Coconut Water -- the fluid of life?

Of late, I have been reading a lot on the benefits of drinking coconut water. Since I am one person who loves drinking coconut water fresh from the nut and also enjoy tremendously eating the coconut flesh, I have summarised some articles I have read:-
Characteristic of Coconut:

• Low in Carbohydrates
• 99% fat free
• Low in sugars

Good for weight control ~~ fills you up after drinking 1 coconut water

Health benefits:

• Keep body cool
• Orally rehydrate body - natural isotonic beverage
• Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells
• Naturally replenish your body fluids after exercise
• Raise your metabolism thus promoting weight loss

Disease/sickness control?:

• Boost your immune system
• Detoxify and fight viruses
• Cleanse your digestive tract - kills intestinal worms
• Control diabetes
• Aid body to fight viruses that cause flu, herpes and AID
• Balance your PH
• Reduce risk of cancer
• Treat kidney and urethal stones - helps break up kidney stones
  
• Boost poor circulation

Good nutrient source:

• full of electrolytes
• has a natural balance of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium
• anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial

There are many sites proclaiming the wonderful benefits of the coconut water and if you want to know more this is where you start but do not end here... find out more to convince yourself to drink coconut water everyday.I personally will drink 1 coconut water a day if it is convenient as it is my favourite beverage. But I wish to caution to drink it the minute it is cut open because this fresh juice turns bad very fast.

Made in China "Ikan Bilis" - Anchovies

"Disgusting Made in China food....BeWare!!

"Ikan bilis" made in China. Fish skin is made from PE (plastic) tube,
meat is made of some kind of jelly or gelatine. It has fishy smell.

I boiled with hot water for sometime the PE gets burst and exposing fish meat. These fish has NO bone and color would not change after cooking a long time.These fish also sold in flour coated form."

I found this again in one of the rampant forward emails with some pictures. All the time I wondered the authenticity of such info. I googled the web for confirmation but this time I found nothing on this topic... maybe someone out there could shed some light!

Baby Carrots You Buy from Supermarkets!

Yet another email forwarded again and again, and this time it may just ring true....baby carrots you buy in the supermarkets are not baby carrots in the real sense.

The following is information from a farmer who grows and packages carrots for IGA, METRO, LOBLAWS, etc.

The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots, most people probably know this already.

What you may not know and should know is the following: once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them (this is the same chlorine used in your pool) since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine.

You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigerator for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots, this is the chlorine which resurfaces.

At what cost do we put our health at risk to have esthetically pleasing vegetables which are practically plastic?

Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen.

Baby carrots can be less economical… http://www.wisebread.com/baby-carrots-the-frugal-idea-that-isnt - this site will give you more details.

http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/carrots.asp More information on this site for you to re-affirm what we read in email.

And wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_carrot) has a few external links if you need to know or understand more.

The decision is yours whether baby carrots are good or bad for your health and whether you should continue buying bagged baby carrots as your “healthy” snacks.

"A horrible fact about KFC"

I received this email, not once but many times, about a horrible fact about KFC. When I first read the story, I felt a loathing for such a practice but then I wonder again .... "Is it true? Would a well reputed international company go to such low level to save cost and earn some extra money?". Like I said, I started to google up to get factual reporting on such rampant rumours.

Here are part of the email about KFC that has been circulating on the net:

Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? We thought the real reason was because of the 'FRIED' food issue.

IT'S NOT! !

The reason why they call it KFC is because they can not use the word chicken anymore. Why? KFC does not use real chickens. They actually use genetically manipulated organisms. These so called 'chickens' are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure.. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs.There is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet.

The government has told them to change all of their menus so they do not say chicken anywhere. If you look closely you will notice this. Listen to their commercials, I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken.
I find this matter to be very disturbing.

I found a few site talking about this subject particularly:-
1. Kentucky Fried Chicken Hoax - seems there no proof on a specific study done in the University of New Hampshire
2. The Curse of Frankenchicken- The University of New Hampshire wasted no time publishing a rebuttal on its Web site.
3. Taste like chicken - genetic engineered food.....
4. Kentucky Fried Cruelty - I guess its people promoting going vegetarian....

So folks, read and make up your own mind.......

Internet Hoax

Artificial foods are at rampant and with the advanced in technology, we received information in loads telling us about foods that are tainted, artificial, genetically altered and are bad for our health.

Diseases are also at rampant. We received depressing information so fast these days, we can consider that "the world is flat now". Some of the information received over the net, in forwarded emails are so disheartening and sometimes I wonder about their authenticity!

So in order to bona fide the information I read, I usually take some time to google them up before panicking and even before forwarding to friends and love ones.

Internet Hoax not only report on food but also on the subjects of politics, crimes, environmental subjects etc etc...... I usually read them with a pinch of salt or not read at all.

I will research on these reported stories and share under the category of "Internet Hoax" hoping to create awareness on the legitimacy of such subjects.

Are Green Potatoes Safe to Eat?

Why do potatoes turn green like part of this potato?
The potato tuber which contains nutrients like starches, proteins and minerals is meant to produce and grow next generation potatoes. As these tubers were uprooted for human consumption, they are exposed to light causing them to turn green; production of chlorophyll, a process called photosynthesis ~~ similar to leaves ~~ to make extra energy for the new plant.

Interestingly, the potato plant produces its own chemicals to protect from harmful insects, fungi and animals. These protective chemicals ~~ glycoalkaloids (usually solanine) ~~ are found in the leaves, sprouts and stems of the potato plant and usually at a very low levels in potato tubers. But with exposure to light, the level of glycoakaloids are elevated with the highest being in the emerging sprouts and the greenish part of the potato, usually under the skin where there is a cumulation of chlorophyll.

Solanine (one of the glycoalkaloids) will be at a high level on bruising, cutting, rotting, bacteria and fungi attack and exposure to light.

What are Glycoalkaloids?
As explained in Wikipedia, Glycoalkaloids are a family of poisons. Glycoalkaloids are alkaloids + sugars which are toxic in nature. A prototypical glycoalkaloid is sugar (solanose) + alkaloid (solanidin) = solanine which is found in potatoes. It has a bitter tasting sensation usually cause burning irritation in the back of mouth, tongue and intestinal tract.

The toxins, alkaloids called solanine and chaconine apparently interfere with the structure of all our cell membranes and with the processing of a nerve transmitter. May cause hallucinations and convulsions. Because colour change in potato parallels to accumulation of alkaloids, greeness in potato is a good indicator of toxicity.

Conclusions
It is not necessary that potato with traces of green will contain the level of glycoalkaloid to pose as a health threat. But it is sensible to cook your potatoes before greening, sprouting or with any physical damage.

Remove plastic wrappings from potatoes and store them in a cool dry place away from light. Better still to buy potatoes as and when you need to use them.

Alkaloids remain in the bloodstream for longer than 24 hours and for those who eat potatoes everyday, there may be a chance of gradually accumulating of toxins in the blood.

Food Science

There are a lot of talk on what we can eat, how we can eat them, when to discard and how we should treat certain kind of food. It has come to a point where too much knowledge has become confusing and too little knowledge might put you in bad health.......

Likened to my post of "reboiled water", I am trying to research certain myths and the truth about each talk that I come across so as to be more well informed. Not just take what was told and panic!

Taking on the saying of "there no smoke without a fire", all rumours should be investigated to unearth the truth and my topics on "Food Science" will be based on this principle.

Read my next post on "Are Green Potatoes Safe to Eat?"