Flavor of the month diets seems to come and go, with social media trending specific foods to eat, or avoid altogether.  Lately claims have been doing the rounds that vegetables in the nightshade family, such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes, are bad for you and should be avoided.  From gluten free, to diary free, to all-meat, to no meat, it is not easy to decide which foods to put on your personal watch list.  Should nightshades be added to your watch list? What are nightshades? Both edible and non-edible nightshade plants are part of the Solanaceae botanical family with more than 2 000 different species.  The main edible members of the nightshade family are: Tomatoes. Potatoes (but not sweet

Trending diets seem to come and go, with the latest fad diet becoming flavour of the month.  One of these trending diets is the carnivore diet, also known as the all-meat diet. True to its name, the carnivore diet implies that you only eat meat and other animal products for every meal.  For those who love to eat meat, the carnivore diet seems to be just the ticket, as you only eat meat, fish, eggs, and some other animal products.  Aiming for zero carbs per day, even fruit and vegetables are excluded. The carnivore diet originated from the controversial belief that our ancestors ate mostly meat and fish, and that the modern high-carb diets result in today’s high rates of

Proteins are the building blocks of life and every cell in your body contains protein.  Protein is the glue that holds each cell in the body together, from your hair to your toenails, from your muscles and organs to the bones in your body.  You need protein in your diet to assist your body to repair cells and make new ones.  It is important to get enough protein in your daily diet, as the body doesn’t store it the way it stores carbohydrates or fats. What is protein? Protein is an essential macronutrient and is made from basic building blocks called amino acids.  Put differently, proteins are macromolecules composed of amino acid subunits.  The body needs 20 different amino acids

Vinegar has been around for thousands of years.  The word vinegar is said to originate from the Latin words meaning “sour wine”, while other sources indicate it refers to the French phrase “vin aigre”, also meaning sour wine.  Whatever the original source of the word vinegar may be, the history of vinegar is claimed to have started around 5 000 B.C. when the Babylonians used date palm fruit to make vinegar, using it as a food source and as a preserving agent.  Traces of vinegar have been found in the residue in ancient Egyptian urns traced to 3 000 B.C.   Socrates, viewed as the father of modern medicine and living in ancient Greece around 400 B.C., prescribed apple cider vinegar

Salt is essential for various biochemical processes in the human body.  Salt is also one of the five basic taste sensations, with its taste detected by sodium taste bud cells on the tongue. Apart from white table salt, there are a variety of different types of salt available worldwide.  One of these, pink Himalayan salt, has lately become popular amongst health-conscious people for its claimed health benefits, and it is viewed as nutritionally superior to white table salt.  In addition, believers in energetic healing say that the crystalline structure of Himalayan salt stores vibrational energy, which can promote health when transferred to human cells. Some people describe Himalayan salt as one of the purest salts available, containing a wide variety

What’s in a name?  Well, in the case of the eggplant, it depends on where in the world you are.   In British English as well as in German, Dutch, and French it is known as aubergine, while it is known as brinjal in South Asia and South Africa, and referred to as eggplant in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. The most common variety looks like a large, pear-shaped egg, which is where the name “eggplant” comes from.  It belongs to the nightshade plant family, along with tomatoes, potatoes, and bell peppers.  Although eggplants are grouped with vegetables, they are technically fruit.  The eggplant is a perennial plant that can live for three or more growing seasons in a tropical