Not all gold glitter

Appearance can sometimes cheat you.

For example, orange peel contains more than four times as much fiber as the fruit inside, and more tangeretin and nobiletin—flavonoids with anticancer, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory properties.

When you only drink the juice of fruits, you are not getting the appetite satisfying effect of the fiber in the fruit. 

Also, the fiber in whole fruit helps to slow the blood sugar response when eating whole fruit compared to fruit juice.

On other hand, eating whole fruits including all of the fiber helps you maintain a healthy balanced diet and high nutrient density.

The paintings that awaken our inner child happiness

The above paintings were drawn by Marc Chagall, a Russian painter, who was born in Vitebsk, Russia in 1887.

When we talk about Marc Chagall’s paintings, we always think of his fanciful images of blue cows, flying lovers, biblical prophets as well as green-faced fiddlers on roofs. His paintings give us the impression of being fantastic and irrational with rich colours in context. His well known paintings include I and the Village, Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers, The Birth, The Wedding and The Blue House.

Marc Chagall’s paintings were deemed exceptionally imaginative, poetic, dreamlike and fantastical. Thus they were an application of fauvist and cubist techniques, consisting of bright, strong colors that displayed a simplistic and unrealistic world, one that would immediately grasp the viewer’s attention although Chagall did not believe in placing himself in this category.

Guillaume Apollinaire (a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic) employed the expression "Surnaturalist" in connection with these paintings of Chagall,

Art historian and curator James Sweeney notes that others often still associate his work with “illogical and fantastic painting”, especially when he uses “curious representational juxtapositions. Sweeney writes that “This is Chagall’s contribution to contemporary art: the reawakening of a poetry of representation, avoiding factual illustration on the one hand, and non-figurative abstractions on the other.” 

André Breton (a French writer and poet, also known best as the founder of Surrealism) said that “with him alone, the metaphor made its triumphant return to modern painting.

Marc Chagall was able to convey striking images using only two or three colors. Raymond Cogniat who was a French art critic writes, "Chagall is unrivalled in this ability to give a vivid impression of explosive movement with the simplest use of colors..." Throughout his life his colors created a "vibrant atmosphere" which was based on "his own personal vision."

Picasso once said,“When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color is… His canvases are really painted, not just tossed together. … There’s never been anybody since Renoir who has the feeling for light that Chagall has.”

When he died in Saint Paul de Vence on March 28, 1985, at 97, Chagall was still working, still the avant-garde artist who refused to be modern. That was the way he said he wanted it: “To stay wild, untamed . . . to shout, weep, pray.” It has exceptionally expressive colors, to stress the emotions of this painting, which are love and happiness.

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” 
~ Marc Chagall

Kale - one of the healthiest vegetables in the world

Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables around.  Researchers now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. And so it is better eat it on a regular basis if you want to receive the fantastic health benefits provided by the cruciferous vegetable family.

 

Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if cook by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale bind with bile acids in the digestive tract when it has been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it is easier for bile acids to be excreted, resulting in lowering the cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability, but not as much.

 

Kale's risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer, including cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) made from glucosinolates in kale play a primary role in achieving these risk-lowering benefits.

 

Kale is recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.

 

Lutein and Zeaxanthin can protect against Vision Loss

Declining eyesight is something just about everyone has to deal with when one gets older. 

One problematic cause of vision loss is macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of vision loss in people over age sixty and the number one cause of blindness in the United States.

In the previous study, researchers found that a combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc and copper could reduce the risk of developing late-stage age-related macular degeneration by 25%.

Now, new research from the National Eye Institute indicates that lutein and zeaxanthin, which are the major antioxidant components of the macular pigment, may provide valuable protection against late-stage age-related macular degeneration. In fact, lutein and zeaxanthin may provide even more effective protection against late-stage age-related macular degeneration than beta-carotene.

Fruits and vegetables are the main sources for lutein and zeaxanthin. For example, raw Kale contains 39551 mcg Lutein and Zeaxanthin.  Spinach (frozen, chopped or leaf, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt) contains 15691 mcg Lutein and Zeaxanthin while Dandelion (greens and raw) 13609 mcg of them.

In addition, egg yolk and maize (corn) contain the highest mole percentage (% of total) of lutein and zeaxanthin (more than 85% of the total carotenoids).

Maize is the vegetable with the highest quantity of lutein (60% of total) and orange pepper is the vegetable with the highest amount of zeaxanthin (37% of total).

Substantial amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin (30-50%) are also present in kiwi fruit, grapes, orange juice, zucchini (or vegetable marrow) and in different kinds of squash.