Another thing that you don’t hear too much about is the effect of sugar on your heart. In fact, sugar is a leading contributor to heart disease. Sugar raises serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels and also makes your platelets extra sticky causing your blood to clot more which can be a cause of heart attack and stroke. Not only that, but it can lessen the amount of good bacteria in your intestines which indirectly increases blood cholesterol levels. Sugar also causes insulin to be released into your bloodstream and researchers now think that insulin may help cholesterol to be deposited in the walls of your blood vessels.

     So what can you keep to keep your heart healthy?

     Believe it or not, one of the key heart healthy foods is eggs. I know, you’ve probably believed for your whole life that eggs were bad for your heart and maybe you even avoided them. This is largely due to the fact that eggs to contain a lot of cholesterol and it was once thought that eating cholesterol would contribute to heart disease, however studies now show that the cholesterol that you eat has very little effect on the cholesterol levels in your blood. In fact, a study In the British Medical Journal reported that eating seven eggs a week in combination with a low-fat high fiber diet did not cause cholesterol levels to be raised at all. eggs have great nutritional value, especially the yolk which is loaded with choline which actually helps to dissolve fat and cholesterol.

     Onions or another food that is great for your heart and in fact eating them with a high-fat meal can help platelets not get sticky or clumpy as they normally do. Both onions and garlic, when eaten raw, contain compounds that help to prevent blood clots as well as lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. Continue Reading »

     Uncommon foods aren’t always found in trendy eateries or history books. There are many delicacies that may seem strange to us but are part of common consumption for certain societies, religions, or cultures around the world. Although your digestive system can’t tell the difference between a fried egg and a fried grasshopper, your palate certainly can. And everyone’s palate is trained throughout their life to grow accustomed to certain foods and consider them ordinary. So although the contents of your dinner plate may be regular food for you, someone else may think you’ve lost your mind. There are many “strange” food items that are just regular parts of the menu for many people. Here are just a few.

     Butchers in almost all countries throughout the Middle East sell lamb’s brains or calf’s brains, and they are commonly stewed and eaten. The eyeballs of a roasted lamb’s head are traditionally considered to be delicacies, and in Saudi Arabia they are offered to honored guests at dinner parties and banquets. Both Arabs and people in the western parts of China eat the humps, meat, and feet of camels, although they are extremely tough and taste sour. The feet can be boiled with various herbs and tossed with a vinaigrette dressing, and the hump is marinated before being roasted. Tibetan cooks use yak meat in stews. Because yaks are very old when they are slaughtered, the meat tends to be tough. Elephant meat, eaten in Asia and Africa, is also tough, but elephant trunks and feet are not.

     British gypsies (Roma) consider hedgehog meat to be a delicacy. English pubs used to specialize in serving rooke pie, a dish made from crow’s meat, but now it is almost never served. However, many Europeans (Italians, French, Austrians, Germans, and Swiss) are quite fond of horsemeat. Canada is a major exporter of horsemeat as well as live horses. The meat tastes similar to beef, but has a finer texture. Donkey meat can be used primarily for making sausage. Continue Reading »