Coconut Flour for Baking

I've just found a great post on the blog The Nourishing Kitchen on How to Bake with Coconut Flour.

For those who want a grain free or wheat free alternative to flour, coconut flour looks like a great choice.

This blog post is an excellent reference for how to use coconut flour, the benefits of coconut flour, measurements for substituting coconut flour for other ingredients, and links to a number of recipes using coconut flour.

Here is just one section of this very informative post:

"Benefits of Baking with Coconut Flour

- Coconut flour is rich in protein, fiber and fat, which makes it exceptionally filling.

- Coconut flour is also a good source of lauric acid, a saturated fat thought to support the immune system and the thyroid. Like most healthy fats, lauric acid also promotes good skin health.

- Coconut flour is an exceptionally goodshource of manganese which helps you to better utilize many nutrients including choline and biotion (found in eggs), vitamin C and thiamin. Manganese also supports bone health, nervous syste function, thyroid health andhelps to maintain optimal blood sugar levels.

- Coconut flour is not grain-based, and, as such does not present many of the issues that accompayn grains. Coconut flour is a gluten-free and, while it does contain food phtate, the mineral-binding effect of phytates in coconut are virtually non-existent so coconut flour does not need to be soaked (read more about soadking coconut flour)."

 

Magnesium - What About It?

I've known that magnesium is an important mineral for health, but I keep forgetting why, or to get some and take it.

This article grabbed my attention - but of course, it is on weight loss! As the author of the article states, almost everyone in the U.S. seems to be interested in weight loss, and thus the title of the article:

Magnesium - The Weight Loss Cure

Of course, there are many more important reasons to make sure we are getting enough magnesium in our diet. Magnesium helps to keep the heart healthy, helps to regulate blood pressure and prevent strokes, it is helpful in the control of diabetes II, and is considered more important than calcium, potassium or sodium - it helps to regulate the levels of all three in the body. Interestingly, magnesium is a muscle relaxant, while calcium is a muscle constrictor. Getting enough calcium is greatly stressed, while magnesium is rarely mentioned. We are often told that if we have muscle cramps, we need more calcium rather than more magnesium, while we more likely need to increase our magnesium intake.

Find out more about magnesium. Here are a few more articles concerning the importance of magnesium from the same website, Natural News, that are worth reading:

Magnesium: The Lamp of Life
Magnesium is Vital for Good Health
Magnesium is Crucial to the Proper Functioning of a Healthy Body