Selamat Hari Raya 2008!!

Today marks the end of one whole month of fasting and the beginning of a whole new year for all Muslims worldwide to celebrate their successful endeavours and perseverences in life - not forgetting at the same time, the unfortunate ones and their sufferings...


On a personal level, I have a love-hate relationship with Hari Raya Puasa, because this is the only day that families get together, have fun, seek forgiveness from each other... but, my pockets will be burned and there will be lots and lots of glorious food everywhere you go...arrghh!! It'll be a great challenge for me to abstain from eating too much...

Normally when we go house to house visits, every relative of mine will have a featured dish for the day, with lots of cookies.. ( On a week alone, we can visit up to 20 relatives' houses!! ) I have this bad habit of sampling their festive cookies and dishes just out of curiosity on how I can polish up my cooking and baking skills... haha!! Guess I need to run more in the month of October... :)

Talking about food...reminds me of a book I just finished... entitled
' The Truth About Food ' by Jill Fullerton-Smith...



This book is especially for the health-conscious... read : Even if you're not naturally health-conscious, you will be affected if you hang around with me...haha!!


There's a lot of eye-opening truths behind the foods we consume daily and advice on the best types of food to eat on a daily basis... I love the beautiful pictures of various types of food in the book... so simple yet captivating til the last detail...

What I found disappointing though, are the experiments they carried out to test their hypothesis, everyday myths and the hardy theories people live by... Almost every experiment performed ended in failures, are incomplete, or just inconclusive because they didn't get to publish the findings in the book in time as it turned out to be too time-consuming... The down-side of this is it creates doubts in readers about the trustworthiness of the facts published in the book itself...

Here are some interesting facts I discovered from this book though...

1. How to be slim?

- There is evidence that a diet rich in calcium, and particularly in low-fat dairy products, can help with weight loss.

- Contrary to popular belief, heavier people have higher metabolic rates than lighter people.

- Being distracted (e.g. watch TV while having dinner), being served large portions (like upsizing your meals due to value for money) and being presented with a large variety of foods (like during buffets) can all make us ignore our body's appetite signals, and thus we ended up eating more than we need.

- Certain foods will fill you up more than others; for the same amount of calorie intake.

2. How to be sexy ?

- The aromas of food can affect the volume of blood flowing into a man's penis. It differs with differing cultures and upbringing though, so try experimenting with various kinds of food with your man and see which works best!! :)

- Garlic causes the body to release nitric oxide into the bloodstream. So does viagra! Thus, a diet rich in garlic can help men overcome erectile dysfunction.

- Calcium has been shown to effectively reduce the horrible effects of PMS... Vitamin D is important as well, as it helps the body to absorb calcium.

3. How to detox and be healthy?

- Eat a diet high in nuts, veges and fresh fruits; they help cut cholesterol and reduce high blood pressure.

- Broccoli's super-chemical, sulphoraphane, fights cancer..but only in people who have a particular version of a gene as the way food interacts with your body is partly associated with your genetic makeup.

- Eating foods high in fibre can keep the billions of beneficial bacteria in your gut going, keeping you a regular which helps prevent bowel cancer. It also slows the absorption of glucose from the intestines, thus reducing the likelihood of obesity and adult-onset diabetes. The best part though, is thickened soluble fibre in the gut holds onto cholesterol from the bile, meaning less cholesterol is reabsorbed by the body...

4. How to stay young and beautiful?

- Tomato skins are a great source of lycopene, a chemical that prevent skin cancer by acting as a natural sunscreen within the body, absorbing the harmful UV rays from the sun. The chemical can also be found in watermelons, guava and red grapefruit.

- A regular intake of berries and other fruits n veges can keep your brain young. The anthocyanin pigment (deep blue) in berries is a powerful antioxidant that fights free radicals and thus reduce inflammation in the body. Just a half cup of blueberries contain the same quantity of antioxidants as 5 servings of peas,broccoli,carrots or apples...

- Spinach is a great source of pigments (which cannot be formed by the body) that protect the retina; help protect your eyes from damage, and in particular, a disease called age-related macular degeneration.

Rating : 3 stars