Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 7, 2018
Okra is a nutritional powerhouse used throughout history for both medicinal and culinary purposes. Okra, also known as “lady’s fingers” and “gumbo,” is a green flowering plant. Okra belongs to the same plant family as hibiscus and cotton. It is indigenous to regions around the Nile in North Africa and the Middle East for it was discovered dating as far as 3500 years ago in Ethiopia.
Okra Nutrition Value
Okra contains vitamins A and C and is a good source of iron and calcium. It also contains starch, fat, ash, thiamine and riboflavin. It also contains vitamins, minerals and the antioxidants epicatechin, catechin, rutin, procyanidin B1 and B2 and quercetin. These antioxidants are capable of preventing damage to cells caused by environmental factors and stress.
How To Make Okra Water?
Drinking “okra water” is a popular new method of using okra. Cut 2-3 pieces of fresh okra after removing the head and tail part. Put it in a glass of water and let it stand overnight. Drink it about 30 minutes before breakfast.
This recipe is known to control blood sugar levels, cure asthma, cholesterol and good for kidney to keep it healthy.
Some people prefer to cut the okra into thin slices instead of soaking the pods whole. If you are going to prepare okra water this way, be prepared for a drink that is slightly bitter.
More Health Benefits of Eating Okra
Okra is good for asthma. Okra’s vitamin C is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, which curtail the development of asthma symptoms.
The fiber of okra has many superior qualities in maintaining the health of the gastro-intestinal tract.
Okra is good for preventing diabetes.
It helps reabsorb water and traps excess cholesterol, metabolic toxins and surplus bile in its mucilage and slips it out through the stool. Due to greater percentage of water in the bulk it thereby prevents constipation, gas and bloating in the abdomen.
Okra’s mucilage binds cholesterol and bile acid carrying toxins dumped into it by the filtering liver.
Egypt’s former mufti has told Egyptians who can’t afford to eat meat to stop complaining and have a slice of cake instead.
The former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, had made remarks suggesting an “effective” solution for Egyptians to face high prices.
As Egyptians have been struggling to earn enough to survive, fake nutritional information from a government supported imam is here to save the day.
Ali Gomaa, the former grand Mufti of Egypt and one of the most prominent imams in the country was defending the latest austerity measures that had hardened the Egyptians daily lives, yet he might have taken it too far…
On a local TV channel, Gomaa was addressing Egyptians who complain the increase in meat prices as they became unable to afford it anymore. He went on to give nutritional advice about the number of needed calories for individuals per day, suggesting substituting meat with cakes, could be the answer!
“You all complain that meat is too expensive and you say what are we going to eat?… If you eat two pieces of cake, then that is it, you won’t need a breakfast or dinner..”
“Ali Gomaa: Eat two pieces of cake if you could not afford meat, “If ye are grateful, I will add more (favours) unto you”. [The last quote is a verse from Quran]
Gomaa went on to explain his point of view: “Allah created us needing 3200 calories per day, and one piece of cake contains 900, which means if I ate two pieces then that will be enough and I won’t need a breakfast or a dinner or whatever else.”
“So, the two pieces of cakes will count a 1800 calories, where are the rest of the 3200 [the needed amount].”
The imam who seems obviously ignorant of any nutritional knowledge, made himself a subject of mockery. Egyptians are already calling for President Abdel Fattah Sisi to resign, following the latest slash in fuel prices and transportation.
The video flooded the Egyptian social media as users went to criticize the imam for justifying any decision taken by the government, as if for the benefit of the people.
Some users described the imam as the Egyptian version of Marie Antoinette, the French Queen who is famous for her phrase: “Then let them eat bread”, when told that the peasants had no bread.
“He is exactly like Marie Antoinette when she said: “If there was not bread for the poor, let them eat cake”, and she ended up executed with her husband.”
Mohamed addressed the imam, sarcastically, asking him what should he do if he had Diabetes.
“But what people who had Diabetes, like me, should eat?”
Ahmed Elkhateeb pretended he was convinced by the imam’s solution, but found meat cheaper if he wanted to get each individual of his family two pieces of cakes on daily basis.
“A family of two individuals will need 20 pieces of cake per day. The average price of each piece is 15 EGP, which amounts to 300 EGP per day. No Sir, I am going to keep it on meat, as it is cheaper.”
In fact, the imam’s humourous attempt to justify his government’s decisions do have a serious side, as many Egyptians can no longer provide enough to look after thier children.
Sisi floated the Egyptian pound in 2016, in addition to crackdowns on many freedoms inside the country.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on February 25, 2017
Among its many jobs, the pancreas creates insulin and plays an important role in the onset of diabetes. When an individual has diabetes, their pancreas is no longer able to function efficiently, but a new study has suggested that something as simple as a fasting diet could restore damage to the pancreas and reverse the effects of diabetes. Though the research is confined to animal subjects for now, experts say that the findings are “potentially very exciting.”
The study found that mice who were put on a diet that mimicked fasting showed regeneration of a special type of cell in the pancreas called beta cells, The BBCreported. These cells detect sugar in the blood and release the hormone insulin if it gets too high, and their restoration marked the regeneration of the pancreas.
The diet resembles a vegan diet, and consists of consuming only around 800 to 1,100 calories a day, much of which is in the form of soup and nuts. After five days of this low-calorie diet, patients would then be allowed to eat what they wanted for 25 days, and so the cycle repeats.
Fasting is not just limited to individuals with diabetes, and research suggests that eating less has a wide variety of health benefits. For example, according to a study released last December, when flies were deprived of nutrients their brains slowed down. This gives them time to rest and recharge.
“Perhaps it’s a good thing that when nutrients are unavailable, an organism reduces neurotransmitter release and thus saves a good proportion of its overall energy expenditure,” explained study co-author Pejmun Haghighi in a statement.
In addition, fasting may also improve the immune system, something that could be especially helpful for patients going through cancer treatment. According to a 2014 study, in which Longo was also involved, although initial starvation actually causes the body’s white blood cell count to drop, once feeding resumes, the count rises to even greater numbers than before.
Fasting brings us closer to God. Quite literally we decrease and God increases in us. No matter how physically weak we may feel during and right after a fast, it makes us into spiritual giants. Satan attacked Jesus when He was at His weakest physically but at His strongest spiritually.
Fasting is a means to get the Lord’s attention to a prayer that we feel hasn’t been answered or to release blessings that may have been delayed or hijacked by the enemy.
Fasting is a way of humbling ourselves before God so that He will spare us His judgment for any wrongdoing. The king of Nineveh proclaimed a fast upon hearing Jonah’s preaching and the Lord forgave them and relented of the evil He had purposed to bring upon them (Jonah 3). Even the wicked Ahab humbled himself before God and the Lord postponed His judgment and calamity until after his death (1 Kings 21).
Fasting can change the course of events when facing impending disaster or life-threatening situations (Esther 4).
Fasting is a required discipline before engaging in spiritual warfare. You shouldn’t go into battle unless you’ve fasted first. This was the lesson the children of Israel learned when losing twice against the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20). Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast in order to defeat the powerful enemies he faced (2 Chronicles 20).
Fasting breaks every yoke of bondage. In order to experience true and/or total deliverance from stubborn spirits or situations you need to fast (Isaiah 58:6, Matthew 17:21, Mark 9:29).
Fasting together with humility, obedience, love and charity brings healing (Isaiah 58).
Before making life-changing decisions or when facing new challenges it’s good to fast for vision and revelation (Daniel 10).
Fasting before starting a ministry to let the enemy know you mean business. Jesus fasted in the desert 40 days before starting His public ministry.
Fasting is an accelerator of spiritual growth or sanctification. It helps us to walk in the Spirit and gives us victory over the flesh. The apostle Paul fasted very often to sustain his powerful evangelistic ministry (2 Corinthians 11). If we want to be ready for Jesus’ Second Coming, we need to be praying and fasting to build up the spiritual muscle that will allow us to resist taking the mark of the beast and to receive the seal of God (Revelation 7, 14 and 16).
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 7, 2016
Okra is a nutritional powerhouse used throughout history for both medicinal and culinary purposes. Okra, also known as “lady’s fingers” and “gumbo,” is a green flowering plant. Okra belongs to the same plant family as hibiscus and cotton. It is indigenous to regions around the Nile in North Africa and the Middle East for it was discovered dating as far as 3500 years ago in Ethiopia.
Okra Nutrition Value
Okra contains vitamins A and C and is a good source of iron and calcium. It also contains starch, fat, ash, thiamine and riboflavin. It also contains vitamins, minerals and the antioxidants epicatechin, catechin, rutin, procyanidin B1 and B2 and quercetin. These antioxidants are capable of preventing damage to cells caused by environmental factors and stress.
How To Make Okra Water?
Drinking “okra water” is a popular new method of using okra.
Cut 2-3 pieces of fresh okra after removing the head and tail part.
Put it in a glass of water and let it stand overnight.
Drink it about 30 minutes before breakfast.
This recipe is known to control blood sugar levels, cure asthma, cholesterol and good for kidney to keep it healthy.
Some people prefer to cut the okra into thin slices instead of soaking the pods whole. If you are going to prepare okra water this way, be prepared for a drink that is slightly bitter.
More Health Benefits of Eating Okra
-Okra is good for asthma. Okra’s vitamin C is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, which curtail the development of asthma symptoms.
-The fiber of okra has many superior qualities in maintaining the health of the gastro-intestinal tract.
-Okra is good for preventing diabetes.
-It helps reabsorb water and traps excess cholesterol, metabolic toxins and surplus bile in its mucilage and slips it out through the stool. Due to greater percentage of water in the bulk it thereby prevents constipation, gas and bloating in the abdomen.
-Okra’s mucilage binds cholesterol and bile acid carrying toxins dumped into it by the filtering liver.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 21, 2013
The most popular fresh fruit in the world, mangoes are a whole lot more than just a delicious, refreshing treat produced by nature. As evidenced by copious scientific research, mangoes are a powerful medicinal food, and:
contain nutrients that can help clear up skin
promote eye health
stave off diabetes
prevent the formation and spread of cancer
Research recently presented at a meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), for instance, revealed that eating mangoes every day can help moderate and even lower blood sugar levels, despite their natural sugar content. This is good news for people with type 2 diabetes who may benefit from consuming mangoes regularly as part of a low-sugar diet.
For their study, researchers tested the effects of mangoes on a group of obese animals, some of whom were given 10 grams of freeze-dried mango every day for 12 weeks. At the end of three months, the blood sugar levels of those animals that consumed mango were compared to those that did not consume mango. Based on the data, mango consumption was found to result in a significant decline in blood sugar levels.
“Although the mechanism by which mango exerts its effects warrants further investigation, we do know that mangoes contain a complex mixture of polyphenolic compounds,” says Dr. Edralin Lucas, Ph.D., author of the study.
Similar research out of Australia found back in 2006 that eating mango can also help decrease inflammation and resulting high cholesterol, as well as block the formation of various health conditions included under the banner of metabolic syndrome. In essence, mangoes actually work better than cholesterol drugs at naturally balancing and optimizing cellular function throughout the body.
“We don’t know yet how the whole thing’s going to play out but we know some of the individual components (of mango) activate these receptors and even inhibit them,” said a doctor from University of Queensland about the effects of mango consumption on cellular processes. “That could end up with positive nutritional health benefits for diabetes and high cholesterol.”
And again in 2011, researchers from Oklahoma State University found that mango consumption helps lower insulin resistance and improve glucose tolerance in test mice. The same study also found that mangoes help normalize lipid levels throughout the blood, which in turn can help prevent the development of cardiovascular disease.
Eating mangoes can also help you avoid cancer
But the health benefits of mango do not stop here. Science has identified more than 4,000 different antioxidant polyphenols in the plant kingdom, and many of these polyphenols are present in mangoes. The primary benefit of these polyphenols is that they scavenge damaging free radicals and protect cells against damage, which is believed to facilitate and even promote cancer.
“If you look at [mango] from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking superfood,” says Dr. Susanne Talcott, who together with her husband discovered back in 2010 that mango compounds target both colon and breast cancer cells.
“What we found is that not all cell lines are sensitive to the same extent to an anticancer agent. But the breast and colon cancer lines underwent apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Additionally, we found that when we tested normal colon cells side by side with the colon cancer cells, that the mango polyphenolics did not harm the normal cells.”
In other words, mango compounds effectively target and eliminate harmful cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, a phenomenon that is unique to nature and nowhere to be found in pharmaceutical-based medicine. Chemotherapy and radiation, for instance, which are the two most popular conventional treatments for cancer, damage healthy cells along with malignant cells, which is why the treatments are a failure as far as long-term survival is concerned.
For more information about fresh mango varieties and availability, storage, handling tips, recipes and nutrition, visit www.mango.org
This African Fruit Produces the World’s Most Intense Natural Color
The tiny, rock-hard fruits of Pollia condensata, a wild plant that grows in the forests of Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and other African countries, can’t be eaten raw, cooked or turned into a beverage. In Western Uganda and elsewhere, though, the plant’s small metallic fruits have long been used for decorative purposes because of an unusual property: They stay a vibrant blue color for years or even decades after they’ve been picked. A specimen at the Kew Botanical Gardens in London that was gathered in Ghana in 1974 still retains its iridescent hue.
Intrigued, a team of researchers from Kew, the University of Cambridge and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum decided to look into how this plant produces such a dazzling and persistent color. When they attempted to extract a pigment to study, though, they were surprised to discover the fruit had none.
When they examined P. condensata on a cellular level, they realized that the fruit produces its characteristic color through structural coloration, a radically different phenomenon that is well-documented in the animal kingdom but virtually unknown in plants. They determined that the fruit’s tissue is more intensely colored than any previously studied biological tissue—reflecting 30 percent of light, as compared to a silver mirror, making it more intense than even the renowned color of a Morpho butterfly’s wings. Their findings were revealed in a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The vast majority of colors in the biological world are produced by pigments—compounds produced by a living organism that selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light, so that they appear to be the color of whichever wavelengths they reflect. For example, most plants are green because of the pigment chlorophyll, used in photosynthesis, which absorbs most wavelengths of visible light except green, reflecting that color into our eyes. As a consequence, plant colors created by pigmentation appear to be the exact same hue no matter which angle we view them from, and the color degrades when the plant dies.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 