritionist competition with other fermented eats, like tempeh, kimchi, and miso—and drinks, like kefir and kombucha.
Easier said than done. What the heck is kefir, and how do you cook with kimchi? Relax, young (healthy) grasshopper. These simple meal ideas use ingredients you probably have on hand to complement the ones you just got for the first time.
Breakfast: Kombucha
Drinking juice is a pleasant way to keep your diet packed with nutrients. If you use organic ingredients, you can also avoid absorbing pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals that are unfortunately often found in many contemporary food products. A juicer processes the fruits and vegetables you need into an easily digestible and tasty form.
It’s finally fall (only fancy folks say “autumn”). This time of year, in between summer and winter, is my absolute favorite season. I’m a horror film fanatic; this means that, leading up to Halloween, I actually have a chance at successfully convincing the scaredy cat types to let me pick the movie. Also, I’m a sucker for Halloween decorations (if I stop to look around, you’ll have to drag me out of the aisle). Don’t even get me started on how wonderfully crisp the air becomes. Are you as obsessed with the colors of the leaves as I am? Mother Nature is quite the artist.
Good gut bacteria are essential to a healthy digestive system. When the bacteria get out of whack, we can experience a slew of health problems. Surprisingly, fermented foods are ideal in combating the bad bacteria and restoring our good gut bacteria. Lactobacillus is to thank when it comes to making fermented food gut-friendly. This particular bacterium plays a vital role in preventing the harmful bacteria from taking over. Restore your gut flora with one of these fermented foods.
Kefir
For most people, salad is pretty boring. Just a big bowl of greens that, while good for you, doesn’t provide the enriching taste you’re looking for. Sure, we try to jazz it up with a little dressing here and there, but store-bought salad dressings are often loaded with fat and extra ingredients that can wreak havoc on your immune system. Here are five healthy alternatives to typical store-bought dressings that can make your salad a little more scrumptious.
Symptoms of summertime begin to occur with the onset of the season; you feel the sunburn on your skin, the irritating itch of poison ivy, mosquitos and ticks, and some of the swimmers experience Swimmer’s Ear. True signs of summer! I'm going to walk you through Mother Earth's Medicine Cabinet to show you how you can naturally remedy some of the season’s most well-known ailments.