Spices – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Benefits of some common spices Based on previous articles is a summary chart of proven benefits of some common herbs we have in our kitchen. Please print off, cut out and stick on the fridge and use for your health. SPICES 0 BENEFITS Black Pepper Cayenne Pepper Cinna-mon Garlic Ginger Parsley Rose-mary Tumeric Alzheimers y …

Spice Chart – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

BENEFITS OF SOME COMMON SPICES Based on previous articles is a summary chart of proven benefits of some common herbs we have in our kitchen. Please print off, cut out and stick on the fridge and use for your health. SPICES BENEFITS Black Pepper Cayenne Pepper Cinna-mon Garlic Ginger Parsley Rosemary Tumeric Alzheimers y y …

Brown Rice – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Brown rice is whole grain rice; unhulled and unmilled and can be any type of rice including glutinous, long and short grain. It has a mild, nutty flavor and is chewier and more nutritious than white rice, though the calorie and carbohydrate contents are similar. White rice had has the bran and germ removed; these …

Parsley – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Parsley (petroselinum crispum) is an important culinary herb belonging to the apiaceae family and originating from the Mediterranean region. It possesses small and dark seeds with volatile oil content. It is now planted throughout the world due to its usage in food industry, perfume manufacturing, soaps, and creams. The word "parsley" is a merger of …

Sweet Potato – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivar developed in Japan and has edible leaves and stems. It is only distantly related to the potato  and does not belong to the nightshade family. They are cultivated throughout tropical and warm temperate regions wherever there is sufficient water to support their growth. Sweet potato ranks as the world's …

Avocado – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

The avocado or alligator pear (Persea americana), a fruit with a large berry containing a single seed is believed to have originated in Mexico around 10,000BC. First written about in Europe around 1500 with the first English written record in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. Introduced to Indonesia in 1750, Brazil in 1809, South …

To buy organic or not – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

IN THE NEWS: Organic food is the biggest growing sector of the UK food market, worth £1 billion with 4 in 10 people buying organic despite higher costs. The soil association reports that 500 chemicals are routinely used in conventional farming. The belief is that herbicides and pesticides in food can damage our health, taking …

Buckwheat – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Originated in Asia and grown since at least 1000 BC in China; widely adapted in the northern hemisphere with strong adaptability to adverse environments and a very short growing span. Most common buckwheat is Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (common or sweet buckwheat);  Fagopyrum tartaricum is available in some mountainous regions. Nutrition: Buckwheat contains many nutraceutical compounds …

Rosemary – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Rosmarinus officinalis is a common household plant grown in many parts of the world. Used for flavouring food, a beverage drink, in cosmetics and as a preservative in the food industry due to anti-oxidant/ anti-microbial properties. Folk Medicine Used as an anti-spasmodic in renal colic and dysmenorrhoea, analgesic, anti-rheumatic, carminative, diuretic, expectorant, in relieving respiratory …

CACAO Chocolate as a Health Food – Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Nutrition Tips

Chocolate is processed from the pod of the cacao plant, grown in the tropics. The Mayans were probably the first to cultivate the cacao plant. The early chocolate drink, considered a "drink of the Gods" was mixed with cinnamon and pepper, tasting bitter and strong, and most appreciated for its invigorating and stimulating effects than …