Tuesday, May 13, 2008

5 Banana Nut Bread Recipes

I you are looking for some banana nut bread recipes, then I found a great article that has five of them that look simple enough to prepare. Check it out and bake up a storm!

Banana Nut Bread Recipes

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Whole Wheat History

Long before microwaveable foods, refrigeration, and artificial chemicals, people traveled from place to place to find food. They would pick and eat whatever grew wild and whatever they could find. However, when the population began to grow and more and more food got harder to find, the travelers had to settle and figure out how to grow food themselves.

Wheat could possibly have been one of the first plants to be cultivated, because of how well it adapts to harsh elements this seems rational. After it was discovered you could grow wheat, big changes started taking place. People realized they could grow their own food, so they no longer needed to wander in search of it. The stable food supply caused people to begin settling permanently.

The travelers became farmers, and as the growing of wheat increased, so did the farmer's knowledge. They began to make the wheat easier to eat, cook, and grow. Little by little they started choosing kernels from their best wheat plants for the next years' planting. This process eventually ended up generating better crops and better quality of wheat that was passed down from one generation to the next. Wheat quickly became one of the world's most significant crops. To this day it is grown on more land area worldwide than any other crop!

It has been said that the first evidence of wheat was discovered in the Middle East. When farmers started reproducing enough crops to feed people from other lands, trading between the diverse cultures began. Ultimately wheat made it's way from the Middle East to England and other countries, then into the United States with Columbus back in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Over time, the growing of wheat spread to many continents and countries and is still one of the highest producing crops in the world.

All of the wheat grains were cooked or crushed whole with the bran, germ, and endosperm parts of the wheat still intact. However, a new way of mass refining and milling took hold in the wheat business when the industrialization wave hit America in the later 1800s. These manufacturers started removing the bran and germ from the wheat, because it meant that the wheat products could sit longer on grocery store shelves without spoiling. However, during this process almost all the essential vitamins and minerals (not to mention the dietary fiber from the bran) were removed. Since that time there have been increasingly more health problems throughout America and other countries.

Today, whole wheat has got the attention of nutrition experts to contain healthy phytochemicals and nutrients that are essential for good health. So let's get back to eating whole wheat, people used to eat it whole long before we started eating it without the bran and germ, and in most cases they even lived longer back then!
About the Author
Learn more truths about whole wheat, whole grains, and oats! http://wheatgrainoat.blogspot.com

Published At: www.Isnare.com
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Click for a delicious hemp banana nut bread recipe that uses whole wheat flour.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Banana Nutrition

Bananas are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia and Australia. Banana plants are of the family Musaceae and are cultivated mostly for their fruit, and sometimes for the production of fibre and as ornamental plants. Bananas are tall, upright, and fairly sturdy.

They are often mistaken for trees, however they are not. They grow in hanging clusters of about 20 fruit known as a bunch or banana stem. They are 2 specific varieties that are well known and they are the green banana and the plantain which is usually cooked first hand.

They also come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple and red. Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, giving the body a boost of energy. Bananas are also a valuable source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and potassium.

Vitamin B6, also referred to as B complex is a water-soluble vitamin. It helps the body to convert carbohydrates into glucose (sugar), which is "burned" to produce energy. They also help metabolize fats and protein and play an important role in maintaining muscle tone in the gastrointestinal tract and promoting the health of the nervous system, skin, hair, eyes, mouth, and liver.

The most widely known vitamin is vitamin c. Again, a water soluble vitamin that is essential for the production of bones and connective tissue. This vitamin also helps with the absorption of iron. It is also an antioxidant, meaning it bonds with free radicals in the body that may damage cells like cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature aging.

Potassium chloride (KCl) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. Potassium is a natural diuretic that helps your body excrete water and sodium, thus promoting healthy cardiovascular health and regulating water balance. It also plays a role in muscle growth and contractions, nerve cell function, and protein synthesis.

As you can see, bananas offer tremendous nutritional value and should be a part of your every day regime. Eat them raw or cook up a delicious banana nut bread recipe and reap the benefits.