Easy Salad Dressings - Part 1

When buying foods from the supermarket it is very important to look at what ingredients are in them. Many foods contain things that should not be in them, preservatives and the like, as well as other ingredients that just add to the calories.  With that in mind, this blog entry will show two different recipes for easy and cheap, but healthier, salad dressings. Another two recipes will follow next week in the second part of my Easy Salad Dressings. 

Note: These recipes were not created by me, but are adapted from Jamie’s Ministry of Food

French Dressing

This is an easy French dressing recipe.

Ingredients:

• ¼ of a clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Seas salt and black pepper

To create the dressing, we peel and finely chop the garlic. Then, we put the garlic, mustard, vinegar and oil into a jar with a pinch of salt and the black pepper. Simply mix this together for a tasty salad accompaniment.

Yoghurt Dressing

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
• 2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper

As with the French dressing, all we need to do is put all the ingredients into a jar and mix well.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the dressings. 

Five A Day

It is no secret, most people already know it, but getting more fruits and vegetables into our diets is key to a healthier lifestyle. This blog entry will look into why eating more fruits and vegetables is important,  and will offer some tips of how we can get more fruits and vegetables into our daily lives.

Why Five a Day is Important

There are a number of reasons as to why eating more fruits and vegetables is important.

Firstly, fruits and vegetables are generally low in fat and calories, and therefore we are able to be in more control of our weight when eating them as opposed to other foods that often contain high levels of fats and extra sugars and calories.

Secondly, eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables helps us to get plenty of vitamins and minerals that we need into our body. They are also a good source of other substances, such as anti-oxidants. All these nutrients are valuable to our health.

Finally, eating fruits and vegetables helps to reduce the risk of many diseases and some cancers.

Tips to getting Five a Day

Now that we know why it is so valuable to get five a  day into our diet, we can look at some simple ways of getting extra portions into our daily routine.

• We can add a piece of fruit, or a glass of unsweetened fruit juice, to our regular breakfast. This will also help us feel fuller for longer.
• Make sure that we have a piece of fruit available for a mid-morning snack
• With each meal we can try adding an extra portion of vegetables to it
• We can make each portion of fruit of vegetables slightly bigger than normal to get even more goodness in each meal

What Counts Towards Our Five a Day?

Knowing what actually counts towards one of our five a day can often be tricky. Here are some examples of what does count towards our Five a Day:

• An apple
• 2 broccoli florets
• 3 heaped tablespoons of mixed vegetables
• 1 glass of 100% unsweetened fruit juice
• 1 medium banana
• 3 heaped tablespoons of peas
• 7 Strawberries
• 2 medium plums
• 1 medium pear
• a handful of grapes
• 3 heaped tablespoons of sweetcorn

Each type of fruit and vegetables contains different properties so it is important to make sure that we eat a wide variety of them. A good tip is to make our meals as colorful as possible!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave your feedback, I am interested in your views and will look to respond as soon as possible. 

B Vitamins

B vitamins were once considered as one, single vitamin as opposed to 8 distinct vitamins. This blog entry will look into B Vitamins as a whole.

What are B Vitamins?

B Vitamins are water soluble vitamins and play an important role in the metabolism of cells. In total there are 8 B Vitamins (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12) and each has its own name.

Health Benefits of B Vitamins

With there being different individual B Vitamins the health benefits are more widespread. Each one has different properties. However, as a whole, B Vitamins are important and there are a number of health benefits associated with them. Below is a list of some of the main health benefits associated with the consumption of B Vitamins:

• Help to convert food into energy
• Helps to maintain healthy skin, hear and muscle tone
• Promotes the growth of cells
• Help with red blood cells
• Reduce the risk of heart disease
• Can help to fight depression
• Helps our immune system
• Can reduce anemia

What are the sources of B Vitamins?

There are a number of natural sources of B Vitamins before we begin looking into supplements. Some of the best sources of B Vitamins are; animal products, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, bananas, potatoes, milk, eggs, yoghurt, nuts, fish and wholegrain rice and cereals.

So it is clear that we definitely need B Vitamins in our diet and luckily there are plenty of foods available that are high in B Vitamins so there is no excuse!

Milk Vs Antioxidants

Antioxidants

This blog has looked into the benefits of antioxidants and why they are so important to us. Today, we will look into what affect milk has on our antioxidant consumption and find out whether it is a good idea or not.

Why We Want Antioxidants

Basically, we want antioxidants. Essentially, antioxidants fight free radicals in the body and stop the negative impact that these free radicals have on our body. For more detailed information on antioxidants, try this page.

Milk versus Antioxidants

So while we want antioxidants, it appears that milk may have a negative affect on all the good work that antioxidants can do. Vegetables, berries, tea and chocolate are some of the major foods that contain antioxidants. Studies show, however, that the benefits enjoyed from consumption of these foods are heightened when eaten alone, or as part of a meal with other foods.

Experts have also found that consuming these products alongside milk can have a damaging affect on the antioxidant activity – decreasing it essentially. Drinking a black tea, for example, can have fantastic antioxidant activity. Adding milk to this tea, however, will decrease the benefits of the antioxidants in the tea.

Why does Milk have a Negative Affect on Antioxidants?

Research appears to suggest that some proteins found in milk consumption limit the absorption of antioxidant molecules into our system, rendering them useless!

So, it is vitally important for our health that we consume foods with antioxidants but we must be careful not to associate these with milk to get the most out of them.

Benefits of Broccoli – A True Superfood

Broccoli

I was considering writing my own list of my preferred ‘superfoods’, however I decided that I would (today) single out broccoli. Broccoli is one of the greatest foods out there and is something I would recommend EVERYONE eat!

A Little About Broccoli

Broccoli is a nutrient-rich vegetable and the great thing about it is that it is widely available all year round. Although broccoli is one of the least popular vegetables to the taste buds (not in my mouth though) they are very versatile and so there is no real excuse to not have them in our diet as we can put them in almost anything! Broccoli originates from Italy.

The Health Benefits of Broccoli

There are numerous benefits to including broccoli in our diet. One of the main gains from eating broccoli is the high amounts of vitamin C that it provides. We need vitamin C for numerous reasons such as helping with iron absorption and ease the symptoms of the common cold amongst other things.

Broccoli contains a lot of potassium and this can really help us to maintain a healthy nervous system and help the brain function. Along with the potassium, magnesium and calcium is also present in broccoli, which helps to regulate our blood pressure.

A lot of evidence supports the theory of broccoli helping to fight cancer in our bodies. Glucoraphanin is found in broccoli, which gets processed by the body into an anti-cancer compound sulforaphane. Indole-3-carbinol is also found in broccoli and this helps fight the growth of breast, cervical and prostate cancer.

In truth, the health benefits of broccoli go on and on. Digestion, blood sugar, heart disease and vision are all things that can be helped through eating broccoli.

How to cook

There are many ways of cooking broccoli but to retain the most nutrients the best way is to steam the broccoli for 3-4 minutes.

Other Varieties

There are other varieties of broccoli that can be found. Sprouting broccoli and purple cauliflower are other types of broccoli. Sprouting broccoli has a larger number of heads than the typical broccoli that we eat. Purple cauliflower is type of broccoli that is commonly sold in Europe.