So red, so good, so healthy - the pomegranate

Dear readers,

all my best wishes for a wonderful 2014 and a big thanks to all of you for visiting my blog so frequently! It keeps me going, looking for new interesting topic to tell you about. Please don't forget to post your comments or to become my follower. 

The " apple of Aphrodite " - its botanical name derives from the Latin word " granatus " (rich of kernels) . Be grateful that this is not the „forbidden fruit“ in the end as when we talk about antioxidants, hormonal disorders and anti-aging, then we should we also talk about the pomegranate. He can do all three of them, thus is increasingly becoming the center of attention .

The red super fruit has been cultivated for thousands of years in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, China and India. For hundreds of years in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its popularity dates back to the Early Bronze Age . The beautiful fruit, which has found quite some attention also in art, plays a role in the legends of the ancient world and in many religions .

The healing powers of the pomegranate is in its kernels, about 400 seeds per fruit , which can be used against cardiovascular disorders , menopausal problems , high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, cellular ageing and cancer. 

Amino acids, minerals , a variety of vitamins, but most of all polyphenols and phytoestrogens ( also found in soybeans) provide the tremendous healing effect. The phytoestrogens are way healthier than hormone replacement therapy pills, they act on one hand estrogen-like, on the other hand but also anti-estrogenic and thus cancer protective, especially for the very similar tissue of the breast and prostate.

Also they are said to relieve diarrhea, pneumonia , sore throat and toothache, as well as being helpful for infections of  the urinary tract . Similarly, the polyphenols are known for remedial care of stress-related diseases such as rheumatism, dyslipidemia , cardiovascular diseases and many more .

From the pomegranate seeds a valuable oil can be extracted , which can be used internally and externally . It contains many rare and valuable fatty acids. Especially helpful is the internal application of the oil in case of problems during menopause , but also for younger women it acts hormone balancing.

If you buy pomegranate juice, extracts and capsules  it is important to pay attention to a high content of polyphenols.

What else you can do with the fresh, fruity cores?

What else can I do with these fleshy succulent seeds unless just spoon them out of their shell ?

You can actually use it everywhere : in cereal, yogurt , salads , they give a gorgeous contrast when combined with meat dishes . Pomegranate juice is drunk pure or mixed with other juices or cocktails.

On this page I have found some wonderful pomegranate recipes, from sweet to hearty, cold to warm: http://www.eatingwell.com/node/16487?slide=5#leaderboardad

From breakfast to cocktails and dinner to dessert, either pomegranate arils or pomegranate juice make an amazing addition of acidity, sweetness and color.

Enjoy!!

Detox throughout the holidays

Dear readers,

Once again, Christmas and New Year are just around the corner - a surprise as every year . We fly home or our loved ones come to visit us and we spend wonderful days together , eat out or cook at home. Eating together is not only food intake, but it is a social event , time to share and talk, and during the holidays it is normal that we eat more and tend to neglect our usual diet regime as it also does not contribute to comfort if you sit around nibbling on a raw carrot. It 's just part o fit and if we do not completely overdo it , this represents no problem.

Important and useful it is , however, to use the "split times" , that is, if we , for example, at times do not eat between breakfast and dinner also a sprawling lunch. You can use this time to give your body something light and detoxifying to clean the body in between. By doing this in the end it will not bequite as difficult to return to our usual diet mode after the holidays. Of course I always recommend a 12-day Ayurveda Panchakarma cure after these days .

But using this support, we quickly switch our body back into a friendly mode, which benefits our shape, the expulsion of waste from the body and thus our entire well-being. We really do not want to sit down at the table in the evening inwardly groaning "I really do not want anything more to eat", no, we should be able to enjoy these beautiful , rare moments.

I can recommend green tea here as a strong detoxifier , ½ - 1 liter per day. Please also pay attention to quality here . In addition, of course, the green smoothies, to which I have already referred to in a previous article . But there is also another, soothing alternative: detox soups. There are many variations of which I subsequently present only one, but at the end it always comes down to the same thing, just using different methods and veggies. I cook them in stock and freeze smaller portions. There is also the the possibility to strain the soup after cooking and consume only the broth. And my dogs love the boiled vegetables J.

The soup is very tasty through the relatively long cooking time, I personally use absolutely no salt as it absorbs liquid , but a small amount of high quality coarse sea salt (or Himalayan salt as in this recipe) can be added without hesitation if necessary. Vegetables from organic farming are to be recommended , but it should be thoroughly cleaned anyway. The soup can also be cooked without the azuki beans , thereby loses volume and is more easily digestible and less filling . I recommend dried beans, which are first soaked and boiled, canned beans are not necessarily in the sense of detoxification. Instead of azuki beans and mung beans, lentils, kidney beans or pinto beans can be used.

Detoxifying winter soup

( 8 servings )

▪ 1 tbsp olive oil , coconut oil or ghee ( may be omitted , in which case the here

     sauteed vegetables will just be boiled)

▪ 1 large onion, chopped

▪ 1 large leek , sliced ​​into rings

▪ 2 stalk celery , coarsely chopped

▪ 1 beetroot , cut into cubes

▪ 6-8 cloves of garlic , finely chopped

▪ 2 carrots , coarsely chopped

▪ 3 or 4 small turnips, cut into cubes

▪  1 small head of cabbage , cut to strips(about 2 cups quantity)

▪ 3 cups yellow squash , cut into cubes

▪ 8-10 cups of water

▪ Fresh herbs such as rosemary , oregano or whatever is at hand

▪ 3 ripe , red tomatoes with skin and seeds , diced

▪ 2 cups pre-cooked azuki beans

​​▪ 1 head kale , cut to strips

▪ 1-2 tablespoons cider vinegar

▪ Pink Himalayan salt or coarse sea salt , to taste

▪ Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add onion , leek , garlic and celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Add carrots , turnip, cabbage, squash and fresh herbs . Simmer for about 5-7 minutes , stirring frequently.

Add water, tomatoes and beans and bring to a boil on medium heat slightly , then set the temperature on low setting and simmer for about 1.5 hours . The more time you give the soup, the more intense the flavor. If you only want to use the broth , you should cook the soup for at least 2 hours so that all the nutrients can completely merge into the water.

Season with salt and pepper to taste if desired . Shortly before serving add the cider vinegar , stir well , enjoy and detoxify !

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wheat grass - the green health from nature

Dear audience,

In our high-tech times when a lot of stuff is better , but not necessarily our general health, and in which we have to protect our organisms much more than ever before against "hostile attacks " such as the so-called free radicals, we are turning back to the old remedies provided by mother nature.

Wheatgrass was introduced thousands of years ago as one of the most valuable plants of nature in different cultures into the base diet.

Go green - this is a phrase that nowadays should no longer relate merely to our environment, but also to our kitchen .

And so since quite some time something green haunts our kitchens. In juice form, powdered or even fresh, home-grown from seed - wheat grass. Packed with chlorophyll (70 %), it contains over 30 different enzymes that keep us young, healthy and beautiful.

The green prodigy is thus not an invention of modern times. Even in our hemisphere already back in the 30's many celebrities  consumed these little powerpackets; popularized by Anne Wigmore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wigmore) and Dr. Charles Schnabel (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6693566-wheat-grasscharles-francis-schnabel-discovered-nutrients) modern scientific analysis suggests the assumption that wheatgrass juice really  is one of the absolute " superfoods " with incredible impact on our civilization diseases.

Wheatgrass is the grass of the wheat, which after seeding  during the first days looks like a fresh, green lawn. Sounds logical . By pressing the wheatgrass juice is extracted, to which special healing power is attributed .

A short summary of the contents :

• wheat grass has 60 times more vitamin C than oranges

• 50 times more vitamin E than spinach

• 30 times more vitamin B1 than milk

• 11 times more calcium than milk

• 5 times more iron than spinach

• 5 times more magnesium than bananas

Furthermore, wheat grass juice is rich in essential amino acids and thus has a high protein value. It contains vitamin K and B , calcium and selenium and is a hero in the fight against cancer, because it inhibits the spread of cancer cells , the mutation of healthy cells , has anti- inflammatory  aspects and strengthens the immune system . It supports blood formation and increases oxygen transport in the blood and general vitality.

It might not yet be anything scientifically proven, but the existing studies and thousands of years of experience , e.g. in Chinese medicine, clearly show the positive above mentioned effects.

A simple and safe method of consumption is the wheatgrass in powder form, which can be wonderfully simply infused with hot water and consumed at body temperature, or find its place in any smoothie to round out its taste by its fresh, sweet character. Be it with apple and ginger or with banana, pineapple and coconut milk , cinnamon and maca.

Drank in the morning on an empty stomach, wheatgrass within 20 minutes develops its soothing , revitalizing effect . Some beautiful , easy to prepare recipes can be found on this link: https://www.veganic.de/ebook/Smoothie_veganic.pdf

At the beginning of consumption please be a bit cautious, the stomach must first get used to the green power drink. Especially a freshly squeezed shot can hit the stomach quite strongly in the beginning. But that disappears after a few times and you can enjoy wheatgrass and feel the power of this acid-regulating green magic in the body.