Categories
Food & Nutrition

Red, White, Yellow Onion: Which Has Most Health Benefits?

onion with different colours and health benefits

Many people like to just eat onions and blend onion with various foods without knowing their attributes, nutritional composition and which one gives the most health benefits. Many think these onions only differ in colour and taste – but no, they are different in terms of the health benefits and other beneficial compounds they provide.

onion with different colours and health benefits

These onion types are all powerful superfoods that come with anti-carcinogenic, antiviral, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties. All these are beneficial to our body but which one has the most in terms of these benefits.

All these types of onion have been found to be low on the glycemic index (how much sugar they add to our blood), with a rating of 10. They provide about 10 percent of the daily value for vitamin C and the same amount of calcium per serving.

Differences in Health & Nutritional Benefits of Red, White & Yellow Onions

The red onion has about 2 grams of fiber per 100-gram serving. This is slightly a better source of fiber when compared to the white onion which contains about 1.2 grams of fiber in the same serving. Both are not particularly high sources of fiber.

Difference In Antioxidant Properties

From the colour of the red onion, it is easier to predict that they contain higher amount of flavonols. These compounds called flavonols have antioxidant properties. Red onions contain 415 to 1917 mg of flavonols compared to yellow ones, which only contain 270 to 1187 mg.

Red onions have higher flavonols, than yellow onions, which in turn have higher flavonols that white onions. The flavonols are more concentrated in the outer and redder layer of the onion. Therefore, when you peel your onion, don’t do so deep into the outer red layer of the onion.

Another important compound present in red onions is quercetin – a polyphenol compound. It helps in getting rid of free radicals. This compound is present in white onions too, but a lot more in the red type.

Difference In How They Help Fight Cancer

Since the red onions have higher level of antioxidants in them than the white and yellow types, they (the red onions) provide higher protection against cancer.

As mentioned earlier in this article, red onions contain higher level of quercetin. This quercetin, with allicin in red onions has been shown to reduce inflammation and be beneficial for both the prevention and treatment of cancer.

A particular study has shown that the risk of stomach cancer was reduced by 50% when half an onion was eaten daily. Other studies have also shown that eating onions reduces the risk of stomach, colorectal, oral, laryngeal, esophageal and ovarian cancer.

Final verdict on choosing onions…

As has been said earlier, don’t over-peel onions. This way, you get the best nutritional and health benefits from them. Most of these compounds that give these health benefits are more concentrated in the outer layers of onion.

According to a particular study, peeling the first two layers of the onion removes 75% of the antioxidant anthocyanins. So, you might want to simmer down on cutting those outer layers of your onions.

ALSO SEE: Working Tips For Cutting Onions Without Crying!

Categories
Food & Nutrition

Revealed! The Variety Of Apple With Most Health Benefits

apple varities and colours

With the common old saying- “Eat an apple a day and keep the Doctors away” spreading the whole of the internet, It seems only a few people are aware of the variety of apple that can actually provide an opportunity to achieve this health claim.

Apple has numerous varieties grown in the different parts of the world. It is one fruit that has proven to be efficient in improving the nutritional status of people for so many decades. It will be very rare to see any one on a particular type of diet who has not at one time or the other included at least a serving in his or her meal. One medium apple supplies 80 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, 22 total carbohydrates, 17 sugars, a good source of vitamin C and no protein.

apple varities and colours

In order to proof which variety of apple is more nutritious, some researchers analyzed the antioxidant levels in eight different apple varieties to find which ones have the highest concentrations of those disease- fighting compounds. The reports the study which was published by the American Chemical Society; in order of antioxidant levels clearly showed the ranking of the varieties as follows: Red Delicious (2,012), Northern Spy (1,548), Ida Red (1,479), Cortland (1,323), Golden Delicious (1,265), McIntosh (1,163), Mutsu (1,017) and Empire (782). The numbers are measures of total phenolic content in parts per million. This research could be given some credit as the varieties were planted on the same soil which was helpful in determining the real nutritional value of the apples based on antioxidant levels.

Red Delicious variety is known for being mildly sweet and juicy. These apples have an intense red colour that may have some yellow streaking. The research shows that the Red delicious Variety has more than twice the antioxidant level in empire variety.

Without doubts, it is advisable to consume more of the coloured varieties of apple as against the green types since the coloured ones possess more antioxidants which are helpful in fighting free radicals and improving our immunity.

Categories
Food Recipes

Learn How To Make Isi-Ewu (Goat Head Meat Soup) At Home

isi ewu goat head

I have never for once come to agree with myself on which part of Nigeria has the best soups especially considering the array of soups that are peculiar among the Easterners and the South southerners.  You will agree with me that it is a tough competition between these groups of people. While I ponder about this in my small apartment, a female friend who came visiting had a cooler of Isi-Ewu with her.

isi ewu goat head

As I ate a plate of the meaty soup, I could not but ask for more and I felt it would be nice to get the recipe from her and share with you on this platform. Isi- Ewu is made from goat head and I bet a bite will surely convince you to eat more.

How To Cook (Prepare) Isi-ewu (Goat Head Soup)

Here are the ingredients that you need with instructions to prepare your own Isi-ewu at home. Follow the recipe/guide step by step and you are sure to make a delicious pot of Isi-ewu.

The Ingredients For Isi-Ewu

  • One goat head
  • 2 big Onions bulbs,
  • 2-3 roasted calabash nutmeg,
  • 4 pieces of habenero peppers (Ata rodo),
  • 2 meat flavour seasoning cubes and salt to taste.
  • 20cl or 200ml of Palm oil
  • Enough water to cook the meat
  • Tyme, curry and potash (Kaun)
  • Ground crayfish and sliced Utazi leaves

Note: The utazi leaf is included to add some bitter flavour to the Isi-Ewu while potash (kaun) is added to make the palm oil curdle up.

Pre-Cooking Step In Making Isi-Ewu

  • Get your goat head chopped into smaller pieces. This could be done by the meat sellers. Wash the entire meat pieces properly using foam and iron sponge to remove dirt particularly in the ears and tongue part. Keep aside.
  • Wash and slice the fresh utazi leaves into tiny pieces just like you would do for your vegetables and set aside.
  • Soak a tea spoon of potash or kaun in small amount of water, let it dissolve well and sieve the water; then set aside the water.
  • Peel, wash and slice one onion bulb into ring forms and set aside.
  • Blend the other onion bulb and pepper into pasty form. Add only little amount of water if you must blend. It is better if you can pound them. Set aside.

Main Cooking Steps (Instructions)

  • Place the goat meat pieces into a large pot and place on a cooker
  • Pour a little amount of water just enough to cook the meat. This is because there is no need for stock water. Add the two cube seasonings, a tea spoon each of thyme and curry. Cook for about 20 minutes.
  • Add salt and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. When the meat pieces are tender enough, set aside.
  • In another pot, add palm oil, pour the sieved water of the potash slowly into the pot containing palm oil and stir using a wooden spatula until the oil turns completely yellow.
  • Add two table spoons of crayfish and stir.
  • Add the grounded (Ehu seeds) calabash nut meg, grounded or blended onions and pepper (to taste) and less than a handful of sliced utazi leaves. Stir properly.
  • Pour the cooked goat head meat pieces into this mixture and stir well.
  • Place on cooker and let it simmer for few minutes under low heat until it is piping hot. Do not forget to cover the pot during the cooking process.

Your Isi Ewu is ready to be served!

In many Nigerian restaurants, Isi Ewu is served in a calabash or some wooden material with a sprinkle of small quantity of onion rings and some slices of fresh Utazi leaves on it. This makes it very native and colourful. I bet you will love it. In less than 1hour, you should be done with the entire process of making this native meal.

I sincerely hope you will find this recipe helpful.

Categories
Food Safety

Beware! Killer Adulterated Palm Oil Is Sold In Markets

palm oil

Palm oil is a major vegetable oil that is used in many soups and meals especially in West African countries. In fact, I doubt if there is any home in Nigeria that does not include palm oil in any of their daily meals. This clearly shows the importance of the oil in the diets of an average Nigerian.

palm oil

With the sudden rise in cases of cancer, organ damages and heart diseases with no specific cause, it has become very important for Nigerians to pay particular attention on the quality of palm oil to be used in their diets considering the current trend. It has now come to our notice that many unscrupulous elements, in their quest to make more money, have colluded with producers and marketers of this oil to add some inedible substances or chemicals that could make palm oil appear like the unadulterated one.

I recently read an article that described the arrowing experience of a group of friends who ate leafy vegetable popularly called Efo riro by the Yorubas prepared with palm oil and all of them purged seriously until they were admitted to the hospital. The friends were quick to say it was the vegetable but a further test carried out indicated a trace of some certain chemicals. These chemicals are those used in the production of adulterated palm oil.

The expertise put to use in the production of this oil has made it practically impossible to physically differentiate between a good palm oil and the fake. Many consumers look for redness before buying their palm oil. Of course, that is one major attribute of the oil. In fact, in some climes, it is called red oil. Having known this, these criminals use a chemical called solvent red 24 (Used in colouring plastics) as an additive to improve the redness and make the oil appear like the properly made palm oil. Another dye used to achieve this result is Anatol dye.

Often times, It will surprise you to know that these improperly made bottles or kegs of oils are more expensive than the properly made ones as consumers tend to rush them unknowingly.

It is to my greatest surprise that the law enforcement agency such as NAFDAC had not done enough in recent years to clamp down the perpetrators of this evil act that had left a major food item like palm oil which is suppose to supply Vitamin A for proper nourishment our body to a food item supplying lethal toxins.

You will do yourself and family a great good, if you do have a trusted source where you can buy palm oil that had been properly produced rather than just buy from any seller. Also, one could trust packaged or company made palm oil as standardization must have been adheres to. Prevention certainly is better than cure.

I sincerely hope this article is helpful.

Categories
Knowledgebase

The Differences Between Organic Foods And Natural Foods

organic foods

There is growing misconception even among food professionals who assume organics foods and natural foods mean the same thing. I have sometimes read in some articles using the terminologies interchangeably but clearly there are distinct differences between both.

organic foods

For the singular reason of educating readers and teeming consumers, it remains expedient to explain what the two categories of foods are. Many researchers have taken time to find out if the nutrients in both categories of foods defer but the argument is unending. Let’s check out some of the differences

Some Differences Between Organic Foods And Natural Foods

Certification:

For any food to carry the label organic foods, the food products must have met the strict government standard laid down by The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USD). These standards regulate how such foods products are grown, handled and processed. Once these products carry the USDA seal, then customers can be rest assure that the foods are produced or processed in the organic method. For natural foods, there is no need for certification of any kind. There are no special stores for them unlike the organic products.

Pesticide usage:

Natural food growers tend to use synthetic pesticides to protect their crops from molds and insects infestations. The used pesticide can leave residue on the farm produce. For organic foods, the seed used in planting are those that are resistant to diseases from fungi. In fact, the growers use predator insects to control damaging pest.

Environment:

Due to the fact that organic foods are produced without the use of pesticide and some certain types of herbicides, the foods are being regarded as more environmentally friendly. This is because they reduce pollution, conserve water and soil quality than natural foods that contain most of these chemicals with residues on them.

organic symbol

Price:

Organic foods have been seen as the healthier option in many quarters and due to the method of planting and strict restrictions as to food additives and method of production, the price of organic foods are more expensive than natural foods or convectional foods that do not have a major federal legislation.

Categories
Food Safety

Why You Should Consider Quitting Roadside Snacks Consumption

safety of roadside foods

I am a lover of the regular and common roadside Nigeria snacks but sometimes I get disgusted at the sight of some certain things. When I say roadside snacks, I mean foods like roasted and boiled corns, fried yams, fried Akara, roasted plantain, puff puffs, fried fish and other snacks that are usually sold along the streets and at various bus stops. I can imagine what question is running through your mind right now- What else is left for us to eat? Yes, sometimes I share the same thought but regardless of how hard it is, the bitter truth has to be told.

safety of roadside foods

These snacks which are technically called “ready to eat foods” have actually become part of the regular diets of many, particularly the rural and local dwellers. In my quest to unravel the rampant cases of food poisonings and health hazards, I have come to realize that many of the issues are due to these kinds of food with fewer cases associated with homemade foods.

Just a few days ago, I and my big brother visited somewhere in Ipaja (Lagos) in his car, as we both looked at our right while in the slow-moving traffic, we saw a roadside Yam and Akara (fried bean cake) seller. Just in the traffic, a faulty trailer was in front of us, which was producing some very thick, dark and dangerous carbon monoxide and had most of the gas directly deposited on the displayed foods. This happens virtually every time as the seller is just by the very busy road.

We all are aware of the state of our trucks, trailer, cars and even the Lagos commercial buses, popularly called “Danfo” as regards the quality of their exhausts. What of the dust deposit on some of these snacks? Only a few of the sellers cover the foods with transparent nylon to provide some forms of a shield. The deposits are seriously causing health hazards unknowing to millions of people on a daily basis.

Many of the women and men who sell these ready to made snack wear dirty aprons, rub their hands over it, use their hand to pick charcoals, clean up for their children particularly the women and eventually used these contaminated hands to touch and reposition the roasted corns or plantains to be packaged for customers. A colleague of mine recently had severe diarrhea and he was quick to identify the source; a roadside snack.

These roadside food outlets are making many consumers especially children and women vulnerable to fatal diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and gastroenteritis. The utensils and containers used in making these roadsides ready to make snacks are usually not very clean. For me, I love to eat these snacks but the thought of all these unhygienic handlings deter me from enjoying them.

Well, if you must consume these snacks, chose to buy from sellers you can trust as regards how they handle the issue of hygiene in their production or cooking process.

Categories
Food & Nutrition

Top 5 Fruits For Your Fibre, Vitamins & Antioxidant Needs

avocado cut

It is no longer news that fibre is needed by everyone. In nutrition science, there had always been controversies in other areas such as “what quantity of other nutrients to consume” but with Fibre, all nutrition experts seem to agree on the same claim.

Fibres are only found in plant sources and one advantage this presents is that the food sources are also loaded with vitamins and minerals which directly helps our immune system. In this short article, I will be sharing with you top five fruit fibre sources that can help your poor digestion and eliminate constipation from your body’s dictionary.

avocado cut

AVOCADOS:

Avocado has been usually regarded as a fruit with the most fibre. You can get up to 7g of fibre in a 100 gram serving of Avocado. This amount of fibre is about one-third of your daily requirement. This is a substantial amount. If truly you are hoping to help your state of healthy via fibre consumption then a regular serving of avocado will be helpful.

PRUNES:

This is quite uncommon in Nigeria but Prunes have long been associated with improved digestion and no wonder it is ranked highly on this list alongside Avocado. In fact, prunes also supply 7g of fibre in a 100g serving as equal as Avocado but due to its scarcity, Avocado has edged it out as a fruit with higher fibre content since it is more readily available.

RASPBERRIES:

Are you looking for a fruit that is loaded with plenty of antioxidants for an improved immune system the raspberry will surely do justice for you? When it comes to fiber, it is also top on the list providing nearly a quarter of the recommended daily in a 100-gram serving. It is a double bumper package; High in fibre and antioxidants.

GUAVA:

Scared of consuming guava? You better give it another thought. With guava providing 5g of fibre in a 100gram serving, the fruit could be a solution to your constipation problems. Once you can properly grind the seeds with your teeth then you should have no problem. Although not readily available but you could look out for it when it is in season.

BLUE BERRIES: 

Asides from providing about 4gram of fibre in a 100gram serving, a cup of blueberries can deliver a sizeable amount of your daily need for vitamins C, K, and manganese. Blueberries also have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous properties. Their high content of flavonols, tannins, and other phyto-antioxidants gives these berries the natural ability to fight infectious diseases and lower cholesterol levels.

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Food & Body Food & Nutrition

Top Five Reasons To Consume Watermelon More

watermelon

In the past few months, the city of Lagos and its neighbouring communities had been unprecedentedly bombarded with trucks of watermelon like never before. I presume many more people are beginning to go the healthy way especially considering the many illnesses and diseases that stare us in the face daily.

watermelon

In recent times, I have not been an avid consumer of watermelon due to my love for golden melon but the truth about this thirst-quenching fruits has to be told. Watermelon has so many nutritional and health benefits but these five under-listed are the five topmost reasons to consume watermelon fruits.

FIGHTS CANCER:

Although, scientists are still digging deep to make a conclusion on this claim but many of the previous tests and researches conducted indicated that the fruit which is amongst the best sources of antioxidant lycophene has the ability to fight cancer cells. This powerful lycophene has been linked to reduce the risk of prostate, breast, lung, uterus and colon cancer.

AIDS WEIGHT LOSS AND HYDRATES THE BODY:

Weight loss difficulty is faced by many overweights and obese. A good plan to include watermelon which usually contains more than 90% of water into your daily diet might be helpful. It will fill you up quickly while supplying very low amount of calorie.

Also, with the high amount of water and electrolytes; the occurrence of headaches, dryness and other conditions which result due to dehydration would become a thing of the past

BOOSTS IMMUNE SYSTEM:

Watermelon is loaded with vitamin C; an effective immune booster. Vitamin C strengthens your immune system and protects your body against free radicals and oxidative stress. It has also been quite effective in making wounds and injuries heal faster.

A good daily consumption of watermelon will prevent your skin from conditions like acne and thereby making your skin glow bright.

LOWERS BLOOD SUGAR:

Many diabetics crave for sugar but due to their condition, they cannot indulge in foods that will spike their sugar level. Watermelon, although sweet in taste, contains very low amount of sugar that is will not raise sugar level.

A plate of the diced fruit fills the belly while supplying small quantity of calorie which directly reduces the chances of high blood sugar.

LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE:

Usually there is need for a balance between sodium and potassium levels in the body for a proper blood pressure. There are records of good amount of potassium and magnesium in this fruit that is very beneficial in terms of bringing down blood pressure.

If you do have people suffering from this condition, watermelon might just be helpful.

ALSO SEE:  Foods That Keep Your Heart Healthy & Functioning Properly

Categories
Food Recipes

How To Make A Delicious / Nutritious Tomato Bread

tomato bread

We all know that bread is full of carbohydrate and anyone striving to always get a balanced meal in terms of nutrients should not eat bread alone. There are several other types of foods that we eat bread with in this part of the world — beans, fried and boiled egg, margarine, mayonnaise, stews — to mention a few, but we can even make it more interesting.

How about making this more interesting and nutritious by using tomatoes with your bread to make what is called “tomato bread”? Don’t write it off yet until you have tasted it and do not like it but I think you should like the taste and nutritional benefits tomatoes bring into the combo.

tomato bread

Adding olive oil and garlic into the mix will make it even better. If you read the articles we wrote on how garlic helps improve sperm quality in men and how olive oil works as an anti-ageing agent, you would want to add them to your tomato bread.

Ingredients For Making Tomato Bread

  • 4 slices of Bread
  • 2 ripe Tomatoes (each sliced into two)
  • 1 Garlic clove (finely chopped)
  • 2 tablespoon of olive oil (optional)

Equipment Needed

  • A Grill or Toaster
  • A Knife

Instructions For Making Your Tomato Bread

  • Preheat the grill, then toast the bread under a hot grill until you get lightly golden brown on both sides of the sliced bread.
  • Now rub each slice of the bread with half a fresh juicy tomato. If you decide to use any of garlic and olive oil, sprinkle a little of each over the top.
  • You can cut into smaller sizes, serve and eat immediately.

Some cannot eat fresh tomato as it is, so they put all the ingredients in-between two slices of bread before heating in the toaster. This makes the tomato a bit cooked and tastier but remember that it is at the detriment of some nutrients.

You can give this a try at home for your breakfast and share your experience and pictures with us. You can make your comments below. You can send pictures to us foodsng2015@gmail.com and we shall duly attribute them to you.

TIPS & WARNINGS:

Categories
Food & Body

Foods That Keep Your Heart Healthy & Functioning Properly

human heart

I don’t want to think there is anyone here who doesn’t know how much the importance of the heart is to the whole body. When the heart stops, then every other organ in the body dies sooner than later. In the next paragraph, I will quickly highlight the important functions of the heart in the body as a refresher or reminder.

human heart

The heart is an organ that functions as a pump for the movement of blood through the body. Different parts of the body require oxygen for proper functioning, the blood as we know carries oxygen from the lungs with it. It is important that oxygen gets to all parts of the body — the brain, muscles, in fact, all cells in the body. The heart does the job of pumping blood to these parts of the body. So, why wouldn’t you strive to keep your heart healthy?

It is not enough to just eat heart-healthy foods to have a heart that is healthy and functioning properly, we must also strive to minimize foods that have adverse effects on the heart. These types of foods have been implicated in cardiovascular heart diseases. We should try to minimize how much we consume them.

Top Heart-healthy Foods: Keep The Heart Functioning Properly.

Foods That Keep The Heart Functioning Properly

Walnuts:

Walnut again? Isn’t this walnut a super nut after all? We have mentioned it under different topics because of its health benefits and here it is again helping the heart. Eating about 140 grammes of walnut per week, reduces your risk of heart disease by half.

We mentioned in one of our articles about foods that help the brains by providing essential nutrients to it, that walnut is able to provide this function because it is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These are very good fats that reduces the level of your “bad-for-the-heart” LDL cholesterol and raise your “good” HDL cholesterol.

Almonds:

Almonds, just like walnuts is rich in these fats that help your heart by lowering the bad cholesterol levels. These types of healthy monounsaturated fats even help you lose fats when you eat them. Ironic huh?

Unsaturated fats are not just good for your heart, they offer another benefit by boosting serotonin levels during the day, which in turn help you sleep better at night. Add almonds to foods you snack on and enjoy these benefits. When I order my Ice Cream, I do with Almonds or Pecans.

Yoghurt and Milk

Yoghurt and Milk, especially the fat-free or low-fat types help reduce the pressure on the heart. Dairy products are known to be rich in Potassium – a mineral that has been linked to lowering the level of blood pressure.

When you consume low-fat or fat-free dairy or dairy products, you get little to no saturated fat, the kind of fat that can raise your bad cholesterol level. Other sources of Potassium are most fruits and vegetables. Examples include potato and banana.

The Bell Peppers

Thankfully, man soups cook in this part of the world usually contain the bell peppers blended with tomatoes, onions, etc. Many people just feel they add the red bell peppers in order to make the soup thick and redder in color. Yes, it does these things and makes the blend “attractive”.

The orange, yellow, and red colors of the bell peppers mean that they contain phytonutrients and additional antioxidants. These antioxidants help to make sure that our body can battle back free radical damage.

Garlic

Generally, we use Garlic as a flavouring for food but it has been used for a long time as a herb for medicinal purposes. It has been used for many conditions related to the heart and blood system. Some of these diseases include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, heart attack, and hardening of the arteries.

Apart from the fact that it can make the mouth smell, we should use garlic moderately and with  caution as it might prolong bleeding. Therefore you should stay away from garlic at least two weeks before a scheduled surgery and probably menstruation.

Green Tea

Green tea has been shown to help prevent cardiovascular heart diseases. A study carried out on 40,530 Japanese adults revealed that participants who drank more than five cups of green tea a day had a 26% lower risk of death from heart attack or stroke than those who drank less than one cup of this tea in a day.

Even though no adverse effect was reported in people that took the five or more cups of green tea, it should be noted that it contains oxalate, which can cause kidney stones. So, drinking tea moderately will still give you some health benefits.

Turmeric

Several studies have revealed that turmeric helps in maintaining heart health by reducing cholesterol oxidation, reducing plaque build-up, clot formation, reduce bad cholesterol (LDL), reduce pro-inflammatory response, etc.

Heart attacks are caused by atherosclerotic plaque buildup or high cholesterol levels, therefore, adding turmeric to your diet can help you reduce this risk by a great amount.

Categories
Food & Body

Using Coconut Oil To Improve Immunity, Hair, Skin Quality

coconut-oil

In my few years as a practicing nutritionist with a government establishment, I am yet to find another healthy food item that has been multi-effective in nature other than Coconut oil. It was just like yesterday when the nutrition department of the establishment I work with kick-started the inclusion of coconut oil into the diets of children with special needs is available in our center. Improved immunity to illnesses particularly among the susceptible group was seen with a reduction in the frequency of seizures among the children particularly the non-ambulatory ones (Bedbound).

coconut-oil

Let me make it clear, when I say coconut oil, I am not by any indication referring to the common “Adi agbon” (Yoruba); which is usually the oil obtained from deteriorated, deteriorating or rotten coconuts. This is the type used by our mothers as body and hair cream. In their time, even up till now, “Adi agbon” has remained an effective solution to many external beauty concerns that we are faced with.

Having said that, Medium Chain Triglyceride (MCT) oil; the one I am actually referring to is clearly a super oil that is effective both for external and internal treatment. It is made from mature coconuts (edible) as against the “Adi agbon” type which is made from deteriorating coconuts and as such is inedible and has limited health benefits. In the reality of some Nigerians despising this oil, many foreigners and foreign-based Nigerians and Africans are embracing the use as its benefits are without limit. See the top three benefits.

How Coconut Oil Improves Immunity:

On like the saturated fats found in butter and other animal foods, the saturated fat in coconut oil is cholesterol-free making it a healthy fat option. So, you do not need to be wary of consuming oil. Coconut oil contains two special ingredients; lauric acid and caprylic acid that make it excellent for immunity.

They both have antibacterial and antiviral properties. For many of us who are hoping to keep away from a chemical made drug as much as possible, the inclusion of a teaspoon/tablespoon of coconut oil into your meals depending on your tolerance level can be quite helpful in boosting your immune system naturally.

How Coconut Oil Improves Hair Quality:

Have you ever wondered why Indians have lovely looking hair? The simple secret is coconut oil. Coconut oil is arguably one of the best natural nutrients for your hair growth and proper shining quality. It is a superb conditioner that helps the re-growth of damaged hair.

For women who do check the labels of their expensive hair creams, they would notice that the manufacturers included coconut oil in the list of the ingredients. That is to tell you how important oil is.

How Coconut Oil Improves Skin Quality:

Women are particularly interested in this more than Men but; in their quest to make their skin look a pact, they have only preferred and believed in the usage of expensive body lotions. After spending quite a lot, they end of looking for another one as the previous one does not soothe their skin type. The ability of an extra virgin coconut oil to penetrate through your skin to enrich the cell in order to make the largest organ of the body glow more radiantly is completely incomparable.

One of the most important things about coconut oil is that it eradicates the need for some of the most toxic, potentially harmful beauty concoctions out there in many grocery stores. In fact those in the tropical parts of the world where coconuts are readily available believe in using the oil on their skin since it helps protect against harmful sun rays rather than the unnatural, chemical loaded skin care that could damage your skin.

One way you can also utilize the oil for skin treatment is by adding a small quantity of it into your regular body lotion. Many users of this oil had done this and the results are impressive.

Guess what? You could make your own coconut oil at home, http://www.chopbetterfood.com/2014/05/how-to-make-coconut-oil-at-home.html that way you are certain of how natural it is. But, if you cannot go through the rigour and you are looking for an extra virgin coconut oil that has not been hydrogenated, bleached, or refined in any way or fragrance or dyes added to it?

Then you could reach me on my email; dipoledransome@yahoo.com or call 08189426728 particularly if you reside in Lagos. If it has worked magic in the lives of children with special needs, then yours cannot be different.

Categories
General Knowledgebase

How To Slow Ripening And Make Banana Last 5-7 Days More

banana with nylon tied to stem

You can actually make your bananas last more days — in fact for another one week if you store them in some particular ways. This is not just a an article that will tell you to store your banana in the refrigerator to make it last longer. If that is what you thought you would see here, you are wrong because these are just some tricks that I learnt about, tried them out and found to work.

Making Banana Last More Days By Delaying Ripening

First, let us quickly run through what makes bananas (and in fact all our fruits) ripen in two paragraphs. When fruits are mature, they are harvested or plucked from the trees and kept where they can now get ripen for consumption. Fruits that are not mature before harvesting will just stay that way and not become ripe — no matter what you do to it.

mature banana

When bananas get detached from their parent or damaged in some way, it commences ethylene production and ripening starts. Ethylene causes the banana cells to make all the changes involved with ripening — Chlorophyll (the green color pigment) is broken down, causing color changes; starches are converted into sugars, making the fruit sweet; acids are broken down, causing it to taste less sour; and pectin is broken down, making it softer.

So, how do you delay this ripening? Prevent all the agents of ripening from getting to your banana. How can you achieve this?

Buy Greener Bananas

Since banana ripens at a very fast rate — unless you want to eat your banana in a couple of days, get those bananas that are greener toward the stems (where the fingers join together) and more yellow on the fingers (not too yellow though).

mature banana

When you get them, make sure they have no bruises on them as this will accelerate ethylene production and lead to quick ripening of your banana. So, even when they don’t have bruises when you buy them, ensure you handle with care such that they don’t get bruised as you take them home in your shopping container.

DO NOT Refrigerate The Bananas

As against what many would be expecting, do no refrigerate the banana that you have bought in the state recommended in Tip number one. Why? When you put the banana in the cold temperature of the refrigerator, it causes the cell walls of the banana to break down prematurely.

This breakdown allows the production of melanin (the pigment that gives us the color of our skin), turning bananas completely black. However, the inside flesh of the banana will still remain unripe because the cold would have prevented ethylene production, and hence ripening.

Let these bananas ripen under room temperature, then store in the refrigerator.

Keep your bananas away from other fruits

It may surprise you that just like some diseases, ripening is also contagious. So, if you don’t want your banana to ripe too fast, keep it away from other fruits (and vegetables) that you have. They produce ethylene and that can trigger ripening your bananas too.

So, the best practice is to take your banana away from other fruits and keep at room temperature (without putting them in any bag). If they are already fully ripen and you want to prevent deterioration, you can keep in the refrigerator.

Cover the stem of the Banana with Nylon

This method can make your banana last for another five to seven days. When you get your unripe banana and you want to slow down ripening, get nylon and tie around the stem of the banana bunch to prevent passage of oxygen, hence delayed ripening.

banana with nylon tied to stem

Another way to do this is to separate the fingers, but care must be taken not to cause injuries to the banana fingers. After separating them, you can now tie nylon around their stem. This is way easier than thing them together as a bunch.

If you have any other method that you use to make your banana last longer, please share with us using the comment box.

ALSO SEE: How To Make Banana Iced Cream With Only Banana At Home

Categories
Knowledgebase

How To Easily Confirm If A Food Is Truly NAFDAC-Registered

Vitamilk NAFDAC number

Are you in any doubt if that sachet of coconut chips you are about to eat and open was truly registered with NAFDAC? Is the product and packaging too poor in appearance to have been approved by the National Agency for Foods & Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC)? Well, the good news is that you can easily verify this by using your mobile phone or laptop.

Many people I spoke to — prior to revealing the information to them, did not know that it was possible to verify the authenticity of NAFDAC product registration number some processors put on their food packages. NAFDAC has done a very good job in this regard, we have to commend them.

How To Verify NAFDAC Registration Number of Products

This is very simple to do. All you need is your mobile phone or any device connected to the internet. Log on to the official website of NAFDAC and search for the product or the NAFDAC registration number. I have three ways of verifying that I would want you to check out.

Use the Printed NAFDAC Number

For example, go to nafdac.gov.ng/product-registration, if you search 01-7188 registration number in the search bar, you should get FUN BITES PLANTITOS SPICY PLANTAIN CHIPS as the product name. Also listed are the applicant’s name (the company that applied for NAFDAC registration number) and the active ingredients that make up the food under check.

I was particularly interested in the plantain chips because I see many of them on Lagos roads and I do wonder if they were ever approved for production. If the package they use for them were appropriate and if they were ever approved? But since I was able to check, no issues.

Use The Product Name To Search

You can go to the registered products search portal of NAFDAC at nafdac.gov.ng/product-registration. and type in the product name deployed on the package of the food you want to look up. In the screenshot below, I used Vitamilk.

Vitamilk NAFDAC number

The problem with searching with name is that you can come up with results of similar products and you then have to compare all the names with the one on the package. It happens when you use NAFDAC number too but often, they are variants of same products from a manufacturer e.g. Coca Cola and Zero Coke.

I use that second method when the NAFDAC registration is not legible or has faded away.

What is really not clear is whether NAFDAC updates this database very often. If not, you might get to see a newly-registered product in the market that you won’t find information about it online. We don’t know this, but what I know is that I have been able to find every product I searched for on that platform.

We have also seen drugs and cosmetic products carrying numbers that can be sent to some special SMS shortcodes in order to verify if the products actually came from the company that was printed on it. This way, we can know products that were imitated and we hope we can see this on food products soon.

MUST READ: Reasons NAFDAC Said We Should Stop Eating Imported Chicken, Turkey

Categories
Food Processing

(VIDEO) Tricks I Use To Remove Boiled Egg Shell Smoothly

how to peel egg easily

Removing the shells of boiled eggs can sometimes be a pain. If you cook and eat eggs often, you would instantly understand what I am talking about. Nobody really likes an egg that has been bruised all around while trying to remove the eggshell. I have tried several tricks recommended by people in the past to smoothly remove eggshells but they all did not work every time.

how to peel egg easily

This trick I am going to share with you works 100% of the time. I have used it over and over again but I never thought of sharing with you here on FoodsNG until some days ago when a friend visit and said “Wow, this is cool”, while I was trying to remove the shells from two eggs I boiled. This was when I realized I should share it with more people.

So, how do I smoothly remove the shell from my boiled eggs?

Steps for smoothly peeling boiled eggshells!

First of all, you must have at least two boiled eggs to remove shells from. Boil your eggs and make sure they are hard enough before you take them off the burner.

Take a bowl of cold water and put these eggs in there, immediately after taking them out of the cold water.

Now, get a glass cup and fill about half of it with cold water

Put the two eggs in the glass cup and use your right hand palm to cover the open end

Place your left hand palm below the cup and shake the cup as seen in the video above

Now, remove your eggs and smoothly peel of the shells flawlessly.

How To Easily Peel Eggs With Iced Water

It is advisable to use older eggs for boiling. If the eggs were previously in the refrigerator, bring them to room temperature before boiling. Now it is time to boil your eggs, make sure they are boiled enough and then turn the stove off.

Leaving the cooking pot on the stove with the eggs still inside the water. After 14 minutes, place the eggs into ice water and it should peel easily inside.

There is also the microwave option but this does not come without its own dangers. It is one of the reasons we are not going to talk about it in this article.

If you like this and try it out, share the outcome with us. Also, if you have any Food Recipes, Food Tricks and Hacks, share them with us by sending to foodsng2015@gmail.com and we shall post them on FoodsNG.com, BBM Channel and give you credit for it.

Categories
Food Processing

Differences Between Food Roasting, Baking and Grilling

grilling maize

Many people cannot differentiate between food roasting, grilling and baking, therefore, they use them interchangeably. This has led to the inappropriate use of these words — some know that they are different but just don’t care to know the differences while some others don’t know they are different food processing methods and mean different things.

In this article, we are going to explain the meaning of each in cooking and outline their difference. Maybe that “roasted corn” you say every time isn’t a result of roasted after all. While these cooking methods involving the use of dry heat are nearly identical in today’s kitchen and usage, there’ are still some few things that set them apart.

What are the differences between Roast, Bake and Grill?

I know this might come to many as a surprise, even though many people confuse grilling and roasting, it is actually roasting and baking that have more similarities. Grilling is very easy and should not be confused with any of the other two.

On the next pages, you will see the differences between grilling, roasting and baking of foods and examples of foods that we use each one for.

What is Grilling?

The grilling of food involves the application of dry heat from either below or above in order to cook food. Now think of those foods that you process this way — you are grilling them and not whatever name you have been calling it before. The heating of the food is by radiation.

grilling maize

A very common food we apply grilling to is meat where the meat to be cooked with dry heat is provided with high and direct heat from below with the help of smoking wood or hot coal or charcoal.

In countries like the United States and Canada, if the heat used to cook the food is provided from above, the process of cooking is called broiling. It is important to note that grilling pans are now used these days. The method of heating here is by conduction.

Common foods that we grill include meat and corn. So, do you think calling “roasted corn” by that name is right?

Roasting Vs Baking

The structure of the foods and the type of foods are the major factors that distinguish these two processing methods. Roasting involves cooking foods that already have a solid structure and shape outside the container before the cooking process starts at all e.g. meat and vegetables. Baking, on the other hand, involves foods that lack the definite structure before heating, then become solid during the cooking e.g. cake and bread.

Foods that are roasted are done in an open, uncovered pan, while food items that are baked may be covered and done inside an enclosed oven area or equipment. Also, the temperature for roasting is higher than involved in baking — about 205 degrees Celcius compared to about 175 degrees Celsius.

Now don’t get roasting and grilling confused because roasting is done in front of or over a fire or bed of coals while grilling involves placing food on a grill situated a few inches over the charcoal, where the intense heat cooks foods quickly. Roasting takes place at a slower pace since the food is not that close to the heating charcoal.

roasting chicken

Since grilling is fast, it is possible to end up with a food that is ver brown outside and a bit uncooked inside, this is not the case with roasting as it makes use of slow heat over a long period of time.

Categories
Food Recipes

How To Make Puff-Puff; One Of Most Consumed Nigerian Snack

ready-to-eat puff puff

I can confidently bet, a well made puff puff will surely make you ask for more any day, anytime. As this snack seem to be quite popular in all the cities here in Nigeria, it will surprise you to know that many people who are lovers of it do not know how to make it.

I must admit that a few have clues but many are in doubt of the simple steps in making the fluffy, brown tasty snack.  I will be sharing with you how you can make puff-puff for your personal consumption or events. No doubt, it will surely wow your friends and family or guests.

ready-to-eat puff puff

How To Make Your Own Puff Puff At Home

What Are The Ingredients?

  • Flour (1kg)
  • Active dry yeast (20grams)
  • Water (As appropriate), 1 or 2 pinches of salt and sugar (between 150-200grams)
  • Nut meg (Optional)
  • Vegetable oil

In the quest of many to make puff puff rich, they have added eggs and milk. This most times does not produce good puff puff. I usually do not add them. They are not necessary. If you must, it must be in very small quantities.

Direction On How To Make Nigerian Puff Puff

Wash your hands clean with soap and water.

Pour all the dry items like flour, sugar, salt, active dry yeast and nutmeg into a bowl. Gradually pour warm water to make it rise quickly and mix thoroughly with your hands until the mixture turns pasty but not watery with no lump.

how to make puff puff 2

Cover the mixture with a  foil paper or any other item that will make it air tight and keep in a warm place for about an hour. After the period, the batter would have risen to almost double its previous height and become thicker with foamy top.

Pour oil into a frying pot and place on cooker under low heat.

When the oil is hot, use your hand to shape the batter to form round like shape and drop into the hot oil. Do this until there  no more space for more.

how to fry puff puff

Allow to fry until all sides turns into golden brown colour. This can be achieved by flipping the puff puff using a folk or long spoon every 30 seconds on the average.

Scoop out and keep them in a sieve place over a bowl or plate to allow some of the oil to drain into the bowl.

how to make puff puff 5

Your puff puff is ready to be served.

ready-to-eat puff puff

For 1Kg flour as used above, you should get about 60 pieces of the size of puff puff seen in the picture above. It can be served with a chilled orange juice or Zobo drink. I particularly love it with Zobo. Learn how to make Zobo drink.