How to Choose the Right Food and Drink For a Party

By Michael J Henderson


Having a party can be fun but it can also be a rather nerve wracking and mind-boggling endeavor if you do not know how to properly plan. Especially, when it comes to food and drinks. Here are some tips you might want to consider when you are planning a party and want to have quick ideas for what chow to serve your guests:

Plan around a theme - one of the easiest ways to plan a food and drinks menu for a party is to plan around a certain theme. When you have a theme, you can easily select food types and drinks that will complement these foods to revolve around your theme. For example, if you are planning on a Western style party, you can opt for foods that are reminiscent of the Wild West like huge slabs of roasted beef, corn on the cob, wild rice, pumpkin pie and other similar food.

Consider your guests preferences - if you have guests who are vegetarians or are allergic to certain shellfish, you may want to consider these as things you need to work around when coming up with a food and drinks menu for your party.

Consider something simple yet tasty - some people go overboard with trying to impress people with what they serve at parties. Simple yet tasty fare is actually a lot better for them. Try to incorporate some of the simpler foods to prepare in your menu along with a few impressive ones to help you manage your time better and to leave you a little less frazzled.

Beating the Yuletide Bulge - How to Keep the Holidays and Watch Your Waistline

By Dianne Orwig


Here they come... the holidays... the most inhospitable time of the year when it comes to staying healthy and fit. Shopping, chores, decorating, food temptations, stress, even the cooler weather all contribute to an overload on your routine and energy until, before you know it, you're saying goodbye to last year and hello to 6 extra pounds. Ugh!

But, it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, some of my most successful clients have made amazing transformations between October and January! Here are a few things that contributed to their success:

A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO BE DIFFERENT: When you decide you want to look different, it becomes very clear that being different starts with ACTING and THINKING differently. "I always attend holiday get-togethers with my mind pointed towards what I WANT (a firm, healthy body) instead of constantly focusing on all the food and drinks I can't have," one client explains. "I always spend a few minutes before I leave for the party reviewing my goals, looking at my goal picture and writing out the things that are important to me... like connecting with friends, or learning something new about someone. That way, the celebration is about enjoying the people around me as opposed to making the food and drinks the star of the show."

A CLEAR PICTURE OF SUCCESS: "The night before a party or family gathering, I visualize myself sharing time with my friends without mindlessly eating and drinking everything in sight. I 'practice' the whole thing in my mind - from the time I walk in the door until I say 'Good Night.'" When you know you're facing a tempting situation, mentally rehearsing your success (as opposed to imagining yourself failing) will not only help you formulate alternative choices, it is one of the most powerful and often overlooked methods for maintaining control when you might otherwise just give in and go hog wild.

THE RIGHT WORDS: Let's face it, it's tough enough to turn down pumpkin pie... but Aunt Frances' pumpkin pie? Ah... no way! Food prepared by family or friends is one of the sincerest offerings of love there is, which is why it's so hard to refuse without a fight. Here is a great win-win solution: Come to every celebration ready to say these words. "I can't wait to taste that pie, Aunt Frances... will you cut me a piece to take home so I can enjoy it later, when I'm not so full?" This way, you get to eat the pie (or not) on your own terms, without hurting anyone's feelings. A good rule of thumb is to give your aunt or friend a call the next day to say how much you appreciate the love and effort that went into preparing the dish, pie, cake, or cookies they made with you in mind. When you point your focus toward fulfilling this desire (the main thing folks want when they have prepared something special is to know that you love and appreciate their gesture) everyone wins!

So, as you approach this holiday season, plan to be different, keep a clear view of what you want and make sure you say it right!

Halloween Food and Drink

By Jennifer Ward


Throwing a Halloween party this year? Does it involve food or drinks? Well I love throwing Halloween parties, and have had many successful food ideas and drinks in the past.

To begin, lets start with some drinks. I highly recommend having orange everything! Use orange soda, and regular soda in clear pitchers for black and orange. Fruit punch and Shirley temples can be "blood drinks." Also, if you have ever heard of the show "True Blood," they now make a "Blood Orange," drink which is what the vampire's drink. As for alcoholic beverages they make pumpkin beer during the fall seasons that is easily found at any liquor store, bloody Marys, and watermelon martinis (red). Also, using a 2 liters bottle of lime soda, 2 liters of fruit punch, 1 cup of vodka, and then scoops of orange sherbet makes a fun mixed drink that is orange and red. A fun idea for any drink is taking the little plastic spider disinfecting them and then freezing them inside of ice cubes. Gummies can be put in jello shots and when they harden its a fun little treat to chew on after taking the shot.

Fun food ideas are making spaghetti and marinara sauce and calling it brains, and "Dirt Pie" and then embellish with Milano cookies as tombstones. Make a cheese ball to look like an eyeball, and the crackers can be the fingers. Melting chocolate and forming little mounds then use pretzel sticks as the legs makes edible spiders.

Throwing parties and coming up with creepy foods is all about being creative. The above ideas are ones I have gotten from going to parties, or ones my friends and I have come up with while throwing out own parties. They are all inexpensive and easily done by the amateur chef.

The Seven Evils of Fast Food - And Why I Still Eat It!

By David Croucher


There's nothing wrong with food being fast. To walk into an eatery, order a meal and get it in five minutes is great. But there's a trade-off when commercial pressures come into the story.

Here are the seven evils of fast food. Avoid them if you can -- it IS possible if you buy with care.

1. Substandard Ingredients

No, not everywhere, nor all food in a particular outlet. But large chains and the wholesale suppliers to smaller places have a grand opportunity to offload low-quality ingredients processed to make them acceptable, especially in highly-flavored food (see #2 and #3 below).

The worst 'offenses' involve mechanically reclaimed meat and using emulsifiers and polyphosphates to retain processing water in meat. How can you tell? When you can see a nutrition table, look for the protein to fat ratio. Lean meat will be around 3:1 protein, depending a little on the animal and breed. Highly-processes ground meat products such as sausage and kebab meat can vary from 1:1 to 3:1 fat, with a third of the weight added water. Without printed evidence, you'll have to educate your palate!

So be aware, and look for better quality food; most Indian places use good, fresh ingredients, for example, whereas a lot of Chinese outlets buy in highly-processed partly-prepared ingredients to go with the fresh stuff. That's not a hard-and-fast rule; use common sense to choose your store. Burger joints vary from fastidiously pure food to utter garbage in both meat and sauces -- and Macdonald's and Burger King are better than most for purity. But their desserts, shakes and soft drinks are another matter -- read on!

2. Fat and Sugar For That Blobby Feeling

These are the staples of most quick preparation foods. This is particularly because frying is speedy and sugar is the core of desserts and drinks. At least the oils used today are healthier than the old saturated animal fats. You'll already be aware that a high fat, high sugar diet is unhealthy. An occasional fast food meal should be no problem nutritionally -- your body is great at dealing with infrequent overload. But do you fool yourself that your take-away every lunch and every night is 'occasional'?

Both fat and sugar are addictive (see #7) and combine to make the best way to pick up atherosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, heart attacks and cancer -- if that's your choice of future.

3. Salt Can Lead To Hypertension

To most punters, tasty equals salty. But salty equals hypertension equals high blood pressure equals collapsed arteries and heart failure. Eating less salt is impossible if you major on fast food, because you don't control salt addition and if a fast food joint left it out, most of its customers wouldn't come back.

The result is that a fast food diet is almost always a high-salt diet.

4. Low Fiber Equals Gut Problems

By customer demand, most fries are skinless and bread, pasta and rice are white. The fiber is stripped away to give you what was once a luxury food, but now is the cheap, health-free option. Fast foods rarely include much fruit or vegetables by weight -- they tend to be garnishes. When most of the other calories come from refined oils and sugar, fast food meals as a whole are very low in fiber.

This is the cause of sluggish digestion, dyspepsia and poor food absorption and poisoning from inefficient waste elimination. It's also reckoned to seriously increase some cancer risks (especially that all too common colon cancer).

If you eat a lot of fast food and other low-fiber stuff, you'll be liable to the usual constipation and dyspepsia. If it's an occasional treat and you usually eat plenty of vegetables and other fiber-rich food, no problem.

5. Additives Can Mess Up Your Body

Many food additives are fine, but that's not always the case with fast foods. Preservatives are often mild poisons, artificial flavorings can mess up your digestion's signaling system and many commercial colours promote allergies in a large minority while they disguise bad ingredients. Watch out for places that use all of these to boost bad food.

You'll probably know already if you are particularly sensitive to any of the more dire additives, like azo dyes or benzoates, and you'll have the problem of finding out whether the fast food you're looking at is free of your particular horror. Tough! The friers and counter staff usually haven't a clue what's in their food. If it's a large chain, you just might find that they have a recipe book for inspection.

6. Nutrient-Poor -- You get Sick

This evil is maybe the worst problem with fast food, as well as other ready meals from supermarkets and those cheaper restaurants that buy in chilled and frozen meals ready to microwave, grill and and fry for you.

Many ingredients, from oils and flour to sauces and pickles, are given a long shelf life for convenience. This involves removing the part of the food that spoils quickly and adding artificial preservatives. Problem is, the preservatives are mostly bad for you and the stuff removed is the fiber, plant sterols, vitamins and other natural ingredients that you need to eat to stay healthy.

That's why most people today are sick in body and listless, prone to illnesses and body breakdown like diabetes, arthritis and cancer. Being like this is, for most people, a choice, not inevitable. If you choose this kind of food as your staple diet, you choose the consequences, too.

7. Addictive -- You can't Stop The Gorging

A key reason so many people major on fast food is its addictiveness -- I've given the reasons for that above. It's similar to that for nicotine and can have similar withdrawal symptoms. The usual result is that you eat far more food than you can burn up for energy, and it gets stored as fat. We're a society of fatties, as you can't avoid knowing. Type II diabetes, heart problems, rheumatic diseases like arthritis, bodily breakdown from the load you have to permanently carry and cancers are the usual consequence -- and the age that the trouble begins is steadily coming down.

Be aware, and you can reduce your dependency on this kind of food, wherever you buy it.

So In Summary...

Overall, then, fast food can be a seriously quick way to Bad Health, with an unpleasant long-term future for you if you make this kind of food a way of life. But if you choose your outlet and meal carefully, fast food can be a delight and at least fairly healthy. Even the most fastidious foodie can indulge once in a while!

I ought to finish, though, by reminding you that Fast Food isn't the only kind that has these Seven Evils! Most people in the West have sick bodies because their whole diet is based on prepacked, processed food with (as we say) all the goodness taken out. Government agencies all through Europe, North America and Oceania have been flagging up these problems for decades, yet public health steadily gets worse. You can't have missed those Public Health campaigns, nor the media fuss over every new medical report all governments produce on 'The State Of The Nation's Health'.

Yet if you're a 'normal' member of Western Society, you'll have spent little of your attention on these 'scare campaigns', and a lot more on believing the thousands of adverts promising a wonderful lifestyle if only you'll eat their heavily-advertised junk food. It amounts to, "Indulge yourself, and you'll be happy," with the suggestion that you can eat treats many times a day without any consequences to your health.

Our ancestors knew better. They called this kind of eating 'gluttony', and told their kids exactly what the consequences would be. And they were right.

Kitchen Supplies Available For Easy Storage and Organization

By Lucinda Jones


Your kitchen will be a much cleaner and more spacious place if you invest in great storage and organization items. Although the cost may initially seem high, with proper organization, you will have more space and will want to spend more time in your kitchen. Even if you don't learn any new recipes, you can become a better cook, just by cooking and baking more often. Check out the following kitchen items that can help you stay organized in the kitchen:

Saving Space

Before you look for other organization items, check out tools that can help you save space. Take for example the refrigerator, which is easily one of the most cluttered places in the kitchen. Consider purchasing a beverage dispenser. Instead of having to make pitchers of drinks every few days for your family, you can make one large batch in a container that easily slides onto the top shelf of your fridge. This saves you both space and time.

Also consider a produce keeper. When you get your fruits and vegetables home from the store, wash them and otherwise get the prep work done. That way, when you are ready to cook, you will save tons of time. Produce keepers, which come in a variety of sizes, will keep your fruits and vegetables fresher longer. They can easily be organized in your refrigerator, stacked so that you can see what is in each container. It is much better than using old whipped topping containers!

You can also save spaces in other places in your kitchen. Plate cradles are another great way to maximize room. These holders are used to stack plates vertically, so that you have more room for items in your cabinets. This can also help prevent chips form on the edges of your plates. Also consider other space-saver items like step shelves for your counters, a garbage bin holder with a top and space to store items around it, and door organizers for all of the smaller items in your kitchen.

Storing Food

We already talked about produce keepers, but there are other items you can use to organize your food items when you get home from the grocery store. First, invest in a set of canisters for your baking items like flour, sugar, and brown sugar. Canisters can help keep your items fresher longer, as wells as provide you with an organized way to see ingredients. It also helps you to keep your kitchen clean, as you should not have to deal with open, half-full bags of baking supplies spilling all over your cupboards.

You should also invest in containers to hold snack foods and cereal. Usually, when you open a bag of potato chips or box of shredded wheat, you have to eat it quickly to avoid it going stale. Instead, you can purchase a plastic container. As soon as you get home, empty the box or bag into the container and make sure the top is on tightly. Your food won't go stale and you should be able to see exactly how much is left the next time you are going shopping.

Other Storage and Organization Tools

Drawer organizers are also a good idea. When you have a tall cabinet, a lot of space is usually wasted. Instead, you can purchase shelves that roll out, allowing you to store more small items. Roll-out shelves are inexpensive and easy to install. You can also purchase drawer liners to help keep items on these shelves and other shelves in your kitchen from sliding around.

Pots and pans are notoriously hard to organize. Consider getting some kind of rack. A number of retailers make great baker's racks to hold your pots and pans, and they can lean against walls or even hang overhead. There are also storage options for homeowners who want to keep their pots and pans in cabinets and out of sight.

Don't forget to also purchase a bookcase for your kitchen. While most people forget this item, you need a great place to store all of the cookbooks in your kitchen. As you spend more and more time in the kitchen, you will need to organize your recipes and cookbooks so that when you need a recipe, you are able to find it quickly.

Keeping your kitchen organized will help you save both time and money. You should be able to find food items and equipment faster, and you will not purchase the same item twice because you misplaced it or didn't see that you had it already. There is a good chance your food will also last longer, and you will wind up making fewer trips to the grocery store. Overall, buying a number of storage items to help you organize the food and tools in your kitchen is one of the best investments you can make as a home chef.

Select Foods and Drinks Low to Moderate in Sugar to Lose Weight

By Mia LeCron


Sugar is Pretty Much Everywhere

Sugars, found naturally in many foods, are simple carbohydrates. Sugar is naturally found in milk, fruits, some veggies, pre-packaged meals, cereals, and more. Sometimes sugars can be used as preservatives and other times as thickening agents. Sugar is sometimes used during preparation, processing, or when you're ready to eat. In other words, sugar is pretty much in everything! And sugar, if not used or digested becomes calories that are converted into fat. But we'll get more into that later in the article.

Unused Sugar in the human body = Unwanted Fat

But when you digest food (sugar in particular), the body breaks down the carbs into sugar. Now whether or not the sugar is naturally part of the food, or is artificially added, the body can't tell the difference. From the body's perspective, it's sugar nonetheless. The only difference is that typically, artificially added sugar has a lot more calories than foods with naturally occurring sugar in it. These added calories, if not used up by the body, can turn into unwanted fat.

Sugar and Health Issues

Although it is widely assumed that sugary foods directly cause diabetes or hyperactivity (the relationship is more indirect), this really isn't the case. Sugary foods have, however, been linked to dental issues and supplying more calories to the body then can be used. So if you really want to lose weight, I'd recommend against eating too many sugary foods.

Read the Ingredients.

Now when you're at the store, sugar presents itself in many different ways. It is up to you to determine just what this looks like by looking at the ingredients. And just because sugar or one of its synonyms aren't present, doesn't mean it's not there. The sugar may be a natural part of the food you're looking at, and won't be listed as sugar.

Know the VARIOUS names of Sugar

In either case look for one of the following "alternative" name sugars are typically listed as, "brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, or syrup." Any one of these means that a sweetening agent has been added. And remember, if you don't consume these empty calories, they get turned into fat. So better yet, try not to even let this added stuff get into your system.

Watch Out for "Low Fat" or "Fat Free" Items

Another thing to pay attention to is that foods typically labeled "low fat" or "fat-free" tend to make up in taste with the lack of fat by adding extra sugar. This keeps their calorie counts high, which keeps you wondering why the weight won't come off. So keep your food and drinks in the low to moderate range of sugar, and you should be fine.

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Melamine, Pet Food and Our Food Safety

By Katt Mollar


In September 2008, the world was shocked at the sight of little babies in China attached to dialysis machines as they fight for their lives. Yet, the news of contaminated milk formula did not gain much attention until it was realized that the melamine problem is not only restricted to China only but has actually spread globally. However, no ill effects of melamine has been reported outside China and its territories.

Melamine is an organic compound with the official IUPAC name of 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine and the chemical formula of C3H6N6. It is a solid white-colored base, and is odorless. It is slightly soluble in water, stable, and not easily biodegradable.

Melamine is an industrial ingredient used to manufacture different kinds of products. It is used in combination with formaldehyde in the production of plastics and cleaning products. It is also combined with other compounds in the manufacture of fire retardants, pesticides, fertilizers, extra-strong concrete. Many things in our home have been manufactured with the use of melamine, from Formica counter tops, to certain fabrics, to plastic kitchenware (melaware).

Melamine has been thought to be of low risk to humans. According to this Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), melamine is "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant." The toxicity of melamine, however, is low. To be "poisoned" by melamine, as determined by the so-called LD50, which is the lethal dose that will kill 50% of animals tested, is 3 g per kg of body weight (source: WHO).

According to studies cited in the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), "melamine itself does not seem to be important industrial hazard except if decomposed by heat." Allergic and irritative dermatitis have been observed to result from occupational exposure to melamine but no permanent injury due to toxicity has been reported.

Like most industrial chemicals, toxicological tests on melamine have been performed using animals to determine its potential toxicity to humans which include the formation of calcareous deposits in the kidneys of female rats after 13 weeks of feeding melamine-containing food (WHO) and tumors in the urinary bladders of male rats fed diets with melamine for 103 weeks (IARC). According to this later study, melamine and cyanuric acid together caused renal toxicity in cats, pigs, and fish. The study concluded that "although melamine and cyanuric acid appeared to have low toxicity when administered separately, they induced extensive renal crystal formation when administered together.

However, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of melamine and its effect on our body. The safety/risk assessment conducted by the US FDA did not give any clear answers. In food products other than infant formula, the FDA concludes levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 parts per million (ppm) do not raise health concerns."

In the current melamine contamination scandal, however, it is not acute toxicity that caused the health problems. What is making the babies ill is chronic or subchronic toxicity. In addition, the toxicity of melamine increases when combined with another compound called cyanuric acid. Cyanuric acid theoretically non-toxic is present in food additives for animal feeds and in water disinfectants. Human exposure to cyanotic acid may be through swimming pool waters, drinking water, and fish. The combination of these two compounds can lead to acute toxicity, as it produces melamine cyanurate, a toxic substance in the form of insoluble crystals that then accumulated in vital organs, especially the kidneys, forming renal crystals or kidney stones that block kidney tubules.

It is speculated that manufacturers mixed melamine in milk formulas to increase the protein content of their products. Food products are tested for protein content by measuring nitrogen content. Looking at the chemical composition of melamine, we can see that it has high nitrogen content.

This not the first time that melamine was used deliberately as protein content enhancer although this is the most deadly so far. In 2007, many cats and dogs died of kidney failure as a result of the formation of renal crystals or kidney stones. The cause of the renal toxicity was traced to melamine which was detected in pet food. Melamine-cyanuric acid cocrystals were found in the animals' kidneys and the case was well-publicized. It is therefore highly unlikely that the perpetrators who tainted the baby formulas are unaware of the hazards of melamine consumption.

But this year's melamine scandal was more shocking than last year's because it affected and killed little babies. The following is a summary of events.

September 2008 - Fourteen babies in the Chinese province of Gansu were reported to be suffering from kidney stones, a very rare occurrence in young children. The suspected cause was the milk formula they were drinking. More and more cases of ill babies were reported all over China. The milk powder in question was manufactured by the Sanlu Group.

The US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) issued a health information advisory on infant formulas. The advisory "is to assure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States... The following manufacturers have met the necessary FDA requirements for marketing milk-based infant formulas in the United States: Abbott Nutritionals, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestle USA, PBM Nutritionals, and Solus Products LLC."

The director of the Chinese agency General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine resigned as investigations showed that the melamine contamination is quite widespread. Tests showed that milk products of up to 22 dairy producers were contaminated with melamine.

The US FDA updated the advisory to issue a list of contaminated products manufactured in Taiwan, including Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products.

The New Zealand Food safety Authority found melamine in China's most popular sweet White Rabbit Creamy Candies.

The UK chocolate maker Cadbury recalled its Chinese-made products after chocolates from their Beijing factory tested positive for melamine, according to this International Herald Tribune report.

October 2008 - The problem spread to Europe. Chinese candies contaminated with melamine were found in an Asian supermarket in Germany. There were also reports of contaminated food products in Belgium and the Netherlands. The US FDA detected melamine in Blue Cat Flavor Drinks.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a warning against the consumption of Sherwood Brands Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate Coins which tested positive for melamine. It was not clear how the contamination occurred.

The numbers of ill babies rose up to tens of thousands. Eighty percent of those affected were below the age of 2. Four cases proved to be fatal. China also recalled not only powdered milk but also liquid milk manufactured during the last couple of months.

Hong Kong found excessive amounts of melamine in eggs coming from mainland China. Officials suspected that the contamination came through melamine in the chicken feeds. They have ordered testing of all animal feeds and poultry products from the mainland. "Hong Kong has imposed a limit on melamine use in foods, restricting it to no more than 2.5 milligrams per kilogramme. Melamine found in food meant for children under three and lactating mothers should be no higher than one mg per kg", according to the BBC.

November 2008 - The US FDA issued a nationwide alert warning for Chinese import food products and found traces of melamine in one baby formula made by an American manufacturer. The regulatory body claimed the contamination was accidental but did not go into details.

December 2008 - Food Standards Australia New Zealand issued a list of products contaminated with melamine.

The US FDA tried to assure the American public that American-produced formulas are safe from contamination. "To date, FDA tests have found extremely low levels of melamine in one infant formula sample and extremely low levels of cyanuric acid in another. The levels were so low (well below 1 ppm) that they do not pose a health risk to infants." The FDA made public the test results on domestic infant formula. Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron from Nestle contained very low amounts of melamine. In addition, cyanotic acid was found in one type of Enfamil from the manufacturer Mead Johnson.

On the part of the Chinese health authorities, they are trying to repair the damage through recalls and arrests of those responsible. Developing countries, however, which do not have the means to test import products, are at risk of becoming dumping grounds of contaminated products.

The best strategy is to simply avoid melamine at all costs. Consumers are advised to be vigilant about what they buy and consume, most especially products consumed by children in large quantities. These include milk and milk products, chocolates, sweets, and biscuits.

Time to Enjoy Tasty Food and Drink

By Fredrick Joy


Its time to give a treat for your taste buds with different flavours of your most favourite food and drink. Now there are thousands of online food shops that offer a wide variety of food and drinks to suit individual taste buds. Here one can easily find most of the UK's high street food shops containing all types of foods and confectioneries. Whether you are looking for a small break or going to order for a party, your work will be made easier through these online sites. One can easily find all the leading UK retailers at one place to purchase the quality product that you like the most.

The food products offered by these online street shops are of the best quality with lip smacking taste; which people of all age groups are sure to like. You can also make orders for the gifts to be presented to your loved ones on special occasions. Gift hampers are also available from the leading confectionery shops as well as other leading brands listed on these sites. On every purchase the customer makes, they can avail various promotions and offers. That's not all; you can also find the leading wine suppliers listed here.

You get to choose from various types of brands; that can be used to select and purchase the best food or drink. Gifts need not always be food recipes; they also offer wine gift hampers for those dear friends. Apart from all these, there are few online healthy food stores with which one can easily get all types of healthy food items and drinks. These online shops also suggest how a normal food can be converted into a healthy one. Some stores offer gifts and hampers that are packed with traditional food, wines and chocolates of various flavours. Through some stores you can get all the popular brand champagne, wine, whisky, beer and spirit accompanied with chocolate gifts, balloons and much more.

With the help of the advancement of technology there are websites offering cashback options to its customers; so that they can comfortably order the food they like directly from the restaurants and enjoy cash benefits as well. The payment can be made either through credit cards or also through cash. If you need your favourite food; there is no need to hesitate, just log onto one of these sites and pamper your taste buds.

Affiliate Marketing - Let Food and Drink Satisfy Your Financial Needs

By Christopher John Sharpe


As our world has become more interested in the foods and drinks they consume, it has opened up a new frontier in the affiliate marketing world.

We are undoubtedly now a nation of "foodies", we love our food, we want more of it and we are definitely always on the lookout for new gourmet products. This of course has led to a host of new websites aimed directly at this market.

The savvy website owner has found a host of affiliate programs that are aimed directly at this market and is using them to make money. How much money you can make depends solely on how much traffic your site has. There are of course as many affiliate programs as there are types of food but picking the ones that are right for your website can be the difference between making money and making a profit.

For the gourmet food lover's site there are many choices, but here are several of the top paying affiliate programs currently available:

The River Street Gourmet affiliate program offers a wide variety of gourmet foods and beverages delivered to the customer's doorstep. As an affiliate you will receive a 7% commission on all sales with bonuses paid at every multiple of $500 in sales.

The Splendid Palate offers a selection of unique European gourmet foods to buyers, while paying affiliates a 5% commission on all sales. You will be paid each month once your sales have reached $50 for the month.

If lobster and other types of seafood is more the theme of your website, then consider the Fine Lobster affiliate program. Buyers can choose from a huge selection of guaranteed fresh seafood while you are paid a 10% commission on all sales monthly.

If your web site is dedicated to all things liquid then these next affiliate programs are for you, as they specialize in beverages and paying you well for space on your site:

The Tea garden offers a wide selection of the world's finest teas, herbal teas and medicinal teas while paying you a commission of 12% monthly after you reach $50.

CoffeeAM calls itself the world's largest online gourmet coffee and tea company and offers the affiliate a 12.5% commission on not only the first sale from their website, but for the lifetime of the customer.

For the wine lovers try MYWinesDirect, they offer a selection of wines, gift baskets and gift certificates and you earn an 8% commission for each sale.

These are just a small selection of some of the better food affiliate programs available, there are many more. When choosing an affiliate for your site pick them carefully, the more they are tailored to the content of your site the more you will earn.

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Food and Mood, What's the Link?

By Mark Snare

I am firmly of the belief that every item of food or drink we consume has a biochemical effect on us, some negative and some of course positive. Furthermore it could be said that along with all the conventional methods of grouping foods that we could use the following:

Nutrient, stimulant and empty calories, let me explain group by group.

Nutrients are natural food stuffs that are not processed or altered from their original state by modern food industry practise. This means their natural chemical compounds and nutrients are left intact and are able to feed the body and have positive biochemical effects. This group includes all fresh fruits and vegetables and other natural foods nuts, seeds, beans, greens, oats, brown rice and all those other items that look the same served up as they do growing wild. This group is called Nutrients because they offer all the life giving power of natural foods whose positive effects are still to be fully understood.

Stimulants these are the temporary boost foods, usually high in sugar, caffeine or other artificial stimulants that give temporary energy followed by a low or crash as their active ingredients rapidly pass through the blood stream and are processed by the body. So tea, coffee, stimulant drinks, sugar rich foods and drinks. This group is probably the most harmful to the wellbeing of the mind and body and also can be dangerously addictive as the boost delivered is desirable and may be repeated with another dose! Stimulants are exactly that, nutritionally pretty void, they boost the body in an artificial short term way instead of fuelling the body with the nutrients it needs. Talk to someone in a coffee bar, and you'll see what I mean! Addiction to stimulants is a real danger as resistance is developed and more and greater doses are required for the same heady effect! Avoid this group and your reward will be better energy levels and a more stable and genuine mood, with greater resistance to temptation! Check out the ingredient panel of food packaging, manufacturers have to list ingredients in order of volume in the product, if sugar is in the top 4 leave it out of your shopping trolley. Isn't it crazy that most breakfast cereals have a huge amount of sugar in? Stuff a load of sugar down first thing and you'll be on a sugar craving roller coaster all day.

Empty calories, this is the U.F.O. food group, Unidentified Food Objects, you know the score, funny looking and smelling things that resemble nothing in its natural state! Generally they are cheap and certainly in the "junk" category. As we all know cheap isn't necessarily a good thing. Cheap batteries in your walkie talkie on a jungle trip could be a bad thing! Cheap food during your lifetime will definitely have a negative effect. These empty calories can have an extraordinary effect as they are calorie rich, high in sugar and other addictive ingredients BUT nutritionally poor, leading to over eating as the body craves nutrients and gets addicted to the sugar boost. It's impressive that a junk food addict can be at once obese AND malnourished, a testimony to the emptiness of the calories in this food group!

I hope this simple look at foods makes you keen to explore the nutrient group as stay clear of the other two, I certainly ask myself as I select things for my shopping trolley, is this nutrient, stimulant or empty calorie.

5 Tips to Avoid Eating Junk Food and Stay Healthy & Slim

By Syd Hus


What do you mean by junk foods?

These are foods which are low in nutrition but high in calories. They contain a high amount of fat, oil, salt or sugar. Examples can include too much chocolate or candies, potato chips, over-fried items etc.

Needless to say they can be bad for your weight loss efforts and even bad for health if you eat too much of these junk foods. For better health, we need to stay away from eating junk food as much as possible because they come with so many bad effects.

While it may not be so easy to completely cut down on eating junk food, we can certainly lessen our consumption with a little bit of determination. By lessening consumption of junk food we can also curb over-eating to a certain extent thereby helping in proper weight management.

Instead of eating junk food we can then develop the habit of eating healthier foods and eating food in moderate quantities. Below are some tips to help you stay away from eating junk foods.

How to Avoid Eating Junk Food? 5 Tips to Help You:

1. Don't buy junk food: Avoid buying junk food while shopping for your monthly or weekly grocery at the store. If you don't buy junk food then it can be easier to stay away from them.

Try to keep your fridge free from tons of junk and unhealthy or fattening foods. So sometimes even if you feel like having some junk snacks or gulping down a coke, you will not be able to do so because its not available now. You have to go out and buy it which may prevent you from giving in to the temptation.

2. Developing healthy eating habits early: If we can teach our children to eat healthy foods right from childhood, then they may grow up to become healthy eaters. They may be less prone to eat junk food later on in life.

And it is all the more important to teach children healthy eating habits because they are more likely to be attracted to junk food. So we may need to pay more attention in teaching them healthy eating habits.

Also as adults we need to lead by example. So we too will have an added incentive to stay away from junk foods because we don't want to set a bad example for our kids.

3. Educating yourself about junk food: Many people do not fully realize the negative effects of junk food not just for weight loss but also for the health in general. By fully educating yourself and others about the negative and bad effects of junk food, it can become relatively easier for us to stay away from them.

4. Keeping a food journal: This tip can be very handy to curb eating junk food and to curb overeating. Write down in a journal what you eat everyday - whether its healthy eating or bad eating, note everything down.

At the end of the day if you look at your journal you may be shocked to see your very own eating habits. If you keep doing this for few days you may realize how bad your eating habits really are and may find a new inner determination to overcome this bad habit at all costs!

5. Substitute healthy foods for junk foods: Write down the common junk foods you frequently consume like soft drinks, sweets, chips, fried and oily items etc. Next make a list of healthy foods that you can eat instead of the junk items. This list can include carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, fruit and vegetable juices etc.

Most of the times, we do not eat either for taste or due to hunger. We just want to munch on something which can lead to eating junk food. In such cases, we can munch on healthier and low calorie items like carrots, cabbage etc instead of eating junk food.

Replacing your junk food snacks with healthier options can be one great way to avoid eating junk food and staying healthy, lean and fit! With the help of the above tips you can overcome this bad habit and finally be able to say a firm no to junk foods!

Some Low Carb Foods Can Make You Happy-Boost Your Mood With the Right Low Carb Diet Foods and Drinks

By Cliff Smith


For low carb diet foods to make you happy, they need to be the right kinds of low carb foods and drinks. If you're reading this and thinking about things like ice cream, cookies or sweet rolls as foods that make you feel good, that is not where we're going with this. Also, we're not talking about low carb snack foods that are usually lacking in any real nutrition. To understand precisely what we're discussing, let's take a look at how certain nutrients affect the brain, the nervous system and your overall mood.

Let's say you've got an important business presentation and your nervous about standing up in front of a group of your peers. Which of these would you choose to calm your anxiety?

A. A diet soda
B. A glass of milk
C. A handful of Gummy Bears
D. A low carb food formula in a health drink

Believe it or not, C is a correct answer if you want a quick fix that's not really very good for you in the long run. In some people, sugar from candy acts as a short energy boost followed by a quick drop while some people go straight to the crash. However, D, a low carb food formula in a health drink is the best choice. This is because liquids are digested more rapidly and absorbed right away. Assuming that your low carb diet food health drink is made with natural ingredients, including whole foods with complex carbohydrates, then you will gain the most calming effect.

If you thought a glass of milk was the best choice for relaxing, you should know that mixing protein with carbohydrates reduces the carb's calming properties. So, next time you are eating a high carb cereal, don't put milk on it if you want to feel less anxious as you get ready to face the day.

Drinking a diet soda with artificial sweeteners is the worst choice you could make. Low carb diet foods and drinks that contain aspartame and saccharin do anything but calm the brain and nervous system. Avoiding these chemical ingredients in low carb foods or drinks is always a good idea, but especially if you are trying to relax.

The bottom line is that when you want to calm down, you can eat high carb foods, like potatoes, pasta, breads and other starches, or you can drink a naturally formulated low carb food mixture that will give you more benefits. Not only will your brain and nervous system get quick anxiety reduction, your body will get complex carbohydrates it can use for long lasting energy.

An ancient Chinese proverb states, "In times of stress, sweeten the tea". Our ancestors commonly consumed a spoonful of honey before bed to induce restful sleep. This may run contrary to the popular opinion that sugar gives you quick energy. Instead, recent research suggests that, "all carbohydrates, including sugar and starches have the opposite effect on most ordinary people" (Food-Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper-Harper Collins Publishers-1993). There are numerous experiments that show carbohydrates to be more like mild tranquilizers than pick-me-ups.

How some high carb foods act as sedatives, according to experts, could be due to complicated biochemical reactions. One theory is that carbs clear the way for the brain to receive more tryptophan, an amino acid that gets converted into serotonin. Now, researchers are learning more about the ability of serotonin to act as a calming chemical in the brain and nervous system. That's why you hear about people with low serotonin levels developing greater stress. If you are eating low carb foods on a regular basis and feeling some nervousness or overly revved up energy, make sure you are getting tryptophan and serotonin by eating the right low carb diet foods.