Changing your diet to stop snoring doesn't necessarily mean going on a weight loss program although they may have the same out come.
There is a preconception that snoring is the sole domain of overweight middle aged men. NOT TRUE. It affects both Men and Woman of all ages, shapes, weights and sizes.

As it turns out, there are some foods that are better than others when it comes to reducing snoring.  
Here are some possible dietary additions that might help.  (Ladies and Gentlemen: you might want to mention these things to your bed mates as foods that just might mitigate the snoring routine...)

Remedy: Eating onions is a good way to help reduce congestion. Yes, onions.   While they might not lead to the most aromatic breath, onions act as natural anti-inflammatory. Often, they help to reduce the symptoms of cold and flu. Onions not only act as natural decongestants, but they are also a best source of antioxidants.

Remedy: You can try drinking honey and lemon in hot water. The honey and lemon can also act as a good snoring solution. Honey acts as an antiseptic and also natural decongestant. You can also include a few teaspoons of honey in a fresh lemonade or lemon juice and drink the mixture before going to bed

Remedy: The mixture of lemon and thyme is also a best one to reduce the mucus in your air passages. You can drink lemon tea before going to bed or, you can add thyme to roast dinners or casseroles

Remedy: Including hot foods like garlic and horseradish to your diet can help reduce snoring. These foods can help to dry up the airways and nasal passages thus reducing the excess

If you're an ice-cream eater (you know the routine; television and a bowl of luscious mint chip or precious chocolate fudge swirl...); you might want to skip this snack if you're feeling amorous.  Dairy foods cause snoring and the closer you eat them toward bedtime, the worse or "louder," things can be.
Here's how it works: dairy products can increase the mucus in your nasal passages, thus your airways become narrower and restrict the flow of oxygen. 

Remedy: You can try switching to soy products, rice or almond milk to see if it makes a difference for you.  Extra mucus can also form with the consumption of baked foods, chocolates, fried foods and frozen foods closer to bedtime.

And finally, the last culprit is alcohol.  That late night martini is actually working against you.  It doesn't lead to a better quality of sleep, so, avoid consuming alcohol.

Ironically, sedatives, which may be prescribed like sleeping pills, can cause you to snore during sleep as they may actually suppress your breathing drive.
Aside from what you eat, controlling your portions and actually losing weight can be one of the number one ways to eliminate or greatly reduce snoring.

Good luck and remember, 
"eat right and sleep tight."

In an action likely to rock the fast-food industry, McDonald's Wednesday said it will post calories for all items on its menu boards and drive-thru menus in the U.S.

The move by the world's largest fast-food chain comes as consumers, regulators and activists are pressuring the industry to improve food quality and share more nutritional information with consumers.

As the fast-food behemoth, McDonald's (MCD) gets the most attention and criticism for its actions, and the rest of the industry often follows its lead. Industry rivals are expected to quickly follow McDonald's menu changes, which start next week.

"It's the right thing to do," says Greg Watson, senior vice president of menu innovation for McDonald's. "It's what a leader would do."
Other factors are also in play. President Obama's health care reform includes a proposed regulation still under review by the Food and Drug Administration that would require many chain restaurants to post calories on menus and menu boards. But no one expects any action on that front until well after the presidential election.

"It's an important step forward," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the advocacy group Center For Science in the Public Interest, which has been a long-time critic of McDonald's. "The other fast-food chains will feel the competitive pressure to provide the same information."

McDonald's has been a leader, but a "reluctant" leader on several nutritional fronts in recent years, Jacobson says. The company was among the first major chains to knock the trans fat out of its french fries. It was among the first to put fruit into kids' meals. And it was early to offer an array of salads.
Panera was the first major chain to post calories on menu boards back in April 2010. "We knew that posting calories on our menu boards could only help us because it helped our guests," says founder Ron Shaich.
Not everyone is applauding.

"They fought and fought and fought against this, and now they act like they wanted it all the time," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University.
Not so, says McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud, who insists that McDonald's supported a clear, federal regulation but objected to all of the different local regulations in places like New York City and Southern California

McDonald's isn't stopping here, either, says Watson. It plans more seasonal fruit and veggie options, such as blueberries and cucumbers. And it's testing an egg-white breakfast sandwich on a whole grain English muffin.

When it comes to dieting, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. Is low-carb the way to go? Should I only eat during certain hours? Should I cut out this or that? Sometimes it seems like there are 5 right answers for every question. Well, wonder no more. Click through to find out the truth behind some of the most popular myths.

1. Low-Carb Diets Are the Best Way to Lose Weight.

Sure, if you cut out carbs from your diet you’ll probably see some dramatic weight loss in a very short time period. But it’s not sustainable, and it’s not really all that healthy. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet, and, once you go off that diet, you’re likely to gain most of the weight back. Instead, try eating better carbs, like whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fruits and veggies

2. Some Foods Are So Low in Calories, You Lose Weight When You Eat Them!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: eating celery, cabbage, citrus fruits and other low-calorie fruits and veggies will actually burn calories. Unfortunately, that’s not true at all — these foods are very low in caloric content, but the calories you burn from actually chewing and digesting them are not even close to making up for the caloric content of the food.

3. Physically Active People Need More Protein.

While it’s true that you need protein to build muscle, the Average western diet contains more than enough of the stuff. Consuming too much protein is, in fact, the bigger issue here.

4. You Gain More Weight From Food Eaten After 8PM.

A calorie is a calorie, whether you consume it at 3PM or 3AM.  It may take a little longer for your body to burn off that late-night bowl of ice cream than it will your lunch, since you’re more active during the day, but timing isn’t the issue.

The problem here is that late-night snackers have a tendency to overeat because they haven’t eaten balanced, regular meals through out the day. Want to cut out that late-night snacking? Don’t skimp on breakfast, lunch and dinner!

5. Dieters Should Always Avoid Fruit Juice.

Fruit juice in general is not the enemy: all of those fruit “drinks” and “cocktails”—and anything that’s anything less than 100% juice—are. That stuff is chock full of added sugars and high-fructose syrup, which should be avoided by dieters. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that whole fruit is better for you than even 100% juice, since it contains the natural fibers that are left behind in the juicing process

6. Brown Grains are Always Whole Grains.

Just because your loaf of bread is brown doesn’t mean it’s actually whole grain — there are plenty of products that achieve a rich brown color through food coloring alone. Make sure to read the nutrition label before purchasing.

7. Drinking Lots of Water is the Key to Weight Loss.

Water is great, water is important, but it doesn’t help you burn calories, it doesn’t boost your metabolism, and it won’t make your fat magically disappear. Instead, try replacing some of your calorie-filled beverages with plain ol’ H20; upping your water intake alone won’t help you shed the pounds.

You either love it or you hate it, according to the slogan.
And if you are a Marmite fan, the good news is that one of its main ingredients may fight superbugs.
A study found that at very high doses, vitamin B3, also known as niacin, drastically increases the body’s ability to fight the MRSA bacterium, which can cause life-threatening infections if it enters the bloodstream via wounds.

US researchers believe the ingredient – which is also found in beer, bread and other foods containing yeast – could be used to develop new drugs.
Researchers carried out a number of experiments on both rats and human blood, the results of which were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Overall they found that high doses of vitamin B3 increased the number of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that kills bacteria.

Adrian Gombart, of Oregon State University, said: ‘This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies. It’s a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural response.’
But the scientists urged caution, as the research used extremely high doses of the vitamin – far more than is in Marmite or vitamin supplements.
Co-author Dr George Liu, also from Oregon State University, said: 'This vitamin is surprisingly effective in fighting off and protecting against one of today's most concerning public health threats.'
Dr Gombart stressed that so far there was no evidence to suggest normal diets or conventional-strength B3 supplements could help prevent or treat bacterial infections.
Ten years ago he discovered a human genetic mutation that makes people more vulnerable to bacterial infections.
Further work showed that niacin has the ability to "turn on" anti-microbial genes that help the immune system fight off bacteria.

Receiving a diagnosis of diabetes usually means a change in lifestyle and diet.  If you are like me--I have a terrible sweet tooth!--I had this mental image of all things sweet and good disappearing from my diet.  Imagine my surprise to discover this is not true.  In fact, doctors and nutritionists recommend eating fresh fruit.  And there are many ways to make delicious diabetic desserts.  As with all foods, we diabetics have to watch our portions and even more so with sweets.  Do not make this cheesecake and eat it all before bedtime!  But incorporated into a healthy diet, you should be able to enjoy it.  With its sugar-free ingredients and fresh fruits, it is healthy and tasty enough for anyone!

DIABETIC'S LEMON CHEESECAKE

1 1/4 graham cracker crumbs*
1/4 cup Splenda granular
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 pkg (3-oz) sugar-free lemon gelatin mix
2/3 cup boiling water
2 bars (8-oz each) light cream cheese
6-oz. lite/firm silken tofu
grated rind of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup sugar-free frozen whipped topping, thawed
Fresh fruit of your choice, optional

In a small mixing bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, Splenda, and melted butter until mixed together well.  Using the back of a large spoon, press the mixture on the bottom and up the sides of an 8-inch springform pan.  Chill the crust for about ten minutes.

In a blender container mix the lemon gelatin mix and the hot water; slowly add in the cream cheese and the tofu.  Continue to mix until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the lemon rind, lemon juice and the thawed topping.  Pour into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.  Chill for 4 hours or more.  Before serving garnish with more whipped topping and fresh fruit/fruits of your choice, if desired.

*If you cannot use crumbs made from graham crackers, make your crumbs from sugar-free butter cookies or sugar-free vanilla wafers.

Serves 12.

Enjoy!

Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

 Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.
 
Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

WHY DO RICE KRISPIES SNAP, CRACKLE, POP?

Created similarly to popcorn, rice krispies are made by steamed rice (rice doesn’t have enough moisture in it before) being heated until the grain until the “pop” into crisped rice. thin and hollowed out walls, sealed areas inside where air pockets have formed. When cold milk is added the shift in temperatyure causes these weak walls to suddenly fracture and make the snap, crackle and pop

CARROTS WERE PURPLE, WHITE, RED AND YELLOW BEFORE ORANGE

Yes the lovely veggie was not always a bright and cheery orange colour. Centuries ago, as early as 900AD, in Afghanistan they were predominantly purple and yellow, with other colours appearing over the hundreds of years to follow as the carrot spread around the globe. It wasn’t until the 16th century that the orange carrot started to be cultivated in the Netherlands. A popular theory holds that the carrots were selectively bred to be orange to honour William of Orange, leader of the Dutch revolution against the Spanish, however there is no evidence to support this. Today you can still buy the other coloured varieties, though they’re far from the popularity of the orange version.

THE COLOUR ORANGE COMES FROM THE FRUIT

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Nurture versus nature? Orange the fruit or orange the colour? Well we can answer that last one for you! The word “orange” evolved from the Spanish word “naranja” which itself evolved from the Sanskrit for orange tree, “naranga”. Before the 16th century, in English the colour orange was in fact called “geoluhread” aka “yellow-red”, seriously, we were that original. So there you have it, until we found the orange fruit, orange was just a weird shade of yellow and red.

DINNER USED TO MEAN BREAKFAST

Fancy confusing your friends and family? The English word for dinner comes from the old French “disnar” which means to “break fast”. Traditionally dinner (AKA “breakfast”) was the first and largest meal of the day, eaten at noon. A lighter meal (supper) was eaten later in the day. People eventually started to regularly eat a meal before dinner but rather than call this meal dinner (which meant “break fast”) they started calling it the literal English name, “breakfast”! Meanwhile the biggest meal moved later in the day until eventually a lighter meal was eaten at noon (lunch) and the evening meal became lunch. So yes, you start your day with breakfast and end your day with breakfast.

THE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE COMES FROM POOP

Kopi Luwak are coffee beans that come from the poo of a palm civet, a cat sized mammal mostly found in southeast Asia. The animals eat coffee berries and the beans come out the other end, keeping their shape. The coffee retails for around $160 per pound, making it the world’s most bizarre and expensive coffee. The real question is: who discovered civet poop made great coffee?

The fact that a lemon contains more sugar than a strawberry, is another remarkable funny fact that is well spread around the internet. 
The acid within the lemon masks the sweetness of the sugar, at least that is the explanation.
To determine if this is true we first need to agree on how to compare the two, since a lemon is of course much bigger and heavier than one strawberry. 
To make a fair comparison we should look at the amount of sugar per, lets take the standard, 100gram.
Then we will see that a lemon contains 2.50g sugar per 100g, and a strawberry contains 5g sugar per 100g. Twice the amount of that of a lemon!
So we can safely conclude this fact is not true and debunked; A lemon does not contain more sugar than a strawberry
In fact, a strawberry contains twice as much sugar as a lemon.

Pasta Bake with Pancetta, Rosemary, and Ground Pork


 6 Servings

Ingredients:6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
9 ounces pancetta, cubed
18 ounces ground pork
2 tablespoons freshly chopped rosemary
1 x 14 ounce can cherry tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 3/4 cups (11 ounces) penne rigate
4 large eggs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.In a large saucepan, heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil and sauté the onion and carrot for 5 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.

2.Add the pancetta with the ground pork and rosemary and cook, stirring continuously, until colored all over, about 5 minutes.

3.Pour in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool to room temperature.

4.Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and add to the meat sauce. Stir well and let cool.

5.Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Break the eggs into the pan of cooled pasta and sauce, then add the grated Parmesan. Mix together.

6.Brush the remaining oil over the side and base of an 8 1/2-inch round nonstick baking dish with sides about 2 inches deep. Pour in the pasta mixture and spread out evenly.

7.Cook in the center of the preheated oven for 20 minutes until crispy and set.

8.Once cooked, let rest for 5 minute--it will be easier to cut and serve, as the layers will hold together. 

Serve hot or cold.Enjoy!!!

We all can use a new chicken recipe, can’t we? This one is bound to go into frequent rotation at your house, as it has at mine. It’s easy, it’s packed with galicky, lemony, punchy flavor, and I’ve never met a gyros sandwich I didn’t want to devour.

A gyros (say it yee-ros, and roll the r!) made from chicken is just genius! A blop of garlicky Tzatziki sauce, some chopped fresh summer tomatoes and red onion slices, all on a pita

Chicken GyrosIngredients:
Makes approximately 4

8 ounces nonfat plain yogurt 
3/4 cup peeled seeded and diced cucumber 
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion 
2 garlic cloves, minced 
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast 
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
1 tablespoon snipped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
2 teaspoons olive oil 
4 lettuce leaves 
4 pita bread rounds (I get the whole, not the half with pockets) or 4 greek pita bread rounds 
1 medium tomato, sliced 
1 red onion, sliced 

Directions:

1 In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, cucumbers, scallions and half of the garlic. Cover and refrigerate. 

2 In another small bowl, stir together lemon juice, oregano, and the remaining garlic. Put lemon juice mixture in a ziplock bag with the chicken and let marinate for 10 minutes. 

3 Wrap pitas in tin foil and place in 350 degree oven for approximately 5 minutes. I just leave in the oven until the chicken is done cooking.

4 Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until it is lightly browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes. **OR** Grill chicken breasts over open flame for about 4-5 minutes per side. We always grill the chicken and it turns out great. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and cut into thin 2-inch long strips. 

5 Place a lettuce leaf and a quarter of the chicken on each pita bread. Top each with a tomato slice and some sliced red onions and a quarter of the yogurt mixture. Fold each pita around its filling and wrap each with foil to secure. Serve immediately with a side of the yogurt sauce for dipping.


Enjoy!!!