Monthly Archives: February 2010

Many people ask: Isn’t honey a type of sugar? Will consuming honey cause weight gain? Won’t the calories in honey negate your weight loss efforts? Well, here’s a very interesting article for weight watchers who are also honey lovers.

Honey and weight loss are often associated. Why is honey a smarter choice than table sugar if you are watching your weight and what you eat?

Refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins and are often called empty calories. They draw upon the body’s nutrients to be metabolized into the system, and when these nutrients are depleted, metabolizing of cholesterol and fatty acid is impeded, contributing to higher cholesterol and promoting obesity due to higher fatty acid on the organs and tissues. The good news is that honey, a natural sweetener, on the other hand, contains 22 amino acids and a variety of minerals essential for its metabolism and hence is helpful in preventing obesity.

It is believed that drinking lemon juice with a little honey the first thing in the morning is an effective anti cellulite treatment as it helps to increase body metabolism. If you are determined to shed weight and speed up your sluggish metabolism, try this honey and lemon diet tip.

If you like, another very popular recipe associated with honey and weight loss is a drink that uses honey and cinnamon as ingredients. Many people have found this home remedy very effective in losing pounds. The steps are easy: Dissolve half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder (or ground cinnamon) in a cup of boiling water. Stir the mixture and cover for half an hour. Filter away any big particles and add a teaspoon of honey. Take it in the morning with an empty stomach about half an hour before breakfast.

For people who tend to overeat or feel discomfort in the stomach after meals, honey can be taken for better digestion. Honey is a simple carbohydrate that one safely take during fasting because it contains easily digested sugars. Foods that are rich in sugars or complexes of sugars are carbohydrates. How the sugars are arranged will determine whether we call a food a source of simple or complex carbohydrates. When sugars are bound into rows, as they are in starches such as whole grains and legumes, they are called complex carbohydrates. It takes the body much longer to digest the sugar from a complex carbohydrate.

Source of above article – :www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-and-weight-loss.html

Honey and warm water: Normally fat remains as an un-used resource in your body adding bulk and weight. It is believed that honey mobilizes this stored fat. When this fat is burnt to provide energy for your daily activities, you see a gradual decrease in your weight and obesity levels. It is suggested that you drink this honey (about one tablespoon daily), with equal amount of warm water.

Source of above article extracted from www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/animal-product/benefits-of-honey-in-weight-loss.html

My all-time favorite dish is chicken cooked with turmeric. I like the chicken cooked with lots and lots of minced turmeric and shallots. My dad cooks one of the tastiest turmeric chicken and I can eat the entire plate of dish all by myself and yet not get fed up and still eat it the next day. I ate a lot of turmeric chicken during my 3 confinements.

Turmeric is a yellow, powdered spice that gives curry its distinctive color and flavor. Scientists believe that turmeric, which is used in most Indian meals, has an active ingredient that can help fight obesity.  A meal that includes turmeric will lead to less weight gain than one without the yellow root.

Turmeric contains a plant-based chemical called curcumin, which suppresses the growth of fat tissue in mice and human cell cultures, according to a study by Tufts University in Boston, published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Curcumin is also easily absorbed by the body, the researchers said, after experiments on mice.

“Weight gain is the result of the growth and expansion of fat tissue, which cannot happen unless new blood vessels form, a process known as angiogenesis,” said senior study author Mohsen Meydani of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.

“Based on our data, curcumin appears to suppress angiogenic activity in the fat tissue of mice fed high fat diets,” he said in a statement.

Turmeric is effective when added to a high-fat meal, suggesting it could help fight obesity.

Researchers gave one set of mice high-fat diets and another set the same food with 500mg of curcumin added to each meal.

After 12 weeks, the mice which were fed curcumin weighed less than those which did not eat it.

Widely acknowledged to be a powerful antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties, turmeric is currently under investigation in several studies to determine its use for cancer prevention and treatment.

So if you are lost for ideas on what to cook, go whip up a turmeric chicken dish.  There are several ways of cooking chicken with turmeric.  Chicken cooked with turmeric is delicious, wholesome, helps you to lose weight and may help prevent cancer too.