• 4 medium beets, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 cups purple cabbage, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable broth (or beef broth)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
• sour cream (optional, for serving)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large stockpot, add beets, purple cabbage, carrots, onion, diced tomatoes, and broth. Mix well and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, about 5-6 minutes.
2. Cover the lid and simmer over low heat until the beets are tender, about 30- 35 minutes.
3. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream on top and a sprinkle of chopped parsley, if desired.

Instant Pot instructions:

1. Add beets, purple cabbage, carrots, onion, diced tomatoes, and broth into the instant pot and mix well to combine.
2. Seal the lid and turn the steam release knob to SEAL position. Pressure cook for 15-20 minutes until tender. Once the time is up, quick release the remaining pressure by turning the steam release valve to the venting position.
3. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Reference: Ahead of Thyme

Written by: Omojo Emeje

Pasta bake with sausage (baked ziti) is basically a lazy day lasagna with layers of pasta tossed in a rich tomato meat sauce packed with Italian sausage, layered with lots of gooey golden mozzarella cheese, and baked to perfection. It’s an easy and delicious casserole dinner to make any day of the week. Plus, you can even make it ahead and freeze for another day.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. (454 grams) penne pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb. Italian sausage

1 cup onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

4 cups tomato sauce

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, divided

¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

¼ cup fresh basil, chopped

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

½ teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)

3 cups fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

– Preheat oven to 375F.

– Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add pasta and cook until al dente (fully cooked but still firm), about 8-10 minutes, or according to package directions. Drain well and set aside.

– Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pot (or 4 qt. Dutch oven) for 2 minutes over medium-high heat until the hot oil sizzles. Add sausage and stir to cook until browned, about 5-7 minutes. Use a spatula to break the sausages into small pieces.

– Add onions and garlic and sauté until soft and tender, about 2-3 minutes. Stir to combine.

– Pour in tomato sauce, turn the heat down to medium, and bring the meat sauce to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Stir in Italian seasoning, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, parsley and basil. Season with salt and pepper.

Reference: Ahead of Thyme

Written by: Omojo Emeje

Cinnamon Popcorn
Sprinkle 2 Tsp ground cinnamon on four cups of air-popped popcorn for a low-calorie sweet treat.

Frozen Tropical Fruit Kebabs
These kebabs, made of frozen mango and pineapple drizzled with white chocolate, make for one sweet treat.

Chocolate–Pistachio Orange Slices
This simple yet decadent three-ingredient dessert is guaranteed to impress your Valentine.

Blueberry Compote
This vibrant blueberry compote makes a dreamy holiday topping on yogurt, frozen yogurt, or lightened-up ice cream for a healthier spin on brunch or dessert.

Berry Beet Smoothie
Treat yourself and your sweetheart to loads of antioxidants all wrapped up in a stunning pink package for Valentine’s Day. This recipe gets its vibrant hue from cooked beets and frozen berries.

Ingredients (serves 2): 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt, 1 tsp honey, 1 cup mixed frozen berries, 1 cup freshly cooked beets, 3 to 5 ice cubes

Spiced Banana-Chocolate Muffins
For those who enjoy something sweet to start off their day, these spiced banana-chocolate muffins will keep you energized all day long by using a heavy mixture of banana, ginger, and chia seeds.

Chocolate Covered Watermelon
These tasty watermelon slices are easy to make — and even easier to eat.

Fudgy Paleo Brownies
Chocolate is always a good idea in our minds, but with this recipe, it actually is! The recipe swaps out traditional ingredients for things like almond flour, coconut sugar, honey, almond butter, and olive oil to cut down on starchy carbs and healthier fats. Don’t forget the sea salt on top!

Strawberry-Yogurt Swirl Pops
Strawberries and vanilla yogurt pack these pretty and delicious frozen pops, each of which has just about 100 calories for a nutrition-packed and guilt-free holiday treat.

Reference: Womans Day

Written by: Omojo Emeje

They say, “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Eating Apples and drinking its juice not only enhances healthy body and mind but also helps strengthens muscles. Apple juice is one of the tastiest and most favorite among kids also. Packed with benefits of vitamins, calcium, potassium and magnesium, the fruit and its juice give out adequate health punch. Full of pectin and fiber, Apple juice helps boost energy. Being the richest source of phenolic compounds, the juice of Apples when consumed regularly helps fight against common infections.

Apples are grown across the world and the fruit works towards making the body healthy and fit. There are over seven thousand varieties of the delectable fruit and comes in ravishing red, green and yellow colors. Delicious in taste and tart in color, Apple is enriched in vitamins and other essential nutrients that go a long way in adding vigor and vitality to the body.

Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspension, and then pasteurized for packaging in glass, metal, or aseptic processing system containers, or further treated by dehydration processes to a concentrate.

Nutritional facts about Apple:

• A small Apple has only about 77Kcal
• It is rich in vitamins like A, B-12, C & D
• It has high amount of dietary fibre
• Besides this, it is also a good source of iron, calcium, potassium & magnesium among others
• Apples are also packed with good amount of antioxidant properties

Benefits of Apple Juice :

1. Enhances skin
2. Aids weight control
3. Aids a healthy heart
4. Keeps liver healthy
5. Cures constipation
6. Good for diabetes
7. Hydrates the body
8. Prevents anemia
9. Improves vision

Here are some of the health benefits of Apple juice that you need to know about if you wish to lead a healthy and fit life.

The alkaline diet is based on the idea that replacing acid-forming foods with alkaline foods can improve your health.
Alkaline diet describes a group of loosely related diets based on the misconception that different types of food can have an effect on the pH balance of the body. It originated from the acid ash hypothesis, which primarily related to osteoporosis research.

Proponents of this diet even claim that it can help fight serious diseases like cancer.
The alkaline diet is also known as the acid-alkaline diet or alkaline ash diet.

Its premise is that your diet can alter the pH value — the measurement of acidity or alkalinity — of your body.

Your metabolism — the conversion of food into energy — is sometimes compared to fire. Both involve a chemical reaction that breaks down a solid mass.
However, the chemical reactions in your body happen in a slow and controlled manner. When things burn, an ash residue is left behind. Similarly, the foods you eat leave an “ash” residue known as metabolic waste.

This metabolic waste can be alkaline, neutral, or acidic. Proponents of this diet claim that metabolic waste can directly affect your body’s acidity. In other words, if you eat foods that leave acidic ash, it makes your blood more acidic. If you eat foods that leave alkaline ash, it makes your blood more alkaline.

According to the acid-ash hypothesis, acidic ash is thought to make you vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective.
By choosing more alkaline foods, you should be able to “alkalize” your body and improve your health.

Alkaline foods help in countering the risks of acidity and acid refluxes, bringing some sort of relief. Alkaline diet is based on the idea of cutting down on acid forming foods.

Some alkaline foods include:

Green Leafy Vegetables: Most green leafy vegetables are said to have an alkaline effect in our system.

Citrus fruits: they are the best source of alkaline foods. Lemon, lime and oranges are loaded with Vitamin C and are known to help in detoxifying

Root Vegetables: Root vegetables like sweet potato, taro root, lotus root, beets and carrots are great sources of alkali.

Onion, Garlic and Ginger are great flavour enhancers too.

Food components that leave an acidic ash include protein, phosphate, and sulfur, while alkaline components include calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

Certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline, or neutral:

• Acidic: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains, alcohol
• Neutral: natural fats, starches, and sugars
• Alkaline: fruits, nuts, legumes, and vegetables

Regular pH levels in your body

When discussing the alkaline diet, it’s important to understand pH.

Put simply, pH is a measurement of how acidic or alkaline something is.

The pH value ranges from 0–14:

• Acidic: 0.0–6.9
• Neutral: 7.0
• Alkaline (or basic): 7.1–14.0

Many proponents of this diet suggest that people monitor the pH of their urine to ensure that it is alkaline (over 7) and not acidic (below 7).

However, it’s important to note that pH varies greatly within your body. While some parts are acidic, others are alkaline — there is no set level.

Your stomach is loaded with hydrochloric acid, giving it a pH of 2–3.5, which is highly acidic. This acidity is necessary to break down food.

On the other hand, human blood is always slightly alkaline, with a pH of 7.36–7.44. When your blood pH falls out of the normal range, it can be fatal if left untreated.

However, this only happens during certain disease states, such as ketoacidosis caused by diabetes, starvation, or alcohol intake.

Food affects the pH of your urine, but not your blood

It’s critical for your health that the pH of your blood remains constant. If it were to fall outside of the normal range, your cells would stop working and you would die very quickly if untreated.

For this reason, your body has many effective ways to closely regulate its pH balance. This is known as acid-base homeostasis.

In fact, it’s nearly impossible for food to change the pH value of blood in healthy people, although tiny fluctuations can occur within the normal range.

However, food can change the pH value of your urine — though the effect is somewhat variable. Excreting acids in your urine is one of the main ways your body regulates its blood pH.

If you eat a large steak, your urine will be more acidic several hours later as your body removes the metabolic waste from your system.

Therefore, urine pH is a poor indicator of overall body pH and general health. It can also be influenced by factors other than your diet.

Conclusion

The alkaline diet is quite healthy, encouraging a high intake of fruits, vegetables, and healthy plant foods while restricting processed junk foods.

However, the notion that the diet boosts health because of its alkalizing effects is suspect. These claims haven’t been proven by any reliable human studies.

Some studies suggest positive effects in a very small subset of the population. Specifically, a low-protein alkalising diet may benefit people with chronic kidney disease.

In general, the alkaline diet is healthy because it’s based on whole and unprocessed foods. No reliable evidence suggests it has anything to do with pH levels.

Source: Healthline

Written by Sarah Amah.

Almonds contain vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber, and so they may offer a number of health benefits. Just a handful of almonds (approximately 1 ounce) contains one-eighth of a person’s daily protein needs.
Almonds can be taken raw or toasted as a snack or add them to sweet or savory dishes. They are also available sliced, flaked, slivered, as flour, oil, butter, or almond milk.

BENEFITS OF ALMONDS

1) Almond and Cholesterol: Almonds are high in fat, but it is unsaturated fat. This type of fat does not increase the risk of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol. In moderation, the American Heart AssociationTrusted (AHA) note that unsaturated fats may improve a person’s blood cholesterol status. In addition, almonds contain no cholesterol. Consuming almonds may increase vitamin E levels in the plasma and red blood cells which lower overall cholesterol levels. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that can help stop the oxidization process that causes cholesterol to clog the arteries. Nutrients in almonds may help boost or maintain levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol. It is advised that 45 grams (g) of almonds should be consumed per day to protect heart health.

2) Almonds and cancer risk:
It is a protective factor for the development of breast cancer.

3) Almonds and heart disease:
It helps to improve lipid, or fat, levels in the blood. This can benefit heart health. Almonds significantly increased the levels of antioxidants in the bloodstream, reduced blood pressure, and improved blood flow.

4) Almond and vitamin E:
Vitamin E and other antioxidants help prevent oxidative damage in the body. This damage can occur when too many free radicals accumulate. Free radicals result from natural bodily processes and environmental stresses. The body can eliminate many of them, but dietary antioxidants help remove them, too. High levels of free radicals can cause oxidative stress, resulting in damage to cells. This can lead to various diseases and health problems. Almonds are high in antioxidants that can protect your cells from oxidative damage, a major contributor to aging and disease.

5) Almond and blood sugar:
Almonds are extremely high in magnesium, a mineral that many people don’t get enough of. High magnesium intake may offer major improvements for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

6) Almonds help manage weight: It is low in carbohydrates but high in protein, healthful fats, and fiber. Feeling full can help people lose weight, as they will be less tempted to seek more snacks.

7) Almonds boost bone health: Almonds contain calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, vitamin K, protein, and zinc, all of which contribute to bone health.

In other words, a handful of almonds a day can keep the doctor away! ?

Written by: Samuel Sobiye

Reference: Webmd

Written by: Omojo Emeje

By no means are we encouraged to double our food fat.

An excess amount of poundage, even on so-called “healthy” obese adults, increases the risk of developing heart disease,
Too much fat is also linked to type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain cancers.

But … a healthy amount of fat on the body has its benefits.

BENEFIT OF FAT IN THE BODY

1. Stores Energy

Fat serves an important role for storing energy. “Older people tend to lose weight in the later stages of life, so having those energy reserves is also aids cancer patients, who often lose weight and become frail during advanced stages of the disease.

2. Good for Vitamins

Our fat-soluble vitamins — A, E, D and K — are absorbed in the body’s fat tissue. If people cut out all the fat in their diet, they would be deficient in those vitamins, And it’s less about having the fat, and more about consuming foods that have fat. By eliminating foods with fat, you miss out on nutrients that play a role in reducing inflammation, clotting blood, keeping your skin healthy and strengthening bones. You cannot find these important vitamins in doughnuts, but you can in fortified milk products, cold-water fish, carrots, avocados and a host of other foods

3. Keeps us warm

In bone-chilling weather, the overweight dude has the advantage over the thin guy. Why? Fat is an insulator, so it’s like wearing an extra layer of clothing. When you’re exposed to extreme cold weather, fat retards heat loss. It’s an adaptive mechanism to help keep a core temperature, some studies have suggested that cold-water swimmers with a higher body mass index (BMI) have a lower risk of getting hypothermia.

4. Protects the body from trauma

Visceral fat (fat located around your organs) provides padding and a source of energy for the kidneys, liver and heart. Fat provides a layer of protection, almost like a barrier to physical trauma, Think of the pounding athletes in contact sports take when competing and training. Fat comes in handy for them, and it has for you with the bumps and falls you’ve taken over the years.

In conclusion, it is better to be fit than fat. “Everything in moderation, There are negative effects of having too little fat and negative effects of having too much fat.

Written by: Ruth Olusegun