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Hi everyone!

I have been working a lot and travelling a lot recently, until I hardly have any time to post anything interesting / informative until now.

Recently I took a trip to Chiang Mai with my colleagues for a short break after extreme long hours of work on projects. And one of the destinations our friendly and helpful tour guide from No.1 Chiang Mai Tours took us was - a honey production factory, the Thepprasit Honey. Which harvests honey from the highlands of Thailand.


There I have learned some nifty interesting quick ways to detect a pure honey, but seemed that a website that speaks a lot about honey said that it isn't a 100% accuracy to test that outside the lab, so I'll push aside talking about pure honey and take your attention to:

(before I do so, I've learned that to reduce sourness of honey in your drink, ONLY USE plastic spoons)

The Bee Pollen
bee pollen


If you have a real bee pollen with you and if you look closely enough, you can actually see tiny bee footprints on it, which makes it more interesting for me to find out more about this, besides listening to the explanation of the sales personnel.

According to benefits-of-honey.com, the bee pollen is actually packed full of nutrients, from rich protein, amino acids to B Complex. And the best part is that besides lowering cholesterol, increasing immune system, it helps to loose weight! That's pretty much "honey" to every girl's ear.

(hahaha... I think I really need that after dining at McDonalds throughout the World Cup season to watch HD screen football)

And according to the owner of bee-pollen-buzz.com owner, Angela, the benefits of consuming bee pollen daily does help strengthen individual's stamina, because of its highly packed nutrients.

(Please click on the link to read the details of the benefits of bee pollen from Angela's interview as I do not want to repost it here.)

However, good stuffs doesn't come cheap. If you think you might want to give it a try, you will need to check out whether its genuine. A suggested area less polluted bee pollen are manufactured from Canada, or New Zealand. Well, now, we know it can be found from the Northern Thailand too.

Bee pollen can be consumed through mixing onto mid-warm drinks (around 60 - 70 deg C) or made a smoothie, sprinkled on cereals, and even consumed directly. (Currently I just started consuming directly during lunch whenever I feel hungry)

Angela also suggested a "Super Smoothie" recipe that I might want to try it out.
Ingredients
2 scoops high Quality vanilla Protein Powder (preferably one WITHOUT aspartame or sucralose)
1/2 banana
1/2 Cup raspberries
1-2 TBSP Bee Pollen
1 TBSP liquid honey
Instructions
Blend until liquified, but don't over blend as some of the nutrients may be damaged or lost due to the heat of the blender.

So, enjoy reading the details, and believe me, I'll let you know how I feel after finishing the 500g bee pollen in months time.

Note:
According to the sales personnel, because of its natural bitter-sweet, it is save to be consumed by diabetic patients.
If anyone has allergic background, start consuming in tiny bits (like 1/3 of teaspoon) and gradually increase its amount. If you have allergy reaction stop consuming it immediately.
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No More Supersize Chocolate Bars!

May 29th 2010 04:03
First of all, did anyone here craving with chocolate? If you did, then the news is going to disappoint you here…

The Food Standards Agency has warned the chocolate manufacturers to cut down the size of chocolate bar and confectionery related products!

According to the standardized scale, the size of the chocolate bars should not be larger than 40 gram. Hence, most of the chocolate bars are against the rules, as they’re having a size much bigger than it!



The FSA have called the dairy and confectionary manufacturers to reduce the amount of saturated fat and added sugar in chocolate, as it’s one of the biggest reasons that contributing to obesity.

The FSA warned that they’re going to take an action to those manufacturers who didn’t obey the rules.

In addition, FSA also restricted the cans of fizzy drinks to cut off its regular 330 ml to 250 ml by 2015 as well!

It seems that FSA will have many works to follow up in the upcoming years.
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I loved to do many different activities, when I’m have free time. Travel is one of my favorite hobbies, as I can gain more knowledge and taking many beautiful photos, so that I can share it with my friends!

When I’m traveling, I always brought several things, such as an Iron, aluminium foil and a universal socket. Hehe, you must be wondering, “Why I’m bringing these stuffs besides me?” Well, let me revealed the secret behind the story…

Go figure, you’ve woke up from your bed in the motel, but you’re too lazy to get to the downstairs to have your breakfast? In this case, I can use the iron, aluminium foil and a universal socket to make a simple breakfast.



Here are the steps for preparing the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich:

1. First of all, you must preheat the iron until it reached 100 degree celsius. Beside that, don't forget to fold the iron with the aluminium foil!

2. Secondly, take a slice of bread and ironing it for about 4 minutes.

3. Then, put the cheese above the bread.

4. After that, get a slice of bacon and iron it under the hot iron for 3 minutes.

5. Lastly, you have to iron the egg on the iron for about 3 minutes. In order to avoid the egg's fluid from spitting out, you should use a round mould to hold the egg while it's being ironed on the hot iron!

Ta-Da, your Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich is finished in 10 minutes.
Enjoy your meal!

PS: Picture thanks to weblogs.cltv.
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Recently, I watched a television series named, “Mental”. It’s talking about the life of a radical unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Gallagher with his colleagues offer strange treatments for the mental illness patients!

Each of the episodes is describing about a new mental illness, such as phobias, bipolar disorder, autism and much more. The more ironic thing is up to 70 percent of the mental illnesses are causing by the environment, rather than the congenital disease!

The National Confidential Inquiry in UK has pointed out that the suicide rates amongst the people who having mental illnesses have been hugely increased between 1997 and 2005!



They discovered that those who are diagnosed with schizophrenia and delusions have a higher rate of killing themselves! In addition, they’ve been recorded a rise of the suicide cases for those women who having postnatal depression!

Hence, you should keep your eyes on your loved ones from time to time, as it helps us to prevent the unfortunately events from happening on your family members or friends!

PS: Picture thanks to toonpool.
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Have you always encountered this type of situation, where you’re forgetting the important appointments or missing your keys at nowhere? If you did, then it’s time to sit down and have a nice talk here…

Did you know that you’re currently overstressed? In this case, your brain needs a good rest, maybe something that can help to boost up your memory.

I have a few good tips here, which can be the references for you here…

Keep Your Mind Active
You should workout at least 10 minutes per day. It depends on you, whether you want to do it indoor or outdoor!



Sharpen Up Your Mind
You should exercise your mind regularly, by reading a poem, motivational articles or new prayer. After all, you’ll gain more knowledge, when you’re spending your free time in reading useful materials!

Feed Your Brain with Nutrition Foods
Most of the vegetables, such as almond, sweet potatoes, oranges, carrots, tapioca and okra are good for boosting up your mind.



Detoxify Your Mind and Body
Did you know that the liver is having a connection with the mind? The cleaner our liver, then the healthier our mind is! Hence, it’s very important to have a good functional liver. In this case, you can try out this remedy:

Liver cleansing remedy
• One tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• Two tablespoon of virgin olive oil

Preparation:
Mix the apple cider vinegar and olive oil thoroughly and drink it daily. You must intake this remedy for the whole week! In the end, you might find there are hundreds of gall bladder’s stones coming out from your body with feces

Trust me, by practicing the above methods, your mind will be rejuvenated in a very short period!

Until then, remember to live up your life!
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What’s Your Breakfast Grades?

October 4th 2009 04:20
Breakfast (Honestly, did anyone know why it’s pronounced “Breakfirst”, as it supposed to be “Breakfast”? This question has been bothering for a very long time…!) is to be known as the most important meal of the day, and everyone should take it before they’re heading to work/school!

However, many people seems to be neglected the breakfast, where they’re mostly skipped it for many reasons, such as wake up late, don’t have time, hate to eat breakfast and blah, blah, blah…

Honestly, they didn’t know the fact that those people who don’t love to have breakfast might have higher risk of getting gastrointestinal related cancers than those who practicing it everyday!

Oh, you’re deciding to eat breakfast, after reading the article? Well done, my friend. However, before you’re starting to do it, there are several things that you should know about it!

Did you know that breakfast have its label/grade like brands too? Let me show you, what is the different of grade “A” breakfast from the grade “B”, “C” and “D”!

Grade A breakfast: It must contain oatmeal, wholegrain breads, skim milk, pine nuts and orange juice.

Grade B breakfast: It mostly contain breakfast bar, breakfast shake or pancake with maple syrup!

Grade C breakfast: Sugary cereal, pastry or fast food sandwich.

Grade D breakfast: These are mostly junk or unhealthy foods, such as Pizza, McDonald, Fried Chicken, casserole and other (You named it!)

So, based on the above breakfast, what’s your breakfast mostly fallen into? Is it the healthy style, “Grade A” or the self-destruct style, “Grade D”?

You make your own decision…
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Honestly, it’s quite hilarious. Did you know, someone would prefer to skip their lunch to save up more money in their wallet? To be honest, it happened on my colleague, Elaine where she refused to eat during lunch time, as she decided to keep the money for other purpose (Ah, ah, ah…, don’t try to do it, as you’re the one who suffered in the very end!)

Well, if you’re thinking that it’s pretty costly to eat outside, why don’t you wake up an hour early everyday and prepare your own lunch?

Below here is my own recipe of simple pasta and it’s suitable for all people, no matter you’re omnivore, carnivore or herbivore (Sorry, it sounds like we’re animals here! lol)

Tasty Veggie Pasta

• 200 gram of pasta (Any favor is OK)
• 3 tablespoon of virgin olive oil
• 1 big garlic cloves (Minced)
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• ¼ cup Brazilian nuts

Cooking Process:

1. First of all, mix all the virgin olive oil, garlic, basil and Brazilian nuts. Remember to put in some salt and pepper into it. Blend it with a blender machine until it becoming a thick sauce.
2. Cook your pasta accordingly.
3. Separate the thick sauce and pasta in a lunch box.
4. Only mix them together, when you’re about to eat it!

Try it out and let me know, how it tastes, OK?
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There are over hundred or thousand of weight loss formulas in the market. The more ironic thing is, over 59.2 percent of people from all around the world have tried at least one weight loss program/product in their life!

Honestly, you’re free to try anything you want, as it’s your own rights to do so! The only problem is, not all the weight loss programs are effective for us, and even some of them will harm our health or leaving side effects to our body!

Frankly, I’ve seen many people suffering like hell, especially when they’re failed to lose away their weight. The even worst thing is, some of them got diagnosed with bipolar disorder or depression, due to their inability to slim down!

According to the nutritionists, up to 60 percent of the overweight people are not from the genetics, but it’s highly related with their daily diets! This means, one of the main reasons why the obesity has becoming a serious problem among human race is due to the unhealthy eating habit.

If you’re one of them who suffering with the obesity, but you resist to try the weight loss pills, maybe the healthy cabbage soup diet is able to help you overcome the problem.

For your information, the cabbage soup diet is a radical weight loss diet, which is well-designed for those people who want to try out the low-calorie cabbage soup and keep diet in the same time.



The cabbage soup diet plan is a low-fat, high-fiber foods plan, which is requiring the users to follow up a serial of healthy diet for the whole week (Seven days).

Many people using this method to cleanse their digestive system and most of them claimed to lose up to 10 lbs in only seven days.

The cabbage soup diet is much effective and less dangerous too, if it compares with other weight loss programs that have many harmful side effects.

Remember, “A bowl of cabbage soup a day, keeps the thyroid cancer away!”

PS: Figure thanks to costarestaurants.
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Kasha Chili

July 18th 2009 01:21
Are you in need of protein, but you want to minus meat and fat?

Well, take a look at this recipe, it might serve you well because this recipe is a healthy way to get low-fat protein. You can also garnish with shredded vegan cheese or vegan sour cream (these can be found at most health food stores) and serve as a dip with tortilla chips.

It can be made as salad too


Kasha Chili Makes 6 servings
Recipe extracted from Cancer Project weekly recipe mail
Image extracted from fatfreevegan.com


Ingredients

1 28-ounce can stewed tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
1 14.5-ounce can pinto beans
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon crushed or minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon celery salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
3/4 cup whole dry kasha

Directions
In a large skillet, combine all ingredients except kasha. Bring to a light boil for 10 minutes. Add kasha, cover, and reduce to simmer. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until kasha is tender. Serve hot.

Options: Substitute 1/2 cup dry lentils for pinto beans and increase light boil time to 20 minutes.

Nutrition Information
Per serving (1/6 of recipe):

149 Calories
1.2 g Fat
0.2 g Saturated Fat
7.4% Calories from Fat
0 mg Cholesterol

7.2 g Protein
30.4 g Carbohydrate
5 g Sugar
7.7 g Fiber

899 mg Sodium
82 mg Calcium
3.3 mg Iron
14.6 mg Vitamin C
693 mcg Beta-Carotene
2 mg Vitamin E

Recipe originally comes from The National Buckwheat Institute

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Well, we’ve always been advised to add certain types of foods into cooking, as it might help to prevent assorted diseases.

Today, I would like to talk about the Walnuts. For those of you that love the walnuts taste, then here’s the another solid reasons, why you must insert walnuts into the diet!

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have been discovered that by adding a moderate amount of walnut into a cooking might help to improve the elders’ motor and behavioral skills.

The research group pointed out that walnuts are rich in polyphenols and other unsaturated fatty acids. These essential minerals are important to boost up the neural tissue and hence improving the performance on tasks of the aging people, especially when they require the motor and behavioral skills to do some simple tasks in their daily life.

If you do love about your parents or the elders, then you must add at least 20 grams of walnuts into the main meal everyday!

By the way, I got a recipe here and it’s called, “The Sweet Candied Walnut”. You can try it if you want to…

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup of coarse sugar,
• ½ cup of brown sugar,
• ½ cup of brown sugar,
• ¼ cup of sour cream,
• 2 cups of walnuts.

Cooking Process:

First thing first, mix all the sugar, brown sugar and sour cream into a pot. Cook it until the whole mixture becoming sticky.

Secondly, add the walnuts into the pot and stir it until all the walnuts has been coated with the mixture.

Lastly, pour the candied walnuts into a plate and put it into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Voila, you’re now have the icy cold and sweet candied walnuts!
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Welcome back and thanks for sticking with me from the part 1 until this new part. Well, this is the last part of the fermented soy food series and I hope you’ll enjoy it as you did in the first three parts! Hooray, I was a little bit overwhelmed about it (Am I a freak or what?!) lol

Ok, back to the topic. Does anyone here ever hear about this word, “Tempeh” or “Tempe” before? By the way, I’m not talking about the Tempe City at Florida, but rather a traditional food.

Well, for your information, Tempeh is a very famous Javanese food, where is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process. The Tempeh makers will bind soybeans into a cake form and let it fermented for over a period. Tempeh is a staple source of protein and is very common in the Southeast Asia region!



Beside that, tempeh has been claimed to have a higher contain of protein, fiber and vitamins compared to tofu. Tempeh also has a very strong and complex flavor. Well, it’s hard to describe it, is some kind the mixture of nutty and meaty-like taste. That’s why, tempeh also being referred as “Javanese meat” in other form!

Along with tofu, natto and miso, tempeh also has been listed into the “Top Four Healthy Fermented Soy Foods”.

Amongst the variety of tempeh, I loved the Tempe goreng (Deep-fried tempeh) in Indonesian Language the most. By the way, here’s the recipe of the Tempe goreng, try it if you dare!

Ingredients:

• 2 garlic clove (Make sure to crush it first)
• 2 teaspoon salt
• ½ pound fermented tempeh (You have to slice each of it into 2" X 1/2" in size!)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• Two hot red chilies (It has to be seeded and sliced)
• ½ teaspoon shrimp paste

Cooking Process :

1. First of all, try to mix together the garlic and salt. Then, rub this mixture all over the tempeh. Put it aside and wait for at least 15 minutes.
2. Then, heat the oil in a skillet, and fry the tempeh over medium heat for about 3 – 5 minutes.
3. Blend the chilies and shrimp paste into a paste form. Serve the fried tempeh with the tantalizing paste!
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Some people might enjoy eating fruits and vegetables, while the rest of them might want to puke out, once they’re putting the veggies into their mouth!

Well, if you’re happened to be one of them that have a crush on the fruits and vegetables, especially the tomatoes, then you must keep on reading the article…

For your information, the tomato is an herbaceous and it belongs to nightshade family. Some of its close cousins are potatoes (No wonder it has the words, “-tatoes” as well), eggplants and capsicum (chili pepper).

Do you know that tomato plants are originated from South America. Believe it or not, tomato has more than 7,500 of different varieties. According to the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) latest statistic, there are more than 140 million tons of tomatoes have been produced and consumed in year 2008!

Honestly, it’s always good to grow our own tomatoes plants, as we don’t have to worry about the possibility of the pesticides will cause some harmful side-effect to our health! However, if you unable to grow it yourself, then it’s wise to choose the finest and pesticides free tomatoes from the well-recognized tomatoes growers. After all, the organic tomatoes cost are very reasonable and we can afford to buy it!



Below here is some of the most common varieties of tomatoes, have a closer look on it:

• Beefsteak tomatoes (It’s the largest version of the tomato)
• Large tomatoes (The normal size of the tomato)
• Medium sized tomatoes
• Grape sized tomatoes
• Cocktail tomatoes (It’s the smallest version of the normal tomato)

By the way, I included a tomato jam recipe and hope you’ll love it!

The Tomato Jam Recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 pound of good ripe tomatoes (You have to core and chop it precisely!)
2. ¾ cup sugar (You’d better use the brown sugar for healthy lifestyle)
3. 1 tablespoon of limejuice
4. ½ tablespoon of fresh minced ginger
5. ½ teaspoon cumin
6. 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
7. 1/8 teaspoon cloves
8. ½ teaspoon salt

The making process:

First of all, you have to combine the ingredients into a heavy medium saucepan. Boil it over with a medium heat and stir it continuously.

Then, you should reduce the heat; stir the mixture until it has becoming a thick jam.

Lastly, place it into the refrigerator and spread it on wholemeal breads, crackers or any foods you want!

Don’t forget to enjoy the tasty tomato jam with your loved ones, friends and colleagues.

Note: Beautiful tomatoes figure thanks to masdudiable.
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Have you ever noticed that you’re putting your life in the risk everyday? Well, if you think I’m joking with you here, then just take a minute and answer the following questions!

1. Do you a smoker?
A. Nope, I hate the taste of cigarettes!
B. Kind of, but I only smoke occasionally…
C. Of course, and I enjoyed smoking very much!

2. Do you an alcoholic?
A. Nah, I have no interest on alcohol!
B. Sort of, I only drink when my friends/colleagues force me…
C. Yeah, and it’s time for bottom up!

3. Do you a heavy red meat eater?
A. Excuse me, I’m a vegan!
B. It depends on the time and place…
C. Shut up and give me a quadruple cheeseburger!

4. Do you exercise regularly?
A. Yep, I loved to work out all day long!
B. Well, I will do it, if only I have the mood…
C. Are you kidding? I’d better spend my times watching Television programmes!

Ok, guys. If you answered all ‘A’ for the above questions, then I have to give you a credit here, as you’re totally have the lowest risk to getting the diabetes. For those that answered mostly ‘C’ here, oh my god, I have to cross my fingers here and praying for you a little bit more…

According to the latest survey, most of the diabetics are used to be the:

• Heavy smoker s (Yeah, smoking can really cause diabetes!)
• Heavy alcoholics
• Cannibal red meat eaters (Surveys have shown that red meat are not the good option for diabetics or normal healthy people!)
• Lack with daily routine exercises



As a diabetic for over 5 years, I discovered that it’s very important to have healthy balanced diabetic diets, as if you’re neglecting this step, you might be the one who suffer from the consequences of getting seriously ill here (Believe me, as I used to be a very stubborn person and I learned from the lesson).

In the very beginning, people always told me that I cannot intake too much of foods, including those coarse grains, sugars, unsaturated fats and blah, blah, blah… I did listen to their advice, but I found I started to become weaker and weaker day after day! I noticed that it’s wasn’t a great sign at all, as I might be got myself killed if I continue what’d people told me.

As a result, I searched all over the internet with hope to find something relate with diabetic diets. Thanks to god, I found a very effective daily diet for the diabetics named “1,800 Calorie Diabetic Diet”. The special part about this method is it teaches you the proper ways to intake less than 1800 calorie per day. The 1,800 calorie diabetic diet is the optimal diet to help us control our blood sugar and maintain our health.

By the way, below here is one of my sample of 1,800 calorie menus, you can try it if you want!

a. My breakfast: Two slices of wholemeal breads with low fat margarine or 1 cups of bran cereal.
b. My lunch: One ounce of poultry or fish, two servings of vegetables and one serving of fruit.
c. My tea-time: A few piece of low fat crackers and a glass of green tea!
d. My dinner: One ounces of meat or protein, one cup of brown rice, three servings of vegetables, one serving of fruit.

People always said, “Prevention is better than cure!” Thus, if you don’t want your life being spoiled by diabetes, then you should change your daily unhealthy lifestyle as soon as possible…

Note: Figure thanks to topnews.
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The Nature Healer: Aloe Vera

March 2nd 2009 07:01
Aloe Vera, where it's also known as "Medicinal Aloe" is a succulent plant originated from Northern Africa. Its widely being used as the cooling and helping to heal sunburns.

Believe it or not, but the researchers discovered that It can protect the skin, moisturize, soothe stomachache and even prolong your life as well (Yeah, it sounds like a miracle long life medicine, isn't it?)

According to the archeologists, the Aloe was being used in ancient Egypt, especially the royal family for cosmetic beauty and medicinal purposes.

For your information, Aloe Vera is a cellular re-generator and has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects. That's why it will grow up very quickly, even you're cutting its leaves over and over again!



Beside that, it contains magnesium lactate, an itch inhibitor, in the minerals contained in the plant. Hence, Aloe Vera is effective to soothe these following problems, such as:

Insect bites,
Sunburns,
Rashes, and
Acne!

Talking about the Acne, I have a recipe for the acne and it's named "Effective Aloe Acne Mask Recipe". Here's the list of the recipe:

2 table spoon of Seaweed (Preferably in powder)
1 table spoon of Aloe Vera Gel (Any type will do)
1 table spoon of Honey (Preferably Manuka raw honey)

Just mix all the ingredients together by keep it in a container for over 10 minutes. Next, you can apply the Aloe Acne mask mixture on your face. Leave it for at least 30 minutes and rinse it with clean water. Remember to apply it everyday on your face, as "An effective aloe acne mask a day, keeps the doctor away"!

PS: Picture thanks to skrewtips.
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