Wellness Wednesday

Make your own drink

From the 16 teaching .

A Jedi understand that well-being consists in the physical, the mental and the spiritual.

That is why making your own healthy drink can be a way to help your self be healthy , instead of opening a can of heavily sugary soda. There is many ways to make a delicious beverage with ingredients that would as well be very benefic to your body and your mind.

Today I will particularly focus on one ingredient that is Ginger .

Lets talk first about the benefits of Ginger

Ginger may have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and other healthful properties. Below are some of the possible medicinal uses of ginger.

Relieving nausea
Easing a cold or the flu
Relieving pain
Reducing inflammation
Supporting cardiovascular health
Lowering cancer risk
Nutrition

From <https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265990#nutrition>

Animal studies have also indicated that ginger can influence serotonin levelsTrusted Source and may treat and reduce anxiety as successfully as benzodiazepine drugs.

From <https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/drinks-for-stress-anxiety#ginger>

A fun fact for men is that ginger is one of the top ten food that can help boosting level of testosterone ! The 8 best foods to boost low testosterone (medicalnewstoday.com)

There is another simple fact with ginger that it helps with feeling cold!

Now we know. Let s talk about the fun side of the subject , let make that yummy drink .

First if you can , ginger is very very easy to grow , there s nothing like fresh ginger but you can as well buy powder ginger or a rhizome, as it is not a root. The rhizome it self will give you a bit more preparation but of course it will tast much better, I would recommend to use a small pot that will still be big enough to prepare enough drink for maybe 4 cups. Cut a bit of ginger the size of a sugar cube and grate it, then bring it to a boil no more than 2 minutes. Get your cup ready, now it all depend how you like it , I personally use green tea , 2 spoon honey and I filter the ginger water while I poor a whiskey finger in my cup( remember that a finger is not vertical but horizontal , poor a bit more of hot water add a slice of lemon squeeze it and steer it all. NOW what is it that you want today ? A hot drink ? Or a cold drink as it can go either way, if you are feeling a bit sick , make it hot , if you re feeling hot make it cold . And enjoy your own home made brew. Then when finished seen that you already have cooked ginger water make another or keep it in the refrigerator for later.

The Golden Latte

Yes you have heard right today, we will talk about the Eldorado of the coffee drinkers , it looks awesome , it taste great, it s good for you and it feels right The Golden Latte !!!!!!!!

This is the following up on Healthy drink that you can make at home , but lets talk about coffee first as it has few miss understanding and bad reputation , as Jedis we must pass through the so called bad reputation and go to the heart of thing to find the truth. So coffee is not all bad .
“The overall evidence has been pretty convincing that coffee has been more healthful than harmful in terms of health outcomes,” said Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an April 5, 2021, article in Discover. “For most people, moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy diet.”
From <https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-your-health/>
The caffeine from coffee has been shown in studies to be beneficial for increasing alertness and cognitive performance.
From <https://coffeeatticla.com/blog/the-unknown-benefits-of-coffee/>
So what is this Golden Latte ? Simple it is a coffee drink with a twist of turmeric! Turmeric is a spice that if you have a bit of a garden would be easy to grow.
The idea of adding turmeric to coffee is a fairly new trend. There is individual research on turmeric and coffee, but no data of its potential health benefits as a concoction. However, the combination of turmeric and coffee together could offer a potent drink. Here’s the scientific data so far on the golden spice.
May calm inflammation
May improve your mood
May help with blood sugar
May ease digestive woes
May lower heart disease risk From <https://www.thehealthy.com/nutrition/turmeric-coffee/>


Homemade turmeric coffee recipe
So lets look into a the recipe, I know it s not a ready drink but making your own will give you that much more satisfaction and lets remind everyone that filtered coffee might be more healthy as well than unfiltered.
Ingredients
1/2 cup dairy or plant-based milk
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of black pepper
8 ounces brewed coffee
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup (optional)
Directions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together milk, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and coffee. Briskly blend with an immersion blender or whisk. For sweetened coffee, add maple syrup. Pour into a coffee mug and enjoy.

From <https://www.thehealthy.com/nutrition/turmeric-coffee/>

Let s not forget that being a Jedi is to seek balance, coffee is healthy but it as well can create an addiction , most of everything is good with moderation .

This is my last post as Tobias is back from holidays , something simple


Mint


This Wednesday I will talk about my all time favorite drink!
One my friend slash mentor was a nurse, a really relaxed guy who lived in his camper van , he did not have many vice beside a little one and a passion for surfing, to quench his first he drank Mint tea only. So it became a "cool" drink in my head. And it is COOL! A perfect drink by hot weather sweeten with honey . Mint has few tricks in it "pocket" let see .

1. Rich in Nutrients

While not typically consumed in large quantities, mint does contain a fair amount of nutrients.
In fact, just under 1/3 cup or half an ounce (14 grams) of spearmint contains (1):
• Calories: 6
• Fiber: 1 gram
• Vitamin A: 12% of the RDI
• Iron: 9% of the RDI
• Manganese: 8% of the RDI
• Folate: 4% of the RDI

2. May Improve Irritable Bowel Syndrome


3. May Help Relieve Indigestion


4. Could Improve Brain Function


5. May Decrease Breastfeeding Pain


6. Subjectively Improves Cold Symptoms
<https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mint-benefits#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2>

Not bad isnt it for a little leaf !
Best if you have a little green thumb grow mint at home , there's about 19 variety of mint so every time you want to make tea pluck some from your home grown mint, but mint leaf are commonly found in desserts and many dishes . There is nothing better than home grown food.

Try it and enjoy a COOL drink

Flaxseed Wednesday

Hello friends, I am back from my holiday and it is time to tell you some more of the amazing things flaxseeds can do to our body.

First thing: it is proven that flaxseed intake lowers bad cholesterol in our bloodstream, look here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25694068/

Now, concerning weight loss; there are a number of studies that show that simply adding ! flaxseeds to whatever diet you live on right now might significantly lower your body weight, if you suffer from overweight. A great meta – analysis has been done on this:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28635182/

Now, you could think, well, people who eat flaxseeds regularly probably are overall more conscious about their habits of eating and living and therefore are less bothered with problems like overweight. But look here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27151322/

An additional effect of flaxseeds on lowering body weight has been proven, even if you already lead a healthy lifestyle.

There is also a positive effect of flaxseed consumption on the so called non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26983396/

So, again you see, there are now at least 3 more reasons to eat flaxseeds regularly. And if it is too much for you to consciously eat a tablespoon a day, do yourself a favor: whenever you come across the option to add flaxseeds to your food in any way, simply do so.

Greetings and may the Force be with you.

Tobias

Tobias wrote: Flaxseed Wednesday

Hello friends, I am back from my holiday and it is time to tell you some more of the amazing things flaxseeds can do to our body.

I use them in my home made dog food, and dog biscuits as well

Flaxseed Wednesday

Dear friends.

Yesterday I was at a restaurant, and as in the most cases, I ordered plant based food. But this time I got an extraordinary amount of vegetables, well, you know, usually if you order a „vegan“ dish you get things like fries or pasta with tomato sauce or things like that, so indeed very much processed food. But this time: at least 400 grams of freshly cooked spinach. So keep sure to keep an eye open for restaurants like that, I will definitely go back there and have a few meals there in a month.

Well, today let´s talk about hypertension and flax seeds flax seeds seem to have a similar benefitial effect on our blood pressure as some medications out there. Look at this study

Potent antihypertensive action of dietary flaxseed in hypertensive patients - PubMed (nih.gov)

They even managed to do a double blind study while administering flaxseeds to patients with hypertension by creating food that actually just looked like it contained flaxseeds as a placebo. And you see, flaxseed turns out to be the most effective agent amongst foods out there concerning high blood pressure.

In this study they experimented on feeding pigs flaxseeds to see, if the meat turns out to be more healthy after that.

Flaxseed fed pork: n-3 fatty acid enrichment and contribution to dietary recommendations - PubMed (nih.gov)

Well, I think, it is a better idea to eat the flaxseeds yourself and skip this process of feeding pigs flaxseeds and eating the pigs afterwards, come on…

Well, this study shows that adding flaxseeds to for example a beef patty, for those of you who don´t want to dispense with meat, doesn´t seem to dramatically change the perceived sensory quality of the product.

Response surface methodology for predicting quality characteristics of beef patties added with flaxseed and tomato paste - PubMed (nih.gov)

So, here we have another reason why it is a good idea to keep on eating flaxseeds everyday.

Well, there are more to come next week, so keep it up, have a good time.

May the Force be with you.

Tobias

Flaxseed Wednesday.

Hi friends. I want to keep it short this week, I am quite busy right now. All these studies speak for themselves, (see down below), they show that flaxseeds definitely has a benefitial effect on people with breast cancer, as you will see, flaxseeds are able to slow down the proliferation rate of the tumor cells and promote the death of tumor cells, it even makes them less aggressive.

So for all of you out there who suffer from that disease or have suffered from it, flaxseeds might not be as effective as chemotherapy but you don´t risk anything by putting them into your diet.

Here are the studies:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15897583/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20033482/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22094938/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20463043/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22037685/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21984941/

May the Force be with you!

Tobias

Flaxseed Wednesday

Today I am going to show you that flaxseeds not only have a benefitial effect on people with breast cancer, no it seems to have a comparable effect also on people with prostate cancer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15134976/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11445478/

These pilot studies show that patients with prostate cancer who ate a fat restricted diet with flaxseeds in it experienced a significant decrease of PSA in their blood which is a biomarker for prostate cancer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19064574/

Here it is proven in a randomized trial.



So, here we are, this is all I have to say about flaxseeds.

I think we have found several reasons why it is a good idea to eat flaxseeds everyday.

Now, while it is probably a good idea to eat as much as possible of these seeds, I still think, it is a good idea to eat at least one tablespoon a day.

I would be happy if some of you try this, maybe you observe effects on your health for yourself, if so, feel free to share those experiences here.

So, Flaxseed Wednesday ends today, next week we are coming back to other foods that are good for us, there is still much to discover: Turmeric, Nuts and much more.

May the Force be with you!

Tobias

Wellness Wednesday on Thursday this time.

Oops, I forgot to post yesterday, please apologize.

Here we go:
Hello friends.

In the next few episodes of Wellness Wednesday I want to talk to you about nuts and seeds. Well, all of us have probably heard that eating nuts is a good choice if you are trying to live on a healthy diet.

But this week I want to show you only one study:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248385213_A_Single_Consumption_of_High_Amounts_of_the_Brazil_Nuts_Improves_Lipid_Profile_of_Healthy_Volunteers

So, what did they do here? Well, this is not a randomized trial, and the number of volunteers was very low, only 10 people, so we are not sure if these amazing results are in the end just too good to be true:

They gave those people nothing more than a single serving ! of 4 brazil nuts a MONTH to achieve the result that their ldl-cholesterol – Level decreased significantly and STAYED DOWN! There is no known drug that can do that, that is unbelievable!

So, even if these results still have to be verified in a larger study, I strongly recommend to all of you who might have trouble with high cholsesterol levels: please eat 4 brazil nuts once a month, it is cheap, it is healthy anyway, it doesn´t bring any danger, just do it.

I recommend this to all of my patients, before starting statins, and I recommend this to you.

By the way, brazil nuts are the most tasty and delicious nuts anyway, so it is not a hard thing to do hehe.

May the Force be with You!

Tobias

Hello friends.

Look, what I have found for you, this is a very interesting study:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29897866/

To sum it up, the study has some weaknesses in the end, but what becomes clear is that obviously eating half an ounze of nuts a day makes strokes significantly less probable, so it would probably be a good idea to do so.

I want to give you a short list of possible nuts and seeds we can eat just to raise your appetite a little:

Almonds
Brazil nuts
Cashews
Chia seeds
Hazelnuts
Hemp seeds
Macadamia nuts
Pecans
Pistachios
Pumpkin seeds
Sesame seeds
Sunflower seeds
Walnuts

May the Force be with you.

Yours, Tobias