Diet to Reduce Cholesterol - Lower Cholesterol Effectively

Right now many people are facing high cholesterol in blood which is the result of incorrect eating habits especially having food that presence of and Tran's fat and sugar. When you have high cholesterol, blood flow through your arteries is so difficult which increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke. To reduce high cholesterol, a healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication are the best solutions in natural way. Here are the recommended diets that you can count on in lowering your cholesterol effectively.

1. Avoid sweets and processed foods. It has proved that when people finally stop eating margarine, refined oils, "fake" butters, sugar and processed foods, they can lower your cholesterol and get the better health. Next time you should be aware not to choose cakes, crackers or cookies as your snack choice.

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2. Cut out caffeine and alcohol drink. As both caffeine and alcohol have been shown to increase cholesterol, thus it is best to switch to pure water.

3. Have fish and omega-3 fatty acids. You should eat fish like Lake trout, herring, mackerel, sardines, and salmon which are one of the best choices. They are full of omega 3 which help you to decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (good cholesterol).

4. Eating a handful of nuts each day. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are known in helping to reduce blood cholesterol which can be found in most nuts. Some of them are walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, some pine nuts and pistachio nuts. However, make sure that they are not added with salt or coated with sugar.

5. Take high fiber foods. Absorption of cholesterol into bloodstream is blocked by soluble fiber leading to lower LDL level. Soluble fiber is mostly found in foods like apples, oatmeal, kidney beans and prunes.

6. Try food added plant sterols or stanols. Sterols or stanols, the substances found in plants, can block the absorption of cholesterol. The recommended amount of daily plant sterols is at least 2 grams -- which equals about two 8-ounce servings of plant sterol-fortified orange juice a day.

Diet to Reduce Cholesterol - Lower Cholesterol Effectively

12 OUNCES EQUALS

How to Make Almond Biscotti

Biscotti are very hard, dry biscuits that can be served with ice cream as an alternative to wafers. I find that they go well with very rich tasting ice cream such as my chocolate orange liquer ice cream or my creamy vanilla or coffee flavoured ice creams. One of the great things about Biscotti is that they store very well in an airtight package for some days so you can make them in develop and then use them on a day when you are serving ice cream to guests.

The formula below makes about 50 pieces of almond biscotti if you slice them fairly thinly which is how I prefer to make them.

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

Recipe for Almond Biscotti

225g or 1 1/2 cups Plain Flour
225g or 1 cup Superfine Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
4 Eggs
Zest and juice of half an Orange
100g or 2/3 of a cup Ground Almonds

Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add the sugar and ground almonds.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and when well beaten add most of the egg mixture to the sifted flour, baking powder and sugar. You will just need to keep sufficient left over to glaze the dough when it goes in the oven. Add in the zest and juice of half an orange.

Combine all the ingredients together until you have a firm dough. Divide the dough in to three equal parts and roll into small log shapes, so they look like plump breadsticks.

Glaze each log with the remaining beaten egg and pop the logs in to the oven, cooking for 40 minutes at 180C, 360F, Gas Mark 4.

Take out of the oven and cut each log in to thin slices. Sell out the heat of the oven to 140C, 280F, Gas Mark 2, wait for it to reach the definite climatic characteristic and then place the biscotti slices on a baking tray and cook for ten minutes. Turn the biscotti over and cook for a supplementary 10 minutes. You should end up with very hard, very dry slices which is how they should be.

Let them cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container, they can keep for some days.

If you want to try different versions of Biscotti you can substitute some of the key ingredients. For Lemon and Vanilla Biscotti substitute the orange zest and juice for lemon and add a integrate of drops of vanilla essence. To add Pistachio nuts to the biscotti take out half the number of ground almonds and add 30g or 1oz of pistachio nuts.

How to Make Almond Biscotti

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

The Real Secret to Getting Flatter Abs Faster

"How can I speed up my results and get this belly fat off?" is a question I hear more than any other and, today, I am going to hand you the answer on a silver platter.

Of course, when most people inquire about how to speed things up, they usually start with the obvious questions...

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"Should I do more cardio?"

"What about using higher reps and lower weights or do heavier weights and less reps work better?"

"How about working my abs every day?"

Unfortunately, all of these questions miss the mark because they are pointed toward the wrong issue. As hard as it is to believe, reshaping the body has surprisingly little to do with what happens in the gym.

Abs Are Made In The Kitchen - When it comes to getting the fastest results possible, here's the bottom line: of the key components needed to reshape your body (blubbery thighs, giggly abs, soft biceps and all,) exercise is actually at the bottom of the list. That's not to say that it isn't important or that you should knock it out all together, but when it comes to your overall return-on-investment, exercise is not the main ingredient in moving your mid-section from flabby to flat. Food is where it's at.

Shake vs. Bake - Think about the ingredients that go into baking the perfect cake. There are the main ingredients (flour, milk and eggs) and then there are the more subtle ingredients (like baking powder.) Adding too much or too little of this very critical ingredient can spell the difference between success and failure. That is exactly what exercise is to flattening your abs - it's like the baking powder of fitness. It only takes a little (or more accurately, just the right amount) and more does not make it better. Do it--forget it--and point the majority of your energy and focus on the main ingredients to flatter abs... getting a handle on what's landing in your stomach on a regular basis.

The Silver Platter of Success - Now that we've established that exercise, while it is an important component of your overall results, will not remove the fat from around your belly, I want to hand you the formula for achieving swift, certain results - the kind you can feel in your clothes and see in the mirror. Having trained, coached, and closely measured the progress of over 4000 individuals over the past 11 years, I can tell you with absolute assurance that 80-90% of the visible results achieved from any fitness program is a product of the following recipe:

Ingredient #1 - Toe the line on your meal portions. Make sure you are eating just enough food at each meal to last you about 2-3 hours. Your natural hunger mechanism should kick in just around the end of the second hour after you've eaten. Otherwise you are probably eating meals that are too big. Make it a rule that you plate should never contains more than the visual equivalent of your two clinched fists put together.

Ingredient #2 - Make the majority of your meals about fuel, not entertainment. That doesn't mean that your food has to be boring. It's really a simple matter of looking at each meal and asking these 3 questions, "Where's my protein, where's my carbohydrate, and are they of equal portion?"

Ingredient #3 - Drink water like you're going for a record. Make water your main beverage. When you choose to drink something other than plain water, especially if it contains any of the "Four C's" (caffeine, color, calories or carbonation) follow it with 16 ounces of plain water. Easy enough. Another great rule is to start your day with 16 ounces of water and make your last drink of the day another 16 ounces of water.

Ingredient #4 - Take an optional food break at least one day a week. Having full autonomy one day a week to let loose and have whatever you want is a great way to stay on track. It's much easier to avoid the cookies in the lunch room when you know you can put one in a zip-lock bag and have it on your opt day!

And, there you have it - the true recipe for flatter abs. So, the next time you find yourself grabbing the stuff around your waist, asking what you can do to get it off, you have your answer. Trying to shed fat by working it off is the slow and painful way to nowhere. Whenever you find yourself pointing your focus toward forcing the fat off with exercise, remember that it takes hours and hours of work to duplicate the same benefits of simply watching your portions, timing and meal combinations.

The best way to put it is this. You can work out like a CRAZY person, but if your food isn't spot-on, you will NEVER see much in the way of visible results. On the other hand, if your food is spot-on and you happen to miss a workout here or there, you are still likely to experience great results.

The Real Secret to Getting Flatter Abs Faster

12 OUNCES EQUALS

Best of the Best Italian Cream Cake

Ingredients:

1-cup Buttermilk,

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

1-teaspoon Baking Soda,

5-large Eggs, separated,

2-cups Sugar,

1-stick Butter, soft,

½-cup Shortening,

1-teaspoon Vanilla,

1-cup Pecans, chopped,

1-can Coconut, shredded,

2-cups Flour.

Instructions:

Cream shortening, butter, sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl; add flour and buttermilk; mix well; add coconut, pecans, vanilla and beat well. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff and fold them into cake mixture. Bake at 325° for 30 to 35 minutes in 3 layered pans. Let cool before frosting.

Frosting:

4-tablespoons butter 1-teaspoon vanilla,

8-ounces cream cheese 1-box powdered sugar,

1-cup Walnuts, chopped.

Mix and spread frosting on layers. Place 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts on first layer of icing, add 1/3-cup of chopped walnuts to 2nd layer of icing. close spreading frosting on top and sides of cake and finally place 1/3-cup of chopped walnuts on top.

Serves 8 to 10

Note: This cake can be made into a one layer cake by baking it in a 9x13-inch baking dish, but it is not near as good. other fun and great idea is to add three to six drops of food coloring, depending on how vibrant you want the color to be. I add the food coloring sometimes to the cake and icing and sometimes just to whether the cake or the icing. I pick my colors by the holidays, for example I pick red or green for Christmas.

This method is in "What's Cooking?" cookbook.

You can find this method and many more just like this one at http://www.cristiescookin.com

Best of the Best Italian Cream Cake

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

Selling Gold - Don't Get Ripped Off

Selling gold, like your old rings and necklaces, looks enticing these days. When you see the advertisements on TV and the Internet for gold buyers, all telling you that you'll get top dollar for your junk gold, remember that you are trading a precious metal for inflation-ravaged US dollars. All things being equal, you'd be better to hold onto your old junk gold. The prices for gold are going to skyrocket in the coming months and years. Don't be surprised to see spot prices for gold above ,000 within the next three years.

Gold is a pretty cool substance. One ounce of pure gold can be stretched into a wire five miles long, or hammered into a sheet so thin that it would cover an area 100 square feet in size and light would pass through it. The word "carat" (of which the notation for gold, "karat," is a variation) comes from the Arabic word "qirat," which means "bean pod." In Oriental bazaars, a tiny carob seed was a unit of weight measurement.

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This list below shows the karat number of gold, followed by the percentage of pure gold in the alloy.

10K 41.7%
14K 58.3%
18K 75.0%
24K 100%

What kind of alloys go into gold products?

GOLD COLOR CHART

These are the alloys added to pure 24K gold to make its distinctive color.

o Yellow Gold: Copper and silver. Yellow gold comprises 85% of the gold sold throughout the world.
o White Gold: Nickel, Zinc, Silver, Platinum, and Palladium. White gold symbolizes friendship and is the most important of the colored golds.
o Pink (Rose) Gold: Copper. Pink gold has become increasingly popular and looks lovely when combined with yellow or green gold.
o Green Gold: Silver, Copper, and Zinc Green gold is being used more and more with pink gold and yellow gold and is an important part of Black Hills Gold's signature grape leaf design.

I decided to test the market yesterday, and sell a piece of jewelry at the highest price I could find that day. So I called five gold buyers and visited the one that gave me the highest quote on the phone.

Today, July 4, 2009, gold's spot price is 1.50 per ounce of 99.99% pure gold. So, every tenth of an ounce is worth .15 today.

The old 14K ring I sold to the gold buyer fetched .00. The ring weighed 0.3 ounce. So, I was paid per tenth ounce. Big difference from .15, huh?

Here is how the buyer explained the pricing process. They start with the daily spot price of 24K gold. Then, they determine the karat of the gold, and multiply the spot price by the percentage of pure gold in it. Then they deduct the refining costs to smelt and recover the 24K gold. Finally, they deduct 10% as their profit.

So, my transaction's numbers looked like this:

Spot price 1.50
Times 58.3% 3.00 of 24K gold in 14K gold
Times weight 0.30 ounce
Gold value 2.90
Less refining ($ 18.60)
Less 10% profit ($ 54.30) actually 33% of 2.90
Net cash value .00

This was the best price I could find. So, as you see, the dealers can and do play games with the percentages, prices, and deductions. It's almost as honest and easy to understand as buying a used car. Almost.

I don't really know if the refining cost is high or not. I don't know if the profit deduction is high or low. And neither will you. So, after the gold buyer lays out his bid for your gold, negotiate to get your best price.

My recommendation is that if you are desperate for cash, call around and get phone quotes from dealers before you get in your car and start making visits to dealers. They won't want to tell you anything by phone because they want to you to be in the store so they can close the deal. Then approach your gold selling transactions with knowledge, which will keep you from getting ripped off.

So, I got killed on this transaction, and the gold buyer will make a big profit at today's gold price. He'll likely wait until gold prices go up before he smelts the gold, and then he'll make more. If you try to sell your gold without knowing their games, you'll also get the lowest price, not the highest price.

Selling Gold - Don't Get Ripped Off

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Desserts for Diabetics

People who suffer from Diabetes have to severely limit confident foods to keep their blood glucose level. This does not have to mean, however, that those citizen cannot enjoy a minute bit of luxury in the form of sweets every so often. These are our popular two recipes for desserts, designed especially with the diabetic in mind.

Sugar Free Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

You will need a 9" pie crust brushed with egg whites, ¼ cup whipping cream, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of fruit-sweet raspberry jam or syrup, ½ pint of fresh, rinsed raspberries, 1 packet of Equal or NutraSweet, 1/3 cup of fat free or light cream cheese, 2/3 cup of partially skin ricotta cheese, ¾ cup of milk, 1 4-serving container of instant sugar-free chocolate pudding, and a mint sprig to decorate each slice.

To make the Creamy Raspberry Filling, first beat the whipping cream. When it is nearly stiff, add the vanilla and a tablespoon of the strained raspberry jam or syrup. Save one berry for the garnish, and fold the remainder of the fresh raspberries and the Equal into the mix. Spread the filling evenly over the bottom of the baked pie shell.

To make the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse, blend the following fully in a blender or food processor: The cream cheese, ricotta cheese and ½ cup of raspberry jam or syrup. When the blend is plane and no seeds are detected, hand stir in the milk. Beat in the chocolate pudding powder, only until it is fully mixed. Pour the mousse blend over the berry filling immediately, manufacture sure that it spread evenly and until the edges of the crust.

Refrigerate for thirty to sixty minutes, until properly congealed. Or you can chill the pie for fifteen to twenty minutes in the freezer. When ready to serve, decoration each personel slice with one raspberry and one mint sprig.

Diabetic Apple Raisin Cookies

You will need one cup of raisins, 1/3 cup of dates, ½ cup of chopped apples, ¾ cup of chopped nuts, 1 cup of water, ½ cup of vegetable shortening, two well-beaten eggs or egg-substitute, 2 ½ teaspoons of liquid sweetener, 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Soak the raisins and dates for at least an hour. Then boil the raisins, dates and apples for a full three minutes. Next, you will want to add the shortening to melt, cool and add the remaining ingredients with nuts last. Refrigerate the mix until it is well chilled, then drop the mix by the teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake the cookies at 350ºF. For 10 to 12 minutes, and enjoy!

Desserts for Diabetics

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

How to Make Some yummy Cherry Cheese Bars

Just the title of this sweetmeat is adequate to make one's mouth water! Cherry and Cheese, wow! whether for dessert, a coffee klatch, church potluck, etc, these Cherry Cheese Bars will be a big hit! These bars will satisfy everybody from the youngsters to the grandparents. Treat your family and/or friends soon! We have also included directions for making this recipe diabetic friendly, if desired.

Cherry Cheese Bars
Crust:
1 cup walnut pieces, divided
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1/2 cup flaked coconut

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and set aside.

Coarsely chop 1/2 cup of the nuts for topping; set aside.

Finely chop the remaining walnuts.

In a medium bowl, merge the flour and brown sugar. Cut in the butter flavored shortening until mixture forms fine crumbs. Stir in the finely chopped walnuts and the coconut; mix well. Remove 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture and set aside. Press the remaining mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.

Filling:
2 pkgs (8-oz each) cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
1 can (21-oz) cherry pie filling

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla at medium speed until smooth. Spread over the hot baked crust and return pan to the oven. Bake another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and spread the cherry pie filling over the cream cheese layer. merge the reserved coarsely chopped walnuts and the reserved crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the cherries. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate for some hours before serving. To serve, cut into 36 bars.

Note: You can make this recipe diabetic cordial by substituting 1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend for the brown sugar in the crust. For the filling, substitute an equal estimate of Splenda granular for the granulated sugar. Substitute "No sugar added", Splenda sweetened cherry pie filling.

Enjoy!

How to Make Some yummy Cherry Cheese Bars

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS