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You can also eat onions raw instead of always frying or steaming them. This is how you benefit from the many healthy ingredients in onions.

Eat onions raw – that’s why it’s worth it

Onions are extremely healthy and have always been a popular remedy for various ailments. The most valuable ingredients of the onion include:
high levels of vitamin C,
vitamin B6 in high quantity,
vitamin B7 (biotin),
antioxidants,
Potassium,
sulfur compounds.
From a medical point of view, the antioxidants and the sulfur compounds are particularly important. But the vitamins and potassium they contain also make onions so healthy. The substance alliin, which studies have shown can prevent and even alleviate cancer, is also particularly interesting.

When heated, many of these valuable nutrients are lost. It is therefore advisable to eat the onions raw.

A blessing for health
As reported by the University Hospital in Freiburg, the onion has an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect and helps with coughs and earaches. Red onions in particular can also lower cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that onions can successfully prevent cancer. Onions can even help with diabetes.

Eat raw onions without complications

The carbohydrates in onions are present as so-called “fructans”. On the one hand, these substances are healthy because, among other things, they activate the intestinal flora and promote bowel movements. However, if you have a sensitive digestive system, these substances can cause stomach pain or bloating.

If your digestion is sensitive, you should only try raw onions in small amounts at first. Alternatively, you can also use the milder spring onions for the time being, which are particularly digestible.
You can also prevent flatulence with suitable home remedies, such as caraway or fennel tea. Ginger or apple cider vinegar can also help with digestive problems.
If, on the other hand, the sharp taste of the raw onions prevents you, you can first sprinkle the sliced ​​onions with a little salt and let it soak in for an hour. This removes the spiciness from the onions. You can also try the milder vegetable onions.

Eating daisies – is that possible? Sure, of course! Because they are not only pretty, but also very healthy. Here you can find out what you should consider when eating and collecting.

From April, the small flowers of the daisies can be seen in many meadows, on the edges of fields and on the edges of paths. Daisies can bloom well into November in warm weather, but the best time to collect them is April or May, when the flowers are young and particularly tasty.

Like many other wild herbs, daisies are very healthy: they contain bitter substances and flavonoids, among other things. In naturopathy, daisies are used as medicinal herbs.

Collecting daisies: You should pay attention to that

Luckily, daisies are easily recognizable by their blooms and don’t have a poisonous double. However, you should only pick them if they are definitely daisies. It is also important that you collect in the right places:

Do not collect near roads, especially busy ones. The soil there is often contaminated with pollutants from the exhaust gases, which are absorbed by the daisies through their roots. For this reason you should not collect in industrial areas or in places that used to be industrial areas. Some heavy metals stay in the soil for a long time and are very toxic.
Do not collect near chemically fertilized fields or pastures. Likewise, you should not pick daisies in places where pesticides are sprayed.
Don’t collect in places where there are a lot of dogs.
It is safest if you collect the flowers in your own garden. In order to protect the stock, you should never pick off all the daisies in one place and also not uproot the whole plant. Instead, cut off the flowers with scissors or a knife.

You should keep this in mind when eating the daisies

Process the daisies as soon as possible after you pick them. You can keep them in the fridge for a few days. You can also preserve the buds by pickling them.
The risk of ingesting dangerous germs or parasites through the consumption of wild herbs is quite low. However, wash the buds thoroughly before eating them.
Daisies are healthy in small amounts, but large amounts are poisonous. If you experience diarrhea, vomiting, or seizures after eating daisies, you should see a doctor.

Most kiwis are peeled or spooned. You can also eat kiwis with the skin on and benefit from the most valuable nutrients. We explain what you should pay attention to.

Eat the kiwi peel too – it takes a little getting used to at first

Eating kiwis with the skin on is very healthy. Wash the kiwi well, remove the stalk and then cut into strips or cubes. The taste of the peel is a bit peculiar, but it complements the sweet flesh of the kiwi very well. The rough, hairy structure of the kiwi skin in particular might take some getting used to at first. Just try it a few times – and you’ll quickly get used to the special consistency. For starters, you can also try the golden kiwis, which have a noticeably thinner and smoother skin.

Tip: If you puree the kiwi with the peel in a smoothie, you will hardly notice the difference.
Important: When buying, you should make sure that you choose organically grown kiwis. In conventional cultivation, chemicals such as pesticides are often used, which are then mainly found on the skin. In this case, it’s best not to eat the peel. To be on the safe side, you should also wash organic kiwifruit thoroughly beforehand.

Eat the kiwi with the skin on – that’s why it’s so healthy

Kiwis are rich in vitamin C, vitamin K and vitamin A, and also provide potassium and magnesium. As with most fruits, most of the nutrients are just under the skin. If you peel or spoon out kiwis, you often miss out on some of these important vitamins and trace elements.

In addition, the peel itself is rich in antioxidants and provides additional fiber.
For these reasons, it is generally highly recommended to eat kiwis with the skin on: This way you get the full health boost that this tasty and healthy fruit provides.

Kiwi without pangs of conscience – avoid long transport routes

Therefore, when shopping, you should pay more attention to the country of origin of the delicious fruit in order to minimize your ecological footprint. In Europe, France, Italy, Spain and Greece are among the most important producers. In these countries, the kiwi is in season from September. During the summer months, however, you should better avoid kiwis – then they usually come from the southern hemisphere.

Even when you’re on a diet, you don’t always want to eat at home. Losing weight in a restaurant is sometimes quite difficult. Go out to eat with friends despite being on a diet! Even if you are on a diet, you should not forego social contacts.

Many people do not dare to go to a restaurant while on a diet because they fear they could be tempted to diet. All you need is a clever head and a little self-discipline and you can spend a nice evening with your friends.

4 tips on how to behave in the restaurant when losing weight

  1. Just think about which foods fit best into your diet plan and consistently leave out everything else.
  2. In the restaurant, one tends to eat the plate completely empty, although one is already full. You should therefore be aware before ordering that you should not necessarily eat all the side dishes.
  3. If you let friends around the table in on your diet plans, it’s probably even easier to skip dessert.
  4. Spending the evening with friends in a nice atmosphere should make regretting the cream sauce easier.

1) Have sauces served separately

You have an appointment with friends or business partners in a restaurant while you are on a diet and therefore cannot cook according to your diet plan. If you follow a few rules, calorie traps can easily be avoided in restaurants. One of these traps is e.g. salad or meat sauces, which are usually very high in calories. With lots of salad dressing, a healthy, low-calorie salad quickly becomes a calorie bomb. That’s why you should always order sauces separately in the restaurant to lose weight and then only pour a small amount over the salad or other food.

2) Share with friends

Can’t stick to your diet program because of an invitation to a restaurant? Try to omit parts of the menu. It doesn’t always have to be a starter, main course, and dessert. If you want to try everything, share a starter or main course with a friend. When ordering, ask the waiter to serve the dish on two plates.

3) Not too much from the breadbasket

In most restaurants, bread and butter are placed on the table before the starter is served. Caution is advised here. If you treat yourself to a few slices of bread with butter, you will quickly consume as many calories as the starter or the main course contains. When eating in a restaurant, you should either limit yourself to one slice of bread from the outset or ask when ordering not to have a bread basket placed on the table.

4) Walk home

Have you ever thought about walking extra to the restaurant? Ways to exercise in everyday life are important when losing weight. For example, use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalators. By bike to the subway or to go shopping before going out to eat. This is a natural way to keep fit while burning more calories to make up for eating out.

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?

Figs are considered the fruit of paradise – they are not only wonderfully sweet, but also healthy. Here you can find out why it is best to eat the fruit with the skin on and what you should consider when shopping.

The fig is considered a sacred fruit in many cultures. It originally comes from Asia Minor and has been cultivated in the Mediterranean region for centuries. Figs are not real fruits, but pseudo-fruits – the flowers grow inward and form the pulp of the fig.

Eating figs is healthy

Figs taste sweet and nutty – they promote digestion and are low in calories. Fresh figs contain only about 63 kilocalories per 100 grams. The fruits also provide many healthy nutrients:
Fresh figs contain many important B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9). Among other things, they regulate the metabolism and brighten the mood.
Potassium lowers blood pressure and supports heart activity.
Vitamin E strengthens your immune system.
Vitamin K and calcium are good for bone structure. If you avoid dairy products, figs are a valuable vegetable source of calcium.
Iron helps your body make blood.
The alkaline fruit stabilizes the acid balance in the intestine and provides it with plenty of fiber. Eating figs gets your gut moving and aids digestion. Figs are therefore a natural, gentle laxative that you can use for mild constipation.

Eat figs: preferably with the skin on

It is best to eat fresh figs whole – including the skin. In this way you also absorb the vitamins that are located directly under the shell. Simply wash the fig gently and twist off the stalk. Now you can eat the rest of the fruit.

If you buy organic figs, you can be sure that you are not eating any chemical pesticide residues.

Eating figs: the right choice

Most figs come from the Mediterranean region. There they grow in harmony with the Mediterranean climate and are therefore ecologically compatible crops. It is best to buy figs from these regions – they have to travel less than fruit from Asia or America and are therefore more climate-friendly.

In the Mediterranean region, the sweet fruits are harvested between July and October. In winter and spring, figs are imported from America or Australia.

Part of the fig harvest is dried and is therefore available all year round. Dried figs contain a particularly large number of nutrients – but also more fructose than fresh ones. They are a healthy snack between meals, a delicious addition to muesli and a good alternative when the figs are not in season.

Tips for buying figs

Figs come in many varieties – green, yellow or purple, with light or red flesh. To test the degree of ripeness, you can press the skin lightly – if it gives way softly, the fig is ripe and particularly tasty.

Don’t buy mushy figs. The ripe fruits are sensitive: they do not tolerate pressure and keep for about a day at room temperature and up to two days in the refrigerator. Unripe figs, on the other hand, only ripen on the tree, at home they age and spoil over time, but do not ripen. They can only be eaten cooked because of the milky juice that escapes. Therefore, make sure to buy ripe figs and eat them promptly.

“You shouldn’t eat aubergines raw” is a piece of advice many have heard. We explain what’s behind it and whether you really shouldn’t eat aubergines raw.

Eat aubergines raw – yes or no?

The aubergine belongs to the nightshade family, which also includes tomatoes and potatoes. Eggplants produce the toxin solanine, a weak neurotoxin. In small amounts, solanine usually has no noticeable consequences. But if you eat a lot of raw eggplant, the solanine can lead to headaches, gastrointestinal problems and vomiting. According to the German Society for Nutrition, even more serious health consequences are possible.

Since the proportion of bitter substances at the base of the aubergine and in unripe aubergines is higher, many doctors warn against eating raw aubergines. Nowadays, however, aubergines themselves are hardly toxic even when they are raw, since the toxins only occur in extremely small doses in modern cultivations.

Raw eggplants don’t taste good

In principle, it is possible to eat ripe aubergines raw. Nevertheless, it is not recommended because the raw vegetables taste very bitter and are not tasty.

Despite modern breeding, you should make sure that your eggplant is really ripe before you eat it. This is how you minimize the toxins. You can recognize the inedible parts by the green color – just like with potatoes and tomatoes.

You can see whether an aubergine is ripe by these characteristics:
the skin is smooth and shiny,
the peel is easy to dent and the flesh underneath is relatively soft,
the flesh is white on the inside and not green.
To draw the bitter juices out of the eggplant, it’s often recommended to soak the raw eggplant in salted water and pat dry before baking/roasting. In terms of health, this is no longer necessary thanks to modern breeding. But it’s still worth it, because the eggplant absorbs less fat and is healthier.

You can eat sweet potatoes raw, but not regular potatoes. But what about the unhealthy oxalic acid in sweet potatoes? Here’s how healthy raw sweet potatoes really are.

Eat sweet potatoes raw: That’s why they’re the better potatoes

It sounds paradoxical: while you should never eat potatoes raw, that’s no problem with sweet potatoes. But the reason is obvious: sweet potatoes are not potatoes at all. Instead, sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family and not to the nightshade family like the potato. So sweet potatoes are much more of a root. Compared to potatoes, sweet potatoes also contain no solanine. This is the toxic substance, which is why you should not eat potatoes raw.

Sweet potatoes contain many healthy ingredients. While some are broken down during cooking and baking, when consumed raw you can benefit from:
Carotenoids and anthocyanins (antioxidants)
Potassium (helps against stress, among other things)
Minerals such as calcium, zinc and iron
Vitamin A (good for the eyes)
Vitamin C (strengthens the immune system)
Vitamin E (protects against free radicals)
lots of carbohydrates with a high fiber content, which keeps you full for longer.
Basically, you can eat sweet potatoes raw and benefit from the many good ingredients. However, it contains oxalic acid, which can be harmful to humans.

Oxalic Acid in Sweet Potatoes – What Does It Mean?

Sweet potatoes contain quite a lot of oxalic acid. This damages the kidneys, but can be broken down by boiling or long soaking. At the same time, oxalic acid inhibits the absorption of magnesium, calcium and iron. For this reason, you should be careful not to consume excessive amounts of foods high in oxalic acid. So you can eat sweet potatoes raw, but in moderation and not by the kilo.

The combination is also important: For example, calcium promotes oxalic acid absorption. So when you combine calcium-rich foods like broccoli with sweet potatoes, the oxalic acid will be balanced. You can also combine kale, soy strips or sesame seeds.

According to the Bavarian consumer advice center, it is not a problem to eat sweet potatoes raw from time to time: “Unlike table potatoes, sweet potatoes can also be served raw as finger food or in a salad,” says nutrition expert Silke Noll from the consumer advice center.

Lots of useful tips for losing weight while cooking and eating. A kitchen is a central place for successful weight loss. Here is eaten and almost all food is prepared. Therefore, pay attention to the following tips, tricks, and tricks in the kitchen, when eating, and when cooking, in order to lose weight in a healthy and long-term manner.

1) Fruits and vegetables as a base

Fresh fruit and vegetables should be eaten in large quantities every day because fruit and vegetables provide the body with valuable vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and liquid. The German Society for Nutrition recommends eating at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day and points out that fruit and vegetables should be part of every meal. Whether you use organic vegetables or local fruit is of course up to you. However, it is clear that fruit and vegetables that have not been transported long distances usually retain more of their valuable ingredients.

When preparing, you should note that raw vegetables contain more vitamins than cooked vegetables. So it makes sense to eat part of the daily fruit and vegetable ration as raw food, e.g. salad. But be careful: Don’t make your low-fat, healthy salad a calorie bomb by drowning it in an oily or creamy dressing. Less is more! When cooking, you should make sure that you only cook the vegetables for as long as necessary so that the ingredients are at least partially preserved.

Just eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables! Not only does it help your body stay healthy, it also helps you lose weight if you’re overweight. With the large selection offered by the shops, everyone will find something they like!

2) Eat slowly

In order to achieve long-term weight loss, one must develop the habit of never gorging on food, eating slowly, and chewing each bite thoroughly. It takes about 20 minutes for the satiety signal to reach the brain. So if you eat your meal very quickly, you eat beyond the actual hunger.

3) Don’t forget the calories in drinks

Calories consumed in beverages are not as filling as calories from solid foods that require chewing. You are still hungry even after drinking high-calorie drinks. Therefore, as part of a diet, do not forget to include the nutritional value of drinks or consume only non-caloric drinks, such as mineral water. Otherwise, you may not lose weight despite your reduced food intake.

4) Vegetable snacks for cravings

If you want to get slim again on a diet, you should always be prepared for a little hunger or even cravings. Vegetable snacks are particularly helpful here to ensure safe weight loss. For example, if you are out and about or at work, no craving for something edible can be particularly dangerous. That’s why you should always have some prepared vegetable snacks with you. Otherwise, it can easily happen that you buy sweets or snacks in between meals.

Vegetables such as kohlrabi slices, cucumber slices, peeled carrots, and crunchy pepper wedges really help a lot if you feel hungry between meals. The vegetable snack is filling, but has few calories and helps to satisfy your oral cravings.

5) Don’t eat what you don’t like

For losing weight while eating, suggested recipes from diets should be liked. It is better to choose an alternative with the same nutritional value. Otherwise, you are too easily in danger of treating yourself to something after the meal that you like. Your calorie requirement is then already covered and the consumption of another food boycotts your diet.

6) Save fat by steaming

A healthy diet includes low-fat meals. Vegetables can be prepared without fat and while preserving the valuable vitamins and trace elements by cooking with little water in stainless steel pots with lids, steaming, pressure steaming, or steaming in their own juice.

When preparing vegetables or potatoes, boiling is not always the best way. To steam them, cover the bottom of the pan with a little water and place the vegetables in a colander. In this way, the trace elements and vitamins are better preserved and the aroma and taste are retained.

7) The correct fat content in cheese

On the product packaging of different types of cheese, the fat content is usually only given in the dry state (fat in dry matter). Although the actual fat content of the product is always lower, it always depends on the amount of water in the cheese. The more water the cheese contains, the greater the fat content. Accordingly, soft cheese and cream cheese are far lower in fat than hard and semi-hard cheese of the same fat content.

8) Avoid cream when losing weight

The cream is a popular ingredient in salads, sauces, and casseroles. In order to do something good for your health, however, you should replace it with sour cream to reduce the fat content. Alternatively, you can also use sour cream, which you should mix with flour so that it does not curdle when heated.

Instead of eating the avocado pit, most people just throw it in the trash. The core contains extremely healthy ingredients. But what about the controversial bitter substance persin?

The avocado is considered a healthy superfood that is rich in unsaturated fatty acids as well as vitamins and minerals. Normally, however, we only talk about the pulp – the skin and core usually end up in the garbage.

In recent years, however, it has been found that the avocado seed contains healthy nutrients and antioxidants. So should you eat the avocado seed as well? Some swear by it, others advise against it.

Eating an avocado seed: It should be that healthy

The ingredients and health benefits of the avocado have been extensively studied – but only in relation to the pulp. The situation is different with the avocado core, where research is still in its infancy. However, previous nutrient analyzes sound promising: the avocado core contains many of the fruit’s healthy ingredients, even in a concentrated form.

The avocado seed provides the following nutrients:
vitamins,
minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron,
fiber,
Amino acids,
unsaturated fatty acids,
bitter substances,
phytochemicals such as phenolic acid, flavonoids, carotenoids.
These ingredients are all considered to be extremely beneficial to health. From a medical point of view, the unsaturated fatty acids, bitter substances and secondary plant substances are of particular interest. Because of these substances, the avocado seed is said to have many positive effects. Among other things, he should…

…protect cells from oxidation by free radicals,
…inhibit inflammation,
… prevent cardiovascular diseases,
… strengthen the immune system,
…prevent infections,
…stimulate the metabolism and
Prevent thyroid disorders.
Current research suggests that the avocado seed may lower cholesterol levels. It can also be used to treat high blood pressure, diabetes and inflammatory diseases.

The antioxidant properties of the seed have already been scientifically confirmed. Beyond that, however, there is a lack of further investigations and studies on humans. So far, only research has been done on how avocado seed extract can affect the body – but not the consumption of the seed.

Potential Risks: Is the avocado seed toxic?

Because of the current research situation, the consumer advice center NRW warns against eating the avocado stone. Based on the current information, it is not certain to what extent it is healthy to consume the seed. In this context, reference is also made to the bitter substance persine, which is toxic to humans in large doses and is also found in the pulp of fruit and other types of fruit. Therefore, some voices strongly warn against eating the avocado seed. But even these claims have not yet been sufficiently substantiated.

The ingredients and possible health-promoting effects of the avocado seed sound promising. Since the popular fruit has a bad climate balance, it makes sense from an ecological point of view to use as many parts of the avocado as possible. However, due to the lack of human studies and long-term studies, we advise against eating the avocado stone in large quantities and only occasionally using it very sparingly in the kitchen.

In general, however, avocados are problematic from many perspectives: cultivation requires an enormous amount of water, which is scarce in most growing areas anyway. The mostly long transport routes worsen the ecological footprint even more. Blood also sticks to avocados from Mexico in particular, since the avocado trade there is controlled by the drug cartels. That’s why we strongly advise you to buy avocados only rarely – and if you do, then buy organic avocados from Europe, such as Spain or Italy.

Preparing the avocado seed: This is how you can eat it

The best way to use the avocado seed is to let it dry first. You have the following options for this:
Remove the brown skin from the avocado stone. This works best if you soak the core in water for a short time beforehand or let it dry for a day. Then let the washed core dry for 1-3 days.
Alternatively, you can also cut the fresh avocado seed into pieces or thin slices with a sharp knife and then let it dry. The fastest way to do this is in the sun or in a dehydrator. You can also lightly toast the pieces in a pan.
You can then prepare the dried pieces as follows:

If you have a powerful blender, you can mix parts of the avocado seed into smoothies. Since the core has a relatively tart, bitter taste, you should combine it with flavorful ingredients such as cabbage, rocket, spinach or berries.
You can use a kitchen grater to finely grate the avocado seed and add it to both sweet and savory dishes. For example, you can sprinkle the fine pieces over muesli or add them to the salad.
You can also prepare a tea from the avocado seed. Pour hot water over a teaspoon of the fine shredded pieces and let the tea steep for ten minutes before straining.
Attention: Also because of the slightly bitter taste, you should only add the core sparingly.

Tip: If you don’t want to eat the avocado seed, you can also germinate it and grow your own avocado plant.