Healthy News

WHAT IS CANOLA OIL ?



"Heart-healthy, affordable and ideal fr any type of cooking."
Canola oil comes from the seeds of the canola plant. Once harvested, canola seeds are crushed and the oil contained within the seed is extracted. The average canola seed is 45% oil.
Canola oil is heart-healthy. It has the least saturated fat of any common cooking oil. In fact, it has less than half the saturated fat of olive or soybean oil. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a qualified health claim for canola oil's ability to reduce the risk of heart disease when used in place of saturated fat.
Canola oil is ideal for any type of cooking. From salad dressings to sautéing, canola oil's neutral taste and light texture make it a great match for just about everything. Furthermore, its high heat tolerance means you can use canola oil for anything from baking to stir-frying to deep-frying or grilling.
Canola oil is used around the world. In fact, it is the number one vegetable oil in Canada and Japan, while number two in Mexico and the United States. Overall, it is the third most consumed vegetable oil in the world.
There is a global need for healthier foods. With worldwide issues like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, a simple change like using a healthier cooking oil can make a significant difference.
There is a consistent, reliable supply of canola oil available to help make our world a healthier place.
Where does canola oil come from?
Canola oil comes from the crushed seeds of the canola plant. Canola is part of the Brassica family. Cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower are also part of this same botanical family. Each canola plant grows from 3 to 6 feet (1 m -2 m) tall and produces beautiful yellow flowers. As the plant matures, pods form that are similar in shape to pea pods, but about 1/5th the size. Each pod contains about twenty tiny round black or brownish-yellow seeds.
Once harvested, canola seeds are taken to a facility where they are crushed to extract the oil contained within the seed. This oil is then further refined and bottled as canola oil. Basic characteristics of this cooking oil include a pale golden color, light texture, neutral taste and high heat tolerance. The average canola seed is 45% oil. The remainder of the seed, which is very high in protein, is processed into canola meal and used as a high quality animal feed.
"Heart-healthy, affordable and ideal for any type of cooking."
Canola oil comes from the seeds of the canola plant. Once harvested, canola seeds are crushed and the oil contained within the seed is extracted. The average canola seed is 45% oil.
Canola oil is heart-healthy. It has the least saturated fat of any common cooking oil. In fact, it has less than half the saturated fat of olive or soybean oil. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a qualified health claim for canola oil's ability to reduce the risk of heart disease when used in place of saturated fat.
Canola oil is ideal for any type of cooking. From salad dressings to sautéing, canola oil's neutral taste and light texture make it a great match for just about everything. Furthermore, its high heat tolerance means you can use canola oil for anything from baking to stir-frying to deep-frying or grilling.
Canola oil is used around the world. In fact, it is the number one vegetable oil in Canada and Japan, while number two in Mexico and the United States. Overall, it is the third most consumed vegetable oil in the world.
There is a global need for healthier foods. With worldwide issues like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, a simple change like using a healthier cooking oil can make a significant difference.
There is a consistent, reliable supply of canola oil available to help make our world a healthier place.
Where is canola grown?

Canola is grown primarily in the prairie regions of Western Canada, with some acreage being planted in Ontario and the Pacific Northwest. Smaller volumes are also grown in the North-central and South-eastern United States.

Canola is different from rapeseed

In the early 1970s, canola was developed using traditional plant breeding techniques to significantly reduce the levels of erucic acid and glucosinolates that were found in the parent rapeseed plant. The name "Canola" is a contraction of "Canadian" and "ola", which means oil.

There is a strict internationally regulated definition of canola that differentiates it from rapeseed, based upon it having less than two percent erucic acid and less than 30 micromoles of glucosinolates. Oilseed products that do not meet this standard cannot use the term canola. High erucic acid rapeseed acreage, although still grown, is now confined to production under contract for specific industrial uses, including environmentally friendly lubricants.

Canola oil has generated a lot of research interest into its potential health benefits because of its low level of saturated fat, high monounsaturated fat and good balance of omega 3 and 6 fats.




BAHAYA GLUTEN PADA MAKANAN


KOMPAS.com - Gluten adalah sejenis protein yang terdapat pada gandum dan tepung. Gluten mengandung komponen protein yang disebut peptida. Kebanyakan orang menghindari gluten karena alasan kesehatan, terutama para penderita celiac disease (alergi terhadap protein gluten yang menyebabkan gangguan kekebalan).


Memahami mana makanan yang mengandung gluten, dan mana yang tidak, adalah syarat utama kalau kita ingin diet gluten. Kita sudah tahu kalau gandum mengandung peptida. Begitu juga dengan tepung terigu. Lalu, apa saja makanan yang terbuat dari kedua bahan tersebut? Inilah beberapa di antaranya:

Roti
Kebanyakan roti terbuat dari tepung gandum dan jelai. Termasuk muffin, bagel, croissant, burger, bahkan pizza. Penggantinya? Pilih roti yang terbuat dari kentang dan tepung beras yang kini banyak dijual di pasaran. Jangan lupa perhatikan label kemasan. Pastikan roti yang Anda beli mencantumkan label bebas gluten.

Mie
Rata-rata mie yang ada di pasaran terbuat dari tepung terigu. Tingkatan gluten dalam tepung terbagi dalam tiga jenis. Yaitu tinggi, sedang, dan rendah. Penggunaan tepung terigu yang berbeda kadar glutennya untuk satu resep yang sama, akan memberikan hasil yang berbeda. Semakin tinggi gluten, tekstur yang dihasilkan akan lebih keras.

Sereal
Banyak sereal terbuat dari gandum. Sementara hampir semua jenis gandum mengandung gluten, termasuk malt (biji gandum) dan oat. Sebagai pengganti, cobalah sereal yang terbuat dari beras atau jagung.

Pasta
Apa pun jenis olahannya, semua makanan yang terbuat dari pasta pasti terbuat dari gandum. Makanan Italia seperti makaroni, spageti, dan fettucine adalah jenis makanan yang berbahan dasar pasta.

Kue dan biskuit
Kue dan biskuit yang terbuat dari tepung terigu dan gandum tidak termasuk diet bebas gluten. Baik itu kue tradisional seperti putu mayang dan getuk lindri, maupun kue khas negara lain seperti brownies dan nastar.

Melihat daftar terlarang di atas, sepertinya hampir semua makanan harus disingkirkan. Sebenarnya tidak juga. Ada banyak pilihan makanan sehat yang aman gluten. Misalnya kacang-kacangan, beras atau nasi, kedelai, kentang, ikan, daging, singkong, dan tepung tapioka. Dan pasti, sayur dan buah-buahan.

WHAT IS STEVIA SUGAR ?

 

 


What is Stevia ?
Stevia is perhaps unique among food ingredients because it's most valued for what it doesn't do. It doesn't add calories. Unlike other sugar substitutes, stevia is derived from a plant.
The stevia plant is part of the Asteraceae family, related to the daisy and ragweed. Several stevia species called "candyleaf" are native to New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.
But the prized species,Stevia rebaudiana(Bertoni), grows in Paraguay and Brazil, where people have used leaves from the stevia bush to sweeten food for hundreds of years. In traditional medicine in these regions, stevia also served as a treatment for burns, colic, stomach problems and sometimes as a contraceptive.
Today, stevia is part of thesugar substitutemarket.  
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates Americansadded more sugarto their diet every year since the 1970s until 2000. When Americans dropped the added sugar, they turned to sugarlike extracts. The sugar substitute market was estimated to be worth $10.5 billion in 2012, according an analysis by Markets and Markets research firm.
And the market may be growing. Just 18 percent of U.S. adults used low- or no-calorie sweeteners in 2000. Now, 24 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use the sugar substitutes, according to a 2012 review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Does stevia work?
Stevia has no calories, and it is 200 times sweeter than sugar in the same concentration. Other studies suggest stevia might have extra health benefits.
"Available research is promising for the use of stevia in hypertension," said Catherine Ulbricht, senior pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and co-founder of Natural Standard Research Collaboration, which reviews evidence on herbs and supplements. Ulbricht said Natural Standard gave stevia a "grade B for efficacy" in lowering blood pressure. Other studies suggest stevia could benefit people with Type 2 diabetes, but Ulbricht says more research is needed.
A no-calorie source of sweetness is an obvious diet solution in theory. But a few studies show that replacing sugar with artificial or low-calorie sweeteners may not ultimately lead to weight loss in real life.
A 2004 study in rats found low-calorie sweeteners led the animals to overeat, possibly because of a mismatch between the perceived sweetness and the expected calories from sugar, according to the paper in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders. The author of that study later argued that people who use artificial sweeteners may suffer health problems associated with excess sugar, including metabolic syndrome, which can be a precursor to diabetes.
"A number of studies suggest people who regularly consume ASB [artificially sweetened beverages] are at increased risk compared with those that do not consume ASB," Dr. Susan E. Swithers said in a 2013 opinion letter in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Yet there is also evidence that stevia does nothing to change eating habits or hurt metabolism in the short term. A 2010 study in the journal Appetite tested several artificial sweeteners against sugar and each other in 19 lean people and 12 obese people.
The study found people did not overeat after consuming a meal made with stevia instead of sugar. Their blood sugar was lower after a meal made with stevia than after eating a meal with sugar, and eating food with stevia resulted in lower insulin levels than eating either sucrose and aspartame.
Is stevia safe?
The question of whether stevia is safe to consume largely depends on what someone means by "stevia." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved stevia leaves or "crude stevia extracts" for use as food additives. Studies on stevia in those forms raise concerns about the control of blood sugar and effects on the reproductive, cardiovascular, and renal systems, the FDA warns.
However, the FDA has allowed companies to use an isolated chemical from stevia as food additive, calling the chemical "generally recognized as safe." Now, products such as Truvia and others have the legal go-ahead to use Rebaudioside A, which is also found in stevia, in their no-calorie sweeteners.
But there are some health concerns surrounding the stevia plant. Stevia may cause low blood pressure, which would be of concern to some taking blood pressure medications.
"Caution is advised when using medications that may also lower blood sugar. People taking insulin or drugs for diabetes by mouth should be monitored closely by a qualified health care professional, including a pharmacist," Ulbricht said.
Stevia may also interact with anti-fungals, anti-inflammatories, anti-microbials, anti-cancer drugs, anti-virals, appetite suppressants, calcium channel blockers, cholesterol-lowering drugs, drugs that increase urination, fertility agents and other medications, Ulbricht said. People should talk with their doctor before deciding to take stevia in large amounts, she said.