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In the dark season, they often end up on the plate again: tangerines. The orange-colored fruit, which many like to snack on in the winter months, tastes refreshingly fruity. In addition to the numerous positive health aspects, they provide plenty of fuel to the body, because tangerines stimulate the metabolism and promote blood clotting.

Important energy suppliers

The white skin of the tangerines – i.e. the separating tissue – is meticulously peeled away by many fruit lovers. It is precisely there that there are a lot of secondary plant substances that can help prevent cardiovascular diseases and stimulate metabolism.

In addition, tangerines have the highest selenium content of all citrus fruits. Thus, they have an antioxidant effect and protect the body cells from damaging external influences, which are important for blood clotting and for the thyroid gland.

Mandarins are so healthy

Tangerines not only stimulate the metabolism, they are also packed with vitamin C: just one fruit covers 43 percent of the daily requirement of the vitamin! Anyone who enjoys tangerines thus gets their immune system going, which is particularly important in the cold season. In addition, the fruit is low in calories and provides fiber, which regulates appetite and is important for intestinal health.

Wash off hot

Before peeling the tangerines, they should be washed with hot water and your hands cleaned, otherwise the residues of preservatives can migrate into the flesh.

Coffee and cigarettes stimulate digestion. At least that’s what Grandma used to say. Is there something to it or is it just a myth?

1. Effect of coffee on digestion

Coffee contains about 80-100 mg of caffeine per cup. On the one hand, caffeine has a stimulating effect, but on the other hand it should also help to digest faster.

Definitely: Coffee increases the ability to contract in the small intestine, but regardless of its caffeine content. Ingredients that promote the effect include acids, tannins and bitter substances. In a study with mice, the researcher Xuan-Zheng P. Shi discovered that coffee stimulates digestion by feeding them coffee. After only three days, he was able to determine an increased contractility, i.e. a contraction of the muscles, in the small intestine of the four-legged friend. As a result, the food pulp was mixed faster and digested just as quickly.

So we can definitely speak of an effect on digestion with coffee – whether with or without caffeine. However, how strong the effect is in the end is individual. But what about cigarettes?

2. Effect of nicotine on digestion

Cigarettes are also said to boost digestion. However, they have less of a direct influence on our intestines and much more on our brain and the autonomic nervous system.

So this part of Grandma’s myth is also true. However, it should be borne in mind that other foods can also have a digestive effect without the body having to be supplied with toxic nicotine. The health aspect should not be disregarded – cigarettes can endanger your health and promote diseases.

3. Health aspects

In order to boost your digestion, it is not necessarily advisable to reach for a cigarette. The contained nicotine and other harmful substances can endanger your health and, for example, lung diseases
However, coffee has more benefits than just boosting digestion.

The kids are at school, the work is done – and there is a little time to finally take care of yourself. How about a round of brain jogging by stimulating the gray matter with a mind game?

Encourage creativity in a playful way

Just lying on the couch, turning on the TV, and turning off your head – after a hard day, it’s not always fun to really strain your brain again. But tricky puzzles offer much more variety than TV programs and promote logical thinking. These classic puzzles can be played alone or with the whole family.

Whichever thinking game you choose, they all have in common that they really get the brain going. Some prefer colorful fantasy games like Candy Crush, while others spend hours figuring out a Sudoku puzzle. Ultimately, everyone must find the right game for themselves. Also, note how you can sensibly record creative ideas and how you can win at the coin game.

Solitaire and mahjong as classic puzzle games

Two absolute classics among the puzzle games are solitaire and mahjong. Solitaire, which was first delivered with the Windows 3.0 operating system, has been around since 1989. Since then it has become the standard and favorite game of many Windows users, which can be played according to many different rules. Mahjong is actually a game for four players and originally comes from China. But most people probably know the name of the thinking game on the computer that can be played alone. At the beginning of the game, there are 144 stones on the virtual table that have to be cleared in pairs. The time is not stopped until the last two stones have been uncovered and removed from the table.

Sudoku

Also very popular is the logic game Sudoku, which logic fans often play with pen and paper instead of a mouse and computer keyboard. The game consists of 9×9 fields, which are further divided into 3×3 fields. At the end of the game, each row, column and block must contain the numbers 1 to 9 – but only once in each case. Depending on the level of difficulty, this is a really tricky matter. For beginners, quite a few numbers are given in the fields; however, advanced players start with very few numbers, so a game can sometimes last for several hours. Especially clever people have come up with the Sudoku toilet paper so that the time in the little place can be made more pleasant with a small round of Sudoku.

Candy Crush Saga

The online puzzle game Candy Crush Saga is a lot more colorful, in which different colored candies have to be collected. There are red jelly and orange lollipops, yellow lemon drops, green chewy candies, blue lollipops, and purple grapes. By sliding the sweets back and forth horizontally or vertically, they can be collected in combos of three or five. Each level has a specific goal that the player must achieve in order to progress to the next level. The higher the level, the more difficult it gets – because at some point there are nasty obstacles that have to be cleared out of the way. Most points are given by combinations of four or five of certain candies. Candy Crushers can then use this to unlock Wrapped Candy, Striped Candy, and a Color Bomb, earning extra points.

Quiz duel

Your own general knowledge is required for quiz games, for example. A very popular example is the Quizduell app, in which you can challenge your friends to a quiz using your smartphone. It is also about tactics because different areas of knowledge can be selected. If you know your friends well, you can play off their weaknesses and shine with your own general knowledge.

More mind games

Thinking games are especially fun if you stay on the ball. You can see your own progress and notice how the moves are getting faster. Tasks that were tricky in the beginning become easier and easier with time. Games that stimulate the brain automatically motivate the player to solve a specific problem. Often you don’t want to stop playing the game until you know the final solution. The ability to concentrate and think outside the box is always required to the same extent. But mind game is not always the same mind game. In addition to those mentioned, there are numerous other online puzzles that can often be found on the Internet as free variants.

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.