Healthy Food

Hair Care Food And Tips

2012-10-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Tips

Hair plays an essential role in every individual’s life. It can transform a person’s appearance to a great extent. It can be twisted and rolled, curled and straightened, colored and can make various styles to keep up with the changing fashion trends. But one needs to take a great care of hair to keep them healthy. To prevent hair from falling, dandruff and breakage, they need healthy diet and better hygiene. Poor diet, illness and deficiencies of any particular vitamin and mineral affect the quality of hair and troubles like dandruff, thinning hair, balding, premature graying etc. which tear down the hair.

How you care for your hair is essential. Luckily, hair breakage can be both prevented and treated. Diet and lifestyle are two major factors that manipulate the health of the hair. So here are the few ABCs for having excellent hair.

Eat healthy food that helps the hair in staying strong and shiny. Your diet can also stop hair loss. Poor dietary intake can cause the hair to fall out. Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet to prevent hair breakage. Lean proteins, fruits, raw vegetables, whole grains, legumes, omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon or flaxseed oil and dairy products will keep hair at its healthiest. Drink plenty of water.
Use more natural hair care products like shikakai, lemon, coconut oil, vinegar etc. for hair care. Rinse dry hair in lemon juice to get back the lost shine. Mix apple cider vinegar with water to get shiny and bouncy hair. Apply honey on your scalp to solve the problem of tangled and frizzy hair. Mix honey in two cups of fresh cream to create an excellent natural hair product for dry hair.
Always use a natural and mild shampoo and conditioner that restrain ingredients such as keratin, rosemary, plant proteins and seaweed extract. It is important to wash your hair because shampooing removes dirt, dead skin cells, hair oils, and any hair products you may put into your hair. Use a conditioner after shampooing; it’ll moisturize your hair, give it extra shield, add shine, reduce static, and makes it easier to untangle.
Change your beauty treatment around your hair. Use a wide-toothed comb to detangle wet hair instead of brushing it. At all times use brushes or combs with widely spaced bristles or teeth and smooth tips. Sharp tooth combs can damage your hair, cause split ends, and rub your scalp. Hair is most brittle when it is wet so avoid brushing or combing when it’s wet, or else it will cause breakage. Wait until your hair is entirely dry before brushing it. Reduce the use of chemicals in your hair, particularly gels, perms, dyes, or bleaches.
Dry your hair with minimal heat. This hair care tip is one that everyone should follow because extreme heat will damage most hair. Lessen the frequency or intensity of heat used from blow-dryers, flat irons, and curling irons. Hot air can be injurious to your hair so when using a hair dryer use the cool setting.
In a day brush your hair for 3-4 times on a regular basis in order to stimulate your scalp. The stimulation of your scalp is what promotes the natural oils in it to allocate equally and also removes dead scalp tissue. This hair care tip is particularly important to people who suffer from extreme dandruff, regular brushing will help keep dandruff under control. Just remember to do it with a quality hairbrush, specifically one with natural bristles.
Get your hair trimmed off every month. Every 30 days, cut about a 1/8 of the ends of your hair off in order to promote its growth and shed dead ends.

Food For Hair

Salmon

When it comes to foods that pack a beauty punch, it's hard to beat salmon. Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, this high-quality protein source is also filled with vitamin B-12 and iron.

"Essential omega-3 fatty acids are needed to support scalp health," says Andrea Giancoli, MPH, RD, a dietitian in Los Angeles and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "A deficiency can result in a dry scalp and thus hair, giving it a dull look."

Vegetarian? Include one or two tablespoons of ground flaxseed in your daily diet for some plant-based omega-3 fats.

Dark Green Vegetables

Popeye the Sailor Man didn't eat all that spinach for healthy hair, but he could have. Spinach, like broccoli and Swiss chard, is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, which your body needs to produce sebum. The oily substance, secreted by your hair follicles, is the body's natural hair conditioner.

Dark green vegetables also provide iron and calcium.

Beans, beans, they're good for your ... hair?

Yes, it's true. Legumes like kidney beans and lentils should be an important part of your hair-care diet. Not only do they provide plentiful protein to promote hair growth, but ample iron, zinc, and biotin. While rare, biotin deficiencies can result in brittle hair.

Blatner, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, recommends three or more cups of lentils or beans each week.

Homemade Pizza

2012-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

What to do when your 8-year old nephew comes to visit? Make pizza, of course! Well, not of course, actually. I didn't think of it until we exhausted Sorry, Monopoly, and gin rummy. But it did turn out to be a brilliant idea as dad had just received a baking stone for Christmas, and my nephew Austin loves pizza. I told him if he helped me make it and didn't make too many faces I would put him on my website and he would be famous. That seemed to get his attention. He thought the dough was "slimy and gross" but he loved picking his own toppings, and the finished product was "awesome".

The following method I patched together from recipes in both Joy of Cooking and Cook's Illustrated's The Best Recipe. I made two batches of dough, four pizzas in all, with varied toppings. Next time I'll be a bit more patient with stretching out the dough so I can get it even thinner. Look to the end of this post for some excellent links about pizza from other food bloggers.

Homemade Pizza Recipe

Prep time: 2 hours
Cook time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package)
3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all-purpose but bread flour will give you a crisper crust)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Pizza Ingredients

Olive oil
Cornmeal (to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)

Tomato sauce (purée)
Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, shredded
Feta cheese
Mushrooms, thinly sliced
Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced
Italian sausage, cooked ahead
Chopped fresh basil
Pesto
Pepperoni, thinly sliced
Onions, thinly sliced
Sliced ham

Special equipment needed

A pizza stone, highly recommended if you want your pizza dough to be crusty
A pizza peel or a flat baking sheet
A pizza wheel for cutting the pizza, not required, but easier to deal with than a knife

METHOD

Making the Pizza Dough

1 In the large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid), add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

2 Attach a mixing paddle to the mixer. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Remove the mixing paddle and replace with a dough hook. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand. If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle on a bit more flour.

3 Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (or several hours longer, a longer rise will improve the flavor). If you don't have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Let the oven cool till it is just a little warm, then place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise.

At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Preparing the Pizzas

1 Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

2 Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.

3 Prepare your desired toppings. Note that you are not going to want to load up each pizza with a lot of toppings as the crust will end up not crisp that way. About a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.

4 Working one ball of dough at a time, take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a slightly floured work surface. Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch further. Let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter - 10 to 12 inches. Use your palm to flatten the edge of the dough where it is thicker. You can pinch the very edges if you want to form a lip.

5 Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings). Use your finger tips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Let rest another 5 minutes.

Repeat with the second ball of dough.

6 Lightly sprinkle your pizza peel (or flat baking sheet) with corn meal. Transfer one prepared flattened dough to the pizza peel. If the dough has lost its shape in the transfer, lightly shape it to the desired dimensions.

7 Spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza.

8 Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven (watch your hands, the oven is hot!). Gently shake the peel to see if the dough will easily slide, if not, gently lift up the edges of the pizza and add a bit more cornmeal. Slide the pizza off of the peel and on to the baking stone in the oven. Bake pizza one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.