More chocolate you eat, lower your risk of heart disease: Study

Ahh, chocolate. There probably isn’t a more magical ingredient on earth than the sweet, dark brown flavoring used for more than 3,000 years. Today most chocolate is consumed in the form of candy — a development that has sparked heated debate among scientists about what that’s doing to our health.
But a surprising number of studies have found that dark chocolate can reduce the risk of death from a heart attack, decrease blood pressure and help those with chronic fatigue syndrome.
The question for many chocolate lovers has been at what point are you having too much of a good thing. That is, is there an optimal “dose” for chocolate eating?

                    

A hundred grams is equivalent to about two classic Hershey’s bars or — if you’re going fancy — five Godiva truffles. In terms of calories you’re looking at 500-535. To put that into perspective, the Department of Agriculture recommends men consume 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day depending on their height, body composition and whether they are sedentary or active.
This association in the study was valid even after researchers adjusted for a wide range of risk factors, such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and other dietary variables.
“The main message is that you don’t need to worry too much if you are only moderately eating chocolate,” Phyo Myint, a professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Aberdeen and one of the study’s lead authors, said in an interview.

Higher levels of consumption were associated with a large number of other positives in the study: lower BMI, waist:hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, inflammatory proteins. As compared with those who ate no chocolate, those who ate high amounts saw a 11 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 25 percent lower risk of associated death.
The study also noted that more of the participants in the study ate milk chocolate versus dark chocolate which has long been considered healthier. This might suggest that beneficial health effects may apply to both, the researchers said.

“Our results are somewhat surprising since the expectation was that benefits of chocolate consumption would be mainly associated with dark chocolate rather than the commercially available products generally used in a British population which are high in sugar content and fat,” the study’s author wrote.

So what’s the theory behind how this works?
Myint explained that chocolate is full of flavonoid antioxidants and that previous studies have shown that intake of chocolate results in improved function of the endothelium, or inner lining of the blood vessels. Chocolate has also been shown to increase HDL or “good” cholesterol and decrease LDL or “bad” cholesterol. He also said many chocolate bars that were probably consumed by study participants contained nuts which are known to be good for heart health.
While Myint said it seemed clear that there wasn’t a big risk to chocolate eating for the study participants, he said that the results of the study should be read with a few caveats. First, it looked at people ages 39 to 70 and nearly all the study participants were white. He also emphasised that in a sample size this large, there were also a number of participants who ate a lot of chocolate but did not see the same benefits as others.
“Indeed some people had worse outcomes when eating that amount of chocolate so the findings need to be taken with extreme caution,” he said.
While the study provides evidence that there’s no need to avoid chocolate in your diet to protect your cardiovascular health, it probably is too soon to run out and gorge on chocolate bars. So get going and try some delicious Chocolate Gelato Gelato icecream,cakes, chocolates today!

Charles Mueller, clinical assistant professor of nutrition at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, points out that there’s no definitive conclusion about cause and effect and that it’s possible that chocolate eaters engage in other behaviours or eat other foods that are good for the heart.

Common sense tells us that too much of something so fatty and full of calories is a bad thing.

A new study published in the journal Heart looked at the effect of diet on long-term health. It involved 25,000 volunteers and found that the answer to how much chocolate can be good for you is — a lot. Study participants in the high consumption group — those who ate 15 to 100 grams of chocolate a day in the form of everything from Mars bars to hot cocoa — had lower heart disease and stroke risk than those who did not consume the confection.

“Cocoa beans are not unlike red peppers, green peppers and broccoli and stuff like that. They are full of phytochemicals that are good for you. But if you are overweight, and you are thinking of protecting yourself by eating chocolate you are being kind of silly. Chocolate is just one small element in a full range of a good diet,” Mueller said.

Source: thepeninsulaqatar.com/life-style/health/348790/more-chocolate-you-eat-lower-your-risk-of-heart-disease-study

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When people think of Middle Eastern cuisine, the first that comes to mind is Lebanese cuisine, followed by Turkish cuisine.

Though both Lebanese and Turkish cuisines are similar, there’s no doubt that the most popular and most favored cuisine in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region is Lebanese. So what can we tell you about the ever-popular cuisine that you don’t know already? Nothing really! But here, we can tell you that there are countless  Lebanese restaurants in Qatar, we can help you pick the most highly recommended Lebanese restaurants in the country.

There are a variety of dishes on a table in a Lebanese house or restaurant, the meal starts with small portions of appetizers known as mezza along with dips and salads. They may be as simple as picked vegetables or raw vegetables, hummus and bread or an entire meal consisting also of meat kebabs, grilled, marinated seafood and salads.

• Tabbouleh – diced parsley salad with burghul, tomato and mint.
• Fattoush – ‘peasant’ salad of toasted pita bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, chickweed, and mint.
• Falafel – small deep-fried patties made of highly spiced ground chickpeas.
• Hummus – dip or spread made of blended chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic. Typically eaten with pita bread.
• Tahini – sesame paste
• Labneh – strained yogurt, spreadable and garnished with good olive oil and sea salt.
• Kibbeh – mainly stuffed, can be made in different forms including fried, uncooked, and cooked with yogurt.
• Kibbeh nayyeh – raw kibbeh eaten like steak tartar.
• Za’atar – dried thyme, sesame seeds and sumac that can differ from region to region and from family to family. Most are made in house, but can be bought at Lebanese larders.
• Baba ghanouj – char-grilled aubergine (eggplant), tahina, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic puree—served as a dip.

Lamb is the meat of choice and appears in many dishes, including kafta, in which minced lamb is rolled into sausage shapes and cooked on the barbecue or in the oven. Poultry is more popular than red meat, but lamb and goat are popular. Generous amounts of olive oil, garlic, lemons are also essential flavors in the Lebanese diet.

• Kafta – fingers, stars or a flat cake of minced meat and spices that can be baked or charcoal-grilled on skewers.
• Manakeesh – Mini pizzas (usually folded) that are made in any number of local bakeries or Furns, traditionally garnished with cheese, Za’atar, spicy diced tomatoes, kashk in its Lebanese version, or minced meat and onions. Some bakeries allow you to bring your own toppings and build your own or buy the ones they sell there. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Lebanese style pies)
• Fatayer – a turnover pastry, often made with sbanegh (spinach)
• Shawarma – marinated meat (either chicken or lamb) that is skewered on big rods and cooked slowly, then shaved and placed in a 10 inch pita roll with pickles, tomatoes, and other tangy condiments.
• Shish taouk – grilled chicken skewers that utilise only white meat, marinated in olive oil, lemon, garlic, parsley, sumac and various oriental spices (cinnamon, cumin, etc)

Lebanese desserts – there are many variations of filo pastry, combined with nuts and syrup; there are creamy sweets filled with a clotted cream called ashta plus melting shortbread sometimes filled with a date paste or nuts and much more. Sweets are generally served separately to a meal with black coffee or tea.

• Kunafi – either shoelace pastry dessert stuffed with sweet white cheese, nuts and syrup, or more commonly the version with semolina pastry served on a sesame seed bun with sweet sugar syrup (very popular for breakfast) made with ” angel hair” butter and pistachios or nuts. Generally these can be found in sweet shops, as well as bigger bakeries.
• Baklava – a dessert of layered filo pastry filled with nuts and steeped in Attar syrup (orange or rose water and sugar) or honey, usually cut in a triangular or diamond shape that originates in Lebanon.
• Qatayef – a sort of sweet dumpling filled with cream or nuts.
• Ma’amoul – biscuits made from semolina with date, pistachio or walnut filled cookies shaped by a wooden board called a tabimade specially for Christian (traditionally Easter) and Muslim holidays (such as Ramadan).

 Independent and hotel restaurants, offering Lebanese cuisine in Qatar (in no particular order):

• Layali, Salwa Road, Souq Najd
• AlNafourah Garden, Airport Road
• Al Tabkha, The Pearl-Qatar, 18 La Croisette
• Al Balad Restaurant, C Ring Road, Al Emadi Financial Square
• Assaha Lebanese Village, Al Hilal Building, Hamad Al Kibeer Street, Al Doha Al Jadeeda,
• Al Hamra, Al Rayyan Street, Musheireb 
• Al Mayass, Waterfront, Porto Arabia, The Pearl-Qatar
• Al Sufra, Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl-Qatar
• Al Khaima Restaurant, Al Sadd Street, Al Sadd
• Al Mourjan, Doha Corniche and Souq Waqif
• Al Bandar, Souq Waqif

Source: Zomato

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Bake a Cake – Know it All

Baking a cake is altogether a fun compared to a chemistry class. These ten secrets will keep you motivated for doing it with enjoyment:

1. See what you mix, that is the start

Baking a cake is an art and there are more than several type of cakes you can bake while each type of cake has its own look and feel. The ingredients for each type are mixed and handled in a specific order and manner. Some are pound cakes, some are butter cakes while some others are layer cakes. They get their softness, fineness, texture and moistness—called a crumb as they get a shape. You need to do first creaming together fat and sugar then adding eggs followed by slowly incorporating the dry ingredients into the mixture and alternating with a liquid, like milk or buttermilk. During the process some ingredients increase their volume by whipping and that is the beauty of the case when finally seen. This way, be sure what you are making, choose to do things step by step religiously following the instructions closely. The method as well as the procedure is important till you see final shape of what you made.

2. Understand your oven

Cakes need to be baked and baking needs an oven. You must understand how to adjust temperature and baking period. Oven thermometer can be a great tool to make such decision and keep a stop watch or a kitchen timer handy to verify the time. This prevents an over or under-done cake. Close oven door peacefully as hard slams effect the air contained in cake batter.  Thumb rule to see if the cake is done is to press it from the center and if it springs back, would mean it is done. Else you can insert a wooden pick and see if that comes out clean. Coming out clean means it is done.

3. Note Pan Size and its Colour too

Pan size is usually specified in recipes and cake size increases during baking process, Therefore, pan size should be right. Smaller size would allow cake to overflow during baking. Importance of pan colour and pan material needs to be noted too. Glass or the dark or nonstick pans sometimes need 25-degree reduction in temperature to bake as dark utensils absorb more of heat compared to shining colour (silver) or aluminium pans. You will understand the ‘behavior’ of each fan so keep that noted for next time use.

4. Flouring Right.

Different flours have different percentages of protein—that means more protein - more gluten. Cake flours have the least protein and that yields extra-light baked cakes like angel food cake. Bread flour contain maximum and that is used for almost all denser items; all-purpose flavor stands in the middle and that mostly produces tender cakes.

5. No Measuring but Weigh the Flour

Kitchen scale is a must to weigh the ingredients precisely. Weighing is the only right method to measure flour. If you use a cup, for example, it really depends how tightly you filled that. Same cup will give you double the measure hampering results.

6. Just a Little bit of Chemistry

In case you are afraid of chemistry, simply understand that flour will thicken the batter and source of gluten, it is a kid of protein that giving the cake structure. It forms as flour is mixed with a liquid and then agitated. Avoid over-mixing, that causes the cake to turn tough. Leaveners, for example baking soda or powder, yield carbon dioxide bubbles and these bubbles are trapped by the starch mixed in the batter and these expand during baking thus causing the cake to rise. Fats are oil, or butter or shortening that help retard formation of gluten formation and provide moisture for the food. This helps making a tender texture. Sugar will break up gluten, keeps the texture tenderer; it also absorbs liquid, keeps moisture within the cake; and it causes caramelising in baking, enriches flavors and helps the cake turning brown. Lastly the eggs firm up when these are cooked and this helps the cake batters set as oven works. Remember the egg yolks contain fat and lecithin. This is an emulsifier allowing water and fats to mix up smoothly ensuring an even texture.

7. Cool down the Cake

Let the cake cool while in the pan placing on a wire rack for around 20 minutes then remove from pan. Once it is cooled, just place a plate on its top and invert the pan, gently tapping or shaking it to release it out. Cakes like angel food cakes are normally baked using tube pans. These are inverted either on the feet that are attached to the pan or done over a bottle letting that cool upside down when it is still in the pan. Gravity keeps the volume of the cake. Once it is has cooled, just run a narrow spatula all around the cake edges to release it onto a plate.

8. Frost like a professional

Place a small dollop of frosting right in the center of cake-plate, for placing the first layer of cake on the top. This will help keeping the cake at a place stopping from moving sideways. Using an offset spatula for frosting the top and add another layer. Next step is to coat the whole of cake with a quite thin layer of frosting. This “crumb coat” will hold loose the crumbs in place. Next you place the cake in a freezer for about 15 minutes and remove after finishing frosting, starting with the top and reaching to sides.

9. Apply Fondant to Beauty the Cake.

Rolled fondant is a combination of glycerin, gelatin and sugar forming into an easily molded dough. Its taste is not that good. Poured fondant is like a a cooked-sugar syrup used for cake filling, used in candies and top petite four etc.

10. When You are in Hilly Areas.

Because of less air pressure in hilly areas, cakes would rise more and dry out as liquids evaporate sooner. If you are like 3,500 feet above sea level, try these guidelines: Oven temperature to be 375° and add 2 tablespoons liquid for each of the cup used. Moreover lessen each cup of sugar by one tablespoon and reduce baking powder by ⅛ teaspoon for each teaspoon and also reduce 5 minutes from your baking time. 

If you need some inspiration or are tired of baking a cake every now and then, Try some of the delicous Gelato cake offers we found in Doha.

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Have Dessert As You Lose Weight

A weight loss plan that deprives you of enjoying your sweet fix is one that will eventually diminish the joy in eating, ultimately resulting in the sabotage of your carefully planned out diet.

Fruit-based desserts are a healthy alternative to less nutritious desserts. If they are served with crème fraiche, fatty cream, or a sprinkling of chocolate sauce, you can have it removed or served on the side, to exercise control over your diet.

If you take out the ice cream out of a fruit sorbet or fruit salad, you get to enjoy a sweet treat while sticking to your weight loss program. Fresh berries are the best kind. And instead of pie or a slice of cake, you can have a plate of Do-si-dos peanut butter cremes, which has the lowest amount of calories and saturated fat per serving.

Gelato ice creams can be taken in moderation, and the simpler varieties are always better health-wise than the special and premium varieties, whose flavor have been improved with fat. The same applies for desserts that are based on egg whites, such as angel food cake or the bitingly sweet meringue. Sundaes, sherbets, ice milk, and flavored ice should also be avoided.

Low-fat and sugarless fruit-based treats have are a common choice of dessert, which are especially made for diabetes. This is also ideal for weight loss enthusiasts.

Yogurt, rice pudding, baked apples, and  fruit lollipops are popular healthy dessert alternatives. Adding some raisins or dusting them with sugar can make them a little more interesting.

Cocoa powder form 70% cocoa bars. as well as chocolate shavings, are also a preferred choice. Dark cacao chocolate is a rich source of minerals, such as iron, as well as other essential elements. The sugar levels are low for these types of occasions, and hardly have any influence thanks to their comfortable accommodations.

It is always important to remember that exercising to lose weight does not yield immediate results overnight. It involves knowing your body, and listening to it closely.

Going on a diet does not necessarily mean making yourself suffer -- there are healthy alternatives that can still let you enjoy the simple pleasure of eating. It does not have to be hard.

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