6 Make-Ahead Meals That Are Ready When You Are
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: produce season! Literally everything is ripe for the picking, which means that this is the optimal time to up your fruit and vegetable game. This perfectly coincides with our tendency to crave lighter and more refreshing fare during warmer weather without spending...
From the Coffee Shop
Today September 29 is “National Coffee Day”.
Something so ubiquitous as coffee deserves its own day…and today’s the day! Legend has it that a goat herder by the name of Kaldi in Ethiopia first came across coffee in the 9th century when his goats ate the berries off a bush. The goats seemed more lively to Kaldi, so he chewed some himself, was excited by what ate, and then took some cherries to a Muslim holy man at the local monastery. The holy man discarded the cherries in the fireplace; the beans roasted; the delicious aroma spread; the roasted beans were recovered and were then dissolved in...
Coffee Reduces Pain
In addition to all of the other recent discoveries about coffee’s health benefits (protecting against dementia, certain types of cancers, risk of premature death, and more), reducing physical pain may also be added to the list! A group of participants recently spent 90 minutes performing fake computer tasks, meant to mimic a day doing office work. Typically, these tasks can cause pain in the shoulders, neck, forearms and wrists. Participants were told they could drink coffee or not before the study, whichever was their typical routine. The researchers at Norway’s National Institute of Occupational Health found that the 19...
Tips for an Alkaline Diet
Aside from the general discomfort from eating a diet with too much acid like heartburn, too much acid in our bodies creates an environment that allows yeast, viruses, and parasites to thrive. The ideal body pH is 7.4, and the closer our bodies are to our ideal pH, the better we feel and the easier it is to maintain long-term health. Anything over 7 is considered alkaline; less than 7 is acidic. Examples of acidic foods include red meat, sodas, coffee, fried foods, dairy, and alcohol. The opposite of acidic foods are alkaline ones, and eating an alkaline diet...
3 Foods to Heal Chronic Pain
More than one third of all Americans suffer from chronic pain, and many rely on pain medication to ease their symptoms. Certain foods can actually help chronic pain sufferers by blocking pain signals, fighting inflammation, and even healing the disease itself. By eating healthfully pain can be improved or even eliminated. Here are three pain-relieving foods and how they help: 1. Cherries: These contain compounds called anthocyanins, which block inflammation and inhibit pain enzymes, just like aspirin does. One study in Journal of Nutritionshowed people who ate a bowl of cherries for breakfast reduced inflammation by 25%. 2. Coffee: Caffeine...
Coffee Helps Parkinson’s Symptoms
Parkinson’s disease symptoms may be eased by drinking coffee, a new study found published in the August issue of Neurology. It is just one of many recent studies tying coffee to health benefits. Parkinson’s is a brain disease that causes tremors, and difficulty with movement and coordination. It’s a degenerative disease and most commonly develops in adults over 50. Its cause is unknown. This study tracked 61 people with Parkinson’s- some were given caffeine pills and some placebos. The caffeinated group had about 200 milligrams twice per day, about 2-4 cups of coffee. Six weeks later, those taking...
