When we think of super food, we usually think of blueberries or even exotic fruits such as acai berries coming from Brazil.
Dr. Zhimin Xu of Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge has new promising research on the health benefits of black rice.
He stated, “Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants.”
Anthocyanin antioxidants are commonly found in such foods that are red, purple, or blue in color. Such as strawberries, grapes, red onion, and more.
These antioxidants have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
The only black rice I’m familiar with is Japonica Black rice and Chinese Black rice. We usually refer to them as purple rice. And it’s best cooked as rice pudding or other desserts.
Photo from The Prepared Pantry.
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Since I couldn’t get my hands on any lotus seeds, I was happy to find lotus roots instead. These were sold at the Asian market.
In Chinese medicine, lotus root is believed to improve appetite. Lotus roots is rich in iron, vitamins B and C.
I’ve always loved eating water lotus roots prepared as desserts. Usually mixed with black beans and coconut milk.
To prepare them all you have to do is wash it well. Scrape or peel off the skin. In this case, I just scraped it off with a knife. When sliced, the little air holes make for an interesting pattern. Reminds me of honeycomb cereal.
Once it’s sliced, you want to prevent them from turning brown. Just soak the slices in water with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice.
You can eat them raw as healthy snacks. The texture of lotus root reminds me of water chestnut. They are crunchy, but a bit bland. Tossing them into a salad would be a good idea.
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This is one of the first few bounty harvested from my mom’s garden.
We’ve always refer to them as Japanese pumpkins. The correct name is Kabocha squash, and it’s a type of winter squash.
The Kabocha squash took only four months to start producing. The seeds came from the squash she purchased at the market. I am always surprised to find that seeds from market produce can grow just as nicely in the garden.
My mom thinks they are one of the most easy to grow pumpkins. She just loves growing pumpkins and has three varieties in her garden.
One of which is almost white in color and grew by accident. But then it became a favorite for it’s taste. Her pumpkin varieties are known to be very creamy, nutty, and sweet. And the Kabocha fits right into the list.
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These are Champagne grapes, but not the kind used to make champagne. They are also known as miniature currant grapes and Corinth grapes.
I picked these up at Trader Joe’s. Grown in the U.S.A. and only $1.79 per pound. I love finding little surprises like this at Trader Joe’s.
I soak all my fruits and vegetables in a bowl of water and vinegar. They are delicate little grapes, so you have to be gentle when handling them.
Champagne grapes are seedless and easy to eat. They are slightly crunchy and tart, but is soon replaced with intense sweetness. Even the wrinkly ones are good too. It’s like eating raisins off the vine.
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These are my new “Seabuckthorn & Green Tea Handmade Soaps”. Since I was having so much fun with hot process soaping, I decided to make these the same way.
You can usually tell if it’s hp soap by the little bubbles around the surface. This is noticeable even when I made sure to fill the mold all the way with soap. Hot process soap is tricky in that sense.
Ingredients: Olive oil, soybean oil, coconut oil, palm oil, distilled water, seabuckthorn oil, rice bran oil, green tea powder, and green tea melon fragrance. Because they are half circle bars, they fit well in the palm of my hands.
The last Seabuckthorn soap I made was was nice and I added lots of good ingredients. Including red palm oil, which gave it the deep golden color.
For this version, I just kept it simple. Except I also added green tea powder. Green tea is making it’s mark in many cosmetic products due to it’s benefits to skincare.
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On August 20, 2010 the U.S. FDA warned customers not to eat frozen mamey fruit pulp.
At least nine people in California and Nevada fell ill with typhoid fever. An investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a link between an ongoing attack of Salmonella typhi infections and the frozen mamey fruit pulp products.
These are fresh mamey sold at markets throughout the tropics. Photo from flickr.
Mamey is a popular fruit in tropical countries. They are also known as sapote. People would make juices or smoothies with mamey.
I didn’t even know they have frozen mamey pulp for sale in the U.S. The only mamey I’ve had are made into ice cream by a local company. Lucky I didn’t get sick from eating them. From now on, I’ll have to be extra careful about eating imported tropical fruits.
The mamey are sold under the brands The La Nuestra of Montalvan Sales Inc. in Ontario, California and the Goya brand by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus, N.J. Both companies have voluntarily recalled the product. The mamey comes from the same supplier in Guatemala.
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CNNMoney.com reported in July of this year that “barely half the population has dental insurance”. That is a high percentage.
Just a few months ago when I got a gold crown to fix a damaged tooth, it cost me about $600. And that’s with dental insurance. The price they quoted without dental insurance would be $900.
But just step across the border to Mexico at a DentiCenter office and the cost is $250. That’s a huge price difference!
DentiCenter is a small but growing chain of full-service dental centers sitting along the U.S. border of California, Arizona and Texas. The 6 offices are located in Mexico but 97% of its patients come from the U.S.
Vacation in Baja and vist the dentist too. Photo from The Travelers Journal.
I would probably go to the office in Baja, Mexico and visit the beautiful beaches and cove. Then it wouldn’t be so bad to visit the dentist, as long as you get a short vacation out of it.
The idea of traveling abroad for medical care is becoming common. There are even medical tourism companies that cater to just that idea. Especially in Thailand and India.
DentiCenter is one that caters to dental care. The center is founded by Dr. Juan Eng, a USC-trained periodontist from the Baja peninsula. They have been in business for 20 years now. DentiCenter’s services includes free transportation for all patients a convenient shuttle to and from the Mexico-U.S. border.
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In addition to the Peppermint Poppy soap, I also made another batch of hot process soap. It’s made with fresh goat milk and scented with a sweet floral scent of Bali jasmine blossoms.
This batch was much easier to work because there are no sea salt or other extra ingredients. It’s also a much smoother bar too.
Sometimes exfoliating soaps are nice, but some days you just want a smooth bar of soap. But each type of soap has their own benefits. And most of all, handmade soaps leave your skin well moisturized and clean.
Once the soap was done cooking, I poured them into my empty (clean) goat milk carton. After letting it cool down for 24 hours, I sliced them into medium sized bars.
The bars are pretty and a good size too. With fragrance, there are variations and difficult to describe. So I went with a lighter jasmine scent that is not overpowering. But it’s a nice sweet scent that reminds me of someplace tropical and breezy.
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Here is my latest handmade soap: Peppermint Poppy. Because I wanted to use it within a couple of days, I went with hot process soap making. With traditional cold process, the cure time would have been at least three weeks or longer.
When I was pouring hemp milk into my cereal, I immediately thought about making hemp milk soap. Hemp oil seem to be more common for soap making then with hemp milk. To make sure I didn’t mess up, I also added equal amounts of goat milk.
The hemp milk I got was from a natural health food store. Hemp milk taste a little like soy milk, but creamier and nuttier. It is naturally rich in omega 3, 6 and 9. It also contains minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, high in vitamins A and E.
Besides the hemp milk, I also added other stuff to this batch. There is fine Brazilian sea salt, peppermint essential oil, and poppy seeds. It’s going to be one difficult to name soap. So I just decided on “Peppermint Poppy Soap”.
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Since blueberries are in season, I am only buying the fresh ones. They are so good, I don’t even bother eating them with anything else.
These blueberries are from British Columbia blueberries. I found them at our local supermarket. Very plump and tasty.
According to the BC Blueberry Council, British Columbia has close to 17,000 acres of rich fertile farmland ideal for growing blueberries. This makes British Columbia the largest producer of high bush blueberries in Canada and the second top producing region in the world.
Blueberries have gotten lots of attention since being named as one of “superfruits”. Blueberries can help slow down the aging process and reduce cell damage. They are also beneficial to your heart health and brain function.
Here is a list of studies on the benefits of blueberries:
According to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry - wild blueberries are higher in antioxidants than it’s cultivated cousin.
1998 Rutgers University study found blueberries (like cranberries) help treat urinary tract infections.
I’m starting to think any fruit with the deep dark skin or color are all very for your health. Especially purple Acai, purple plums and purple grapes.
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