Food & Nutrition: Culinary Techniques, Diets & Metabolic Health

Nutritional health is achieved through the therapeutic use of whole foods, safe culinary preparation, and understanding the metabolic impacts of specific dietary frameworks and ingredients.

jar of honey

Honey & Vinegar Tonic for Insomnia

There are many home remedies for insomnia, the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep for long periods of time. Honey and apple cider vinegar both have been used to treat insomnia. They can also be combined into an easy-to-make tonic that will help you get to sleep.

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Whole chicken

How to Keep a Chicken Moist While Roasting

Roasting chicken is a healthy cooking method, allowing much of the fat to drain off, but the white meat in particular can dry out in the oven if you aren't careful. There's more than one way to keep chicken moist while it's cooking, so pick the method that works best for you.

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Homemade Cooked Sweet Potato with spices and herbs.

How to Cook Sweet Potatoes on a Gas Grill

After one bite of a crispy, caramelized sweet potato wedge, you'll never go back to deep-fried white potatoes again. Sweet potatoes are high in fiber, low in fat, packed with vitamins A and C and naturally sweet enough to satisfy dinner guests.

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Elevated View of a Raw Piece of Beef

How to Preserve Dehydrated Meat

Dehydrated meat is easy to store and take with you if you're camping or hiking and is also a good way to store meat, because dehydrating reduces the bulk of meat, making it more compact. Dehydrating meat is a first step to preserving it, but dehydrating alone won't safely preserve meat.

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Fresh Seafood

How to Reheat Mussels

With their slightly salty and meaty flavor, mussels are a relatively low-fat source of protein, iron and vitamin B12. Their flavor works with a variety of other ingredients, ranging from coconut milk to tomatoes. They cook quickly, typically in less than 10 minutes.

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"Snack,close-up"

Do Spicy Foods Kill the Flu?

Seasonal influenza, or the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness. The influenza virus is responsible for the illness. All types of flu have similar symptoms, which can vary in severity. Symptoms include fever, cough, congestion, body aches, headache, sore throat and fatigue.

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healthy delicious quinoa salad

How to Tell the Difference Between Quinoa & Millet

Millet and quinoa are whole grains, meaning that they contain the entire grain kernel -- the bran, endosperm and germ. Technically, quinoa, which is related to beets, spinach and chard, classifies as a pseudo-grain because it's used like a grain and has a similar nutritional profile.

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chicken nuggets  in a white bowl

How to Deep Fry Breaded Chicken Breasts

When breaded chicken breasts are deep-fried, the result is moist, flavorful chicken with a light, crispy outer coating. An old-fashioned cooking method, deep-fat frying is often shunned because of the large amount of fat involved in the cooking process.

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Japanese boy eating a sandwich

What to Feed Children to Increase Their Growth

It's unlikely that specific food choices will prompt your child to grow taller than he is genetically designed to be. But offering children the right balance of nutrients – including total calories, carbs, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals – will maximize their growth potential.

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Vintage Kitchen Hutch with baking ingredients

How to Store Raw Almonds & Cashews

Storing raw nuts isn't as simple as storing commercially roasted and packaged nuts. Roasting nuts decreases their susceptibility to turning rancid. Both raw almonds and cashews require careful storage if you want to save them for more than a few days.

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close-up barbecue Chicken at summer

How to Grill Chicken Legs & Thighs

Chicken is a healthy source of protein, making it a good addition to a well-balanced menu plan. The legs and thighs of a chicken are less expensive than breasts and often cook more quickly. Grilling these cuts reduces the need for cooking fats, keeping fat and calorie intake low.

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Flax seeds in the sack and oli on wooden background

Substitutes for Sunflower Oil

Sunflower oil is a heart-healthy polyunsaturated fat. It comes from pressing the seeds of sunflowers, or Helianthus annuus. It's a light, nearly flavorless and odorless oil that works well raw or cooked in many recipes. U.S.

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mixing herb fresh vegetable and chili sauce

How to Reduce the Hotness of a Chili Sauce

Chili sauces are almost infinitely variable in potency. Their heat can vary widely according to the peppers used, the cooking process and ultimately the freshness of your individual bottle. This makes it entirely too easy to accidentally take on more chili heat than you're comfortable with.

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Hash brown potatoes closeup

How to Prepare Potatoes to Freeze for Hash Browns

Although potatoes are high in calories, they are low in fat and provide important nutrients, including dietary fiber, carbohydrates, potassium, calcium, vitamin C and folate. Frozen, homemade hash browns are ready to prepare in moments when you need them.

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Potato with dill and scalliom

How to Freeze Boiled Potatoes

Freezing boiled potatoes is a simple task, and the frozen potatoes then are ready to use as needed. Prepare the frozen potatoes by mashing or roasting, or incorporate them into hot dishes, such as casseroles, scalloped potatoes, soups or stews.

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Boiled crawfish

How to Freeze Boiled Crawfish

Louisiana is known as one of America's great culinary capitals, and crawfish are among the most celebrated of Louisiana's cuisine. From December until June -- and especially during the spring when they're most plentiful -- crawfish are a mealtime staple.

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How to Make Baked Banana Chips

Versatile tropical fruits, bananas are nutritional powerhouses, rich in vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber. Crispy, sweet and guilt-free, baked bananas chips are a cinch to make. A portable, high-energy treat, baked banana chips are just right for a hiking trip or as part of a healthy lunch.

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Tomatoes

How to Substitute Fresh Tomatoes for Canned Diced Tomatoes

There is a school of thought that considers canned foods to be a compromise, trading quality for convenience. That's not always true. With tomatoes, for example, the "fresh" tomatoes available for much of the year are hard and flavorless, bred and picked purely for their storage characteristics.

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