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Food Pyramid: These Foods Should Become a Habit

Healthy nutrition – everyone talks about it, but hardly anyone knows what it really is. Anyone who tries to finally eat healthily will usually fail miserably after a few weeks. But why is that? And how can you really eat healthy and, ideally, sustainably?

Before you worry about what you eat, you should know what food your body needs – and how much of it. The amount of energy a person needs depends mainly on two things: age and exercise. If you move a little at work or in your free time, you need less energy than someone who moves a lot. If you want to lose weight or are overweight, you should expend more energy than you take in.

If you want to know exactly how much energy you need, you can use an energy balance calculator to find out. And then it’s about the actual diet: The food pyramid offers a good guide to which foods are healthy and in what quantities we should eat them.

Food pyramid: which food groups are important?

The food pyramid shows you what you can eat a lot of – and what rather little:

The lowest level of the pyramid and thus the basis of your diet are drinks: we should drink about 1.5 liters per day – preferably water, unsweetened tea or diluted juice spritzers. If water tastes too boring for you, experiment with cucumber, mint, fruit or ginger to give the water more flavor. Alcoholic beverages and soft drinks such as cola & co. can also be drunk from time to time, but better only on special occasions and then only in moderation.
The 2nd level of the pyramid contains vegetables and fruits: A healthy diet should contain plenty of them – preferably five servings a day. A portion corresponds to your own hand (palm without fingers). That sounds like a lot at first, but it’s easier than you think: For example, eat muesli with fresh seasonal fruit for breakfast in the morning and drink a glass of orange juice or have a few vegetable sticks in between. If you then eat a portion of vegetables as a side dish at lunchtime and maybe a fruit salad for dessert, then you have almost reached the five portions. A small salad for supper in the evening and you’ve already eaten enough fruit and vegetables. Give it a try!
The third place in a healthy diet should be cereals, rice and potatoes. It is best to use whole grain products – they keep you full longer, contain more minerals and provide fiber.
Only then comes the food group of animal products and sources of protein, such as dairy products, eggs, meat and fish. Anyone who eats a vegan or vegetarian diet naturally avoids these animal foods – because proteins are also found in plant products, for example in the form of legumes. A healthy diet also includes vegetable oils and fatty acids from rapeseed or olive oil. Snacks, sweets and other nibbles are at the top of the food pyramid and should only be eaten infrequently.
Of course, it is not that easy to find enough regional vegetables and fruit in winter, but if necessary you can also use the frozen version. In addition, many varieties can be canned, pickled or dried during the high season so that they are preserved even in winter. Have a look here: Preserving food: 3 simple methods.

If you want to check whether you eat according to these recommendations or don’t feel like counting calories, you can also use the “What I eat” app from the Federal Center for Nutrition, for example.

For more variety in the food pyramid

The rule of thumb is: If you want to eat healthily, you should eat as varied a diet as possible. Each level of the food pyramid contains various foods that can provide a varied supply of important nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

In order to get as much variety as possible when choosing vegetables and fruit, it makes sense – and at the same time sustainably – to orientate yourself on the seasonal calendar. In almost every month, different varieties have high season.

Try out fruits and vegetables that you haven’t tried before, or combine them in completely new ways. Of course there are varieties – such as the avocado – that are very healthy, but not regional and only end up on our plates with great transport effort and water consumption. There are often less well-known local species from the region that are just as healthy, tasty and much more sustainable.

Healthy eating starts with shopping

You can already make sure you eat healthy when you go shopping: because once there are cola, chips and chocolate in the kitchen cupboard, they will certainly be eaten. Before you ask yourself what you want to buy, the next time you go shopping, you could ask yourself where you shop.

Do you go to the supermarket around the corner by default? Or a few streets further to the organic or unpackaged shop? Perhaps there is also a (organic) weekly market or an organic farm shop near you? Small regional shops usually offer seasonal food from the region, and you often get good tips on how to prepare it.

There might also be a farmer in your town who delivers crates of vegetables directly to your home. Vegetable boxes mainly contain seasonal vegetables and thus automatically ensure a varied, healthy and sustainable diet. It’s often worth doing a little research before heading back to the supermarket around the corner as usual.

It also makes sense to plan what you want to buy before you go shopping. So you don’t buy anything superfluous or more than you need. When shopping, you should consciously choose which foods go in the shopping basket. In addition to the price and quality, the organic seal or the fair trade label, the list of ingredients and the nutritional information on the packaging can also be helpful.

In general, it is of course better to buy food that is as unprocessed and fresh as possible.

More vitamins and minerals through healthy cooking

Cooking is also part of a healthy diet: vitamins are best preserved when vegetables are prepared “al dente” – i.e. crispy. In general, temperatures that are too high and baking and roasting times that are too long should not be used.

Keeping warm and warming up also destroys vitamins. If you want to save energy at the same time, you should close the lid while cooking – this saves up to a quarter of the electricity – and use the residual heat from the stove.

Habit: In small steps to a healthy diet

It is certainly difficult to eat healthily and on the basis of the food pyramid overnight. This claim is far too high and almost impossible to meet.

Give yourself the time you need to make the dietary changes. It’s completely normal and okay if it doesn’t work out right from the start. Try it with small steps: Instead of the usual chocolate muesli in the morning, you can simply try grain muesli and fresh fruit. But you can also take it slower – try out what works best for you: maybe you can get used to the fruit in the chocolate muesli first.

Despite a healthy diet, it is important not to lose the fun of eating. Deal with the food, find out where it comes from and which recipes you can try out. Healthy eating will soon become a habit.

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Food

Roast Brussels Sprouts: This is How It Become Really Tasty

Roasting Brussels sprouts is easy with these instructions. Roasted Brussels sprouts are a popular side dish in wintry temperatures. Three variants bring variety to the plate.

You can prepare Brussels sprouts in different ways – for example in a pan. We’ll show you three varied ways of roasting Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts are a typical winter vegetable from the cabbage family. Harvest time in Germany begins at the end of September. Brussels sprouts are in high season between November and December. Since cabbage can be stored very well, you can buy regional Brussels sprouts until March.

The best way to buy fresh Brussels sprouts is organic and from regional suppliers. Because organic food usually contains far less pesticide residues – synthetic pesticides are forbidden in organic cultivation. In addition, Brussels sprouts from the region do not have to be transported so far, which saves CO2. An alternative to the shop or market around the corner is the delivery of an eco box** with regional fruit and vegetables directly to your home.

Roast Brussels sprouts: the ingredients

You need the following ingredients for four to six side dishes of roasted Brussels sprouts:

500 grams of Brussels sprouts
3-4 tbsp vegetable oil (e.g. olive oil)
Salt
pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Be sure to use fresh Brussels sprouts for this recipe. Frozen cabbage florets cannot be fried until brown because they lose too much water.

Tip: The ground cumin will help you digest the cabbage better.

Roast Brussels sprouts properly

If you want to roast Brussels sprouts, you should be careful not to burn them. How to properly roast Brussels sprouts:

Clean the Brussels sprouts carefully.
Cut the cabbage florets in half.
Heat the olive oil in a pan on high.
Add the Brussels sprouts once the oil is hot.
Then reduce the heat and fry the halves of Brussels sprouts for about five minutes on medium-high. Stir constantly so the vegetables don’t burn.
Add the salt, pepper and ground cumin and mix the spices with the Brussels sprouts. Reduce the temperature to the lowest level and cover the pan with a lid.
Roast the Brussels sprouts for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how al dente you want them to be. Stir every 3 to 5 minutes to avoid burning the Brussels sprouts. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water if the veggies are too dry and sticking. Alternatively, you can also increase the amount of oil in this case.

Roast Brussels sprouts: three delicious variants

Roasted Brussels sprouts don’t have to taste boring: With a few simple steps and little effort, you can change the winter vegetables and add variety to your plate.

Brussels sprouts go very well with nuts. For example, add some roasted peanuts or cashew nuts to the finished dish.
With leftover rice from the day before, you can turn the fried Brussels sprouts into a delicious rice pan. Mix the cold rice with the fried florets and heat the rice pan for five more minutes. As a spice, curry goes very well here.
If you’re roasting Brussels sprouts, you can use breadcrumbs to give them a crispy crust. Simply add some oil or butter along with 2-3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs to the already cooked Brussels sprouts and sear them again.
Roast Brussels sprouts in the oven: Put the Brussels sprouts halves in a casserole dish and mix the vegetables with the spices. Pour some oil over it and put the mold in the oven. Then roast the Brussels sprouts for 45 to 50 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius top and bottom heat.
Brussels sprouts can also be combined with other types of vegetables to create a vegetable pan. But pay attention to the different cooking times of the vegetables.

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Food

Grilling Spare Ribs: This is How They Become Really Tender!

Want to grill spare ribs but don’t have time to turn them over and over for 3-4 hours over low heat? Why not try this recipe, in which the spare ribs are first cooked in a spicy broth. You have never eaten more tender spare ribs – I promise!

Spare ribs are something delicious: you can nibble on the crispy ribs to your heart’s content until your fingers and face are really smeared with barbecue marinade. Because eating spare ribs with a knife and fork is a no-no!

Along with pulled pork and beef brisket (breast of beef), the spicy ribs are part of the “Holy Trinity” of classic American barbecues. Traditionally, spare ribs are cooked over low heat for several hours, turning them over and over again. This allows the fat to spread out slowly, making the meat tender and crispy. Unfortunately, not everyone has the patience of the American BBQ forefathers and grilling spare ribs often turns into a fat-soaked, chewy, and burnt affair.

Our recipe suits all friends of quick barbecue enjoyment because the ribs are first pre-cooked in a seasoning broth for half an hour. The pre-cooking can also be done a day before the BBQ. After that, 15 to 20 minutes on the grill is enough! A positive side effect: pre-cooking the ribs makes them less greasy.

Grilling spare ribs: the ingredients

  • 2 kg pork rib ready to cook
  • 2 onions
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 150 ml dark beer
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon of liquid honey
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp paprika powder
  • Salt
  • Tabasco
  • pepper from the grinder

Grilling spare ribs: That’s how it’s done

  1. Wash the spareribs, pat dry, place in a saucepan, pour over enough water to cover, and bring to a boil. Peel and onion and a clove of garlic, cut in half and add to the water along with a level tablespoon of sea salt.
  2. Let simmer for about 30 minutes.
  3. Put the oil in a pan, peel, and dice the remaining onion, and sweat in the oil until translucent. Peel and press the garlic. Pour on the beer, let it reduce a little, and mix in a bowl with the ketchup, tomato paste, honey, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the paprika powder and season with salt, Tabasco, and pepper.
  4. Remove the spareribs from the broth and place them on a hot grill. Brush with the beer sauce and grill for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Keep brushing and turning with the marinade.
  5. Divide the spare ribs into individual ribs and serve them arranged on plates. This goes well with coleslaw.
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Lifestyle

Dirty Joints? With This Secret Trick They Become Clean Again

Joints don’t get nicer over time. Whether in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Either dirt collects or mold forms due to moisture. You can find out here which trick you can use to get your joints clean again.

With this secret trick, joints become clean again

At some point it is enough and you can no longer bear the sight of dirty joints in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Whenever you look at it, the question pops into your head as to how you can get the joints nice and bright and clean again. A wide variety of advice, tips and tricks are circulating. White wax is supposed to help: After cleaning, simply rub the joints with a white candle to give them impregnation protection and preventively help to give them a new shine. However, caution is advised here. At the latest with the next hot shower or when washing the dishes in the kitchen, the wax melts, dissolves more difficult than right and, in the worst case, clogs the drain. The rest that does not come off usually remains as a sticky gray mass and is difficult to remove without leaving any residue.

The trick with the baking powder is a lot more promising: simply dilute a packet of baking powder with a little warm water to create a spreadable paste. With a few dashes of lemon you can improve the effect if necessary. In any case, it smells even fresher. Brush the paste onto the grout with a (preferably discarded) toothbrush. Wait about 20 to 30 minutes and let the mixed baking soda paste work. In the case of stubborn dirt, you can scrub a little with the toothbrush and finally rinse everything off with a little water. Finished!

Baking powder usually contains baking soda, which, when combined with e.g. citric acid (hence the dash of lemon), becomes an active so-called raising agent. If there is no baking soda in baking soda, it is usually other acidifiers, such as tartaric acid. Baking powder also contains a release agent, such as cornstarch. Together with moisture and heat (therefore ideally use warm lemon water) carbon dioxide is released. When baking, the tiny CO2 bubbles ensure that the dough rises. Using this to clean your grout will loosen deep-seated dirt and unhealthy mold. To clean your grout, you better use baking soda instead of a chemical club for the sake of the environment. This is an effective, cheap and, above all, much healthier alternative.

Dirty joints – how to prevent

Tiles and joints belong together and are usually laid where it gets wet and damp. As a rule, it can hardly be avoided that dirt or water gets on and into the joints. However, there is something you can do to stop discoloration and mold from forming.

As a preventive measure, you should always keep the area around the tiles clean and rub dry after showering or using the sink, for example. Regular airing of the rooms also helps. This way you can delay the baking soda cleaning that will eventually be necessary.

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Food

Carrots: This is How They Become Crunchy Again

When carrots go soft, there is a very simple trick to make them crunchy again.

With this trick you can get them crispy again!

Only if your carrots already show mold should you not eat them under any circumstances. Softened carrots can be used in a soup or in casseroles, for example.

As a rule, the orange-colored vegetables keep for seven to ten days in the refrigerator. But you should definitely remove the carrots from the plastic packaging immediately after buying them in the supermarket. This ensures that water forms in it, which causes the carrots to go moldy. If the carrots lose their freshness, there is a very simple trick you can use to get them crunchy again:

Place or set the carrots in a large container.
Cover them completely with cold water.
Leave the carrots in the fridge for at least 8 hours, but preferably overnight.
The next day you can take them out of the water and prepare crunchy carrots.
The cold water ensures that the roots can absorb enough water again. In this way, the carrots regain sufficient moisture and volume. This makes them fresh and crisp again at the end. Since the root vegetables take up more space with the enriched water, you should also choose a container that is large enough.

Tip

A tip at the end: After shopping, you can wrap the root vegetables in a damp cloth at home and put them in the vegetable drawer in the fridge, then the carrots usually stay crisp longer and don’t even have to take a bath in cold water.

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health

Coffee Enjoyment in Abundance: How Many Cups of Coffee a Day Are Still Healthy – and When Does it Become Dangerous?

Coffee is one of the most popular hot drinks. The average person drinks three cups a day in this country. But is that still healthy?

From how many cups is coffee harmful?

The caffeine contained in coffee boosts bodily functions, increases hand rank, expands the bronchi and promotes concentration. Whether caffeine can kill is also easy to answer – yes, it can. A quantity of several grams becomes dangerous. The stimulant affects everyone differently. Not only in terms of the effect, but also in terms of how long it takes the body to break down the caffeine. While it takes some people just a few hours for caffeine to be metabolized, for others the process takes much longer.

When it comes to blood pressure, high blood pressure patients have nothing to fear, Professor Wolfram Delius assures the pharmacy umschau. Coffee increases heart rate, but to a manageable extent. With regular consumption, this effect is even weaker. The thesis that coffee is a “water stealer” has also been refuted. The diuretic effect cannot be denied, but it is due to the large amounts of water that you consume when drinking coffee. Nevertheless, Delius emphasizes that it is better not to drink coffee before measuring your blood pressure. Although studies always say that coffee should support heart function, the professor points to the lack of data. Under certain circumstances, those affected can feel cardiac arrhythmias more strongly after drinking coffee. What is certain, however, is that coffee lowers the risk of diabetes. “This is shown by large observational studies,” says Dr. Young Hee Lee-Barkey, Senior Physician at the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen.

Can coffee even prolong life?

nutritionist dr. Anna Flögel, who researched at the German Institute for Human Nutrition in Potsdam, emphasizes “If you live unhealthily, for example because you smoke or drink alcohol frequently, coffee does not make you healthier.” Researchers have now discovered the maximum amount of coffee you should drink per day before it becomes unhealthy: with too much coffee, the risk of a heart attack increases significantly. While men consume an average of 3.6 cups per day, women only drink 3.2 cups of coffee. Researchers at the University of South Australia have investigated whether these amounts are dangerous to health.

There are still many myths and theories surrounding the popular hot drink. One side warns against too much coffee, the other side even claims that it has a healing effect. According to recent studies, drinking coffee could reduce the relative risk of death. In addition, filter coffee is said to help against high cholesterol levels, and in one German city people with liver disease are even asked to consume up to six cups of coffee a day. The “University of South Australia” has examined more closely whether coffee is really harmful”. The researchers used values ​​from the British Biobank: data from a total of 347,077 people aged between 37 and 73 were recorded and evaluated.

Global coffee consumption: three billion cups a day

“Around three billion cups of coffee are drunk every day worldwide. Knowing the limits of what is good and what is bad is essential,” says Professor Elina Hyppönen. She is Director of the Australian Center for Precision Health at the University of South Australia Cancer Research Centre. She also says, “As with many things in life, it’s all about balance; if you overdo it, your body will pay for it.”

Risk of heart disease increases with too much coffee

The study found that drinking more than six cups of coffee increases the risk of heart disease by up to 22 percent. More precisely: The study found that too much caffeine can lead to increased blood pressure. This is considered a precursor to serious heart disease. A certain dose can therefore also have negative consequences for health. The study was the first to provide a recommendation for the maximum amount of coffee you should drink per day.
As with most things, the same applies to coffee: as long as you don’t overdo it, drinking it every day is not harmful to your health.

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Food

Coffee Enjoyment in Abundance: How Many Cups of Coffee a Day are Still Healthy – and When Does it Become Dangerous?

Coffee is one of the most popular hot drinks. The average person drinks three cups a day in this country. But is that still healthy?

From how many cups is coffee harmful?

The caffeine contained in coffee boosts bodily functions, increases hand rank, expands the bronchi and promotes concentration. Whether caffeine can kill is also easy to answer – yes, it can. A quantity of several grams becomes dangerous. The stimulant affects everyone differently. Not only in terms of the effect, but also in terms of how long it takes the body to break down the caffeine. While it takes some people just a few hours for caffeine to be metabolized, for others the process takes much longer.

When it comes to blood pressure, high blood pressure patients have nothing to fear, Professor Wolfram Delius assures the pharmacy umschau. Coffee increases heart rate, but to a manageable extent. With regular consumption, this effect is even weaker. The thesis that coffee is a “water stealer” has also been refuted. The diuretic effect cannot be dismissed out of hand, but is due to the large amounts of water that you support when drinking coffee, the professor refers to the lack of data. Under certain circumstances, those affected can feel cardiac arrhythmias more strongly after drinking coffee. What is certain, however, is that coffee lowers the risk of diabetes. “This is shown by large observational studies,” says Dr. Young Hee Lee-Barkey, Senior Physician at the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen.

Can coffee even prolong life?

nutritionist dr. Anna Flögel, who researched at the German Institute for Human Nutrition in Potsdam, emphasizes “If you live unhealthily, for example because you smoke or drink alcohol frequently, coffee does not make you healthier.” Researchers have now discovered the maximum amount of coffee you should drink per day before it becomes unhealthy: too much coffee increases the risk of a heart attack. While men consume an average of 3.6 cups per day, women only drink 3.2 cups of coffee. Researchers at the University of South Australia have investigated whether these amounts are dangerous to health.

There are still many myths and theories surrounding the popular hot drink. One side warns against too much coffee, the other side even claims that it has a healing effect. According to recent studies, drinking coffee could reduce the relative risk of death. In addition, filter coffee is said to help against high cholesterol levels, and in one German city people with liver disease are even asked to consume up to six cups of coffee a day. The “University of South Australia” has examined more closely whether coffee is really harmful”

Global coffee consumption: three billion cups a day

“Around three billion cups of coffee are drunk every day worldwide. Knowing the limits of what is good and what is bad is essential,” says Professor Elina Hyppönen. She is Director of the Australian Center for Precision Health at the University of South Australia Cancer Research Centre. She also says, “As with many things in life, it’s all about balance; if you overdo it, your body will pay for it.”

Risk of heart disease increases with too much coffee

The study found that drinking more than six cups of coffee increases the risk of heart disease by up to 22 percent. More precisely: The study found that too much caffeine can lead to increased blood pressure. This is considered a precursor to serious heart disease. A certain dose can therefore also have negative consequences for health. The study was the first to provide a recommendation for the maximum amount of coffee you should drink per day.

As with most things, the same applies to coffee: as long as you don’t overdo it, drinking it every day is not harmful to your health.

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Food

Superfood Oatmeal: This is How They Become a Real Fat Burner – All Day Long

Oatmeal is a true superfood, keeps you full for a long time and can help you lose weight. With this variant you can also boost fat burning.

Oatmeal is considered a superfood – why?

Oatmeal (Avena sativa) is tasty and versatile. As a low-gluten grain, they are also very trendy. They enhance your muesli, add the right bite to patties, can be baked into bread and rolls or provide sweet moments as delicious oatmeal biscuits. Despite their high calorie content, around 350 kilocalories per 100 grams, they can help you lose weight. In addition to the good taste, the crushed cereal grains also contain a lot of healthy nutrients such as fiber, vitamins and minerals.

These healthy ingredients are found in oats
Complex carbohydrates keep you full longer because our body needs more time to digest long-chain carbohydrates. As a result, stomach emptying is much slower and you feel full longer. In addition, the blood sugar level rises only slowly and less insulin is required.
Dietary fibers are largely indigestible food components that swell up in the stomach and bind water. Oatmeal contains about 10 grams of dietary fiber in the form of pectin and cellulose for every 100 grams. These serve as food for the beneficial intestinal bacteria. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) recommends that adults consume at least 30 grams of fiber per day.
Beta-glucan is a soluble dietary fiber that forms a kind of protective film on the stomach and intestinal mucosa. Studies show that beta-glucan has a positive effect on cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The oat diet has also proven to be very effective for controlling blood sugar levels. The health-promoting properties of beta-glucans from oats and barley have been sufficiently proven in studies. Corresponding health claims (health-related information) have been approved by the European Commission and included in the positive list of permitted health-related information.
Minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc, manganese and selenium provide the body with an extra portion of important micronutrients.
Vitamins, of which the high content of B vitamins stands out, support important body processes.

This is how oats become a fat burner

To boost your fat digestion, you should include oat bran in your diet, which consists only of parts of the whole oat grain. Oat bran consists of the oat seedling and the outer layers of the endosperm. It is more like a coarse, coarsely ground flour and has a slightly nutty taste. The benefits of oat bran are:
Oat bran contains 15 grams of fiber per 100 grams, which is 50% more fiber than the pressed whole grain oatmeal.
Oat bran also has fewer calories (240 to 330 kilocalories per 100 grams) than oatmeal.
Oat bran contains less fat than oatmeal.
Oat bran contains more beta-glucan than oatmeal.
Although oat bran doesn’t contain all of the oat grain, it has most of the vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber of an oat grain, but fewer carbohydrates.
Oat bran is not very tasty on its own. But you can refine your muesli wonderfully with it. To increase the protein content here, it is best to combine oat bran with yoghurt, chia seeds or nuts. This automatically reduces the proportion of carbohydrates and you support fat burning. You can achieve an additional fat burner effect by adding spices such as ginger or cinnamon. If you also mix your oat bran muesli with water instead of milk, you save even more calories. But oat bran is also very valuable as a flour substitute when baking bread or biscuits and stirred into sauces.

Tips on buying and eating oatmeal and oat bran

Prefer organic quality: In addition to the health benefits, oat bran is also a very cheap food. Even in organic quality, oat bran remains affordable and long delivery routes are eliminated due to regional cultivation. The consumer magazine Öko-Test repeatedly finds impurities in oatmeal. In addition to glyphosate, these also include mold toxins, mineral oil and nickel. Among the oat flakes rated “very good” all of the first five places were organic products.
Increase fluid intake: Oat bran swells in the stomach, so it also increases stool volume and stimulates bowel movements. That’s why it’s very important that you drink enough fluids, otherwise constipation or, in the worst case, an intestinal blockage can occur.
Increase the amount slowly: You should also slowly get your body used to the higher fiber content, otherwise digestive problems such as flatulence can occur.
Be careful with digestive problems and allergies: If you suffer from swallowing problems or constrictions in the digestive tract, you should avoid oat bran.
If you are allergic to oats, eating oat bran is also not recommended.
If you suffer from celiac disease (gluten intolerance), you can use non-contaminated, gluten-free oats, which must be marked with the crossed-out ear of corn symbol.

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Lifestyle

Eat Intuitively: How to Become More Mindful When Eating

Do you want to get away from annoying diets and nutritional dictatorships? Then you should eat intuitively and pay attention to the needs of your body. We’ll explain what’s behind it and how you can do it.

Eat intuitively: That’s what it’s all about

Behind food, groceries and nutrition is a powerful lobby that influences politics, science and the media. A flood of information about healthy nutrition, unhealthy foods and fattening foods reach us every day. No wonder your head is spinning. Eating intuitively could be a way out of this vicious cycle.

Eating intuitively – or mindfully – means eating consciously. Away from the decoupling of nutrition and your own instinct, back to full body control in the sense of body awareness: When are you really full? What are you in the mood for right now? what does your body need These are probably the sticking points of the nutritional method of intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating is also traded with mental health and self-awareness. This type of diet promises a feel-good weight without dieting.

This is how you eat intuitively

Stress, commercials, frustration, depression and just the sheer overabundance of food can easily overwhelm your senses. It often doesn’t seem so easy to “simply” listen to your body and your inner voice.

To eat intuitively, you should:
build new positive patterns and discard old habits.
Observe and follow natural hunger and satiety signals.
Questioning habits/self-reflection: Ask yourself what is really good for your body.
Are you hungry or do you want to eat for other reasons (distraction, habit, environment, emotional state)?
Signals: Your stomach should not be tense, but give you a pleasant feeling of fullness.
Tips from science: switch off technical devices, collect your thoughts and focus on the meal, use your senses and taste, smell, feel. Eat slowly.
The basis for intuitive nutrition is body awareness. You can train your mindfulness in a targeted manner.

Possible difficulties and limitations of the diet

Intuitive eating initially requires discipline. In order to follow your inner voice, you must direct your attention from the outside in. Self-confidence plays a major role here – on the one hand as a prerequisite and on the other hand as a consequence of intuitive eating. This is where the limits of intuitive eating come into their own:

What about the people who suffer from eating disorders?
What about those people who suffer from other mental disorders and find it difficult to act intuitively?
How do you escape social constraints that regulate eating habits (e.g. everyday family life, work life, stress) without turning away from society?
Science, books (e.g. “Intuitive Essen” by Uwe Knop) and mental training courses deal with these questions, which want to show how you can break patterns and listen to yourself better in today’s consumer society.

Eating is a highly social and sensitive matter. In the course of individualization, everyone has to know for themselves what they like and want to eat. However, this only works in social classes that are not in precarious and starving conditions. In a way, eating intuitively is a luxury that not everyone has access to.

Intuitive eating as a recognized method?

Science also shows that eating intuitively has its limits. Studies such as “Self-compassion and intuitive eating in college women” show a direct connection between emotional or psychological state and eating habits. The above points are supported by the study. Ultimately, a stable personality and a high level of mindfulness are prerequisites for successful intuitive eating.

Nevertheless, you should not give up trying, but work on noticing your own body condition in order to feel good. At the same time, the study shows that intuitive eating made it easier for the subjects to accept themselves.

Scientifically, however, the intuitive form of nutrition has not yet been sufficiently researched. So don’t get discouraged and try it yourself. You have nothing to lose, right?

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Cooking Tips

Drying Walnuts: This is How The Nuts From The Garden Become Edible

Walnuts from the garden must first be dried before they can be eaten. Find out here how best to dry the delicious nuts and what you should bear in mind when doing so.

Why dry fresh walnuts first?

During the walnut harvest, the nuts are not picked from the tree, but picked up from the ground. Ripe walnuts usually fall from the tree by themselves between September and the end of October. You should then collect them quickly: If soil moisture penetrates through the wooden nutshell, mold will form after a short time.

The walnut harvest can extend over a longer period of time because the nuts do not all fall off at the same time. It is best to check the ground under the walnut tree every day for freshly fallen, ripe nuts that you can pick up.

A walnut tree can easily bear up to 130 kg of fruit. If you want to store a large amount of walnuts, be sure to dry them first. This is the only way to prevent your harvest from spoiling.

Drying walnuts: This is how you prepare the nuts

After harvesting, you should prepare walnuts as follows:

Clean: The wooden walnut shell may still be surrounded by the soft outer shell. Remove these thoroughly and completely with a brush, otherwise mold can form. It is best to wear gloves when working: this way you avoid the peel discolouring the skin on your fingers and hand.
Never wash the walnuts with water, as moisture can spoil them quickly.
Sort: Dry only pristine and ripe walnuts. If they have black spots or appear shriveled, this indicates mold or parasites. These walnuts absolutely must be sorted out.

How to properly dry walnuts

After these steps, you can dry the walnuts. Pay attention to:
The right temperature: It is best to dry the nuts in a room in the house that is around 20 °C. Suitable are, for example, an insulated attic, the boiler room or the house entrance. But make sure that the room is not too warm.
The Right Place: Dry the walnuts in fruit crates lined with newspaper. Wooden frames over which grids are stretched are also very suitable.
Enough space: The most important rule when drying: Only place the walnuts in a single layer in the fruit box or on the grid and leave enough space between the individual nuts. Make sure they don’t touch. The air must be able to circulate around the nuts so that they dry evenly and do not form mold.
Sufficient time: The walnuts need about 4 to 6 weeks to dry completely. Turn them every few days so they dry evenly. Finally, check if the nuts are dry: open one or two and take a good look at their kernels. If it’s not brittle, but rather rubbery, the nut isn’t dry enough.
Once the walnuts have dried, you can store them. Fill them in a basket or in a potato sack and keep them in the pantry. There they stay fresh for up to 12 months.

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