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Maple Syrup: How Healthy is the Sugar Substitute?

What would American pancakes be without maple syrup?

How is maple syrup made?

Maple syrup is a popular sugar alternative that is essential as a topping for pancakes, especially in North America. The popular syrup originally comes from Canada, where it is particularly valued as a cultural asset.

Maple syrup is the sweet sap of the maple tree. It is boiled down to make it durable. Typically, maple syrup has about 60 percent sugar content, so it has about a third fewer calories than pure sugar for the same amount.

Based on its color and aroma, maple syrup can be divided into different quality levels ranging from AA to D. Syrup of the best quality level AA has a very light color and a pleasantly mild aroma. The poorer the quality, the darker the color and the stronger the aroma.

The high quality levels are particularly suitable for raw consumption, for example as a topping for pancakes or fruit. The cheaper variants, on the other hand, can be used well for baking or as a sweetener for sauces.

Is Maple Syrup Really Healthy?

Unlike refined white sugar, maple syrup also contains vitamins and minerals. Maple syrup is particularly rich in zinc and manganese. In addition, Canadian scientists found 24 different antioxidants in maple syrup in a study. Antioxidants protect our body from free radicals from the environment and can thus prevent the development of civilization diseases. Thus, maple syrup is healthier than regular white sugar.

However, you should note that maple syrup is still a sugar. You should therefore always enjoy it in moderation. Excessive sugar consumption promotes the development of:
overweight and obesity
diabetes
cardiovascular diseases
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that you should consume no more than six teaspoons of sugar per day.

How sustainable is maple syrup?

Almost all of the maple syrup produced worldwide comes from the Canadian province of Québec. The syrup therefore usually has a long transport route behind it before it reaches our supermarket. You should therefore only use maple syrup if you absolutely need it for a dish because of its aroma.

If you only want to use the syrup as a sweetener anyway, it is better to use a more sustainable alternative such as honey or sugar beet syrup. Unlike agave syrup, rice syrup and maple syrup, these can be produced locally.

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Lifestyle

Sirtfood: How Useful is The Trend Diet?

Stay slim and young with Sirtfood: That is what a new and very popular diet promises – the Sirt diet. Here’s what’s behind the claims.

The principle of the sirt diet sounds simple: Eat sirt food, i.e. foods that activate so-called sirtuins in the body. Among other things, these proteins are supposed to stimulate the metabolism and help the body to build muscles. In addition, sirtuins are said to be involved in numerous protective and repair mechanisms of the body. That’s why Sirtfood not only makes you slimmer, but also healthier – at least that’s the promise.

What is sirt food?

Sirtfood is food that contains molecules that are thought to activate the body’s production of sirtuins. Scientists have identified 20 such molecules so far. These include, for example, resveratrol, a secondary plant substance that is found in red wine, among other things. In an experiment on cell cultures, scientists have managed to activate the sirtuin Sirt1 with the help of resveratrol.

Here is a selection of foods that contain possible sirtfood activators:
Vegetables: Greens, cabbage, legumes, radishes, onions, garlic
Fruit: citrus fruits, apples, apricots, cherries, plums, grapes, berries
Spices: Chili, Cinnamon, Turmeric, Tonka Bean, Licorice
Cashews
black, white and green tea, coffee
red wine
cocoa
Basically, the diet consists of eating as many of these foods as possible – but of course not mainly red wine and chocolate.

This is how the Sirt diet works

There are several guides that suggest slightly different variations of the Sirt diet. This is how the diet works:
For the first three days, you’re only consuming 1,000 calories a day. You divide this into a meal rich in sirt food and three juices or green smoothies, which you mix together from the vegetables and fruits from the list.
For the remaining four days of the first week, increase your calorie intake to 1500 calories per day (exactly how much varies from guide to guide). You are now allowed to eat two meals rich in sirt food and drink two smoothies.
The guides then recommend continuing to eat a lot of sirt food and incorporating one or two juices a day. There are different statements as to whether you should further restrict your calorie requirements or not. Ultimately, that depends on how much weight you want to lose.

Sirtfood – the key to happiness?

This question has to be answered step by step. First of all, it is questionable whether the molecules that are supposed to activate sirtuins actually do so. Previous studies have been carried out on mice, yeast and cell cultures – it is not yet clear whether Sirtfood can also activate the sirtuins in the human body.

In addition, we know little about how the sirtuins – seven different ones have been identified in the human body – influence each other and whether there are “better” and “worse” sirtuins.
This leads to the second part of the question: How do sirtuins actually affect our body?
Sirtuins cleave certain chemical groups from some proteins: the acetyl groups. This is a signal to the body to boost metabolism. In this way, sirtuins are said to help with weight loss. In addition, scientists from the Max Planck Society have found, among other things, that increased activity of Sirt1 in mice causes them to break down fat.
A team of Japanese scientists has discovered that the sirtuin Sirt2 regulates glucose metabolism. It could therefore play an important role in diabetes therapies.
In general, sirtuins are said to be involved in numerous protective and repair mechanisms in the body and in this way reduce the risk of many diseases and even increase life expectancy. However, a lot of research still needs to be done in this area.
So there are many hopeful reports on sirtuins – but also a lot of research is still needed.

Is the Sirt diet recommended?

Sirtuins appear to be important to our bodies and they may actually be activated by sirt food. The basic concept of the Sirt diet sounds sensible at first. However, many nutrition experts advise against the diet. These are the reasons:

Eating only 1000 calories for three days is very difficult for most people and can quickly become yo-yo. The diet promises that you can lose up to seven pounds of fat in a week, but experts believe that the lack of calories causes the body to lose a lot of water.
It is said that sirtuins can be used to build muscle without exercising. There are explanations as to how sirtuins can boost muscle growth, but no evidence. On the contrary, the scientific consensus is that you can’t build muscle without exercising.
The foods on the sirt food list are certainly healthy in general, but you can’t eat a balanced diet from them alone. So the Sirt diet is not a diet that you can practice permanently.
In general, short-term diets aimed at losing weight quickly are rarely successful. Instead, you should eat a balanced diet overall and eat lots of seasonal fruit and vegetables. There will certainly be one or the other sirt food.

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Lifestyle

Clean the Chimney – This is How the Stove Gets Clean

Chimney cleaning should be done on a regular basis. This is the only way for the fireplace to work safely and efficiently – find out how here.

After each heating season, the fireplace should be cleaned so that it works efficiently and the risk of fire is reduced. You can do the work yourself with the help of an ash vacuum cleaner. Simple home remedies are usually enough to achieve a good effect and to clean both the combustion chamber and the pipe.

Why the chimney should be cleaned

Rising electricity prices have ensured that more and more households are using a fireplace to warm their own house. The fireplace is relatively inexpensive, and with modern technologies, it can heat the entire house. Wood pellets are relatively cheap to obtain and climate-neutral.

Nevertheless, the chimney should be cleaned thoroughly at regular intervals. If this is not done, the fireplace will no longer work efficiently. The heat is not optimally distributed in the house and the costs rise.

Much more serious, however, is the risk of soot fire. If too much ash is deposited in the pipes, it can ignite and lead to a fire. For this reason, the fireplace should be cleaned thoroughly after each heating period. Superficial cleaning is not enough. Above all, the pipes must be clean for the fireplace to function safely.
Here you will learn the most important steps to cleaning the chimney.

1) Vacuum the combustion chamber

Before the new heating season begins and you want to use the fireplace, you should service the combustion chamber. You can use a shovel to remove the coarsest dirt. However, to clean the entire combustion chamber, an ash vacuum cleaner should be used. Even fine ash can be sucked in with this. This allows for thorough cleaning of the combustion chamber. And this ash can be used to scatter sidewalks in winter.

If you don’t have a special ash vacuum cleaner, you can purchase an appropriate attachment for the conventional vacuum cleaner. This usually looks like a bucket that is connected to the vacuum cleaner. In this way, even the finest dirt in the combustion chamber is extracted. You should also use the vacuum cleaner to clean everything around the chimney and avoid typical vacuum cleaner mistakes.

2) Clean the lens

The fireplace not only provides heat but also spreads a pleasant atmosphere. Because what could be nicer than sitting in front of the warm fireplace in winter, in which the fire is blazing.

Most fireplaces have a viewing panel so that you can enjoy the fire from a safe distance. This quickly becomes dirty when using the fireplace. To get the best view of the fire, keep the pane clean.

One trick is cleaning with ash. You can do this by balling up old newspaper, dampening it slightly, and picking up white ash from the chimney. you can now clean the glass pane with the white ash. You can remove heavy, coarse dirt from the pane very well in this way.

However, cleaning with a glass cleaner is more conventional. You can also use this to clean the pane. However, you must ensure that no moisture penetrates directly into the chimney. You can also read home remedies for window cleaning.

3) Clean soapstone

Many fireplaces have soapstone cladding. This rock has wonderful properties for retaining heat and looks really good on a fireplace too. Over time, dirt builds up on the soapstone and it can even discolor. There are simple ways to make the soapstone look new again.

To clean the soapstone, it is sufficient if you use a normal washing-up sponge. With the rough surface, you can drive over the soapstone. This is sanded down a bit and the top layer is slightly removed. But always work the entire surface. Otherwise, there may be color differences.

4) Clean the tube

An important part of the chimney is the pipe. This transports a significant part of the heat and is directly exposed to the fire. In order to clean the pipe, it must be removed from the chimney. To do this, you should wrap it in plastic and transport it outside. Otherwise, the dirt will spread throughout your house and only make cleaning unnecessarily complicated.

Outside, you can place the pipe upright in a garbage can. The inside of the pipe is treated with a brush and a poker. Once the coarse dirt has been removed, you can use a hand brush to remove the finer dust. An ash vacuum is also recommended for this work and makes this cleaning step a lot easier.

When cleaning the tube, be aware that a lot of dust could be released. Only carry out the operation when you have completely sealed the pipe with plastic bags. Your own clothing is also affected. Therefore, you should only wear older clothes that are no longer meaningful to you.

Overall, chimney cleaning is relatively expensive. However, this is necessary for the fireplace to function efficiently. In addition, the risk of fire is reduced. There is no need to hire a professional chimney sweeper for cleaning. With an ash vacuum, you can clean the chimney independently with high quality.

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health

Burn Fat: This is How You Stimulate The Fat Metabolism

In order to lose weight healthily and permanently, the body has to burn fat. But how does it work? We have tested various methods for you.

The body constantly needs energy – for the body’s own processes such as the formation of new cells, to warm up or to move. The body obtains this energy from food, especially from the macronutrients fat, carbohydrates and protein. When it gets more energy than it needs, the body stores the excess calories – in the form of fat. This means: If you constantly take in more calories than you expend, your fat stores will grow.

In order to empty them again, you have to burn fat. What exactly happens? Fats consist mainly of carbon and hydrogen. With the additional supply of oxygen, the body can “burn” the fats. This produces energy, CO2 and water. The water is sweated out, the CO2 expelled through the breathing air. In this way, the body loses about 200 grams of carbon a day.

This value can be increased – but how? One obvious possibility is physical exertion. But some foods are also said to stimulate fat metabolism.

Burn fat through food – is that possible?

As described above, the body stores excess energy in the form of fat. If you have a balanced calorie balance, your fat stores will not grow. You can do this by eating a healthy and balanced diet. However, if you want to burn existing fat, you have to supply your body with less energy than it needs. That can be difficult. So wouldn’t it be easier if certain foods stimulated fat burning?

Such foods should exist. The following candidates are particularly often said to stimulate fat burning:
Some vegetables are said to provide “negative calories” to help burn fat. This means that these foods have fewer calories than you need for digestion. Lose weight by eating? Sounds good, but unfortunately has no scientific basis, according to Stern. In 2012, a study examined the myth of negative calories using the example of celery. 15 healthy women ate celery while their calorie balance was being measured. The result: even a low-calorie vegetable like celery (16 kilocalories per 100 grams) supplies the body with calories. This does not fundamentally disprove the phenomenon of negative calories, but it is very doubtful.
Certain enzymes are said to boost fat metabolism. The enzyme bromelain, which is found in pineapples, among other things, is particularly well known. According to Stern, there is no scientific evidence here either. The Apothekenumschau adds that enzymes from food are mostly broken down in the digestive tract and do not even get into the blood.
Vitamins are important and healthy – but do they also help burn fat? Vitamin C in particular is considered a promising candidate. This is partly due to observational studies that show that people with a high vitamin C intake tend to have a smaller waist circumference. As the star judges, there is still no connection between vitamin C and fat burning. Perhaps people who consume a lot of vitamin C simply eat healthier.
Another candidate comes from a completely different group of foods: the substance L-carnitine is found primarily in meat and dairy products and plays a role in burning fat. So eat more meat? This is not only a bad idea for animal welfare and climate protection reasons: According to the Apothekenumschau, the body only absorbs as much L-carnitine as it needs. It excretes excess L-carnitine.

Burning fat – does it have to be?

As described above, visceral abdominal fat is considered particularly unhealthy. Too much fat or being overweight is associated with many diseases, such as diabetes. If you want or need to burn fat for health reasons, you can do that with a combination of regular exercise and a healthy diet.

Important: Health should be the priority – not the desire to conform to an ideal of beauty. If you live a generally healthy life, there is no reason to additionally boost your fat metabolism.

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Cooking Tips

Cooking Brown Rice: How it Works and Why it is so Healthy

If you want to cook brown rice, you have several options. We will introduce you to two variants – a particularly quick and a particularly healthy way of cooking brown rice.

Brown rice is so healthy

Basmati rice, long grain rice, parboiled rice, black rice, wild rice: there are many different varieties and types of rice. Brown rice is popular because it is largely untreated and still has the outer layers of the rice grain. Brown rice therefore contains more minerals and trace elements than white rice – but it also takes longer to cook. We explain how to cook brown rice properly.

Cook brown rice – soak, wash, cook

If you want to cook rice, you basically have two options: the swelling method and the water method. The soaking method is particularly energy- and water-saving, but has one major disadvantage: In addition to the valuable micronutrients, pollutants also remain in the rice. This is a problem with brown rice because it is usually particularly heavily contaminated with arsenic, as reported by the Federal Office for Risk Assessment (BfR). Arsenic is a metalloid that is carcinogenic to humans. You can find more information about arsenic, its occurrence and its effects in our article on the subject.

We therefore recommend that you soak the brown rice beforehand, wash it and cook it with a higher water-to-rice ratio. In this way you can reduce the arsenic content by up to 80 percent.

Cooking brown rice – this is how the preparation works:
Soak the brown rice in water overnight. The rice should be covered with water about two centimeters high.
The next day, rinse the rice until the wastewater runs clear.
Then put the brown rice in a saucepan with five times the amount of water. In other words, there are five cups of water for every cup of rice.
Bring the water to a boil on the highest setting. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat down to low and let the brown rice simmer, with the lid on, for about 20 minutes.
Remove the pot from the stove and let the rice sit in the covered pot for another ten minutes.
The brown rice is ready. At this point you can loosen the rice grains with a fork and add a pinch of salt. But be careful: very hot steam escapes when you open the pot.

Cooking brown rice using the quick swelling method

With the swelling method, you only add enough water to the rice so that it completely absorbs the water when cooking. Therefore, the source method is particularly water and energy-saving. However, the arsenic contained in the rice is not flushed out with this method of preparation. If you have enough time, you should still soak the brown rice first to reduce the arsenic content.

Cooking brown rice using the swelling method:
Optional: Soak the brown rice in plenty of water overnight.
Rinse the rice with clear water until the waste water is no longer cloudy.
Put twice the amount of brown rice in a saucepan: for every cup of rice, add two cups of water.
Bring the water to a boil on the highest setting. Once the water is boiling, switch to a low setting. With the lid on, let the rice gently simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove the covered pot from the heat and let the rice sit for another 10 minutes.
At the end you can fluff up the brown rice with a fork and add a pinch of salt.
By the way: If you have cooked too much rice, you can heat up the rest of the rice the next day. Alternatively, you can freeze the cooked rice and preserve it for a long time.

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Food

Blackberry Leaf Tea: Use, Effect and How to Make it

Blackberry leaf tea is a tried and tested home remedy for diarrhea. The leaves also contain valuable antioxidants. You can read here how the tea works and how you can make it yourself.

The real blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) belongs to the rose family and has long been used as a medicinal plant. The leaves of the climbing shrub are used for medicinal purposes. Blackberries originally came from the Mediterranean region, but are now widespread throughout Europe and large parts of the northern hemisphere.

In this article you will find out how blackberry leaf tea works and what ailments you can use it for. We have also summarized for you what you should pay attention to if you want to collect blackberry leaves yourself and use them to prepare tea.

This is how blackberry leaf tea works

Blackberry leaves are a valuable source of antioxidants. These substances support the body in cell renewal while fighting free radicals and reducing oxidative stress. These properties can also prevent cancer in the human body.
Due to the tannins it contains, blackberry leaves have an astringent effect. Therefore, blackberry leaf tea is used to treat acute diarrhea.
The leaves also have strong antimicrobial properties. They fight various bacterial strains, such as Helicobacter pylori, according to another study from the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
Blackberry leaves have also traditionally been used to treat diabetes. Animal experiments with rats suffering from diabetes were able to demonstrate a blood sugar-lowering effect.
Blackberry leaf tea can also be used as a gargle to treat sore spots in the mouth and throat.
The following ingredients are mainly responsible for the medicinal effects of blackberry leaves:
Tannins, including tannins
flavonoids

There are no known side effects for blackberry leaf tea.

Prepare and use blackberry leaf tea
Blackberry leaf tea can help you with acute diarrhea and inflammation in the mouth and throat.

If your symptoms don’t improve after two days, you should still see a doctor. If you have other symptoms such as a high fever or blood in your stool, you should go to the doctor right away instead of resorting to home remedies.

For inflammation in the mouth and throat, you can drink blackberry leaf tea or gargle lukewarm.

How to prepare blackberry leaf tea:
Pour 250 milliliters of boiling water over 2 teaspoons of dried blackberry leaves.
Let the tea steep for five to ten minutes.
Then remove the plant parts.

You can get the dried leaves for blackberry leaf tea in any pharmacy. If you have planted blackberries in your own garden or a blackberry bush near you, you can easily collect and dry the leaves yourself.

You should pay attention to this if you want to make blackberry leaf tea yourself:
The bramble must under no circumstances be treated or left by the road if you want to benefit from its healthy ingredients.
Collect the leaves in spring when they are freshly sprouted. According to the Pharmacognosy Review, the young leaves have the highest active ingredient content.
Pick the fresh leaves and place them in a cotton bag. But be careful not to take too many from one branch.
Spread the picked leaves out on some newspaper in a dark place (attic, closet) to dry. It is important that the leaves do not get direct sunlight so that the active ingredients are preserved and no bitter substances are produced.
If you can easily crumble the blackberry leaves with your fingers, they’re dry. Then you can chop them up and store them in a jar in a dark place. The blackberry leaves can be kept for about a year in this way.
Blackberry leaves are also great for tea blends. The taste goes particularly well with fruity teas such as rosehip tea or apple tea.

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Lifestyle

Planting potatoes: How it Works

With these simple instructions you will learn to plant and harvest your own potatoes – whether on the balcony or in the garden. So you can get a rich harvest in autumn with just a few potatoes in spring.

Plant potatoes yourself: the right location

When it comes to choosing the right location for your potato patch, there are only a few limits. However, you should keep these things in mind if you want to plant potatoes:
The potato plants need daylight, so they should be planted outside.
Enough space: you need a bed or a tall planter or a flower pot measuring approx. 30 cm x 30 cm.
The bottom should have holes to prevent waterlogging in the planter or pot.
Use high-quality, sustainably sourced, peat-free potting soil.
If you have neither a balcony nor a garden, you can also plant a green space in your neighborhood using urban gardening methods.

Plant the right type of potato

You also have many options when it comes to the choice of potatoes. Cultivation is easiest with special seed potatoes. You can order these from the garden trade and should choose according to these criteria:
early or late harvest
firm or mealy boiling
storage suitability
You can even choose the color of your potatoes:
purple potatoes
Red Potatoes
Blue Potatoes
You can also use potatoes from the supermarket. However, varieties from conventional cultivation in particular are often treated with germ inhibitors or are more susceptible to diseases because they are bred to grow up with chemical aids.

Planting Potatoes: Season, Soil and Harvest

Whether you just want to plant a flower pot or an entire bed – the following steps are important if you want to plant potatoes yourself:
Germination: Pre-germinating potatoes is important. From the beginning of March, leave them in the light until they start to germinate and become shriveled. You can then plant them in the ground about six weeks later. Make sure that the nights are already frost-free.
Planting: Loosen the potting soil and remove weeds and roots if necessary. Dig the sprouted potatoes about two inches deep—you’ll need to keep the soil moist from there.
Covering with soil: As soon as the first small plants of ten centimeters have formed, you should cover them with soil again and again (“cover”) with soil so that only the top part is exposed. The plant grows higher and higher and the growing potatoes have more space in the ground and can thrive better.
Harvest: Depending on the variety, the plants begin to wither after three months at the earliest. About two weeks after the plants have withered, the first potatoes can be harvested. You can simply search the earth below the plant remains with your hands or a digging fork.
Tips:
If the potatoes are to be stored for a longer period of time, it is better to leave them in the ground a little longer. This gives them a more robust shell that protects them better against rot.
To prevent disease, potatoes should only be planted in the same spot every four years.
Once you’ve got a taste for your own potatoes and you’ve internalized the basic techniques, you can experiment with different varieties and thus also contribute to the preservation of seed diversity.

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Food

Plant Garlic: This is How it Grows at Home

Planting garlic is not difficult at all – even if it is not native to us. If you follow a few simple basic rules, you can do it at home too.

If you don’t have a green thumb, you’ve made the right choice with garlic. It is one of the leek plants that are usually very easy to care for. In addition, it is winter hardy and only needs sufficient sun and moisture to be able to grow optimally.

To plant garlic yourself, all you need is a fresh clove of garlic. With a little patience, you can soon be harvesting your own garlic.

Planting garlic: the right time

As with all herbs and spices, when you plant the seeds or bulbs is crucial:
Ideally, you should plant garlic in the fall so that it can sprout in the spring.
While you can start in the spring, the garlic plants will often become smaller and slower to grow.
The right soil is just as important as the timing:
Only when the garlic plant gets enough nutrients can it form roots and sprout.
A loose soil, such as humus or special herbal soil, which contains a particularly large number of nutrients, is best suited.
However, fertilizer is not necessary.

Plant garlic on the balcony

You can simply plant garlic in a small pot or box on the balcony:
To prevent waterlogging, the bottom layer in the pot should consist of small stones or compost. This allows the water to drain away and no mold develops.
Choose a sunny spot on your balcony close to the wall of the house and plant the garlic cloves in the soil as described above.
The same applies here: water only occasionally and let the soil dry out a bit.

Planting garlic in the garden

The easiest way to plant garlic is in a small bed:
First loosen the soil.
Then stick the garlic cloves, point up, about 1.5 to 2 inches (4 to 5 centimeters) into the soil.
Attention: Do not plant the individual cloves too close together so that the plants have enough space later. A distance of 10 to 15 centimeters is sufficient.
At the end you have to close the holes again and water something.
You should observe these care tips:
Make sure the soil doesn’t get too wet.
You should also loosen the soil from time to time.
Even if frost and cold can hardly harm the garlic plant, you should still protect it from heavy rain: Cover the bed with a tarpaulin in winter.
Important: Do not water too much, otherwise the garlic can rot!

Harvest garlic you planted yourself

In summer you can harvest your garlic. You can even use the stalks in the kitchen: They are ideal for seasoning all kinds of dishes, and you can use the stalks like spring onions.

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Food

Hop Tea: Application, Effect and How to Make The Home Remedy

Hop tea is not beer, but rather a tried and tested remedy. Hops have a calming effect and have a positive effect on our sleep.

Hops belong to the hemp family. Long before the plant was used to brew beer, it was valued as a medicinal plant.

Hops are now cultivated throughout Europe and in parts of Asia and America. The plant sprouts anew every year and climbs up to twelve meters. Hops are dioecious. This means there are male and female flowers. For hop tea you only use the female flowers.

This is how hop tea works

The most important active ingredients in hop tea include:
Bitter substances: humulone and lupulone
flavonoids
tannins
essential oils
The bitter substances in particular are said to have a calming and sleep-inducing effect. In the meantime, the effect of hops and its ingredients has also been extensively scientifically investigated:
The positive effect of hops on the human psyche was proven in a pilot study. Test persons who consumed dried hop extract daily for four weeks reported reduced anxiety, depression and a lower stress level compared to the placebo group.
In an animal experiment with quail, it was shown that hops regulate the day-night rhythm and improve sleep at night. The birds should have a comparable sleeping rhythm as we humans. However, it is unclear to what extent the data can be transferred to humans.
In addition to the calming effect, hops also have antibacterial and antioxidant effects, according to a 2019 study. The authors of the study conclude that hops extract could help against acne. Because of the same properties, hops are also often used in folk medicine for digestive problems and other complaints such as loss of appetite. However, research is still needed here.

Hop tea and other hop products

The main uses of hop tea include:
nervous restlessness
sleep disorders
anxiety states

In addition to hop tea, there are other ways in which you can benefit from the effects of the medicinal plant:
In the pharmacy you can get capsules or tinctures made from hops. Hop essential oil is used in aromatherapy.
Hops are also suitable for a soothing bath for mind and body. To do this, boil a liter of water, pour it over 20 grams of hop blossoms and mix it into your bath water.
Another option for better sleep is a scented pillow filled with hop blossoms. You can just put that next to your pillow.

How to prepare hop tea

For the soothing tea you use the female flowers of the hops. You can recognize them by growing cone-shaped, spike-like bud sites, while male flowers hang more loosely. You can easily prepare hop tea yourself:
Pour 250 milliliters of boiling water over 2-3 teaspoons of dried female hop flowers.
Let the tea steep for five to ten minutes.
Then remove the plant parts.
You can have three cups a day. To help you sleep better, you should drink the tea about half an hour before you go to bed.

To increase the calming effects of hops, you can combine them with valerian or St. John’s wort. Lavender and chamomile are also good.

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Lifestyle

This is How You Garden Sustainably and Close to Nature

Everyone is talking about climate protection. Farmers and forest owners are complaining about major losses as a result of changing climatic conditions, which are reflected in violent storms and unusually long dry periods in this country. The agricultural partner companies of meine ernte are also feeling the consequences and, like Bauer Bachhausen from Solingen in 2018 and 2019, have to accept heavy losses in the cultivation of cereals, vegetables or strawberries. Anyone who grows their food in their own garden or on the balcony without using pesticides is acting sustainably in many respects and is therefore making an important contribution to climate protection.

Seasonal and regional – your own garden as the basis for climate protection

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is not only healthy, but also quickly brings about a new appreciation for food. You get a feeling for when which crops are “in season” or when they have to be grown or imported under energy-intensive conditions. Tomatoes in December, for example, tend to seem “Spanish” to a vegetable gardener and are not exactly one of the climate-friendly meals on the plate in winter due to long transport routes and high water consumption. On the other hand, by growing your own crops in the kitchen garden and being more conscious of consumer behavior, energy and long transport routes can be saved.

With your vegetable garden or balcony you create the perfect conditions for gardening close to nature and doing your part to protect the environment.

But there are a few tips on how you can garden even more sustainably in your vegetable paradise!

Work the soil close to nature

The most valuable resource in your vegetable garden is the soil. In the best case, the soil always contains the right amount and concentration of nutrients. Since we remove nutrients through our vegetable harvest, additional care and protection of the soil is essential. Useful soil organisms are promoted through near-natural care. In addition, nutrient-rich soil strengthens your vegetable plants and makes them less susceptible to disease.

Our top 5 tips for a nutrient-rich soil in the vegetable garden:

1. Use organic fertilizer: A soil used for gardening and agriculture should be fertilized. We recommend the use of organic fertilizer. These are products of animal and/or vegetable origin that decompose slowly and add value to the garden soil.

2. Conserve water by hoeing: During the gardening season, you should regularly hoe your soil around the vegetable plants. This keeps the soil permanently loose and well aerated. A loose garden soil can absorb rainwater and irrigation water better. Chopping also removes weeds. You can simply let them dry out on the bed when the sun is shining.

3. Composting is about studying: Make your own nutrient-rich soil with your garden waste. With a compost heap in the garden, you can use the remaining nutrients from plant residues and return them to the earth as finished compost. Tip: There are also small composters for the balcony!

4. Mulch soil: Protect your garden soil from erosion. Soil erosion is the removal of the topsoil, the fertile soil for your vegetable cultivation. Protection is provided by a layer of mulch made of green waste and plant residues. Mulch is particularly important in winter so that your cleared vegetable beds are not exposed to wind and weather.

5. Buy peat-free soil: If you buy soil for your vegetable patch, raised bed, or balcony plants, then make sure that it is as peat-free as possible.

This is how you save water in the vegetable garden

To get a feeling for the water needs of your plants, you should consider the length of the roots and the water content of the vegetables.

In general, outdoor plants form longer roots and require less additional irrigation water than raised bed or balcony plants. Plants that need a lot of water are, for example, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, lettuce and aubergines.

Hacking – the solution to save a lot of water
A loose and regularly chopped soil saves additional watering, since the existing water reservoirs can be more easily reached by the roots of your plants.
Likewise, a layer of mulch on your vegetable patch keeps moisture in the soil and protects against superficial drying out. Incidentally, there are gardeners who do without watering the entire year because they always hoe as soon as it has rained, so that the soil stores enough water.

That’s how you water properly

If you still need to water extra, stick to the following points:

Use collected rainwater and water the roots of the plant vigorously once instead of just watering a little several times a week. This will encourage root growth in your vegetable plants and train them to search for water on their own.
You should water in the early morning hours or late afternoon/evening if possible, since the plants can absorb the water best at these times.
Some vegetables, such as cucumber, require regular watering and will produce few or bitter fruits without it. Here you can think about an automatic watering system like drip irrigation.

Beneficial – the natural alternative to pesticides

No one wants pesticide residues in their vegetables or soil. So-called “beneficial insects” can prevent the use of pesticides and plant protection products in your vegetable garden. The ideal protection for your plants is to encourage beneficial insects in your garden and to garden in an insect-friendly manner. In this way, pests and diseases on the vegetable plants do not increase. Beneficial insects ensure a balanced soil life and have the larvae and eggs of pests as a food source.

Attract wild bees and insects with a variety of flower mixes. You can upgrade empty beds in autumn with green manure. This serves as a source of food and supports the nutrient requirements of the soil. Edible flowers and herbs are a good opportunity to do something good for the insects and yourself.

Make sure there are enough places in your garden for insects and microorganisms to retreat to with leaves, piles of dead wood and stones, as well as nesting boxes for songbirds. Especially in winter, the animals are happy to accept this shelter. You should also leave dried stems of e.g. chives over the winter and only cut them off in summer.

No plastic in the vegetable garden

Small plastic particles are just as undesirable in your vegetable patch as they are in the oceans. Nevertheless, nets and fleece are often essential to protect the plants. Here it is worth buying a long-lasting crop protection net that does not fall apart and can be used for many years. Fix it with stones or bury it well in the ground – this way you avoid plastic net holders.

There are also alternatives made from compostable materials such as organic cotton or grain-based.

Plant pots, especially for growing young plants in spring, are also available made from coconut fibers or you can make your own growing pots from newspaper or toilet paper rolls.

When it comes to gardening tools, it is also better to spend a little more money and then have something of it for a long time: You really need these gardening tools. Large garden tools that are used less often can be shared with your neighbors.

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