Raw Honey Giveaway

This post was originally published as Raw Honey Giveaway by Laurel on Health Food blog.

Here’s another healthy product giveaway contest! The Honey Company sells all natural, unfiltered, raw honey and they sent me a few packets to giveaway to a lucky reader. In comparison to heated and processed honey, raw honey is filled with the most enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals so you get the most nutritional benefit. Here’s an article on the benefits of raw honey from the Natural News website. Plus, here are a few past blog posts where I’ve written about honey’s health benefits:

• Honey to the Rescue
• Honey May Relieve Sinusitis

I’m happy to announce that I have 4 “Go Honey!” energy pouches to give away. The raw honey comes in easy squeeze pouches that are perfect to keep strength and endurance up for long bouts of exercise, such as a long distance run. Now, I’m not a runner, but I love the taste of this raw honey, so I can just squeeze a little on top of foods or in my tea throughout the day. Or have a little with water before my dance and pilates classes.

If you have a chance, check out The Honey Company website. They’re based out in Utah and give lots of interesting facts about their bees, avoiding pesticides, the honey energy gel pouches, and history on their beekeepers.

To submit your entry to win 4 Go Honey Raw Energy Pouches from The Honey Company, leave a comment on this post with your answer to the following question: If you won, how would you use the honey pouches? All entries must be submitted by Friday March 4th, 2011 at 11:59pm EST. The person with the best answer will be chosen as the winner and contacted by email. If you win, I’ll need your full name and address to send you the honey pouches. Open to U.S. residents only. One entry per person.

Nutrition of hot peppers

This post was originally published as Hot Peppers Bring The Heat by Laurel on Health Food blog.

Mark’s Daily Apple wrote a great piece about the amazing nutrition of hot peppers. Here are some of the benefits they listed:

• - Hot peppers are low in calories but high in vitamin C. They also contain carotenoids, lutein, lycopene, and zeaxanthin.
• - Capsaicin (the compound that makes peppers hot) is anti-inflammatory and helps relieve headache and arthritis pain.
• - Areas of the world with high consumption of foods containing capsaicin (such as South America) have fewer cases of intestinal, stomach, and colon cancers.
• - A 2006 Cancer Research study found that capsaicin causes “cell death” of human prostate cancer cells and may inhibit prostate cancer cells to grow and multiply.

• When you go looking for peppers, you will find that they come in many different shades including green, yellow, red, orange, and purple. WHFoods.org says that each color variety has its own health benefits. Yellow peppers have the most lutein and zeaxanthin carotenoids. Red peppers have the most lycopene and astaxanthin carotenoids. Orange peppers have the most alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and gamma-carotene. Purple peppers have the most anthocyanin flavonoids. If you want some visual help, check out this Peppers Guide.

• It’s also important to note that while most peppers contain capsaicin, bell peppers do not have it. I love hot peppers but I find it hard to add them to my diet on a regular basis. The article on Mark’s Daily Apple recommended adding them to salads, egg dishes, salsa, stir fry, or chili. In addition, I found the following recipes that could be worth a try. Enjoy!

Chili Chili Bang Bang Poblano Salsa by ChefMD®

Jalapeno Chicken from Bon Appétit

Roasted Corn with Parmesan and Cayenne by Tyler Florence