Abelmoschus esculentus or Hibiscus esculentus is known by many names around the world – okra, okro, lady’s finger, gumbo, guino-gombo, guibeiro, Kacang bendi, and bhindi, gombo, and bendakai.

Stabilizes Cholesterol Levels

The more finely ground okra powder is, the better it can adsorb cholesterol.10

Okra promotes cholesterol degradation and inhibits the production of fat in the body.

Fortifies Bones And Prevents Excessive Bleeding

The most abundant vitamin in okra is vitamin K.12 This vitamin helps strengthen bones and promotes clotting of blood.

Boosts Immunity And Improves Eyesight

Okra contains moderate levels of vitamin A.13 Vitamin A encourages the production of white blood cells, key players in your immune system.

Packs A Truckload Of Nutrients

Okra pods are loaded with significant amounts of vital nutrients – protein, fiber, calcium, iron, and zinc.3 It, thus, qualifies as an effective economical tool capable of treating malnutrition around the world.

Helps Control Hunger

Okra is loaded with soluble fibers. Soluble fiber makes you feel full faster and for longer. This can help keep your calorie intake in check, helping you with your weight loss goals.

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Sesame seeds are truly one of the most ancient foods on earth. In fact, sesame plants are the oldest known plant species to be grown primarily for their seeds (pods) and oils rather than for their leaves, fruit or vegetables.

Full of Great Protein
Sesame seeds are full of high quality protein making up 20 percent of the seed with 4.7 grams of protein per ounce.

Helps Prevent Diabetes
Sesame seeds contain magnesium and other nutrients. Sesame oil has been shown to prevent diabetes, and it can also improve plasma glucose in hypersensitive diabetics.

Reduces Blood Pressure
The same study above reveals how sesame oil lowers blood pressure in diabetics. Sesame seeds are full of magnesium – a key nutrient known to help lower blood pressure.

For Healthy Skin
The high zinc content helps produce collagen, giving skin more elasticity and helping repair damaged body tissues. Regular use of sesame oil can reduce skin cancer.

Boosts Heart Health
Sesame seed oil can help heart health by preventing atherosclerotic lesions with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound known as sesamol.

Helps Lessen Anxiety
Sesame seeds contain the stress-relieving minerals magnesium and calcium. Sesame also contains the calming vitamins thiamin and tryptophan that help produce serotonin, which reduces pain, assists moods and helps you sleep deeply.

Alleviates Anaemia
Black sesame seeds are particularly rich in iron, so they’re highly recommended for those with anaemia and weakness.

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This member of the cabbage family has a number of different names, including pak choi, bok choy, horse’s ear, Chinese cabbage and white mustard cabbage. Its structure looks like a squat celery, with either white or very pale green short, chunky stalks and glossy, deep green leaves.

The texture of both leaves and stalks is crisp, and the flavour is somewhere between mild cabbage and spinach. If very young it can be eaten raw in salads, but is best when briefly cooked.

Some benefits include:

Anti-cancer Properties

Pak choi and other members of its family have shown fairly positive effects on preventing cancer.

Blood Pressure

Blood pressure can be the basis of various diseases and can adversely affect how your heart functions, leading to hypertension or low blood pressure.

Healthy Glowing Skin

Taking care of your skin externally is necessary to remove dead cells from clogging the surface, but what you are eating is going to impact the appearance of your skin largely.

Healthy Eyes

The constituents found in pak choi are excellent for overall eye health. The beta-carotene, selenium, Vitamin K, and vitamin C, combine to maintain eye health.

All parts can be consumed. They are prepared in a variety of ways. In addition to its low-calorie and high nutrient content, its mildly sweet flavor and crisp texture make it an agreeable addition to almost any dish.

Here are some quick tips:

• Shred raw bok choy and toss with other fresh vegetables to make a salad
• Add chopped bok choy to hot and sour soup
• Stir-fry bok choy with a variety of vegetables, some soy sauce, and sesame oil
• Sauté fresh garlic and ginger in olive oil until soft, then add bok choy and continue to sauté until desired tenderness
• Mix minced bok choy, mushrooms, chives, and soy sauce together to make a homemade dumpling filling.

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The word Lettuce is derived from the Roman ‘lactuca sativa’; however, it did not originate in Rome, but rather in Egypt.

There are several types of lettuce such as the Iceberg, Romaine, Crisphead, and Butterhead, which are amongst the best-known varieties. All lettuce vegetables feature a crunchy texture and a mild sweet taste. Most lettuces are green to yellow green, but some may be brownish purple.

Having a bowl of lettuce salad every day can do you a world of good. Lettuce is an excellent source of fiber and cellulose, which improves digestion and promotes long-term weight loss.

Lettuce Induces Sleep

One of the oldest benefits of lettuce, which dates back to medieval times, is its property to induce sleep.

Anti-bacterial and Anti-fungal Properties

It possesses anti-fungal properties when digested. The latex of lettuce, which is called lactucarium can eradicate various types of yeasts.

Lettuce is a Neuro-protector

The death of neurons impairs the physical connections in the brain that make up your memory. Hence, neuronal death could lead to neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Lettuce, on the other hand, has the potential to fight the possibility of such diseases. Lettuce extracts can reduce neuron cell death owing to its role in glucose metabolism, which as it turns out plays an integral role in progression of the condition.

Promotes Muscle Development

Not all protein sources are found in meat. Lettuce, for example, is a vegetable which contains a little protein, but also enzymes that make protein synthesis more efficient

Among the Best Foods for Weight Loss

It is among the best foods for weight loss. It is rich in fiber and cellulose, but low in calories and has no fat. Cellulose provides a feeling of fullness and delays gastric emptying; thus, it helps prevent you from overeating.

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Competition between employees is an inescapable part of most people’s work lives. Whether overtly or otherwise, most companies create a dynamic in which employees compete against each other for recognition, bonuses, and promotions.

Using competition in the workplace can be healthy and productive. Competition increases levels of chemicals like testosterone and is motivational in many situations. It also can cause stress and alienation, so it’s important to know how to make competition work for your organization. To do so, a great manager understands how competition affects all employees and how to build competition in a positive way.

Competition comes in two flavors. Direct competition is a one-to-one experience that produces only one winner. Cooperative competition occurs when a team works together to achieve a goal for the good of the group.

Advantages include:

Incentivize the Team

One would think that people are motivated by money, and that a good paycheck is incentive enough to do a good job. Although salary is a strong component in finding and keeping good talent, human resources managers have learned that people are often motivated to move into the next gear with other incentives. An example of an incentive is a sales contest to have the greatest number of sales in a month or quarter for a specific product.

Quality Work

Competitive environments fuel creativity and productivity, generating a higher quality of work. When someone wants to win, he is more likely to look at a variety of solutions to any problem. This usually yields better systems and processes and creates an efficient work ethic, in which the employee doesn’t want to waste his time on things that don’t help his end goal: winning. Business leaders need to give employees enough freedom to use instincts and to problem solve to most effectively take advantage of this competitive workplace benefit.

Disadvantages include:

Anxiety

Work can be stressful. For an employee who doesn’t stand out from the pack, a competitive workplace can increase the anxiety felt in the workplace. To avoid increasing anxiety, business leaders should remind everyone in the department that teamwork is the primary goal for the entire department.

Poor Team Morale

With teams that are already struggling with good teamwork and communication, a competitive workplace could further diminish team morale. Managers can’t use competition alone to fuel more productivity, because teams that have poor bonds will resort to backstabbing and undermining behaviours to prevent others from getting the advantage. When a team loses morale, their team productivity also goes down. Competitive environments must be fostered with communications and team-building workshops.

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Plantains are considered more of a vegetable for cooking because of the starchier and practically neutral taste when unripe, quite unlike bananas which have a sweeter flavor. Plantains grow in tropical countries across the globe from Central and South America to the Caribbean, Africa, and Southeast Asia. As a non-seasonal crop, plantains are available all year long. They are considered a staple food in many regions, providing a significant source of calories.

Cooked plantains are nutritionally very similar to a potato calorie-wise, but contain more of some vitamins and minerals. They are a rich source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and B-6, and the minerals magnesium and potassium. This hidden super food warrants a trip your local grocery.

Some benefits include:

Weight control

Carbohydrates aren’t necessarily a bad thing for weight management like most people believe. The fiber and starch found in plantains are complex carbs. Fiber and complex carbs are less processed and more slowly digested than the simple carbs found in processed foods. They keep you full and more satisfied for longer after a meal, which can mean less snacking on unhealthy foods.

Nutritious

Plantains are rich sources of complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and are easily digestible. As a staple food, plantains have been the main fare of millions of people for centuries.

Digestive health

Fiber is especially important because it promotes bowel regularity. Fiber softens your stool and increases stool’s overall size and weight. Bulky stools are much easier to pass and therefore prevent constipation.

Great source of Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency is a very common problem thanks to Western diets and depleted soil due to over-farming. Plantains offer about 16 percent of your daily need for magnesium, which is especially important because magnesium affects over 300 biochemical reactions in the body.

Promote Healthy Brain Function

Vitamin B6 promotes healthy brain function and, helps make hormones like serotonin and norepinephrine, which keep moods stable, and melatonin, which regulates the body’s clock.

Great source of Potassium

There are 913 milligrams of potassium in one cup of cooked, mashed plantains. That accounts for about 20 percent of your recommended daily amount of potassium, making plantains one of the most potassium-rich foods on the planet. Potassium is the third-most abundant mineral in the body, but when depleted, low potassium can affect the function of a number of organs and processes.

Plantains are available at most major grocery stores and local markets year-round and can be purchased at any point of ripeness. There are three major points of ripening that make plantains a versatile:

Green plantains: When plantains are green, the pulp is fairly hard and sometimes the peel must be removed with a knife. At this stage, they are starchy and not very sweet, similar to a potato. This is the best time to make plantain chips.

Yellow plantains: Slightly sweeter than green plantains, yellow plantains are mature and most often made into fried plantains. They’re best fried, cooked, boiled or grilled.

Black plantains: Despite their colour, black plantains are still good to eat. They are the sweetest and softest at this point and are typically baked and eaten as a dessert.

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Whole eggs have two main components:

• Egg white: The white part, which is mostly protein.
• Egg yolk: The yellow/orange part, which contains all sorts of nutrients.

The main reason eggs were considered to be unhealthy in the past, is that the yolks are high in cholesterol, a waxy substance found in food, and it’s also made by your body.

Whole eggs (with the yolks) are undeniably high in cholesterol. In fact, they’re the major source of cholesterol in most people’s diets. Your liver actually produces cholesterol in large amounts, because cholesterol is a necessary nutrient for your cells.

When you eat larger amounts of high-cholesterol foods such as eggs, your liver simply starts producing less cholesterol and, when you get little cholesterol from food, your liver produces more.

Also, let’s keep in mind that cholesterol isn’t a “bad” substance. It is actually involved in various processes in the body, such as:

• Production of vitamin D.
• Production of steroid hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
• Production of bile acids, which help digest fat.

Eggs Have Many Health Benefits

Studies show that eating eggs can have various health benefits. These include:

• Help keep you full: Several studies show that eggs promote fullness and help control hunger so you eat less at your next meal.
• Promote weight loss: The high-quality protein in eggs increases metabolic rate and can help you lose weight.
• Protect brain health: Eggs are an excellent source of choline, which is important for your brain.
• Reduce eye disease risk: The lutein and zeaxanthin in eggs help protect against eye diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration.
• Decrease inflammation: Eggs may reduce inflammation, which is linked to various

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Initially, this fruit used to grow in the hot regions of Africa.The cultivation of tamarind has now spread to most of the warmer, drier regions of Mexico and Asia, including India and Sri Lanka.

Tamarind is a delicious, sweet, and sour fruit that has a wide variety of uses, both for medicinal and culinary purposes. It is a medium-sized bushy tree with evergreen leaves and a fruit that develops in pods characterized by long, brown shells. Inside is a sticky, fleshy, juicy pulp, which is the tamarind fruit. This is where the nutrition and taste reside! As it is both sweet and sour in taste, people either tend to immediately like it or have a natural disposition against it! No wonder it has carved a special place for itself in the Indian kitchens in the form of chutneys, digestive candies, pickles, and more.

Some benefits include:

Aids Weight Loss

One of the unique compounds that can be extracted from tamarind or gained as a benefit from it when used as a spice is called hydroxycitric acid (HCA). HCA is connected to weight loss because it has been shown to inhibit an enzyme in the body that specifically helps to store fat.

Helps You Beat The Heat

You are prone to suffer a heat stroke if you live in region that is particularly hot, and if you aren’t hydrated well. Tamarind juice made with a little cumin can prevent heat-related issues and cool your system.

Antihistaminic

Tamarind also helps fight colds and flu. These are usually caused by allergies or viral infections. However, tamarind has antihistaminic properties that help prevent asthma attacks and other types of colds and flu.

Boosts Immunity

High levels of vitamin C, as well as other antioxidant effects in the essential oils, make tamarind a wonderful way to boost your immune system and ensure long-term health, keeping away from microbial and fungal infections.

Manages Diabetes

Along with its ability to stop weight gain, it also inhibits the enzyme alpha-amylase, which mainly stops carbohydrates from being absorbed.

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Caffeine proves to be a powerful and efficient stimulant. But the question of its effectiveness towards personal productivity has no concrete answer.

Studies have shown that in small doses, caffeine can be incredibly effective, providing your body with a short boost of energy and alertness. It is also proven to, among other things, provide enhanced motor and cognitive performance, a short-term memory boost, and increased accuracy of reactions and the ability to focus attention. That said, like any substance, the effectiveness of caffeine is dependent upon dosage, body type, weight, age, time of day, and, yes, the quality of your sleep.

If you rarely drink coffee or consume caffeine, even in small doses, it can have a substantial effect. You can and will likely experience many of the aforementioned benefits of the stimulant. You might feel a burst of energy and laser-like focus, and you may find yourself getting a lot more done than usual. Too much caffeine and you may meet the less desirable side of the drug, otherwise known as the jitters. Even those who regularly drink caffeinated drinks can overdo it and experience heart palpitations or an upset stomach.

So, does caffeine help or hurt you? For the most part, it’s clear that caffeine will improve your productivity. It’s ideal for boosting cognitive function, lightening your mood and improving your health; and it can help you feel less tired on those long work days. However, you can’t neglect coffee’s productivity-halting side effects, including its ability to ruin your sleep schedule, increase your anxiety and create a physical addiction. So, become familiar with the good and bad effects of caffeine before you use it — and be sure to consume it responsibly.

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Pineapple, also known as ananas, is a delicious tropical fruit surrounded by thorny spikes and topped with hard, waxy leaves. The fruit is up to a foot long and has a combination of sweet and tart taste.

Some benefits include:

Treats Cough and Cold

Pineapple is rich in both bromelain and vitamin C, therefore it helps in preventing and treating respiratory illnesses while eliminating phlegm and mucus from your body if you’ve already contracted an illness or infection.

It Keeps Gums Healthy.

You brush your teeth several times a day, but do you pay attention to your gums? Because pineapple has such a high vitamin C content, eating the fruit lowers your risk of gingivitis and periodontal disease.

It’s a Good Weight Loss Food.

Pineapple has a delicious, natural sweetness that makes it taste like a dessert on its own. As an added bonus, pineapple is low in calories, sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fats, while being a good source of fiber. This makes it the perfect weight loss food because it’s a healthy, filling, and tasty snack.

Dissolves Kidney Stones.

By regulating digestion and reducing blood clotting, pineapples help in dissolving kidney stones. Eat the bromelain-rich fruit or drink its juice to keep the kidneys safe and stones away

It Alleviates Arthritis.

Pineapple has anti-inflammatory qualities, so including the fruit in your diet can alleviate the pain of arthritis, along with similar conditions, like gout and carpal tunnel syndrome. It also can help improve the condition overall by strengthening your bones.

It’s Packed with Vitamins and Minerals.

Check out the goods on pineapples: they’re loaded with vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. While it’s rich in fiber and calories, it’s low in fat and cholesterol. This makes it a great, nutritious fruit to add to your diet to improve and maintain your health.

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