Feel fuller, longer with Mushrooms ???

Another interesting New study which discovers how mushrooms can be as satiating as meat when protein levels are matched

nutritionalfacts.org

But which mushrooms ??? Wood ear, crimini, oyster, Italian brown, enoki, white button, stuffing, shiitake, chanterelle, and portobello mushrooms were compared to see which was best at inhibiting aromatase enzyme activity. You'll be surprised.

Another kool study on a natural food item which can aid in weight loss. Remember my last post on the weight loss benefits of Olive Oil. So many interesting articles on how Mushrooms can fuel batteries, inspire tiny homes, be grown in diapers and even create building "sausages," which just might help construct the homes of  the future. But now we read that they can also help with weight loss. Paul Stamets even says they can save the universe. Well, maybe just the earth and reverse climate change. He gets overly excited about mushrooms. The Soil people say grassfed beef can reverse climate change. The reality is that to save the earth, all people in general all around the globe need to make numerous lifestyle changes and create different behavioral patterns, but how likely is that ?

In this new study published by the Mushroom Council in Eurekalert, an organization that obviously has a vested interest in promoting the benefits of edible fungi – 32 women and men were split into two groups. One group ate 226 grams of sliced white button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) twice a day while the other consumed 28 grams of meat twice a day. Those amounts contained equal amounts of protein, which proved significant in the study, with results showing that the people who included the mushrooms in their diets reported feeling significantly fuller and less hungry than the meat eaters. They also tended to eat less calories during the day if they started with the mushrooms in their breakfasts.

"Previous studies on mushrooms suggest that they can be more satiating than meat, but this effect had not been studied with protein-matched amounts until now," said gut health and satiety researcher and study author Joanne Slavin, PhD, RD, professor at the University of Minnesota. "As with previous published research, this study indicates there may be both a nutritional and satiating benefit to either substituting mushrooms for meat in some meals or replacing some of the meat with mushrooms."

Without adding anything further, you can read the rest of the account in the link below:

EurekAlert: "Feel fuller, longer with mushrooms"

Hmmmm 😏, Brown vrs White Button Mushrooms 😋

Interesting study and comparison of which mushrooms have some of the best nutritional properties. Here is the Youtube link (HERE).

Here is the link to the actual PubMed published study (HERE).

But on the subject of whicch one is best ? I like both 😁

Some Great Reference Links

http://www.mushroominfo.com

http://www.mushroomcouncil.org

Kitchn: "What's the Difference Between Cremini and Portobello Mushrooms?"

Oh and one more thing, stay tuned for a post on those Christmasy Magic Mushrooms and the origins of many traditions

The Amanita muscaria mushroom

Image by John Short 2012

Stay Tuned in December 2017 !

Benefits of Olives and Olive Oil

Could Olive Oil be the key to weight loss? Scientists discover even the SMELL of it can make us feel full & not hungry

Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Okay, I have no clue as to the power of merely smelling olive oil making you feel full and not hungry. But when my wife and I were on the Greek island of Zakynthos, we went with a bus tour up into the mountains and stopped at the village called Agios Leon. There was a little Olive oil pressing factory there called Olive Oil Press Margaris Lamprinos & Co. Before we stopped, our lady tour guide who was from Finland and had lived there in Zakynthos for over 20 years, told us the story of the Mediterranean diet which includes generous use of Olive Oil. She said the Greeks don't cook with it so much as they pour it over food after it's been prepared. She said it is why many there are not overweight. She said it does something to improve your metabolism and make you feel  full and less hungry. Interesting note here on our tour guide lady. She was speaking Greek to the driver, but when spoke English, she sounded exactly like a friend of mine back in Anza. She even looked a bit like her. I actually thought so in the beginning of our trip, but didn't tell my wife until the lady revealed her country of origin. For those reading who know me up in Anza, I'm talking about Sirkka Rosada. How uncanny is that ? 😲 Whatever! 😎

Bus Tour to village of Agios Leon & Olive Press Co

The village where this olive oil press factory is location is mostly a mountainous terrain which offers excellent growing conditions for high quality olives and fine tasting olive oil. So we had the opportunity to tour the olive oil press company and get direct first hand look at the entire olive oil production process from the past to the present. We tasted their excellent virgin olive oil served with freshly baked homemade bread and local olives. And there were different flavours of olive oil. Some with a hint of garlic, orange or lemon. Others with different herbs. They offered two different types of whole olives and olive paste. Yesterday at 10:00 in the morning I ate some left over sweet potatoes, squash, onions and mushrooms with one hamburger patty my wife made the night before. But then I decided to pour some of the olive oil we bought over the reheated up food. But interestingly enough in the evening at about 6:00 in the evening, my wife wanted to know what I wanted for dinner and I said I really wasn't hungry and in fact I felt full. I had a small bowl of potato chips as a snack and and I didn't even like those. But then it hit me what I had done with the olive oil that morning, what it's effect was, what the tour guide said and what I found this morning in the Eureka Science Research Feed. 

There is a study by Virginia Tech researchers regarding the health benefits of olive oil. Two major things were found to improve. Diabetes and weight loss. The beauty of my own experience here is not that I read something first and decided to try it. But rather pouring the olive oil over food and not feeling hungry the rest of the day. Then remembering our road trip in Zakynthos and what was told to us, plus this article this morning. So here it is:

Virginia Tech News: "Virginia Tech biochemists dip into the health benefits of olives and olive oil"

I decided to google some other info and there is a lot in studies and articles out there. The usual problem with Scientists is that they are  generally by nature skeptical of natural methods of anything. If they can't synthesize and process something for corporate profit, then it must be no good. Anyway, here's another from Mail Online:

Mail Online: "Could olive oil be the key to weight loss? Scientists discover even the SMELL of it can make us feel full"

Anyway Enjoy! 😏

Squaw Tea (Ephedra californica) or maybe something else ?

Funny how some images can trigger totally unrelated information than what you were originally Google researching for

Face Palm

Finishing some work on one of my latest articles on the Canary Islands, in particular Tenerife, I was researching some of the names of plants I had photographed on a recent visit. I hit Google images for Plants of Tenerife and one image stood out which immediately brought up one common name for a high desert plant native to the region where I come from in Southern California. The infamous Squaw Tea. The plant I was familiar with grows abundantly in an area east of Terwilliger Road in the Anza area. The plant is Ephedra californica, but it is known by common historical common names as "Mormon Tea" and the other common name which immediately rushed through my brain, "Squaw Tea". Yes, Yes, I know, I know. We don't call it that anymore, but old common names and terms are hard to shake off. This particular photo of the girl above is a Spanish Model on a website with other girls in outdoor Canary Island nature settings. But the pattern of the shrub and the Native American styling of the girl just fit like a glove. Most foreigners reading here won't understand the comparison, but Southwesterners will put two and two together. I don't believe the common name with the Native American reference is encouraged these days, but never the less the old names are hard to shake. So I thought, why not, write a short piece on the plant. I'm not particularly partial to Mormon Tea either. Desert Tea appears to be another preferred name for Ephedra californica. But the similarities of structural patterns in foliage, branches and habitat are where it ends. The flowering time of year will yield radical differences. The southwest has a few varieties of Ephedra. In many desert locations both species (E. californica and Ephedra virides) exist together. The species, "Ephedra nevadensis" is found from the Mojave Desert north to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas into Nevada's Great Basin. I'll post the Green Mormon Tea plant in full bloom below and contrast it with Teide Broom when it is in full flower to illustrate some difference.

Teide Broom, Tenerife - (Spartocytisus supranbius)

The plant I was actually looking for when doing my Google search is native to the area of the volcanic caldera on Tenerife and it's listed as the Teide Broom (Spartocytisus supranubius) shrub. It thrives best on the dry xerophytic lava and scoria zone (2000-2500 meters above sea level). But it bares a striking resemblance to the southwestern desert Mormon Tea shrub of those high desert regions. The Ephedra californica that I am familiar with grows in the eastern reaches of Terwilliger Valley on down to Anza Borrego State Park. Throughout the world there are several species of Ephedra, which are related to the Ephedra sinica which is from the region of Mongolia, Russia and northerneastern desert regions of China. This plant is well known to Chinese medicine, but by a more familiar botanical herbal name called "Ma Huang". Here is how one reference describes it's usage and I'll post the reference under the Caution heading:

"A shrub, the stem of which contains ephedrine, which is a bronchodilator, diaphoretic, diuretic and vasoconstrictor; it is used to treat asthma, bronchitis, fever, fluid retention, hypotension, paraesthesias, to stimulate the central nervous system and to suppress the appetite."

Wiki-commons

This plant is responsible for providing the raw ingredient for the well known weight loss drug called ephedrine. In the USA, many of these drug potions which added Caffeine and other powerful stimulants for weight loss have been outlawed because they caused dangerous health conditions in some folks with heart trouble, high blood pressure, rapid breathing issues, etc. This is why many probably get a lot of Spam email advertising Ephedrine as an appetite suppressant. People want a quick fix pill to rapidly take care of a situation for which they have no patience in making lifestyle changes. While there is evidence of short term weight loss, there is really no evidence of any long term keeping the weight off. As far as the Tea from the Mormon Tea, for me it has a sort of mild Alfalfa taste to it and the potency is not near as strong as the Ma Huang drug manufactured for Chinese medicine. 

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image Bert Wilson: Green Mormon Tea (Ephedra viridis)

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image: Mundani Gardens - Teide Broom (Spartocytisus supranubius)

I think the Canary Islands are my new favourite Nature region. I have been here many times and it feels more and more with each visit more like Home to me than where I originally come from. There are so many interesting plants here and each time I want to know more and more about them. Technical and mechanism type stuff really. I always walk away with more questions than I came with. The chaparral environment is so familiar with where I come from, especially when so many plants here are so common in most California urban landscape. Anyway, tomorrow I have some fascinating information on Pinus canariensis, fire ecology and it's influence with the island's hydrology. But first, a little more on some historical ecosystem understanding of Mormon Tea diet by giant ground sloths now extinct.

Giant Ground Sloths dined on Mormon Tea

Photo by Leslie Shaw of Hi-Desert Star

"The Joshua tree drew a record-setting crowd for the Morongo Basin Historical Society’s lecture series Jan. 14 at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum. Chris Clarke spoke about how the tree got its name, how it is distributed, its two varieties, its pests and enemies and hopes for its future."

Photo by Chip Clark

Just a few side points on the Southwestern United States and what the now extinct Giant Ground Sloths dined on. Throughout many areas of the southwestern United States there have been found numerous caves discovered where these giant ground Sloth's once lived and in them mummified dung left behind. The dung really is not a fossil dung in the sense of fossils like petrified forest wood or other biological material with has been turned into stone, but rather mummified and preserved by the very dry sheltered environment of these caves. One famous cave is Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, another cave in between Benson & Sierra Vista Arizona called Kartchner Caverns, old lava tubes in New Mexico, etc. The animal's diet seemed to have consisted of plants from the various rugged chaparral plant communities (especially high deserts) such as Desert Globe Mallow, Joshua Trees & other Yuccas, Agaves and Mormon Tea. Other plants commonly eaten by these sloths found in Nevada were capers and mustards, along with lilies, grasses, mints, and a member of the grape family. This has all been verified by the examination of the invaluable mummified dung found in these caves. One wonders what happened as a result of this animal's extinction (which many now believe to be human caused because of it's slothful nature and easy hunting), what effect this has had on western ecosystems. Same is true of other now extinct megafauna like the Mastadon which was a browser as opposed to a grazer.
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Some interesting as well as important links

The Biogeography of California Jointfir (Ephedra californica)

http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/262--ephedra-californica

Chris Clarke: "On the Dry Side" 

Some Caution

http://www.drugs.com/ephedrine.html

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/drug-ma_huang_ephedra/article_em.htm