Cucumber, the World's Healthiest Food!

Do you know that cucumber contains most of the vitamins your body requires every day? I bet you didn’t know that. Imagine this:  just one cucumber contains the following nutrients:  Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc. Amazing, isn’t it? Little wonder it is regarded as a healthy choice for cooking and snacking.
Cucumbers are also a fun way to keep your skin healthy and glowing. The coolest thing about it is that it can either be eaten or applied directly to the skin. Whichever option you choose, your skin reaps the health benefits, but that’s not all. Cucumbers are high in fiber which keeps the body’s digestive system healthy. It is also low in calories and fat. It is therefore not surprising that cucumber is a hugely popular fruit. As a matter of fact, it is the fourth most cultivated fruit in the world. Scientifically known as Cucumis Sativus, it belongs to the same botanical family as melons (including watermelon and cantaloupe) and squashes (including summer squash, winter squash, zucchini and pumpkin).

Read on and discover the nutritional values of cucumber
• Cucumber rehydrates the body and replenishes daily vitamins in the body
Because cucumbers are 95 percent water, they help keep the body hydrated. It also helps the body eliminate toxins.
Skin Treatment: Cucumbers are also useful in treating skin irritations and other diseases. It’s also used in relieving puffiness and wrinkles around the eye region.


• Relieves bad breath: If you have been battling with mouth odor, a slice of cucumber may well do the trick. All you need do is take a slice and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds. The chemicals in cucumber are known to kill bacteria responsible for bad breath in the mouth.

• Hangover cure: When you’ve had too much to drink and have a terrible headache, here is a natural remedy for your hangover. Instead of taking pain relief tablets, eat a few slices of cucumber before going to bed. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish many essential nutrients, reducing the intensity of both hangover and headache.

• Helps weight loss: Due to its low calorie and high water content, cucumber is an ideal diet for people seeking to lose weight. Its high water content and dietary fibers help in ridding the body of toxins from the digestive system, aiding digestion.

• Cure for Constipation: Daily consumption of cucumbers can also be a cure for chronic constipation.
Now you know why cucumber is regarded as one of the world’s healthiest fruits. So, next time you go grocery shopping, make sure you pick a handful of the deliciously looking dark-green fruits. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

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How to eat your way to a healthy hair

Let’s create a scenario…  

You are watching an ad for a hair product. An attractive lady beams with smiles as she sways her long beautiful curls from side to side. As she does that, an enchanting voice introduces a hair product. As is the norm, the voice reels out the supposed wonderful abilities of the product. Then the pretty lady comes into focus again, still swaying her hair from side to side but this time, with the product in her hands. Then the advert ends with her saying: ‘Now you know my secret!’ Nice, isn’t it?

The human quest for long, shiny and lustrous hair is almost as old as ‘hair’ itself. Indeed many of us do not mind drilling holes into our pockets just to get the latest ‘miracle hair boosters’. No wonder the Hair cosmetics sector thrives so much! But is there really a cost effective way of achieving a healthy yet attractive looking hair? If you are one of those asking the question then the answer is yes.

This article is going to be focusing on how to maintain that bouncy, healthy hair without breaking the bank. Get ready to be shocked. It will probably come as a surprise to you how healthy dietary habits can affect the hair. Yes! Before the serums, conditioners and shampoos come into play, eating right actually guarantees lustrous hair. Just like every other part of your body, the cells and processes that support strong, vibrant hair depends on a balanced diet. However, it can take longer to notice the changes in the human hair brought about by eating certain kinds of food when compared with how our dietary habit affects the other human parts, say the skin. For example, eating a poor diet in a week can yield acne flare-ups or dry, dull or pale skin. But when it comes to the hair, it can take a few months for the effects of nutritional deficiency to show up. Knowing all of these, what are the required nutrients for the much desired long and lustrous hair?

§        Proteins

A quick chemistry lesson: Do you know that hair is made of about 97% protein? Yes, your hair is pretty much pure protein. Though you might be able to build some muscular biceps by eating less than enough protein, a bald head is certain if the protein content in your body isn't’ high. And even if you do hang onto your hair, eating too little protein can turn it gray.  It is true that all basic nutrients contribute to keeping us whole and healthy, but protein provides the building blocks that allow our bodies repair, replace, or grow bones, skin, muscles, and hair.  Large deposits of protein are found in meat, fish, chicken, eggs, bean, soy foods, and even some grains and vegetables- though in smaller quantities.

§         Fatty foods

Sure you’re thinking isn't fat supposed to be unhealthy?  Yes, there are the unhealthy types of fat such as saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, and hydrogenated fats amongst others which should be avoided. However, there is also the healthy type of fat including Omega-3 fatty acids which are found in sea foods, plant oils. Omega-3 fatty acids help to process the vitamins and minerals in your diets that are necessary for healthy hair production. So pick up a pen right now and add sardines, salmons, walnuts, shrimps into market list as they are foods that are packed with Omega-3 fatty acids.

§        Iron and zinc.

Have you ever noticed that your blood tastes like iron? Well, that’s if you've ever tasted it. This is because Iron is the nutrient responsible for delivering oxygen to your cells, from the blood in your toes all the way up to your hair follicles.  Iron is especially important, and too little iron (anaemia) is a major cause of hair loss, particularly in women. Lean animal meats are great ways to get iron, but if you're vegetarian, consider eating beans, lentils, and soy products.

Zinc, on the other hand, assists in the repair of body tissues. It ensures that the oil glands around your follicles are working properly in order to produce enough oil. In other words, problems such as dry scalp, dandruff and eventually, hair loss can be avoided with zinc. For your daily supply of zinc, eat oysters, low-fat beef, wheat, dark chocolate and cocoa powder.

·        Vitamin C

Vitamin C deficiency is one of the most common causes of hair loss, breakage and lack of lustre (shine). Our bodies use vitamin C to build collagen which is crucial in developing hair growth. Vitamin C also assists in breaking down iron, another building block of hair growth. The body cannot make vitamin C on its own, therefore, it’s crucial that you eat and drink foods that have high concentration of Vitamin C regularly. Citrus fruits, bell peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and spinach are all fantastic and great-tasting foods that are packed with vitamin C.

As iterated above, eating right is especially needed for the proper growth of your hair. However, smoking, hormonal imbalances, and stress/fatigue can negatively affect how your hair looks and feels and no magic nutrient can make up for those concerns. Eat and live right and soon enough, you might just be the envy of all eyes at the salon or barber’s shop!

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The Many wonders of the Nose

Most people believe that the primary job of the nose is to smell and breathe. If you belong to that camp, well you are right. Still, there are lots of other things you probably do not know about the human nose. If you want to learn a few truly amazing and interesting facts about the human nose, then just keep reading...
Though we do not pay proper attention to our noses except when they are runny or when a celebrity has just had a ‘nose-job’, the human nose still remains one of the body organs that maintain our health and helps ensure that we live good quality lives.


Here are some facts about the human nose that will help you understand more about how it works tirelessly for us.

• The human nose uses millions of cells to detect approximately 10,000 odors  far less than many animals, but very important in maintaining a good quality life.

• The human nose helps prevent air-borne infections.

• The human nose helps affect the resonance of your voice.

• After age 65, a human loses some of their ability to smell. By the time we reach our eighties, our sense of smell can decrease by as much as 50%.

• Although people are known to break their noses on occasion, there are no bones in them. What gets broken is a piece of cartilage.

• Any air we breathe in through our noses is cooled or warmed to body temperature before it hits our lungs.

• Anosmia is when we do not have the ability to smell, dyosmia is an incorrect sense of smell and hyperosmia is when someone is overloaded by their sense of smell.

• The human brain dedicates less of its brain to smelling than other animals, including fish.


Finally, I’ll like to tell you about a patient who once had asked to a doctor about what he needed to do to take good care of his nose. The doctor simply and straightforwardly replied to the patient that what was more important was what not to do to your nose. Bad habits such as nose-picking, sniffing, rubbing, blowing the noses hard or stuffing things such as tissue and handkerchiefs up to the nostril can do a lot of harm to your nose.
Now that you have increased your knowledge about your nose, I hope you will be kind enough to share the information with a friend. Will you?


http://hubpages.com/hub/Does-the-Nose-Really-Know
http://whatthafact.com/interesting-facts-about-nose/
http://alexanderchong.articlealley.com/how-to-take-good-care-of-your-nose-120282.html

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