How do you actually eat pomegranate? Do you just break it into two or use the knife?

Today I thought that since I have never tasted a pomegranate, I wouldn’t mind giving it a try. After surveying the fruit, I cut it into half, the red juice flowed out instantly. There were clusters of the seeds with a thick rind surrounding them inside the fruit, it was difficult to scoop in the fruit so instead I scooped out the seeds one by one . Actually there is nothing much to eat from this fruit. The white part which is the rind? is hard and the seeds had juice sacs surrounding them. I tasted a couple of the juice sacs and spat out the seeds and didn’t bother to continue. They tasted tangy sweet.

Now I am wondering in what way is best to eat this unusual red fruit.If I am not mistaken, pomegranate only recently made its presence in the markets. From what I learnt this fruit has been in existence since ancient times and is a native fruit of Iran and northern India. Pomegranates has also been used to treat inflammation, sore throats and rheumatism as folk remedies! Anyway, I checked for more info and apparently this fruit is claimed to have many health benefits.

From research carried out by scientists, the pomegranate juice is found to have a rich source of potent flavonoid antioxidants which may help reduce fatty buildups on the artery walls! Besides that, pomegranates contain nearly three times the total antioxidant ability when compared with a similar quantity of green tea or red wine. In addition, the fruit has an abundant amount of potassium, fiber, Vitamin C and niacin! Some dietary supplements have side-effects. However some are very beneficial. For example, glucosamine is used as a treatment for osteoarthritis. In addition to this, hydroxycut is used to loose weight. On the contrary, creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that naturally occurs in vertebrates and supplies energy to the muscles. Pomegranates also have lots of vitamins and energy however it does not creates fats.

Because of its potential benefit, it is recommended to take 8 ounces of pomegranate juice a day to receive a 50 percent increase in nitric oxide production to maintain healthy heart cells and reduce plague buildup. But then, if you have any health concerns it is best to consult your doctor first before you take it.

So I would appreciate if any of you guys out there can share some info on how best to eat this fruit, as I still have the rest of the fruit in my fridge.

Just ended my one day mono-diet detox today, for lately I have been feeling lethargic and body aches all over, and worst, getting so lazy that I feel my brains have been fried! I supposed when one is away from home, the challenge of watching your food intake gets fly out of the window….

Anyway, I haven’t done detoxing for quite sometime which is normally a three-day regime, but when I am lazy I just do the one day detox on a mono-diet. So since my return last weekend, I have been cutting down my intake of food in preparation for today’s detox.

Actually, this is a good introduction for those who just wants to do a quickie detox as you won’t experience any dramatic side-effects but a positive effect on your well-being after. Well, there’s no harm in giving it a try is there? Have to start somewhere….

All sorts of information on dietary supplements can be searched for on the internet. An effective medicine used to loose weight is hydroxycut. Serenoa also known as saw palmetto is one of the very useful species in this regard. Some people do mono-diet detox. In this way they eat raw fruits and vegetables with plenty of water which has abundance of vitamins, minerals and powerful cleansing effects on your body.

Going on a mono-diet detox means you choose one type of your favourite raw fruit or vegetable that you won’t mind eating it the whole day and plenty of water, filtered if possible. Raw fruits and vegetables are ideal for detox because of the abundance of vitamins, minerals and fibre and also their powerful cleansing effects on the body. Besides giving the digestive system an opportunity to rest, the stored toxins in the liver gets the chance to be eliminated too.

For today’s detox, I have chosen organic apples… bought a bag of 12 for $6.80 from my local supermarket the day before, standby 2 litres of filtered water and my favourite herbal tea from Dr Stuart’s Botanical Teas. I chose organic apples because of its natural sweetness, smooth firm texture and with enough moisture unlike some apples which tend to be too crunchy with a metallic taste and dry.

Pre-detox day, I had blanched broccolis and cauliflower with chopped almonds sizzled with some olive oil and wheat germ for lunch, dates for my snack and a bowl of clear chicken soup with mushrooms for dinner. Oh, upon waking up, I had my normal drink of lemon juice water. Then after an hour or so, for breakfast…I had oats with raw honey and yoghurt. Throughout the day, I just top up with water to keep myself hydrate and at the same time to kickstart the toxins.

So today, I had my usual lemon juice drink, did about a 30 minute stretching exercises including the swiss ball. Had a shower and munched two apples for breakfast, decided to tidy up my bookcase and later in the morning I had two more apples. Had a slow lunch….munching three apples and then took a short nap. In the later part of the afternoon, had an apple and a cup of herbal tea. Did some work on the internet and another round of apples for my dinner. All this while, sipping filtered water throughout the day.

As I blog now I have just snacked my last apple for the day. After this, going for my dry skin scrub before showering. How time flies huh….? Should I continue tomorrow? Nah…got a seminar to go to. Looks like I am REJUVENATED already!!!

Guess by now every health conscious being has heard that antioxidants are vital to our health and longevity. So the simplest way to maintain the antioxidant levels is to make sure that our diet consists of antioxidant foods.

Why? The claims are that antioxidants neutralize free radicals and helps prevent DNA cells from mutations and damage. These free radicals or oxidative stress cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, premature ageing, chronic fatigue syndrome and a host of other diseases.

So lately, I get very amused whenever I come across these advertisements in the shops, spas, supermarkets or newspapers marketing on these well-known fruits, some are local fruits, suddenly turned into health juice supplements claiming about their antioxidants.

It makes me wonder if people give second thoughts of how these juices are being processed.

This reminds me of a popular bottled orange juice of many, many years ago and that IT was hell’uva drink! It was just a simple juice— not diluted, not artificially flavoured, no preservatives, no pesticides, no gas and no hype—simply named as “Green Spot”! This factory mechanically pressed their washed oranges juice out and bottled them immediately with their pulps ‘swimming’ inside! Now, that’s what you call ‘an authentic juice’

Now. if even with all the latest gadgets you can buy but you are still too lazy to hand pressed your own orange juice.. well, you could always drink it neat for all its goodness, still hand pressed from Bangkok side stalls if you happen to pass by.

For me and my family, we would much prefer to juice for ourselves whichever fruits are in season….and hope you’ll do the same too!

Finally, I did some exercise last evening…. haven’t been keeping up with my exercise the last three weeks as I was very busy and having late nights, so now I have to start slowly again. I am very lucky indeed to live by a well-maintained park that has nice trees along the path with 2 cycle machines and 2 hands-cycle machines plus various stretching benches……all for free….

Looks like I can do only 6km for this week before I go back to my normal 10km brisk walking. Ok, I didn’t do it at one shot…. Depending on my mood, I would break my 10 km into two or three. As I didn’t want to strain myself today I decided to break after 4km and went on the cycle machine and did 1 set each of clockwise and anticlockwise. A set consist of 100 revolutions and the same with the hands-cycle. I like to do stretching too as I find it helps especially with my back and shoulders-aches. Then, I continued to finish my 2km brisk walk. I added a slow slow walk to cool down after that. Actually I find that after each exercise, I feel completely invigorated physically and mentally.

To me exercise is a REAL pleasure!

Here‘s what I would recommend to anyone who wants to do the easy way:

1. Go for checkup at your GP, if you think you have some health concerns and let him know of your intentions.

2. Plan what kind of exercise you would like to do, brisk walking is the best, it’s free and can be done anywhere. I don’t have any set exercises to do, I just do what I feel my body is comfortable with and I do it at my own pace and time. Sometimes I observe or copy what others do and then improvise it to suit my body.

3. Make it a habit, after you have done it for a month, you will find that it is so much easier. I find that if you exercise everyday, the body will some how tune in and you will get this ‘uncomfortable’ feel if you missed a day’s exercise.If you need company, find like-minded company so that you will commit to each other. Most of the time I exercise alone because I like to have personal time and enjoy some peace.

4. After your exercise, drink plenty of water to get rid of toxins from the body. If you have a juicer at home, juice some fruits and you will feel very fresh after that!

I truly hope the above ideas will encourage you to begin your exercise soon …..