antioxidants Archives - Medicinal Plants Information

We all know how good spinach is for us, but how many people actually eat it on a regular basis? It isn’t really the kind of vegetable that you would have on its own. It is more than likely that you would include a little of it within something else like a pie, soup or omelet. The other thing about spinach is that by cooking it you destroy a lot of the valuable nutrients that you are trying to get. The best way to get the most out of your spinach is to have it raw. You could have a salad with spinach but how much of this healthy stuff could you eat? The truth is that most of us would only be able to eat a small amount of spinach this way. You would soon get bored of it, especially if you had spinach salad meal after meal. One of the easiest ways to get all these nutrients in a tasty way is to make a spinach green smoothie.

The thought of a spinach green smoothie might not sound that appetizing, but that is exactly what they can be. For a start of, a spinach green smoothie isn’t just made up of spinach. The reality is that green smoothies are made up mainly of fruit. The correct proportions for a green smoothie are 60% fruit and 40% green leaves. This means that it will mainly taste of fruit. This makes green smoothies a far more pleasant affair. Basically, the fruit of choice and the spinach is thrown into a blender and the whole thing whizzed up. Here is an example of a spinach green smoothie recipe.

1 handful spinach

1 pint strawberries

3 small peaches

2 cups water

This smoothie will taste of strawberries and peaches and will be very tasty indeed. However, as well as getting all of this fruit towards your five a day you will also be getting all of the nutrients from the raw spinach as well. It is thought that raw greens provide far more essential dietary elements such a raw amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins than even fruit. These will all go towards protecting your body against diseases such as cancer as well as providing valuable plant roughage as well. A spinach green smoothie can also be very helpful as part of a weight reducing diet. In fact green smoothies can even be used as complete meal substitutes when dieting.

The spinach green smoothie after whizzing up

One sure thing is that, a spinach green smoothie is also healthy for the reason of the things that are left out of it. There are none of the artificial flavours, additives, trans-saturated fats, cholesterol and refined sugars that you find in modern processed foods. All of these things can cause havoc with your body, giving rise to conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. If you want to find out about over 200 more green smoothie recipes go to Green Smoothie Recipes.

Pomegranates are those hard looking fruits that seem to be on the edge of all the other fruits in the supermarket. Once it was just a seasonal novelty kind of fruit. Now there is great interest in the medicinal and health giving properties of pomegranates. Some people even say that you can stay young with pomegranates

This fruit originates from Asia and the Middle East. In these areas it has been grown since prehistoric times. You can even find mention of pomegranates in the scriptures of the bible and ancient Greek poems. Since then, the growing of this fruit has spread into the rest of Europe. Only hot countries such as Spain and Italy are suitable for growing pomegranates. It was then taken from there onwards to the Americas, where it has proved to be a popular fruit.

In the ancient world pomegranates quickly became part of the medical culture where it was used to treat various illnesses such as colds and flu. Pomegranates were said to give health and fertility to the people who ate them. As you can see it has been associated with life and health giving properties almost since the dawn of humankind. It is no wonder, therefore, that it now attracts much scientific and medical interest. Most of the drugs that we already have are derived from plants. You only have to think about aspirin which was developed from the bark of a particular type of willow tree. Botanists are continually searching for new plants in the hope that they will be the new sources of modern wonder drugs. Sometimes, however, we have to look more closely at the plants and fruits that we already eat.

individual fruits of the pomegranate — Close up of the individual fruitlets inside the pomegranate

Pomegranates have been found to have a wide spectrum of different chemical substances in their makeup. One thing is certain and that is that they are packed with antioxidants. Antioxidants have been found to be able to combat a number of health issues because they help deal with poisonous substances in the body. These poisons get into our bodies in all aspects of our life. They exist as pollutants in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the fluids that we drink. If they are left unchecked they can cause damage to our genetic material. This damage can eventually lead to premature aging and cancers.

pomegranates whole — The skin of the pomegranate is also of interest

Scientists are busy trying to identify and classify all of the other interesting substances in Pomegranates. Their search for medicinal chemicals has spread to the peel surrounding pomegranates and the leaves of the tree on which they grow. The one thing that is certain is that with all of the antioxidants in them you could stay young with pomegranates. To find out more information on pomegranate health benefits click the link.

Medicinal Plants Information

Tag Archives: antioxidants

Spinach Green Smoothie

Stay Young with pomegranates that contain huge amounts of antioxidants

Explaining how plants can help keep us healthy