Broccoli is choke-full with nutrients and fibre. It is high in calcium, Vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and also Vitamin K. Broccoli also contains glucoraphanin, which with the body processes into the anti-cancer compound sulforaphane. This compound rids the body of H. pylori, a bacterium found to highly increase the risk of gastric cancer. Furthermore, broccoli contains indole-3-carbinol, a powerful antioxidant compound and anti-carcinogen found to not only hinder the growth of breast, cervical and prostate cancer, but also boosts liver function.
The bad thing about broccoli is that it turns yellow pretty fast. Sometimes I forget about the broccoli that I have in the fridge and when I remember about it, it has already turned yellowish, albeit wrapping the broccoli carefully in paper. I do not know about you but I feel really squeamish at the sight of yellowish broccoli. It makes me feel as if the broccoli is starting to rot and that it is devoid of all the nutrients. But broccoli is pretty costly and I feel bad binning it. Normally what I do is that I will trim off the yellow parts and salvage the green parts. Then throw in other veggies like red pepper, french beans, fresh mushrooms and chicken or fish meat and stir fry all the ingredients into a 1-dish meal for the kids.
Do you eat broccoli that has turned yellow?
Non-organic broccoli is highly laced with pesticides. I always wash the broccoli thoroughly and soak it in salt water and rinsing it again before cooking it.
My 4YO baby girl is definitely taking after her health freak mommy for she can eat raw garlic! Whenever we dine at restaurants, I will surely request for a plate of chopped raw garlic to eat with the dishes. Not that I heart raw garlic. I hate the aftertaste of garlic in my mouth. But I heart reaping the health benefits from eating raw garlic.
After being told that raw garlic can heal her from a flu that she was having, my health freak baby girl began scooping raw garlic and ate them with her rice and dishes, as shown in this picture here. I’ll bet no other 4-year old would eat raw garlic without giving you a disgusted look on his/her face while trying to feign puking. But not my baby girl. It was only when my mil commented that the chopped raw garlic may not be clean that I stopped Cass from putting more chopped raw garlic into her mouth. My mil commented that the cleanliness of the chopping board used by the restaurant worker is highly questionable, which is very true. I wouldn’t be surprised that after chopping raw meat on the board, the restaurant’s foreign worker chopped raw garlic on the wooden chopping board. A damp wooden chopping board, especially one which has contact with raw meat is a very good breeding ground for bacteria. The next time I chop garlic, I’ll be sure to save some for Cass to eat it with her rice and dishes. My 2 older girls are not that adventurous though.
Food For Thought
Below are some main health and medicinal benefits of garlic.
Note: To get the full health benefits of raw garlic, you have to do just that – take it RAW! Commercial garlic pills, tablets, oils and capsules, especially the odorless ones, are often devoid of the active enzymes that provide the benefits. Crushed, raw garlic may be mixed into virtually any meal, or put in gelatin capsules for easy swallowing, or drunk as a tea by simply crushing 1 or 2 cloves and adding hot water.
Health & Medicinal Benefits of Garlic
Powerful immune system enhancer
Antibacterial, antiviral
Antifungal – effective remedy for yeast infections & candida
Clears boils & infected sores
Improves appetite
Digestive aid – especially good if eaten with meat
Increases libido – take several raw cloves a day
Expels intestinal parasites & worms
Reduces high cholesterol
Health Remedies Using Garlic Cloves
Below are some Chinese health remedies using garlic cloves as the main ingredient. These are common, traditional ways that Chinese people make use of the health benefits of raw garlic.
Garlic Tea:
Put 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 or 2 grams of loose-leaf green tea in a teapot. Add a teaspoon or two of unrefined brown sugar if you wish. Pour in boiling water that has been left to cool slightly. Stir the mixture and let it steep for several minutes before drinking. After wards, leave the ingredients in the pot, as you can top it up with more water once or twice throughout the day. This is a common folk remedy for killing germs and resolving toxins in the body.
Garlic Nose Drops:
This is a preventative for the common cold and sinus problems. Crush several cloves of garlic to obtain the juice. Mix with warm water at a ratio of two parts water to one part garlic juice. Lie down and use an eye-dropper to place a couple of drops into each nostril as soon as you feel any symptoms coming on. Continue for as long as necessary. If the drops overly irritate your nostrils, stop, or reduce the number of drops.
Garlic Paste:
Crush 2 garlic cloves and mix with several drops of pure sesame oil to make a paste for external application to boils,carbuncles and infected sores. Cover then reapply when the paste becomes dry and falls off. If the skin becomes overly irritated discontinue use or wait for a day or two and try again.
Maximizing the health benefits of raw garlic to get the full health benefits of raw garlic, whether in salads, as tea, or in capsules, it’s importantyou eat less refined, processed and canned foods, and more foods in as close to their natural state as possible. Afterall, what’s the point in taking fresh, raw garlic to improve your health while, for instance, continuing to eat nutritionally-dead, toxin-producing junk foods?
According to Traditional Chinese Dietary Therapy, garlic is warm in nature (i.e. heaty) and a strong stimulant. Therefore, people who have excess heat in their body should first balance their system. Excessive internal heat comes from eating too much heaty food and drinks, e.g. meat, fried foods, coffee and alcohol. This causes symptoms like red eyes, bad breath, constipation, yellow urine, a yellow tongue moss and acne. If you have these kinds of symptoms, eliminate or greatly reduce the above items from your diet for a few weeks before you start eating garlic regularly, or it will just make your body hotter and your symptoms worse.
The recent weather has been causing many people to fall ill. It has been crazily hot and humid for the past few days with no rain at all. Consequently, smoky haze has enveloped the skies and it’s choking us sick. The haze has also caused my sensitive nose and sensitive throat to itch. I do not even feel like stepping out of my condo. Though I have some supplements to buy from the pharmacy, I just feel like sitting at home and order them online from http://www.shoppharmacycounter.com/t-Adipex-Medicine.aspx , comfortably from my desktop computer, under the air-conditioner. If you know me well, you will know that I will ‘melt’ and ‘break down’ under the scorching sun, with a throbbing headache after being roasted by the sun. So during this hot and hazy season, don’t invite me to go anywhere during the day ok?
My girls are missing their granny and grandpa a lot. It’s been over 2 weeks since we all saw my parents, after our Port Dickson trip. Today they suggested that we should Skype granny and grandpa. But my logitech speakers seem to be acting up lately. Not only are my speakers acting up, even the wireless modem and the external pods have been acting up for the past few weeks, which escalated over the past 3 days. Our wireless internet connection had been breaking up intermittently throughout the day for the past few days and this had driven me up the wall. Business had to slow down. So did all my online work. Bummer! But thankfully our internet service provider has been pretty efficient and the problem was resolved yesterday night.
We use to patronize this ‘pan meen’ noodles stall at a nearby coffee shop. That particular pan meen is really very tasty and my girls love it to bits. I started to feel turned off when one time, I saw how the stall owner’s foreign worker prepared the mixed pork meat. In a very large basin that was stained with dirt and plastic peeling off, I saw him scooping big spoonfuls of white powdery stuff and pouring them onto the meat. The white stuff was most likely MSG. Well, MSG was still acceptable but NOT the dirty basin which was placed on the wet and dirty coffee shop floor.
A few weeks later when I went to the same stall to take away, what I saw was the last straw that made me make up my mind that that would be our last time patronizing that stall. I saw many pails on the dirty floor that was used to soak vegetables and water (for the soup). And those pails were previously used to store paints!! Matex paints to be exact. Oh My God! How could the stall owner recycle those pails that were used to store something that is so poisonous and toxic to store food now?! My tummy churned and I felt so turned off while waiting for the noodles. When the stall owner scooped up water from one of the Matex pails to pour into the pot to cook the pan meen that I ordered, I felt really nauseated. I then looked around at other stalls and I noticed the same type of recycled MATEX pails used by those stall owners to soak veggie and water (for the soup) TOO! Goodness! I wanted to run out and never patronize those stalls ever again. And actually thinking back, I notice that many hawkers use recycled paint pails to store water and to soak veggie too. Did you ever notice this? Imagine eating food from these stalls on a frequent basis. Imagine what we have been ingesting all these while. GOSH!! That could be one of the reasons why many people these days suffer from a wide range of terminal illnesses and disorders. We are what we eat. So if you put rubbish and poison into your body, your body succumbs to them over time.
After a year long procrastination, I finally paid a visit to the ophthalmologist at ISEC (the same doctor who operated on Cassandra’s eye Chalazion 2 years ago) to have my eyes checked as I have been seeing swinging black dots known as floaters in my eyes (especially on my right eye) for the past 1 year. After briefly seeing the eye doctor for about 5 minutes, I was given eye drops on both my eyes to dilate the retina. I then waited for another half an hour for the retina to dilate before going in to see the doctor again to have my eyes checked by a machine. I did not know that the eye drops would sting my eyes so badly. When the first drop touched my eyeball, I yelled out in pain as the drop began its work to sting my eye. I could not open my eyes for about 5 minutes after the first drop. After the remaining drops, I felt giddy as my vision blurred and I could not even read words from my mobile phone. For the next 3 hours, my vision was blurred and I felt a tad giddy too.
Rascal no. 2 snapped this picture of me after the eye drops.
Doctor’s diagnosis:
I have minor floaters on both my eyes. Nothing alarming BUT I must see an eye doctor immediately IF :1) The floaters have increased
2) I see flashing lights
3) I see shadows
4) My vision is suddenly blurred
What are floaters?
You may sometimes see small specks or clouds moving in your field of vision. These are called floaters. You can often see them when looking at a plain background, like a blank wall or blue sky. Floaters are actually tiny clumps of gel or cells inside the vitreous, the clear gel-like fluid that fills the inside of your eye. Although the floaters appear to be in front of the eye, they are actually floating in the vitreous fluid inside the eye.
What causes floaters?
When people reach middle age, the vitreous gel may start to thicken or shrink, forming clumps or strands inside the eye. The vitreous gel pulls away from the back wall of the eye, causing a posterior vitreous detachment. This is a common cause of floaters.
Posterior vitreous detachment is more common in people who :
1) are nearsighted
2) have undergone cataract operations
3) have had YAG laser surgery of the eye
4) have had inflammation inside the eye
The appearance of floaters may be alarming, especially if they develop very suddenly. You should contact your ophthalmologist (eye M.D.) right away if you develop new floaters, especially if you are over 45 years of age.
I am really glad that the school holiday is coming to an end! When my 3 boisterous girls are at home, I can hardly concentrate in my work. There are screams, fights, bickering, complaints, whims and fancies and demands from my 3 rascals all the time. A write-up on white swan denim scrubs will usually eat up 10 minutes of my time if I have the opportunity to work in peace but when the 3 rascals are around, I need almost half a day (with lots of interruption) to complete it!
During our recent trip to Port Dickson, I put behind exercise for 2 days. If you know me well, I am the type who would not skip my daily exercise regime, unless I am so sick that my brain is foggy. But I was feeling really jaded and thought I needed to catch up on my sleep and just rest and relax at the beach resort. There was no free broadband internet at the beach resort, except for the WiFi from my mobile phone, so I did not get to use my laptop at all. All work related to my online store was put on hold. My online assignments were put on hold too. One advertisement that I was supposed to write and submit has been overdue for over a week, including one write-up on round truck side steps. I had quite a good rest but I must admit that I had ‘internet-deprived irritability’ syndrome, LOL!
I am a WFHM with 3 beautiful girls - Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra. I quit the job that I love to stay home with my 3 angels as that's what I've always wanted to do. I am a health freak, fitness freak and a clean freak too. I love to eat and live the clean and healthy way; I want my kids and hubby to do the same too.
I always believe that your health is your wealth and if you have good health, that's the best gift you can ever ask for from God.
I have been writing product reviews, food reviews / restaurant reviews and product advertorials since 2007. Please email Shireen at shireenyong@gmail.com to inquire if you are interested to place an advertorial or review in this blog.
