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The Myth of Coffee: How Healthy is The Drink Really?

There have been numerous myths surrounding coffee for years. For many, it has now become an indispensable part of every day.

Caffeine as a stimulant

When it comes to coffee, the caffeine factor plays a crucial role. Many people reach for a cup of coffee early in the morning to shake off morning fatigue and start the day awake. The effects of caffeine are quite varied. First and foremost, it ensures that our circulation gets going and our mood rises positively. After consumption, our body needs about 30 to 45 minutes to transport the caffeine into our bloodstream. With normal consumption, caffeine has a stimulating effect on the psyche. The main advantage of this is that we can overcome performance lows and get into an alert and alert state. Even the memory capacity of our brain can be temporarily improved by consuming coffee. Concentration increases and we overcome phases of tiredness. Another great benefit of caffeine is that our peripheral blood vessels dilate – at the same time, the cerebral vessels shrink. This can alleviate migraines and headaches – a property that pharmaceutical companies have now discovered for themselves. Caffeine is found in many headache pills these days. Of course, excessive caffeine consumption can also have a negative effect on our body. Sleep disorders, headaches and restricted motor skills are side effects that can occur if consumption gets out of hand. As with so many things in life, enjoying delicious coffee should be done in moderation.

The side effects of too much caffeine are partly to blame for the fact that coffee has a bad reputation in some circles. But if you don’t drink dozens of cups at once, you have nothing to fear here either. This is different for pregnant women, for example. The half-life of caffeine elimination for a normal human is around four hours. Expectant mothers, on the other hand, have to reckon with a half-life of around 20 hours. Therefore, you should take a closer look here. A suitable alternative would also be decaffeinated coffee. Older people often use this variant, so that it can be one or two more cups a day. A variety of flavors and manufacturing processes allow everyone to enjoy an unforgettable coffee experience – with or without caffeine. After all, it’s not the quantity that counts, but the taste – and that’s just wonderful with coffee.

Coffee – healthy or unhealthy

With regard to the question of whether coffee is healthy or unhealthy, the advantages and disadvantages of coffee should be discussed. In general, however, it can be said that coffee is better than its reputation suggests. In the following, the symptoms of coffee consumption are to be considered in more detail:

The rumor has long been that coffee is harmful to the heart and even causes cancer. However, it is now known that exactly the opposite is the case. According to the European long-term study EPIC, in which health data from over half a million people were evaluated, there is evidence that the consumption of coffee protects against brain tumors, colon cancer, prostate cancer and much more. The complex composition of coffee, which consists of several hundred ingredients, indicates that this is more of a healthy than an unhealthy drink. Scientists have also observed that the arteries of people who drink three to five cups of coffee a day have less hardening than those of people who don’t drink coffee. This primarily benefits our heart and has a positive effect on blood flow. A study by doctors from Boston (USA) also showed that a few cups of coffee a day lowers the risk of heart disease. In total, more than 1.3 million coffee drinkers took part in the study. With the advancing studies, more and more all-clear signals are being raised about coffee. Myths about coffee consumption are losing ground and are making the already popular drink even more popular.

The fact that coffee was often considered unhealthy in the past is due to many characteristics and prejudices. Even today, some of these rumors persist and wrongly condemn the drink. For example, it is denounced that many coffee drinkers are also smokers and die earlier. However, recent studies show that people with a tendency to consume coffee tend to live longer rather than shorter. Earlier studies were simply falsified, since the factor of smoking was included there. A big problem factor for many is caffeine. But here, too, it is true that consumption in moderation is more beneficial than harmful. There are also numerous types of coffee without caffeine.

When it comes to our heart, coffee keeps coming up. So he should be responsible for high blood pressure. In people who drink coffee only occasionally, caffeine causes blood pressure to rise slightly for a short time. However, regular coffee drinkers get used to this increase in blood pressure and compensate for it after just two to three weeks. So this no longer occurs or only very slightly.

Not all coffee is the same

The variety of coffee beans and the different methods of preparation give the issue of coffee a whole new meaning. There is mild as well as strong coffee, tart flavors or a light variety of aromas. Everyone likes their coffee differently and this is where you have to take a closer look. Depending on the roast, type of coffee and preparation, every body reacts differently to the pleasure of coffee. Sensitive stomachs can, for example, tolerate strong roasts better than mild ones, since the longer roasting breaks down bitter substances. You just have to try it here. Once you have found the right coffee for you, it can work wonders. It can boost digestion, strengthen the liver and have an extremely invigorating effect.

If we look at the different types of coffee, the question quickly arises as to whether coffee also makes you fat. Here it can be said quite clearly that the standard black coffee, i.e. the pure caffeine drink, has just two calories – in other words, we could drink coffee all day long and would not gain weight. But that changes when milk and sugar come into play. The numerous coffee specialties such as cappuccino, latte macchiato and other milk coffees make the low-calorie drink look like a little fattening. But the same applies here: “the masses make the difference”. If you don’t reach for too many calorie bombs and don’t drink them in bulk, you certainly won’t gain weight. For some of us it is also worth taking a look at an organic coffee. This is purely natural and contains no additives. So coffee drinkers can breathe easy and don’t have to worry about too many calories.

Coffee is better than its reputation

The fact that coffee is considered unhealthy by some people is mainly due to the many prejudices and myths surrounding the subject of coffee enjoyment. Nowadays, however, it can be said that coffee is not only better than its reputation, but is also considered healthy. Side effects such as shaky hands, palpitations, weight gain and others have little to do with the coffee itself. With normal consumption, coffee has a positive effect on our body and also tastes wonderful. Everyone has to decide for themselves which coffee is the best. However, the variety of coffee types and flavors leaves nothing to be desired and gives us a true pleasure experience.

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Cooking Tips

How to Properly Serve Coffee

Coffee is a treat. Without question. But the presentation of the coffee is also important: You can find out how to serve coffee correctly in our article.

With the right serving, you can round off the taste of coffee perfectly and offer your guests a special service.

For a long time, coffee was considered a luxury that only wealthy people could afford. Today, however, it has reached the status of a commodity and is freely available to almost everyone. Most people drink several cups of coffee a day and enjoy the stimulating effect and excellent taste. But how exactly is a coffee served? If you want to proceed with style and etiquette here, you have to follow a few guidelines and specifications. Coffee etiquette is part of everyday life for every waiter, secretary and server. In our article we provide you with coffee knowledge of a special kind.

Whether in a restaurant, at home with guests or in conferences and work meetings – coffee is the must-have drink for many get-togethers. As a true pleasure drink, it must of course also be served and presented in style. The server has a number of options here. He can pour the coffee himself according to etiquette or offer self-service. With both variants, there is a certain procedure to follow and to act as inconspicuously and stylishly as possible. When you serve guests, you must not simply proceed as you please, but must adapt to their wishes and specifications. Proper serving ultimately also contributes to a better and more relaxed dining experience. An excellent coffee is in no way inferior to fine drinks such as wine, sparkling wine and champagne and should therefore be served as such. Tell your guests that they can look forward to an aromatic and beneficial drink.

Coffee in our everyday life

Coffee is everywhere these days. Most of us grab a cup of the drink as soon as we wake up in the morning. The invigorating effect gives us more energy and promises a good start to the day. Even at work, many cannot do without a delicious cup of coffee. Here it not only offers a tasty change, but also helps through sleepy midday slumps. But we also notice the strong presence of coffee in everyday life in our free time. As soon as we step outside, we come across numerous places that offer coffee. Whether in shopping streets, small side streets, restaurants, gas stations or one of the countless cafés on our doorstep – coffee can be found everywhere and is one of the most popular drinks in the world. In 2016 alone, every German citizen drank an average of 162 liters of coffee.

In addition to the general popularity of coffee, the drink has also become a classic for good manners. When guests are visiting, it is always a good idea to serve a coffee. This applies equally to the private and business area. At home, it is above all the well-known “lunch party” that many people remember. Here we sit comfortably together with friends and guests, talk and enjoy a delicious coffee in peace and quiet. In the business area, on the other hand, it is considered good manners to offer a coffee to your counterpart. This task is usually performed by secretaries or receptionists. They should be well versed in how coffee is served properly. The right serving in combination with aromatic coffee creates an inviting atmosphere and relaxes business conversations immensely.

Serving coffee correctly: rules of conduct and practical tips

If you want to serve coffee properly, then you should follow a few rules. There are some differences depending on who you serve and where you are. For example, different regulations apply at home than at work. In the latter case in particular, it is important to maintain form and act in an extremely courteous manner. As a waiter, you must ensure that you are served in style. You can use useful tools such as coffee service sets as table settings. These oval trays are ideal for transporting a cup and saucer, a jug and a matching teaspoon. In addition, the coffee utensils are beautifully presented.

If your guest is to enjoy full service like in a restaurant, you have to follow a certain procedure. First of all, you should know that a new cup of coffee must always be refilled in the kitchen or away from the guest. The old cup of coffee is replaced along with the saucer. To ensure that the coffee arrives pleasantly warm at the table, it is also advisable to warm it up beforehand. The refilling option is a little less formal and more suitable for everyday use. You do not need new cups for this, but carefully pour new coffee from the right side for the guest. In many cases, the guest will also hand you the cup – you should make sure that the saucer is also handed to you so that not a drop of coffee spills. Modern style suggests taking the cup and saucer straight away and only then refilling it. In this way, you relieve your visitor of as much work as possible. Incidentally, pouring takes place behind the guest’s right shoulder. This prevents unwanted mishaps that can lead to the hot coffee pouring over the person in front of you.

As a waitress at business meals, meetings and other gatherings, the order of the people present plays a role in addition to the correct serving of the coffee. You always start with the most senior person in the room. This often sits directly to the right of the host and thus occupies a central position. Then distribute the coffee counter-clockwise. The host is now the last to receive his coffee and is therefore using excellent manners. If the meeting gets a bit larger so that a single pour would take too long, you can also introduce self-service in consultation with your manager. Here, coffee pots are distributed at appropriate intervals over the entire table and every coffee drinker can easily refill himself. However, it is worthwhile to make the guests aware of this offer again after a short time so that everyone knows about the procedure.

If you want to serve the coffee correctly and you choose a coffee service set, you must always arrange it correctly. The rules state that the milk jug must be on the far right. The coffee cup and saucer are then placed on the tray on the left. A little above and in the middle is a dispenser with sugar. However, you should serve honey separately, as it has no place on a coffee service. Since most people are right-handed, the handles of the jug and cup both point to the right. The coffee spoon is placed last on the right side of the cup. Finally, only one cookie is missing, which can be placed on the left side of the saucer. Now the coffee service set is ready and you can serve it to the guest. In the four walls at home, this procedure does not have to be followed quite so strictly. However, if you want to be a good host, you should ensure that the food is served as stylishly as possible.

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Roasting Coffee – This is How it Works

The classic brown coffee bean that we are familiar with has come a long way before it finally ends up in our coffee.

How is the typical brown coffee bean made? In our article we tell you everything about the individual roasting stages and how the process works.

One of the most important steps on their journey is the so-called roasting. But how exactly can we roast coffee and what happens in the process? The roasting – also called “refining” – ensures that the coffee bean receives a flavor profile. A consistency is thus created that can unfold during later grinding. In the following we will go into the roasting process in more detail and describe how to roast coffee optimally.

The roasting process and its subtleties

The roasting of coffee beans creates a multitude of aromas and gives the coffee its unique taste. A single bean alone contains between 300,000 and 400,000 thousand cells. If heat is now applied to this, a chemical reaction occurs. The amino acids and sugar acids contained in the coffee bean are completely reassembled during roasting. Up to 1,000 aromas can be created from one cell. The roasting process makes coffee one of the most aromatic drinks of all. And this is how the roasting works in detail:

A classic and also extremely gentle roasting process is carried out with the so-called drum roaster. Up to 30 kilograms of coffee can be roasted at once. For this purpose, the coffee beans are placed in a drum that has been mounted on a corresponding roasting machine. The roasting drum then rotates for up to 20 minutes. The internal temperature is raised to around 200 degrees Celsius. The green raw beans are roasted piece by piece and get their classic brown color. After the roasting process, they must be quickly cooled down again so that there is no further change in consistency. Since the beans lose some of the oil and water in the roasting machine, they weigh up to 20 percent less in the roasted additive than before. However, roasting coffee is not nearly as easy as it sounds. The taste, variety of aromas and appearance of the roasted bean can vary greatly. This is where the subtleties of drum roasting come into play.

After just a few minutes, the slightly yellow color of the beans changes to light brown. This creates a smell as if you were preparing fresh popcorn. Since the beans still have a lot of water and fat in this state, they appear slightly wrinkled.

Probably the most important event in the roasting process is the “first crack”. The coffee beans increase in volume during the roasting process due to the gases produced and the water evaporating, which cannot escape. Until, after about nine minutes, the pressure is so great that the cell walls of the bean burst and the water vapor can escape. The color of the bean has evolved from its previously pale green color to a yellow/brownish color by this point. Once the “first crack” has taken place, the roaster must be extremely vigilant from now on. Now the coffee beans begin to unfold their aromas and form their typical, tasty character. Chlorogenic acids are broken down piecemeal, the cell structure decomposes, and sugars caramelize inside. The longer the coffee is roasted, the more acids are broken down. At the same time, more and more roasted aromas unfold. A coffee that has been roasted for a long time has a much stronger and more bitter taste. Those who prefer it more individual can rely on short roasting times and thus enhance the coffee’s own taste.

The individual roasting stages

As already mentioned, the roasting time plays a decisive role in the final coffee taste. The degree of roasting varies depending on the heat input and the duration of the roasting. In the following we will show you the individual roasting stages for the coffee beans:

Cinnamon Roast: Probably the lightest of all roasts. A light tan ensures strong acidity and a minimal aroma profile. This state arises directly after the “First Crack”.
City Roast Plus: The medium-brown bean has reached its perfect roast point about two minutes after the “first crack”. There are light roasted substances to taste, but very acidic.
Full City: The bean is a bit dark brown. For this, almost four minutes must elapse after the “first crack” has started. The coffee bean smells spicy and hot and tastes of bitter and roasted substances. The acid takes a back seat.
Continental (French roasting): Shortly before the second crack, the bean is already dark brown. An oily consistency emerges and the taste is dominated by strong roasted aromas.
Dark French (Heavy): After the first half of the second crack, the caramelized sugar is broken down. The bean keeps getting lighter. The taste focuses entirely on roasted and bitter aromas.
Spanish Roast: At the end of the second crack and beyond, the bean is blackish-brown. It shines and has hardly any ingredients left. The taste is slightly burnt and can only be perceived through some bitter substances and roasted aromas.
Roasting coffee can be a real craft. Master roasters train on new variations every day and thus learn more and more about the variety of aromas in coffee and how this can be best brought to light.

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Cooking Tips

To Peel Persimmons or Not? This is How You Eat Them Properly

Whether or not it is necessary to peel persimmons depends on several factors. In this article you will learn how to best consume the sweet exotic fruits and what you should bear in mind when doing so.

Whether you peel persimmons or not depends on your preferences. Basically, the skins of the persimmons are edible and you can eat the orange fruits with their skins.

Unripe persimmons do not taste good due to the high tannin content. Therefore, when shopping, you should consider whether you want to eat the persimmons right away or in a few days. In this article, you will not only learn how to eat persimmons correctly, but also how to recognize and influence the right degree of ripeness.

The persimmon is the sweet fruit of the persimmon tree and originally comes from Asia. Persimmon trees need warmer growing areas because they are not frost-resistant. There is therefore no significant commercial cultivation of the orange fruit in Germany. Most of the growing areas are in China, Korea and Japan.

There are now also European kakis on the market, for example from Spain. In order to avoid long transport routes, you should prefer these fruits to those from Asia. If possible, buy kakis in organic quality: they are free of chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Peeling persimmons: you should know that

You don’t have to peel persimmons to eat them. However, there are a few basic things you should keep in mind if you want to eat persimmons with the skin on.

Use organic persimmons as their skins are untreated. In principle, however, you can also eat the skin of conventionally grown fruits.
You should always wash fruit thoroughly before eating. More about this here: Washing fruit properly: What to do about pesticides on the skin?
Depending on the type of persimmon, the skin varies in thickness. Thick-skinned specimens taste better peeled.
This is how you eat persimmons correctly

Wash the persimmons thoroughly with cold water.
Halve the fruit lengthwise.
Remove the hard carpels and the light-colored base of the stalk.
Cut the fruit lengthwise into four or eight wedges.
Whether you peel the kaki or eat it with the peel is up to you. If you want to peel the persimmons, cut the flesh off the skin, similar to a melon.
Scoop out persimmons

When persimmons are fully ripe and very juicy, they are easier to spoon than to cut:

Wash the persimmons thoroughly with cold water.
Halve the fruit lengthwise.
Using a small spoon, scoop the insides of the persimmon straight out of the shell.

Recognizing the right degree of ripeness of persimmons

In order to withstand the long transport routes, the harvested persimmons are usually still unripe. Unripe persimmons contain a high proportion of the vegetable tanning agent tannin. When you eat them, this gives you a furry sensation in your mouth. However, tannins are not harmful to health. As it ripens, the sugar content in the persimmon increases and the orange fruit tastes juicy and sweet.

In addition to the actual kaki, you will also find the cultivated forms in the trade

honey apple
persimmon and
Sharon.
The cultivated forms contain significantly less tannin and you can therefore eat them in a harder state.

This is how you can tell that the persimmon is ripe

The persimmon is ripe when it is very soft. The persimmon has reached the perfect degree of ripeness when the pulp shimmers through the skin with a glassy sheen. Fully ripe persimmons yield slightly when pressed lightly with your fingers. The shell should not show any brown spots or dents.

Transport and store ripe persimmons

When fully ripe, the persimmon is very sensitive to pressure. Therefore, make sure that you pack ripe persimmons to protect them from pressure when you buy them, so that you can transport them home safely. Store ripe persimmons refrigerated and eat within a day or two.

Allow unripe persimmons to ripen

If the persimmon is not yet ripe, you can store it next to bananas or apples for a few days. These secrete ethylene, which stimulates other fruit to ripen faster.

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Cooking Tips

How To Choose The Right Degree of Grinding.

An aromatic coffee can only develop its full flavor with an optimal grind and a suitable dosage.

The degree of grinding selected has a decisive influence on the taste of our coffee. Here we show you what it’s all about.

The correct degree of grinding differs depending on the preparation method and the type of coffee. If you want to prepare an enjoyable coffee, you should consider a few tips. If the dosage or grinding is incorrect, fewer aromas develop and the quality of the coffee is significantly reduced. The art of the right preparation is not that difficult to learn. Below we give you some helpful tips for a perfect grind.

In order to be able to choose the right degree of grinding, you first have to understand what grinding is all about. Let’s take a closer look at how coffee is made. The degree of grinding can significantly influence the extraction process. During this, water is poured through the respective ground coffee at a certain flow rate. Depending on the permeability of the flour, more or fewer aromas will unfold and be released into the coffee.

The degree of grinding should be individually adjusted depending on the desired taste and the type of coffee selected. Incidentally, flour that is too fine can lead to over-extraction, which would result in a bitter and unpleasant taste. The degree of grinding is therefore decisive for optimal coffee enjoyment.

Everything about coffee extraction

In general, a maximum of 30% of the ingredients in a ground coffee bean can be extracted. However, with such a strong extraction, a very intense flavor is achieved. The bitter substances of the extracted beans are so pronounced that one can hardly speak of an enjoyable coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, SCAE for short, sets the benchmark for perfect extraction at around 18-22%. In this way, all the essential aromas dissolve and the coffee gets its typical aromatic taste. If you like your coffee a little stronger or weaker, you can of course choose a different grind. If aromas and strength are in a perfect relationship to each other, then all ingredients have dissolved optimally. Incidentally, the SCAE recommendation is based on a 50-year-old American study. Experience has shown that the extraction of most coffees has leveled off at these values ​​even today, so that the study provides a really good basis.

According to the SCAE study, overextraction occurs from 22%. From this point on, fine nuances no longer stand out and the bitter, unpleasant taste overshadows the individual flavors of the different types of coffee. The color of the coffee also changes to a disproportionately dark tone. So, during the grinding of a coffee, the extraction affects the final flavor and intensity. An espresso, for example, has an extremely dark crema and sometimes even tastes a little burnt. On the other hand, light and thin coffees are characteristic of under-extraction. These have very few components of the coffee bean. According to the SCAE definition, this occurs with extractions below 18%. The crema of the coffee in question is also light and thin. With very low extraction values, this can even be absent and only watery coffee water remains. When choosing your degree of grinding, you should therefore be between 18-22%. Experimentation also helps to find the right grind and thus create an individual coffee taste.

Individual coffee taste

The grinding degree of coffee does not alone determine how the coffee tastes afterwards. Of course, factors such as the choice of coffee bean and the brewing method as well as the dosage also play a decisive role. The grind also depends on the moisture and freshness of the coffee – you should always adjust the degree of grind here. The individual coffee taste has its origins in the coffee bean itself. With the right preparation, you can bring in more and more individual nuances and thus put together your personal favorite coffee.

Whether portion grinder, coffee grinder or other type of preparation, the degree of grinding is defined by individual specifications and personal taste. While many people like strong coffee, others prefer light nuances and a low intensity of taste. Choose a grind that suits your preferences or simply try different grinds.

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Food

Why Some Apples Taste Mealy and How You Use Them

Floury apples are not a great pleasure on their own, but can still be used in many ways in the kitchen. We will explain why apples become mealy, how to store them correctly and which recipes mealy apples are particularly suitable for.

If the apple tastes mealy, that is not a reason for most people to be happy: Many appreciate the popular fruit precisely because it is crisp and al dente when fresh. That can easily change if apples are stored too long or under the wrong conditions. Also, certain apple varieties are more prone to tenderness than others.

By paying attention to the differences between the different varieties and storing your fruit correctly, you can prevent apples from becoming mealy quickly. If it happens anyway, you can still use the mealy apples in many ways when cooking and baking. At the end of this article you will find some suggestions for this.

Are there particularly mealy apple varieties?

By nature, no apple variety is automatically mealy. However, some varieties are less suitable for storage and become mealy faster than others. These include in particular summer apples such as the white clear apple or the Grevensteiner. They cannot be stored for long and should be eaten no later than four weeks after harvesting. After that, they taste less fresh and crisp. The Golden Delicious also takes on a floury consistency if it is harvested late.

But there are plenty of apple varieties that, if stored well, last a long time and have a lower risk of becoming mealy. This applies above all to rather sour representatives, for example Boskoop, Jonagold and Elstar. But even sweeter varieties like Braeburn and Gala don’t become floury as quickly if you store them well.

This will prevent apples from becoming floury

Apples becoming mealy at some point is a natural process. You can therefore hardly prevent it in the long run. However, by storing your apples properly, you can at least slow down the process. You should note the following:

To avoid apples becoming mealy quickly, store them in a cool, dark place. A basement room is ideal for this. If you don’t have a basement, you can store the apples in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator. However, you should make sure that they do not come into contact with any other types of fruit and vegetables.
Even if you don’t store apples in the fridge, you should store them separately from other fruits and vegetables. Apples give off the ripening gas ethylene, which allows other varieties to ripen faster. Keeping them away from the rest of your fruit will keep it fresh longer. The apples themselves also benefit from separate storage, because other fruits (e.g. bananas) can also accelerate the ripening of the surrounding fruit. This interaction contributes to the fact that apples lose their freshness faster and become mealy.
It is important that you leave enough space for each apple. This allows air to circulate between the fruits and they stay fresh for longer. It is therefore better not to store large quantities of apples crowded together in a sack, but side by side in a box. Ideally, you should also refrain from storing several layers of apples on top of each other: the specimens on the bottom can easily bruise due to the weight of the upper layers. If you cannot avoid stacking for reasons of space, you can prevent pressure points by separating the individual layers with corrugated cardboard. This way the weight is distributed better.

This is how you can use mealy apples in the kitchen

Floury apples may not taste as good on their own as crunchy ones. If they are still good apart from that, you don’t have to throw them away: There are even more uses for mealy apples in cooking and baking than for those with firm and crunchy flesh.

But floury apples are also ideal for other recipes. Among other things, you can use them to prepare the filling for apple turnovers or apple strudel. They also make a good base for apple sauce, apple jam, apple jelly or apple chutney. So by overcooking mealy apples instead of throwing them away, you can try a variety of delicious recipes while avoiding unnecessary food waste.

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Lose Weight at Lightning Speed with the 24-hour Diet: How Useful is That?

The 24-hour diet promises rapid weight loss success. But how effective and above all useful is this type of diet actually?

The nutrition coach Achim Sam and the scientist Prof. Dr. Michael Hamm developed the 24-hour diet and promise a weight loss of up to two kilos within 24 hours. During this time, your carbohydrate storage is completely emptied, which should boost fat burning. Sports units combined with protein-rich foods are intended to prevent the yo-yo effect. In a test in 2011, the University of Freiburg was able to demonstrate various successes of the 24-hour diet.

What is the 24-hour diet?

With the 24-hour diet, you have to calculate more than one day.

Day 1: Preparation

Intensive sports program to empty carbohydrate stores. Endurance sports are well suited for this.
Do not eat anything two hours before exercising.
After exercise, protein-rich supper.
Seven hours of sleep.
Day 2: Actual diet day

Women: no more than 800 calories
Men: no more than 1000 calories
Breakfast: high in protein
Two hours of exercise
Lunch and dinner also contain protein
No food intake for 4 hours between meals
Drink 2.5 liters of water
Experts recommend fish, meat and dairy products on the diet day. However, meat and co. can be replaced by foods with vegetable protein. The 24-hour diet is reminiscent of the ketogenic diet due to its protein orientation.

The diet should by no means be permanent. However, according to the inventors of the diet, it can be done once a week in order to be able to record constant weight loss.

Criticism of the 24-hour diet

Crash diets are criticized for achieving weight loss through water loss and muscle mass reduction and disrupting the metabolism. The disturbance of the metabolism then leads in turn to the famous yo-yo effect when the body is supplied with normal food again. The German Society for Nutrition also warns against lightning diets due to a lack of nutrient intake.

Achim Sam and Prof. Dr. Michael Hamm want to prevent exactly that with their new weight loss formula – although it is a crash diet. The advantage of this diet is that you will not be hungry.

As the experts themselves point out, the 24-hour diet is by no means a permanent solution. Limiting calorie intake alone would have fatal consequences. In addition, the physical strain combined with the low calorie intake could become too much for untrained people.

As with most diets, a change in diet is better

Losing weight within 24 hours sounds tempting. But dieting is not a long-term solution. It would make more sense to generally eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. Your body and your health will benefit from this.

A diet like the 24-hour diet, which is based on meat and dairy products, is also bad for the climate. After all, animal products are responsible for around 60 percent of food-related climate emissions. Therefore, you should only consume them in moderation. If you do not want to support factory farming, then look out for organic seals such as Demeter, Naturland or Bioland when shopping.

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Food

Cooking Spinach: This is How It Works

Spinach is a vitamin bomb and a source of protein at the same time. We will show you how to cook spinach properly and what you should pay attention to.

Spinach contains many important vitamins and minerals, including folic acid and vitamin A. You can use it in salads, smoothies or vegetarian dishes, for example. Many use ready-made spinach from the freezer, but you can also easily cook fresh spinach yourself.

The basic rule for fresh spinach is that it should only be stored at room temperature for as short a time as possible. This is because spinach contains nitrate, which turns into nitrite at room temperature – nitrite is toxic in high concentrations. So if you bought spinach, put it in the fridge. You should also keep leftovers in a cool place. Then you can warm up spinach without hesitation.

Blanch, boil or puree spinach

How to cook fresh spinach:

First, you should remove stems that are too large or woody. You can then wash the spinach in a bowl of cold water. You should be thorough here: there is usually a lot of sand from the field in the spinach. Once you have washed the spinach, you can drain it.
Caution: Do not leave the spinach in water for too long when washing, otherwise it will lose too many vitamins.
Then you can briefly boil the spinach in a large pot with salted water. The easiest way is to add the spinach to the pot in batches and cook for a minute at a time.
Keep an eye on the spinach to make sure it doesn’t get too soft. The leaves should still be a little firm to the bite.
To blanch, put the spinach in ice water for a few minutes. This step is optional.
So you can already eat your spinach. You can also add spices like pepper and salt to make it taste better. More about this here: Seasoning spinach: This is how it tastes best.

If you want to puree the spinach, you should let it cook a little longer so that it can be processed more easily. After about five minutes you can shake it off, let it drain and, depending on your taste, refine it with a little (vegetable) cream before crushing it with the hand blender.

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health

Glyx Diet: What’s Behind It and How Useful It Really is

On a glycemic diet, you try to avoid foods with a high glycemic index. So carbohydrate-rich foods are taboo. We explain whether this makes sense.

The Glyx Diet is all about the glycemic index (GI). This indicates how quickly blood sugar levels rise after eating carbohydrate-containing foods:

When you eat a cube of dextrose (glucose), the sugar goes directly into your blood – so the blood sugar level rises very quickly. Glucose thus has the highest GI, the value is 100.
Conversely, when you eat a slice of whole grain bread, it takes your body a while to convert the long-chain carbohydrates in the bread into glucose. Therefore, the blood sugar level rises more slowly. In other words, whole grain bread has a lower GI.
According to the German Society for Nutrition (DGE), a GI below 55 is low, between 55 and 70 medium and above high.

But why should eating only low GI foods help you lose weight? The basic idea is that when blood sugar levels rise slowly after a meal, you stay full longer. Because the slower it rises, the slower it falls again and we only have a need for sugar supplies later.

Glyx diet: lose weight through changing your diet

The Glyx diet goes back to the ecotrophologist Marion Grillparzer. The concept has been around since 1999 and is still quite popular. The Glyx diet is not intended to be a short-term diet, but rather a permanent change in diet.

Getting started begins with two to three soup days, during which you mainly eat soup. This is supposed to stimulate fat burning.
This is followed by a “fat burner” week, which has a recipe plan for three meals a day. By primarily eating plenty of vegetables and protein (the diet recommends 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight per day), you should lose up to half a pound per day.
In the third phase you should change your diet permanently. There is a table for this in which the foods are divided according to GI into green (low, i.e. good), yellow and red (high, i.e. bad). Some foods that only have a medium GI but contain a lot of fat are also marked in red. Overall, you should eat lots of vegetables, as well as regular (low-fat) meat and fish and high-quality fats such as olive oil.
Basically, you should avoid processed products, especially if they have a high GI. Sweets, high-carbohydrate fast food such as fries and most alcoholic beverages are taboo (list: high-carbohydrate foods).
In addition to meal plans, the Glyx Diet requires you to exercise for 20 to 30 minutes a day.

Effect of the Glyx Diet on the Body

In a statement on the Glyx diet, the DGE summarizes various studies that deal with the effects of the diet. Overall, the DGE came to the conclusion that the Glyx diet can be beneficial for people suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus or a pre-form. Studies have shown that diabetes patients improve their glucose metabolism when they avoid foods with a high GI.

Also, a meta-analysis suggested that low GI diets may lower blood pressure. However, according to the DGE, the study had systematic errors. Effects such as a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and types of cancer have been studied. However, there are no clear results yet.

In healthy people, there is no evidence that the Glyx diet has a positive effect on health. Whether it is an effective method for losing weight and whether you actually lose half a kilo per day during the “fat burner” week has also not been proven by any study.

Criticism of the Glyx Diet: The Concept GI

Some things about the Glyx diet can be seen positively: You should eat lots of vegetables, avoid ready meals and exercise regularly. In a statement, however, the DGE criticizes the idea of ​​orienting nutrition to the GI:

Orienting yourself solely on the GI of a single food is of little use. Because the concept no longer works in a wholesome meal. For example, fats and proteins ensure that the body absorbs blood sugar more slowly. So you could also say that fats and proteins lower the GI of the meal. So, a single potato can potentially trigger cravings as it has a high GI. However, if you eat it together with herb quark, it becomes a healthy and filling food.
Some extremely healthy foods like pumpkins and watermelon are high GI. So are these foods not healthy after all? The problem is that the GI only indicates how quickly the carbohydrates from a food are utilized – not how many carbohydrates are actually contained in the food. Watermelons have a GI of 80, but only contain about five carbohydrates per 100 grams. The parameter, which considers the proportion of usable carbohydrates in addition to the GI, is called “glycemic load” (GL). And here it turns out: The GL of 100 grams of watermelons is quite low.
Even the GI of individual foods is often only an estimate. It may be that a certain whole grain bread was found to have a GI of 74. However, another whole grain bread, where the grain has been ground a bit finer, may already have a different GI. Because it depends very much on the processing. It is also unclear how exactly dietary fiber affects the GI.

Other criticisms of the Glyx diet

Then there are other criticisms of the Glyx diet:

The Glyx table alone hardly helps to put together a healthy and wholesome meal, since it makes no statements about fats, proteins and micronutrients such as vitamins or minerals. There are recipe suggestions, but no deeper knowledge of healthy cooking is imparted.
The Glyx diet recommends consuming 1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. The recommendation of the DGE is only 0.8 grams. It has not been proven that this amount of protein is harmful to health. However, there is evidence that too much protein is harmful to the kidneys. The Glyx diet is therefore not suitable for people with kidney problems.
Fructose has a low GI and is therefore not a problem in the Glyx diet. According to studies, too large amounts of the simple sugar are said to promote obesity, among other things. At least the Glyx diet bans ready meals, which often contain a lot of fructose.
The consumer advice center criticizes the fact that it is recommended to eat meat regularly and fish at least three times a week. Even if you buy humanely farmed meat and fish, they still have a pretty bad life cycle assessment.

Conclusion on the Glyx Diet

It is quite possible to eat healthily after the Glyx diet. Going through GI charts before every meal, however, is quite exhausting – and, as has been shown, not necessarily useful. If you want to lose weight healthily, you should eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. You don’t need a special diet for this.

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health

Banana Diet: How Useful is the Diet Really?

How can you lose weight on a banana diet? And how useful is this type of diet? We explain how the delicious fruit should help you lose weight quickly and what you should consider.

Banana Diet: How it works

For the banana diet, it is important that you use green, unripe bananas. They contain a resistant starch that keeps blood sugar levels low so fat burning is accelerated. These are the basic assumptions of the banana diet:

The idea behind the banana diet is that you eat bananas instead of snacks and a regular breakfast.
You can eat as many bananas as you want for breakfast until you are completely full. It is best to drink water to boost digestion.
A light meal is recommended for lunch. There are no specific rules for this. However, you should avoid fatty foods because they would counteract the desired effect of the diet.
If you get hungry in the afternoon, use bananas again. At this point, consciously avoid sweets.
The choice of your dinner is also up to you. However, make sure to eat very early in the evening so that there is at least four hours between eating and going to bed.
Tip: As with any diet, the banana diet also means that you should exercise as regularly as possible and move around a lot.

Why do bananas help you lose weight?

There is a lot of sugar in bananas. But they contain no fat and no cholesterol. Instead, they shine with lots of vitamin B, magnesium and potassium.

Fructose: Due to the high fructose content, bananas are considered to be a fast supplier of energy, as studies show.
Magnesium and potassium: Both nutrients are important for your muscles. They strengthen your bones and teeth.
Vitamin B6: stimulates the metabolism and supports the immune system.
The following nutritional values apply to 100 grams of bananas:

Calorific value: 96.0 kcal
Fat: 0.2g
Carbohydrates: 22 g
of which sugar: 17.2 g
Protein: 1.1g
Fiber: 2.0 g

How useful is the banana diet?

Although bananas contain no fat, they do have a relatively high proportion of fructose. Nevertheless, bananas are very filling, making it easier for you to do without sweets.

As with many other diets, the banana diet can also cause possible deficiency symptoms. Therefore, you should not follow this one-sided diet for longer than three weeks. You can lose weight quickly with the banana diet, but it is not healthy in the long term and does not replace a balanced diet.

You should also keep in mind the ecological characteristics of the fruit: bananas travel long distances. They come from the tropics and are delivered to Europe, for example, from Colombia and Costa Rica. In addition, conventional bananas in particular are usually treated with chemical-synthetic pesticides, which also causes a number of negative effects on the health of workers on the plantations. So look out for the Fairtrade seal when you buy bananas.

It makes sense to do regular exercise and eat a balanced diet instead of such diets. Such a lifestyle can lead to your desired weight in the long term.

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