I also make every other day a chamomile tea to drink in the evening or chamomile infusion to pour it into my bathtub. Chamonile bath helps to open the pores clogged by” the air dust” surrounding us during daily time. It is such a pleasure to take chamomile bath before you go to bed that will  clean your skin from impurities and will rejuvenate a Whole You. 

You can see how in summer this flower from “the island of stars” blossoms in full force everywhere you go. It is soothing and calming. It gives you joy to admire Nature’s simple creations,  and relaxation. It treats stress successfully. Chamomile tea/infusion can help to heal your itchy skin, stuffy nose or pink eye. There are so many great, time-tested remedies with chamomile that help us to treat many problems, including sleeplessness.

This video comes from Health Mentor. Watch it and see  how chamomile can become your’s and  your family’s savior.

References: Mama’s Home Remedies” Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living by Svetlana Konnikova, MA, AN, Aurora Publishers, 2008; Photo of “Daisies in grass” by Anna Cervova;  www.youtube.com; www.learningherbs.com

Submitted bt Svetlana Konnikova.

‘Certified Organic’ is a different story. ‘Certified Organic’ product’s price is much higher than just ‘organic.’ But at least, we have some assurance that manufacturer conducts serious and responsible business. That gives us, consumers, a piece of mind. We need this piece of mind because we are all worried about our health. What is good in being sick? We try to avoid any possible chemicals in our food we eat every day. We read lots of articles. These articles very often oppose each other. It depends who sponsored it and what interests are represented.

There is so much information flying at us at the breakneck speed. Tons of this info creates confusion, and can really mislead and send us in a wrong direction. So, now watch this video and find out what is the difference between organic and conventional food, and make your conclusion. Knowledge is power, isn’t it?!

Today many of us want to eat in a healthy way and be well. We try to avoid processed foods and include in our daily diet more fresh vegetables, fruits and natural beverages. But sometimes we don’t deliver our promises to ourselves and find all possible excuses to go just one time for “real food” like hamburgers and sugary sodas. We see also very strange things happen with people who by their profession must be examples of healthy lifestyle and know more than others about nutrition and proper diet… I am talking about medical professionals.

Today it was astonishing to observe how one of the nurses in a medical office has been eating hot soup while standing in the reception area with lots of patients waiting for a doctor. Obviously, she did not have a chance to take ‘real’ time for break. She was very happy with her suppossedly ‘healthy’ meal containing low calories, and informed all waiting patients that she was eating the best soup anybody has ever tasted, and they, the patients, should try too, this amazing meal.

Do you think she was talking about homemade soup and a recipe? Not al all. She simply ate a canned soup that she picked up on the supermarket shelf. It is hard to imagine that this mass produced canned product can taste great! In any case it’ll not do any good to you health, but will load your body with sodium, fat, etc. Now watch this video and see why it is so.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

Forget about weight loss for a minute. Pizza “Primavera” was made with lots of green baby spinach and red tomatoes. Imagine hot, green pizza with aroma of organic garden on your dinner table… Fortunately, chefs of this restaurant are generous people. They put on a top, at least, one cup of spinach. Do you know that consuming one cup of spinach daily reduces 50 % your risk of ever having lung cancer?

Taking in lycopene (the pigment that makes tomatoes red) can cut the risk by about 32%. But here is a catch that is good to know: lycopene, when eaten, is best absorbed by your digestive system with a little fat. And this little fat comes with cheese in a pizza.

Debora Bernstein, MD, women’s health expert says, “That makes pizza topped with tomato sauce, chopped spinach and cheese a great lung protector. If you smoke and just dream to quit this habit, but realize that you must somehow prevent lung cancer, start eating whole foods instead of supplements. Two benefits will come of this: you can loose weight naturally and prevent lung cancer. Obviously, my friend was right when she ordered this vegetable pizza with spinach. So, I ate a second half of it. I don’t think it is foolish to do it once in a while.

See how Dr. Mercola explains just one smart step to weight loss.

Want a good recipe for spinach pizza? Go to http://www.pizzamaking.com where you’ll have a descriptive explanation how ho make it from scratch.

Source: Women’s World, volume XXX, Number 38, page 16; http://www.Dr.Mercola.com

So many possibilities and options that we can explore on two conditions: if we have a desire and time to do it. Very often we are so busy that we don’t have enough time to reseach DIY information, but this excuse doesn’t ‘ help us to reach our simplest goal: to commune with nature for our well-being.

Just admit, in our high-speed, modern world, many of us have a growing wish to be connected to nature as an antidote to stress and life pressure. We would like to live in healthier and simpler ways helping us to relax and enjoy our life. Here is an interesting story about how one couple fulfilled their dream to connect with nature. Glen and Wing let the Green and Sunset into their Breezehouse and life that became joyful because of it.

Can you imagine a divine taste of these vegetables if you grill them in your summer kitchen, and then stuff your veggie sandwiches with these natural gifts of Nature? Yummy and good for your health!

Now watch how chef Keith Snow easily makes them.

I love tomatoes and avocados. Do you? These fruits (tomatoes) and avocados are my favorites, and make number one in my Shopping List. You can make so many meals with tomatoes and avocados, and even great beauty aids. But for now, watch this video and see how easy is to create Tomato and Avocado Sandwich. Pay also attention what kind of bread should be used to make this delicious and nutritious meal.

Soup, old-fashioned, homemade with organic vegetables,   olive oil, and sometimes  lemon juice successfully promotes weight loss. Studies conducted by the scientists of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that people consuming a bowl of  soup before lunch or dinner lost more weight than dieters on any ‘famous’ diets that did not include soup. One time there was a craziness with so-called “Cabbage Soup” diet. But who can eat every day one the same soup with cabbage?

If you are serious about weight loss and keeping it off, you can find thousands of healthy recipes for healthy green soups. But exclude any cream soups or those made with beef or pork. Favor or make vegetable soups or sometimes chicken soup, the same that your Mama cooked with an onion in it that helps in fighting many diseases. This soup is  especially helpful when you get cold or flu.

Quick Tip: Make organic chicken broth and cook an onion in it. When the onion is tender, eat it at once. Add a pinch of iodized salt for better taste. This cooked onion and chicken soup works magic in treating a cough.

 Bread, a dark, rich, high-fiber, another Nature’s gift and superstar food. You can   say, “You’ve got to be kidding, right?” Wrong. The nutritional benefit of bread are endless. It is not bread, but cream cheese, butter or margarine you put on it is fattening. This combination makes you fat, increases your cholesterol and blocks your blood vessels.

Don’t believe that? Here are the facts for your perusal. There are four calories in a gram of carbohydrate, four in a gram of protein, but nine calories in a gram of fat. So, is it bread fattening? Not at all. Freshly made, sprouted or whole grain bread is a natural source of fiber and carbohydrates, but not a source of fat. If you are on any diet, include it in.

 Honestly, I don’t believe in any diets. All are artificially composed by “quick buck opportunists” that get rich on people’s little knowledge about how to eat right, and what foods are good sources of healthy nutrition. You starve yourself with these “yo-yo” diets, Hollywood diets, and loose weight. Did you notice how fast you gain your weight back after that, so what the point in doing it? Just take your time and learn at first the basics of proper nutrition. You’ll be rewarded tenfold, and have the body you want to have.

Scientists in Scandinavian countries found that people who eat less than two slices of bread daily weigh 11 pounds more than bread eaters. Studies at Michigan State University show that some breads can reduce the appetite. In my family white bread is not existing. We eat several slices of natural dark rye bread every day with our homemade soups or fresh salads. It gives us necessary amount of fiber to build and keep the  muscles in good shape.

If you want to keep your normal weight, include in your menu a dark, rich, high-fiber rye bread, whole wheat, 5-7 grains, or oatmeal organic bread. Exclude white bread. It is not as nutritional as others I just mentioned. Besides, very often it is made with bleached flour which is really harnful for our digestive system. The average slice of good bread contains only 60-70 calories. Some breads even contain only 40 calories per slice. You get a natural food, rich in protein and in complex carbohydrates, which is the best and healthiest fuel for your body to keep it strong and free of any diseases. 

Researchers compared white bread to dark, high-fiber bread and found that people who ate 12 slices a day of the dark bread lost five pounds in two months, and felt less hunger on a daily basis. People in other group who ate white bread were hungry all the time, indulged on more fattening foods, and did not loose any weight during the same time.

The List of Superstar Foods will continue in my next post.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

• sprouted gluten free, grain bread;
• quinoa, a seed used as grain;
• leafy greens–spinach and kale;
• Alaskan cod or wild salmon;
• extra virgin coconut oil or olive oil;
• walnuts and other nuts;
• goat milk,
• cheese,
• yogurt;
• fermented beverages–kefir and kombucha,
• vegetarian eggs.

  All these foods are great, but here is my List of Superstar Foods you can use to keep yourself healthy and help your body to melt away unhealthy pounds:

• Grapefruit is number one in my List and  must be a regular part of your diet because it helps to dissolve fat and cholesterol. This facts are supported by studies of the University of Florida. I love red grapefruit and try to eat every day a half. It keeps your heart healthy and your cholesterol normal. Do you know that an average size grapefruit has only 74 calories, but delivers 15 grams/ab.1/2 ounce of pectin, a special fiber that your body need to lower cholesterol and fat. Grapefruit also in high in vitamin C and potassium, and is absolutely free of sodium and fat.
• Peppers, hot spicy chili peppers, rich in vitamins A and C, calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium; abundant in fiber; free of fat, low in sodium. One cup of chili peppers has only 24 calories. Bell peppers are great, but hot, chili peppers are better, if you can “stand” them. Scientists of Oxford Polytechnic Institute have studied these amazing vegetables. They found that if you’ll add just three grams of chili peppers  to your dinner meat or chicken meal consisting of 700-800 calories, you don’t need to take any drug like lipitor to lower your cholesterol, because these chili peppers will work magic to warm up your body and speed up metabolism. You can also eat homemade salsa with your meals. It takes only four to eight peppers to use in one pound glass jar, which is not too much.
• Mustard, the hot, spicy that usually was used as a  specialty in Mexican, Oriental, and Indian cuisine. But now it is used widely everywhere. It is natural and safe. Even if you’ll order any sandwich in our supermarkets and will ask for spicy mustard, it’ll be always available there. I make all my vegetable sandwiches with this kind of spicy mustard. Vegetables is these sandwiches taste much better. British scientists found that a teaspoon of hot, spicy mustard speeds up the metabolism, the same as the drug ephedrine or caffeine do. “I was shocked to discover it can speed up the metabolism by as much as 20 to 25 percent for several hours,” said Dr. Henry of Oxford Polytechnic Institute in UK, “This can result in the body burning an extra 45 calories for every 700 calories consumed.” I was always astonished watching how my granfather and my father never missed any dinner without eating hot chili peppers or spicy homemade mustard, and never had any problems with weight or high cholesterol.
• Potatoes, organic, of course, are a great source of fiber and potassium. Are you surprised? Media created so many negative articles about these natural root vegetables. It was just follow up a wrong trend about “fattening” foods. Bread also got in this “black” list, and it’s unfair. Nutritionists  in California call the potato an excellent food. By eating potatoes, you can achieve fast weight loss, at 0.6 calories per gram or about 85 calories per potato. Scientists say you can eat 10 potatoes a day and still have room for a lot of other foods to round out your consumprion of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. I am always amazed how everybody in my family happy to see at the dinner table any meal with potatoes.

First of all, potatoes make very delicious meals. Secondly, as a great source of fiber and potassium, they lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease and stroke as well. Right preparation and healthy toppings are very important when you make any meal with potatoes. These solid vegetables have almost everything you need without stuffing them with unnecessary ”fattenings” like butter, milk and sour cream. 

You add these toppings to make potatoes taste better, don’t you? Don’t do that. These famous and popular three products are “guilty” in your gaining weight, but not potatoes, and I am not kidding. Instead use,

• cooked and shredded organic chicken that is healthier than roasted,
•  organic minced red onion or sweet peppers,
• chopped tomato, fresh dill or rosemary,  
• mashed avocado and  garlic,
• toasted pine nuts or walnuts,
• cut small classic Greek cheese “Manouri” or mozzarella cheese,
• extra virgin olive oil mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice,
• organic plain kefir with a pinch of mild Hungarian paprika.

And you have yummy lunch or dinner meal that is healthy and fits well into the budget of any family. My List contains six other superstar foods. Read my next post about it.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2010.

Need any healthy breakfast ideas? Of course you need, especially this Memorial Holiday weekend. You’ll be invited to the parties, and definitely will indulge into many fabulous foods prepared for the occasion and fun.

Now watch and listen Natalie’s five great ideas for your healthy breakfast and see what kind of ingredients are used in these easy-to-make nutritional meals.