Category: food

Insulin is a Hormone that tells Cells to burn carbs and not Fat

This is an interesting theory, and a very minority one. The traditional theory is that obesity is caused by a person’s lack of will power, where if you don’t eat you won’t gain weight. This theory, the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model (CIM) of obesity, says that insulin is a hormone. When you eat carbs or sugar, insulin kicks in and tells your cells to burn carbs and not fat. You therefore crave more carbs and accumulate and not burn fat.

Calories in Papadum is only 35

The nutrition label on my Indian papadum states that 100g has 316 calories and 2,454g of salt. The salt is 102% of your daily recommended intake. How misleading are these nutrition facts. The numbers are for 100g of papadum.

My package of papadum is 150g for 14 circles. Who, in their right mind, would eat 2/3ds, or 9 papadum at a sitting?

Each papadum weights 11g and has 35 calories, 273g salt

To cook: microwave on high for 2 minutes

Neilson Chocolate Milk Carton: Trouble opening without a knife

Neilson 2% Chocolate Milk, paper carton, I cannot open it without a knife. Terribly inconvenient. Toronto, Canada. photo by Don Tai

Neilson 2% Chocolate Milk, paper carton, I cannot open it without a knife. Terribly inconvenient. Toronto, Canada. photo by Don Tai

Ridiculous is the fact that I could not open a paper carton of Neilson 2% chocolate milk without a knife. I have done this since I was a child. They used too much glue in the opening mechanism, so using only hand force, it will not open. How terrible is that? I’ll need to use a knife and cut it open. This makes the container more dangerous and certainly not safe for kids.

Minute Maid Orange Juice by Coca-Cola Made it Right

Upset I was, about the state of my orange juice. We buy cartoned Minute Maid orange juice, an the carton I bought was short 100 – 120ml. I sent them an email, provided the necessary info they asked for, and a long two weeks later, they sent me coupons for orange juice. Thanks for that, though there was no communications for two weeks, during which I thought that the company was ignoring me.

I bought Minute Maid orange juice 1.75L, poured the contents into a 1.75L Simply Orange container and found I was short 100-120ml. I do hate getting ripped off by manufacturers. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

I bought Minute Maid orange juice 1.75L, poured the contents into a 1.75L Simply Orange container and found I was short 100-120ml. I do hate getting ripped off by manufacturers. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Hippopotamus Potato

I bought a bag of Naturally Imperfect potatoes from NoFrills, and out popped potato animals of all sorts! They are so cute that I had to share them with you.

Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Falafel Made from Lima Beans are Tasty

Falafel made from lima beans. One cup of dry lima beans yielded 14 falafel. Toronto, Canada. Photo, and falafel by Don Tai

Falafel made from lima beans. One cup of dry lima beans yielded 14 falafel. Toronto, Canada. Photo, and falafel by Don Tai

We are a Chinese family, so delving into Middle Eastern food is done with baby steps. I really did not know much about falafel so had to do research. While some experimentation is required it turned out to be not that hard. Instead of the traditional fava beans or chickpeas I used lima beans, which I bought by mistake. It worked out very well anyway.

Potato Rabbits and Moai

Potato Moai, Naturally imperfect potatoes, NoFrills, Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Potato Moai, Naturally imperfect potatoes, NoFrills, Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

I bought a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes from my local NoFrills in Toronto, Canada, and many interesting shapes emerged. This is a great reason for me to buy more of these potatoes. These potatoes are not a perfect potato shape, so they were cheaper at 15lb for $2.50CAD. I saw a TV show about how farmers cannot sell imperfect potatoes because store chains reject them, and vowed to try them. I am glad I did. Unfortunately they are not readily available like other potatoes. I would buy more.

Xyla Mints Wintermint: Review

Xyla Mints from Xylitol Canada, 100 tablets, 50g, in a tin

Xyla Mints from Xylitol Canada, 100 tablets, 50g, in a tin

I saw xylitol in a British TV food show about superfoods. It was interesting that xylitol sugar is indigestible by mouth bacteria and thus promotes fewer cavities. If they feed it to Finish kindergarten kids and shows they get fewer cavities then there’s got to be something behind it. I needed to try it.

Pork Cuts: Canadian Meat terms in English and Chinese

Pork Cuts: Where they come from and how to cook them

Pork Cuts: Where they come from and how to cook them

Different parts of the world use different terms for meat. It can be confusing when you go to the store, or read a Canadian grocery store advertisement or weekly flyer for a cut of meat, research it on the internet and find conflicting terms. Even more conflicting is when you go to the Chinese grocery store and find the Chinese name that may or may not correlate with the English name. You can see these terms in the weekly Chinese grocery ads. Such is life living in Toronto, Canada, in a large Chinese community.

Dark Chocolate and Blood Pressure Reductions

Diet and exercise are the general non-medicinal recommendations to reduce blood pressure. This makes some sense, in general, for overall health improvements. A German study has concluded that low amounts of daily consumption of dark chocolate can have a marginal but still significant outcome in reducing blood pressure.

Dr. Dirk Taubert, of the University Hospital of Cologne, published his findings in JAMA.

Here’s the recipe: Eat 6.3g of dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa) daily, 2 hrs after your last meal, and within 18 weeks reductions of 3mm hg systolic and 2mm hg
diastolic blood pressure can be observed.