Burn fat with exercise. Being overweight causes a cycling negative effect on the body. Your body becomes more fatigued with excess weight and that causes you not to feel like doing things that will help maintain a lower weight. Eat a moderate meal without any exercise at all will result in increased weight. Don’t envision yourself having to spend 3 hours at the gym to become healthier. It isn’t that surge of exercise you need. Gradual increase in exercise (even if it only means a walk around the block) is critical to breaking that negative cycle.

Eating well balanced meals does two things for you. You can become healthier and lose some weight in the process. Well, that is if you eat fewer calories than you expend with the exercise. For example a large person can eat 2000 calories and exercise enough to use 2400 calories and the end result is inevitable . . . weight loss.

There’s always been a battle between those people who feel it’s better to eat raw vegetables and those who prefer the taste of cooked vegetables. While adding spices to the cooking process may improve flavor, the simple fact that you are cooking them kills some of the beneficial enzymes. Raw fruits and vegetables can provide enzymes your body needs. Vegetables are beneficial because they have fewer calories and provide fiber to your diet. Many vegetables, like lettuce and carrots help you to feel full while having limited the number of calories you’ve taken in.

Don’t feel like a “health nut” if you consider squeezing your own juice. That’s a stereotype given to people who generally put health above all else in life. Well, let’s face it. If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you SHOULD be taking better care of your health and squeezing your own juice is one way to do that. Using a blender and avoiding adding extra sugar will give you juices that have a lot of good enzymes, lower sugar content and are better for you. You might even try guava or red grapes. They make a tasty juice as well as controlling your blood sugar level.

Doctors say we are an obese society. (My wife types doctors’ notes. I remember when she was typing a report the doctor noted a person being obese and she said, “He better NOT say that about me when I go in!”). Well, it’s true. Fast food restaurants pour on the fat and the sugar and then want to know if we want to “super-size” it. YOUR objective is to balance the things you eat.

Foods rich in fiber help clean fat and blood glucose from your system. Naturally, this lowers the blood sugar levels. We talk about foods high in fiber being vegetables and a lot of those are found in salads. Naturally, we consider salads good for you to keep your body clean. The next thing to consider are the salad dressings. Take care here because things like mayonnaise and extra sugars are used to enhance the dressing’s flavor. If you pour on the dressing, you’re defeating the benefit of eating the salads in the first place. Moderation is the key to using dressings. Another option is to use low-calorie / low-fat dressings.

Your pancreas produces enzymes that aid in digestion as well as insulin to regulate sugar in the blood. Over time it loses it’s ability to produce both. This gradual weight loss and the resulting increased health helps to reduce the strain on the pancreas. In other words, this compounds the benefit of the balanced diet.

Four of the fat-fighting compounds you can always count on are calcium, fiber, omega-3s and vitamin D. Calcium is found in dairy products. When considering dairy keep in mind it’s best to use fat-free or soy milk products. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables are high in fiber. Walnuts, flax seed and fish contain a lot of omega-3s while vitamin D is found not only in dairy products, but also in eggs and fish like tuna, salmon and sardines.

Love unique sandwiches? While it is not necessary to make the sandwich or even eat the sandwich, for reasons unknown, I find it nice knowing that there are other who like these things too! Have you had the pleasure of a “St. Paul”? Apparently you can only find this in St. Louis, Missouri. And even then, only in some old time Chinese restaurants. What is it you might ask, well it is a large amount of egg foo young on some white bread along with tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise. Sometimes a slice of good old American cheese is added in. How about the “chow mein sandwich”, ever heard of that one? this sandwich is apparently a very common item on menus along Route 195 (Southern Mass.) and it isn’t confined to just Chinese restaurants either. As you might already know there is no end to these bizarre sandwiches, from peanut butter and onions, peanut butter with pickles to peanut butter, jelly and crushed potato chips!

Included in the list might be one of the most bizarre, the “Avraham Karadi” sandwich (A.K.A. Avi Karadi sandwich). It seems like it may have been created as a gourmet sandwich as it involves a tremendous amount of time and effort to gather and prepare the ingredients. I simply could not see anyone actually enjoying the resulting sandwich, but that’s just me as there has been talk that it is popular in some locations. Here is the list of ingredients:

Passum, a sweet wine sauce from ancient Roman times. This is produced by boiling the must (whole fruits including the seeds, stems, and leaves pressed) and then adding honey in order to thicken it up.

Garum, an old Roman fish sauce (salty), approximated today by mixing in fish paste, passum (as discussed above) and oregano.

An ancient Roman standby, Pine nut sauce, is made by mixing in vinegar, honey and pine nuts as well as a bit of pepper and lovage.

Finally, spinach, onions, along with lettuce and tomatoes as desired, with rye bread being the usual, though black Russian bread seems to be a distant second favorite. Egg paste, such as found in egg salad, is sometimes used as well. Pastrami or roast beef are favorite meats to use. There are a few variations on the recipe, but they all use most of these ingredients. Curiously enough, I could not find out where the nickname of this sandwich, the “Avraham Karadi” or “Avi Karadi” came from.

1. Make the passum: Cook a quart of grape juice, reducing it to one-tenth its original volume. Add honey to taste.

Step Two: Making the Garum: Take the Passum and add two tablespoons of fish paste and a pinch of oregano.

3. The Pine Nut Sauce: For three hours, in vinegar, soak the pine nuts. Now mix with honey, while adding dashes of pepper and lovage.

4. The Sandwich: Put your egg paste on the bread. Put in your choice of meat, add vegetables, pour on passum, garum, and pine nut sauce, and be generous.

There you have it an “Avraham Karadi” (aka “Avi Karadi”) sandwich, enjoy!

Oranges are one of the most well known fruits in the citrus family. In fact, this fruit has been considered to be valuable for over 4,000 years. The very first oranges arrived in Spain, Persia, Africa, Egypt and Asia through the ancient Arab trade routes. It is originally from China and even though oranges have been around for years, it was only during the last century that it became a common household fruit in the United States through the developments in transportation.

Oranges are usually eaten raw as a snack or placed in fruit salads. However, did you know that you can actually do more with them? In fact, you can create whole dishes using oranges as the main ingredient. This means an additional source of Vitamin C for your dishes. So, ready to get started? Here are a few recipes which have oranges as an ingredient:

Orange and Ginger Chicken. You will need: 2 chicken breasts, 1 orange (rind), 1 glass of white wine, 1 garlic clove, fresh ginger, mushrooms and a handful of cashew nuts. First, rub the chicken breasts with a mixture the ginger and orange rind. Next, heat the oil in your frying pan and add the chicken. After it’s cooked, place the chicken in a dish. Fry the mushrooms in the pan with some freshly crushed Garlic, some cashew nuts and add the white wine. Pour this mixture over the chicken and bake it for 20 minutes. This dish is best served with pasta or creamed potatoes.

Salmon in Orange Sauce. For this dish, you will need: 4 slices of fresh salmon, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 30g butter, orange juice, salt and pepper, 1 onion,1/4 cup fresh mixed herbs, 2 cups fish bouillon, 1 cup dry white wine, 1 cup cr’me fraiche, 2 tbsp capers, and 8 orange slices for garnish. First, clean your salmon and add the salt and pepper for seasoning. In a frying pan, saute? your herbs and onion. After wards, you can add the wine, the bouillon and capers. Subsequently add the orange juice and cr’me fraiche after it heats up. Add your salmon and let it simmer for at least 5 minutes. Serve with the sliced oranges.

Orange Cake. To make orange cake, you would need the ff: 100g butter, the juice of 2 oranges as well as grated peel, 250g flour, 100g grated almonds, 9g baking powder, tsp salt and 2 egg whites (beat till foamy). This is quite easy to make as all you need to do is mix all the ingredients together, adding the eggs last. Take a baking form and fill it with the cake mixture and bake it in an oven which was pre-heated to 37F for at least 45 minutes. You can add warm orange marmalade over the cake for added sweetness.

Now, that we have a few recipes up, let’s talk about other uses for the orange fruit. Most people love oranges because of the fact that it is one of the best fruits to eat raw and to get juice from. From salads, marmalade as well as frozen desserts, oranges can be used in a wide variety of ways. In fact, even its peeled skin can be used to create essential oils that are often used in aromatherapy.

In Indian cooking, the orange flower water, which is distilled from its tress blossoms, is actually used in many dishes. In fact, nothing goes to waste. The fruit itself as well as its grated zest can be used to add extra punch for cakes, as well as seafood dishes. Bitter oranges are also used to make jam, jelly, sauce and syrup. Whilst the fruits bitter zest is used to add a tinge of orangey flavor to various alcoholic drinks.

The next time you cook, try adding a bit of orangey flavor to it and see what happens. After all, it’s through experimenting that we learn. Add a different flavor and aroma to your dishes and start cooking with oranges today.