Bacon and Rice Stuffed Tomatoes

Is tomatoe fruit or vegetable? This has been a debate for quite a while, even discussed by the United States Supreme Court in 1887! However, what we all know for sure is tomatoes are good for you. Tasty too. So, instead of debating about it, why don't we just eat it. Here's a simple recipe for you to try.

4 large tomatoes
8 slices of bacon
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
Sprinkle of chopped spring onions for taste
2 cups cooked white rice

You need to finely dice onion and garlic. Cut toff the top of the tomatoes and scoop out the insides. Save the pulps. Fry the bacon slices. Using the bacon-flavoured oil, fry rice with onion, garlic and the tomato pulps. Add some soy sauce and chopped spring onion. Then, fill tomatoes with rice and two slices of bacon each. Bake at 425 degrees celcius for 15 to 20 minutes or until tomatoes are tender.

Get Practical, Get the Real Diet Plan.

Reality check; crash diets don't work! As any good health expert would have sworn, balance and moderation are the golden keys. You might say, "what the heck then, i'm fine with being overweight. Why should i bother?" Here's the thing, even losing 5 - 10% of your weight can begin to lower your risk of serious chronic diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and high blood preassure. Good enough reason, don't you think?

Here's the deal:

• Drink lots of water. PLace 1.5 litre bottle of water at your work desk and make a point to finish it all by the time you want to go home.
• Eat five portions of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Never skip breakfast.
• Keep a supply of healthy snacks at hand such as fresh or dried fruits, rice cakes, low-fat fruit yoghurts.. etc.
• Remove all visible fat from food before you cook it. Take skin off chicken and trim away the white fat off any meat.
• Limit stimulants intake such as caffeine, alcohol, and refine sugar.
• Packed your own lunch or choose lighter meals during lunch, for example; soups or salads.
• Take your time. Don't avoid food groups altogether, such as carbs, in order to lose weight quickly. Your body needs balance.
• Don't be too hard on yourself. Eat things that you find tasty. Don't force yourself to eat things that you don't like only because it's good for you.

Hollywood Body Beautiful Tips

We turn on the TV and watch our hollywood stars flaunting their gorgeous body and we think out loud, how on earth do they manage to maintain their weight? Don't they ever gain a single pound? Well, here are some tips that they're willing to share. Atleast i think they shared it willingly..

Mischa Barton's secret to fabulous bod is swapping carbonated, sugary drinks for dairy-and gluten-free smoothies.

When Courtney Cox wants to lose weight, she eats low-fat 'super food' such as blueberries and fish. But her ultimate secret is: Omega-3-oils.

Paris Hilton's tips would be not denying yourself anything instead allowing yourself to eat little bits of what you like. Then burn the calories off with the good old fashion way... exercise.

J Lo is the 'mini' Atkins follower. She puts on a temporary ban on carbs. And she also works out four or five times a week.

And Jennifer Aniston has the best method of all. Laugh! Researchers say 10 to 15 minutes of laughter burns about 210 kJ.

Which one would you opt for?

Another Yummy Smoothie!

Have you tried the recipes that i've posted before? Well, thought i'd share another one.

You need to combine 1/4 cup of low-fat vanilla soy milk, 1 cup diced kiwi fruit and 1/2 of banana in a blender. Add 1/2 cup frozen green grapes, 6 ice cubes, 1 teaspoon lime juice, 2 teaspoons of honey (optional) and 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh mint. Blend until smooth. Makes 2 -3 cups.

Per one cup serving contains 595kJ, 0 fats, 0 cholesterol, 21mg sodium, 30g carbohydrates, 5g of dietary fibre, and 3g of protein.

Cheers!

Ways to Wipe Out Eye Redness.

Do the whites of your eyes have more lines than the state road map? If so, here’s some tips that can help you.

Water your eyes. It may be obvious, but if your red eyes is because you’re lacking sleep, find a way to catch up on your rest. Closing your eyes for 7 to 8 hours helps to rehydrate them. Without sleep, your eyes dry out.

Treat your eyelids. If your eyes are red when you wake up, the problem could be on your eyelids. That condition is called blepharitis, a low-grade infection on your eyelids. You can avoid this by washing your eyelids with warm water before you go to bed at night. Make sure you cleanse the lids from debris, makeup, oils, bacteria, dandruff and lashes.

Use eyedrops sparingly. Drops designed to reduce eye redness have an agent in them that works to constrict blood vessels. It removes the redness by shrinking the blood vessels in your eye, making it look whiter for the time being. The problem is, most of those drops have a rebound effect so that when they wear off in a couple of hours, the redness comes back worse than it was in the first place. So its better to use eyedrops sparingly.

Artificial tears can do the trick. Do you arrive at work bright-eyed, but leave with red eyes? Redness that occurs during the day is caused by dryness. In that case, you can use over-the-counter artificial tears to moisten your eyes. Unlike other eyedrops, artificial tears don’t shrink blood vessels.

Cool down. It helps to use a cool, wet washcloth and lay it over your closed eyes. The cold will constrict the blood vessels without the rebound effect, and the water will add moisture to your eyes.

Mind your pupils. When you see blood in the white of your eye, it is usually harmless, but if you see blood covering your pupil, that is serious. Go see a doctor and get medical attention immediately. Most times you won’t actually see the bleeding, but your eye will hurt, you vision will be blurred, or you’re seeing a pinkish haze. If those symptoms are present, something is definitely wrong and you should get medical treatment right away.

Watch What You Eat, Some Mushrooms Can Kill.

While many mushrooms are very tasty, as well as healthy, and make good additives for food, some can be deadly. So before you go out picking mushrooms in your back yard and eating them, read this first, it can save your life. Here are a list of very poisonous mushrooms and their descriptions. Avoid it at all costs.

• Death Cap: It isn’t named such for nothing. Of all poisonous mushrooms, the death cap is known to be most deadly. It is greenish or pale yellow tinged with green in colour. The stalk is white, with white gills. Cut it up and it has a sweet, slightly sickly smell. Within 6-24 hours, the poison takes effect, and there’s no known antidote for it.
• Destroying Angel: With its pure white cap, stem and gills, you may be fooled by thinking this mushroom is harmless. But if consumed, it can prove deathly.
• Yellow Stainer: This mushroom has yellow staining at the base of its white stalk. Also a white cap, yellowing with age. The mushroom can easily pass as a field or horse mushroom. However, it can be recognized by cutting the swollen base of the stalk, which goes a deep yellow. Effects of consuming this mushroom includes vomiting and even coma.
• Red-staining Inocybe: Light brown conical cap with a pinkish flush or, occasionally, red veins. Distinguished by its gills which turn red when bruised. Consuming this mushroom can lead to death.
• Panther Cap: This mushroom has a white stalk with a smoky brown cap with flaky white scales on it. The stalk has a series of rings around the base. Eating this mushroom can prove to be lethal.
• Fly Agaric: Bright red cap with white scales; white gills and white scaly stem. Be careful of this one, as it is especially tempting to children. Rarely fatal, but it can cause violent stomach upsets and hallucination.

Yummy Berry Smoothie Recipe

Here's another immune booster smoothie recipe that is easy for you to try. Its a hunger satisfier, loaded with flavour and nutrients. A tips, for maximum enjoyment, serve smoothies in chilled glasses. Dip your glass in cool water then place it in the freezer to chill for five minutes. Use immediately.

Anyway, for the smoothie, first you need to combine 1 cup low fat raspberry yoghurt and 1/4 cup cranberry juice in a blender. Add 1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries. Blend until smooth. Makes 2 - 3 cups.

Each serving contains 650kJ, 0.5 g of fats, 4 mg cholesterol, 90 mg sodium, 28 g of carbohydrates, 3 g of dietary fibre and 8 g of protein.

Immune-Booster-Smoothie

You may think it's outrageous, but your body may require seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily in order to maintain a tough immune system. Seems impossible, right? Here's an easy solution, try drinking your fruit and vegetables instead of chewing them. Now, that doesn't sound so bad, does it? You might even enjoy it. I have a few healthy smoothie recipes i could share with you.

All you need is a blender. Start with this basic recipe:

1 cup plain low-fat yoghurt
3/4 cup carrot, orange, or red grape juice
30 g silken tofu
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup frozen berries
1/4 cup chopped ice

Combine yoghurt, juice and tofu in a blender. Add the fruit and ice and blend until smooth. You can decorate it with a sprig of mint. Makes 2-3 cups.

Now, per cup serving of this recipe contains 470kJ, 1 g of fats, 4 mg of cholestrol, 71 mg of sodium, 17 g of carbohydrates, 2 g of dietary fibre and 8 g of protein.

I'll post more of healthy smoothie recipe later! Enjoy!

Save Your Life… With Intimacy

Those who suffer a heart attack and have no spouse or close personal friends are three times more likely to have a fatal heart attack within five years of the original event than those whose hearts are equally injured but are married or have intimate relationships. That is what a study at Duke University Medical School found out. The study is based on a nine year follow-up study of 1,368 patients who were initially admitted to Duke for cardiac catheterization to diagnose heart disease.

The results were consistent for people with both minor and severe heart muscle damage following a heart attack. Such people generally face about a 40 percent chance of dying within five years. The study also found that those who were married or had a close intimate relationship reduced their risk of suffering a fatal heart attack to 20 percent, whereas those who lacked intimacy raised their chance of dying to 60 percent.

It is found consistently in research that both men and women with poor social support are more likely to die that those with more social support. The relative degree of social support an unhealthy person experiences is one of the factors that can predict the outcome of the illness. This is true of all serious illness, including heart disease, cancer and stroke.

The research is particularly interesting in regard to women with breast cancer. Researches wanted to know whether the longevity of survival depended not so much on social support, but on the stage at which the person was diagnosed. It was found that women who live alone tend to be diagnosed at an earlier stage of the cancer than those living with someone else. Yet those who live alone most often die sooner. In other words, early diagnosis was not a factor in determining longevity.

At this time, no one knows exactly why those who live with someone actually live longer, except the finding supports the general conclusion that those who have strong relationships and intimacy tend to have stronger immune responses.

Minerals and Your Immune System

Tiny, in fact, imperceptible rocks in your food, that’s what minerals are. In fact, it’s the same thing that is gouged out of mines and used to construct buildings, conduct electricity, and even make batteries! They are metals, from the earth’s crust, absorbed by plants, which are then eaten by animals, as well as us, humans. With the help of minerals, your body can build the proteins that combine to form the underlying structure for your bones, muscles, organs, and nerve tissue. Minerals are also required to maintain the function of these tissues.

The human body uses more than sixty minerals, and together, they compose about four percent of our total bodies. However, of those sixty types of minerals, seven are present in our tissues in relatively large quantities. They are calcium, magnesium, chlorine, sodium, sulfur, phosphorus and potassium. Minerals work synergistically with enzymes and other vitamins, making it possible for the body to utilize all essential nutrients and carry out normal cellular activity.

Minerals are important for a vast array of metabolic and immune system functions and because of that, fundamental to good health. All of the minerals your body needs are available from vegetable sources like beans, leafy greens, whole grains and fruits. They can also be found in red meat, poultry and fish. Though all minerals used by the body are essential, only a few has been proven to have clear immunity-related functions or specific roles in the protection against diseases. These minerals are magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. So remember to watch your mineral intake for the general well-being of your body.