PajMon Information Blog

Posts Tagged ‘healthy food’

For many many years, going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, people have used presses to extract olive oil from the olive, the press is used to separate the olive oil and vegetation water from the solid body of the olive. Once these two have been separated, a decanter is used to separate the oil from the water. In able to gain a fine olive oil, there is a process that must be used before the olive is pressed.

First of all the olives should be harvested and the bad olives removed from the bunch. The olives are then put under a special stone called millstone or in some areas a ground stone. The olives should stay under the stone for just over a half an hour to turn them into a paste, also to guarantee that the paste collects the right aromas and smell that come from the fruit enzymes and forms into the olive oil drops.

Once this process is over and the olives are converted into a paste, the past is spread onto fiber disks. Once fully and evenly spread onto the disks the paste is placed into the press machine. The press will then apply the necessary pressure needed to compact the past and percolate the oil forms and the water in the paste. Water is placed in the sides of the press to simplify the process of percolation.

When the pressing is finished the oil and water must be separated to achieve a pure olive oil. With the traditional process both the oil and the water a put into a decanter but there is another process that is a lot quicker than the decanter. The faster process is one called vertical centrifuge and is used to complete the whole process of oil and water separation a lot faster.

Once the extraction process has been fully completed, the cleaning process begins. This process has to be done thoroughly because if not the remaining past will begin to ferment on the millstones and disks causing other oils to get contaminated and change the taste of the oil completely. Every time new oil is to be made, a complete check that the press and millstones are completely clean must be done.

Using this traditional method of making olive oil has some advantages, these include that the olives are very well ground and easily pomaced. But the complication at the time of cleaning, the hours of extra manual labor and the time it takes to wait after the harvesting to the time of pressing the olives to make the oil can be classed as disadvantages when using this method, and because of this people have invented other methods that save time.

Heard recently that research that diets high in fruit and vegetables and other plant foods are associated with better health and lower mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and cancer? It has been said in literature around the world. Now take this new super food, acai. It is not your average fruit, as it contains very high levels of antioxidants.

The link between health, fruits and vegetables is partly due to the high level of antioxidants, because they can protect us against chronic disease by reducing free radical oxidative damage. Free radicals are a natural by product of metabolism within our bodies, and they are constantly on the attack.

Think of free radicals as individuals with too much energy and no where to put it, so they are extremely active and attack everything in their path. In our bodies, this translates to the damage of cells and genetic material. In the long term, this may cause permanent damage that is irreversible (such as cancer).

In day to day lives, people are further exposed to high amounts of free radicals through increased physical activity, stress, pollutants, chemicals and toxins. Antioxidants which are obtained through the diet act like scavengers, which seek and relax the free radicals. Once the free radicals are relaxed, they do no further damage.

So what kinds of antioxidants are in the Acai berry?

Acai berries are rich in anthocyanins, compounds that provide colour to fruits and serve as natural antioxidants. Those are the same compounds found in red wine. However, Acai berry pulp has 10-30 times more. Pure Dried Acai berries contain even more, 70-210 times more! The richer the pigment colour of the fruit, the more antioxidants it generally has.

One way to help achieve a high antioxidant diet is to make sure your plate is very colourful. Ensure that plenty of fruits and vegetables are eaten at main meals, and Acai smoothies or other fruits and vegetables are snacked on instead of lollies or chocolate.

Acai’s royal purple pigment not only makes the fruit appealing to eat, but studies have shown that berry anthocyanins are beneficial in reducing age-associated oxidative stress (or free radical damage). If berries can combat premature aging with 25 to 40 times less antioxidants than Acai, then just imagine what Pure Dried Acai berries can do!

The US food industry is now labeling the antioxidants in food with ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests a serving of fresh fruit and vegetables has between 890 and 2,500 ORAC units. Just one 5g serving of Pure Dried Acai will provide around 2,670 ORAC units!