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Category archives: Health

NuTiger Organics Fresh Cashew Milk

Meet Lynnette.

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Mother, nurse, entrepreneur, and the heart and soul behind NuTiger Organics cashew milk.

Business was not in Lynnette’s mind in the beginning.

Her daughter has eczema, and the doctor had recommended a reduction in dairy and gluten consumption.

Home-made cashew milk was Lynnette’s solution to her child’s need.

Not only that little Miss did not reject the cashew milk, she wanted more; so did people who had tried Lynnette’s cashew milk — and that was 2 years ago.

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Detox and Healthy Food Products

It’s the time of the year for my annual detox!

One week down and 2 more weeks to go.

This week is vegan week, and it is always the hardest, especially because the diet does not allow tomatoes and soy.

I have continued to experiment with coconut flour (made a gluten-free vegan coconut pear bar), but I was still not proud of the experiment.

Currently, I am counting down the days to enjoy a nice cup of soy mocha from The French Bakery; and have a box of local hand-made pasta frozen awaiting for its tomato sauce partner to arrive on my first day off detox.

In 2 weeks, I will be able to eat proper dim sum with my friends at our weekly Jade Garden gathering.

Cravings are most certainly there, yet, detox does get easier every year.

Partially due to the fact that I had the experience to change my diet and replace meats with other proteins.

Partially is the increase in collective awareness on food allergens and special diets.

There are many products that are gluten-free and/or vegan on the market to purchase.

One of the example was the grain-based probiotic drink called Graindrops.

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Chia Pod, Coconut Water Probiotic and Hot Lips Soda

Review on several products that I liked recently from the grocery store.

First, this Chia Pod snack.

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It came in a small cup with many different flavors including this mango one that I had.

Chia seed was a healthful ingredient that was packed with very high amount of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids and lots of fiber.

It was very similar to the chia pudding that I got at Chaco Canyon minus the coconut milk.

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Water Kefir

<…continuation from Kombucha and Water Kefir>

My choice to brew water kefir was its huge range of acceptable temperature for brewing: from 39F to 86F, with the ideal range from 65F to 82F.

This temperature range worked naturally for our climate in the NW without any mention of encouragement of harmful bacteria growing in this range.

To me, that was safe and low maintenance.

…and I took the plunge, and it had been fun.

I got my grains from Keysands and I got the live ones (rather than dried).

The ratio for brewing was super easy to remember: 1 tablespoon of sugar to 1 cup of water to 1 tablespoon of kefir grains.

kefir grains at the bottom of pitcher

kefir grains at the bottom of pitcher

The kefir grains liked aerobic environment, hence I had it set up in a pitcher with cheese cloth on top, secured with a rubber band.

It took a while for the grains to “wake up” from their travel.

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Kombucha and Water Kefir

We used to drink a lot of store-bought Kombucha.

Kombucha was a fermented tea and sugar drink which contains bacteria and yeast.

Similar to the making of alcoholic beverages, fermentation of sugars yielded alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The amount of alcohol in Kombucha was very low (about 1%), however, some brands in the market still had warning labels on them.

Kombucha had its origin traced back to China before 1910.

There were many other health benefits from drinking kombucha such as easing joint pain and high blood pressure etc. but there were not enough evidence to substantiate these claims.

We drank it for the good “bugs” that would aid in digestion.

Since I could not have dairy all the time, and other yogurt had not been the best tasting (I had tried coconut, soy and almond milk yogurt), kombucha was a good alternative.

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DH liked the Bucha since it was sweeter, more added flavor with very low alcohol content.

I liked Synergy better as it was less sweet.

The kobucha flavor was more prominent and the company offered one high (black wrapping around the top) and one low alcohol version of their products.

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