Healthy Herbs and Spices

Objavljeno u Priroda zna bolje!
Some Super-Healthy Herbs and Spices Used In The Mediterranean Diet
Green vegetables, a staple of the Dalmatian Mediterranean Diet Green vegetables, a staple of the Dalmatian Mediterranean Diet Photo Vivian Grisogono

Mediterranean dishes tend to be low in carbs, high in protein and packed with nutrient-containing vegetables. While the healthy base ingredients used to prepare Mediterranean meals certainly provide an excellent reason for choosing the diet, they are nothing compared to the positive health effects of the herbs and spices these meals contain. 


Ingredients in the Mediterranean diet, like tomato, lettuce and pretty much any plant that has colour are jam-packed with powerful pigments that act as antioxidants and other disease-preventing agents in the body. These pigments are often referred to as phytochemicals in the food-science world.  

Since herbs and spices are plants just as vegetables are, they also add phytochemicals to the diet. Cinnamon, turmeric and oregano contain different types of pigments. Phytochemicals are responsible for pigmentation. Without these chemicals, there would be no colour in organic-based foods.

All the herbs and spices associated with the Mediterranean diet provide health benefits through their phytochemicals. Some of the commonly used herbs and spices provide unique effects.

Basil


Basil is a herb which is used a lot in Dalmatian cooking. Many if not most households cultivate their own basil plants, in pots if not in the garden, propagating their crop from year to year from the seed-heads formed after flowering. Basil is also commonly used as seasoning in Italian cooking, which is technically part of the Mediterranean diet, despite being high in carbs. It is possible to make Italian-type meals lighter by replacing pasta with spaghetti squash. 

Basil is loaded with vitamin A and has the ability to destroy bad species of bacteria. Its anti-inflammatory properties have persuaded some users to profess it to be an excellent herb for relieving migraine symptoms. Inflammation in certain arthritic conditions is sometimes helped by including basil in the diet.

Oregano


Oregano is another herb which plays a big part in the Dalmatian diet. It is even more nutrient-dense than the tomatoes that the herb is often responsible for seasoning. It has all the vitamins and minerals of those lovely, red fruits, plus, it comes with the addition of a lot more fibre and omega-3 fatty acids.

Fatty acids help keep us heart healthy. They may also support healthy brain function. Some studies have even suggested that the addition of fatty acids helps to alleviate the symptoms of autism-spectrum disorders.

Cinnamon 


Cinnamon is a spice used to bring out the flavour in a lot of Middle-Eastern dishes, and is increasingly popular in Dalmatian cooking.

Cinnamon has the ability to stabilize blood sugar levels. It has been clinically proven to be a powerful addition to any diabetic diet, and it may also help to prevent Type 2 Diabetes. 

Turmeric 


Turmeric is a spice more associated with Asian and Middle Eastern cooking than Dalmatian. Chicken prepared with turmeric takes on a distinctive orange colour which gives advance promise of its tangy flavour.

Turmeric is now widely available in Dalmatia, but a lot of cooks use it only as an add-on seasoning to sprinkle over food, rather than including it in the actual cooking.

Its increasing popularity may have something to do with the fact that Dr. Oz has suggested consuming this seasoning may result in weight loss. Dr. Oz’s programme has been compulsive viewing in Croatia, and the attraction of losing weight by eating something tasty is never one to be ignored, especially by those who over-indulge. 

In fact the weight loss only happens in conjunction with a healthy active Mediterranean lifestyle, but some of turmeric’s health benefits can still be reaped even if your lifestyle is unhealthy. If you are only concerned with losing weight, you probably won’t notice turmeric’s ability to reduce inflammation. But your aches and pains may be reduced anyway through turmeric’s antioxidant action without you thinking about it.

Summing up

This is a small sample of the herbs and spices used in the Mediterranean diet, and is an indication of how wide-ranging the definition of Mediterranean diet is. There are plenty of others that all add to those unique flavours and interesting tastes in the dishes found in Dalmatian, Italian, Greek and Middle-Eastern cooking.

© Jonathan Leger 2016

Jonathan Leger is a member of the Garden Writer's Association and a gardening enthusiast. You can check out his website where he shares his passion for the unique plants of the world.

Nalazite se ovdje: Home vaša pisma Priroda zna bolje! Healthy Herbs and Spices

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Former Labour PM accused of ‘handing talking points’ to Tories and Reform after saying net zero strategy faltering

    Climate experts and politicians have criticised Tony Blair for claiming any strategy that relied on rapidly phasing out fossil fuels was “doomed to fail”.

    The former prime minister’s comments, published in a report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), prompted an internal row within Labour, with some accusing him of playing into the hands of a narrative used by rightwing parties to delay climate action.

    Continue reading...

  • Advertising Standards Authority says neither Lavazza UK nor Dualit’s product can be recycled at home

    Descriptions of coffee pods as “compostable eco capsules” were misleading as they could not be composted at home, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.

    The ASA has banned adverts by Lavazza UK and Dualit, which both made claims about the eco credentials of their coffee products.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Huge volumes of chicken muck’ entering rivers are harmful to fish and plants, campaigners argue at Cardiff high court

    Clean river campaigners have told a court that planning permission for a poultry megafarm in Shropshire is unlawful and should be overturned.

    In the high court in Cardiff on Wednesday, Dr Alison Caffyn argued that the council had failed to take into account all the environmental impacts of the industrial chicken units, which will house 230,000 birds at any one time, in particular the effects of spreading manure on land.

    Continue reading...

  • Corroboree frog belongs to 100m-year-old family of amphibians but is now found only in the puddles and peat bogs of Kosciuszko national park

    Scientists have sequenced the genome of the critically endangered southern corroboree frog – one of Australia’s most threatened amphibians – in hope that the information could be used to aid its recovery.

    The striking alpine frog, which has distinctive yellow and black markings, is so threatened by disease and the drying of its habitat due to climate change, that it is considered “functionally extinct”. The species survives in the temporary pools and peat bogs of Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales, with the help of zoo breeding and re-introduction programs.

    Continue reading...

  • The scheme, part of policy blitz for local elections, will encourage councils and police forces to work together

    Councils will be encouraged to work with police forces to seize and crush vehicles used by fly-tippers, in the latest phase of a government policy blitz before Thursday’s local elections.

    Under a scheme being led by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), new legislation will impose jail sentences of up to five years for people who illicitly transport waste in England.

    Continue reading...

  • Temperatures south Asians dread each year arrive early as experts talk of ever shorter transition to summer-like heat

    The summer conditions south Asian countries dread each year have arrived alarmingly early, and it’s only April. Much of India and Pakistan is already sweltering in heatwave conditions, in what scientists say is fast becoming the “new normal”.

    Temperatures in the region typically climb through May, peaking in June before the monsoon brings relief. But this year, the heat has come early. “As far as Asia and the Indian subcontinent are concerned, there was a quick transition from a short window of spring conditions to summer-like heat,” said GP Sharma, the meteorology president of Skymet, India’s leading private forecaster.

    Continue reading...

  • A restoration project at Sharpham near Totnes aims to tackle the loss of the natural world while helping people build mental resilience

    Two landscapes separated by a wide sweep of river tell a story of change. On one side is traditional farmland, close-cropped grazing, uniform grasses, neatly tended hedges and a sparsity of trees, a farmscape ubiquitous across England. On the riverbank opposite, rougher, less uniform grasses grow unevenly between trees, thistle and brambles, in a chaos of natural disorder swaying in the breeze towards the reedbeds below.

    The land on the Sharpham estate side of the River Dart used to be a mirror of the traditional farmscape on the opposite bank. It hosted a non-organic dairy farm and a vineyard, within a tightly controlled 18th-century heritage landscape of deforested parkland.

    Continue reading...

  • The celebrated presenter warns of ‘modern day colonialism at sea’ as he highlights the destruction caused by overfishing and bottom trawling

    When David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary aired eight years ago, its impact was so strong it was credited with bringing about a revolution in the way people use plastics. Now film-makers are hoping he can do the same for other destructive environmental practices that the world’s best-known living naturalist describes as “draining the life from our oceans”.

    The industrial fishing method of bottom trawling is the focus of a large part of Attenborough’s latest film, Ocean, which airs in cinemas from 8 May, the naturalist’s 99th birthday. In a remarkably no-holds-barred narrative, he says these vessels tear the seabed with such force “the trails of destruction can be seen from space”. He also condemns what he calls “modern day colonialism at sea”, where huge trawlers, operating off the coasts of countries reliant on fish for food and livelihoods, are blamed for dwindling local catches.

    Continue reading...

  • Aluminium emissions from satellites as they fall to Earth and burn up is becoming more significant as their numbers soar

    Right now there are more than 9,000 satellites circumnavigating overhead, keeping track of weather, facilitating communications, aiding navigation and monitoring the Earth. By 2040, there could be more than 60,000. A new study shows that the emissions from expired satellites, as they fall to Earth and burn up, will be significant in future years, with implications for ozone hole recovery and climate.

    Satellites need to be replaced after about five years. Most old satellites are disposed of by reducing their altitude and letting them burn up as they fall, releasing pollution into Earth’s atmosphere such as aerosolised aluminium. To understand the impact of these growing emissions from expired satellites, researchers simulated the effects associated with an annual release of 10,000 tonnes of aluminium oxide by 2040 (the amount estimated to be released from disposal of 3,000 satellites a year, assuming a fleet of 60,000 satellites).

    Continue reading...

  • The plastic particles are everywhere – here’s what to know about what to avoid, whether they ever leave the body and what to do about plastic pollution

    Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic.

    Continue reading...

Novosti: Cybermed.hr

Novosti: Biologija.com

Izvor nije pronađen