As usual, this month's selection of goodies is an eclectic lot of products, ranging quite literally from breakfast to midnight snacks. Some of these I discovered at the New York Fancy Food Show, while others just seemed to arrive at my office.
April 21, 2007 -- Celebrity nutritionist Gillian McKeith has joined the fight to save goji berries from an FSA ban of them as a novel food. She told The Grocer she...
This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at
. In thi...
Many people bake or buy cookies for Valentine's Day because, with the help of heart-shaped cookie cutters and pink frosting, they look like the perfect romantic treats. But with the right ingredients, cookies can also be powerful aphrodisiacs!
An aphrodisiac (named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty) is something that can supposedly awaken or intensify sexual desire. While the Food and Drug Administration says there is no scientific evidence that aphrodisiacs really work, happy couples have sworn by them for centuries.
Some assert that aphrodisiacs work because they ignite hormones and stimulate increased blood flow to erogenous zones.
Others believe that any food will arouse passion if it's prepared or eaten by those with love on their mind.
Whether the boost in sexual desire that is triggered by an aphrodisiac is due to physiological or emotional reasons, it may be a powerful helper in getting your Valentine into the mood for love!
Most people have heard that oysters are aphrodisiacs. But here are some others that you may want to consider:
Vanilla. The smell alone is thought to increase blood flow. Vanilla is especially enticing for men.
A great way to multiply the effect on your Valentine is to combine several of those aphrodisiac ingredients into one incredibly sexy treat: a cookie!
The following cookie recipes each contain five aphrodisiacs.Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
(Aphrodisiacs: vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, nuts, chocolate)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool on wire racks. Yield: 4 dozen cookies.
Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies
(Aphrodisiacs: honey, nutmeg, cinnamon, chocolate, nuts)
Ingredients:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped white chocolate
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, buttermilk, shortening, honey, and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Stir in chocolate chips, chopped white chocolate and nuts. Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Cool for 4 minutes, and remove from cookie sheets. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.
Treat your Valentine to stimulating cookies like these, and you could be making sweet love together in no time!
You can find these and other free, delicious and sexy cookie recipes at www.CookieCrazy.com.
Bonnie Lowe is the cookie-crazy creator of http://www.Cookie-Crazy.com. Visit her site for free cookie recipes, articles, tips, critiques, resources and fun!
WLS Patients Feeling Gassy & Bloated? Sugar Alcohol May Be To Blame
Sugar intake is a real concern for people who�ve had gastric bypass, in fact most patients fear sugar. The foremost fear isn�t weight gain, it�s dumping. Foods containing sugar pass too quickly through the small pouch, they are rapidly absorbed and cause insulin levels to drop resulting in dumping.
Very unpleasant. Instead of taking chances with sugar many of us reach for �sugar free� sweets or diabetic candy to satisfy our sweet tooth. Many of these products contain sugar alcohol, a natural sweetener derived from fruits and berries. Unlike artificial sweeteners that contain no calories, sugar alcohol has about half the calories of sugar. Diabetics are able to have food with sugar alcohol because it�s converted more slowly to glucose and require very little insulin to be metabolized.
While sugar alcohols are low in calories and slow to convert to glucose, the down side is they can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea. I learned this the hard way. One day that devil we call temptation seduced me into buying a bag of sugar-free jelly beans. Jelly beans are dangerous because they are little bites of soft food which means a gastric bypass patient can eat too much volume. I ate the entire bag in about an hour (true confessions of the closet snacker). I soon became uncomfortable with a small tummy ache. The tummy ache turned to bloating, cramping and gas. Extreme cases of all three symptoms. Painful �take me to the hospital I think I�m gonna explode� symptoms. It took a couple of days for my body to return to normal, a couple of stressful and uncomfortable days.
The jelly beans I ate contained Mannitol, a common sugar alcohol extracted from seaweed. I know they contained Mannitol because I read the package mid-way through the crisis. The package contained this warning, �Warning: excessive consumption can cause a laxative effect� Fine time to be reading labels I told myself! Mannitol is found naturally in pineapples, olives, asparagus, sweet potatoes and carrots. It�s about 60% as sweet as sugar, so more product is needed to replicate the sweetness of sugar. �Mannitol lingers in the intestines for a long time and therefore causes bloating and diarrhea.� Yup! That�s exactly what happens all right.
What other names are sugar alcohols called?
Sorbitol is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. It is manufactured from corn syrup. Sorbitol has only 50 percent of the relative sweetness of sugar which means twice as much must be used to deliver a similar amount of sweetness to a product. It has less of a tendency to cause diarrhea compared to mannitol. It is often an ingredient in sugar-free gums and candies.
Xylitol is also called �wood sugar� and occurs naturally in straw, corncobs, fruit, vegetables, cereals, mushrooms and some cereals. Xylitol has the same relative sweetness as sugar. It is found in chewing gums.
Lactitol has about 30-40 percent of sugar's sweetening power, but its taste and solubility profile resembles sugar so it is often found in sugar-free ice cream, chocolate, hard and soft candies, baked goods, sugar-reduced preserves and chewing gums.
Isomalt is 45 - 65 percent as sweet as sugar and does not tend to lose its sweetness or break down during the heating process. Isomalt absorbs little water, so it is often used in hard candies, toffee, cough drops and lollipops.
Maltitol is 75 percent as sweet as sugar. It is used in sugar-free hard candies, chewing gum, chocolate-flavored desserts, baked goods and ice cream because it gives a creamy texture to foods.
Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) are produced by the partial hydrolysis of corn. HSH are nutritive sweeteners that provide 40 - 90 percent of the sweetness of sugar. HSH do not crystallize and are used extensively in confections, baked goods and mouthwashes.
Should Gastric Bypass Patients indulge their sweet tooth with sugar alcohol?
The American Diabetes Association claims that sugar alcohols are acceptable in a moderate amount but should not be eaten in excess. In addition, weight gain has been seen when these products are overeaten. Personally, I�m not dipping my sticky fingers into sugar-free candy again. For gastric bypass patients generally the key, as in all eating, must be moderation, not a full bag of jelly beans. And of course, we can always rely on the old advice of conventional dieters, �Hungry for something sweet? Reach for a piece of fruit.�
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com
LivingAfterWLS is a no-nonsense resource for people Living After Weight Loss Surgery. Our community is growing in numbers even as we are shrinking in pounds. Together we support one another in this lifestyle, that it turns out, is NOT the easy way out.
Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often. To subscribe to the LivingAfterWLS monthly newsletter "You Have Arrived" click on http://www.livingafterwls.com and enter your details in the subscription box.
I Want to Buy a Healthy Energy Drink - Look No Further
Unfortunately the energy drinks that people are consuming at such an alarming rate are not exactly healthy for you. We live in a very busy fast paced society and the need to stay focused and alert has never been greater but I don't know whether the traditional energy drinks such as Rock Star, Monster, or Red Bull are the answer to our nations fatigue problem. Those drinks have very large amounts of caffeine and sugar, much more than your average soda which winds up being very dangerous especially in young people where there have been some cases of heart attacks from these products.
I have been to parties where the average age is around twenty five and I was shocked to see these young adults drinking energy drinks with alcohol, I have seen some of them that go through three or four in a 4 hour span of time, along with consuming quite a bit of alcohol. The problem with these products is that they are so loaded with caffeine it poses an issue with people drinking alcohol because they are so hyped on the caffeine they don't realize how impaired they really are and will do things that they might not normally due, such as drive a vehicle or have unprotected sex.
So the bottom line was that I wanted to buy a healthy energy drink but didn't know where to go, I looked in our local supermarkets but I quickly came to the conclusion that you can not buy healthy energy drinks in a regular store. One brand that I found while searching on the Internet was finally the healthy alternative I was looking for one that was caffeine free and not full of other unhealthy ingredients. This new energy drink I found contains a natural stimulant named Guarana which is a healthy substitution to caffeine, it's not caffeine but has a similar effect on the body without the harmful side effects.
Guaranine is similar to what is found in chocolate and as we all know, chocolate is known as the feel good candy. This drink also have only twenty two (22) calories and only four (4) grams of sugar. My son drinks it every morning on his way to school and swears that it keeps him up and alert for the whole day. It's a drink that is all natural with no artificial ingredients and you can purchase it in either powder form or in cans.
You can join as a free distributor, which entitles you to get the product at wholesale prices. All orders are processed online so now when I want to buy my healthy energy drink, I just hop online and place my order. It gets shipped right to my door so the convenience is great, it's also less expensive than the brands I was used to buying. I personally like the cans better than the powder because of the slight carbonation, it has a faint cherry flavor which is not over powering at all. I like it much better than any of the other brands that I've tried in the stores, including all the big brands.
Roxanne Jenkins
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