Avocados for the Body

Avocado: Botany
Production and Uses

Avocados: Good for the Body

Hello, Everyone!

Today, we are looking at the avocado and some of its benefits to the body, and therefore, the scalp's hair. The avocado tree (Persea americana) is native to Central Mexico, and is classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel. 'Avocado' or 'alligator pear' also refers to the fruit (botanically, a large drupe that contains a large seed) of the tree, which may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped or spherical.

Avocados are commercially valuable, and are cultivated in tropical and mediterranean climates throughout the world, producing a green-skinned, pear-shaped fruit that ripens after harvesting. Trees are partially self-pollinating and often are propagated through grafting to maintain a predictable quality and quantity of the fruit.

Culinary Uses
The avocado fruit of horticultural cultivars has a higher fat content than most other fruit, mostly monounsaturated fat, and, consequently, serves as an important staple in the diet of various groups where access to other fatty foods  such as high-fat meats and fish, dairy, etc. is limited.

When held in the palm of the hand and squeezed, a ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure. The flesh is prone to enzymatic browning which means it turns brown quickly after exposure to air. To prevent this, lime or lemon juice can be added to avocados after they are peeled.

Indonesian-style avocado
milkshake with chocolate
syrup

Avocado fruit is not sweet, but savory, yet subtly flavored with a smooth, almost creamy texture. However, It is used in savory dishes and sweet dishes, in many countries yet not for both. The avocado is very popular in vegetarian cuisine, as substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content.


Generally, avocado is served raw, although some cultivars, including the common Hass, can be cooked for a short time without becoming bitter. Caution should be used when cooking with untested cultivars because the flesh of some avocados may be rendered inedible by heat. Prolonged cooking induces this chemical reaction in all cultivars. 

Around the globe avocado culinary use as a dessert is:

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Apples for the Body

Apples: Good for the Body

Hello, Everyone!

Today, we are learning a bit more about the apple and how it benefits the body, including the hair of
the scalp, when eaten.

Apples - Image courtesy, Wikipedia

Facts About the Apple

• The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family (Rosaceae). It is one of the most widely cultivated fruit trees, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by
  humans. 
• The tree originated in Western Asia, where its wild ancestor, the Alma, is still found today. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, resulting in a range of desired characteristics. Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree, even when grown on the same rootstock.
• Apples are often eaten raw without consuming the seeds, which are slightly poisonous (see below), the whole fruit including the skin is suitable for human consumption. Varieties bred for this purpose are termed dessert or table apples.
• Apples can be canned or juiced. They are milled to produce apple cider (non-alcoholic, sweet cider) and filtered for apple juice. The juice can be fermented to make cider (
  alcoholic, hard cider), ciderkin, and vinegar. Through distillation, various alcoholic beverages can be produced, such as applejack, Calvados, and apfelwein. Pectin and apple seed oil may also be produced.
• Sliced apples turn brown due to the conversion of natural phenolic substances into melanin, upon exposure to oxygen. Different cultivars vary in their propensity to brown after slicing. Sliced fruit can be treated with acidulated water to prevent this effect if it isn't going to be eaten immediately after slicing.
• 
  Organic apples are the better choice, as compared to non-organic apples, since non-organic apples have a significantly high level of pesticide residue on them.
• Eating fallen apples,  rather than eating apples picked directly from the tree,  may put the eater at the risk of food poisoning if the apple orchard is also the area for keeping cattle or other animals.  This is true due to the fact that fallen apples may become contaminated with animals' fec
  
  es. Furthermore, the risk may be significantly higher if the fallen apples are used to make home-made unpasteurized, unfermented cider or juice
  , thus letting E. coli multiply.
• A ripe, raw apple digests in eighty-five minutes.
• The cultivated apple tree is at its prime when it is, approximately, fifty years old
• The cultivated apple tree  will bear fruit for more than one hundred years

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Organic Farm: Heritage Seeds

Seed to Seed:
Seed Saving and Growing
Techniques for
Vegetable Gardeners

Organic Seed
Production and Saving

Heritage Seed Company: An Organic Farm Collective

Hello, Everyone!  I've just discovered the Heritage Seed Company and I appreciate their mission to bring back and restore to use, lost foods, while teaching interested gardeners the value of fresh, heirloom and local produce.  They desire to encourage and support more people to plant organic gardens and to save and trade seeds.  To achieve these goals they'll utilize modern technology with social media.  For example, they will provide online education via pre-recorded video, instant chat, and live video streaming.

Heritage Seed Company will have a comprehensive resource center to help all growers.  The website that they are planning will be free to use and be built with open-source tools so other people can utilize the site and the code.  The vision and goal for the website is that it will serve as an educational resource, a communication tool, a digital meeting place and the home of a mapping system that tracks progress of Heritage Seed propagation.

To learn more about this project, visit Heritage Seed Company Organic Farm Collective. You can view an delightful introductory video about this project at the same site, if it's not visible below (it's featured below, yet not 'visible' here at the hour of this post).

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Sage, Spearmint Essential Oil, Kaolin Clay, Baking Soda and Sea Salt

Spearmint Leaves - Spearmint Essential Oil

How to Make Herbal Tooth Powder

Hello, Everyone!  The following video features a recipe for tooth powder which can be used instead of toothpaste for brushing your teeth. John Gallagher of LearningHerbs.com and Mt. Rose Herbs is sharing the recipe, which is from Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir of the Academy of Scottish Herbalism, with us.

The quick and easy recipe includes sea salt, kaolin clay, baking soda, spearmint essential oil and dried sage.  I've used each one of these ingredients individually, except the kaolin clay.   I am looking forward to trying these ingredients together, according to this recipe.

Gallagher shares tips with us as he prepares the tooth powder.  Among the interesting tips he shares are: (1) kaolin clay is used in the tooth polish dentists use and (2) sage helps whiten teeth! I didn't know that about sage.  I love the flavor of sage, especially in chicken dishes.

As we get our hair in great condition and our bodies toned, we might as well pamper our teeth and gums, too!

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Fitness Mirror Dancing: Warm-up Your Samba-hips

Hello, Everyone!

Today's post is a guest feature from, Theresa Stevens, an art teacher who became an Inspirational Dance Teacher and Founder of Lovelight Samba. She will share how women can lose weight by dancing.  As you all know, Spring will be upon us soon enough, and we might as well get ready for it, now, by toning away the excess remnant pounds from the various holiday feasts we enjoyed so much in November, December and New Year's Eve/Day, too. Since we need to get rid of the excess pounds for greater overall body health anyway (the increased blood circulation is great for our hair's health and growth, too), we might as well do it in a way that we really enjoy. Why? Because we are far more likely to make something we really enjoy doing, a regular part of our lives and consequently, reap long-term, lasting, beneficial results.  Theresa will share more about how to experience joy while losing those excess pounds, below. Enjoy!


Weight-Loss and Stress–and the power of getting into Pleasure!
by Theresa Stevens

Have you found a correlation in your life between feeling stressed out and gaining weight?

When you’re stressed, your body releases a hormone called cortisol which slows down your metabolism, causing you to gain weight. And when you are stressed, this same hormone triggers you to reach for fattier, saltier and sweeter foods.

Chocolate is comforting in the first few bites, but emotional eating to comfort stress can lead to adding on extra pounds, which is not comforting and only adds to the stress in your life.

What’s a girl to do? There is one sure-fire remedy for stress, and that’s PLEASURE. And by it’s

Theresa Stevens - 'After'

very definition, it means feeling good.

When you are in PLEASURE, or what I like to call Body Joy, you release neurotransmitters called endorphins― and your body feels light and beautiful, happy and free, and naturally high! Endorphins are those natural body messengers that make you feel SO GOOD after taking a brisk walk, or dancing in the living room, or running down the beach with a dog or child. Endorphins are your body’s natural reward system for taking the actions that are the most healthy and truly comforting for you.

You have to understand that getting into PLEASURE is essential in your ability to lose weight.

You know, in our cultural learning of the best ways to lose weight–we are usually trained that we need to suffer to do it. Things like working out and dieting are very hard to maintain because of the energy of depriving yourself, of not following your body’s natural design of feeling good to lose weight.

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How to Straighten Hair With Milk. Yes, Milk!



'Milk' Your Hair

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

Hello, Everyone! In this video Lauren Farraher, Hair Stylist, discusses how to straighten hair with milk. Farraher has been styling all types of hair for more than nine years. She has experience in cutting, styling and coloring men's, women's and children's hair. Farraher attended a hair and beauty school in New York and currently provides her services, as a hair stylist, at Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc., in Wilmington, N.C.

Why milk? Milk is very nourishing to hair and it can help increase shine and luster, while reducing frizz. In order to straighten hair with milk, use it while hair is dry or slightly damp. In the video, Farraher uses milk on slightly damp hair. To do the same you should cleanse your hair as usual, however do not condition it, yet. Next, you may spray milk on to your hair from a spray bottle, or you may use an application brush and a wide tooth comb to apply the milk to your hair. Be sure to apply the milk from the roots all the way down your hair shaft. Focus on applying it thoroughly and saturate the ends. Once you have applied the milk to your hair, gently massage it into your scalp for a little while. Massaging your scalp helps increase blood circulation which increases the flow of nutrients to your scalp. After massaging your scalp let the milk remain on your hair for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. After this time has passed, rinse your hair thoroughly, and condition as usual. ~ based on Farraher video tips


Extra Tips from Lauren Farraher

by Louis A. Klein

Dr. William Ernst

"If you'd like you can actually spray just a little more milk in your hair before styling, however you do not want to use as much. You are going to want to use probably about a third cup of milk for the initial saturation. What it is going to do is to kind of help relax your hair and weigh a little heavy on your hair which will pull down some of your wave. If your hair is very kinky-curly it won't work as well, however it will help you actually hydrate your hair and give you a little bit more definition within your curl. It will not necessarily give you very straight hair." ~ Lauren Farraher

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