Cleaning fruits and vegetables

The fruits and vegetables you buy may look clean when you pick them at the grocery store but it is not the case. Have you ever wondered where these fruits and vegetables were before your bought them? They were handled by so many different hands all the way from the farm to the supermarket store. Some products are covered with wax like lemon and apple or treated with ethene like banana. To extend the self-life of cucumber it is covered with chemicals and packed in PVC foil. The not organic vegetables and fruits were treated with pesticides and herbicides during their life on the farm, which are recorded and safe by the time when a costumer picks them up. The organic grocery has lot of bacteria and unregistered chemicals on them, which are potential risk to your health. Cleaning your fruits and vegetables is very important especially when you plan to eat them raw. Using water to clean to remove the surface bacteria and chemicals may not be of great help.

·      Wash your hands with soap before preparing food

·      Do not wash fruit and vegetable with detergents

·      Wash thick skin vegetables using brush to remove microbes before peeling and wash them after with cold water.

·      Cauliflowers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables should be soaked for 2-3 minutes in cold water with cider vinegar.

·      Fruits with wax and cucumber should be washed with warm water and cider vinegar.

Rosemary Herb Benefits Health in Many Ways

By Salvator Giustra 

Rosemary is a powerful herbal remedy that is currently used for headache, indigestion & depression (in addition to its adding flavour to many dishes). However, it also has many other uses as outlined below.

Using rosemary as an herbal remedy

Asthma may be relieved by rosemary's volatile oil, which can open air passages narrowed by histamine.

Another important benefit of this herb includes preventing food spoilage as the commercial products BHA & BHT. Simply fold crushed rosemary into meat, fish, pasta & potato salads. Of course, rosemary also enhances the flavour of the foods it is mixed into.

You can also use rosemary for body odour that is caused by bacteria or fungus. Simply mix ground rosemary into bath powder and use normally. You can also use the leaves to make tea or as a bath wash.

Rosemary's health effects include its action against infectious bacteria. This also extends to its inhibiting infections from minor cuts. Simply press fresh leaves onto cut before washing & treating.

While modern herbalists do not generally recommend rosemary for memory problems like ancient people did, there might still be a role for it in cognitive problems. As a tea or shampoo, rosemary contains certain compounds that may help inhibit Alzheimer's . Drink lots of rosemary tea & use shampoos containing its essence.

Rosemary also improves hair quality & may delay baldness. Give it a shot. At worse you'll come out with very clean hair.

Rosemary has generally stimulative properties so it may be a good natural treatment for fatigue. Drink several cups of rosemary tea a day or look for candles that contain rosemary oil.

Scabies is a disturbing condition where mites house themselves under the skin & lay its eggs. This causes infections & lesions. What rosemary does for sufferers is minimizing pain of scabies by dabbing cooled tea onto affected areas.

Its antispasmodic effects enable it to relax smooth muscle tissue so rosemary is quite good for digestive problems.

Rosemary can also help relieve congestion brought on by colds & flu.

Rosemary also contains powerful antioxidants which may help in preventing cancer, heart disease & premature aging.

Its antioxidant effects may also help arthritis sufferers especially before disease worsens.

Moreover, its antioxidant properties also suggest it may be effective against cataract formation. Drink lots of rosemary tea for that purpose.

If I've lost your attention, how about this? Rosemary is being studies for its ability to prevent & treat wrinkles by Japanese researchers. Drink some rosemary tea & use its essence in facial masks.

How to use rosemary to improve health

For congestion, make an herbal tea with crushed rosemary. Use 1 tsp per cup of hot water, steep for 10 minutes, strain & enjoy a few cups a day. You can also inhale steam from tea to breath in rosemary’s healthful properties.

As a bath, add 10 drops to warm water.

As a tincture, use 1/2 - 1 1/2 tsp, 2 - 3x daily.

For commercial preparations, follow manufacturer’s directions.

You can offer diluted rosemary tea to children less than 2 years of age.

Finally, use rosemary liberally, to taste, in meats & potatoes.

Cautions when using rosemary

Rosemary is very safe to take for most people.

However, even small amounts of rosemary oil may cause irritation of the stomach, kidneys & intestines. Larger doses may be poisonous.

Never ingest more than a drop of concentrated rosemary oil.

Salvator Giustra is an educator and health researcher. With a little help from my friends I am the creator of Healthy World Online, Inc.which includes several websites including:

[http://www.herbalremediesworld.com/]

[http://www.HealthyWorldOnline.net/]

I am currently a NYC Teaching Fellow, health researcher & computer scientist.

Previously, I was a clinical psychotherapist, psychological evaluator, taught at the College of New Rochelle for many years & spent a few years directing a busy psychiatric clinic in New York, produced a newspaper - jobs that I often held concurrently.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Salvator_Giustra/77292

http://ezinearticles.com/?Rosemary-Herb-Benefits-Health-in-Many-Ways&id=1894869 

How to Clean Your Fruits and Vegetables Appropriately

By Lilian Ritah Nekesa  

Cleaning your oranges, bananas, tomatoes and apples may sound like old plain common sense but have you ever wondered where your fruits were before you bought them! The fruits and vegetables you buy, may look clean when you pick them at the grocery store, but that's not always the case. Your fruits are handled by so many different hands all the way from the farm to the grocery store. Additionally, most produce are covered with a lot of pesticides and herbicides. All this means that a lot of bacteria and chemicals get accumulated. Such bacteria and chemicals could have potential risks to your health since they cause food-borne diseases.

We all need fruits and veggies in our diets but not the bacteria and chemicals that come along with them. Cleaning your fruits effectively is key especially when you plan to eat them raw. Many of us use just water to wash our fruits and vegetables, but we should consider the fact that pesticides are designed to withstand the rain, so using just water to remove the surface bacteria and chemicals may not be of great help. Many of us also think that it would be appropriate to wash our fruits and vegetables with dish soap/detergent. These household soaps have different properties and may contain undesirable chemicals as well. These soaps/detergents penetrate through the skin of fruits and vegetables making it impossible for you to rinse them off and that is why FDA does not recommend using dish washing agents/ detergents.

Here are 5 tips on how you can enhance the hygiene of your fruits:

1. Wash you hands with an anti-bacterial soap

Before you wash your fruits and vegetables, wash your hands with an anti-bacterial soap. Hands carry a lot of bacteria which can be easily transferred on your produce. However be sure to clean your hands thoroughly to ensure that you do not get the soap on your food.

2. Invest in a brush

Firm fruits and vegetables such as pineapples, potatoes, oranges and apples can be scrubbed with a vegetable brush while rinsing with clean water to remove dirt and residues.

3. Be thoroughly

Germs can bury themselves in tiny crevices. Before washing, cut off all stalks and stems which tend to be very dirty and ensure that you cut off stalks and stems. Remove bruised and damaged spots where bacteria can thrive. Also ensure that you wash everything, even if the pack states that they are pre-washed.

4. The outer layer

Despite the fact that you might peel the outer layer and throw it away, bacteria can still be transferred from the outer part to the inside part through the knife you use to peel. There shouldn't be an excuse of not cleaning the outer part in the name of 'I'm not going to eat the outer part.'

5. Consider cleaning using vinegar

Some dirt may not be entirely water soluble e.g pesticides, waxy preservatives and oils from hands of shoppers who touch each and every fruits and vegetable looking for the most appealing one. Vinegar could come in handy to dissolve such dirt. Consider using diluted vinegar solution of 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water which you can choose to keep in a spray bottle for convenience. The FDA does not currently recommend using soap however some food stores sell organic vegetable and fruit cleansers that are safe.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lilian_Ritah_Nekesa/1348889

 http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Clean-Your-Fruits-and-Vegetables-Appropriately&id=7175737