Germiest Places in Your Home

Your Home’s Germ Hotspots You might be surprised to find that studies have shown the average household kitchen to be more germ- and bacteria-ridden than the bathroom. If you’re shocked, read on: what follows are 15 of the germiest nooks and crannies in your home. Odds are, you’ll be ready for a deep-clean after you’re finished reading. Pay special attention to items and areas that are heavily used but oft overlooked during your daily and weekly wipe-downs--  After testing sponges and dishcloths in 22 homes, the NSF found that 77 percent contained coliform bacteria (a sign of fecal contamination), 86 percent were infected with yeast and mold, and 18 percent had traces of Staphylococcus (bacteria that can cause diarrhea and vomiting). Replace your dishrag daily or pop a damp sponge in the microwave on high for one minute to properly disinfect.   You might think twice about rinsing your veggies in a sink-full of water after knowing that nearly half of the sinks in U.S. homes hold coliform. And research has shown that many drains are trapping more than just food — it's not unusual to find traces of Salmonella and Listeria, bacteria that cause food poisoning. Sanitize your sink periodically with a bleach-water solution (one cap of bleach to one gallon of water). Whether you’re using wood or plastic cutting boards, listen up: worn boards provide a safe haven for nasty bacteria. If the board you are using has deep grooves and scars, toss it and buy a new one. Plastic boards should be washed with hot soapy water or run through the dishwasher; and washed, damp wooden boards can be sanitized in the microwave on high for a minute for extra protection. Coffee Maker Although cleaning might not be on the mind before your first cup o’ joe in the morning, be aware that your coffee maker reservoir is one of the top five germiest places in your home. This dark, damp environment is an ideal breading ground for mold, mildew and bacteria, and should be cleaned at least monthly. Add 4 cups of undiluted vinegar to the coffee basin and let stand for 30 minutes before running.

Germiest Places in Your Home

Your Home’s Germ Hotspots You might be surprised to find that studies have shown the average household kitchen to be more germ- and bacteria-ridden than the bathroom. If you’re shocked, read on: what follows are 15 of the germiest nooks and crannies in your home. Odds are, you’ll be ready for a deep-clean after you’re finished reading. Pay special attention to items and areas that are heavily used but oft overlooked during your daily and weekly wipe-downs--  After testing sponges and dishcloths in 22 homes, the NSF found that 77 percent contained coliform bacteria (a sign of fecal contamination), 86 percent were infected with yeast and mold, and 18 percent had traces of Staphylococcus (bacteria that can cause diarrhea and vomiting). Replace your dishrag daily or pop a damp sponge in the microwave on high for one minute to properly disinfect.   You might think twice about rinsing your veggies in a sink-full of water after knowing that nearly half of the sinks in U.S. homes hold coliform. And research has shown that many drains are trapping more than just food — it's not unusual to find traces of Salmonella and Listeria, bacteria that cause food poisoning. Sanitize your sink periodically with a bleach-water solution (one cap of bleach to one gallon of water). Whether you’re using wood or plastic cutting boards, listen up: worn boards provide a safe haven for nasty bacteria. If the board you are using has deep grooves and scars, toss it and buy a new one. Plastic boards should be washed with hot soapy water or run through the dishwasher; and washed, damp wooden boards can be sanitized in the microwave on high for a minute for extra protection. Coffee Maker Although cleaning might not be on the mind before your first cup o’ joe in the morning, be aware that your coffee maker reservoir is one of the top five germiest places in your home. This dark, damp environment is an ideal breading ground for mold, mildew and bacteria, and should be cleaned at least monthly. Add 4 cups of undiluted vinegar to the coffee basin and let stand for 30 minutes before running.

મીઠાઈનો વરખ છે સ્વાસ્થ્ય માટે હાનિકારક, મુંબઈમાં મુકાયો આવી મિઠાઈ પર પ્રતિબંધ

મુંબઇ, 27 ઓક્ટોબર દિવાળીના તહેવારને ગણતરીના દિવસો બાકી છે અને મીઠાઈ અને કપડાના બજારમાં તેજીનો માહોલ જોવા મળી રહ્યો છે. ત્યારે કેટલીક મીઠાઈની દુકાનોમાં તહેવારોના મહાલનો લાભ લઇને ઓછી ગુણવત્તાવાળી મીઠાઈ વેચતા હોવાનું પોલીસ અને ફુડ એન ડ્રગ ડિપાર્ટમેન્ડ અધિકારીઓના ધ્યાન ઉપર આવતાં કેટલીક મીઠાઈની દુકાનો ઉપર દરોડા પાડીને નકલી મીઠાઈ ઝડપી લેવામાં આવી છે. તહેવારોમાં ઓછી ગુણવત્તાની મિઠાઈ આકર્ષક દેખાય તે માટે તેની પર ચાંદીનો વરખ લગાડવામાં આવે છે પણ આ વરખ આરોગ્ય માટે હાનિકારક હોય છે. આ કારણોસર મહાપાલિકાના આરોગ્ય વિભાગે વરખના વપરાશ પર પ્રતિબંધ મૂકી દીધો છે. મુંબઈના મેયરે તે ઉપરાંત ચાંદીનો વરખ લગાડેલી મીઠાઈઓ વેચનારાઓ સામે કડક પગલાં લેવાની સંબંધિત વરિષ્ઠ અધિકારીઓને સૂચના પણ આપી દીધી છે.

માનવ શરીરની જાણવા જેવી વાતો

* હાથના કાંડા પર ધબકતી નાડીનો તમે અનુભવ કર્યો હશે. માણસની નાડી સામાન્ય રીતે મિનિટમાં ૭૦ વખત ધબકે છે. હાથીની નાડી ૨૭ અને પક્ષીઓની નાડીના ધબકારા મિનિટે ૧૦૦૦ સુધી પણ હોઈ શકે.
* લોહીમાંના લાલ કણોમાંના અર્ધા ઉપરાંત એક સપ્તાહમાં નાશ પામી નવાં બને છે.
* બેક્ટેરિયા હાનિકારક છે પરંતુ આપણાં આંતરડામાં રહેતાં ઈકોલી બેક્ટેરિયા લીલાં શાકભાજીનું પાચન કરવામાં મદદ કરે છે.
* માણસનું નાનું આંતરડું ૬ મીટર લાંબુ હોય છે. આપણે ખાધેલા ખોરાકનું પાચન થતાં ૬ કલાક લાગે છે.
* લાલ કણો હાડકાંના પોલાણમાં બને છે. લાલ કણને શરીરમાં ફરી વળતાં ૧૨૦ દિવસ લાગે છે અને આખા શરીરમાં ઓક્સિજન પહોંચાડે છે.

Top 10 Healthy Drinks To Loose Weight

When it comes to weight loss, substituting healthy
drinks for those sugary sodas and energy drinks can have a drastic
effect on your weight loss goals. Most people don't realize how many
calories they take in each day from drinks alone. For instance, a caffe
mocha with all the fixings can pack in over 500 calories! So as you can
see, switching to healthier drinks and ditching the "junk drinks" will
greatly reduce your daily caloric intake and in return start shredding
those unwanted pounds. Check out this list of the top 10 healthy drinks
that can help you reach your weight loss goals...




1. Vegetable Juice


Vegetable juice is every bit as nutritious as fruit juice but with
about half the calories. Most vegetable juices are also rich in fiber
which can help make you feel full and in turn eat less.





2. Fruit Smoothies

 

Mix-up a delicious batch of smoothies using your favorite fruits and a
 

little bit of skim milk. Do not consume smoothies with added sugar,
whipped cream, honey, or other sweeteners that can add hundreds of
calories-in other words, don't eat smoothies from your favorite local
restaurant or ice-cream shop and think that you're eating healthy
because you're not!




3.� Fruit Juice






Fruit juices have loads of vitamins and nutrients, but it's important
to make sure that there's no added sugar...sorry Sunny D and Tang! Also
remember that the pulpier, the better. Fruit juice with lots of pulp
contains added fiber that can help you feel more full and eat less.









4.Black Coffee

Coffee has plenty of positive health benefits and best of all, it
contains no calories! Black coffee is rich in antioxidants that can
help boost your mood, improve concentration, reduce the risk of
diabetes and cancer, as well as many other benefits. Keep you coffee
consumption at 4 cups or less per day-as with anything, moderation is
the key.





5.Green Tea



Like coffee, green tea has a plethora of positive health benefits and
contains plenty of helpful antioxidants. It also helps to boost your
metabolism if consumed on a daily basis, which can help to speed up
your body's fat-burning mechanism-as much as a 40% increase in some
cases!






6.� Milk

The calcium in Low-fat or skim milk can help contribute to the
breakdown of fat cells in your body. Too much milk, though, can pack on
the pounds because it does contain a lot of calories, so stick to 3-4
small servings per day in order to benefit from milk's weight loss
benefits.






7.� Protein Drinks


Protein drinks, such as from powders or pre-mixed varieties, can have a
great effect on your weight loss regiment, because lean muscle is very
efficient at burning fat. In other words, the more muscle you have, the
more fat your body will burn. Protein is a big part of this equation,
because it's the building block of muscle growth.




8. Fiber Drinks



There's many fiber-rich drinks on the market today, and they can be a
great tool for any weight loss program. Fiber helps to make your body
feel full, and it also has plenty of other positive health benefits as
well.






9. Apple Cider Vinegar


Sounds a little gross, and it may be too gross for some people to try,
but apple cider vinegar is a sort-of "old school" health drink that was
very popular in the '70s as a weight loss tool. Although there aren't
any scientific studies that actually prove it works, many fitness gurus
swear by it, saying that it greatly boosts your metabolism if taken
regularly...Hey, it's worth a try!




10. Ice Water



Probably the most powerful weight loss tool at your disposal, and also
the cheapest, is plain old ice water (who'd a thunk!). Drinking plenty
of water is great for your body because it helps you feel full, boosts
your metabolism, and it contains zero calories. Furthermore, some
studies suggest that drinking just two extra glasses of ice water per
day can help boost your metabolism by as much as 30%. This equates to
about 5 pounds of fat loss per year!

ટાલ પર વાળ ઉગાડવામાં ઉસ્તાદ છે આ 10 ઘરઘથ્થુ નૂસખા

આજ-કાલના ખોરાક, પ્રદુષણ અને હાડમારીવાળી જીંદગીના કારણે નાની ઉંમરમાં જ વાળ ખરવાની અને ટાલ પડવાની સમસ્યા બહું જોવા મળી રહી છે.

ભરાવદાળ, સિલ્કી અને ચમકીલા વાળ તો જાણે આજના યુવાનોનું સપનું જ બની ગયું છે. વાત જો વાળ અને તેની સાથેના સૌદર્યની વિચારીએ તો, કોને આવા ભરાવદાર વાળ ગમતા ના હોય? ભરાવદાર સિલ્કી વાળ માટે પ્રયત્નો તો બધા જ કરતા હોય છે, પણ મળતા નથી એ બીજી વાત છે. આ માટે લોકો હજારો-લાખો રૂપિયા મોંઘી દવાઓ અને કૉસ્મેટિક્સ પાછળ ખરચી નાખે છે, છતાં પરિણામ તો શૂન્ય જ મળે છે.

આપણા આયુર્વેદમાં એટલી તાકાત ચોક્કસથી છે, જે તમને સુંદર અને ભરાવદાર વાળ આપી શકે મફતના ભાવમાં અને તે પણ ગેરંટી સાથે.

1.  ટાલ પડવી કે વાળનું ખરવું સામાન્ય થતું જાય છે. તેનાથી છુટકારો મેળવવા ગરમ ઓલિવ તેલમાં એક ચમચી મધ અને એક ચમચી તજનો પાઉડર ભેળવી લગાવો.

2.  સફેદ ખારો 20 ગ્રામ લઈ છ ગ્રામ કાગજી લીંબુના રસને ખરલમાં પીસી લો. આ મિશ્રણને ટાલના ભાગે લગાવી દો. બે કલાક પછી સાબુથી ધોઈ નારિયળનું તેલ લગાવી દો. આ સસ્તો અને સરળ નુસખો ક્યારેય ફેલ નથી થતો.

3.  મીઠાના વધારે પડતા સેવનથી ટાલિયાપણું આવે છે. એક- એક ચમચી બારીક વાટેલુ મીઠુ, કાળી મરી, પાંચ ચમચી નાળિયેરનું તેલ મેળવીને ટાલ પડેલી જગ્યા પર લગાડવાથી વાળ આવે છે.

4.  વાળ જ્યાથી ખરી ગયા હોય તે જગ્યાએ ડુંગળીનો રસ રગડવાથી પણ વાળ આવવા લાગે છે.

5.  વાળ ખરવાની કે ટાલની સમસ્યાથી પીડાતા હોય તો લસણનો વધારે પ્રયોગ કરો.

6.  અડદની દાળને ઉકાળીને પીસી લો. તેનો સુતા સમયે ટાલની જગ્યાએ લેપ કરો.

7.  લીલી કોથમીરનો લેપ કરવાથી પણ વાળ આવવા લાગે છે.

8. દાડમનાં પાન ને પાણીમાં વાટીને તેનો માથા પર લેપ કરવાથી ટાલિયાપણું દુર થાય છે.

9.  એક ચમચી તજનો પઉડર અને પાંચ ચમચી મધ મેળવી બનાવેલ પેસ્ટને દાંતની દુખતી જગ્યા પર લગાવાથી તરત રાહત મળશે

10.  ડેન્ડ્રફની ફરિયાદ હોય તો દહીમાં કાળીમરીનું ચૂર્ણ મેળવી ધુઓ. એમ અઠવાડિયામાં બે વાર ચોક્કસ કરજો.તેનાથી જ્યાં વાળની ડેન્ડ્રફની સમસ્યા ખતમ થઈ જશે, તો વાળ મુલાયમ, કાળા, લાંબા અને ઘાટ્ટા થઈ જશે જે તમારી સુંદરતામાં ચાર ચાંદ લગાવી દેશે

Chillies

Chillies

 

Chillies pack a fiery punch; they also offer some great health benefits

 

Chillies are the world's most commonly used spice fresh, dried or in powder form. There are around 400 varieties of chillies around the globe. Chillies are known for their sting. Once you bite into a chilli you remember the flavour, thanks to the burning sensation, for a long, long time. Even touching a cut chilli will leave your hands burning. But there's more to the chilli than its fire.

Health benefits

Pain relief: The sting of chillies can kill other pain, a concept that even research supports. A bite of the chilli stimulates the pain receptors in our throat and tongue by binding capsaicin, the active compound that lends chillies their bite. These receptors send message to the brain, which responds by releasing endorphins, the natural pain killers of our body. Because of this, chillies are extensively used in pain-relieving drugs, especially those prescribed for arthritis. 

Better sugar levels: A study published in the American Journal of Nutrition found that regular consumption of chillies reduces the body's requirement of insulin to control post-meal sugar levels by 60 per cent. This is a big benefit for diabetics and overweight individuals. 

Cancer relief and prevention: Capsaicin in chillies helps prevents prostate cancer from spreading, according to a study published in Cancer Research. Chillies, especially red ones, contain a good amount of vitamin C and beta-carotene, which are powerful antioxidants that help terminate the free radicals from our body, helping prevent cancer. 

Freedom from congestion: Eating pungent food when you have a blocked nose helps clear congestion. The capsaicin causes secretions that help clean the nasal passage. 

Protection from heart disease: The blood-thinning properties of chillies boost blood circulation and help prevent stroke. The vitamin B present decreases the levels of homocysteine, which harms the blood vessels and increases your risk of heart disease. The Cayenne chilli helps decrease cholesterol, triglyceride levels and platelet aggregation. 

Weight loss: Capsaicin being a heat-generating compound, produces heat, which boosts the metabolic rate by 23 per cent for about three hours. An increased metabolic rate helps burn more fat. 

Improved immunity: Chillies are listed as one of the super foods that strengthen immunity. They are rich in beta carotene, which turns to vitamin A, a natural immunity booster that acts as the first line of defence against infections.
Chillies contain a good amount of vitamin C, which too benefits the immune system.

Variety in the spice

What's in a chilli?

Nutritional value of chilli [Per 100g]
PARAMETERS	CHILLIES DRY	CHILLIES GREEN
Source: The National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.
Moisture	10.00g	85.700g
Protein	15.000g	2.900g
Fat	6.200g	0.600g
Minerals	6.100g	1.000g
Fibre	30.200g	6.800g
Carbohydrates	31.600g	3.000g
Energy	246.000kcal	29.000kcal
Calcium	160.000mg	30.000mg
Phosphorus	370.000mg	80.000mg
Iron	2.300mg	4.400mg
Vitamins
Carotene	345.000 g	175.000 g
Thiamine	0.930mg	0.190mg
Riboflavin	0.430mg	0.390mg
Niacin	9.500mg	0.900mg
Vitamin C	50.000mg	111.000mg
Minerals Trace Elements
Sodium	14.000mg
Potassium	530.000mg
Phytin Phosphorus	71.000mg	7.000mg
Magnesium		272.000mg
Copper		1.400mg
Manganese		1.380mg
Molybdenum		0.070mg
Zinc		1.780mg
Chromium		0.040mg
Oxalic Acid		67.000mg

Green chillies enhance the pungency of a recipe. They are incorporated into the cooking by chopping, grinding and splitting them. The darker the chilli and shorter its length, the more pungent it is. 

Red chillies are the ripened fruits and have a different flavour from green chillies. They are also more potent. Dried red chillies are most commonly used in the tempering of dals and vegetable dishes. They are used the world over for sauces or as flakes.

Chilli powder is mostly used in day-to-day cooking to get a fiery punch to the dish or to lend it a rich colour. It's an unavoidable ingredient in pickles, sauces, and marinating batters. 

Mostly red or cayenne chillies are used for making chilli powder. Kashmiri chilli powder has a deep red colour and is milder than any other chilli powder. Most of the producers of chilli powder claim their product to be hygienically prepared from handpicked chillies. Still chilli powders are prone to adulteration. It's better to choose the home-made variety.

How to choose chillies

• Select chillies that are deep and glossy in colour and with a firm skin.
• Fresh chillies have a hard and fresh stem.
• Don't buy chillies that have a wrinkled skin or black spots.
• When buying dried chillies, choose the bright red ones. Chillies with a faded colour may not have a good flavour.

How to store/preserve

• Store fresh chillies in paper bags.
• Remove stalk and store in the vegetable tray of the refrigerator; don't store them in plastic wraps as it accumulates moisture that accelerates spoilage.
• Dry fresh chillies or smoke them to preserve them for long.
• Keep dried chillies and chilli powder in air tight containers. Preserve the bright red colour of chilli powder by adding a small amount of oil to it.

Did you know?

India is the world's largest producer and exporter of chillies.

• Eating chilli is a popular exercise among the karate athletes who use it to strengthen their minds and willpower.
• Extracted capsaicin is used to make pepper spray, a non-lethal weapon.
• Bhut Jalokia is the hottest chilli in the world; it has 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units [SHU], which means that it needs to be diluted more than 10 lakh times before it is declared heat-free. The chilli's sting is so potent that scientists at the Indian Defence Research and Development Organization will be using it to develop hand grenades.
• Birds and fish cannot taste chillies since pain receptors are absent in them.
• Chillies belong to the same family of potatoes and tomatoes.
• Chillies are a superior source of vitamin C compared to oranges.