#BodyDetoxFriday: WATERMELON

TGIF. Quite a truckload of stuff happened this week, work demanded so much time, assignments and project works in school are killing, and you couldn’t help but do a little junk. No worries, let’s do a quick body clean today to make sure everything is perfect again.

It’s Body Detox Friday and the body detox magician of the day are WATERMELON.

Watermelon contains a high amount of Citrulline-a compound that makes arginine which removes ammonia and other toxins from the body. Also, Arginine boosts nitric acid formation, which improves blood flow.

Watermelon has a high water content; this creates a diuretic effect (constant urination) which aids the elimination of body toxins.

Watermelon is high in dietary fibre which keeps the colon clean, ultimately cleansing the body.

Snack on a bowl full of cut watermelon today

Give your body a green treat today.

Follow @thegreenfoodshop on Instagram for more recipes and tips.

Olubunmi Ayodele

#SkinnyThursday: KIWI

Yippee!!!! It's Skinny Thursday again. It’s that time of the week when we rejuvenate that glowing fish catching skin of ours. Today’s Skin magician is KIWI.

Kiwi fruits are packed with a whole lot of Vitamin C-nearly 120% of the body’s daily requirement is contained in one Kiwi fruit. C Vitamins stimulate collagen synthesis, which keeps the skin tight and smoothen fine lines.

A study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that diets with high Vitamin C content were associated with less dryness and less noticeable wrinkles.

Green your Skin today with some chopped or blended Kiwi mix.

Remember, the greener the Skin the bigger the fish.

Give your body a green treat today.

Follow @thegreenfoodshop on Instagram for more recipes and tips.

Olubunmi Ayodele

#KidneyCleansingWednesday: CRANBERRIES

The significant Kidney day has come again. Most people know that a major function of the Kidney is to remove waste products and excess fluid from the body. The waste and excess fluid are removed through the urine. The Kidneys regulate the body’s salt, potassium, and acid content. The Kidney is an imperative part of the human body.

So today, introduce you CRANBERRIES, the fruit that works the magic on this Kidney Cleansing Wednesday.

Both fresh and dried cranberries can be used to give the Kidney a green treat.

Cranberries are great for the prevention of urinary tract infections because the make urine more acidic and help keep bacteria from attaching to the walls of the bladder

Cranberries have also been shown to protect against cancer and some cardiovascular disease.

Toss a cup full of cranberries in your cereal or salad and you are ready to go this Wednesday.

Give your body a green treat today.

Follow @thegreenfoodshop on Instagram for more recipes and tips.

Olubunmi Ayodele

#HeartyTuesday: TOMATO

Its Hearty Tuesday is here again, and I must say the magician of the day is one of a kind. It’s TOMATO. Now who would have thought Tomatoes could do the magic of strengthening the Heart?

 I mean, a lot of us must have thought all it could do was give food the exciting that makes one want to dive into the pot. Really, a tomato has got truckloads of nutrients and fun in it.

Tomatoes are a rich source of Vitamin C and A. They also contain Potassium, Fibre and are equally high in Lycopene, which works with other vitamins and minerals to aid disease prevention.

Intake of tomatoes has long been linked to heart health. Fresh tomatoes and tomato extracts have been shown to help lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Also, tomato extracts have been proved to help prevent unwanted clumping together (aggregation) of platelet cells in the blood - a factor that is especially important in lowering risk of heart problems like atherosclerosis.

In a recent South American study of 26 vegetables, tomatoes and green beans came out best in their anti-aggregation properties. But only recently are researchers beginning to identify some of the most unusual phytonutrients in tomatoes that help provide us with these heart-protective benefits.

One of these phytonutrients is a glycoside called esculentoside A; another is flavonoid called Chalco- naringenin; and yet another is a fatty-acid type molecule called 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid.

As our knowledge of unique tomato phytonutrients expands, we are likely to learn more about the unique role played by tomatoes in support of heart health. Tomatoes are also likely to rise further and further toward the top of the list of heart-healthy foods.

 Cooking may increase the health benefits of tomatoes so don’t be afraid to pass it under a little heat. Cooking Tomatoes may reduce the Vitamin C content but Lycopene is made more available, and the antioxidant activity is left undiminished.

Give your body a green treat today.

Follow @thegreenfoodshop on Instagram for more recipes and tips.

Olubunmi Ayodele

#BodyDetoxFriday: BLUEBERRY

This is more like a general interior clean-up. We live in a world filled with chemicals. They are in the water, in the air, in our food and nearly everything we touch. When we take in these chemical by breathing or feeding they tax our body’s resources and interfere with optimum health.

Body detox programmes clean up the gut, stored fat, all body organs, the blood and lymph. Regular body detoxification boosts energy, rids the body of excess waste, helps weight loss and strengthens the body’s immune system.

Let’s give some credit to the gut today. If the gut is not functioning properly we do not assimilate vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates or proteins.

Cleaning out the gut involves moving out debris while giving the body maximum nutrition that does not requires the digestive system to do a lot of work. My advice is to reduce or better still stay completely off animal proteins when you are on a body detox programme. Animal proteins are hard to digest, thus gives a lot more work to the digestive system and we don’t want that.

Meals and drinks made strictly with vegetables and fruits are an excellent means to flood the body with nutrients while allowing the digestive tract to rest.

I will unlock a secret body detox magician every Friday for this purpose and you can make whatever dish, salad, smoothie or juice out of it. The body detox magician for today is BLUEBERRY.

Blueberries contain natural aspirin that helps lessen the pains and tissue damaging effects of chronic inflammation. They act as antibiotics by inhibiting bacteria growth in the gut and urinary tract ultimately preventing infections. Blueberries have antiviral properties and are excellent digestive tract clean-up agents.

Snack up a cup full of blueberries today.

Follow @thegreenfoodshop on instagram for more recipes and tips.

Give your body a green treat today.

Olubunmi