How to Buy Jewelry Wholesale

Buying items wholesale saves retailers money because they usually buy in bulk and enjoy lower rates. This allows retailers to make a profit when they mark up the items for retail sale. The mark-up on jewelry is usually quite high--over 200 percent in most cases--so if you want to buy it at wholesale prices, you can reap the benefits of low prices and sell the remainder a bit above your cost plus and still make money.

Call your county offices and learn how to obtain a vendor's license. Become familiar with the rules and regulations governing such a license. For instance, you may have to report any sales and pay taxes monthly, quarterly or yearly.

Find wholesale jewelry outlets in your area and compare their prices. Also check out any traveling jewelry shows. Such shows usually have a private showroom in the back reserved for those with vendor's licenses.

Contact wholesalers to find out which of them will fill orders under $100. Some will allow you to purchase a sample of their wares in hopes that you will return with a larger order.

Contact overseas wholesalers to get catalogues of their jewelry. Taiwan is a good source for quality jewelry, for instance, as is Sri Lanka. You don't have to pay import duty fees on finished products.

Some wholesale warehouses offer members several membership cards, so if you have a friend who has a vendor's license and is a member of one of these warehouses, you may be able to get a membership card to shop there without getting your own vendor's license.

5 Essential Kitchen Tricks and Tips

1. Peel Ginger with a Spoon

Ginger can be tricky to peel with all its bumps and irregularities. Rather than using a paring knife or vegetable peeler, reach for the spoon. Scrape it against the skin and it'll come right off, following every contour and minimizing waste.

2. Get an Immersion Blender

I use my immersion blender more than any other electric tool in the kitchen by a long shot. Whether it's puréeing soups directly in the pot, getting rid of ugly lumps in my cheese sauce, or making mayonnaise or hollandaise in under two minutes, the immersion blender is the tool for the job.

Much easier to clean than a countertop blender or food processor, no need to transport hot ingredients from a pot to the blender jar, and the ability to work with even small quantities of ingredients (provided you have a cup that fits its head properly) make it an invaluable asset.

3. Keep a Small Strainer for Citrus

I keep a small handled-strainer in my tool crock next to the stove so that I can quickly cut a lemon or lime in half and squeeze it directly through the strainer into the pot. Much easier than picking out seeds afterwards! Oh, and you do keep a crock full of common tools by the stovetop, don't you?

4. Use that Same Small Strainer for Eggs

That same strainer can be used to make perfectly shaped poached eggs. How? Crack the eggs into the strainer over the sink and swirl them around gently to remove the excess watery white. What's left will be a tight, egg-shaped egg that poaches up clean. You can use the same trick to make picture-perfect, billboard glamour-shot-ready fried eggs. Check out the video above for more details.

5. Think Like a Factory Line, and Work Clean

When working with beginning cooks, the most common inefficiency I see is in task planning. Say you've got four onions that need to be peeled, finely diced, and transferred to a large bowl. If you do each of these steps to each onion one at a time, you spend a lot of time moving back and forth between the board, the compost bin, and the bowl, picking up and putting down your knife, and mentally preparing yourself for the next task.

Types of Juicer Mixer Grinder

Juicer A juicer is an appliance which helps extract juices from fruits and vegetables. It turns a fruit or vegetable into pulp before extracting juice from it. Leafy greens, herbs and fruits like oranges, grapes and lemons are commonly juiced.

Mixer

A mixer is a device which is driven by gears and is used in cooking to mix ingredients together - usually in a semi-liquid state. Mixers aid in making purees, vegetable pastes for curries and batters for cooking. There are two common types of mixers - Stand mixers and Hand mixers.

A.Stand Mixer

A stand mixer is used for mixing hard ingredients together. The motor in a stand mixer is powerful and facilitates easy mixing. They are used for making batters, kneading dough and whipping cream.

B.Hand Mixer

A hand mixer is a handheld version of the stand mixer. It has a less powerful motor and is usually used for mixing semi-liquid ingredients together. They can be used with any type of bowl and are usually used as an eggbeater.

Grinder

A grinder is a machine which is used to grind substances into a powdery form. They can be used to grind both dry and wet substances. Cereals, lentils and spices are the common ingredients which are powdered using a grinder. It is important to note that a grinder is more powerful than a mixer.

A.Coffee Grinder

A coffee grinder is used for grinding roasted coffee beans into coffee powder. They are ideal for both commercial and domestic use. The more you grind the beans, the more uniform the powder becomes.

B.Meat Grinder

Meat grinders are used to grind all types of meat which includes pork, chicken, mutton and beef. Since grinding of meat is hard, the motor in these devices are powerful. They are ideal for both commercial and domestic use. Parts of a meat grinder are detachable to facilitate easy cleaning.

Mixer Grinder

A mixer grinder is essentially a mixer with a grinder combined. They are used to do things like mixing, blending and grinding of different food ingredients. Mixer grinder comes with at least two different jars - one used for wet sauces and another for making dry powders. The jars are made of stainless steel with the wet jar being larger than the dry jar.

Juicer Mixer Grinder

A Juicer mixer grinder is a device which can perform the process of juicing, mixing, blending and grinding. It is a mixer grinder with the additional functionality of juicing. The machine has a heavy duty motor to take care all preparation needs. There are 3 jars that usually come with juicer mixer grinders. They are made of stainless steel or polycarbonate material.

The Benefits of Owning a Mixer Grinder

These days, multi-tasking is important since it enables you to do different occupations hence making you more flexible and very much required. Beside this, it abbreviates the time expected to set up a dish, giving you greater quality time with your family. In spite of the fact that multi-tasking is important among people, this can be genuine when you are buying appliances.

One of the appliances that best depicts multi-tasking are the mixer grinders. A mixer grinder is a gadget that is adaptable which can be utilized to blend and grind grub things in the meantime. Here are the benefits of owning a mixer grinder for your home.

They offer a wide assortment of food to oblige

Mixer grinders are exceptionally flexible gadgets. You can whip fluids to make drain shakes and dessert or you can utilize them to slash and grind hard food things like nuts and meats. The flexibility of their utilization likewise makes them adaptable to the different sorts of foodstuffs that they can hold up and suit.

They offer an assortment of food preparation forms

From whipping to mixing fluids, these gadgets offer a considerable measure of dish preparation forms. For instance, you can ply mixture to make bread and cakes. You can likewise cleave flavors and herbs to make salsa. You can likewise grind meat to make burger patties and frankfurters. You can likewise utilize it to strain, cut, dice or squash a few food things of your decision.

They are easy to utilize

In spite of the fact that this kind of home mixer grinders offers a lot of options with regards to the different food forms, it is still easy to work. Truth be told, the greater part of them accompany only a few cutting edges and other frills that can do different procedures. By owning them, you can make your life in the kitchen a bit less demanding particularly when you are preparing for your own particular cuisine.

Mixer Grinder Uses and Advantages For You

Have you got mixer grinder at your home? If no, then it is the time that you own a mixer grinder. These days, every kitchen should have a mixer grinder; otherwise, there will be a lot of tasks which you might not be able to go faster. Almost every lady has a busy schedule and if you don’t want to waste time, then using mixer grinder can help you to work done more quickly. You should buy a mixer with a powerful motor so that it can do all of the tasks easily. If you can’t get advantages by purchasing something, then there is no meaning of buying it.  Here are the benefits of having mixer grinder in your kitchen.

Easier to make a paste

Whenever you want to prepare some special cuisines or dishes, you need to make pastes of tomato, onion and a lot more things. Within a few minutes, the paste can get ready without any lumps in it. So, you can definitely believe that having a mixer grinder can help you to prepare food without any difficulty.  If you love to cook food, then it is essential that you own this product because it will be really helpful for you all the time.

Prepare fresh spice powders

People who love to consume spices in their food need to ensure that they put fresh spices only. Nothing can be fresher than the spices crushed into the grinder. You can bring the raw spices and then it will be easy to crush it down into a powder. You don’t have to use your energy at all because the whole work will be done by the grinder effectively.

Make Smoothies

If you love to have smoothies during summers, then you can prepare those in the mixer grinder which have a powerful motor. So, whenever you are planning to get a mixer grinder, you can decide to get the high quality of mixer grinder in which it can be easy to prepare smoothies also. 

Winter foods

What do you think of when someone mentions winter? Heavy, itchy woollen clothes? Chapped lips and cracked heels? Sure winter is all of this, but did you also know that winter is the best season to improve immunity? During this time, people feel hungrier. Amazingly, the body engine works better in the winter and foods are better digested. This aids in providing more nourishment to the body.

So how does one boost immunity during winter? As we are aware, immunity-boosting foods are those that are fresh, organic, easy to digest,pure and wholesome. These include fresh vegetables and fruits/dry fruits, dairy products, nuts/oilseeds, whole grains/legumes and ghee. Besides these, some spices also have anti-microbial properties that protect us from colds and infections. They also act to increase digestive enzymes and cellular metabolic function, and ensure complete assimilation of nutrients.

Foods To Warm In Winter

In winter, our body craves for rich food which provides warmth along with nourishment. We need warming foods to satisfy this craving. Any vegetable that takes time to grow, and in which the edible part grows beneath the surface of the ground is usually warming and a good vegetable to eat in winter. Certain dry fruits (dates), nuts and oilseeds (sesame seeds) are also warming. It is also a time of the year when you may want to eat more spices than in the summer months.

All animal foods fall into the warming category, including lean dairy, meat, fish and poultry. Whole-grain cereals, proteins and healthy fats too provide much-needed energy to keep warm. The most warming vegetables that are good for your body are root vegetables like carrot, potato, onions, garlic, radish, yams, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, etc, and hearty winter greens like palak, methi, sarson, muli, pudina, etc.

Carrots ('gajar-ka-halwa', 'gajar-ka-ras', 'gajar-shalgam-ke-achaar'): The beta-carotene in carrots is an excellent source of vitamin A and a powerful anti-oxidant.

White radish, onion and garlic (dry and spring varieties): Rich in isothiocyanates and indoles, phytochemicals that help prevent cancer. Their strong flavour helps to pep up the taste of food.

Potatoes and yams: Help to provide much-needed energy.

Leafy greens: Methi, Palak, Sarson... ('methi-theplas', 'sarson-ka-saag', 'palak paneer'): A good source of beta-carotene and Vitamin C - both powerful antioxidants that help fight disease and build immunity. Others in this category are coriander, amaranth, celery, radish greens, etc.

Other vegetables: Green beans (broad beans, valol, papdi) and peas: these are all high energy and high-protein vegetables.

Whole Grain Cereals And Pulses :High energy and protein foods provide the required fuel to combat the cold. That's why many Indian households make 'sheera' (rava, whole-wheat flour, moong-dal, vermicelli, daliaa, badam); 'halwa' (gajar, doodhi, pumpkin); 'paak' and 'ladoos'. Fresh green fresh whole grains, available in Gujarat, called 'ponkh' are considered a winter delicacy. Makai and bajra rotis have the warmth-giving quality.

Fresh And Dried Fruits

Papaya and pineapple are believed to provide warmth. Amla is loaded with Vitamin C, and is very good to step up your immunity. That's the reason why 'amla juice' and 'amla muraba' are available in plenty during winter.

Dates are warm in nature and are highly recommended in the winter months. Not only are they a good source of fibre, iron, magnesium, calcium and vitamins (C and B3), they are also a good source of energy. Consume them as they are or as a barfi, pulp or added to milkshakes and smoothies.

Spices

Mustard, asafoetida (hing), black pepper, fenugreek, ajwain and suva (dill) seeds are all warm spices to be used freely. Mustard, ajwain and suva seeds are a valuable remedy for winter coughs and flu, stimulating appetite and digestion and increasing blood circulation. Methi (dry or sprouted) is very beneficial in bone and joint problems that surface more in winter. Turmeric, especially the fresh light and golden yellow variety (resembles ginger), is a potent anti-microbial immunity builder.

Five ways to stay healthy this winter

It may be cold outside, but winter needn't be the unhealthiest time of year for you and your family.

Here are five ways to make sure that, even when your body is telling you to hibernate, you can keep healthy and fit, no matter what the weather's like.

Banish winter tiredness

Many people feel tired and sluggish during winter. This is due to the lack of sunlight, which disrupts our sleep and waking cycles.

Try these tips:

• get outdoors in natural daylight as much as possible
• get a good night's sleep – go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
• destress with exercise or meditation – stress has been shown to make you feel tired

Eat more fruit and veg

When it's cold and dark outside, it can be tempting to fill up on unhealthy comfort food. However, it's important to ensure you still have a healthy diet and include five portions of fruit and veg a day.

If you find yourself craving a sugary treat, try a juicy clementine or satsuma instead.

Winter vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, swede and turnips can be roasted, mashed or made into soup for a comforting winter meal for the whole family. Explore varieties of fruit and veg that you may not normally eat.

pes for 10 warming hot Drink more milk

You are more likely to get a cold in winter, so make sure your immune system is in tip-top condition.

Milk and dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt and fromage frais are great sources of:

• protein
• vitamins A and B12
• calcium, which helps keep our bones strong

Choose semi-skimmed, 1% or skimmed milk – rather than full-fat – and low-fat plain yoghurts.

Try new activities for the whole family

Don't use the cold winter months as an excuse to stay in and lounge around. Instead, get out with the whole family to try out a new activity –maybe ice skating, or taking a bracing winter walk on the beach or through the park.

Regular exercise helps control your weight, boost your immune system, and is a good way to break the tension that can build if the family is constantly cooped up inside the house.

Read more about different types of exercise for you and your family.

Have a hearty breakfast

Winter is the perfect season for porridge. Eating a warm bowlful on a cold morning isn't just a delicious way to start your day, it also helps boost your intake of starchy foods and fibre.

These foods give you energy and help you feel fuller for longer, stopping the temptation to snack mid-morning. Oats also contain lots of vital vitamins and minerals.

Make your porridge with semi-skimmed, 1% or skimmed milk, or water, and don't add sugar or salt. Add a sliced banana, berries or other fruit for extra flavour and to help you hit your 5 A Day target.

Your Newborn: 10 Tips for the First 30 Days

Breastfeeding

It's been six weeks since our daughter, Clementine, was born. She's finally sleeping better and going longer between feedings. She's also becoming more alert when she's awake. My husband and I, on the other hand, feel like we've been hit by a truck. I'm amazed that we've muddled through. Here are tips from seasoned parents and baby experts to make your first month easier.

Hints for Nursing

Babies eat and eat and eat. Although nature has done a pretty good job of providing you and your baby with the right equipment, in the beginning it's almost guaranteed to be harder than you expected. From sore nipples to tough latch-ons, nursing can seem overwhelming.

1. Women who seek help have a higher success rate. "Think of ways to ensure success before you even give birth," suggests Stacey Brosnan, a lactation consultant in New York City. Talk with friends who had a good nursing experience, ask baby's pediatrician for a lactation consultant's number, or attend a La Leche League (nursing support group) meeting (see laleche.org to find one).

2. Use hospital resources. Kira Sexton, a Brooklyn, New York, mom, says, "I learned everything I could about breastfeeding before I left the hospital." Ask if there's a nursing class or a lactation consultant on staff. Push the nurse-call button each time you're ready to feed the baby, and ask a nurse to spot you and offer advice.

3. Prepare. At home, you'll want to drop everything to feed the baby the moment she cries for you. But Heather O'Donnell, a mom in New York City, suggests taking care of yourself first. "Get a glass of water and a book or magazine to read." And, because breastfeeding can take a while, she says, "pee first!"

4. Try a warm compress if your breasts are engorged or you have blocked ducts. A heating pad or a warm, wet washcloth works, but a flax pillow (often sold with natural beauty products) is even better. "Heat it in the microwave, and conform it to your breast," says Laura Kriska, a mom in Brooklyn, New York.

5. Heat helps the milk flow, but if your breasts are sore after nursing, try a cold pack. Amy Hooker, a San Diego mom, says, "A bag of frozen peas worked really well for me."

6. If you want baby to eventually take a bottle, introduce it after breastfeeding is established but before the 3-month mark. Many experts say 6 to 8 weeks is good, but "we started each of our kids on one bottle a day at 3 weeks," says Jill Sizemore, a mom in Pendleton, Indiana.

Sleeping

If your infant isn't eating, he's probably sleeping. Newborns log as many as 16 hours of sleep a day but only in short bursts. The result: You'll feel on constant alert and more exhausted than you ever thought possible. Even the best of us can come to resent the severe sleep deprivation.

7. Stop obsessing about being tired. There's only one goal right now: Care for your baby. "You're not going to get a full night's sleep, so you can either be tired and angry or just tired," says Vicki Lansky, author of Getting Your Child to Sleep...and Back to Sleep (Book Peddlers). "Just tired is easier."

8. Take shifts. One night it's Mom's turn to rock the cranky baby, the next it's Dad's turn. Amy Reichardt and her husband, Richard, parents in Denver, worked out a system for the weekends, when Richard was off from work. "I'd be up with the baby at night but got to sleep in. Richard did all the morning care, then got to nap later."

9. The old adage "Sleep when your baby sleeps" really is the best advice. "Take naps together and go to bed early," says Sarah Clark, a mom in Washington, D.C.

10. What if your infant has trouble sleeping? Do whatever it takes: Nurse or rock baby to sleep; let your newborn fall asleep on your chest or in the car seat. "Don't worry about bad habits yet. It's about survival -- yours!" says Jean Farnham, a Los Angeles mom.

Top 7 Shopping Tips

Many of us need a few simple reminders of how to shop smart. As many of you know, I became something of a shopping champion (by ‘shopping til I dropped’) until it became a problem for me (my shopping started to become compulsive). I knew that I had to develop a healthier relationship to shopping and over the course of a year, I did just that.

These days, I don’t shop so much but I know what makes for a successful shopping expedition. Let me share my top ten shopping tips with you.  I hope they help you to shop smart.

Don’t just get in the car and point it in the direction of your favourite shopping destination! Take a few moments to familiarise yourself with this list of savvy shopping strategies.

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1. Shop with a list. This is my number one tip for good reason. Many people overspend or buy things they don’t want, don’t need and never end up using because they haven’t prepared properly. This is your hard earned cash and precious time you are spending – it’s worth a few minutes of preparation, don’t you think? Sure it is (and remember, you’re worth it!). So, before you set off on your shopping trip, prepare. Review what you already have – in your closet, cupboards, home or garage, then write a list of the ‘gaps’ you have and the needs this item will fill. Make sure they are genuine needs – not frivolous wants (there’s a big difference between the two). And finally, remember to use that list when you shop! That list will be no good scrumpled up on the bottom of your bag or jammed into your pocket. Use it and only buy things that are on that list!
   

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2. Set a budget. Yes, oh yes – the “b” word. Budget. This is important. Many people overspend on things they don’t want, need or use because they had no parameters around their spending – they just went ‘hell for leather’. Not a smart way to shop. You need to set a ballpark figure (or a more precise one if you have the specific research on what you are shopping for to support it) on what you are going to spend on this trip, what is comfortable for you to spend and what makes sense for you to spend on this shopping trip. You want to feel great about this shopping trip long after the ink has faded on the receipt, right? And one way to do that is to make sure you don’t buy more than you can afford. Set your budget – and like the list – stick to it! Whatever your budget – $50 or $500 or $5000 –  stop shopping once you hit that limit.
   

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3. Pay with cash. The research is clear: we pay 20 – 50% more when we shop with magic plastic, whether it’s using a credit or debit card. There’s something about that magic plastic that can make us feel like we’re using Monopoly money, play money. Like it’s not real. Unfortunately, those credit card fees are very real! So once your list is prepared and you have a realistic budget you can stick to, withdraw your funds in cash and use only that cash for this shopping trip. Paying with cash feels more “real” and that’s what we want – to reconnect you to this shopping experience so you only buy things you genuinely need and will use. You’ll save a fortune and those impulse buys will seem far less alluring!
   

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4. Set a timeframe. Don’t allow yourself to meander around a shopping centre in an aimless fashion. Many people use shopping in a lollabout fashion, whiling away an afternoon in their favourite mall. Not a strategy I would promote or advocate. If you want to shop smart, this isn’t the way to go – no meandering shopping! Set a specific timeframe that you will complete your shopping in, and once that time is over, it’s time to head home. Your time is too valuable to spend it mindlessly anyway – once you’ve bought all you need (and nothing you don’t), stop shopping and turn your attention to something else for the day.
5. Pick the best time for you. Shopping can be a fatiguing and stressful activity if you don’t shop at a time that works well for you. Shopping when the malls and stores are most busy (such as late night shopping and Saturday mornings) can lead to shopping fatigue where you end up fractious and irritable – not a state in which smart shopping usually takes place. Remember that our physical environment affects us and overcrowded, jostling environments like congested shopping centres rarely bring out the best in anybody. So, pick a time to shop when you are going to be at your most alert and positive. And make sure that you take regular breaks or shop for shorter periods to avoid becoming fatigued.
   

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6. Shop alone. Many people find that shopping partners are more akin to accomplices in crime! They can egg us on to making purchases that we don’t want or need, and can have their own (sometimes unconscious) motives for encouraging us to shop. Perhaps they feel some sense of competition, or they want to live vicariously through us and our purchases. Whatever is going on for the other person, what they don’t have to live with is the consequences of your shopping – only you have to live with that. If you want to go shopping as a social activity, that’s okay – but make it a purely social activity with no purchasing allowed. Window shop, or have a bite to eat together, but don’t buy until you can go shopping on your own.
   

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7. Don’t shop when you are tired, hungry, lonely, bored or upset. This is not an exhaustive list of the emotional states that lead some people to overshop and end up buying things they don’t want or need. But they are some of the most common emotional triggers that prompt people to shop unconsciously and therefore not smartly. If you are feeling any of those emotions – you are tired, hungry, lonely, bored, and upset – don’t go shopping. Do something else until you feel on more of an emotional even keel.

6 TIPS FOR HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING

As a Nutritional Therapist, I’ve been told more than once that I have a gentle way of working with clients.  I don’t force diets and supplements down people’s throats.  I know we’re all at where we’re at health-wise for a variety of reasons that go well beyond just food itself and it can take time for changes to be instituted.   I understand people use food for mental, emotional reasons and that taking a specific food away can be akin to a huge psychological shock.

On my intake forms one of the questions is, “Is there a food you are absolutely not willing to give up?”  This gives me an idea of how fast or slow we need to go when making dietary changes.  Chocolate, sweets and alcohol are just some of the obvious ones.  But by far the most frequent item is…yeah, you guessed it…coffee.

I always encourage my clients to minimize too much coffee in their diet.   It can stress the adrenal glands, liver, kidneys and stomach and can cause the excretion of vital vitamins and minerals as the body tries to rid itself of the caffeine.  It can contribute to blood sugar irregularities (see #5 below) as well.  I could go on and on about its negative health effects.  But I’ll never tell anyone they have to give up coffee. If I did, the majority of the people I see would never come back!

1.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP#1:  CHOOSE ORGANIC

Healthier coffee drinking definitely starts here. Conventional coffee is heavily sprayed with pesticides.  There’s a plethora of organic choices out there.  At the very least, do this.  Better yet, support companies that promote fair trade practices.  You can usually find a few of these in your local health food store.  If not, here’s a few I recommend:

2.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP #2: GET THE SUGAR OUT!

This is probably the most important tip for healthier coffee drinking.  I realize this is a tough one for a lot of people.  It was for me.  Until I did this I never realized that what I was really craving in my coffee was the sugar more than the caffeine. But once I ditched the sugar, my palette became more attuned to the various types of roasts and regional variations.  I actually started enjoying the taste of coffee instead of the taste of sugar.

Try adding just cream (preferably raw if you can get it) in place of sugar.  That helped me get the sugar out once and for all.  The fat in cream will cut the bitterness of coffee.  Cream also has a natural sweetness that can help you wean off the refined white stuff.

Lastly, please do NOT use those flavored cream/creamer concoctions!  They’re made with hydrogenated vegetable oils, corn syrup and a whole host of other chemicals.  Now some of you might be saying, “Cream?!  What about low fat milk?  Isn’t that healthier?”  No.  A famous comedian once said, “Show me the cow who makes skim milk and then I’ll drink it”.  Low fat milk and all manner of low fat products are not health foods.  But that’s another blog topic for another blog day.

3.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP #3:  BUY WHOLE BEANS AND GRIND THEM AT HOME

Coffee beans, like anything, will begin to breakdown and become rancid once the inner contents are exposed to oxygen and moisture.   To see this process with the naked eye cut open an apple and see what happens. The white flesh starts turning brown pretty fast.  This is due to its exposure to oxygen and moisture, the enemies of freshness.

They’re also the enemies of anti-oxidants, those things you hear about that create stability and health in living systems and ward off disease.  I’m skeptical about the anti-oxidant health benefits you hear about in coffee.  But if it’s true, those anti-oxidants will start to oxidize immediately after grinding, which is OK if you drink the coffee soon after.  After a few days however freshly ground coffee doesn’t taste so fresh anymore.  And if you get the sugar out, you can start to taste this pretty easily (which is not good for healthier coffee drinking).

4.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP #4:  KEEP IT TO ONE CUP PER DAY.

For starters, one cup is not a Starbucks twenty plus ounce mega-grande french vanilla frappuccino with whip cream and chocolate syrup.  Nor does it resemble a giant caramel coffee coolatta from Dunkin Donuts.  It’s eight ounces.  Your liver can handle that.  I know more than a few people who drink coffee all day long – five, ten, fifteen cups.   If you’re one of those, don’t even think about cutting down to one cup right away.  Reduce it slowly.  If you’re drinking ten cups, get it down to eight in a week.  Then get it down to five, and so on and so forth.  Other strategies for reducing the caffeine content include a second brewing from the same beans and including half decaf (Swiss mater method only) in each cup.

5.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP #5:  DRINK COFFEE AFTER A MEAL.

For most people that would be breakfast, and it’s definitely better to wait until you have some food in your system before downing that cup of coffee.  Caffeine causes your body to release sugar into your bloodstream which in turn causes the pancreas to release insulin (another good reason to get sugar out!).  On an empty stomach this can cause a sharp drop in blood sugar which can then set up more sugar cravings. Guess what will help spike that sugar besides sugar?  Caffeine.  Furthermore, the caffeine in coffee can suppress your appetite causing you to go longer without feeling hungry.  This sets up further episodes of low blood sugar and further coffee and sugar cravings.  Having food in your stomach will help modulate this blood sugar response and keep those cravings at bay.

6.HEALTHIER COFFEE DRINKING TIP #6:  ENJOY THE HECK OUT OF IT!

Yeah, that’s right.  We live in a world where we’re made to feel guilty about food:  don’t eat this, don’t eat that, this food will kill you, that food will kill you.  Of course, a lot of that is true, but you can take any food, create negative thoughts around it and actually make it unhealthier to consume with those stressful thoughts.  After all, stress depletes nutrients from the body, too.  So don’t feel guilty about your one-cup-per-day of organic, ground-at-home-with-cream coffee.