What Is A Beer Making Kit?

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You can get all the things that you are going to need in a beer making kit.  If you are new or an experienced beer maker, you will find that you can create your own great tasting beer with a little knowledge and a great beer making kit.  There is no other way of getting what you want and finding a fun new hobby. 

Many simple beer kits are sold today.  You can find many of the great brewing kits online or in the beer and liquor stores in your area.  There are beer-making kits that will come with complete instructions to make it easier on the beer maker.  They will also have the ingredients and the best beer recipe that will make any new beginner create the best beer that they can. 

There are many books and other reading material that you can buy to give you the information that is necessary to get down to business.  You can get all the facts that will get you ready for making the best tasting beer that you can.  These books can guide you through the process and all the different kinds of recipes that you can try for your taste buds. 

There are also deluxe beers making kits that are available too.  These kits will have everything and more that you will need to get your beer making going.  They will have the ingredients and some of the equipment that you will need to get started.  You will get your sanitizer and some of the malts that you will need to get your beer making started.  With some of the beer kits, the only thing that you will need is a stainless steel pot to do all the brewing in.

These brew kits will make great gifts for anyone that needs to have a hobby.  These kits will be the very thing that they need to do this great hobby and get started learning about beer making.  Most of the people will enjoy having these kits and trying their hand at making great tasting beer and doing something that they have always wanted to do. 

It is a good idea to read and know all of the instructions that are included in the books.  You can learn a lot and this is a great way to get all the information that you need first before you start on the process.  This way, you will have a better idea of where and how to start your brewing at home. 

Coke Zero

Most folks enjoy a contest or two even though most of us feel that "I probably won't win anything, anyway" or "I am not the lucky sort". But most of us would just join a contest or two for the FUN of it. So here it is another contest and this time it is from Coke Zero.

And this time YOU can be a director of movie clips. But first, what is it with the "zero" in coke? Well, it is for the ZERO in sugar but REAL in taste for the cola lovers out there who are concerned with the weight and health issues. We have all enjoyed Coke Light and Diet Coke, so we have here Coke Zero. Yeah, NO sugar at all. Life as it should be!

So here is the contest for the capable and innovative director that YOU are. Coke zeros campaign “Life as it should be” is real fun on the Internet. You can direct your own small movie and afterwards send it to all your friends. Coke has found some old b/w film clips that you, as the director, can manipulate by using an easy voice recorder. You can write “the conversation” to your own clip and say what ever you want. Afterwards your movie competes with other movies to be the highest rated. This is living “life as it should be”. Beat your friends to it: http://www.zeroismore.com

Tea Time

Marilyn Monroe famed amongst other things for her love of Tea once said that, "World Peace would be with us if politicians drank tea at meetings" ? or something to that effect. And she was very true in her words, very true indeed. A cup of Tea does wanders to all that drink it.

Did you know that people in Britain and the Republic of Ireland consume the most tea per person in the world? I have an English friend who drank only tea as a beverage rather than water. I always thought it was Japan or China but then their cups are much smaller than our cups! It is also interesting to note that more than 2,000,000,000 cups of tea are drunk every day throughout the world! That is a gigantic amount of cups and I can but imagine how many I contribute to that figure, about one I might guess! In weight terms, that equals out to 2 and a half million tones of Tea being drunk throughout the world every year or from a British point of view just under 6lb's per person per year is consumed!

Why do we drink tea? Why do we insist on drinking tea every day of every week? What is it that makes us sit down and slowly consume a cup when there are things to do, shopping to get and kids to feed? Why do we suddenly give up all that is necessary and sit back with a cup of tea and smile as if we have not a care in the world?

The answer is in itself. People love Tea for its calming essence and the culture that goes with it. Tea is used in times of trouble and to escape from life, not because of any association but because Tea does have many a body altering ingredient, even if we know nothing about them. In the Western World drink cups of Black Tea and do not associate such with any medical or body altering feature but little do we know. Even those thousands of years ago when China alone drank tea, they drank it to cure many an ailment or problem that they might suffer from. It is known today that certain teas can cure headaches, reduce cholesterol or improve ones sight amongst many hundreds of other cures and results. These are specialty teas and not the ones we associate with morning or afternoon Tea-time but they are readily available should one look into it. Western culture is sparked from the calming essence associated with the Black Tea, more from a cultural point of view than from its physical properties. For your information though; the average Tea contains vitamins A, B and E. A cup of tea is rich with minerals of iron, copper, zinc, sodium and contains fluoride to fight the cavities. So much, all in a cup? Yes, it is true that so much can be in so little! So whilst you are sitting back and relaxing, you can now think about what it is doing for you!

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Coffee Anyone?

Hmm...coffee had been link to much diseases from heart palpitation to stroke and now asthma? Well, there are the statistics and there ARE the statistics. Sigh...needless to say, I am a coffee drinker and I love coffee. And I have to admit that no amount of statistics can prevent me from enjoying my cup of coffee in the morning or at coffee breaks.

There was a time when someone suggested that coffee can be the cause I am having itchy skin...and I was "forced" to stop drinking coffee for a period of time. I DID. But then I went back to my beloved coffee again after skin was better. Well, the skin problem is still there off and on but I can still have my coffee. It made the eczema more bearable...whether coffee was the cause or effect of it... *Smile*

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Coffee and Asthma?

Here are some facts about the relationship between coffee and asthma. Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.

For the past several years, many experts have touted how horrible coffee was for our health and that the drinking of caffeinated coffee should be immediately ceased. Recently, however, several studies have shown that caffeinated coffee can actually be extremely good for people. One of the groups of people who can reap health benefits from drinking caffeinated coffee is those people who suffer from asthma.

In particular, drinking caffeinated coffee in the situation of an emergency onset of asthma can allow the patient to breathe easily. Doctors have recommended coffee as an emergency way of treating asthma patients who find themselves with a sudden onset and no medication for many, many years.

In Scotland, as evidenced by the Edinburgh Medical Journal, asthma and coffee are good for each other. While not recommended for exclusive treatment, one to two cups of strong coffee may help open airways.

This coffee and asthma treatment can help a patient who is suffering from an onset of asthma symptoms and finds himself without an inhaler breathe more easily until the inhaler can be obtained. This emergency treatment has proven extremely effective due to the similarities between caffeine and a tried-and-true asthma medication known as theophylline.

The similarities between these two chemicals lead doctors to routinely advise patients who are about to undergo tests for lung function to avoid coffee and other caffeinated beverages for one to two days prior to the time of the test.

Several large coffee and asthma studies conducted in the past few years have examined the relationship between drinking coffee and the prevalence of asthma. A study of over seventy thousand Italians showed that there was a significant reduction in the appearance of asthma amongst patients who would regularly drink coffee.

The risk of asthma symptoms fell by 28% when patients drank three or more cups of coffee every day.

In 1992, the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) examined over twenty thousand Americans. The study found that the risk of symptoms from patients with asthma going into the study fell dramatically (over 29%) when patients who regularly drank coffee were compared with patients who did not drink coffee on a regular basis.

In addition, the risk of patients suffering from wheeze fell almost 13%. A relationship was also found between the amount of coffee consumed and the effects gained by the asthma patients. Those who drank more coffee had fewer symptoms; those who drank less coffee had more symptoms.

Another smaller coffee and asthma study was performed on nine adult asthmatics using four daily doses of caffeine similar to the doses contained in coffee. This study showed a dose response effect of caffeine on forced expiratory volume (FEV), forced expiratory flow (FEF) and specific airway conductance (Gaw/VL). This data also suggests that caffeine is an effective tool to use in opening airways during an onset of asthma.

While doctors will never advise drinking coffee as the sole treatment for asthma as they did hundreds of years ago, they do agree that the caffeine found in coffee is particularly beneficial in an emergency situation. Anecdotal evidence shows that people have used coffee in situations where inhalers were completely unavailable, such as when on vacations and on an airplane. Coffee is particularly useful in these situations, as the patients might otherwise suffer serious consequences due to their inability to breathe properly.

Juicing-A Beginner's Guide

You can spot a juicer a mile off at the supermarket or greengrocer. Apart from the huge number of carrots and apples they are loading into their trolley, they also have that slightly smug, see-how-healthy-I-am look about them. Or is that just me?! Actually, I don't buy a lot of carrots and apples any more, because (other than my indiscretion with a packet of shortbread this week) I've radically reduced the amount of sugar I take in. My juice of choice is a vegetable one, a green one - but more about that later, first let's ask...

Why is juicing so good?

In my article Enzymes and Raw Food, I explained why eating enzyme-rich food is so important. If you are buying cartons (or bottles) of juice, even many of those labelled 'freshly squeezed' you are almost certainly missing out on the enzymes. Why? Because they are likely to be pasteurised. There are different methods of pasteurisation, but all of them involve heating to temperatures a lot greater than 118F - which is the point at which enzymes are killed.

Fresh juices, on the other hand, are packed with enzymes, vitamins, minerals etc. and they taste a zillion times yummier too. Plus if you invest in a good juicing book, you can select your ingredients based on your immediate health needs too. I recommend Superjuice: Juicing for Healing and Health by Michael van Straten.

Do I need a juicer to juice?

Wel, yes and no. There are so many juicers on the market and the prices vary radically. I always recommend that you start with a mid-priced model that is easy to clean. This is important. If cleaning it is a right old pain, you will be put off using it which is no good at all.

The US market is probably quite different, but for UK readers, I use the Breville AWT JE3 which retails at just under a �100. It's by no means the best juicer on the market, but it is very good for the price and a doddle to clean. Plus the new model features two speeds, one for hard produce and one for soft fruits.

There is also the Magimix Le Duo which I understand to be better than the Breville AWT and is the same price.

If you are reluctant to invest in a juicer at the moment but you already have a blender, you could just stick to smoothies. Or for around �5, you could buy yourself a nylon sprout/nutmilk bag and simply strain the juice from the pulp to create your healthy drink. Make sure you chop up the produce and add some bottled water too.

What should I juice?

If you have acid reflux/heartburn problems, candidiasis, thrush, diabetes, IBS or an IBD, then you should avoid going overboard with fruit and sweet veg juices eg. carrots. (Actually this strategy will benefit anyone with any health issue!)

The irony is that the sweet juices may be the ones you are most drawn to, but sugar feeds microforms (like yeasts, fungus, molds, bacteria and viruses) which thank us by excreting acidic, toxins into our blood stream when they 'digest' the food we give them!

Your best bet is to stick to green juices which aklalise the body. I really struggled with this to start with as the flavour is a bit of an acquired taste but then I discovered lemons! My favourite juice now is...

Claire's Green Goddess
100g of curly kale
2-3 sticks of celery
4-5 inches of cucumber
5-6 Green beans
A quarter of an unwaxed lemon (with peel)

The lemon really does do something special to the flavour. For those who are concerned about the acidity of lemon, here's an interesting thing; lemon is only acid outside the body. Once it goes in, it alkalises. Same is true of white grapefruit and lime. But not oranges or ruby grapefruit whose higher sugar content makes them more acid inside the body.

If you have a sweet tooth and the lemon isn't working for you, you could try adding an apple instead, but aim to reduce the quantity over time.

Should I peel?

Obviously, you will want to peel some fruits and veg, eg. a pineapple. But using organic produce means you need only give the produce a good scrub rather than peeling it which is recommended for non-organic produce.

And one final tip...

If you want to add ginger to a juice and your juicer tends to spit the chunk of ginger out without really juicing it, put it through your garlic press and stir in to the finished juice! Happy juicing.

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Claire Raikes is a Wellbeing Coach, Speaker and Writer who 'cured' herself of a chronic, disabling and potentially life-threatening bowel condition without the use of steroids, surgery or any other traditional medical intervention. She now shares her passion for natural and vibrant health through coaching, speaking and writing about the importance and power of a truly healthy diet.

She publishes a free weekly eZine, In Essence and is compiling an eBook of Healthy Fast Food with 25% of the proceeds going to The Cancer Project, a charity set up by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and nutritionists to educate the public on the benefits of a healthy diet for cancer prevention and survival. If you have a recipe you would like to submit, visit http://www.LiveInEssence.com for further details. To book Claire to speak at your event, email her at Claire@LiveInEssence.com.

Coffee - Is It The Most Popular Beverage Of All Time?

Around 850 A.D it is thought that a lone shepherd and his sheep happened upon a strange and mysterious plant growing upon a secluded and forgotten hillside. Before he could stop them some of his herd had began to gnaw away at this unusual berry. After about fifteen minutes or so the herder started to notice that his sheep were behaving in an odd manner. Not only were they unusually alert but they also appeared to be extremely hyperactive. Now being a little weary and extremely tired the shepherd decided to try the berries and see if the end results would be the same for him as they had been for his flock. To his pleasant surprise the shepherd began to feel wide awake and he too became very alert. After a few hours had passed along came a wandering monk who, after being informed of the plants amazing qualities proceeded to scold the poor shepherd and lecture him on his foolish indulgence. After he had finished telling the shepherd just what a sinner he had been the monk set upon his journey but not before he had added a little something to his backpack and supplies.

Back at the abbey the monks decided to try this new magical stimulant. Soon the endless hours of praying became easy to endure. Coffee the beverage had been unleashed. Its widespread use first took hold in the Ethiopian regions before then moving on to the Arabian empire. Here it was to be held for many years as a sacred substance until it was illegally exported to the outside world by an Arab called Baba Budan. Word of its effects then began to spread and in a short while coffee was to become one of the most treasured commodities in our history. Today we drink a staggering 4 billion cups each and every year and there are many among us who would simply refuse to start our day without it.

Although coffee is mainly known as a sleep suppressant there are those who consider coffee to have many health benefits. It is thought that people who suffer from asthma and partake of the beverage have at least 25% less symptoms which may be due to a substance in coffee called theophylline. This is known as a bronchodilator and quite simply it is thought to help those who suffer with the disease to breath with a little more ease. Drinking coffee on a daily basis is also thought to help lower your chances of developing colon cancer by a figure also in the region of about 25%. This may be due to the fact that coffee helps to keep you regular. Coffee can do more than just help you get through your day.

Apart from the benefits that have just been mentioned it has to be said that simply drinking coffee as a beverage is a delight that cannot easily be surpassed. The amazing thing is that the average person has no idea of the varied tastes that this hallowed bean has to offer. One of the growing trends of recent years has to be the rising popularity of ordering coffee via the wonder we call the internet. Never before have we been able to sample such a wide variety of tastes, blends and aromas without having to endure the tedious trials of hiking around the city. I myself tend to place small orders but I always make a point to record the name, blend and of course exactly from whom I purchased.

Now that you are aware of the tale of the mystical beans I hope that if in the days to come you are considering visiting your local coffee shop you recall the story of the lowly shepherd and think about just what you might be drinking were he not to have wandered onto that bleak and lonely hillside. Why not take advantage of the internet and try the many different varieties and blends available. Not only will you impress your tastebuds, your friends will be grateful as well.

Cappuccino or latte?