I wonder you might think what is sweet fruits salad? Actually it is traditional Indonesia fruit salad, especially in the island of Java. When you look at the picture, all the ingredients are normal fruits. You can find them in your local store or supermarket. Like papaya, pineapple, cucumber, tofu. But of course they are some that might not be in your country.

A = Cucumber
B = Bengkuang (Pachyrhizus Erosus)
C = Papaya
D = Jambu Cincalo Merah (Syzygium Samarangense)
E = Tofu
F = Pineapple

Like the picture number D. It is Jambu Cincalo Merah or in latin it is Syzygium Samarangense. This particular jambu has natural sweet and it is red. Not only this jambu tastes good, but it contains Vitamin A, C, calcium and lot of natural water. When you are thirsty you can just eat some of these jambu.

Also picture number B, Bengkuang, or in latin it is Pachyrhizus erosus. Bengkuang contains phosphor, sugar and calcium. Bengkuang can also be used to substitute water because it contains 80%-90% natural water.

But what I want to talk about most is the dressing of this particular salad. It is gula merah or you can say it brown sugar in English. Actually it is not really brown sugar. It is a liquid produce from flower of Sugar Palm or Gomuti Palm. Because this sugar is produced from flower of sugar palm/gomuti palm, you can say the level of sweetness is pretty natural. Imagine the natural sweet from sugarcane. It is the same thing. Even in Chinese medication, this particular sugar can be used to cure some illness along with other herbs. You can see the picture below.

How to make the dressing?

The process is pretty simple. What I have done here is I take about 300 gram of gula merah, mix it with 250 ml of water and boil it for about 20 minutes. If you like your dressing a little bit thicker, you can add less water and the boiling time a little bit longer. For me, I like it thick and I used to add some chilies and peanut as necessary. The idea is to go as natural as you can according to your taste It is as simple as making mayonnaise right?

Preparation

Basically, you just peel all of those fruits or if you like it with skin you can just leave as it is and then put them on a plate. As simple as it gets! But for tofu, it must be fried. I know when you hear ‘fried’ you must be thinking “well, that’s not good for our health”. Yes, I know it’s not good. But you can just do slight fry. Not deep fry. Just enough to make the outer of tofu turn yellow. That will be enough. I do not know how to say it here, but when those fried tofu dip into gula merah and you take a bite, you can feel the nature taste of gula merah right from tofu itself. Very very delicious!

You can put anything you want in this salad. You can put apple, strawberry, mango, melon, watermelon,  or any other fruits that you can easily find in your country. The idea is to be creative with your salad with your favorite fruits.

Hope you enjoy my article about Indonesia’s sweet fruits salad. Please do share with others by tweeting it to your friends in twitter or facebook. Also do leave comments down here. I would love to hear from you.  If you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, please subscribe here so you won’t miss my next update. C’ya!

Nowadays our diets are jeopardized and we end up eating a lot of junk food which ends up harming our body tremendously. So it is important for us to somehow follow a balanced diet such that we may live life to the fullest. In order to do that, we must eat healthy and plan our diet smartly.

In order to maximize nutrition from what we eat, we should make sure that certain food items are always included by us at some point of our diet and eaten as frequently as possible. Nutritionists have therefore found out 8 foods that we should eat. These foods help us avoid all kinds of diseases and help us to be healthy and remain youthful and beautiful.

These 8 foods which we should eat are Spinach, Yoghurt, Tomatoes, Carrots, Blue berries, Black Beans, Walnuts and Oats.

Spinach may be green and leafy but it is the ultimate food for a healthy person. It is a rich source of the Omega 3 acids and Folate. It helps to reduce the risk of heart disease, Stroke and Osteoporosis. Furthermore spinach also helps to gain sexual enhancement. This is rich in Lutein which helps in reducing macular degeneration which is caused by old age. One should have around half cup of cooked spinach a day.

Yoghurt is rich in small micro organisms which grow inside it due the fermentation process and hence it has several probiotic qualities. It helps us to reduce the risk of cancer and greatly boosts the immune system. It is rich in calcium and proteins. One cup of yoghurt is optimal for a healthy diet.

Tomatoes are rich in antioxidants like lycopene and helps in avoiding several types of cancer and coronary heart diseases. 22mg of lycopene should be taken per day.

Carotenoid rich carrots help to negate several types of cancers and respiratory asthma as well as rheumatoid arthritis. This is the most easily accessible low calorie food item.

Blue Berries, also known as “brain berry” are most anti oxidant rich fruit and allows us to avoid several types of cancer along with age related memory disorders. Scientists have also concluded that the blue berry is very rich in Vitamins A and B and hence allows us to maintain very good cardio vascular health.

Black Beans are good for our heart and can improve our brain’s capacities like no other. They are rich in antioxidants like anthocyanin and other antioxidants.

Walnuts are richer in omega 3 fatty acids than salmon and have more anti inflammatory polyphenol compounds as compared to red wine along with half as much muscle building proteins as compared to chickens. A serving of seven nuts should be good as daily intake.

Lastly Oats are the most prominent health food which is available in the market and approved by the FDA, have carbohydrates but help in releasing the sugars locked by fibers. As oats provide 10 grams protein per half cup serving, they provide ample amounts of muscle building power.

Thus we now know the 8 foods that we should eat for a healthy living.

If you have any experience with some of these foods, please do share it with the rest of us. I would love to here from you. So add comment below or just tweet this article to your friends or share it in facebook.

I bet that title really gets your attention. Before I go any further, let me give you pros and cons about milk and other dairy products.

Pros:

• Calcium, which is important for healthy bones, is abundant in milk and dairy products. Although it’s possible to get ample calcium without milk, it does take some careful planning. Additionally, the calcium in milk is well absorbed by the digestive tract because the vitamin D and lactose found in milk facilitate calcium absorption.
• Skim milk and products made from skim milk are very low in fat and cholesterol, and contain a complete source of protein.
• Milk is also a good source of phosphorous, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin D, and riboflavin (a B vitamin).

Cons:

• Whole milk, or anything made of whole milk, is high in saturated fat, which can increase cholesterol level.
• Milk is a common cause of food allergy (allergy to milk protein).
• Many people, especially adults, lack the enzyme to digest lactose (milk sugar). This is called lactose intolerance, which causes bloating, gas, and diarrhea.
• Milk (and meat for that matter) may contain the antibiotics given to the animal before slaughter. It has been argued that when humans then eat the dairy or meat products, they absorb the antibiotics, potentially allowing for bacteria harmful to humans to become more resistant to these antibiotics. The consequence is that when antibiotics are prescribed, they may not be as effective at killing the bacteria as they once were.

For further information please visit this link

We all can be pro and con about milk and other dairy products and this discussion will never end. It depends on how we look at this matter.

I personally think that drinking milk and consume other dairy products are not for humans. Let me prove this according to my understanding from what I have read and heard from various resources. And before I start, let me clear something here. When I say milk, it just means cow milk. Because almost 95% milk that is available in stores or supermarkets world wide is cow milk. We also consume cow milk more than any other animals’ milk. So when I say milk, it just means cow milk.

Ethical Aspect

Milk and other dairy products are not for humans. I believe it is. But why?

This is my explanation.

The universe has its way to show us that everything on earth has its path that we must follow.

For example:

Female human, when she gives birth to a child, her body knows that it is time to nurture the new born baby by giving it breast milk. It is the natural way of telling her that her baby needs something to consume. This is what becomes so interesting. This breast milk is not produced overnight, not just after the birth takes place. Actually it is a process starting from being pregnant, carrying the baby for over 9 months and then when baby is due. So again, this is a process that must take place. Therefore you know that in order to have breast milk, she must be in the state of being pregnant, right? If she’s not pregnant, breast milk will not be produced by her body. It’s simple.

This is when I say that drinking milk or consume any other dairy products are not ethical. Just like I said above, the breast milk is gained by being pregnant first. It’s the same as in cow. So how do you think cow gets pregnant?

I believe drinking milk started when the Industrial Revolution started around 1920s. At that time people in Europe and America all had to go to work. The need to have fast breakfast was urgent. So humans found a way that drinking milk would be the best drink for breakfast along with other meals (pancake, egg or bread).

Cows age around 15 to 20 years old. They only get pregnant once or twice in their lifetime in natural way. As milk becomes giant business for big corporations, profit is their only concern. If they only get once or twice milk from 1 cow in 15 years, do you think this is profitable for them? I don’t think so. They will need more cows in order to produce more milk to meet market demands. But that’s not possible. More cows mean more spaces to accommodate them, right? So what is sound economical is that to get 1 cow to always get pregnant all the time so they can get milk all the time just from 1 cow. So they can lessen the number of cows needed. Less spaces but more profit.

This is why humans do insemination to female cow so they can get pregnant. This also to ensure that the milk production meets the market demands. Can you imagine being pregnant all the time? I mean always get pregnant for life?

This happens to all the cows that produce milk. These big companies main concern is profit. They don’t care about the welfare of the cows. The sad thing is that when the cow is too tired to be pregnant again, they just simple put the cow into slaughter for its meat. So sad ha?

CONCLUSION

Our world is filled with lies and greedy people. What is good or bad for us sometimes hidden from our eyes. We hear stories from people around us, books, magazines, newspapers, TVs, etc and believe that something is true. Sometimes we see an advertising on TV and we think that this is right, this is for me, this is my my kids, etc. But do you really think that those advertisements really care about your wealth fare? All they care is just profit. If they can sell more it means more profit for them. So we have to be very careful about what we see, hear or read. Use your judgment by educating yourself so you don’t fall easily on things that greedy people do for us.

Nutrition that resides in milk is ONLY good for baby cow. Not for humans. If you like  to know more about this matter, I have great book for you to read. The book is by Hiromi Shinya, MD and the title is “The Enzyme Factor”. Great book to read.

In recent studies, milk is not only the cause of some allergies, but also related to the cause of diabetes in children. For more information you can click here.

I also have a few links for you to read:

Does Milk do a body any good?

Is Milk good for you?

Dr. Brett Hill – Is milk good for you?

If you have any quesition or critic or suggestion, please do not hesitate to contact me. Also I would love to hear from you about how you feel about this article. Please add your comment here and sharing with others will be greatly appreciated… !



Balance is Key to Health – Original written by Georganna Nunes

When it comes to nature’s laws in securing a healthy body, one should be tenacious in one action in following the laws, and that is keep the balance. What that means is for each of the laws:

1. Use common sense,

2. Become well-educated on both sides of the issue,

2. Do not be an extremist in any thing you do,

3. Seek professional help when necessary, &

4. Don’t fall into the ’singularity’ mindset.

A further explanation of the above:

1. You can and should take health matters into your own hands, but realize that all of us are individuals and as individuals we have individual needs, so use common sense. What works for one person, may not work for you.

2. Try to educate yourself on all matters, and don’t just trust automatically in one school of thought. Get a well-rounded, balanced, education.

3. Going to extremes is not a good idea in any part of your life. Stay focused, but open minded to new ideas, faithful, yet logical in your beliefs, & diligent but simplistic in your habits/routines.

4. Just because a person seemed to become healthy after taking that placebo, doesn’t mean it was the placebo that did the work, right? Many factors can come into play with a person becoming healthy or developing an illness or disease, such as a slight change in diet or exercise, more or less rest, dental problems, a positive/negative outlook, etc. Just the belief alone is sometimes all that seems to be necessary, though that is usually accompanied by meditation (rest), abstinence from foods (fasting), etc.

All of the above can be applied to the 9 natural laws. (from here on, I explain how to apply it to each of the 9 steps in my book).