This one is for my blog friend Henry, who is also into healthy living posted a comment in my last post ‘What Are The Four Types of Fat in Your Diet?’ asking “…Is the fat contained in that fruit good for you?

“Oooh…, I love avocados for its awesome creamy texture and taste in this enzymatically-alive-alkalinizing fruit, but only recently can I afford to eat them as often as I want to because the price has dropped… think I started including avocado in my diet a couple of years back.

Before that, I frequently hear people saying we should avoid eating avocados because of the fat and cholesterol issues and so, I didn’t give much thought about it then.
Anyway at that time, we could get avocados occasionally and they were very, very expensive. For the price of one, we could order two plates of chicken rice over here!

Later, I learnt that in actual fact avocado is a healthy alternative to saturated fats in the diet. It was just a misunderstand about their high fat content and after all, like all fruits it doesn’t contain any cholesterol too.
The fat content in an avocado is actually the ‘good’ fat or known as monounsaturated fat and according to research it helps in lowering blood cholesterol levels.

Avocado is popular with vegetarians because it is rich in protein providing the essential amino-acids. It is fiber-rich and found to contain fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6, packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals and some trace elements.

So how do Avocados benefit you:

1. If you are recuperating from an illness, eat an avocado daily to regain your strength.

2. Avocado helps in healing from digestive and circulatory problems.

3. Helps in healing of skin disorder due to the rich antioxidants.

4. Aids the brain to make dopamine due to the rich source of Vitamin B6.

5. Make a paste out of avocado and apply it to rashes and rough skin.

6. Rub gently with the flesh of an avocado over sunburnt skin to soothe the affected areas.

7. Avocado spread has fewer calories when compared to butter, margarine or mayonnaise.

Did You Know: You need about 6 medium avocados to get the daily recommended 3mg of copper.

So, it would be great to consider adding avocado to your healthy eating plan too!

Diet Info Care’s Tip: Do place a banana or apple with the avocado in a paper bag to speed up the ripening process.

One of my fave vegetables - the Bitter Gourd. It is well-known in Asian countries that the juice of bitter gourd is a traditional remedy for controlling diabetes and lowering blood pressure. It is best to use the smaller variety which is much more bitter, and to increase its potency, the leaf tips and seeds are sometimes added in.

For their health benefits, bitter gourd is rich in Vitamins A and C and is an excellent source of carotenoids such as lutene and beta-carotene. This bitter cucumber as is sometimes called, contains Vitamin E that’s supposed to help keep you look young. Vitamin K, the fat-soluble phylloquinone assists in blood calcium regulation and clotting. Besides that, this nutrient also plays an important role in bone health.

In many Asian countries, bitter foods are believed to contain the disease-fighting phytochemicals, have anti-bacterial and cleansing properties of which may be beneficial to health as believed. It is also considered a “cooling” food. Therefore, we would add ginger and meat to balance the cooling effects in our dishes.

There are many ways to cook bitter gourd but the most popular method is to boil the gourd in soup with lots of meat bones. The minerals potassium from gourd and calcium from the bones would leach out into the soup and therefore this makes the soup nutritious and easy absorption.

Diet Info Care’s Tip: To reduce the bitterness, soak in saltwater before cooking.

To all my friends, readers and visitors,

I would like to thank you for your support and words of encouragement. I enjoyed your camaraderie ever since I started to blog at Diet Info Care in July 2007.

Diet Info Care greatly believes that food and drinks you put into your body has a profound impact on your overall health. It is important to start with a proper balanced diet for being healthy is vital for good health helps us to recover faster be it for our mind, body or soul.

Therefore, my biggest wish is for everyone to have good health and be in high spirits always! So let’s begin our journey to better health with Diet Info Care in 2008!

I attended the 3-day Internet Marketing Incubator 2 or IMI2 event at the Singapore Expo last weekend where there were about 400 to 500 attendees. There were about 16 speakers lined up, majority of them were foreigners, where besides pitching their products, they also gave out very good tips on how to be successful in internet marketing. I was most impressed with John Childers and Dr Mel Gill when they came on stage, they were awesome and I even managed to get Dr Gill’s CD on ‘The Wealth Accelerator’.

After the event ended, I decided to pop into Metro and checked what sales they have put on, seeing so many people buying especially the bedding stuff. Never seen so many different brands of standard pillows on sale that I thought of walking out, when one of the carts that displayed Gingko Pillow caught my attention. For many years I have had problems with pillows, either it is too soft or too hard, feather down, latex, foam, whatever material there is, I have tried and must have spent a fortune over the years for my head to rest. So imagine to my delight I have finally found a pillow that is shaped to support my head comfortably for the many nights to come.

Besides that, they have put gingko leaves on both sides of the pillow claiming the benefits of their properties, maybe partly for their marketing gimmick but to me, the importance is the support of the pillow that have the best cut. As we all know…to sleep in comfort with good support is one of the main priorities as it would greatly affect our overall health. So imagine, my past two nights’ sleep was heavenly and I did get to smell those gingko leaves. It helped or not, that am not too sure yet.

Amongst the vitamin world, many are important for health. Especially vitamin C is the most useful one. In addition to this niacin which is basically vitamin B3 plays important role in energy metabolism in the living cell. Blogging will provide you more information on this topic. The most interesting thing is that you will get to know people’s real experiences, not stories as in books.

Let’s see how much you know about omega-3 fatty acids…

For clue to the answers…? Check under comments….

Hello, A Warm Welcome!
DietInfoCare.com will be covering a wide variety of information care on articles and news concerning health, nutrition and fitness. It is a well-known fact that making the correct dietary choices in the long term would gain a significant impact on our wellness and longevity for ourselves and our family.

Vivienne Koh is the owner cum author of DietInfoCare.com. A mother of two, she is presently a SAHM and is an avid promoter to healthy living for the past decade. She hopes to share with you her thoughts, experiences and also, reviews on products of interest as she goes through the journey on keeping herself and family healthy. She has recently found a new interest and that is blogging but please bear with her at the moment as she finds her way round the Dashboard
DietInfoCare.com also welcomes suggestions and topics that would help to make this blog useful. So do remember to bookmark DietInfoCare and come back often as I hope to post tons of resources, tips and products on diet info care to try and help keep our busy family healthy. Do join us…..

To A Healthier Life……