Gosh, there are so many new superfoods on the market!

I’m not going to lie and say that I’ve tried them all, because I haven’t. But I still wanted to feature these new superfoods that are causing quite a lot of buzz in the health food industry:

1) Alma berry: You might better know Alma berries as Indian gooseberries. Like several other berries, Alma berries are considered a superfood. They work by inhibiting the aging effects of ultraviolet light by preventing the breakdown of collagen. It seems that eating Alma berries will help your skin remain supple and younger looking!

2) Bacopa: If you cannot remember the name of this herbal extract, don’t worry. Apparently, as soon as you start taking it as a supplement, it will (ironically) help you remember more. So if you are the type of person who cannot remember where you’ve put your keys, take bacopa to help with short-term memory.

3) Vinpocetine: This is a garden flower known as the periwinkle. Vinpocetine has been used in Eastern Europe for its ability to enhance memory and neurological function.

4) Lifenol Wild Hops: Hops are well-known for beer, but Lifenol is an extract from wild hops that has been shown to reduce hot flashes in menopausal women. It seems that we own this discovery to Irish women who, while harvesting hops, found they were able to reduce hot flashes and other side effects of menopause.

5) Astaxanthin: It’s a mouthful to pronounce! It also happens to be the most powerful “unknown” antioxidant since so few people have heard of it. These facts surprised even me:  Astaxanthin is what gives wild salmon its pink colouring. It’s also 53 times stronger than beta carotene and 64 times stronger than vitamin C!

6) Ashwagandha: Another tongue twister! Ashwagandha is an herbal extract that has been used for thousands of years in Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Ashwagandha is quite effective at helping your body deal with stress and its side effects, like carb cravings and overeating!

Since many of these new superfoods are herbal extracts, I’d recommend you check with your naturopathic or your medical doctor first to make sure none of them are counter-indicative to anything else you might be taking to support your health.

I should emphasize you don’t have to go out and buy all these this week. But if you’ve not yet integrated some of the basic antioxidants and superfoods like blueberries in your diet … maybe you should start there. Be sure to check out our Superfoods category, dedicated to keeping your body aging well and keeping you at a healthy weight as you age.

Photo by foxypar4

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I was having lunch the other day when I saw this advert for Bonnie Plants!

With all this talk about First Lady Michelle Obama growing her own initiative to feed the White House staff and her family with her organic garden and with the impending inflation on groceries (food will get exponentially higher in price … mark my words), it makes a whole lot of sense to find ways of growing any fruits or vegetables you can to save you some money and keep you eating smart!

I know that most North Americans don’t eat nearly enough fruits and vegetables, but if I had to guess, I’d say that tomatoes and peppers might to top the list when it comes to the non-root vegetables (as opposed to the popular potato) that are most commonly purchased at the grocery store.

If you look at the price of tomatoes and peppers, you’ll notice they fluctuate quite a lot and some weeks, it’s simply not worth buying them because they can top $1.00 each.

What about growing your own tomatoes and peppers for just a few pennies a piece and what if you didn’t have to worry about needed a lot of land to start your own vegetable garden?

That’s exactly what Bonnie Plants help you to do! Not only will you be able to grow favourites like tomatoes and peppers, but you’ll also be able to grow herbs to flavour your meals and you’ll also be able to grow different varieties of tomatoes.

I have to say that I was quite taken by this idea and I think it will help a lot of families eat healthier foods while minding their food budget.

>>>> When I checked Bonnie Plants “most popular” page, I saw these top sellers:

* Basil – what would life be without basil?

* Beefmaster tomatoes – these are ideal for burgers

* Better Boy tomatoes – you cannot go wrong with these classic tomatoes

* Better Bush tomatoes – I quite like vine tomatoes

* Big Boy tomatoes – you can never have too varieties of tomatoes!

* Big Beef tomatoes – just like the beefmaster, these tomatoes are perfect for your grilled homemade burgers.

* Bonnie Original tomatoes – these very flavourful tomatoes that are screaming for some coarse salt, freshly grounded pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

* More tomatoes – The list of tomato variety is getting to be so long that I’ll simply list the rest of the varieties that you can grow with your Bonnie Plant – Husky cherry red tomatoes, Mr. Stripey tomatoes, Park’s Whopper Improved tomatoes, Roma grape tomatoes, Patio tomatoes, Red Beedsteak tomatoes, sweet 100 tomatoes.

* Big Bertha peppers – these are extra large bell peppers that would make delicious stuffed pepper recipes

* Bonnie Bell Hybrid – there are so many recipes you can create with green peppers … the possibilities are endless.

* Other peppers – you’ll be able to eat your own home-grown Red Bell (my all time favourites), Yellow Bell, Sweet Banana peppers!

* Black Beauty Eggplants – aubergines (as we call them in Canada and in the U.K.) are so delicious and they are full of fibre! This vegetable is the corner stone of the Mediterranean cuisine. You can also grown your won Ichiban Japanese Eggplants with your Bonnie Plant for your Asian dishes!

* Boston Pickling Cucumber – if you’re into pickling, these will ensure that you’ll have homemade pickles year round.

* Burpless Bush Hybrid cucumber – I find cucumber to be particularly refreshing during the summer because they contain so much water and are perfect in a salad or on their own!

* Bush Goliath tomatoes – these are the kind of big, juicy tomatoes that you’ll gladly eat like an apple.

* Hot peppers – I’ve never met a hot pepper I didn’t like. I eat hot pepper like others eat pop corn and I find the idea of growing your own thrilling. Your Bonnie Plant will allow you to your own cayenne, jalapeno, hot banana and Habanero hot peppers!

* Celebrity tomatoes – these are made in the “US of A” and it seems like a real celebrity … these tomatoes are larger than life!

* Herbs: A Bonnie Plant will allow you to grow your own cilantro, sage, curled parsley, dill, flat Italian parsley, oregano and rosemary.

As if this list wasn’t explicit enough, you’ll also be able to grow your own Bonnie Plant Crookneck squash, Hale’s Best jumbo orange melons, 50 lb. cabbages, your fresh Quinault strawberries and your own zucchinis.

If that’s still not enough to get you excited about this nifty concept, you’ll be able to take a daily trip to Provence (France) every time you admire your own lavender garden grown with your Bonny Plant Provence lavender!

You know Michelle Obama has a good point about sharing the growing experience with your kids as a way of encouraging them to eat more fruits and vegetables. I still remember helping my grandmother with her summer garden and I also remember how she thought me how to take a simple dried bean and transform it into a blossoming plant that I would then go out and plant in the garden and watch over all summer long until I was able to eat the fruit of my labour. Those are sweet memories I’ll carry with me forever and they always make me quite emotional.

I won’t lie, I’m not much of a gardener (that much I didn’t take from my grandmother), although I love cooking with all my heart. I think the gardening experience I shared with my grandmother as a child helped me embrace and enjoying vegetables at a young age and that experience has carried through my entire life. Today, as an adult I eat a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables. I keep meats and carbs to “side order” portions rather than main portions.

If you’re like me and you don’t have a green thumb or if you live in a downtown building, these Bonnie Plants might be your license to discovering the wonderful and flavourful world of home grown fruits and vegetables!

You’ll find more information here: Bonnie Plants

When you visit their site, you’ll notice a few tabs that will help you learn the basics of gardening!

Photo by Lisa Norwood

That said, if you have the money (usually they start at $2,500 and it seems that is twice that the U.K.), a Power Plate machine might be worth considering.

I know you know what a Power Plate because I’m sure you’ve seen the ads in a number of magazines and if you’ve been to any big shows targeting women, there must have been a few vendors trying to entice in forking out a couple of grands for the machine.

The Power Plate machine is a vibrating exercise machine that is said to be better than aerobics or swimming at fighting flab.

Madonna or Kylie’s bodies are the celebrity examples of how this machine works beautifully well.

If you were wondering what kind of results regular women were getting, than you’ll be happy to know that women who were watching what they ate combine this to the use of a Power Plate three times per week, lost nearly twice the weight compared to women who were doing more traditional forms of exercise. There are quite a number of studies backing up the claims that the Power Plate does indeed help you effectively lose weight (and burn fat) and many have been presented in front of the European Congress on Obesity. Now, I should precise that the results also depend on participants doing other types of exercises, stick to a healthy diet AND use the Power Plate machine three times per week.

I had the opportunity to try one of these Power Plate machines and I’ll admit that at first I was quite skeptical because I thought it was another gimmick that would end up at a garage sale, but my friend Krista dragged me to a vendor’s booth during a women’s show and demanded that I get on the machine to try it. After laughing my head off (because of the intense vibration feeling), I started to take note and realized how much my legs were vibrating. It does make sense, but alas the Power Plate was not part of my fitness budget at the time.

You can check out photos of me on the Power Plate:

If you have the money or if you’re in a rush to shed unwanted pounds, then maybe a Power Plate should be part of your wish list.

That said, if you’re not fully committed to eating well, doing other types of exercises (Madonna also workouts out religiously AND she uses the Power Plate machine), then you are wasting your money.

Here are some great video showing you what the Power Plate is all about:

Power Plates Vibrating Machine basics

Here’s another great video for the VibraSlim Vibrating Machine (this is simply a different brand, but you can clearly see the guy’s body vibrating):

Here’s one more video that shows you again how your body vibrates on one of those vibrating machines … this is a video for the Crazy Slim V3 Vibrating Exercise Machine:

Here’s an advert for the Vibra Slim (Celebrity trainer Dr. John Spencer Ellis gives an in-depth explanation … this is a brilliant video because it’s an amazing explanation):

Since I’m on the subject of food, I might as well continue.

Given my ethnic background, I’ve been eating hot peppers as long as I’ve been eating jam on my toast. When I prepare foods for friends, I often have to prepare a separate version for those who don’t eat hot and spicy foods.

I like it all: cayenne pepper, chili pepper, jalapeno pepper, habaneros pepper, Italian peperoncini peppers in vinegar, banana peppers in vinegar, Thai and Chinese hot pepper pastes and Mexican pepper … I just LOVE it all!

I never knew until recently that my need to add peppers to my dishes is not only a tasty way to boost the flavour of foods but it’s also one sure way to NEVER gain weight!!!

Before you run off to your supermarket and clean out the hot pepper isle, I should give a more in-depth explanation.

I was recently flipping the pages of a sports magazine for women when I landed on the nutrition section and read about how hot peppers are a secret fat burning food.

A numbers of studies have been conducted to evaluate how eating capsaicin (found in chili peppers) leads to a process known scientifically as thermogenesis – in layman terms it means “heat generation”. This heat is what causes the body to burn more calories and keep undesired weight, belly fat and love handles at bay.

A study conducted by the University of Tasmania (Australia) in 2006 has shown that eating hot peppers might be “THE” solution to reducing obesity in western countries where obesity has reached epidemic levels.

Now if the idea of eating hot peppers makes you nervous, you might want to start slowly by integrating certain “hot” spices into your diet like mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric (commonly used in East Indian cuisine), coriander (aka cilantro) and ginger.

Photo By Jurek D