Archive for October, 2009

 

Is Alternative Medicine A Solution For Cancer Victims?

Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Emanuele Allenti asked:


If you have cancer or know someone who does, then you know that sometimes the treatment can be as disheartening as the disease. The effects of chemotherapy can reduce cancerous cells, but the side effects are nausea, loss of appetite, and hair loss, just to name a few. It’s no wonder that cancer victims look for alternative forms of treatment, and alternative medicine has come up with some options that are meant to be complimentary to the more “modern” forms of treatment. However, there appears to be no middle ground here; while the alternative medicine community is accused of overstating the validity of alternative medicine, the “conventional” treatment provider’s tend to understate the effects of alternative therapies for cancer sufferers.

While there is no cure for cancer, the NCCAM (National Center for complimentary and Alternative Medicine has conducted studies showing that acupuncture relieves the fatigue, nausea, and pain symptoms associated with both colon and ****** cancer, as well as headaches and neck pain associated with surgery for brain tumors or throat cancer. Ginger is a good tasting treatment for the nausea and vomiting side effects of chemotherapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is currently being studied as a relief for larynx cancer patients. (Hyperbaric oxygen therapy consists of breathing oxygen which is at an atmospheric pressure greater than sea level. It is being studied to compliment radiation therapy.) Massage is used to relieve fatigue for all forms of cancer.

Another form of alternative therapy used for fighting the symptoms of cancer is coupling pancreatic enzymes with chemotherapy for the use in pancreatic cancer treatment. Pancreatic enzymes are proteins secreted from the pancreas that help in food digestion.

There is a distinction between complimentary medicine and alternative medicine. Complimentary medicine is used along with conventional medicine; whereas alternative is used instead of. Studies show that better long term results were achieved with complimentary medicine on advanced stages of cancer, while alternative medicine seemed to help early stage cancers. The study is called CAM, (complimentary alternative medicine) and statistics show that 36% of adults with various stages of cancer use both therapies. If you include megavitamin therapy in this statistic the numbers almost double to 62%. 79% out of almost 500 cancer patients use some form of complimentary or alternative therapy for cancer symptoms. Possibly the most beneficial part of CAM therapy is that patients can feel as if they are taking some form of control over their cancer, and that increases the quality of life and chances for survival. Bringing relief of pain and increasing hope for cancer patients is reason enough for these foundations to continue to receive grants and continue their studies.

If you are considering CAM therapy, there are some questions that you should ask the health provider before you begin treatment. One of the most important is will the treatment be covered under your health insurance and if so, are there any clauses you should know about? If the therapy is being sponsored as part of a clinical trial, find out who is sponsoring it so you will know if the trial is being conducted by an unbiased company with no marketing credits to be gained by the outcome. You’ll also want to ask if the therapy will interfere with any conventional treatment you might be receiving at the same time. Usually the answer is no-that’s the nature of alternative and complimentary medicine-but you should have all the information before agreeing to any type of treatment. Ask also if there will be any side effects, or if the documented benefits outweigh the risks, if any, involved.



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Healthy Recipes

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
IC asked:


By following the basic rules of variety, moderation (portion control), and balance, you can plan your daily healthy recipes in accordance with Canada’s Food Guide. You can partake in almost any food without guilt or worry. You are able to use healthy recipes to learn to utilize foods to lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

By using healthy recipes utilizing any freshly grown local produce; preferably organic, pesticide free; where possible, eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Use the least amount of salt and sugar; where possible eliminate both, for your heart’s sake. Most fruits do not need sugar added, and most vegetables do not need salt.

Learn to eat less sweets and use Splenda, a natural sugar replacement as often as possible in healthy recipes, in order to keep sugar intake lower, and sea salt in place of regular table salt, to keep our intake of processed iodized salt. Packaged and canned products are usually heavily salted or sugared and it is not necessary – our bodies just do not need it. Choose light and low sugared and salted canned foods if you must.

Learn to read labels of packaged or processed foods, often the “healthy nutritious” part of the food has been taken out of the actual food by the time it reaches our mouths – home made healthy grown food, used in healthy recipes tastes much better than processed foods. It has been recommended that we use non-hydrogenated oils in our foods and stay away from as much animal fat as possible.

Using healthy meat in recipes means we use grain fed, pesticide free organic meats. It may cost a little more, and you may have to order ahead of date required (ie. organically fed – free range birds and free range organically fed cows). It is highly recommended for your good health as these animals will not have been fed anti-biotics, which normally would pass through the meat and into our bloodstreams as we eat the meat; thereby enabling our systems to build up anti-immunities to these drugs. The more we eat those antibiotic filled meats, the more anti-biotics become immune to new and old diseases. Stay with organic meats!!

Learning to eat healthfully by using foods that are pesticide free, organically fresh, locally grown, and not genetically altered, will show you not only the benefits of a healthy body, but a healthy mind.

Finally, learning to use healthful foods to benefit our healthy recipes, choose to using these recipes as a canvas and you be the painter. Healthful foods need not be boring or complicated or take ages to make. Using a healthful recipe is a creation of art, and especially so, when you learn the benefits of and what constitutes healthy eating.

Remember we are what we eat!



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10 Cooking Tips

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Denny Phillips asked:


Have you been frustrated by cracks in the top of your cheesecakes? Would you like tips to make flaky biscuits? Or would you just like to know a bit more about sweet potatoes? Try these cooking tips from the Good Cooking Central website today for better results in your kitchen endeavours:

• BISCUIT TIPS:

If you want biscuits that are crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside, you roll the dough thinly and fold it over once before cutting out the biscuits. They will then split open easily when you’re ready to butter them.

To re- heat biscuits, put them in a well-dampened paper bag. Twist the bag closed and put in a 300º oven for several minutes or until warm.

For soft-sided biscuits, bake them in a pan with sides and put the biscuits close together. For crusty biscuits, bake them on a cookie sheet and separate them from each other.

• PREVENTING CHEESECAKE CRACKS:

Grease the sides of the pan before adding batter. The surface will not stick to the sides of the pan and ***** when the cheesecake starts shrinking as it cools.

Run a knife or a metal spatula around the edges of the pan immediately after removing the cheesecake from the oven.

Drastic temperature changes can also cause a cheesecake to *****. Avoid putting a warm cheesecake from the oven into the refrigerator.

To disguise cracks, top the cheesecake with fruit or some other topping.

• SOUR MILK:

Since sour milk is not really sold in the grocery stores, when a recipe calls for sour milk, simply add 1 TBSP. of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk. You can also use buttermilk to replace the sour milk called for in a recipes.

• BAKING POWDER:

If you use too much baking powder in a recipe it will produce a product with a coarse grain, and will cause the product to eventually fall. If you use too little baking powder, the product will not rise enough and be heavy.

Baking powder tends to lose its strength over time and should be kept in a tightly covered container. Moisture will cause the baking powder to deteriorate faster.

When increasing the amount of eggs in a recipe, decrease the baking powder by 1/2 teaspoon for each extra egg added.

• CUTTING FAT WITH APPLESAUCE:

To reduce the fat content in your baking recipes, substitute applesauce for half of the amount of vegetable oil called for in the recipe. Using all applesauce produces a low-calorie, moist product.

• ADJUST TEMPERATURE FOR DIFFERENT PANS:

Keep in mind that the type of pan you use when baking can determine the outcome of your finished product. For glass pans, turn down baking temperature by 25?. If you substitute a shallow pan, reduce the overall baking time by one quarter. If you use a deeper pan than suggested in the recipe, increase the overall baking time by one quarter.

• ALTERNATIVES TO COOKING WITH BUTTER:

When browning or sautéing onions, hamburger, etc., replace the butter by spraying your skillet with non-stick spray or use chicken or beef broth instead.

When baking, use reduced-calorie margarine instead of butter (but note that the texture may not always come out the same). Non-fat margarines currently on the market do not tend bake well.

Cutting butter in some of your recipes can cut a lot of the calories making it a diet-friendly option.

• SWEET POTATOES:

Due to rapid spoilage, keep sweet potatoes fresh, by storing them in a dry, cool (55-60°) place at a temperature of about 55-60°. If stored in the refrigerator, they may develop a hard core and an “off” taste. Sweet potatoes will keep for a month or longer if stored at the proper temperature. At normal room temperature, they should be used within a week of purchase. Brush off any excess dirt before storing, but do not wash them until you are ready to cook them.

When preparing, wash sweet potatoes well. It is best to cook them whole whenever possible as most of the nutrients are next to the skin. Also, the skins are easier to remove after they have been cooked. Pierce the sweet potato skins with fork. Place potatoes in a pan and cook in an oven heated to 375° F for about 45 minutes or until tender. Cool potatoes slightly before removing skins. To cook sweet potatoes in a microwave, wash and pierce potatoes. Place them on a paper towel. For 2 medium sweet potatoes, cook on high for 5–9 minutes, or for 4 potatoes cook for 10–13 minutes.

Sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and C, and are a good source of fiber.

• SUGAR SUBSTITUTES:

To substitute for 1 cup of sugar use any of the following:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 ½ cups molasses

2 cups corn syrup

3/4 cups honey

1 ½ cups maple syrup

Note: If you use molasses, corn syrup, honey, or maple syrup you need to reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe.

• BROWN SUGAR SUBSTITUTE:

If you need to substitute brown sugar in a recipe, for each 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar use 1 ½ Tablespoons molasses plus 1 cup granulated sugar.

To make 1 cup light brown sugar from dark brown sugar, use ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar and ½ cup granulated sugar.

To make 1 cup dark brown sugar, use 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar plus 1 tablespoon molasses; or 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup molasses.

If you would like to see more hints to help you in the kitchen, and get great recipes too, visit the Good Cooking Central website.



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Some of the Best Crock Pot Cooking Tips

Friday, October 23rd, 2009
amrit asked:


One of the least used and yet most versatile tools in the average kitchen is the slow cooker. With just a few crock pot cooking tips you can turn this dust collector into one of the most useful items in your kitchen

Buying roasts and other big cuts of meat that will go into in your crock pot easily is important. If the cut won’t fit it into the container, trimming the piece down works better than attempting to stuff it further. This is one of the most significant tips on using crock pots that people will learn to appreciate.

Before cooking, for more help visit to: www.150-venison-recipes.com.you must get rid of the skin and cut away any extra fat from the poultry and other meats. This will assist to lessen the quantity of fat in the completed serving of food as well eliminate any oily flavor.

Some of the best crock pot cooking tips involve using vegetables. Fresh root vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, and onions, should be placed in the bottom of the pot, under the meat, for more even cooking. These types of vegetables tend to cook more slowly than meat.

This is another neat trick you can use. You can pace the process of thickening the sauces near the end of cooking time by turning up the heat setting. Tasting the liquid to ensure that it has had enough time to flavor is advisable. Leave it on low heat and let it sit a little bit longer until you start to taste the flavor that you want.

Another important point to remember is seasoning in crock pot cooking. Periodically seasoning and tasting prior to taking away the dish is important. This is because crock pots, after sitting for some time, For more help visit to: www.classic-dessert-collection.com.will tend to sometimes water down the flavors. Being resourceful with your seasonings is a good practice. Adding seasoned salt, garlic powder, seasoned pepper, and complementary herbs and spices is also an excellent way to complete the cooking. Another important thing to remember is that in slow cooked foods, the dish will tend to lose its color. Utilizing certain garnish such as chopped fresh parsley, chives, tomatoes, and red or green peppers when the cooking is nearing completion, helps by adding color to the dish.

Buying a cookbook that has been written especially for crock pot cooking is amongst the best ways to learn to use your slow cooker more effectively. Not only do they offer delicious recipes but also lots of crock pot cooking tips that can help you use your slow cooker with ease and you can find these types of books either online or offline. The slow cooker can really earn its keep once you know how to put it to work, in today’s busy world of working families.



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The Best Collection of Healthy Recipes Awaits You at Healthfitnessreport

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Vikram Kumar asked:


It is a common belief that a food recipe that is mouth watering is always unhealthy. To some extent it is not wrong either! It is often seen that there are several good food recipes that are very good in taste but that are not at all nutritious. It is because of this reason that there are many people who are health conscious prefers to stay from delicious food.  But is there no exceptional food for them?

The answer to above question is yes, there is now availability of such healthy recipes that are not only mouth watering but healthy as well. The best part of these healthy recipes is that they are not only good to taste but they also help in shedding great amount of excess fat.

So now if you are keen to know about these healthy recipes and want to know the place from where you can get them, then internet is one such source that is going to help you a lot. With the help of internet you can find end number of healthy recipes by just putting the word ‘healthy recipes’. But are the results really effective? Is it really so simple to get good collection of healthy recipes? The answer to these questions is no! Surely not!

There are many websites available on the net that are there just to make money and for them what matters is to attract visitors by any means so as to convert them into potential customers. Because of such business approach they take assistance of several wrong ways also. Thus because of such sites, it looks impossible to get reliable information on recipes that are healthy and hygienic. But is there not any way to find actual recipes that are tasty and healthy? The answer to this question is with a site named as Healthfitnessreport.

With the help of Healthfitnessreport it is now possible to get not only the good healthy recipes but other important information on health and fitness. There are several articles on diet and exercise as well as health and wellness. The most important thing about these articles is that all these articles are of high quality and are posted to ensure that the person seeking advice on health and fitness gets the right information.  In addition if a person wants reviews on various health products, then that is also possible with Healthfitnessreport.

All the reviews posted on Healthfitnessreport are reliable and are posted to help reader go for the right product.  The important aspects of Healthfitnessreport are not limited to these only. There are many other important advantages as well that a person can get by visiting this site. For example along with all important information about health and fitness, if a person wants to have the facility of watching the experts doing exercises, then this facility is also available with Healthfitnessreport.

There are several educational and informative youtube videos available on Healthfitnessreport that contains exercise tips by experts. By watching these videos, you can understand the correct way to doing the right exercise and thus can get best benefit. So if you are really health conscious and want to lead a unique lifestyle with fit body and better confidence then you must subscribe for the weekly digest offered by this site.



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