3 Reasons to Eat Grapes

Did you know that every time you eat grapes you may also be improving your health and reducing your risk of chronic and deadly diseases such as cancer? Check out these three health benefits that are sure to make you want to add more grapes to your diet!

1) Grapes contain resveratrol. Resveratrol is a powerful phytonutrient that is known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. It has also been shown to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s as well as being associated with helping to maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Resveratrol is found abundantly in the skins of grapes.


2) Red grapes contain the carotenoid lycopene. Lycopene is a potent cancer-fighting antioxidant. It neutralizes free radicals before they can cause damage. Lycopene has about twice the antioxidant power of beta carotene. Lycopene is fat-soluble so you absorb lycopene well only if you eat it with dietary fat. Lycopene has been linked to preventing cardiovascular disease, skin damage, cancer, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Lycopene has been specifically linked to the prevention of prostate cancer.

3) Grapes contain an abundance of antioxidants including caffeic, caftaric, coumaric, and coutaric acids. Antioxidants slow cell damage caused by oxidation and slow the aging process.



                                                               

Bacon Buffalo Bean (BBB) Dish

I'm trying to find ways to make vegetables (i.e. green beans) more exciting. Here's a recipe that I put together that I thought was delicious, but I would like to get other opinions. I know it sounds like a strange combo but don't judge it until you try it! I think next time I make it I'll add sautéed onions as well.  Be sure to let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
1 can of string green beans
2 tbs of Wish-Bone Buffalo Ranch salad dressing
2 tbs of bacon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients together. May be eaten cold or hot. Add more cayenne pepper if desired. Makes 2 servings. Enjoy!

What is Sorbitol?

To say I'm a big fan of sugar free syrup is an understatement. While regular syrup contains a whopping 200ish calories per serving, sugar free varieties only have about 20-25. When I first discovered it, my first reaction was that it's too good to be true, but I mixed it up in oatmeal for at least a year before I decided to see what the stuff was actually made of. Something told me it hadn't come straight from a maple tree.

I grabbed my Log Cabin bottle, complete with a snowy log cabin picture on the label and capital letters stating, "A Family Tradition Since 1887." So far, so good. However, as I suspected, when I turned the bottle around to look at the ingredient list, the list contained at least 10 items of junk I'd never heard of. Fortunately, as obsessed I am with reading labels, for better or worse I tend to ignore anything that follows the words, "Contains 2% or less of." I feel like this keeps me from being too much of a health food fanatic. I'm too groovy to be fanatic about anything.

Anyway, this only left me with two ingredients to concern myself with, water and sorbitol. Water is good, obviously, but what the heck is sorbitol? I did a little research on the subject and this is what I found out.

Sorbitol, also called glucitol, is a sugar alcohol. It is very slow to be metabolized and does not cause insulin levels to spike as much as sugar.  It is found in fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, and prunes. It also can be derived from corn and seaweed. Sorbitol is generally considered to be safe, although large amounts of it may cause digestion problems due to it being a natural laxative. As a sugar substitute it's often found in lite of sugar free foods.

So my conclusion is that sorbitol is safe and the sugar free syrup will stay in my pantry!