I think EVERYONE is going to love this post – unless you have an allergy. Here on Live Lighter once again is guest blogger and flexitarian cookbook author, Bindu Grandhi. Today she talks about cheese, it’s goodness and shares a yummy recipe with us! 

There are thousands of cheeses in the world – made from the milk of reindeer, buffalo, yaks, sheep, goats and most commonly, cows.

What I never realized is that the nuance of flavor in cheese depends on a myriad of factors, such as the grass, herbs and flowers on which the animal grazed, the makeup of soil, the breed of animal, the season in which the animal is milked, the climate and, of course, the talent of the cheese-maker.

Here’s a little cheese 101 for you: regardless of variety, there are five essential ingredients to create cheese:

• Milk (may or may not be pasteurized)
• Curdling agents (acid or bacterial cultures) which bind the protein and the fat
• Salt which stops acidification and slows the expulsion of whey which determines the final texture of cheese and prevents the growth of spoilage bacteria
• Microbial cultures which influence the flavor
• Time or aging of the cheese

No matter the variety, flavor or how it’s served, cheese is simply scrumptious! We love it in pizza, crumbled in salads, topped on sandwiches, cooked in pastries and savory French and Italian dishes. Yet dieticians warn that too much consumption leads to cholesterol.

Because of its fat content, cheese has been classified as a dietary villain. But thanks to a nutritional game-changer, a recent study by Danish researchers, found that the consumption of cheese, unlike butter, has no effect on cholesterol. The researchers note that ‘fermentation’ is cheese’s protective factor.

Apparently, the bacterial organisms used in cheese-making not only favorably influence the makeup of fatty acids in the digestive process, but also dismantle cholesterol.¹

In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers state that dietary advice restricting cheese intake may need to be revised. That’s good news as we enter the spring season which typically brings cheeses that after several months of aging transfer the pasture-rich flavor of summer milk to the table.

So in the spirit of eating cheese and feeling less guilty – try this recipe, Garlic Chili Cheese Toast, it’s a family favorite. Cheers!

Click on the link below for recipe and demo: http://theflexcook.com/garlic%20chili%20cheese%20toast.html

¹Psychology Today, March/April 2012. “Cheese Whiz,” p. 44-45

About the Author

Author of Spice Up Your Life, Bindu Grandhi is passionate about healthy and flavourful cooking, especially when it’s flexitarian. She shares her health knowledge with the world by providing practical, healthy and tasty recipes as The Flex Cook.

What’s YOUR favourite cheese?

I’m wild about smoothies! They’ve played an important part of my health journey and now that the weather’s getting warmer, they’ll once again come to my rescue in my spring intentions! Here’s guest blogger, Olivia Parker, with a few reasons why smoothies are a good idea.   

What are some good reasons for you to drink smoothies on a regular basis? If you can’t think of any other valid purpose aside from it tasting delicious, then something must be wrong with you. These concoctions render loads of health benefits to drinkers, but I’ll only be discussing 5 that apply to almost all beverages of this type in general.

#1: They keep you hydrated. Common sense will tell you that the milk and yogurt included in a smoothie have large contents of water, so you won’t have to worry about not getting adequate hydration.

#2: It contains vitamins, oils and fat that are essential for your overall well-being. Yes, I listed “fat” on the last sentence, mainly because it’s required by your body for the assimilation of other vitamins and carries out other bodily functions. Moreover, fat is converted into energy, which does come in handy for people working out to burn more fat (ironic isn’t it?).

#3: Milk content. By choosing to blend in cultured milk, your smoothie becomes a great source of probiotics. Also, everybody knows that milk is a well-known for its calcium composition – all it takes for you to reach 33% of your daily calcium needs is to drink 8ozs.

#4: It can serve as a breakfast alternative – it provides the necessary nutritional values you’ll need in the morning. There’s protein in some variations as well, which helps give you that extra boost that’ll get you through the day. Making a beverage like this will only take a few minutes of your time, which is a good thing when you’re running late for school or work.

#5: They help you cut excess pounds. You can do this by drinking it in between meals, or whenever you start feeling tempted to eat junk food. Getting stuffed with this healthy concoction is a whole lot better than putting more garbage into your body. Lastly, they provide you with the energy needed for a longer and more efficient workout, like I’ve mentioned earlier.

These are just some of many health benefits of smoothies everyone can enjoy. If you aren’t satisfied with the nutritional bonuses people get from drinking this concoction, you can always decide to toss in additional ingredients to make it even healthier.

About the Author

Olivia Parker wrote Sensational Smoothies eBook to show people how to get the slim and healthy body they’ve always wanted without fuss or pain or regret. She used to be unhappy about her body and her health, and there were many days when she thought she’d never be different, that she could never change things. Smoothies saved her! And she believes they can save you, too! Visit her at sensationalsmoothies.com.

Can you add any health benefits of smoothies to add to Olivia’s list?

Bindu Grandhi, guest blogger and flexitarian cookbook author, is back this month to tell us about a legume she’s absolutely crazy about! She tells us how to prepare them and shares a recipe and demonstration video for her Red Lentils and Tofu dish. 

The wider you cast your food net, the easier it is to eat a delicious flexitarian diet, which is good for your health and the planet. So here’s one idea to add to your shopping list – lentils.

I’m absolutely mental over lentils – they’re hearty, convenient, cheap and quick cooking. Just like beans, lentils are low in fat and high in protein and fiber, on average 230 calories for every cooked cup with a hefty 16 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber. They’ve got plenty of potassium, iron, and vitamin B-1, too.

They’ll fill you up without filling you out! They have a mild, earthy flavor and are extremely versatile and marry well with fresh vegetables and spices. That makes them the perfect ingredient for soups, casseroles, salads and curried dishes to name a few. And they have the added advantage of cooking quickly without the need for presoaking.

One of my favorite lentils is Red Lentil. With colors ranging from salmon pink to actual red in its dried form, these are the sweetest and nuttiest of the lentils in my opinion. They turn golden when cooked and take about 20-25 minutes to cook.

They can be found in grocery stores, Whole Foods and Middle Eastern or Indian specialty markets. But I think you’ll get the best price at the Middle Eastern/Indian markets. For a 4lb. bag of red lentils, I paid $5.99 at our local Indian grocery store. What a bargain!

Here are a few tips when you’re preparing and cooking lentils:

• Sort lentils by spreading them out on a clean kitchen towel. Pick out and discard any shriveled and broken ones, stones and debris.
• Rinse under cold water.
• Bring about 1 ½ cups of water or broth to a boil for every cup of lentils in a medium saucepan. Add the lentils, allow water to return to boiling, reduce heat, partially cover pan, and simmer for 25-45 minutes depending on the variety. Don’t overcook them or they’ll get mushy.

Below are other satisfying lentils in my kitchen pantry along with approximate stove top cooking times:

1. Chana Dal: 30 minutes. Dull yellow, mild, sweet flavor and a firm texture, goes well in soups, casseroles and Indian dishes.
2. Toor Dal: 35-40 minutes. Yellow, mild and nutty; good for sambar, soup, curried dishes.
3. Green or Yellow Split Peas. 45 minutes. Peas have a soft texture and mild flavor; good for soups and curried dishes.
4. French Lentils. 35-45 minutes. Small, dark and stronger flavor, hold their shape better; good for salads.

Note: If you plan on cooking lentils often, I recommend getting a pressure cooker which cuts down nearly half the cooking time.

So walk down the grocery aisle and pick up a bag(s) of lentils. Try my easy and super tasty Red Lentils with Tofu, click on the link below for the recipe and demonstration video:

http://www.theflexcook.com/red%20lentils%20with%20tofu.html

About the Author

Author of Spice Up Your Life, Bindu Grandhi is passionate about healthy and flavourful cooking, especially when it’s flexitarian. She shares her health knowledge with the world by providing practical, healthy and tasty recipes as The Flex Cook.

How do you like your lentils?

In November I blogged about Being Respected vs. Being Liked and I mentioned (at the end) my new part-time job at a local Portuguese Restaurant & Bar, Parada. What I didn’t mention was how delicious and nutritious many of the menu items are – and today I’m sharing one of them with you! 

If you haven’t read 4 Essential Vitamins for Health and Routine by guest blogger, Sandra Goldstein, she lists Omega 3 first. It’s a vital nutrient to maintain health, as well as lower the risk of heart disease and heart attacks. And I’m here to tell you there’s a much tastier way of ingesting it than taking vitamins!

Fiber has been a recent discussion topic here because of its many benefits, and Betsy’s Fiber and Weight Loss article rings true to blogger, Felicia Baratz. As someone with personal experience experimenting with fiber diets, she’d like to add today’s article to the discussion.

In theory, weight loss is pretty simple. Eat fewer calories, exercise a little more and you’ll lose weight.

But those of us who struggle with losing weight or preventing weight gain know that it’s not easy to choose a diet, much less follow one for a long time. Consulting a medical professional with expertise in nutrition and intestinal health saves you time you might waste trying out a method that’s not right for your own needs.

If you’re looking for a natural weight loss aid, fiber may be your best option. A high-fiber diet can not only promote weight loss and help you keep the weight off, and it has additional potential health benefits. Dietary fiber can help prevent or manage some chronic diseases, and it is especially well-known for its role in digestive and gastrointestinal health.

Benefits of a High-Fiber Diet for Weight Loss

• It does not require supplements or weight loss pills. Rather than being a supplement or weight loss pill, dietary fiber is a nutrient. It is a carbohydrate in plant-based foods, but it does not provide calories because your body cannot digest it.
• It encourages healthy eating. Fiber is in nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains. It is not in animal-derived foods, like butter, meat and cheese, which are high in calories, saturated fat and cholesterol.
• It helps suppress hunger. Many diets fail because they make you feel hungry and deprived, so you eventually binge to satisfy your hunger. Fiber is harder to chew so you eat more slowly and fill up before you eat too many calories.
• It can help you keep the weight off. A high-fiber diet is a way of life, not a fad diet that ends when you reach your goal weight.

Benefits of a High-Fiber Diet for Your Health

• It lowers your cholesterol levels and reduces your risk of developing heart disease.
• It helps control your blood sugar to manage or prevent diabetes.
• It prevents constipation because dietary fiber has a laxative effect.
• Fiber may reduce your risk of developing colon cancer.
• It can help prevent painful irritable bowel diseases such as diverticulitis, and it can also help prevent hemorrhoids.

Goal Intake and Cautions:

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that healthy adults get at least 14 grams of dietary fiber for each 1,000 calories that you eat. If you are on a 1,500-calorie weight loss diet, you should get at least 21 grams of fiber per day. If you are like the average American, you normally get less than half of the recommended amount of fiber. That’s good news because you have plenty of room for improvement.

Your first instinct might be to immediately ramp up your fiber intake to your goal level so that you can see effects sooner. Don’t do it! Anyone who has dramatically increased fiber intake can agree that a gradual intake is a much more comfortable approach.

A sudden increase in dietary fiber can cause cramping and bloating. Your family and co-workers may also appreciate a slower increase in your fiber intake because you will have less gas.

Increasing Your Fiber Intake

Start by adding 1 to 3 grams of fiber to your daily diet. If that goes well for a week, try adding another 1 to 3 grams per day. You can increase your intake weekly until you reach your goal amount. During this time, you need to drink plenty of water because soluble fiber pulls water from your gastrointestinal tract to increase stool bulk.

Weight loss is still about burning off more calories than you eat, but dietary fiber can make your diet easier. It helps you feel full, and a high-fiber diet leads to more nutritious food choices. Increasing your dietary fiber is beneficial for your long-term health, but make sure that you do it gradually to minimize unpleasant side effects.

About the Author

Felicia Baratz is a writer living in the Indianapolis area. As a writer for doseofmyown.com, she specializes in articles about health and nutrition.

Let’s thank Felicia for this wonderful reminder of how important fiber is to our health and weight-management, as well as her cautionary note and tips in how to avoid unpleasant side-effects! Has her guest post inspired you to add more fiber-filled foods to your grocery list?

A friend of mine recently started a high protein diet and asked me how much carbs he should consume. While I gave him a generic answer, here’s a guest post by JC which explains low carb diets and how you should go about it if you wish to try it out to achieve your healthy weight loss goals.

Just as numerous diet plans have emerged in the markets, myths regarding low carb diets have increased also. Those who plan specific dieting techniques tend to ignore some of the essential facts and theories associated with them.

Today is officially the 1st day of spring! What better way to wrap up the Holistic Spring Cleaning Series than with a guest post about a super clean, nutritious grain that helps you lose weight? Bindu Grandhi, flexitarian cookbook author, blogs about quinoa and shares with us an easy, tasty recipe.

Grains are my-go-to staple food – they’re mild in flavor, inexpensive, and keep well. My pantry is stocked with brown basmati rice, whole-wheat pasta, couscous and my most favorite grain – quinoa (pronounced keen-wah).

While quinoa is considered a grain, it is actually the seed of a plant that is related to beets, chard and spinach. Honestly, I don’t care how it’s classified because if you’ve never tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing!

This ancient grain native to South America was considered “the gold of Incas” because they recognized this superfood’s value in increasing the stamina of its warriors. In fact, quinoa is quite the nutritional powerhouse:

• High in protein, it is one of the few non-meat foods that provide all eight of the essential amino acids that our bodies need to repair themselves.
• High in fiber, low in gluten and a great source of healthy carbohydrates.
• Great source of lysine which plays a critical role in tissue growth and repair.
• Loaded with vitamins and minerals (such as iron, magnesium and potassium); its magnesium, copper and phosphorous content means that quinoa is especially good for those that have migraine headaches, atherosclerosis and diabetes; its potassium content can help beat bloat.

Best of all, one cup of cooked quinoa has just 220 calories and keeps you satiated! So if you’re trying to eat healthy or shed a few pounds or fueling up for exercise, make quinoa a part of your meal plan.

Look for quinoa in your local supermarket or in natural foods stores. Some of the price clubs also carry quinoa; I got a 4 lb. container for $10! Make sure you store quinoa in an airtight container. It will keep for a longer period of time, approximately three to six months, if stored in the refrigerator.

Prepare quinoa by placing it in a fine-meshed strainer and rinse under cold water. Cook according to the package directions. By the way before I cook, I shallow-fry the quinoa in a skillet over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes – stirring constantly until the raw smell disappears.

It takes only about 15 minutes to cook, making it a great time saver for busy cooks. When cooked, it has an airy rice-like and slightly crunchy texture, and a somewhat nutty flavor. Quinoa is so versatile, the perfect accompaniment for vegetables, beans, or tofu.

If you have recipes that call for couscous or rice, just substitute quinoa instead. When I’m short on time, it makes for a great one-pot meal and I jazz it up with spices!

Here’s one of my favorite recipes:

Sautéed Vegetables and Quinoa

This nutrient-rich packed dish loads up on veggies, mixed with quinoa and just a hint of garam masala. Simply yummy – great for brunch, lunch, dinner or snack!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 4 servings

• 1 cup quinoa, dry roasted
• 1 ½ tsp. extra light olive oil
• 1 red onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
• 1 bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• 3 baby portabella mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 1 jalapeno (optional), stemmed and diced
• ¼ tsp. garam masala
• 2 cups of water
• Salt to taste

Garnish: ¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped

In a medium saucepan, heat oil and sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms and jalapeno for 6 minutes. Add the garam masala and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add 2 cups water, cover and bring to boil. Add quinoa. Cover and return to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro.

*Variation of this dish: Try other vegetables like eggplant or zucchini. Or add baby shrimp in place of the mushrooms.

About the Author

Author of Spice Up Your Life, Bindu Grandhi is passionate about healthy and flavourful cooking, especially when it’s flexitarian. She shares her health knowledge with the world by providing practical, healthy and tasty recipes as The Flex Cook.

Quinoa rocks my world! Here’s another quinoa recipe from the Live Lighter archives for you to try. How much do you love quinoa?

If you’ve been reading Live Lighter regularly, you know we’re posting a series on spring cleaning. On Sunday we shared 119 cleansing recipes to help you spring clean your body. Today guest blogger, Melissa Cameron, helps you choose the cleanest ingredients available to use in your cleansing dishes.

Everything has a downside, and modern food production is no exception. While at one time it was all the rage to be able to get whatever we wanted in a nice and neat package at the grocery, we’ve recently discovered there’s a sacrifice we make for such convenience: nutrition.

Another factor that has increasingly gained more consideration is the environment. As we look toward the future and contemplate whether or not we will be able to keep up our modern food production practices at our current pace, we find that we are sorely lacking.

While conservation seems like a loftier goal to most, the more immediate problem is your own health. The meat we eat is full of preservatives, hormones and antibiotics. Our produce has also been exposed to preservatives, along with pesticides and other chemicals. If you switch to organic food, on the other hand, you can forego all of it.

Organic Food & Fitness

While the term “fitness” may make you think about the trim, muscular people you see on infomercials, there really is a lot more to it. Sure, it’s great to be trim and muscular, but your body has to be in a more natural state internally to be truly fit.

When you consume organic food over long periods of time, you detoxify and return your body to a more natural state by attrition. In other words, you flush all the junk out of your system by not repeatedly replenishing it via consumption. Those attractive people on TV may not be as fit as they appear; they could be dehydrated and malnourished because they haven’t taken the proper steps to be truly fit.

What organic means in terms of our food:

• Organic produce is that which has not been sprayed by with synthetic pesticides and preservatives.
• Organic livestock is that which has had a federally regulated amount of time in a pasture and has not been injected with preservatives, hormones, etc.

Tip for the Novice: The Farmers’ Market

Assuming this is your first foray into organic living, you are going to have to become intimately familiar with the farmers’ market. It’s the place to find fresh, organic food because the transit time from the farm to the market is much lower than the farm to a grocery store. This ensures that fewer nutrients are leached from the produce.

Plus, the farmer is right there for you to talk to, so ask questions if you like. There’s nothing like this layer of involvement with your food; it promotes a real sense of community.

Farmers’ markets can usually be found along a major roadway, so they’re pretty easy to come upon – even if you’re not looking. They’re also typically held on the same day of the week, so if you’ve seen one at a parking lot on a certain day, you can return the same day next week and it will be there.

If you are looking for something more obscure than typical organic produce (or if you need organic meat), you should visit a health food store or a typical supermarket. Either way, you will find plenty to keep your Cuisinart slow cooker busy.

About the Author

Melissa Cameron is a 33-year-old mother of two who enjoys spending time with family, scrap booking and writing. Her dream is to one-day work for herself online as a freelance writer. Melissa is an avid Internet surfer enjoys digging up deals and is known by her friends and family as a walking infomercial. Check out her website to read a review on a Cuisinart food processor and much more.

Do you eat organic food for the same reasons Melissa gives in this post?

The holiday season is in full swing and if your pants are already shrinking, read on! Every decision counts and today’s post gives us ammunition to start living our New Year’s resolutions now with healthier holiday drink choices.

Between taste-testing my baked holiday goodies and all the temptations offered at social gatherings, the indulgences are starting to add up – straight to my butt and thighs! I suspect many of you are experiencing the same struggles so we’ve planned several posts (including today’s) that focus on healthier holiday options.

Healthier Holiday Drinks

If you’re maintaining your weight with healthy eating and regular (and holistic) physical activity, you have the luxury of looking mainly at holiday drinks offering health benefits and not so much their caloric load. Try Steph’s Holiday Hot Apple Cider and Minty Hot Cocoa in Healthy Holiday Bevvies.

Oprah’s favourite doctors, Doc Oz and Doc Roizen (authors of the YOU series), suggest hot toddies, gin cocktails, mojitos and red wine instead of your usual picks (and tells us why) in Healthy Holiday Cocktails.

For those of us who want health benefits AND to be mindful of calories this season, knowledge is power! The MayoClinic lists common holiday drinks and their calories. And have some fun by choosing holiday drinks rated low on the Lehigh Valley Health Network’s chocolate kiss scale in Healthy Holiday Drinks.

While all alcohol has calories and most of them empty (i.e. deficient in nutrition), distilled spirits seem to be the best option if you’re watching your weight: they have no carbs and measure in at about 100 calories per ounce. Many sources warn about the hidden calories in mixes so try this one:

Holiday Cosmo-POM-itan

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 1 oz vodka
• 4 oz POM Cranberry
• 0.5 oz lemon juice
• pomegranate seeds (for garnish)

Preparation

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add ingredients (except for garnish). Shake and strain into a martini glass and garnish with 5-6 pomegranate seeds.

Health benefits: With only 137.6 calories, this healthier cocktail option (a POM-tini) is great for the waistline and thanks to POM juice, packs a wallop in nutrients and antioxidants. POM also promises: no added sugars, preservatives or colours; good source of potassium; gluten-free; certified kosher; and flash pasteurized to retain both flavour and nutrients.

Nutritional Info

Calories 137.6

Total Fat 0.0 g
Saturated Fat 0.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 15.4 mg
Potassium 228.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 18.4 g
Dietary Fiber 0.0 g
Sugars 17.8 g
Protein 0.5 g

Vitamin A 0.1 %
Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
Vitamin B-6 0.3 %
Vitamin C 0.5 %
Vitamin D 0.0 %
Vitamin E 0.1 %
Calcium 2.0 %
Copper 0.3 %
Folate 0.1 %
Iron 1.1 %
Magnesium 0.0 %
Manganese 0.0 %
Niacin 0.1 %
Pantothenic Acid     0.3 %
Phosphorus     0.2 %
Riboflavin 0.2 %
Selenium 0.0 %
Thiamin 0.2 %
Zinc 0.0 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Editor’s Note: The holiday parties this month may have you a bit worried about your health and making small talk. If deviled eggs are on the menu and after reading today’s guest post, you’re covered! Read on as Leon Harris tells us about the healthy wonders of paprika.

As you may have guessed, paprika is made from dried and ground up sweet red peppers or chili peppers (capsicum annuum). It is traditionally used in Hungarian and South American cooking, but can now be found in a variety of international cuisines. It also makes for a very pretty garnish on some dishes.

Paprika can range from mild to hot. Aside from providing a tasty addition to otherwise bland dishes, why would you want to use paprika (as opposed to, say, other types of peppers)? In truth, paprika carries with it a number of health benefits that could make it more than just another jar in your spice rack.

Here are a few reasons you may want to add paprika to your diet:

Vitamin C

In fact, the types of peppers generally used to create paprika can have six to nine times the amount of vitamin C found in tomatoes (which is quite a bit). This essential vitamin is best known for:

• fending off colds (thanks to abundant antioxidants)
• prevent scurvy (although not a terribly common ailment these days)
• help the body to absorb iron (great for women or those with anemia)
• protect against cardiovascular disease (and subsequent symptoms such as heart attack and stroke).

In short, vitamin C is a sort of miracle-worker of the modern diet and should be ingested regularly (since our bodies don’t produce it naturally). In this respect, paprika has already proven its usefulness.

But there’s more.

Antibacterial

Paprika contains an antibacterial protein that has been found to naturally control (by limiting the growth of) certain bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli that are transferred through ingestion. Considering typical treatment is chemical, paprika may provide an alternate treatment for people poisoned by these particular illness-inducing bacteria (although further testing is necessary).

A diet that includes paprika may not stop these bacteria, but it could slow their growth. Considering the serious illness that often follows ingestion of Salmonella or E. coli, this could greatly affect the severity of the condition.

Stimulating

Paprika is a stimulant that can have a marked effect on the cardiovascular system. It can improve circulation and even help normalize blood pressure. Along with vitamin C, this gives users a double whammy of heart-healthy benefits.

It can also aid in digestion through a boost in saliva and stomach acids (as such, it can also be used to treat indigestion). Interestingly, high doses of paprika may interact with some other medications to cause drowsiness, so if you plan to add it as an herbal supplement to your diet, you may want to first consult a physician.

Important Note

The many healthy benefits of paprika can easily be lost through the wrong processing. Commercially-dried peppers, for instance, are exposed to high heat environments that can easily leach away most of the vitamins and nutrients present.

It is therefore advisable to seek out paprika that has been naturally dried (in the sun), or simply make your own. This way you can be assured of attaining the health benefits that attend this useful spice.

About the Author

Leon Harris writes for Everyday Health where you can find answers to all of your health related questions including information on arthritis and how to treat it.

I was surprised to hear that paprika comes from either the red bell pepper or chili pepper. Since I’ve only tried the mild flavour, knowing it comes in a spicy variety is a bonus! And all those health benefits… Has today’s post convinced you to serve deviled eggs this season?