Healthblog, Wellness, And Recipes!

Why You Should Eat More Beets!
 

Beets can’t be beat! Beets are packed with so many good-for-you vitamins and micro-nutrients that you should seriously consider adding them into your diet.   Traditional wisdom states the sweet flavor of the beet strengthens the heart, sedates the spirit, improves circulation, purifies the blood, liver, moistens the intestines and promotes menstruation.  Beets are notorious for their detoxifying components and should be added to any individual’s diet who may suffer from “deficient blood” disorders.
 

Caution:  The greens contain abundant oxalic acid, and if eaten excessively, inhibit calcium metabolism.

Baked/Roasted Beet Recipe:
 

This is a convenient way to prepare beets when the stove-top is crowded.

Ingredients:
 

• 1 pound of beets, stems trimmed to 1 inch
• ½ cup of water
• 2 tablespoons olive, or walnut oil
• 1 tablespoon minced parsley, chives, or dill
• Fresh lemon or lime juice to taste

What to do:
 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• Place the beets in an 8-inch square baking pan or a round oven-proof dish
• Add water. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the beets are easily pierced with a thin skewer or knife tip, about 45 minutes for small beets, 1 hour for medium, and 1¼ hours for large beets
• Slip off the skins, and leave the beets whole or slice into round or wedges. Season with salt and black pepper, or paprika to taste. Toss with butter or oil, minced parsley, and lemon juice
   
  References: Pitchford, Paul (2002). Healing With Whole Foods. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. 

Hot And sour Chinese Salad

This flavorful salad combines peas, noodles, umeboshi and fresh onion for a very satisfying "hot and sour" taste.

Healing properties:

Cooling thermal nature.

Babaganouj (Greek Eggplant Pate)
 

If you’ve never had Babaganouj you are in for a treat.  This tasty spread is easy to prepare and quite healthy.
 

The Role Of Balance

Balance is one of the primary- almost axiomatic- concepts of the Taoist philosophy as the philosophy of the Tao has a basic respect for the natural balance inherit in all things. In the realm of nature, for example, you wouldn’t volitionally opt to upset this balance; rather, you would try to adapt yourself to its flow. In other words, you should always try to go along with it and avoid, say, the kind of mistake made in the 1950’s by the World Health Organization (WHO). In its attempt to eliminate malaria in northern Borneo, WHO employed the pesticide dieldrin on the local mosquito population, which was known to carry the disease. At first, the people at WHO believed they had solved the problem, since the use of the chemical had significantly diminished the abundance of mosquitos (and even flies and cockroaches) and, along with them, the incidence of malaria. But then a strange thing happened: the roofs of the villages’ huts began to collapse on top of them and a typhoid epidemic broke out.
 

The reason was that local lizards began eating the insects that were laden with the dieldrin. The lizards, full of the toxic chemical, were eaten by the cats of the village, and that effectively wiped out the cat population. With the cats gone, the local rat population skyrocketed, and they ran unchecked throughout the villages, carrying with them typhus-infested fleas. The roofs then began collapsing because the dieldrin, in addition to killing the mosquitos, cockroaches, and flies, also killed the wasps that ordinarily would have consumed the caterpillars that, left unchecked, were not eating the villagers’ thatched roofs. Through such an interference with the balance of nature, the WHO, for a time, found itself in some difficulty.
 

The philosophy of balance, or rather the respect for balance, is perhaps best illustrated by squeezing a rubber ball. However or wherever you squeeze it, the ball will yield, but it never loses its balance. It’s the safest form in the world, completely contained and never off center. To be completely contained, never susceptible to being put off center or phased by anything, is what is aimed at in the philosophy…
 

Similarly, those of us who wish to cultivate a stress-free existence have to be possessed of this same sense of balance, never being put off center no matter how hard we seem to get squeezed. We have to learn how to flow with life in the same way that the ball responds to the movements of the water, that the leaf travels with the wind, and that the martial artist cultivates a state of harmony between himself and his opponent. When we can accomplish this, we need never again be snared by conflict- of any kind.
 

Excerpt From: Little, John (1996). The Warrior Within: the philosophies of Bruce Lee. United States: Mcgraw-Hill

Lentil Curry
 

Delicious concoction of lentils with curry and spices that is sure to please the palate.
 

Healing Properties:

Lentils typically have a neutral thermal nature, mild flavor, diuretic, beneficial to the heart and circulation; stimulates the adrenal system; and increases the "vitality" of the kidneys. Turmeric(the chief ingredient in curry) is warming and bitter and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It is important to note that in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis, dietary turmeric improved flexibility and reduced joint swelling.