Tips on losing weight with Honey!

Firstly, you must bear in mind that honey is a natural sweetener, unlike high processed table sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. So, it is better to use honey as replacement for the sugar or artificial sweetener you use in your drinks and foods. So, now you might be thinking: "How much honey can I consume on a daily basis?". Before we answer that, we want you to know that one basic principle of weight gain is this:

Anything excessive is not good, even honey. When you take in more than what your body needs, whether it's sugar, fat or honey, the extra calories are stored as fat.

Okay, back to answering that question. Honey is basically sugar, which is a form of carbohydrate or energy-giving food. Nevertheless, it is natural and contains goodness that high processed table sugar or white sugar doesn't have. If you didn't know it already, table sugar or white sugar only contain empty calories, compared to honey.

Fact #1: One tablespoon of honey has 64 calories, and one tablespoon of sugar has 46 calories. But we only need 1 tablespoon of honey to make something sweet as compared to processed sugar, where you need 2 tablespoons of it to make your drink/food sweet. So, you do the math. How much calories are you consuming when you take honey and how much if you use sugar. It's just that simple.

Fact #2: Raw honey, a natural sweetener, is not subject to heating or any form of processing. Comparatively, sugar that is derived from the sugar cane plant is highly processed, and during such processes, all naturally occurring trace minerals are removed from the sugar cane plant. The end result is processed sugar that is devoid of nutrition such as vitamins, minerals and important enzymes. All that is left after all that processing are empty calories. Whereas commercial pasturized honey only has one step of processing that will prevent crystallization and yeast fermentation during storage. That process is just heating.

Generally, 3 to 5 tablespoons of honey per day is sufficient.

But now you're going to ask, "How exactly does consuming honey make me lose weight?". There are at least a couple of tips we can share with you.

Tip #1: Mix honey with cinnamon.

- Put half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder and a teaspoon of honey in a cup and mix into a paste.

- Pour a cup of boiling water into the mixture and let it sit for half an hour. Don't forget to cover the cup.

- Stir and filter, using a coffee filter for example, to remove any particles.

- Take this in the morning with an empty stomach at least half an hour before breakfast.

Although it is not widely proven, some people have found that taking cinnamon with honey can help with weight loss as it improves metabolism and regulates sugar level, resulting in weight loss.

Tip #2: Take honey with lemon.

Taking honey with lemon as part of a detoxification process can aid in losing weight. Fasting on honey and lemon juice, an alkaline food, is highly beneficial in helping obese people lose weight, at the same time maintaining energy and appetite.

- Mix one teaspoon of raw honey (unheated) with the juice of two teaspoons of lime or lemon juice in a glass of warm water. Make sure that it is not boiling hot water.

- Drink this concoction once in the morning on an empty stomach.

- This concoction not only works as a detox tonic, it also works as a digestive tonic, so you can take it after a big and oily meal.

However, we want you to bear in mind that depending solely on these tips to lose weight is not enough. You need to have a balanced diet, and a well-regulated exercise regime would also help a lot in your aim to lose weight.

Introducing Leven Virgin Forest Honey. 100% Pure Raw Honey from the primitive forests of Borneo. No artificial flavours or additives added. The brand has entered a fairtrade agreement with the indigenous people of the Borneo forests to ensure that the honey can be harvested, at the same time preserving the habitat of the plants and animal species such as the giant honey bees of the Borneo forests. Read More.

Leven Virgin Forest Honey
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The benefits of Chinese herbal drinks

Let's focus on Chinese herbs and their benefits to your overall health and well-being. First is the Canton Love-pes Vine. Its benefits are as follows:

– Can remove heat that is toxic to the body

– Induce urination

– Enhance liver function 

– Eliminate stasis

– Relieves fatigue, gastric distension and pain

– Lifts up low spirits

– May help prevent hepatitis and urinary stones

The second Chinese herb is the Selfheal Fruit Spike (Spica Prunellae). It is used as a tonic in China. Its benefits include:

– The treatment of fevers and rheumatism

– In China, if there is an outbreak of an infectious disease, the selfheal fruit spike herb can help keep people well.

– Helps liver function, resulting in clear and bright eyes

– Alleviates swollen lymph glands and lumps in the neck

– Helps boost immunity

– For women who are having that time of the month, this herb can help ease bloating or indigestion, urinary problems or heavy bleeding

Lucky for you, we sell these herbs in the form of ready-to-drink herbal tea drinks, sold by the Hung Fook Tong Group. To know more about the company, read here.

Canton Love-pes Vine drink
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Common Selfheal Fruit-spike drink
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14-Day Price Protection: Why you should know about it

We want you to know something very important. Something that maybe most of you Dina-fans are not aware of. The thing is, we offer a 14-day price protection scheme.

For example, today you purchased Julie's Love Letters Strawberry Cream, which is now priced at RM 4.50 on Dinasou.com. But, a few days later, you find that the price for Julie's Love Letters Strawberry Cream has come down to RM 3.50. We will offer you the price difference in the form of Dinasou Eggs, which will be credited into your account. You can check this when you log on to your account and go to My Dinasou Eggs.

But, of course there is a catch. You can only get the price difference if the price for Julie's Love Letters Strawberry Cream comes down within 14 days  from the day you made that purchase. So, what does that mean? It simply means that we want to offer you an efficient and enjoyable shopping experience at Dinasou.com. It means that we want you to get the best value out of the deals that we offer. Speaking of Julie's Love Letters Strawberry Cream ...

Julie's biscuits
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We all LOVE free shipping, BUT ...

Do you know that Dinasou.com offers free shipping? This is a question that we often get on our Facebook page. And the answer to this question is yes, we do offer FREE shipping. But of course there is a catch. 

First and foremost, we offer free shipping for both grocery items and products sold under Brand Street as the purchase order exceeds RM99. That is the only catch—just that simple. We're sorry, you have to pay for shipping if the order is below RM99.

So, now that you know we offer free shipping, feel free to browse Dinasou.com and shop to your heart's content. 

The Benefits of Black Soybean Tea

Black Soybeans

Hey, do you want to know the secret of maintaining your weight, at the same time ensuring that you remain healthy? The answer is Black Soybean Tea, or 'kuromame' tea. What makes drinking black soybean tea any different than, say, green tea? To be perfectly honest, green tea has been said to be the healthiest beverage in the world and its health benefits outweigh that of black soybean tea. Having said that, it's not that black soybean tea does not have any health benefits at all. In fact, some of them are similar to those of green tea, such as maintaining or losing weight, for example. Here are some of the benefits of black soybean tea.

Black soybean tea has long been used in Chinese medicine to clear toxins from the body and encourage urination. It has been linked to effective weight loss, at the same time providing a healthy diet.

You may ask, what are the nutrients in black soybean that help promote these benefits. For one, it contains polyphenols, which are compounds known for their anti-aging properties. A specific polyphenol contained in black soybean is anthocyanin, which has been shown to help promote lipid metabolism, lower cholesterol, act against aging and prevent cancer. A study of a group of mice that has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Food has indicated that anthocyanin inhibited fat absorption in the mice. Compared to the control group, the group of mice which had anthocyanin introduced into their diet had a higher amount of fat in their diet. There was no additional weight gain recorded for that group of mice after anthocyanin was introduced into their diet.

Another polyphenol found in black soybeans are isoflavones, which are a type of anti-oxidant. Isoflavones has been indicated to help fight certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer. They also promote lipid metabolism, a critical process in which your body fat is mobilized to be used as energy. Isoflavones also help control circulatory blood fats.

Introducing Yakuno Black Soybean Tea. The rare soybeans are grown in the Tamba region of Kyoto. To know more about their other benefits, read here.

Yakuno Black Soybean Tea
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4 tips on drinking coffee in a healthier way

Do you know that drinking too much coffee, which contains caffeine, can put a pressure on the stomach, kidneys, liver and andrenal glands? When the body is trying to get rid of the excess caffeine, it will also result in the excretion of vital vitamins and minerals. These are just some of the negative effects of drinking too much coffee. So, you should always bear in mind the adage: "Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing".

Luckily there are tips on how to drink coffee in a healthier way. Here are 4 of them:

1. Change to organically grown coffee

    Those that are grown the conventional way are exposed to too much pesticides. Choose coffee brands that have entered fairtrade practices with farmers who grow organic coffee.

2. Avoid flavoured coffees, and no sugar please.

    Flavoured coffees (Yeah, we know some of you love 'em), are full of artificial flavourings. So, we don't want that, do we? And on that note, try as much to put as little sugar as possible in your coffee.

3. Drink only ONE cup of coffee per day

    We know this is too much to ask for coffee lovers out there, but we're not asking you to cut down from drinking 10 cups of coffee per day to just 1 cup of coffee per day on the first day itself. Gradually cut down the number to eight for the first week, and six for the following week and so on. This enables you to wean off the need for that caffeine fix without shocking your system. The ideal amount of coffee that your liver can handle is eight ounces per day. That's doable, right?

4. Just ENJOY that one cup of coffee.

    Why should you be made to feel guilty about the simple pleasures of life, which includes drinking coffee? Just make sure that it is organic, ground-at-home coffee. After all, stressing about drinking coffee will only add unnecessary stress on yourself, and stress is a major factor in depleting the nutrients out of your body. So, just ENJOY your cup of coffee. Remember, MODERATION IS KEY.

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What must you know about liver & gallbladder damage?

Image credit: wasabi.org

Most of us take for granted the importance of vital organs such as the liver, but do you know what the liver does? Its No. 1 function is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract, after which the blood will be passed to the rest of the body. The chemicals that we consume can turn into toxins, therefore it is the liver's job to detoxify. Apart from metabolizing drugs, the liver also makes proteins that are important for the clotting of blood. These are just the main tasks of the liver, so can you imagine the worst things that can happen to your liver?

- Hepatitis: Inflammation of the liver, usually caused by viruses like Hepatitis A, B & C. Hepatitis can have non-infectious causes, too, including drugs, heavy drinking, obesity or allergic reactions.

- Cirrhosis: is a permanent scarring of the liver that is caused by long-term damage to liver, thus rendering it not to function as well as it could. 

- Liver cancer: Almost always after cirrhosis is present, the most common type of liver cancer can occur as well.

- Liver failure: Excessive alcohol, genetic diseases and infection are some of the causes of liver failure.

- Ascites: Fluid (ascites) can be leaked from the liver into the belly, causing it to become distended and heavy. The reason for such leakage is due to cirrhosis.

- Hemochromatosis: The liver can be damaged due to this condition where it allows for iron to be deposited in the liver and in other parts of the body, causing multiple other health problems. 

- Primary sclerosing cholangitis: This causes inflammation and scarring of the liver's bile ducts. but this is a rare disease with unknown causes. 

- Primary biliary cirrhosis: In this rare disorder, the liver's bile ducts are slowly destroyed but the process of the destruction is yet unclear. Eventually cirrhosis develops as a result. 

And what about the gallbladder? If the gallbladder is removed from an otherwise healthy individual, there is no observable problems with health or digestion, but there is a small risk of diarrhea and fat malabsorption. The gallbladder's main function is to store bile produced by the liver. The bile is removed from the body through ducts that are connected from the gallbladder to the small intestines. The function of bile is to digest fats, but otherwise the gallbladder is not essential, giving rise to the above situation. Nevertheless, there are worst case scenarios involving the gallbladder.

- Gallstones: are formed in the gallbladder when substances in bile crystallize. The reason for such crystallization is yet unclear. Gallstones can cause pain, nausea and inflammation, but otherwise they are common and usually harmless. As mentioned, a gallstone in the gallbladder can lead to inflammation and this condition is known as:

- Cholecystitis: This condition causes severe pain and fever, and can require surgery when inflammation continues or recurs. 

- Gallbladder cancer: The gallbladder can be affected by cancer, though such an occurrence is rare. Symptoms, which may only be detected in the late stages, resemble those of gallstones.

- Gallstone pancreatitis: The ducts that drain the pancreas can be blocked by an impacted gallstone, resulting in an inflammation of the pancreas. 

Introducing: OXYClean – liver & gallbladder rejuvenation formula. For a more detailed description of how the liver and gallbladder function, and how OXYClean can help to maintain them healthy, READ HERE.

OXYClean - a liver & gallbladder rejuvenation formula
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Mothers, lactose intolerance is a lot of bother, don't you think?

                                                       Image credit: keralaayurveda.biz

Lactose intolerance happens when adults and children are lacking in an enzyme called lactase, which breaks down lactose, a sugar found in milk and dairy products, into glucose and galactose. Symptoms of lactose intolerance include:

- abdominal bloating and cramps

- diarrhea

- flatulence

- borborygmi (rumbling stomach)

- vomiting

- nausea.

For all you mothers out there, you must be concerned when your child exhibits at least one of these symptoms, and a sure way to find out whether he/she is lactose intolerant is a visit to the doctor's. At the same time, you want to make sure that your child is getting all the protein that he/she needs and a good source of protein is milk. But there are other sources of proteins that include meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds. However, some children display allergies to nuts and soy, while meat, poultry and seafood may be too heavy for infants and children not above 3 years old.

Introducing—Dale & Cecil's MIWA Milk. For one, it uses Pea Protein. It is also a source of Galacto-Oligosaccharide, which is a type of prebiotic – non-digestible food ingredient that affects the host in a beneficial way by stimulating the activity of good bacteria in the colon. Wanna know more about the nutrients contained in MIWA Milk, read here.

Dale & Cecil's MIWA Milk
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