Fair trade fortnight – Cacao and coffee

February 13, 2009 by Jurgen

Mon 23th Feb – 3rd March

Our special offers for this years > Fairtrade fortnight are on:-

> Gepa dark chocolate [55% and 70%]
> Equal Exchange dark and medium roast coffee beans

Theobroma cacao is a evergreen tree growing to 8 metres. The word “chocolate” derives from the name given to this tree by the Aztecs. Native to Mexico and Central America, cacao is a major crop throughout the tropics. The seedpods are collected twice yearly.

The seed pulp contains xanthines, a fixed oil and many constituents responsible for its flavour. The seeds contain very small amounts of endorphins, which are powerful painkillers that occur naturally within the body.

Though cacao is most often used as a food, it also has therapeutic value as a nervous system stimulant. In Central America and the Caribbean, the seeds are taken as a heart and kidney tonic. The plant may be used to treat angina and as a diuretic. In 1994 researchers showed that cacao extracts counter the bacteria responsible for boils and septicaemia.

… go on, treat yourself …

Irish petition on food supplements

January 21, 2009 by Jurgen

SUCCESS IN EUROPE AS IRISH PETITION ON FOOD SUPPLEMENTS IS KEPT OPEN

On Monday, the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) defended its petition in the European Parliament against the European Commissions planned setting of EU wide maximum limits for dosages of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The petition, submitted originally in December 2007 with the support of 60,000 Irish citizens, claims that measures to harmonise maximum levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements under the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC) – soon to be implemented by the European Commission – will unduly impact consumers, health stores and practitioners in Ireland.

Daily nuts may help boost health

January 17, 2009 by Jurgen

Adding nuts to a healthy diet may help release people from a dangerous combination of health problems. Up to 25% of people in Ireland and the UK are thought to have “metabolic syndrome”, which includes obesity and high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.

A Mediterranean diet of vegetables, fruit and fish plus daily nuts boosted health in more than one in eight at-risk volunteers, a Spanish study found. 13.7% of those eating their daily bag of nuts as well as the Mediterranean diet had improved. Even though none of the participants’ weight had dropped significantly over the year, waist circumferences had diminished in the nut-eating group, and cholesterol and blood pressure levels had dropped. The research was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal.