Herb Folklore
By Tina Columbus

Throughout the centuries, herbs have provided many practical uses. Their aromatic leaves have been used for cooking, decorating, and medicinal purposes. Many myths and legends have also become associated with herbs. With their healing properties as well as being tasty, fragrant, and attractive, people throughout the ages believed that the plants possessed magical qualities and attributed some interesting myths to them:

Bay Leaf: According to myth, the beautiful Daphne was changed into a bay as she escaped the clutches of Apollo. Thus, Apollo made a crown out of bay leaves and branches and wore it in her honor; In the 17th century it was believed that bay leaves repelled witchcraft. Pots of bay were placed in front of doorways in order to ward thwart evil spells and curses; It was also believed that bay would prevent one's house from being struck by lightning.

Chamomile: The Anglo-Saxons believed chamomile was one of the sacred herbs given to the earth by the god Woden; In Victorian times, chamomile symbolized patience in adversity; Chamomile is believed by some to possess the power to attract money, gamblers soak their hands in a chamomile infusion in order to increase their chances of winning.

Cinnamon: The Romans believed cinnamon to be sacred, and the emperor Nero burned bunches of it as a sacrifice at his wife's funeral; In the Middle Ages, cinnamon represented wealth and power. At large banquets, hosts served cinnamon in order to impress the guests.

Cloves: When the fragrant clove forests were discovered in Indonesia, it was said that they must always be planted around water in order to flourish; For over 4,000 years, people chewed whole cloves in order to freshen their breath and it was said that in ancient China if anyone wanted to speak to the emperor, they were required to have a clove in their mouth.

Dill: Dill represented wealth to the ancient Greeks; During the Middle Ages, dill was believed to possess magical powers and could destroy evil spells. A drink made from dill leaves was the remedy for anyone who believed that a witch had cast a spell on them. People also wore charms made from dill leaves to protect themselves from evil spells.

Fennel: During the Middle Ages, fennel was hung above doorways and on rafters in order to ward off the devil. Fennel seeds were also placed inside keyholes in order to prevent ghosts from entering the house; In 470 b.c. the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon. They fought on a field of fennel and this led to the belief that fennel inspired courage and strength. Greek and Roman soldiers chewed fennel seeds before entering battle.

Lavender: Legend says that the pleasant smell of lavender comes from the baby Jesus. After washing his swaddling clothes, Mary hung them to dry on a lavender bush. Thus, the plant was given the smell of heaven; In the Middle Ages it was believed that couples who place lavender flowers between their bedsheets would never fight.

Mint: According to myth, Hades had developed a lust for a nymph named Minthe. Hade's wife Persephone found out and angrily transformed Minthe into a plant to be trampled on. Hades could not undo the spell, but he was able to ease it by giving Minthe a wonderfully sweet fragrance which would be released whenever her leaves were trampled on.

Oregano (Marjoram): The ancient Greeks believed that Aphrodite created oregano; They believed that if it grew around a grave, the deceased would have eternal happiness; In Germany, oregano was hung over doorways to protect against evil spells; In the Middle Ages, oregano symbolized happiness and love.

Rose: According to myth, the first roses did not have thorns. While Venus' son Cupid was smelling a rose, a bee came out and stung him on the lip. Venus then strung his bow with bees. She removed their stingers and placed them on the stems of the roses; Myth also says that all roses were originally white until Venus tore her foot on a briar and all the roses were dyed red with her blood; In Christian lore the red color of roses comes from the blood of Christ.

Rosemary: From the times of ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, it was believed that rosemary strengthened the brain and memory. When they needed to take exams, students braided rosemary into their hair in order to help their memory; The ancient Greeks burned rosemary in order to repel evil spirits and illness; In some parts of Europe, it was believed that if an unmarried woman placed rosemary under her pillow, her future husband would be revealed to her in her dream.

Sage: The Romans believed that sage was a sacred herb that gave immortality. Up until the 18th century, it was believed that sage increased fertility. It was also believed that sage strengthened the mind.

Thyme: During the Middle Ages it was believed that the scent of thyme inspired bravery. Knights wore scarves with thyme leaves sewn on them during tournaments; In English lore, if a person collected thyme flowers from hillsides where fairies lived, and rubbed the flowers on their eyelids, they would be able to see the fairies.

Fun, Healthy, Delicious Food - Can You Really Have it All

Fun, Healthy, Delicious Food – Can You Really Have it All?

by: Sahar Aker


Is there really such a thing as food that is fun, healthy, and delicious? So many people think grub that’s good for you automatically takes all the fun out of eating. After all, healthy food can’t possibly taste good, can it? Of course it can!

I have been busy gathering some ideas for fun, healthy, delicious foods to share with you. If you have kids, these are recipes I think they’ll like too. And here’s another bonus – they are all easy to make:

• Have you seen those “Flatout Mini” soft wraps? I love these! They are small-size wraps that are low in calories, convenient, and very versatile. Try this easy recipe – all you need are the wraps, cooking spray, Mrs. Dash, and Parmesan cheese. Cut each wrap into 16 wedges and place on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with a little Mrs. Dash and a bit of Parmesan. Bake at 350-degrees for about ten minutes or until lightly brown and crisp.

• Fruit kabobs – This is a fun alternative to a plain old bowl of fruit. Just pick a few of your favorites – maybe apples, pineapple, bananas - and cut them into chunks. Slide the fruit onto a skewer. Next, roll the skewer in a plate of nonfat yogurt… then roll again in a plate of shredded coconut. Voila! A fun, healthy, delicious snack!

• Sandwich kabobs - Cut whole-grain bread, low-fat cheese, and your favorite deli meat into cubes. Slide them onto skewers along with some veggies like grape tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and olives. Dip into fat-free or low-fat Italian dressing.

• For a quick mini-pizza, top an English muffin (go for the whole grain ones) with spaghetti sauce and a little shredded low-fat mozzarella. Broil until the cheese melts.

• Pop a frozen waffle or pancake into the toaster and top it with warm applesauce and cinnamon. Too easy, huh? • Freeze some grapes, bananas, cherries, or maybe peaches and blend with yogurt for a fruit smoothie.

• Yogurt pops – fill paper cups with your favorite non-fat or low-fat yogurt and put a popsicle stick in each cup. Freeze and enjoy!

• Creamy Coolwich (from Nabisco World) - put 2 tablespoons of sugar free Cool Whip in between graham cracker squares. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze for three hours or until firm. Yum!

• Blueberry Cracker Bites (from Kraft Foods) – spread 1 teaspoon light cream cheese on a reduced-fat Ritz cracker and top with 5 frozen blueberries. Too fun!

So, you see – healthy foods can be fun and delicious.

Now, I am a firm believer that the key to a successful, healthy lifestyle is to choose fun good-for-you foods and exercises when you can. It’s a tough enough fight out there whether you’re trying to lose or maintain weight. But enjoying the journey is half the battle.

Basic Tips To A Good Multiple Sclerosis Diet

Basic Tips To A Good Multiple Sclerosis Diet

by Hazel Leong

Healthy eating is important for everyone, but it is particularly important if you have a chronic illness, such as Multiple Sclerosis. A good Multiple Sclerosis diet is understood to help manage and possibly eliminate many of the symptoms that come along with the disease. This can help slow the progression of the disease. Good nutrition, especially adequate calories and protein, helps maintain your bodies store of protein, provide energy, heal wounds, and fight infection. In between you should check with a doctor for a specific suggestions or procedure, for the basic tips to a good Multiple Sclerosis diet.

A key factor in a well Multiple Sclerosis diet is to eliminate all gluten. In general, you should avoid eating anything with flour, but you can check package ingredients if you are unsure of their content. There is no diet that will treat or cure multiple sclerosis, however there may be some connections between Multiple Sclerosis and diet. Many diets besides the Multiple Sclerosis diet do not allow gluten, so this is now easily found on many packages. Avoiding wheat, barley, oats, or rye is another way to cut gluten. People who eat too much saturated fat, processed lunch meats and sausages or have low levels of vitamin B12 or vitamin D may be at a higher risk for Multiple Sclerosis.

Vitamin B12 is found in animal products such as meats, fish, dairy products and eggs. For a successful diet you should also limit or keep away from animal fats, including dairy products and butter. Olive oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil are suitable alternatives for cooking or salads. For good digestion, you should try to avoid fried foods in general. Vitamin D is found in fortified milk and cereals, but your body can make most of the vitamin D you need when your skin is exposed to sunlight. Both vitamins can be taken as dietary supplements as well.

There is some evidence that reducing saturated fats and increasing polyunsaturated fatty acids may be of some benefit to people with Multiple Sclerosis. Totally avoid highly saturated fats in your diet. White meat skinless chicken, seafood, and fish are the best meat choices. Make sure to always completely remove any fat. Try to replace the saturated fats you cut out with unsaturated fats. Be sure to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and choose whole grains whenever possible.

Anyone, but specially those on a Multiple Sclerosis diet, should try to totally eliminate advanced sugar. There are many healthier alternatives that you should understand as well. Honey, fructose, or natural unsweetened fruit or vegetable juices would be ideal for a person on this diet. Supplements such as evening primrose oil contain gamma-lanoline acid. This substance can be converted by the body to form lanoline fatty acid. However, individuals with Multiple Sclerosis seem to have difficulty making the conversion.

Apparently, any foods you are allergic to should be cut from your diet. If you are unsure of allergies, try consulting a doctor or allergy specialist. Vitamin supplements may also be beneficial or even necessary for your Multiple Sclerosis, but you should consult a doctor to make sure you take the right vitamins. You may also try eliminating all of the most ordinary crisis foods from your diet, and after two weeks bring them back one at a time. If you have a bad response to any food, then you be supposed to eliminate it from your numerous sclerosis diets.

You should increase the amount of fresh vegetables and fruits in your Multiple Sclerosis diet. Try to always eat recently cooked food when you must cook it. This will add to the amount of vitamins and minerals your body absorbs. This will help to make up for some of the nutrients you lose by critical certain things from your diet. Medical researchers currently believe that MS patients are not born with multiple sclerosis and it is not a genetic disease. It has been suggested that geographical locations may have a correlation to Multiple Sclerosis.

Try to always drink lots of water. It is very easy for a person with Multiple Sclerosis to become dehydrated, so make sure to drink at least 8 large glasses of water every day. Additionally, those with Multiple Sclerosis should get enough rest and exercise, should try to lead as stress-free a life as possible, and should try to remain active in both body and brain. As weird as it sounds, this may help to get better the incontinence that many people with Multiple Sclerosis suffer from.

These tips for humanizing your Multiple Sclerosis diet are planned to help you control many universal troubles such as fatigue, incontinence, and constipation. Studies have indicated that eating a healthy low fat diet rich in essential fatty acids may be essential to managing Multiple Sclerosis.

Adjusting your diet may also help to avoid making other problems worse. Many of these tips are built-in in other diets, and even people without special dietary needs may advantage from following these suggestions. It has also been suggested that individuals with Multiple Sclerosis should not only supplement their diet with essential fatty acids but may also benefit by supplementing with vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

How Can You Be Sure Your Children Are Getting The Nutrition They Need?

Most parents would worry that if they keep their children from eating those fatty foods that they love, and only offer vegetables, that the children will starve, or have nutritional deficiencies.

These parents feel that the kids will just not eat the food. If you think about it this way, how much nutrients are they receiving from the fatty, processed foods now? If their diet consists of French fries, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, chocolate pudding, and maybe chicken fingers, how could it be worse if you only offer fruits and vegetables? Sure, maybe they will demand to have the foods they like, and not eat. They will eventually get hungry and if you keep offering fruits and vegetables and do not give in, you will see that they will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier.

Incorporate bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn’t work make your lentil soup into a “lentil burger”. You may have to gradually change their eating styles. Try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups with some cheese sprinkled on it. Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy. Make homemade pancakes with wheat and only sweeten it with pure raw honey. Make fruit shakes and throw in a carrot or romaine lettuce. Make tasty salads with homemade dressings….and also make faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots. Make tasty salmon and have them try it.

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try. Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit. Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece. Keep offering it to them at dinnertime and ask them to eat a couple of bites.

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements. But you could also include some almond milk or rice milk if you want.

The focus is to keep introducing them to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods that we as humans were meant to eat.

Why Need Drinking Water Filters

If you are one of the many people who are not using a drinking water filter, then maybe you should start to think about getting one, because otherwise you might be doing yourself some harm. Why is this?

Have a look in any grocery store or supermarket that sells drinks or beverages. What's the most popular item on those shelves? Chances are you'll see it's bottled water. The supermarkets are finding they are selling the stuff in huge quantities now. The reason is that people are beginning to realize that the water coming out of their tap is not really very good for them, and it also often tastes lousy. So they will buy bottled water even though it's heavy and quite a drag to carry all the way home!

If you care about your health and that of your family, that's as good a reason as you need to look into the whole question of the quality of the water you are drinking.

If you haven't yet found out what is in the water that comes out of your kitchen faucet, you could be in for a shock. It often contains varieties of such heavy metals as uranium, radium and also chromium. These metals enter the water supply quite naturally through rock formations and the like. There is often lead from old pipes that the water still passes through.

The water companies add large amounts of chlorine to kill off bacteria. Chlorine gives the water an unpleasant "swimming pool" smell and taste, which is not nice to drink. And there is evidence that chlorine can be harmful to humans, not just bacteria. The water authorities also add fluorides to the water, which is an additive whose benefits are strongly contested by many experts.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there is a dwindling stock of truly fresh water available, and so many municipal systems use reclaimed water and, yes, that does mean the water is reclaimed from the sewage system. Add to this that many irresponsible people tip engine oil, paint, or solvents into the system, and we end up with a picture that is far from pretty. Despite the best efforts of the water companies, quite a lot of that stuff gets through to your tap.

The alternative that many people go for is bottled water. But this is heavy to carry, often expensive, and the disposal of the plastic bottles can be harmful to the environment.

Perhaps it's time for you to think about getting a water filter for your home? The good news is that there are many excellent home filter systems on the market, with different types of filtering arrangement to suit all types of need, and a good filter system will take out almost all of the contaminants we mentioned, without any of the problems associated with bottled water. It is a good idea to read some reviews before you buy.

Chicken Rendang

Rendang is a popular dish in Malaysia. Preparing it may take a while but the result is satisfying.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Chicken
- 1.5 kg chicken, cut into 12 pieces and wash with salt. Rinse well.
- 250ml coconut milk
- 100ml water
- salt to taste

Ground Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon clarified butter
- 8 cloves shallots
- 4 cloves garlic
- 15 stalks chilli padi
- 3cm fresh tumeric
- 4cm ginger
- 1 tablespoon meat curry powder

Garnishing
- thinly sliced tumeric leaves

Instructions
1. Heat the clarified butter, saute the Ground Ingredients until cooked. Add chicken pieces, stir and mix evenly over low fire for 5 minutes. Then add meat curry powder, water and milk.

2. Stir the rendang until gravy thickens. Add salt to taste.

3. Sprinkle with chopped tumeric leaves before serving.

Serve hot.

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