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Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to be the kickoff to a month of holiday overeating, ending with a regretful New Year’s resolution and a January diet. The holiday can be festive, even indulgent, without dishes loaded with fats and salt. Take stuffing. Everybody has a favorite stuffing; some cooks like sausage, while others makes theirs of bread and turkey fat. I like to use whole grains. There are two that I love — one with crumbled cornbread, another with wild rice. Each is wholesome, with lots of texture, and a great way to include grains in the holiday meal. This week’s recipes include my favorite Thanksgiving dishes, the ones I make every year (and then wonder why I don’t make them at other times). Several other Thanksgiving standbys have already been published here. I always serve a salad, and some of my favorites include endive, apple and walnut salad, curried Waldorf salad, and spinach salad with seared shiitake mushrooms. If you like mashed potatoes, try this version with ka...

Wouldn't it be great if you knew which foods you should be eating based on your own personal health profile? What's for dinner? In the future, you should know exactly what's best for your body, experts say. We know that certain foods are bad for people with particular conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. Advising a generally healthy person on foods that will prevent future disease, on the other hand, is far more complicated, and represents one of the challenges for scientists working in food science. In the future, people should be able to tailor their diets and supplements to their particular biochemistry, said experts presenting at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science this week. Right now the food industry is centered on products, said J. Bruce German, professor and food chemist at the University of California, Davis. That means profits depend on lowering the cost of production and making things cheaper....

In North America and Asia, ginseng was traditionally used for treating a variety of illnesses. In Chinese medicine, ginseng was more frequently used for general preventive purposes. Whereas ginseng was formerly supposed to be confined to Chinese Tartary, it is now is known to be also a native of North America ( species Panax quinquefolium after the five-leaf formation common to the species), and was used by the native North Americans. Chinese Ginseng is a larger plant, but presents practically the same appearance and habits of growth. Asian ginseng, which includes Korean, Manchurian, Vietnamese and Chinese ginseng, is considered to be very "yang", or warm, and is often used for relatively limited periods of time. It contains roughly half the number of active ginsenocides found in American ginseng, which is considered to be cooler, or more "yin", and better suited for long term usage. For this reason American ginseng has become very prized in Asia, and most Ameri...

We all want to live long and healthy lives. While being healthy means many things, it primarily starts with your diet and the way you are giving nutrition to your body. And if you are like most people, understanding nutrition can be tricky. This is why so many are turning toward nutritionists to lend them a helping hand. Technically, a nutritionist is a person who devotes professional activity to food and preventive nutrition. They can also advise people on dietary matters relating to health, well-being and nutrition. There are different types of nutritionists. There is the Nutrition Scientist, who uses the scientific method to study nutrients, both as individual compounds and as they interact in food and nutrition. The role of the nutrition scientist is to develop new knowledge related to nutrients or nutrition or to develop new processes or techniques to apply existing knowledge. For example, nutrition scientists have been involved in developing food preservation processes, deter...

Preventing colds and the flu can be summed up in three words: Wash your hands. The viruses that cause colds and the flu most readily enter our bodies by means of our hands. Wash your hands after shopping. Remind your children to wash their hands as soon as they come home from school. A little "hysterical hygiene" goes a long way to keeping colds at bay. Of course, there are herbs that can be used to help thwart colds and the flu. Yarrow is a clear favorite, especially as a tincture. Teachers, moms, and wise children find a dose of 5-25 drops of yarrow tincture in the morning in some liquid reduces the likelihood of getting sick by more than half. Astragalus is gaining fame for its ability to support strong immune system functioning. I throw a few tongue-depressor-like pieces in my soups, where they infuse their goodness without imparting much flavor. Powdered astragalus can be added to almost anything, from oatmeal to pancakes, soups to gravies. And there is always the ti...

Why Enzymes are Important for Good Health? by: Garry Nixon Enzymes are a type of protein which helps to catalyze a chemical reaction. Individual enzymes have unique chemical structures which can speed up the reaction of specific substrates. All body functions involve enzymes including digestion, respiration, transportation and detoxification. If some critical enzymes experience deficiency or malfunction it can lead to serious illness or death. There are two types of enzymes which are particularly important to our health, the digestive and antioxidant enzymes. Digestive enzymes help to break down food, enabling our body to absorb the nutrients necessary to sustain life. Antioxidant enzymes help to protect the body from attack by free radicals. Free radicals are linked to degenerative diseases such as aging, cancer, heart disease and other major illnesses. There are three further categories for digestive enzymes: amylase, protease and lipase. Saliva, pancreatic and intestinal s...

According to a 2001-2006 government health survey of approximately 3,000 children who'd been given blood tests, at least 20% of children aged 1 to 11 don't get enough vitamin D. That puts them at risk for weak bones, infections, diabetes and some cancers. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children have 400 units of vitamin D daily. Because many children don't drink 4 cups of fortified milk a day or eat lots of fish or spend enough time outside to get vitamin d from the sun, vitamin D supplementation is recommended. It's the D parents will want their children to get. According to both nutritionists and scientists, Americans have a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids. They are called essential fatty acids because they have to come from our diet - our bodies don't make them. Omega-3 is necessary for the development of a healthy brain. It also lowers the risk of heart disease, arthritis and cancer. It even fights wrinkles. Fish like salmon, tuna and halibut a...