Bitter melon, momordica charantia, bitter gourd or ampalaya. It has an oblong shape and a warty looking vegetable fruit, the flesh is crunchy and watery.
During my younger years, I often dislike the taste and the idea of eating any bitter melon recipe, because of its bitter tasting property. But as time goes by, I learned to love, eat and appreciate this fruit vegetable!
According to our health food source, below are the health benefits that you can get from bitter melon!
Contain vitamins A, B1, B2 and vitamin C.
Helps prevent type 2 diabetes by increasing the insulin sensitivity thus lowering elevated blood sugar levels.
Contain minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron, copper, and potassium.
It helps purify blood tissue, enhances digestion and stimulates the liver.
Disclaimer: The list shown above is merely for information purposes only.
Apples are not just an eye catching and appealing fruits, but they really taste delicious, their crunchiness and watery flavor filled with nutrients are a great way to help our body. They can be eaten as fresh fruits, and they can also be included as an ingredient to cooking or baking snacks or desserts.
Apples offer a lot of health benefits in our body and according to our health food source:
Apples are rich in antioxidants, which prevents signs of aging, like wrinkles and dull skin. They can help glow our skin.
A chemical called flavonoids are present in apples, which can destroy cancer cells. (Most of the flavonoids are present in the Apple’s skin).
It can boost the immune system and prevents infection.
It may slow mental decline, and they can help to improve memory.
Contain fibers that can help in digestion and prevents stomach problems.
It may also promote weight loss
known as a great teeth cleaner and whitener.
Disclaimer: The list shown above is merely for information purposes only.
Dragon fruit grows on the Hylocereus cactus, it is also known as pitahaya or the strawberry pear. It’s a tropical fruit known for its red skin, watery and sweet taste. This wonderful fruit contains small black seeds that are edible.
According to our health food source, below are the health benefits of dragon fruit:
Dragon fruit can boost the immune system because of the vitamin C it contains.
This fruit is high in fibers, which helps in digestion.
It can help prevent the formation of cancer causing free radicals.
Rich in antioxidants
help to lower blood glucose levels and controls blood cholesterol levels.
Improves eyesight and appetite
Can also help in weight reduction
It can improve memory and also helpful in wound healing.
Bottle gourd (is also called Calabash). It has a green, smooth texture and white flesh inside when peeled, this fruit is harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, other ways of cooking this are sauteed and soup recipes. According to our health food source:
This vegetable is helpful to the urinary system, it helps to reduce burning sensation from acidic urination, it may also reduce the chances of urinary tract infection.
Helpful in reducing high blood pressure and helpful in keeping the heart healthy.
It contains vitamins and minerals such as: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamins A and C and folate.
Contains fiber which supports healthy digestion and helps to combat constipation.
Honey is a naturally sweet food that is commonly used as an ingredient in cooking or baking.
It has attractive chemical properties and unique flavor that is chosen by most cook and bakers as an alternative to sugar or any sweeteners. Aside from this, it is great for medicinal use, especially if prepared with other herbal ingredients. Though it’s very beneficial and useful, just be reminded that it shouldn’t be given to infants in any way because of the bad effects to their immature intestinal tracts. If you are interested to read about it, here’s a separate post regarding this matter: Why you shouldn’t give honey to infants?
Honey bees transform nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation and evaporation, they then store it as a primary food source in a honeycomb inside the beehive.
Honey ranges from nearly colorless to dark brown. The taste or flavor varies from mild to delectable taste depending on where the bees thrived. According to research, the darker the honey, the healthier.
Here are the important health benefits of honey in our body, according to our health food source:
Contains antioxidants (flavonoids) which helps to reduce the risk of certain types of cancers and heart diseases.
Has an antibacterial content, some varieties have large amounts of friendly bacteria (helpful to those who have mature intestinal tracts, except to infants).
May help in ulcer treatment and bacterial gastroenteritis.
It can help in treating cough (helps in relieving nocturnal coughs), therefore promotes proper sleep at night.
It has an anti-inflammatory property which can help in wound healing.
Can use as an ingredient to moisturize and nourish the skin.
Useful in improving eyesight and helpful in dealing with male disorders, UTI (urinary tract infection), weight loss, bronchial asthma, nausea, and diarrhea.
It may help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Disclaimer: The list shown above is merely for information purposes only.
Infants are young children who are under one year of age and defined as the first year of life and the period wherein most rapid growth is happening after their birth or delivery. Their immune system is weak and that’s why you have to be careful on the things, materials, and foods that may come in contact with their mouth. Their feeding bottles should be sterilized well before mixing the milk to ensure a clean and safe milk consumption.
The materials or things that they are using must also be cleaned well, to avoid harmful microorganisms. Introducing solid foods to them was very exciting. But be cautious enough to the kind of food that you will be giving. Your food preparation matters a lot, be sure that they are clean, safe to eat and soft (for better food digestion and absorption), also to avoid the dangers of choking.
Children at this stage of life are prone to get cough and colds, and sometimes home interventions are one of the few actions that some parents will take. You probably heard that honey are good and very therapeutic in dealing with cough and colds, and they also have a lot of health benefits to offer? Yes, it’s one of the most beneficial substances to go through specially as medicinal products, but be informed that it should not be given to infants because it contains dormant endospores of the bacterium clostridium botulinum. According to our health food source, the endospores can transform into toxin which are very dangerous to infants immature intestinal tracts leading to serious illness and even death.
Do you eat breakfast in the morning to start your day? If your answer is no, then you must change that way of life! If your answer is yes, well, congratulations, you’re doing the right thing! Last night, husband and I had a conversation about this. We discussed the importance of eating breakfast, the time we should sleep at night to wake up early in the morning to attend our breakfast and the food that are included in the meal. Is it significant? Yes, it is. Specially if you have children at home, you have to train them to eat breakfast because it matters a lot to our health and there are also many consequences that may occur if you keep skipping your breakfast.
Here are the importance of eating our breakfast daily:
Breakfast is the best meal of the day, but often neglected because of various personal reasons.
We sleep for about 8 hours or more during the night, so it’s significant to eat in the morning to fill the fasting period of a no food and water intake during the night.
To start the day right, you need to supply your stomach with nutrient dense foods to help your body get the alertness and energy it needs. It improves our memory and concentration levels, your brain and other organs will function well if it is fueled with essential nutrients.
It helps with our body’s metabolism. Therefore, it will help your body to burn more calories throughout the day.
Furthermore, it encourages a healthier eating habit and good attitude towards food.
Not only that, but it helps to balance blood sugar levels and helps you to avoid many diseases link to skipping breakfast like diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, irritability, being moody, low-energy levels, stress and poor memory.
Fill your breakfast with a meal that has a balanced food nutrients, include in your plate energy boosting foods (like rice, bread, or pasta), body building foods (like eggs, meat, fish) and body regulating foods (like fruits and vegetables). We have a different eating options on what to include in our meal, but consider to include those three food groups because they are vital in our diet.
Note: Excessive consumption of food is not good to our health and can bring a negative result or bad effects in our body. Always eat the right kind and the right amount of food.
Here are some tips in order to get into that breakfast:
Plan your breakfast ahead, decide what to cook and prepare for tomorrow’s meal. To avoid running out of time thinking and preparing. Do not sleep late in the evening in order for you not to skip meal, sleeping late will bring about waking up late also.
Sometimes this is the reason some of us tend to skip breakfast and just eat the breakfast and lunch “brunch” together.
Just eat a light meal at night, avoid heavy meals because it will lower your appetite in the morning when eating your breakfast.
Do you really prepared the food clean and safe to eat? Foods are the fuel of a human body to make its daily function and activities. We have to eat nutritious food because they are essential in bringing natural vitamins and minerals that are needed in order for our body to gain energy. To achieve a good immunity as we go all day long, but we also have to make sure that our food preparation and cooking is right.
There are many cooking methods out there like baking, frying, broiling, stewing, braising, simmering, roasting, grilling, frying etc. Cooking methods depend on what the recipe need, but whatever you are about to prepare, make sure to consider these tips below about food preparation and cooking:
Cleanliness- to start with a healthy food preparation, always wash carefully your ingredients such as vegetables, fruits, fish, meat products etc. Wash your hands to eliminate germs and harmful microorganisms before cooking.
Buy fresh ingredients or food products- because they contain a good amount of health benefits compared to those stored in the refrigerator for a few days or a long time already.
Know your ingredients- What are the nutrients you can get from it?
Follow your recipe- to achieve the desired recipe outcome, do not be rushing in cooking your recipe.
Read food labels and consider using those with health benefits on it. Example, cooking oil (you may want to consider vegetable oil and other types of healthy oil), salt (you may want to consider iodized salt) and you may also want to consider those organically made products.
Enjoy and be happy while cooking- some says that if you are happy while cooking, you can get a good result or outcome of the recipe. It will also lessen your stress points, we all know that cooking in the kitchen have numerous things that you have to do, from cleaning the ingredients, to cooking, washing of the dishes and serving the food.
Serve food with an art- to make the food more enjoyable to eat, you may want to serve it in a nice bowl or plate with your creative touch.
A good note to remember: “Excessive consumption of food is not good to our health and can bring a negative result or bad effects on our body. Always eat the right kind and the right amount of food”.
MOMSOTHERSIDE
HealthCare 