DSUEFIA GALLERY

1. Pakai bengkung + gel sireh semula , kalau boleh tiap-tiap hari siang + malam tak kira lah dalam ofis ber – aircond pun. Sebab bila pakai bengkung perut cepat kenyang setiap kali makan dan ini secara tidak langsung akan mengurangkn kuantiti makanan yang di ambil.

2. Lebihkan minum air suam. Kalau nak minum air manis cuba ambil jus kurma atau jus pegaga., atau milo panas, horlick atau lai chi kang panas / longan panas. Jus kurma, pegaga dan longan tu boleh membantu untuk tambah susu ibu.

3.  Cuba ambil makanan alternatif = buah kurma dan kismis sebagai kudapan.Selain membantu tambah susu ibu, kurma juga boleh memberikan tenaga.

4. Selain dari tips diatas akak juga selalu sarankan pada pelanggan supaya pakai bengkung secepat yang boleh bila terasa perut dah mula nak naik. Pakai secara berterusan sampai perut rasa dah ok semula.

5. Juga, pakai bengkung 24 jam siang dan malam bila period.

6. Dan… tak lama lagi nak masuk bulan puasa. Pakai bengkung sepanjang waktu bulan Ramadhan sampai habis Syawal. Sebabnya ramadhan memang kita kurang makan tapi banyak makan waktu malam. Lepas tu sambung pula makan sakan sepanjang Syawal sebab banyak open house. Bila pakai bngkung tak lah larat sangat nak makan banyak-banyak.

7. Boleh juga cuba makan jamu, tapi pastikan dulu yang ianya selamat untuk diambil oleh ibu-ibu yang menyusukan anak.

1. Blueberries
Kajian menunjukkan blueberries dapat membantu membakar lemak pada perut. Walaupun blueberry itu disejukkan, ia dapat mengekalkan kebanyakkan ‘nutritional benefits’.

2. Salad
Sayuran hijau bukan sahaja mengandungi vitamin dan minerels, malah rendah kalori dan tinggi kandungan fiber. Makan salad pada makan tengahari dan ia dapat membantu anda memberi tenaga sehingga petang. Atau makan sedikit salad sebelum makan ‘main course’, anda akan dapati anda makan sedikit daripada biasa.

3. AlmondsMUFAs (monounsaturated fats) adalah bahan peting untuk membakar lemak perut. Almond adalah sumber terbaik untuk mendapatkan monounsaturated fats dan dapat membantu membentukkan perut kerana ia juga mempunyai sumber protein dan fiber sayur-sayuran.

4. Salmon
Mengurangkan penggunaan minyak dan pelbagai lagi sumber kalori tinggi adalah satu kepentingan. Pilih makanan berprotein tinggi seperti ikan dan tofu kerana dapat membantu membakar kalori apabila dihadamkan. Semasa memilih ikan, cuba untuk memilih tuna atau salmon kerana kedua-duanya tinggi kandungan omega-3s, dimana dapat membantu pembakar dalam badan dan mengawal kandungan hormon.

5. Oatmeal
Anda mesti terfikir untuk mengurangkan pemakanan anda, tetapi anda tidak semestinya untuk tidak makan atau ‘skip meal’. Makan makanan yang sihat pada waktu sarapan merupakan permulaan yang baik dan juga untuk metabolisma, membantu untuk mengawal gula dalam darah dan memberi anda tenaga sehingga makan tengahari. Oatmeal kaya dengan fiber adalah pilihan terbaik untuk bersarapan, jangan pilih oatmeal berperisa kerana ia kaya dengan gula.

What is Garlic?
One of the the spices that has been used for many years is garlic. Garlic belongs to the same family with onion and leek. In addition to culinary purposes, garlic has been used for medicinal purposes.

[note]Many love garlic mainly because of the flavour and aroma it adds to the food. But garlic offers much more than just good flavour.[/note]

Garlic has great healthy benefits that are not known by many people. In this article, I will discuss some of the health benefits that can be derived from consumption of garlic. I wish you a garlic reading.

Health Benefits of Garlic
Potential Antibiotic
Garlic is well known to have antibiotic properties. This has been known since 19th Century. In those years, it was observed that French priests who consumed garlic never caught infectious diseases which were prevalent to English priests. Although garlic can sometimes inhibit specific bacteria it’s activity is broad spectrum. This means that garlic can inhibit bacteria belonging to different classes. I am not going into naming specific bacteria in this article. But know very well that garlic is almost a super natural antibiotic.

Recent studies (as recent as 2003) have confirmed that garlic is a potential antibiotic even to drug resistant bacteria.This is the main advantage of garlic over antibiotics in that, bacteria do not become resistant to it (garlic).

It is proved that one segment (clove) of garlic a day will improve your health and 2-3 segments (cloves) will help prevent a cold.

[note]Garlic works mainly due to its potential to reduce free radicals in the blood stream.[/note]

Cardiovascular Benefits
Garlic is a major constituent in foods of people from Mediterranean and far East. The people from these areas are known to have low incidences of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart attack. This is highly attributed to their eating habits, including high consumption of garlic.

There are also numerous scientific studies showing that, consumption of garlic helps in reduction of cholesterol levels and production of nitric oxide which is beneficial to the body. Due to these benefits, garlic is a food that helps prevent heart attack, stroke and diabetic heart diseases.

-Reducing blood pressure- Research has shown that consuming garlic can reduce the blood pressure by 1-5%. This small reduction in blood pressure can help reduce chances of stroke and heart diseases by 30-40% and 20-25% respectively.
 

-Reduce LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)- The allicin compound in garlic helps to reduce this bad cholesterol. As a natural remedy, taking garlic regularly is a good remedy to cholesterol problems.

[important]Health tip: Consuming a half to one segment (clove) of garlic daily may lower cholesterol by up to 9%.[/important]

Weight control: Consumption of garlic helps in weight control due to its active compound allicin.

Antioxidant properties: The magic working compound, allicin, that is found in garlic, helps body against nicotine as well as slows the ageing of the liver.

Acne problems: Garlic in combination with other treatments can be used to treat acne. Garlic works in treating acne due to its antioxidant and blood cleansing properties.

Nutrients present in Garlic
Garlic is a very good source of many vitamins and minerals which are essential in our bodies. I have listed the major ones below.
Vitamin C- This is a major antioxidant in the body.
Vitamin B6- This helps the body against heart diseases.
Manganese- Acts as a co-factor in many antioxidant defense enzymes. Deficiency of manganese can lead to low levels of good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol).
Selenium-This mineral helps prevent heart disease and colon cancer.

Ways to Prepare Garlic to achieve maximum Benefits
In order to enjoy maximum flavour, aroma and health benefits, it is always advisable to use or buy fresh garlic. Other forms like powder, paste maybe convenient, but there is no assurance of maximum benefits.
1. First step is to separate individual cloves.
2. Remove the skin from the cloves
3. Crushing or chopping garlic helps production of allicin. This is the compound which is responsible for the most benefits in garlic.
4. Allow few minutes after chopping/crushing for complete production of the allicin (the compound responsible for most benefits) before consumption or cooking.
5. For maximum health benefits, crush and cook slightly less than 10 minutes.
6. Always add garlic in the last 10 minutes of cooking to enjoy maximum benefits.

Effects of cooking on Health benefits of Garlic
Slight cooking has no effect of health benefits of garlic. However cooking for long (over 10 mins) or microwaving causes loss of the key health benefits from garlic.
[warning]Never microwave garlic as it kills the active ingredients.[/warning]

Disadvantages of Garlic
Many do not like garlic for the strong garlic breath it leaves in our mouth. This can be overcome by consuming odorless garlic supplement

Garlic consumption can sometime irritate the digestive system. It should therefore be consumed as part of a balanced diet.

[help]Your comments, suggestions, ideas and questions are highly welcome. Leave them below in comment section.[/help]

References:
1.Tapsell LC, Hemphill I, Cobiac L, Patch CS, Sullivan DR, Fenech M, Roodenrys S, Keogh JB, Clifton PM, Williams PG, Fazio VA, Inge KE (2006). Health benefits of herbs and spices: the past, the present, the future. Medical Journal Australia 21;185.
2.Cavagnaro PF, Camargo A, Galmarini C.R, Simon PW (2007). Effect of cooking on garlic (Allium sativum L.) antiplatelet activity and thiosulfinates content. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry. 21;55(4):1280-8.
3.Lee Y.L, Cesario T, Wang Y, Shanbrom E, Thrupp L (2003). Antibacterial activity of vegetables and juices. Nutrition. 9(11-12):994-6.

Following my previous article on pumpkin as a super food, this article discusses the medicinal properties, health benefits and industrial uses of pumpkin.

Traditionally, pumpkin was used for medicinal purposes in Mexico, China, America and Africa. The medicinal properties of pumpkins are normally obtained from either the extract from the stem, leaves, fruit or seeds.

Oxidative stress can lead to production of unwanted radicals leading to health complications such as heart diseases, Alzheimer’s diseases, as well as cancers.

Oxidative stresses arise due to high levels of pro-oxidants in the body compared to antioxidants. The body therefore requires a way of generating additional antioxidants to counter the pro-oxidants. Various foods including pumpkin offer the much needed antioxidants to ameliorate the effects of excess pro-oxidants.

In 2009 scientists from Greece showed that pumpkin seeds are very rich in antioxidants and has a high content of vitamin E (tocopherol) which is also a very good antioxidant.

Until very recently pumpkin was not considered in the same league with other powerful anti-cancer foods such as tomatoes.

The carotenoid pigments found in pumpkin seeds oil have been linked to the prevention of prostate cancer.

A very big group of cancer patients from Nagoya, Japan, totalling 8,000, suffering from gastric, breast, lung and colorectal cancer together with 50,000 non-cancer outpatients were compared in terms of what they eat and the link/absence of cancer for 10 years, between 1988 and 1998.

Those that consumed diets high in pumpkin seeds showed lower risk of gastric, breast, lung and colorectal cancers.

The big headed fruit is an unsung hero when it comes to tackling diabetes, one of the modern man’s ailments.

Traditionally, pumpkin was used for treating type 2 diabetes in Mexico where the traditional healers administered crude extract of the pumpkin fruit to the patients.

In 2001, Acosta-Patino and his team from IMSS, Claudia University in Mexico, administered pumpkin extract orally to type 2 diabetes patients with moderate hyperglaecemia (elevated blood sugar). The patients showed positive results of reduced blood sugar.

Various studies with chemically-induced diabetes in rats have also confirmed that pumpkin extracts have blood-sugar lowering effect.

The chemicals that are thought to play the role of lowering blood sugar are phenolic phytochemicals and protein bound polysaccharides.

Protein-bound polysaccharide from pumpkin fruits were specifically evaluated for blood sugar lowering activity and effects on serum insulin levels in artificially -diabetic induced rats. It was found out that protein bound polysaccharide have three very important effects on the temporarily sick rats. These are: to increase the levels of serum insulin, reduce the blood glucose levels and improve tolerance of glucose.

Use of pumpkin seed for treatment of tapeworms and other intestinal parasite date back to many years.

Traditional use of seeds for the treatment of intestinal infections led the United States Pharmacopoeia to list pumpkin seeds as an official medicine for parasite elimination from 1863 to 1936.

More recently, a research conducted in China and Russia showed that pumpkin seeds help treat tapeworm infestations.

In China pumpkin seeds were used to be treat people with acute schistosomiasis, a severe parasitic disease that is transmitted through snails.

Presently, there are very good interventions against bacterial infections in form of antibiotics. However, the misuse of antibiotics is causing some bacteria to become resistant warranting development of new drugs or turning to natural remedies.

Proteins and oil extracted from pumpkin seeds are good candidates for such drugs since they inhibit growth of wide range of bacteria, fungi and yeast.

Two trials in Thailand have reportedly found that eating pumpkin seeds as a snack can help prevent the most common type of kidney stones.

Pumpkin seeds appear to both reduce levels of substances that promote stone formation in the urine and increase levels of substances that inhibit stone formation.

Approximately 5–10 grams per day of pumpkin seeds may be needed for kidney stone prevention. However, the active constituents of pumpkin seeds responsible for this action have not yet been identified.

Due to high levels of tryptophan content in pumpkin seeds, the seeds have been recommended to treat depression.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that raises levels of serotonin ‘happiness-inducing   hormone’ in the brain.

In 1995, Fahim, from University of Cairo, Egypt showed that oil extracted from pumpkin seeds has anti-inflammatory properties similar to indometacin, a well known anti-inflammatory drug.

Fahim and his colleagues effectively treated rats experiencing artificially-induced arthritis using pumpkin seeds oil, confirming that the pumpkin seed oil has strong anti-inflammatory properties.

The fact that modern and processed foods are increasingly begging many questions as far as their effects on health are concerned, traditional foods such as pumpkin are receiving and will continue to attract attention as natural and better alternatives.

High nutrients and medicinal properties in pumpkin leaves, fruit and seeds make it an attractive health food proposition.

Generally pumpkin is under-utilized and under valued, although it can be converted to commercially valuable products such as purees, jams and marmalades.

In 1972, Stephanie Lapinig was among the first to seriously explore the commercialisation of pumpkins by obtaining a patent in US for converting pumpkin mesocarp into sour and sweet pickle.

The patent involves chilling pumpkin in high salt concentration for over 5 hours to obtain crispiness. This is followed by addition of vinegar and sugar.

Others have followed the steps of Stephanie including Egbekun from Nigeria school of Technology who successfully developed a pumpkin marmalade with no difference in sensory attributes such as taste, spreadability and overall acceptability when compared to orange marmalade.

Pumpkin ketchup has been rated closely to tomato ketchup by scoring 2 compared to tomato ketchup that scored 3.2, suggesting that its perceived quality is slightly lower but very close to that of tomato ketchup.

Several food companies in Britain, America and China make canned pumpkin puree which is a popular food for weaning.

Bread when stored, loses its freshness by staling, addition of pumpkin pulp to bread flour slows staling and generally improves the quality of bread.

Due to high protein content in pumpkin seeds, adding the seed’s flour to wheat flour makes composite flour high in protein for making bread and cookies.

Although very little is known about Pumpkin seed oil, it is a major export of Slovenia as well as Austria and it is also produced in Germany, Hungary and Croatia.