11 health conditions onions can help you with

11 Health Conditions Onions Can Help You With
Onions are native to Asia and The Middle East. Onion is the most cultivated species of the genus Allium, and the cultivation goes back to over 5000 years. It has also been used in traditional medicines since ancient times for its health promoting and curative properties.
The flavonoids in onion, which are responsible for many of the health benefits, are usually more concentrated in the outer layers of the bulb. To get the maximum benefit, try to peel as little of the outer skin as possible.

Nutritional Value Of Onions
Vitamin C – 11.1 milligrams. 19% RDA (Recommended daily value)
Folate – 28.5 micrograms. 7% RDA
Potassium – 219 milligrams. 6% RDA
Manganese – 0.2 milligrams. 10% RDA
Fiber – 2.6 grams. 10% RDA
Vitamin B6 – 0.2 milligrams. 9% RDA

11 Proven Health Benefits of Eating Onion

• Prevents Diabetes

Onions are good for people who have diabetes, and people should include red onions regularly in their diet. A single serving of onions contains 27% of your biotin DRI. Biotin has many positive impacts on your health, one of which is combatting symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes. Early research suggests that a combination of biotin and chromium might help regulate blood sugar and even decrease insulin resistance.

• Fight Cancer

Onion extract is rich in a variety of sulfides, which provide some protection against tumor growth. Some studies have shown, regular consumption of onions helps to reduce the risk of several cancers such as colorectal cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and ovarian cancer.

• Builds Strong Immunity

Due to their polyphenol content, onions can help boost your immunity by protecting your body against free radicals. Plus, onions contain a trace mineral selenium that helps improve immunity by initiating an immune response and also preventing an excessive immune response.

• Lowers bad cholesterol

Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong show that onions can help reduce the levels of bad cholesterol. Studies show that consuming half a raw onion daily can help to raise the good HDL cholesterol by 30%. Chives, garlic, and shallots are also effective. They all come from the Allium family.

• Relieving Earache

A few drops of onion juice may actually prove immensely beneficial to individuals suffering from an acute earache. The ringing sound in the ear may be cured by applying onion juice through a piece of cotton wool.

• Tooth Decay

Raw onions may make our breath stink, but they can actually improve our oral health. Simply chewing a raw onion can strengthen teeth and eliminate bacteria that can lead to tooth decay. Two to three minutes of chewing on an onion can kill most germs in the mouth.

• Improve Digestion

Onions are high in fiber, which is good for maintaining a healthy and regular digestive system. Fiber prevents digestive pain and breaks down food can keep it moving.

• Boosts Sexual Drive

Onions are said to increase the urge for a healthy sex life. One table spoon of onion juice along with one spoonful of ginger juice, taken three times a day, can boost the libido and sex drive.

• Stimulate Hair Growth

Onion is rich in sulfur which is one of the essential nutrients in promoting hair growth. A study has shown that applying onion juice on scalp twice a week for 2 months will stimulate hair regrowth.

• Sinus Relief

For a clogged nose and sinusitis problems, onions can help to loosen mucous, clearing the nasal passages and making breathing easier.

10 common habits that seriously damage your kidney

There is an increased rate of mortality as a result of kidney damage lately. Hence, the need for proper care of our kidneys. This article outlines some of the few habits that contribute to kidney damage. 

   Our kidneys are super important for our health. They filter our blood, produce hormones, absorb minerals, produce urine, eliminate toxins, and neutralize acids. So as one of the most important organs in your body, your kidneys deserve some love.
Damage or steady decline of your kidneys can often go unnoticed for years as your kidneys can still do their job with as little as 20% of their capacity. Therefore kidney diseases are often referred to as “The Silent Diseases”. That’s why it is so important to take care of them before it is too late.
Here’s a list of 10 common habits that put a lot of pressure on your kidneys and can cause serious damage over time.

1. Not Drinking Enough Water
Your kidney’s most important function is to filter blood and eliminate toxins and waste materials. When you don’t drink enough plain water during the day toxins and waste material start to accumulate and can cause severe damage to your body.

2. Too Much Salt In Your Diet
Your body needs sodium or salt to work properly. Most people however consume too much salt which may raise blood pressure and put a lot of stress on the kidneys. As a good rule of thumb, no more than 5 grams of salt should be eaten on a daily basis.

3. Frequently Delaying The Call Of Nature
Many of us ignore the urge to go because they are too busy or want to avoid public bathrooms. Retaining urine on a regular basis increases urine pressure and can lead to kidney failure, kidney stones, and incontinence. So listen to your body when nature calls.

4. Kick The Sugar Habit
Scientific studies show that people who consume 2 or more sugary drinks a day are more likely to have protein in their urine. Having protein in your urine is an early sign your kidneys are not doing their job as they should.

5. Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies
Eating a clean, whole food diet full of fresh vegetables and fruits is important for your overall health and a good kidney function. Many deficiencies can increase the risk of kidney stones or kidney failure. Vitamin B6 and magnesium, for instance, are super important to reduce the risk of kidney stones.
An estimated 70 to 80 percent of Americans isn’t getting enough magnesium, so there may be a good chance that you are one of them.

6. Too Much Animal Protein
Over consumption of protein, especially red meat, increases the metabolic load on your kidneys. So more protein in your diet means your kidneys have to work harder and this can lead to kidney damage or dysfunction over time

7. Sleep Deprivation
We have all heard how important it is to get a good night’s rest. Chronic sleep deprivation is linked to many diseases and kidney diseases are also on the list. During the night your body repairs damaged kidney tissue, so give your body the time to heal and repair itself.

8. Coffee Habit
Just as salt, caffeine can raise blood pressure and put extra stress on your kidneys. Over time excessive consumption of coffee can cause damage to your kidneys.

9. Painkiller Abuse
Way too many people take painkillers for their small aches and pains, while there are many all-natural, safe remedies available. Excessive use or painkiller abuse can lead to severe damage of liver and kidneys.

10. Alcohol Consumption
Although there is nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of wine or having a beer once in a while, most of us don’t stop after just one drink. Alcohol is actually a legal toxin that puts a lot of stress on our kidneys and liver.

To stay healthy and avoid kidney issues it is important to eat lots of fresh, whole foods and if you keep the above information in mind and avoid these common habits as much as possible, your kidneys will not be under constant stress and your body will thank you for that.

Source:naturalnewsblogs.com

Rainy Season: Tips for Personal Safety during a Flood

 Photo credit:erieinsurance

    During rainy season, residents are encouraged to take precautions and protect themselves and their property from flood risks and flood damage.

Tips for Personal Safety during a Flood

• Avoid walking through flooded areas. Drowning is the number one cause of flood deaths, mostly during flash floods. Currents can be deceptive; six inches of moving water can knock you off your feet. If you walk through flood, use a pole or a stick to guide you.
• Do not drive through a flooded area. More people drown in their cars than anywhere else. Do not drive around road barriers; the road or bridge may be washed out during flood.
• Stay away from power lines and electrical wires. The number two flood killer after drowning is electrocution. Electrical currents can travel through waters. Report downed power lines to the appropriate authority.
• Have your electricity turned off. Some appliances, such as televisions, retain electrical charges even after they have been unplugged. Do not use appliances or motors that have gotten wet unless they have been cleaned and dried.
• Look out for animals, especially snakes that have been flooded out of their hidings and may seek shelter in your home. Use a pole or a stick to uncover pests that might be hiding in some obscure parts of the house.
• Watch your step. After a flood, the ground and the floors are covered with debris which might include broken bottles, etc. Floors and staircases that have been covered with mud can be very slippery. Therefore you should always get the house cleaned up after a flood.
• Be alert for gas leaks. Use torchlight to inspect for damage. Do not smoke or use candles, lanterns or open flames unless you know that gas has been turned off and the area is well ventilated.
• During rainfall, stay away from flood channels and areas prone to sudden flooding.

Help your community and respond to disasters promptly
Source:nesrea

See list of world most reputable people, 7 Nigerians made the list

Global performance-reputation management consulting agency, Reputation Poll International has announced its inaugural list of 100 Most Reputable People on Earth.

A list of individuals across the globe that have amassed high reputation for themselves through their works and achievements.

The list which features individuals from diverse sectors including policy, entertainment, leadership, education, business etc.

We have our very own:
1Pastor E.A Adeboye, 
2Bishop David Oyedepo, 
3Emir Sanusi, 
4Pastor Paul Enenche,
5 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
6Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
7Oby Ezekwesili

See full list below:

5 Nigerian dishes making you gain extra weight

Nigerian dishes are relatively healthier and more nutritious when compared with those of the western world. We love our foods and most times we can’t go a day without them. I can’t go a day without some Nigerian foods, so asking you to stay away from these foods like some blogs do would be hypocritical of me.
And do you know seemly healthy foods can also be packed with loads of calories? Sometimes, much more than the so called unhealthy foods. Now if you are conscious about your weight, then I am sure that got your attention.

Basically, to lose weight, you just have to use more calories than you are getting. And that can be achieved in numerous ways. Cutting down on your calorie intake is one of them, which is what this post is all about.

So if you are on a weight loss plan or you find yourself adding extra pounds and wondering why, this article may help you solve part of that problem. These foods although packed with a lot of nutritional benefits can be suspects and cutting back a little on their intake would help you keep some extra pounds away.
Okay, let’s arraign these suspects one after the other.

Suspect #1 | EGUSI SOUP|
Charges: Carries out its dark plans in a deceptive and good looking way.
Evidence: 700 calories in a single serving
This ‘yummiscious’ looking dish will make you bite your finger off. It is almost impossible to neglect.
Good looking and very nutritious when prepared the right way. But as jaw dropping as this delicacy can be, it is made up of 60% fat with a whopping 700 calories spinning down your throat in one typical Nigerian serving. But that’s not the only problem, Egusi soup doesn’t ball alone. It has partners in crime.
Pounded yam contains 400 calories per cup while Eba has about 360 calories. So in one serving of Egusi soup and pounded yam, you get a massive 1,100 calories, WOW! That’s almost half of your daily requirement.

Judgment: Reduce your intake

Suspect #2 | NOODLES/PASTA|
Charges: guilty of making students overweight.
Evidence: A popular medium size noodles is packed with 640 calories in a pack.
Gone are the days when university students go back home looking like skinny bones. Not the case anymore. Aside other numerous reasons why that may be so, this easy going food may just rank high on that list.
Quick and easy to prepare, noodles and pastas are the darling of most homes and hostels. The noodles for example, innocent looking as it may be, one medium pack of it deposits 640 calories into your system. Double the pack as most people do and that gives you 1,280 calories but in return gives you little nutrient. Simply junk!

Judgment: By all means elimination is the best therapy

Suspect #3 | WHITE RICE |
Charges: won it ways into our heart for deceptive purposes.
Evidence: 700 calories per cup.
Rice is our staple food. From our homes to parties and back to our homes, we can feed conveniently on this food for days. We simply can’t do without rice. And on Sundays, we let lose, rice becomes a hit, we consume it back to back from the church to our homes to parties, like we are all signatories to an unwritten rice pact. And we know how to bring this dish to life.
A typical Nigerian rice and stew serving would hit the 1,000 calorie mark before we are done with it. That’s huge considering the number of times we can eat rice in a day. Surprised how much I know about this, well it was a common thing in my house as a child.
No wonder my teacher back in school once referred to me as ‘fat athlete’.

Judgment: 1. Replace white rice with brown rice if you can. 2. Reduce your portion.

Suspect #4 |WHITE FLOUR|
Charges: may spike sugar levels if taken continuously leading to diabetes especially in older people.
Evidence: it is refined! Contains unhealthy amount of carb and sugar. 460 calories per cup.
This manly looking swallow naturally balls with soups. E.g: Egusi soup. I had to charge it separately because of the havoc it is causing. It goes about deceiving people that it is the healthiest, “you can eat me as much as you want”, bla…bla…bla.
But do you know, during the process of turning whole wheat into powder, an unhealthy amount of carb is cramped together and its continuous consumption can spike blood sugar level. wheat flour as refined flour has a high GI, it releases sugar into the bloodstream quickly. Which can lead to diabetes.

Judgment: Elimination! Go for garri, fufu or Amala 
instead. And as usual be mindful of calories.

Suspect #5 | BEANS |
Charges: deceives people into consuming a lot of it with it’s holier than thou status.
Evidence: Contains 378 calories per cup.
Like I always say, just because it is healthy doesn’t mean it won’t make you add an extra pound if taken more than you are required to. And that’s one thing beans is so good at. Deceit!
When it comes to beans, a lot of people who are on a weight loss plan eat beans without paying attention to their calorie intake. After all, since we’ve been told it aids in weight loss, so the more beans I eat, the more weight I lose right? Wrong!
The human body has its specific requirement of the various classes of food. Protein is one of them. No matter the amount of protein you send down your stomach, your body takes its requirement and the rest is stored for future use. A single serving of beans contains about 520 calories. Relatively low compared to others on the list though. But with its ability to make you eat more than required, I had to charge it.

Judgment: Never eliminate! As long you get your portion right, you are safe with beans.

    In rounding up, never go on dieting otherwise you’ll end up being a Yo-Yo dieter. Its unsustainable. Especially if you are a Nigerian. How long can you keep off that delicious Egusi soup with Amala or Eba. Not sure you can for long. Instead try to figure out the healthy foods and a lot of Nigerian foods fall under this cycle, then mind your portion.
But if you realize you have eaten more than you are supposed to, don’t kill yourself by starving all through the next day. Your body doesn’t work that way.

And more importantly, Diet and workout goes together. One without the other simply cannot work. So mind what you eat and workout more often. This way you will be slim and bold.

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June 5: It's world environment day today...

IT'S WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY TODAY... 

Here are the few things we can do in our own part to contribute to the sustainability of the earth 

Going green is not the colossal endeavor that some might think it is. Obvious moves such as separating your recycling or being aware of how much water you use take little effort. Lest you scoff at the insignificance of your actions, know that every little thing you do has an impact. Whether it's to Mother Nature's benefit or your health, there really isn't any harm in being friendly to the environment.

1. Recycle beer bottles (and cans).
Glass can take up to a million years to decompose. Recycling your beer bottles is a much better way to get rid of them — plus, if your state has a bottle deposit-refund system, that change could come in handy.

2. Use one less paper napkin.
Each year, an American uses about 2,200 paper napkins — that's around six every day. If everyone used one less each day, we'd save more than a billion pounds of napkins from ending up in landfills.

3. Avoid driving at least once a week.
Motor vehicles account for 75 percent of carbon monoxide emissions in the U.S.
If driving to work or school is the most sensible thing to do, take other modes of transportations during the weekend. Bike, walk or take the train for a scenic, leisurely trip.

4. Shower with your partner.
Showering with your significant other is a triple threat: get clean, save water and ... other perks.

5. Go vegetarian/vegan once a week.
Livestock production uses an enormous amount of resources. For that piece of steak to land on your dinner plate, it caused a carbon footprint more than twice the size of a plant-based product. Did we mention that cutting meat and/or animal products from your diet once a week is also good for your health?

6. Carry a reusable bag with you.
Pesky plastic bags, begone! Reusable bags are much sturdier and better for the environment.

7. Change your light bulbs.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if every household in America replaced one incandescent light bulb with a qualified Energy Star (an EPA program) compact fluorescent light bulb, it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes — and reduce the pollution made by an equivalent of one million cars on the road.
8. Snub bottled water.

Only 1 in 5 plastic bottles are recycled. These bottles take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade and produce toxic fumes when burned. Talk about bad for the environment.

9. Buy local.
It takes a huge amount of resources to get something from the farm to your table. Consider shopping at your local farmer's market — it has less of an environmental impact and you get to contribute to your community.

10. Buy second hand.
Second hand doesn't mean second best — just ask thrift-crazy hipsters. Toys, clothes, furniture and electronic equipment can be purchased at your local thrift store and are often wholly unique. You're less likely to get caught wearing the same mass-produced dress as your co-worker.

11. Cut out paper mail.
Paper bills, paper bank statements, paper flight tickets — all these can be handled online, saving millions of trees and other greenhouse gases.
Source:aplus.com

"We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, it's a loan from our children"

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1 Year after Nigerian govt’s launch of Ogoni clean-up, ‘not a drop of oil cleaned’ – Group

Exactly 12 months after the Nigerian government launched the clean-up of Ogoniland, actual work is yet to commence in the community, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has said.
The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, in June 2016 flagged off the oil spillage clean-up exercise amidst an elaborate ceremony in Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Godwin Ojo, Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, said almost six years after the UNEP report, “not a drop of oil” had been cleaned in Ogoniland.
“As we speak, there has been no serious effort to manage the expectations of the Ogonis. While some believe that the clean-up process is a money-making venture, others are facing difficulties to pursue the clean-up process,” Mr. Ojo said at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday.
“Authorities responsible for the clean-up should come up publicly, provide a template for the clean-up and a step by step blueprint on how it would progress. The media is even kept in the dark, for example, no one knows the effective date of the clean-up process, and this is not good enough to manage the people’s expectations. Not everyone is being carried along at the moment.”

A United Nations Environment Programme scientific study released in 2011 exposed the large-scale, continued contamination of the water and soil in Ogoniland, and the serious threat they pose to human health.
In one case, UNEP found that a community drinking well was polluted with benzene, a cancer-causing substance, at levels 900 times above the World Health Organization guideline.
The report presented to former president, Goodluck Jonathan, on August 4, 2011, was, however, not implemented throughout the life of Mr. Jonathan’s administration.
Barely three months after he assumed office in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari approved several actions to fast-track the long delayed implementation of the UNEP report. Some of the actions included the amendment of the official gazette establishing the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) and the approval of the composition of a Board of Trustees for the HYPREP Trust Fund.
The president also approved a $10 million initial take-off grant for the implementation of the report.

Heavily polluted land with crude oil

In February, Mr. Osinbajo said the federal government had secured over $1 billion dollar from Shell Petroleum Development Company for the clean-up, adding that a governing council and board of trustees had been inaugurated on August 4, 2016 and January 12 this year, respectively.
“A funding of one billion dollars at 200 million dollars per annum over five years has been provided by Shell to provide drinking water, conduct health impact assessment and demonstrate remediation technologies,” Mr. Osinbajo, a professor of Law, had said.
Mr. Ojo, however, said the government is yet to release any fund for the clean-up.
“From the records we have, the US$10 million promise of initial take-off grant is yet to be released,” he said.

“And that is not even the question, the government and Shell and other joint ventures have come to the understanding that they will be able to pay $200 million on a yearly basis for the $1 billion recommended by UNEP report.
“The UNEP report recommended $1 billion initial take-off grant, but the government and Shell is already short-changing the people to have a fixation of $1 billion.
“Almost two years into President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and about a year after the kick-off ceremony of the clean-up of the Ogoniland, nothing pointing to justice for the people has started. Justice delayed is justice denied.

“The question on the lips of Nigerians is: When will the clean-up of Ogoniland and by extension the Niger Delta begin?”
Source: premiumtimesng.com