Useful almond nutrition facts you should know

Almond nutrition facts

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http://twincommodities.com

Almonds or mostly known as Badam at home are very well known by us. All moms are mostly running after their kids to have almonds everyday morning. We all know that almonds are very good for health. And recently in television ads we can see many promotions where almonds can improve your brain. But besides that do you really know almond's nutrition facts. Lets see what are the main benefits of almond.

Health benefits of almond:

Almonds are very good for brain development, as we all know about that.For a growing kid almonds help their brain growth. You can have almonds everyday morning by soaking them overnight.

Almond helps to increase the level of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and reduce the level of low density lipoproteins (LDL), which further help controlling cholesterol levels. LDL cholesterol is known as bad cholesterol. 

Regular consumtion of almonds helps to lower the risk of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and other chronic illnesses.

Almonds are very good for heart also, as they help to reduce cholestorel. Almond is also a very goiod source of folic acid, which help us to reduce the level of homocystein. Homocystein generally causes fatty plaque buildup in arteries.

Almonds are extensively used in soaps and oils. Means its a very good resource of skin care materials.

Almonds are an excellent resource of fiber, vitamin E, zinc, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and many important vitamins for health.

For adults, its a source of sodiam. Whioch help to controll the blood pressure.

This is not just end. Regular almond consumption helps diabetic patient, helps pregnant women to give birth a normal baby by adding lots of folic acid. Also it is a good source of mono-saturated fat, which further helps us to reduce weight .

How to eat almond

The best way to eat almond every day is soak 5-6 almonds in water overnight. Next day morning have them in empty stomach. You can remove the cover of each almond and then eat. Or else wash them properly to have them with skin.

You can roast them and then grind them and store at home. Use roasted almonds while preparing for any cake,sweet dishes or other recipes.

In market you might get many almonds product. Like almond butter, biscuits etc. You can gor them also.

But the best way is the first one, soaking almonds in water. Because in this case you will get maximum vitamins and useful ingredients of almonds.

What is a cheque book : some useful points to note

Introduction to Bank cheque book

image from http://www.buzzom.com

Cheque book is very familier to all of us. If you have a bank account, then you should have a cheque book. You can fill the form while opening for the account first time. Having a chequebook will provide lot of facilities to you. Generally there is a limit to withdraw money by ATM card, but for cheque book you can go for any amount.

A cheque is the usual method of withdrawing money from a current account, Savings accounts are also permitted to be operated by cheques provided certain minimum balance is maintained. A cheque without a date is considered incomplete  and is returned unpaid by the banks. A cheque that bears a date earlier than six months is a stale cheque and can not be claimed for.

Types of Cheques:

There are many types of chequebook available in every bank. Each type has its own use. Among them few are : Bearer Cheque, Order Cheque, Non transferable, Crossed Cheque/Account payee cheque, Post-Dated Cheque etc. Always ask your bank clerk about your requirement and then apply for a chequebook.

Who can apply for a cheque book :

There are many types of chequebook available in every bank. Each type has its own use. Among them few are : Bearer Cheque, Order Cheque, Non transferable, Crossed Cheque/Account payee cheque, Post-Dated Cheque etc. Always ask your bank clerk about your requirement and then apply for a chequebook.

Advantages of a cheque:

You can carry the cheque book instead of cash. For a big payment you can use the cheque.
If you dont have access to internet banking or you don't have your own laptop, you can go for cheque book to complete your payments. As its not advised to use internet banking from a cyber cafe. Its not safe.
In case of cheque, there is no limit of amount for any payment. As per your balance maintained in your account you can pay as much as you can.You can reissue a cheque book easily from branch or even internet banking.

Disadvantages/Risks of a cheque :

1. You should always know how much balance is there in your acocunt. Otherwise if you make a payment greater than your account balance, your cheque will bounce. In that case you have to pay a penalty. Sometimes you have to feel the embarassment also.
2. Becarefull with your signature. Dont disclose it. Keep your chequebook in a safe place.
3. Dont sign a blank cheque for future use. May be you think it will save you time. But if it reaches to someone else by any chance, just think what can happen.

Best practices to follow:

1. Always fill the details clearly. Dont overwrite any text.
2. Mention the date and amount clearly.
3. Always mention account payee on the top left of the cheque.
4. In the cheque book maintain all the cheque numbers with corresponding details.
5. Dont use ink pen to fill a cheque. Use only ball pen.
6. While submitting a cheque to a bank, mention your account number and phone number. The bank clerk might need to contact you.
7. Always keep the cheque deposit slip from the bank for reference.

Cool tips to stay cool in this summer

The heat is increasing day by day. The water level in our body is getting reduced gradually and we start feeling fatigue. These are the common effects of summer for all of us, specially for them who work under sun. But we have to beat the heat and stay fit to continue our daily work. Otherwise who will support our family. So to stay fit in this summer and increase your stamina we should follow the below few rules:

• Sweating is the most irritating part of this season. And it brings many germs with it. So its better to take bath twice a day. Try to take a bath after coming back from work or before going to the bed.
• Wash your clothes daily as they gets loaded with lot of sweat and germs. Keep them in a separate place if you don't have time to wash them everyday. Make a habit of this, specially if you have kid at home.
• Don't use much deodrant these days. You can use telcom powder. But its better to keep the pores of our skin open as much as possible.
• Take a lot of water, fruit juice, lemon juice or sugar-salt water regularly. With sweating, lot of body moisture and salt goes out from your body. So take plenty of liquid to maintain a balance.
• Those who expose themselves for a long period of time under sun should use sunscreen lotion. You can also cover your bodypart with soft cotton clothes to get rid of direct contact with sun.
• You can use neem water (take few fresh neem leaves, boil & cool the water) to wash your body, twice a week. This will relief you from itching problems or any other skin rashes.
• Try to avoid being in the sun if its not required. Plan your work in such a way, that you spend the most part of the day in a cool place and then in the afternoon you might finish those works. Use sunscreen lotion to protect your skin. 
• Try to have simple meals specially in day time. Like daal roti, rice with simple curry or curd. Try not to have masala or spicy food. Which might take much time to digest in summer.

Be cautious with all these tips and make your own rule to tackle this summer days. As one bad habit may make you sick and which might hamper your office work as well as family atmosphere. Remember you are a key contributor to your family. You have to stay fit!

Keep healthy and stay fit. 

Mango : the king of all fruits has finally arrived

The summer is in its peak, days are passing like waiting for some relief. But still we have something to enjoy in these worst days of the year. It’s the season of Mangoes, the king of all fruits. I just can't express my feelings how tough it is for me to wait throughout the year for this lovely juicy fruit. I know most of us are waiting for this fruit as well.

Well mango is not just a simple fruit to taste. Definitely it tastes and soothes a lot, but besides this mango has its own health benefits as well.

I am not a doctor, but yes want to share my knowledge with everyone who follows my blog or who does not like mango. I think hardly there will be anyone who doesn’t like mango.

•  Anyway, mango is a very good food for digestion. If you have problems of indigestion, you can improve your digestive system with having lots of mangoes.
•  It has high vitamin C and fiber which reduces cholesterol.
• Mangoes are very helpful for kids to improve their concentration and boost memory.
•  For girls, mangoes are very good for skin. It clears the dirt of skin and makes it clean. And also a source of iron as well.

There might be many other benefits. But the thing that I want to share is, have lots of mangoes, as it’s available for next few months only.

You can have many recipes with mangoes like milk shake, mango panna and many other lunch/dinner recipes as well. I used to read the magazine "SANANDA" where I found a lot of mango recipes. I might not have tried all of them, but will share them all gradually.

      Finally I want to share few pics of  Mangoes of my native. I spend my childhood with lots of sweet mangoes during summer. We have few mango trees at home. Got few pictures of those yesterday. Can't wait for them, it will take some time for those mangoes to reach me.

Enjoy the pictures and the king of all fruits "MANGO".

Enjoy food enjoy life.

What to eat in dinner to have a sound sleep ?

Do you know a sound sleep completely depends on what we eat just before sleep. But many of us used to have heavy dinner most of the time, specially in evening with family & friends in restaurant.

I have gone through an article somewhere about this. So want to share the same with all my readers as well. It's true and really helpful to carry a healthy life.

Everyday we used to have many types of food. There are some foods which cool down mind & also some which stimulate certain hormones of brain to excite. Foods that generally contain amino acid Triumphant help s us to sleep. In other case foods that contain Tyro sine or Caffeine in food and drinks can perk up the brain or keep you awake. I know most of us love to have a cup of coffee or tea before bed. But thats actually should not be for a sound sleep.

The definition of sound sleep is, the sleep which actually refresh all our fatigue and recharge us for the next day. An incomplete sleep always make us dull for the whole day. We all know the fact.

Lets see the food items of our daily diet chart which we need to include & which not to:

Carbohydrate

This is a food which include lot of amino acid. So we should have this (Rice,Roti) in our dinner. Amino acid is used to produce neurotransmitters Serotonin and Melatonin that helps us to relax and sleep. Insulin is released when we eat a carb rich meal, which helps clearing the blood amino acid and further stop amino acid to reach brain. We can also have some complex carbohydrate & calcium full meal to get relax. Include some protein diet also.

Light dinner

Whatever the food it is , we should not have a huge amount of food. These will make us full and it will take much time to digest the food. Take small meal after evening so that we don't have to eat too much by dinner.

Snacks

We can take some whole-grain cereal with milk or some peanuts or oatmeal before sleep. This is also a good habit before sleep. Do not have any fat item like butter,ghee which ll take much time to digest.

Have these meals in Dinner for better sleep :

• Plain rice with curd or simple veg curry,
• Scrambled Eggs with roti,
• Any less oily sabji/curry with roti,
• Less spicy chicken with vegetables,
• Lot of water
• Have some juice

In todays lifestyle most of us used to go to restaurant, bar at night time only. This simply disturb the habit of a sound sleep in a human body. As most of the time we ate heavy junk food, drinks at dinner time.

To have sound sleep the only mantra is to have less & plain diet at night time so that it digest soon and relax our body soon.

Healthy habits we should follow

Besides posting different recipes, I thought of sharing my experiences and knowledge over food habits and healthy routine to stay fit in these hectic life.

We all love food, but do you know it’s not just eating like an animal to just fulfil our hunger needs. I believe we humans do more than that while eating. It’s a pure enjoyment. When we found something tasty we just love to have it slowly or till content.

Based on my real life experience, I will share some of the tips that we should follow while having food. Hope you all agree with this.

• We always should eat in a regular interval. Might be someone can have 3 meals a day with 2 snack. Someone might have 2 meals a day and 3 snack breaks. But whatever it is you should have them in same time period every day. That will create a healthy habit. If your food habit is changing every day, your stomach will definitely get frustrated and resulted in a bad health.
• We should not eat more in quantity that we normally do. Sometimes we found something very tasty and we can’t hold ourselves. Which finally ends up in acidity, gas etc. Have to learn how to control over that. Otherwise you can fall sick. 
• Doctors often advice to have small meals multiple times a day. Actually this is best routine, but I am sure many of us do not able to follow that. So in that case we can have our regular meals small quantities and in between we can have fruits, juices and lot of water. That might serve the purpose.
• I know many of us like non veg foods. But frankly veg food is easier to digest than non veg. It’s always advised to balance in between these 2s. In case of non veg we should not consume much red meat, as this is not good for health if consumed frequently. Anyway cook the meat properly so that no traces of doubt remain, as we found bird flu in news in every alternate month. 
• In our daily diet list we should include more fibber foods, which will relax you from constipation. And try to have only seasonal vegetables only. Now a days we can find every vegetable in every month irrespective of season. But this is not good actually. As they are produced with lot of fertilizers to fill public demand. Obviously they will not have the actual minerals as they were produced forcibly. So try to have only seasonal vegetables. 
• Another important food of our kitchen is Onion and garlic. Onion decreases blood pressure and garlic decreases cholesterol. We can consume them in any format and with any curries at home. But definitely is adequate quantity. Generally in Summer times you can reduce the amount of them as the weather is already hot. 
• Use less salt in curries. Always try to have salt in curries only. Taking raw salt is not good for health.

 I have learned a lot about cooking and healthy habits day by day. And it’s a real challenge to stay fit in today’s life. There might be more, but I want to to share these few one, that I noticed and trying to applying my family.

Vegetable Cutting Tips

• Always wash vegetables before cutting them. In case of potatos we have to wash them after cutitng as mud cannot be clean for all types of potatos.If washed really well then we can even go ahead with the skin also. As for most vegitables skin holds important source of vitamins.
• Ladies finger should be washed before cutting. Otherwise they will start loosing water and gelly materials.
• For onions always cut in 2 pieces and dip in water for 10-12 minutes to avoid crying.
• Try to consume fruits with skin as much as possible. For that a proper thorough washing is necessary to be sure there is no other particles in the skin.
• For leaves, always wash twice. First before chopping them and then after chopping. Wash them in a pool of water and try to lift them from that water so that extra mud or unwated particles can be washed away properly.
• You can remove the stems of green chilis and store them in a glass container in refrigerator. But before using them wash them and then chop.
• For brinjal and potato, its always better to keep them in water for 10-15 minutes after cut in cubes.This will remove the discoloration.

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In My Kitchen's Secret section I will share my cooking knowledge besides recipe preparation. It will generally have tips and lessons that we have to remember while cooking and after cooking. My target is to share the knowledge to keep a good healthy kitchen and food habit for you and your family. Be clean and fit to stay healthy. And be healthy to be able to eat a lot. Keep a track at this space for further update.

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