Positive Outlook

Self-talk is the endless stream of thoughts that run through your head every day. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.

If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is more likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you're likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking.

The health benefits of positive thinking:
Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:
• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

It's unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. It's also thought that positive and optimistic people live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and have reduced rates of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Benefits of Honey

Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Ayurvedic as well as Yunani medicine have been using honey as a vital medicine for centuries. Scientists of today also accept honey as a Ram Ban (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases. Today’s science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients also.

Known as Honig in German, Miele in Italian, Shahad in Hindi, Miel in French, Miel in Spanish, Mel in Portuguese, мед in Russian, Honing in Dutch, and μελι in Greek, there is hardly any region in the world where honey is not cherished.
What makes honey so popular is the ease with which it can be consumed. One can eat honey directly, put it on bread like a jam, mix it with juice or any drink instead of sugar, or mix it with warm water, lime juice, cinnamon and other herbs to make a medicine. It is savored by all due to its taste as well as health benefits.

Honey is a sweet treat. In fact, it is man's oldest sweetener. It can be a good substitute for sugar in our drinks and food. But it is also good for many other things and treating many other conditions. Reliance on commercialized medicines which contains too much chemicals can become hazardous to our health.

Honey is composed of sugars like glucose and fructose and minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, iron and phosphate. It contains vitamins B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3 all of which change according to the qualities of the nectar and pollen. Several kinds of hormones are also present in it.

Approximately one half of the human diet is derived directly or indirectly from crops pollinated by bees. Today honeybees are an essential part of a healthy agriculture economy. If you have allergies, honey can be beneficial. If you eat honey that is local to your area, it may prevent your seasonal allergies. Bees use the pollen from local plants and eventually it ends up in your honey.

Honey may also be good for your skin. It has the ability to attract water. You can use honey instead of alpha hydroxy masks because of its high content of the acid. It is also safe for sensitive skin. You can also use it as a moisturizing mask for your skin as well as your hair. To use it as a conditioner, mix the honey with olive oil. Be sure to wash your hair thoroughly before you go outside.

If you have a sore throat, take some honey. Due to its natural anti-inflammatory effect, it will help to heal the wounds more quickly. It also has different phytochemicals--chemicals found in plants and different foods--that kill viruses, bacteria, and fungus making it a good substitute for wound dressings. The taste may also take your mind off the pain. There is evidence that honey diluted in water will help with your stomachaches and dehydration.

Honey benefits for Children:
To avoid bed wetting in children, a teaspoon of honey aids water retention, and calms fears in children.

Honey to help you sleep:
A mug of hot milk with a dessert spoon of honey acts as a mild sedative (minerals, vitamins amino acids) aiding sleep.

Honey to clear nasal congestion:
To clear nasal congestion, mix a dessert spoon or two of honey in basin of hot water. Bend over the basin, covering your head and the basin with a large towel and inhale the fumes.

Honey to heal wounds:
Wounds such as cuts, grazes, scrape when covered with honey and bandage is an excellent healer.

Benefits of honey: Digestion:
Mix honey and apple cider vinegar in equal proportion, dilute with water. This wonder drink aids digestion and eases joint inflammation.

Honey to cool your throat after pungent food:
Trickle down a teaspoon of honey down the throat for inflamed raw tissues for sore throat. If you have eaten any thing pungent, spicy and feel your tongue burning after downing glasses of water. Eat a spoonful of honey to appease your taste buds.

Honey as a energy booster:
A spoon of honey is an instant pick-me-up, giving you the much needed boost of energy. Alternatively 25% of honey with water is a good stabilizer to calm highs and raise lows.

Calcium utilization:
A teaspoon of honey per day aids calcium utilization and prevents osteoporosis.

Good for your heart:
Heart patients are advised to replace white sugar with honey that has natural fructose and glucose.

Honey to help Asthma patients:
Chewing the tops of honey combs for 20 minutes a teaspoon of bee capping; five to six times a day stimulates the immune system. It’s effective for asthma patients.

Honey for Longevity:
Regular users of honey are most long lived people. Beekeepers are known to suffer less from cancer, arthritis than any other working group worldwide.

Effective use of honey during migraine attacks:
For people who have frequent migraine attacks, should sip a dessert spoon of honey dissolved in half a glass of warm water at the start of the attack. Repeat after 20 minutes if needed. Its effective as migraine is stress related.

Honey during conjunctivitis:
Honey dissolved in equal quantity of warm water is good lotion or eyebath for the conjunctivitis (pus in the eye).

Benefits of honey: Curing coughs:
Mix 6 oz. of liquid honey, 2 oz. of glycerin and juice of two lemons. Mix well, store it bottle with a tight screw cap and use when required. An instant home made remedy for cough.

Honey as a food preservative:
Honey is good food preservative. While baking cakes by replacing sugar with honey, they will stay fresher longer due to natural antibiotics as honey retains moisture.

Honey as a multi-vitamin:
Few teaspoons of honey say four; to a baby’s bottle of water is an excellent pacifier and multivitamin additive.

Cardava Banana- The Best Banana

There have been different kinds of banana which are known to be rich in potassium and other nutrients. But according to the Doctors of Ministry in Alternative Medicines or DMAM, Cardava banana has the highest nutrients present.

It is produced in the Philippines and in other Asian Countries. Usually, these have been eaten cooked. However, studies made by DMAM revealed that eating this cooked will alter its nutrients and become acidic in form, thus, eating raw is then preferred but make sure you eat the ripe ones.

Cardava has the highest content of nutrients because it has the deepest roots among other banana plants, of which can absorb more nutrients from the soil. No wonder their trunk is long and big so with their fruits.

Because bananas are rich in potassium, they help the body’s circulatory system deliver oxygen to the brain. This also helps maintain a regular heartbeat and a proper balance of water in the body. Potassium is also helpful for reducing strokes and regulating blood pressure because of the way it promotes circulatory health.

Their abundance of vitamins and minerals, are a great source of natural energy. Eating only two bananas will give you enough energy to exercise or workout for an hour and a half. Bananas are also ideal for eating during that midday lull when you feel tired and sluggish. Instead of drinking caffeine or having a sugary snack, bananas provide a level of energy that lasts longer without the dramatic crash caused by caffeine.

One of the banana health benefits is that they can help stop constipation because bananas have a certain type of fiber that helps to restore and maintain regular bowel functions. Instead of using laxatives that might have chemicals or other synthetic substances, bananas are a natural source for lessening the effects of constipation without causing other bowel problems such as diarrhea.

If you were partying at night and having hangover the next morning, the natural ingredients in bananas and their ability to replenish the body’s vitamins make them an ideal way to reduce the effects of a hangover. Put a couple bananas in the blender with some plain yogurt and add some honey to sweeten the taste. The fruit tends to calm the stomach and the honey helps to restore the blood sugar levels to normal.

Similarly, bananas can help people who are trying to quit smoking. The B vitamins and other minerals that they contain reduce the physical and psychological effects of nicotine withdrawal. These B vitamins, specifically vitamin B6 can also minimize menstrual pains and regulates over all moods of women. Because of their calming properties, pregnant women often eat bananas to combat their morning sickness. In addition, they also help to replenish the body and restore a healthy blood glucose level. In addition, they also help regulate a pregnant woman’s temperature.

As a way to prevent and treat ulcers, bananas help to reduce the acidity that some foods can leave in the stomach. They help reduce the irritation of the digestive system by leaving a protective coating around the inner walls, making it a natural way to promote intestinal health as well. Since they help to neutralize acidity, they are also a great way to get rid of heartburn. They act as a natural antacid and they quickly soothe the burn.
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Instead of eating an apple each day for optimum health, the adage should state that a banana each day keeps the doctor away. The banana health benefits far outweigh those of the apple because it has many more vitamins and nutrients than their round counterparts.

Benefits of Virgin Coconut Oil

Taking 2 tbsp. of pure Virgin Coconut Oil daily in your diet is giving immune system a boost. Fresh concentrated milk from coconut fruit is an alternative source if availability of V.C.O is not possible. Just shred coconut meat out of the shell, squeeze it until milk comes out, and take 2 tbsp from it. Other user may add V.C.O in their food or cereal in my case, and it tastes good! To give moisture on skin and hair, massage it onto scalp before bathe and moisture your skin after.

Virgin Coconut Oil may be hard to find and are not readily available in some areas. Some would find it expensive. The good news is that you can produce your own virgin coconut oil at the comfort of your own home. Here’s how you can make Virgin Coconut Oil.

Materials:
1. fresh coconut blender
2. cheesecloth/coffee filter
3. wide glass jar

Procedure:
1. Extract coconut milk from fresh coconut.
a. To produce its milk, remove the meat from the shell.
b. Cut the coconut into strips or chunks. Place them in the blender.
c. Add a small amount of coconut water.
d. Blend it for a few minutes.
e. Place the cheesecloth over the mouth of the glass jar.
f. Pour a little of the mixture over it.
g. Squeeze the cheesecloth to obtain the milk and separate the pulp.
h. Repeat the process with the remaining mixture.

Tips:
• Put just enough coconut water. Too much liquid will overly dilute the milk.
• You may opt to refrigerate the coconut strips before blending. Freezing them and then thawing will soften the coconut meat. This will enable you to extract more juice. Freezing does not alter the taste or nutrient content.

2. Now that you have your milk let it rest in a covered glass jar for 1- 2 days.
3. As effect of the fermentation process, the water and oil will separate. A layer of curd will form on top and the water settles down. The oil is to be found in the top two layers.
4. Remove the curd from the jar which is found on the first layer.
5. Remove the oil or you may siphon it and transfer to other jar.
6. Throw the remaining water/liquid after you’ve removed the oil.
7. You may put cheesecloth over the mouth of the glass jar
8. Pour the oil mixture into the cheesecloth.
9. Let it drain for a couple of hours.
10. Squeeze the cheesecloth and discard the remaining curd.
11. And you’ll have your Virgin Coconut Oil.

Depending on the size of the coconut, this process will produce 3-4 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil.

Tips:
• Fermentation occurs best at temperatures of 85-105 degrees F. Place the oil in a slightly heated oven, if your room is not this warm.
• In draining the oil in the cheesecloth, make sure that the room temperature is 76 degrees F. This is to ensure that the oil will not solidify.

Coconut Fruit-Tree of Life

Known as “the tree of life”, the wonderful fruit of the coconut palm is rich in specific fats that have incredible health benefits. Its meat, juice and oil are popular all over the world due to its delicious taste and abundance of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

Coconut meat contains lauric acid, which helps fight bacteria from intestinal parasites and wards off countless infections ranging from HIV to the common cold. Coconut water helps the kidney and bladder maintain proper functioning. Eating coconut helps fight gas, constipation, ulcers, and other digestive and stomach ailments. Coconut also supports thyroid function and can help prevent goiter (an enlarged thyroid) because it naturally contains iodine. Coconut has even been shown to protect the body from cancer and osteoporosis, dissolve kidney stones, reduce epileptic seizures, and reduce symptoms associated with pancreatic disorders.

Coconut oil (and all saturated fats) has been blamed for many years as a cause of bad cholesterol levels, which supposedly leads to heart disease. But studies done on traditional tropical populations that consume large amounts of coconut oil show just the opposite. One of the best ways to study the affects of coconut oil on human nutrition is to look at tropical populations that get most of their caloric intake from the saturated fat of coconut oil. Logic would dictate that if the saturated fat/cholesterol theory of heart disease and obesity were correct, those populations with the highest consumption of saturated fats would be the most overweight and have the highest rates of heart disease.

Coconut water contains vitamins, nutrients, sugars, minerals and salts. It’s also free cholesterol, fat free and is naturally low in calories. It is suitable for all ages. So why not drink the coconut water instead of throwing it. Below are some reasons why we should consume coconut water:

1.Coconut water has more nutrients than the whole milk because it has no cholesterol, low fat, low in carbohydrates and low in natural occurring sugar.

2.Coconut water has a natural balance of potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium.

That is the reason why it is a healthy electrolyte drink. Potassium can help our body to regulate the blood pressure and heart function. Coconut water can stabilize electrolytes in the body.

3.Coconut water can normalize digestive system, because it contains a certain kind of acid. The coconuts are also used to raise metabolism by helping to prevent intestinal gas, helps in removing toxins and increases the digestive system’s ability to absorb nutrients. Coconut water balances acid levels and flushes toxins out.

4.Coconut water heals damage induced by antibiotics and toxins in the digestive system. People know those coconuts are anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial. Coconut water enhances antibody and fights virus that may cause disease.

5.For people who suffers urethral stone kidney, it is very good to drink coconut water regularly since it will help to destroy the stone in the kidney and help them to out from the body.

6.Coconut water also helps people who have difficulty to urinate. A glass of coconut water will heal the pain because of difficulty eliminating urine.

7.If you feel drank, a glass of coconut water can help you to recover soon.

8.For menopausal women, calming and cooling benefits of coconut water relieves burning sensations and hot flashes thus restores emotional stability.

9.Since coconut water regulates the functioning of the intestine, it will promote smoother and prettier skin for the user.

Brown Rice Instead of White

Also called as unpolished rice, brown rice is extremely rich in nutrients and is thus beneficial for our overall health. Most of us usually consume white rice. However, there are various nutrients like Vitamin B1, B3, E and other nutrients like magnesium, potassium and iron that are lacking in white rice. This lack can be overcome by brown rice which is rich in all the essential nutrients.

Being good source of fiber, brown rice is beneficial for our digestive system. It aids our bowel movement and thus provides relief from problems like constipation. It is also beneficial for people suffering from problems like intestinal ulcers and diarrhea.

By eating brown rice, you can also reduce your chances of suffering from a heart problem as brown rice helps in naturally controlling blood pressure along with aiding in heart’s health.

According to medical research, the high fiber content of brown rice can also help in naturally controlling cholesterol level in the body. In addition, brown rice also helps in keeping blood sugar levels under control.

Along with being rich in important nutrients, brown rice also contains anti-inflammatory compounds that can help in naturally treating asthma. They also help in reducing wheezing and breathlessness associated with the problem of asthma.

According to research, brown rice also contains certain compounds that can help in cancer prevention. It can reduce the risk of pancreatic and colon cancer amongst others.

Brown rice is thus beneficial for our overall health and wellness. The grains of brown rice are tough than the white ones and thus you need to soak them in water before cooking.

Looking at the various benefits of brown rice, you should include it in your diet to receive its numerous health benefits.

Benefits of Mango Fruit

Mangoes, both ripe and unripe are very good sources of vitamin C. 16mg of vitamin C is present in 100 gms of mango. Both vitamins A and C are anti oxidants and help to prevent free radical injury and thus reduce the risk of certain cancers. Ripe mango provides a good source of calories.

Mango is a delicious and aromatic tropical fruit. Mangoes are very nutritious and excellent source of carotene as compared to other fruits. 100 gms of edible portion of the mango contain about 1990ug of beta-carotene (vitamin A), which is much higher than in other fruits. The total carotenoids in mango increase with the stage of ripening. Eating mangoes in the season may provide a store of vitamin A in the liver, sufficient to last for the rest of the year and highly beneficial for the prevention of vitamin A deficient disorders like night blindness.

The tender leaves of the mango tree are considered useful in diabetes. An infusion is prepared from fresh leaves by soaking them overnight in water and squeezing them well in water before filtering it in the morning. This infused water should be taken every morning to control early diabetes. As an alternative to infusion. leaves can be dried in the shade, powdered and preserved. Half a teaspoonful of this powder should be taken twice a day, in the morning and evening.