What is Good Coffee

Believe it or not, Drinking Coffee with milk or sugar is good for you. This is DRINK for thought!

(Minus the cream, milk and sugar) I am a frequent coffee drinker, was used to drinking several cups of coffee a day. Office workers would probably attest to that the a meeting with coffee is not really complete. We are so used to drinking the local coffee, Nescafe two in one, or three in one. However a recent internet article that apparently stemmed from one name, Sylvia Booth Hubbard, Newsmax goes like this; "For many years, coffee was considered a vice, linked with sleepless nights and cigarettes. But scientists have discovered that coffee contains potent antioxidant that can fight numerous ailments, including heart disease and diabetes. According to the American Coffee Association, 54% of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis, and they drink, on average, over 3 cups each. The diseases coffee can benefit include; Dementia - Drinking moderate amounts of coffee during middle age, classified as 3 to 5 cups daily, can decrease the risk of dementia by 65%, according to a 2009 study by Swedish and Finnish researchers. Liver disease - In those who drink too much alcohol, those who drank the most coffee, more than 4 cups very day, reduced their risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis by 80% . Heart disease - Research associated with the Nurses Health Study, found that women who drank 2 - 3 cups of coffee daily had a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease. Along the same line, a Spanish study found that men who drank more than 5 cups of coffee each day lowered their dying from heart disease by 44% and that women who drank 4 - 5 cups each day reduced their risk by 34%. Prostate cancer - A recent study from Harvard Medical School found that men who drank the most coffee slashed their risk of developing the fastest growing and most difficult to treat prostate cancers by more than half when compared to men who drank no coffee. Gout - Drinking 4 or more cups of coffee each day dramatically reduces the incidence of gout, say US. and Canadian researchers. Men who drank 4 - 5 cups daily lowered their risk by 40%, and those who drank 6 or more cups daily reduced their risk of developing gout by 59% when compared to men who didn't drink coffee. Breast Cancer - coffee can either reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or delay its onset, according to Swedish studies. They found that coffee alters a woman's metabolism and produces a safer balance of estrogen. Women who drank 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day reduced their cancer risk by as much as two-thirds, depending on the specific type of breast cancer. Diabetes - Enjoying 6 or more cups of coffee daily can cut chances of Type 2 diabetes by 54% in men and 30% in women over those who don't drink coffee. Parkinson's disease - Several studies show that drinking coffee lowers a man's risk of developing Parkinson's up to 80% - and the more the better. Colon cancer - A Japanese report found that women who drank 3 or more cups of coffee every day slashed their risk of developing colon cancer in half. What's responsible for coffee's healthy benefits? Most researchers believe it's the antioxidant ( polyphenol or flavonoid ) in coffee, but there are hundreds of compounds in coffee that may be partially responsible. So bear in mind, Drinking coffee - minus the milk and sugar, does have its health and benefits.

Watercress - The Miracle Food

Sai Yeong Choy Miracle

Watercress is called "sai yeong choy" in cantonese. It is infact one of my favorite vegetable, which I enjoy as soup. Sai yeong choy is popularly used by the chinese to boil as soup, and taste extremely good when consume slowly in extremely hot serving. In the later part of the years, I came across some serving Watercress as fried vegatable which I enjoy equally. However, when you fry it, you must use the young shoot which will be crispy and easy to bite in.

Now I came across this scientific discovery article to share with you. The articles reads as follows;

"UK Scientists say watercress is the new super food, able to prevent certain types of cancer. According to a study published this week in the British Journal of Nutrition, the consumption of a three ounce portion of watercress reduced the presence of a key tumor growth factor six and and eight hours after eating the watercress in healthy patients who had previously been treated for breast cancer.

The study was conducted by the Cancer Research Center at the School of Medicine, Soputhamption General Hospital in the United Kingdom. The study concluded watercress is as therapeutic as traditional drug treatments with tamoxifen and herceptin, commonly used chemotherapy drugs.

The study also said that through regular consumption, watercress "has the potential to confer valuable protection against cancer in general." Watercress has the ability to turn off HIF 1, a signal sent out by cells calling for blood supply," said noted aging scientist Dr. Nicholas Perricon. When HIF1 becomes incorrectly regulated, otherwise harmless precancerous clusters of cells have the opportunity to grow to form invasive tumors. "Scientists have been looking for anti-angiogenesis agents for years because if we can turn off the blood supply, we can kill the cancer," said Perricone. "And it looks like watercress can do that."

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in February 2007 showed that, in addition to reducing DNA damage, a daily dose of watercress increased the ability of cells to further resist DNA damage that may be caused by free radicals.

In thre study, 60 men and women, half of whom were smokers, consumed their usual diet plus 85 grams of raw watercress daily for eight weeks. Blood samples were analyzed for plasma antioxidant status and DNA damage in lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. Watercress consumption significantly reduced lymphocyte DNA damage.

In the time of the Romans, Greeks and Persians watercress was used as a natural medicine, prescribed for migraines, anemia, eczema, kidney and liver disorder and tuberculosis.

So don't know what soup to cook for the family? Make it watercress soup once a week"

I would strongly recommend you try this if you have not taken watercress soup before. One thing I can be sure is that I have been taking watercress since childhood and it is cheap and easy to obtain in a lot of places. And while consuming is as part of food, it brings in these miracle value that the scientists now say.

Healing and Cleansing with Barley

Ever wonder the healing and cleansing power with barley.  
From an early age,  my mother has always been boiling barley soup at home and  drinking barley soup has been a regular affair at home.  

High in fibre, barley is also a kidney cleanser. Better yet, regular intake of it helps  prevent heart disease. BARLEY water was always a regular drink  when we were still living at home. Whenever we had to go for a medical exam that included a urine test, my mum would make us drink barley water a day before it to make sure we got a positive result!

My mother was a wise woman. I later found out from an Australian naturopath that barley is known to be a kidney cleanser, and he happily downed glasses of it at a meal we had in a coffee-shop here.

Barley is good for your intestinal health too. Try to eat the barley grains you find in your drink or sweet broth with fu chook (beancurd skin) and ginkgo nuts.

It's high in fibre which feeds the friendly bacteria in the colon and helps speed up the transit of fecal matter in it. In this way it helps prevent haemorrhoids and colon cancer.

The propionic acid and beta glucan from barley's insoluble fibre also help lower cholesterol and prevent the formation of gallstones.

Eating barley regularly is a preventive step against heart disease as, besides the fibre content, it is also high in niacin, a B vitamin good for lowering cholesterol.

Diabetics should eat more barley as the fibre will prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high. It also provides relief from constipation or diarrhoea for those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Barley is rich in selenium which prevents cancer and relieves symptoms of asthma and arthritis. It is a good source of manganese, copper and phosphorous.

Malt sugar comes from sprouted barley which, when fermented, is an ingredient in beer and other alcoholic beverages.

Barley, whose Latin name is hordeum vulgare, has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years.

Since ancient times, barley has been used for healing purposes and has been known to the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Athletes in
Greece and Rome in those days were known to eat barley bread to give them strength.

Besides the usual things we do with barley, I enjoy having it in a western soup. The larger pearl barley is used and I love the sticky bite of it. Here's a recipe for barley soup:

Barley soup with roasted garlic

1 cup pearl barley
5 cloves whole garlic, roasted
2 litres chicken stock, steeped from 1 chicken breast simmered in three litres water
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 large onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
150g turkey ham, cut up
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsps sea salt or to taste
1 tbsp chopped parsley

 Method
 1. Wash barley and soak it in a bowl of water for three hours. Drain.

2. Heat oil in pan and fry onions. Add carrots and celery, then the barley and fry for three minutes.

3. Add chicken stock, pepper and roasted garlic and simmer over low heat for at least an hour, or until barley is soft.

4. Add salt to taste and serve the soup garnished with chopped parsley.

Try this out, you have nothing to lose.

Posted by : Ivan