How to Eat Healthy Meat

Vegetarians are generally a healthy bunch. Compared to meat eaters, they have less heart disease and cancer, lower blood pressure – and they're slimmer. But does a good diet need to exclude meat? In fact, a little flesh on the plate needn't be a problem. But there are a few things health-conscious carnivores should know.

Meat is a good source of zinc, iron and protein. But fattier cuts are high in the saturated fat that's bad for your heart. What's more, red meat – which includes pork but not chicken – has been linked to a slightly higher risk of some cancers. And for processed meats like sausages – along with bacon, ham and salami – the cancer link is stronger.

What's not known is whether there's something in red meat that causes cancer or whether eating meat means there's less room in your diet for other foods that might help prevent cancer. It might be a bit of both.

article from abc.net.au.image from 123rf.com

In any case, cancer experts recommend eating red meat no more than three to four times a week, and that you stick to a serve no bigger than 100 grams, roughly the size of a pack of cards. That leaves plenty of room for other important foods such as fish, chicken, and legumes – like peas, lentils and beans. And of course, your fruit and vegies. They're chock full of antioxidants that help counterbalance any cancer risk from meat.

One problem with meat may be the way we cook it. Cooking at high temperatures, especially over open flames, produces chemicals thought to promote cancers. This goes for fish and chicken too by the way. The good news is that marinating dramatically cuts the amount of suspect chemicals produced. An oil-free marinade based on lemon-juice or vinegar is best. Alternatively, try roasting. Along with methods like stewing or poaching, it's considered safer.

So when it comes to healthy meat eating, the advice is to stick to lean cuts and keep portions small. Eat processed meats only occasionally. And at least a few nights a week, opt for alternatives like fish chicken or legumes.

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Nissan Leaf : First Real World Electric Car

Nissan Leaf is powered by laminated compact lithium-ion batteries, which generate power output of over 90kW, while its electric motor delivers 80kW/280Nm. This ensures a highly responsive, fun to drive experience that is in keeping with what consumers have come to effect from automobiles powered Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). Unless ICE-equipped vehicle, Nissan Leaf's power train has no tail pipe, and thus no emission of CO2 or other greenhouse gasses.
A combination of Nissan Leaf's regenerative braking system and innovative lithium-ion battery packs enables the car to deliver a driving range more than 160 km (100 miles) on one full charge (US LA4 mode).
And Nissan's approach makes charging easy and convenient. Nissan Leaf can be charged up to 80% of its full capacity in just under 30 minutes with a quick charger. Charging at home through 200 volt outlet will take about eight hours - ample time to enable and overnight refresh for consumer and a car a like.

full information about Nissan Leaf at nissan-global.com
picture is courtesy of Nissan

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Vitamin That You Should Take

"What vitamin should I take?"
This is a surprisingly common question and reflects just how confused people are about nutrition and how to make sense of the information so poorly presented in the general media. By understanding the principals of nutrition we can better hope to answer this question for ourselves and help others when they too ask, "What vitamin should I take?"
The short answer is, "all of them, in appropriate amounts."

A Vitamin is a category of organic molecule that is required by a living organism for normal health. Vitamins are often referred to as "micronutrients" because as a percentage they make up the smallest portion of the foods we eat in a healthy diet. If deprived of all sources of a particular vitamin you will eventually suffer from disease symptoms specific to the missing vitamin. Once such disease is called Scurvy and was once a leading cause of death among Europeans until 1747 when it was established that citrus fruits and even sauerkraut would prevent the disease and "cure it" in those who were already suffering from Scurvy. In spite of this discovery, it took nearly 100 years for the population to accept this relationship between diet and such a horrible disease. In the early 1900s the molecules were identified in these foods and eventually referred to as vitamins.

The naming convention of vitamins was a bit disorganized and some vitamins were later classified as other types of nutritional components. For example, the Nobel Prize winning research for the discovery of Vitamin C also refers to a necessary "Vitamin P" that is now known as the flavonoid family of molecules. This was done as the definition of vitamins was further refined and agreed upon.
As a category of nutrition, vitamins are essential for life; they are not stored in the body and cannot be created by the body. Vitamin A is converted from carotenes, after the ingestion of certain fruits and vegetables, but still cannot be created without those necessary "building blocks." Similarly, Vitamin D can be produced in the skin by someone who receives regular exposure to sunlight and is not wearing sun block. Remaining are Vitamins B, C, E, and K. Some other vitamins have been proposed but have not sufficiently studied to determine need and minimal levels.

When choosing a supplement, first understand that nutrition should be appropriate in amount, high in quality as well as complete. It is better to choose a high-quality multivitamin than an assortment of individual vitamin supplements. Also, vitamin supplements should be food-matrix and standardized. This ensures the vitamins are properly utilized in the body and that each and every supplement is providing the same amount of active ingredient as the last. Most of the top selling brands of vitamins are neither food-matrix, nor standardized, so do your own research and only supplement your good diet with a top-quality vitamin supplements.

Finally, remember that supplementation is intended to improve nutrition and ensure that you are receiving appropriate levels of micronutrients in your diet each day. Supplements are not intended to replace the need for a good diet, but instead to make up for the reality that we live in times when it is necessary to improve the diet through supplementation to ensure balanced nutrition.

When someone asks you "What vitamin should I take?" you should now know that it is important to take a balanced, high-quality multivitamin first. After you have established a baseline of nutritional supplementation, give yourself a few months and then research individual vitamins if your personal nutritional needs require a bit more of one vitamin over another. You can then add individual, high-quality vitamin supplements to your multivitamin use. Maybe people find that additional vitamin supplements are not necessary and that a high-quality multivitamin improves their energy and sense of well being without the need for additional doses of individual vitamins.

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How to Preparing Lobster Tails

Your lobster tails might start off a fresh or frozen, being in New England, fresh lobster is easy to come by but frozen might be all you can get in some parts of the country and in the off season. If your lobster tails are frozen, you need to thaw them out (you can cook them frozen but they will not be as tender). Put them in the fridge for 10 hours or so or thaw them in the microwave on defrost – be very careful if you choose this method as you don’t want them to start cooking in the microwave.

After they are thawed, remove the meat from the shell by cutting open the back of the shell – split it down the middle and open it up to reveal the meat. Lift the meat out – you can leave the fan part of the tail on for show or not. Remove the vein.

Boiling Lobster Tails
Boil a pot of water large enough for all the tails to float in, add 1 tsp salt for each quart of water. Drop the tails in the boiling water and cook for about 1 minute per oz thawed (so 10 0z of tails needs to cook for 10 minutes). If you are cooking a lot of tails, add a minute or two on to the total time.

Cooking Lobster Tails in the Oven
Lobster tails can be baked or broiled in the oven. To cook thawed lobster in the oven,set the oven to 400 degrees F. Brush the tails with butter and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. If broiling, place the tails 4 or 5 inches from the heat and broil for 2 – 5 minutes. When broiling keep a very close eye on them so that they don’t burn on the tops.

Cooking Lobster Tails On The Grill
Oil the grill to keep the lobsters from sticking. Put the grill on medium heat. Brush the lobster tails with butter and place on the grill. Make sure that the tails do not burn – if there are any flames on the grill move the lobster away from it. Grill on each side for 4-5 minutes.
Take care not to overcook your lobster or it will be rubbery and tasteless. Lobster is cooked when it is no longer transparent.

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Food Poisoning, What Do You Want To Know About Its.

What is Food Poisoning?
Food poisoning results when you eat food contaminated with bacteria or other pathogens such as parasites or viruses. Your symptoms may range from upset stomach to diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps and dehydration. Most such infections go undiagnosed and unreported.
But the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year about 76 million people in the United States become ill from pathogens in food, and about 5,000 of them die.
Over 55% of such cases are caused by improper cooking and storage of foods, and 24% by poor hygiene, such as not washing your hands while preparing food. Only 3% of cases are from unsafe food sources. Keeping your hands clean while working with food is the single most important thing you can do to prevent food poisoning.

About 20 organisms can cause food poisoning. After you eat food contaminated with bacteria, they will multiply in your stomach and bowels. Some bacteria give off a toxin when they multiply. As a result, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea occur. Vomiting and diarrhea are the body's way of eliminating the toxin, and most cases of food poisoning run their course without needing medical attention.
Not all invasive organisms cause vomiting as a symptom, but almost all of them cause diarrhea. Blood in your stool occurs in many types of food poisoning and is considered to be serious. Abdominal cramps are also common, and sometimes you will have a fever. Be sure to contact a physician if a fever or bloody stools are present.

Common Sources of Food Poisoning
Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning in the USA. It causes several million cases a year, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Eating undercooked chicken or food that has been in contact with raw chicken most commonly causes campylobacter. The Center for Disease Control estimates that up to 70%-90% of chickens are infected with campylobacter.
To prevent the disease, cook chicken thoroughly, with no pink remaining. Wash your hands frequently when handling raw chicken. Use paper towels to dry your hands. If you are using a sponge or dish-cloth to clean the counters, use a fresh one after working with raw chicken. Wash your cutting board with a diluted bleach solution before using again. And any utensils or dishes having contact with raw chicken need to be washed and rinsed with soap and water before using again.

E. coli 0157: H7 infection causes an estimated 25,000 cases of food poisoning each year in the USA. Most of these result from undercooked, contaminated ground beef. The organism lives in the intestines of healthy cows. Meat can become contaminated during slaughter when intestinal fecal matter is mixed with beef that is ground into hamburger. Contaminated meat looks and smells normal, so it is not readily detectable. Bacteria on cow udders or milking machines can also contaminate raw milk.

To prevent this form of food poisoning, cook all ground beef until no pink is showing. Make sure all of the meat juices are clear, not pink or red, and that the inside of the meat is hot. If you are served an undercooked hamburger in a restaurant, send it back. Consume only pasteurized milk products, and drink only water treated with chlorine or other disinfectants.

Botulism is caused by clostridium botulinum, a spore-forming bacteria. This form of food poisoning is very rare, but can be life-threatening. It may result from eating improperly processed, low-acid foods such as green beans, mushrooms, spinach, olives and beef or fish. Improper home canning methods often account for botulism cases. Improperly processed commercial products can also cause this serious disorder.
To avoid botulism, don't even taste canned food that is soft, deteriorating, fermenting or doesn't smell right. It isn't worth a life-threatening illness. When in doubt, throw it out.
Infant botulism is more common in spring and summer, and is rare in winter. Infants younger than one year of age are at the highest risk. Symptoms include muscle weakness, a weak cry, difficulty in feeding, constipation, head lag, increased heart rate and a decreased gag reflex. A baby with botulism is described as a "floppy baby," as the infant will have weak muscles, especially in the arms, legs and neck.
Infant botulism has been associated with eating honey. The Center for Disease Control suggests that honey should not be given to infants under six months old, and the Honey Industry Council extends the safety limit to one year. Honey is not an essential food for infants, and should never be given to them.

(article by Karen Cole Peralta, image from 123rf.com)

Summary of Food Poisoning
Most symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea are due to viral infections and are not true cases of food poisoning. An accurate diagnosis can be difficult because the pathogenic organisms are found in different kinds of food and have varying incubation periods. Also, eating a substance and getting sick immediately afterwards is not the typical course for food poisoning. Most people are not aware that food eaten several days previously can be the cause of food poisoning. Always be sure to consult a physician when experiencing severe gastrointestinal symptoms.

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Green Tea Effects to Me

Tea began as a Chinese medicinal drink, and modern science proves just how green tea is good for you. In traditional Chinese medicine, tea helps to clear the eyes and head, resolve excess phlegm, promote urination, relieve toxins, aid the digestion, and quench thirst. As with so many foods and medicines, the traditional Chinese medicinal thoughts are being proven scientifically in modern times. Today, there is ample evidence that tea is good for you as a daily tonic in the interest of preventing or treating a wide range of maladies, including: cancer, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, premature aging, food poisoning, dental decay and bad breath, and even arthritis.

So, how is tea good for you?

* Tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

* Green tea may be good for your waistline. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

Tea is good for your immune system:

* A Japanese report found that men who drank ten cups of green tea per day stayed cancer-free for three years longer than men who drank less than three cups a day (there are approximately 240 - 320 mg of polyphenols in three cups of green tea). Meanwhile, a study by Cleveland's Western Reserve University concluded that drinking four or more cups of green tea per day could help prevent rheumatoid arthritis, or reduce symptoms in individuals already suffering from the disease.

* Scientists at the Saitama Cancer Research Institute discovered that there were fewer recurrances of breast cancer, and the disease spread less quickly, in women with a history of drinking five cups or more of green tea daily.

Tea is good for your prevention and treatment of cancer:

* Scientists also discovered that EGCG from green tea can help to prevent metastasis, or the movement and spreading of cancer cells from one organ or tissue to the other by bloodstream or lymph. Cancer cells secrete special enzymes in order to enter and colonize tissues. Research shows that EGCG stops the secretion of these special enzymes.

* A case study that was done in China, reports that those women who drank green tea regularly had a 50% lower risk of developing esophageal cancer. Men showed less risk as well, but not as significant as women.

* Researchers from Sweden reported that green tea blocked the development of new blood vessels in the lungs. By blocking the development of new blood vessels in the lungs, tumors are less likely to grow and metastasize. Scientists believe that EGCG plays a significant rule in blocking the development of tumors. Similar results were achieved in breast cancer, colon cancer and melanoma studies. It is believed that drinking green tea for an extended period of time will help to prevent and might cure cancer naturally.

* The antioxidants found in tea--called catechins--may selectively inhibit the growth of cancer. In laboratory studies using animals, catechins scavenged oxidants before cell damage occurred, reduced the number and size of tumors, and inhibited the growth of cancer cells.National Cancer Institute researchers are investigating the therapeutic and preventive use of tea catechins against a variety of cancers.

* One Chinese study involving over 18,000 men found tea drinkers were about half as likely to develop stomach or esophageal cancer as men who drank little tea, even after adjusting for smoking and other health and diet factors.

* In the laboratory, studies have shown tea catechins act as powerful inhibitors of cancer growth in several ways: They scavenge oxidants before cell injuries occur, reduce the incidence and size of chemically induced tumors, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells. In studies of liver, skin and stomach cancer, chemically induced tumors were shown to decrease in size in mice that were fed green and black tea.

(article by Jake Mayer, image from 123rf.com)

Tea is good for your teeth:

* Green tea is good for your teeth, the catechins prevent decay by killing the bacteria (Streptococcus mutans) that cause dental plaque. Green tea also contains fluoride. One cup of brewed green tea contains around 0.3-0.5 mg of fluoride. This is an optimal level of fluoride according to dentists. As we all know, fluoride builds in our teeth's enamel, making it more resistant against acidic environment, of our mouth. Green tea also eliminates other bacteria that responsible for bad breath. According to researchers, green tea polyphenols can inhibit, by 30%, the growth of bacteria that causes unpleasant breath.

* A study at the Beijing Dental Hospital found consuming 3 grams of tea a day, or about 2 cups, along with the application of a tea extract reduced the size and proliferation of leukoplakia, a precancerous oral plaque.

* Recent research suggests that green tea is good for your HDL cholesterol ( the Ògood oneÓ) and lowers triglyceride levels. Several tests have been done. And Green tea extract has been shown to be good for your cholesterol.

Tea is good for your blood pressure:

* At the the end of a 5 week experiment, one group with the regular diet showed blood pressure increases. For the catechin fed group, the blood pressure stayed normal. After this initial testing the scientists switched the diets for the two groups. This switch led to a reversal of the blood pressure trends. The study concluded that drinking moderate amounts of green tea each day can help to prevent high blood pressure.

The catechins in green tea have addiitonally been shown to help prevent excess cholesterol in the blood, killing the bacteria that causes food poisoning, lower blood sugar, additionally tea is good for your high blood pressure by supressing the production of angiotensn II. Catechin is also a strong anti-oxidant, which aids in aging related concerns.

Green and white tea leaves are less processed than oolong or black teas, which prevents oxidation and retains the highest levels of beneficial compounds. But all tea is good for you, so find the ones you like and drink them daily!

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