Honey by Hillary Stein

Honey

The other day I was reading about natural honey (since I love sweets!) and came across some really cool facts I thought I would share. Natural honey is wonderful as a food and also as a medicine. There are many different grades of honey, depending on factors such as where it is sourced and what containers it was stored in.

• While honey is sweet like white sugar, it is unique in that it also has small amounts of nutrients our bodies need for healthy living including: calcium, potassium, magnesium, and folic acid.

• Honey is a source of antioxidants which aids in protecting against some diseases. The quality of the antioxidants depends partially on the floral source of the honey. The darker honeys are known to have a higher antioxidant content.

• Honey is a great sports activity enhancer because of its high energy boosting ability. Plus, it is a lot cheaper than commercially sold sports bars and drinks. Because honey is in a pre-digested form it is directly absorbed into the body unlike refined sugar which needs to go through normal digestion.

• A recent study showed there is an antibacterial property to honey which makes it a better choice than refined sugar when it comes to tooth decay. Fruit juice starts to erode the tooth enamel ten minutes after consumption. Honey showed a delayed reaction on the teeth of 30 minutes, and the prominence of the erosion was less.

These facts make it highly worth substituting honey in some foods for other sweeteners. So for that next peanut butter sandwich opt out of jam and bring on the honey!

Because of the possible presence of botulinum , infants under 1 year old should not be feed honey.

Yoga

SO MANY BENEFITS! IT IS WORTH LOOKING INTO.

I am not sure why it has taken me so long to post about yoga.  It’s a love of mine. The incredible sense of wellbeing after I attend a yoga class is almost addictive. Let me mention some of the benefits:

1. Deliberate breathing to match movement enhances the sense of wellbeing.

2. Yoga is strength training. Yes, it strains the muscles. I used to think of yoga as poses that looked like a human pretzel.  It is that for some, but there is much more to it.

3. Part of yoga practice includes balance. With patience in yourself and practice, the balance comes.  Balance manifests itself in many things in life. My husband marvels at my balance as I maneuver my bike around tricky areas where he has to get off of his bike.

4. I love the stretching portion of yoga. It doesn’t matter how flexible or not you are. Practice shows improvement.  In turn, this helps guard against injury.

5. Perhaps my favorite part of yoga is practicing calming my mind…a difficult task in this whirlwind life. Also, you can have a deeper sleep because of the relaxation that accompanies yoga practice. Yes!

Find a class! It is difficult at first, so give it time and I think you will end up loving it too!

Great Grains!

Grains that I have tried and really liked are:

• Spelt               Pricey, but delicious in bread, use in cookies but you need a little more flour than if you use wheat flour. (grind)
• Quinoa          Considered a perfect food–I put a small amount of quinoa in with rice every time I cook rice.
• Kamut          Use in coffee cake, muffins or bread. (grind)
• Oats               The less processed the oats are, the better they are for you (for instance, rolled oats are better than quick).
• Buckwheat Use in small amounts because of the strong taste. (grind)
• Wheat          Substitute out some white for wheat flour in most everything you cook.  Use White Wheat, it is more alkaline (which is what you want), Red Wheat is more acidic. (grind)
• Corn              Try ground corn in corn bread with spelt flour. (grind)
• Brown Rice Cook a little longer than white rice.
• Barley           Use whole barley for sprouting.

Add grains in SLOWLY if you are not used to them.  If you don’t, you may end up with a stomach ache.