LLS – Self – Health – Rice Bran Oil

Rice Bran Oil was a chance discovery for me.  One of my neighbours was mentioning about rice bran oil. She was using this as her father-in-law’s doctor prescribed this oil for him.  I wanted to try this and I liked the oil  (okay, actually……..I did not find any difference between this oil and the previous oil I was using!    ).  It is almost two years now and I have been using only rice bran oil as the cooking oil for the entire family.   While I could not find any difference in the taste of the food cooked using rice bran oil, it gives me great satisfaction that I am using a healthy oil.

Rice bran oil is rich in vitamin E and has antioxidants and helps in cholesterol control.   In south of India, we get multiple brands of rice bran oil in most of the retail shops.  I use Akshath rice bran oil which is available in retails like Nilgris, Spencers, Reliance and Food world.

Also, the cost of rice bran oil is comparatively very less than the regular sunflower oil.   TRY IT!!!

This is part of the Self of LLS series  -  http://ireach.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/life-and-learning-series-lls/.

LLS – Self – Health – Green Tea

I first heard about green tea 11 years back  -   my initial understanding was that green tea is an antioxidant which will help prevent cancer!

It took me another 9 years to appreciate the overall benefits of it and start drinking green tea!

You can read on this here

• Beverage guidance system
• Tea and health

Probably, it is an acquired taste, but it helps to have hot green tea after a heavy meal….. It gives a very light feeling after you sip the large cup of hot green tea!   It goes with my belief that anything good for the mind is good for the physical health 

The easiest way to have green tea is to get one of those branded tea bags  -  Tetley, Lipton are available across the globe.   All you need is a glass of hot water and you just dip the tea bag and wait for a minute and half  -  the water turns into the light yellow clear liquid and you remove the tea bag and you are ready for your sip of green tea.

Tip  -  Keep a box of tea bags at your work desk…If you have hot water dispenser at work, you have ready-made tea in two minutes!! this duration is excluding the water cooler gossip while you collect water !!! 

Hot green tea!

Note that you MUST NOT add milk to green tea.

If you are a person with sweet tooth, try adding honey into the green tea or a dash of lemon into it!!

Go green(tea!!)

This is part of the Self of LLS series  -  http://ireach.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/life-and-learning-series-lls/.

King of fruits!!

Yeah, it was another dinner table discussion!. We were discussing about food addiction  and I was a bit blanked out!  I had been a generalist food lover and could not immediately bring up any food which i crave for.

I was scratching my head to give the right answer when my turn comes up on the dinner table. As always, i was supported ably by the 7 year old’s clarification - “whichever you can keep on eating, then that is the food you like most”.  While this was a good input, i was again thinking…and i can hear the little one listing the favorites  -   “almonds, ………….juice, mangoes”.

i can easily pick up the three which i heard  -  almonds  – for that matter any nuts (something do with being nutty?!), juices and infact any fresh fruit juice and then……..mangoes….

Mangoes, the king of fruits……….i think that is it!!!………it has been inbuilt -  the love for mangoes……..i still remember the mango tree in our neighbours house -  my favorite abode during the summer holidays………….

so much of planning went into it……….I had to finish the morning chores on time  so that my parents allow me to step outside the house…….then get into neighbours house through our connecting backyard….patiently wait for the uncle to get off to office (better to avoid these uncles as there is a possibility of they updating appa about my mango mania!)…..intelligently convince aunty to let me climb on her well and rooftops……….then the actual climbing….. on the well and on the tin roof of their bathroom and then an agile jump on to the tree branch and the slow climb to the main trunk…… the V shape natural seat was the best place to sit and enjoy those raw crispy mangoes straight from the  branches…………..

YES, it is MANGO!

King of Fruits