Miracle Fruit

The Miracle fruit is an evergreen shrub that grows in West Africa.  I am so thankful to my sister Grace who introduced this to me. She tasted this miracle berry fruit in Angola, Africa where they lived that time. One time when we had a chance to roam around Shoe Mart Cebu City, she found this in one of the stalls for sale which happened to be on the plant exhibits in SM.  She was amazed because she was aware that this plant will grow only in areas with a temperature like those in Africa. And Ohhhhh! it costs 3,500 for a 9 months old plant which was not yet bearing fruit but she dared to buy it.
It grows amazingly nice like a live Christmas tree. Everyone was too impatient to wait and see its fruit  but it took 3 years after it bore fruit. Everybody is eager to taste but as per instruction of my sis who happened to have left the Philippines to go back to Angola with her husband Bruno on that year, we had to wait it until the fruit turns Red and ripe.
When we saw dozens of fruits, full of curiosity,  I personally tasted it right away with unripe, green mango .  I took a small bite of the ripe mango and swallowed it. Then I ate  one (1) piece of the miracle berry fruit, eating it like candy playing it with my tongue including the peeling, spitting out the seed. Then I ate the remaining sliced unripe mango again and was surprised . It tasted very sweet as sweet as table sugar.  My curiosity triggered me to taste other food items around the kitchen and found out that everything that tastes sour turns sweet. Even vinegar, lemons, lime, tomatoes, green gardensalad sprinkled with italian dressing turns so sweet. 

The 'Miracle' Berry That Could Replace Sugar **

Miracle fruit contains a protein called miraculin  that tastes sweet enough to replicate the effect of sugar. A chemical that affects taste receptors in the  tongue . This chemical makes the tongue register sour tastes as sweet tastes. The chemical itself has no taste at all. 

Until then, It became the best entertainment for our visitors to have it tested. My brother Chee Dee decided to propagate it since a lot of people is asking for seedlings but I found it hard to propagate that only my brother knows the technique based on his experience.  So if you wish to have one like this, just let me know :-)

My curiosity brings me to research about its amazing characteristics and found out that it can be used to treat DIABETES. Being a Trained Diabetes Educator, I come to realized featuring this here in my blog to share the goodness of this fruit which can be grown locally here in our place in Dumaguete City.  

How does it work?

The berry of the miracle fruit plant is used as medicine.* 

> In foods, miracle fruit is used as a low-calorie sugar-free sweetener.  ***

> People take miracle fruit to treat DIABETES and correct CHEMOTHERAPY-related taste disturbances.

 Why isn't it widely used as a healthy sweetener?

Eat The miraculin berry and for the next hour, enjoy a "flavor-tripping" experience as sour turns to sweet in their mouths.

The surface of your tongue is covered by a multitude of different receptors to detect tastes from sweet to umami. Just like sugar and artificial sweeteners like aspartame, the miraculin in the berry binds to your sweet taste receptors, but far more strongly. ****

The acid present in sour foods sparks a chemical reaction that causes miraculin to temporarily distort the shape of these taste receptors, enhancing them and making them so sensitive that the powerful sweet signals they are sending to your brain completely drown out the sour ones. ***

Other Names: 

Bakeriella dulcifica, Bumelia dulcifica, Fruit Miracle, Fruit Miraculeux, Fruta Milagrosa, Miracle Berry, Miraculin, Miraculous Berry, Richadellla dulcifica, Sideroxylon dulcificum, Synsepalum dulcificum. *1

*1 http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1171-miracle%20fruit.aspx?activeingredientid=1171&activeingredientname=miracle%20fruit

**https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/can-miraculin-solve-the-global-obesity-epidemic/371657/

***https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=low+calorie+sugar+free+sweeteners&oq=low+calorie+sugar+free+sweeteners&aqs=chrome..69i57.10697j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

****https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/can-miraculin-solve-the-global-obesity-epidemic/371657/

Healthy diet gawing habit FOR LIFE

Healthy diet., gawing habit - FOR LIFE

This year's Nutrition Month Theme

How to know weather our daily diet is healthy or not? Do you really need a weighing scale or measuring cups to measure your daily meal?  Can you apply healthy diet plan in anywhere you go at any time of the day during meal time?   Knowing the 10 Kumainments * http://tokyo.philembassy.net/02events/10-kumainments/   and understanding it is very important, 

Everytime we eat, we dont really need to measure all the food items found in our plate, or need a Food composition table or a Diet manual to ensure that what we are eating in a certain meal is enough for us.  Below are practical suggestions on how  to do it using your hand gestures to measure your food portions,

I magine your   9 - inch dinner plate.

Now divide your plate into 3 parts before you start eating, color your plate with all the food items you wanted to eat in your allowed amounts using these hand gestures. Your palm size is proportional to your body build. 

Close your fist for a size of fruit ( medium size) , and rootcrop ( approximately 80 to 120 grams), There is no toxicity of  non leafy succulent vegetables so you can eat more as your extender specially individuals having abdominal fat. It has low in calories so nothing to worry about since a cup of sliced succulent veggies like chayote, squash, carrots,  eggplant spices like white onions, red onions, and a lot more. The safest among all that you dont have to worry about uric acid and or allergies is chayote. 

Root crops like potatoes, camote, gabi, and other rootcrops are starchy and is a rice exchange, the calories you can get from this food groups is  high equivalent to rice or a total of 100 calories per exchange or per 80 grams weight of the root crop. If you eat camote (sweet potato) then deduct it to your rice. It is advised to consume rootcrops  because its fiber content that can help us regulate our body eight and flatten our abs since it can be excreted through our feces. Unlike starches coming from rice or corn or white flour used in breads that has no fiber.

Healthy food choices: 

 (CARBOHYDRATES)

              4 SLICES MEDIUM SIZE LOAF BREAD  CAN BE SUBSTITUTED......  200 calories

                  OR  1 CUP  RICE   

                  OR   160 GRAMS   ROOTCROPS   

                  1/2  cup of mixed vegetables blanched or steamed                 .....................     16 calories

 ( PROTEIN SOURCE )  

                       1 PC EGG                                                                         ......................    42 calories

              or       1/3 palm size of grilled fish or baked 

( FAT)   3 Tsp  oil used for frying  the scrambled egg                        .......................    135 calories

                                                                                                             ________________________

                                                                                                                                   393 calories

A total of 393 calories for breakfast meal is ideal for a male, standing 5'4" tall , an office worker , walks 15 minutes going to work. Take note that energy input ( energy you can get from food you eat) must be directly proportionate to your energy output. If you think you have eaten a lot, then work for it by doing extra physical activities. that can help you regulate your body weight. 

 # 9 of the 10 KUMAINMENTS: PANATILIHIN ANG TAMANG TIMBANG.

Danggit ..... and its nutrients

 Danngit  and its nutrient

                  Danggit..... a product of  Bais City from the province of Oriental Negros,  Bais City is the second-most important city of Negros province, in the Philippine Islands. The province of sugar Industry and the home of dolphins and danggit. Very thankful to the Bais City Nutrition Committee for giving this danggit  to us,  as a token of appreciation after we conduct the Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Level Program Implementation in Nutrition ( MELLPI) .

Its only now that I realize that danggit is not exclusive only for Cebu,  In  Baranggay Okiot, Bais City, People dried their freshly cought danggit in their rooftops and now its a growing livelihood.  

Rabbitfish or (Danggit) or spinefoot fish (in english)*  is a small thin salted dried fish referred as a poor man's food by most people. 

       Calories and proteins content can be found in a rabbitfish. Some of the dishes for rabbitfish are sinabawang danggit and fried danggit, which is one of the Filipino breakfast favorites. It is predominant in the city of Cebu. But It can be found also in Bais City. 

Calories in Dried Danggit

Nutrition Facts

Generic - Dried Danggit

1. Servings:  1 pc (5-1/2" x 1-1/2'' x 1/2") (80g)

Calories	232	Sodium	5,621 mg
Total Fat	2 g	Potassium	0 mg
Saturated	0 g	Total Carbs	0 g
Polyunsaturated	0 g	Dietary Fiber	0 g
Monounsaturated	0 g	Sugars	0 g
Trans	0 g	Protein	50 g
Cholesterol	122 mg
Vitamin A	2%	Calcium	5%
Vitamin C	13%	Iron	11%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily 

values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. *

*  FCT , 1997,  www.myfitnesspal.com

this is one of my favorite food for breakfast, Let us take a look how many pieces of danngit are we allowed tp eat in a meal.  

serving size         :  1 piece      

size of danggit      :  5 1/2 " long x  1 1/2 " wiith 

weight                   :   80 grams / piece 

I really  love this danggit . with its size , I can consume 15 pieces of fried danggit and that can give me 84.315 mg of sodium and that would be my protein for my meal.  A teaspoon of salt (heaped) contains 200 mg of sodium . Satisfying...  I am a low salt eater so nothing to worry about my sodium consumption . I can eat danggit even 20 to 25 pieces  for breakfast .:-) 

• Sodium (Na) is a mineral element most commonly found in salt or sodium chloride (NaCl).  It  plays a major role in the regulation of water balance in the body, in maintaining nerve and muscle function.    * *http://www.ndap.org.ph/knowledge-updates/128