The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of home made wines is grapes. How can we not associate wine with grapes when all you see on the shelves of liquor stores are countless wines produced by Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and other types of grapes? There are, however, other fruits that can make a great wine. Since home making wine has become a popular hobby it has become more and more inexpensive and easy to make a creative wine all on your own. These wines can be made of affordable fresh fruits possibly from your own backyard. No matter where you live in the world, you are a short walk or car ride away from edible plants, berries and fruits which can easily make a great tasting creative wine. Many plants bear fruit that can be made into a delicious wine to suit your individual taste.

The list of fruits which can be used to make creative home wines is endless. To get a small taste of suitable, inexpensive fruits, you can choose from strawberries, watermelons, peaches, blackberries, plums, grapefruits, pears and pineapples to name just a few. To further assist you in your creative home wine making, I have compiled a list of very inexpensive, creative fruits and other surprising foods that can be made into wines that will leave you wanting more and more. Some of these will be quite shocking for you to see in the context of wine. However, they are assured to be delicious. Almonds, apple cider, apricots, bananas, carrots, cherries, cranberries, dates, figs, garlic, ginger, honeysuckle, jelly, kiwi, mint, melons, onions, pea pods, pumpkin, raspberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelons and zucchinis are some suggestions to tasty, inexpensive yet creative wines that can be made at home. As with any wine, you must first evaluate the fruit. A wine is only as good as the fruit used to make it. To achieve the most superior wine, carefully choose each piece of fruit used. Be sure that molds and bruises are minimal. You should also thoroughly clean the fruit before crushing it. It is best to use fruits that are fully ripe. When attempting to use a fruit before it is fully ripe, it has a tendency to take away from the taste and richness of the wine.

Fruit wines are usually diluted with water before starting the wine making process. This is done because many fruits are very strong in flavor or too high in acid. This would greatly affect the outcome of the wine’s taste.

Some other great examples of inexpensive yet creative wines are Dandelion Wine, Crabapple Wine and Tea Wine. Although cultivated for food, herbs and tea for long periods of time, most Americans see dandelions as weeds and look to remove them from their gardens. However, the flower petals on dandelions can be used to make wine. Dandelion wine is typically a light wine with little body. When using dandelions to make wine, pick the flowers just before starting to make the wine, to assure freshness. There are different forms of dandelion wine, one recipe is as follows: 2 qts dandelion flowers, 3 lbs granulated sugar 4 oranges, 1 gallon water, yeast and nutrient. Dandelion wine is well suited to make into a sparkling wine.

Crabapple wine is another option for an inexpensive, creative wine that can be made by yourself. You can leave the peeling on the apples, but should remove the seeds. As always, thoroughly wash the fruit. A recipe for crabapple wine is 4lbs ripe crabapples, 2 lbs granulated sugar, 1/4 tsp tannin, ½ tsp acid blend, ½ tsp peetie enzyme, 1 tsp yeast nutrient 7 ½ pts water, 1 crushed Campden tablet and champagne wine yeast.

Yet another affordable wine that can be made at home is tea wine. You can use a variety of teas, such as black tea or green tea. The recipe for black tea wine calls for 4 tablespoons bulk black tea, 1 11oz can frozen red or white grape concentrate, 2 lbs sugar, 2 tsp citric acid, 6 pts water, 1 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 pkt wine yeast.

Regardless of what type of wine you choose to make, be creative and have fun. Don’t be afraid to try new things. By making your own wine at home can possibly create a new and delicious wine that will dazzle you and your friends.

Many critics would say that to follow the Atkins Diet will in the long term do more damage to your health than good but the followers of Atkins swear by the fast weight loss and renewed energy.

What exactly is the Atkins Diet? Well in 1972 Dr Robert C Atkins introduced his Diet Revolution to the masses as a low carbohydrate, high protein, and high fat diet. It went against the ideas of much of the medical community but Dr Atkins hadn’t just dreamt up the diet. He based his finding on years of research with his patients following low carb diets.

If we go way back in time what did our ancestors eat? When humans first evolved on the planet what was there for them to eat? Certainly no fast food outlets with their 24/7 drive through or vast supermarkets filled with every kind of food known.

We were hunter-gatherers. Basically we ate what we hunted and gathered. Large mammals would be hunted, killed and eaten along with berries, nuts and some edible herbs. As we had evolved over millennia to be nourished by what was available to eat so our bodies had adapted to handle the foodstuffs of the time.

Our bodies are adapting still to try and get the best nourishment out of today’s diet but this adaptation is a slow, slow process. We were not designed to eat refined carbohydrates or sugars. Our salt intake was never meant to be as high as it is. We are basically omnivorous and were made to eat meat and vegetables. This is the diet from which we find it easiest to gain nourishment. This is close to the Atkins Diet.

Dr Atkins found that his patient’s health improved following his diet. Could it simply be that a return to the diet it was designed for is the best for the human body?

People have a right to choose to be vegetarian or to consume vast quantities of fast food but do they then have the right to complain that they don’t feel well? If we design a road car and then try and take it off road should we be surprised that it gets stuff after a while?

The Atkins Diet works that much is known and as to long term problems well its has been around since 1972, how much longer does it require to be tested for before the medical profession accept it?

South Beach Diet – a phrase that is commonly heard but is seldom understood. This is just another truth behind the emergence of another diet. So what’s the big deal?

Well, the South Beach Diet is considered as the “biggest thing” that the slimming world has ever introduced. But where exactly did the South Beach Diet come from? Here is the answer: the South Beach Diet was actually formulated by a person named Dr. Arthur Agatston after the realization that some of his patients were having little success by using conventional low carb – high fat diet plans like the Atkins diet which is also popular around the globe.

Dr. Arthur Agatston, being a cardiologist and knowing the condition of his patients, had the main concern of finding a diet that will promote a perfectly healthy heart. Finding no such source for that diet existed, he decided to formulate his own diet plan and that was to become known as the South Beach Diet.

According to the testimony of Dr. Agatston, since the introduction of the South Beach Diet, many people who followed the diet actually lost an average of 13.6 pounds almost double the 7.5 pounds lost by those who use the strict “Step II” of the American Heart Association (AHA) diet. Along with that, it was also found that when following the South Beach Diet many people showed greater decreases in their waist-to-hip ration and triglycerides, and their good to bad cholesterol ratio improved even more.

Generally, the South Beach Diet, in a word, is not considered as a low carbohydrate diet as it is commonly associated. It is a fact that the idea behind the South Beach Diet is to lose weight in a way that is healthy for those who follow it.

The South Beach Diet, unlike the low carbohydrate diets usually encourages the dieter to choose between the good and the bad carb foods. As such, the dieter is required to eat more fruits and vegetables and even wholegrain bread in contrast to other low carb diets. So, in the South Beach Diet, there is more of a sense of “yin and yang”, that it is more balanced than any other low carb diets in the whole world.

Think caffeine and what’s the first beverage to come to mind? Sure, coffee. Any history of coffee is also going to be a history of caffeine and vice versa. And tea will probably show up somewhere in there as well. Next on the list has got to be the soft drink. And then probably those energy drinks. And that should be it, right. After all, why would there possibly be any need for any other beverage to contain caffeine?

Coffee is the caffeinated beverage of choice for most people in the morning. It’s also the favorite go-to drink at business offices. Apparently, nothing gets the mojo moving better than coffee. Nothing provides better proof of coffee’s standing in the western world than the rise of Starbucks. Pretty soon they will officially be on every street corner in America. Watch out world: you’re next!

Although the history of a caffeinated beverage being used primarily for its stimulating effect goes all the way back to tea consumption in China almost three-thousand years before the birth of Christ, most Americans don’t generally think about tea in conjunction with caffeine. That has changed in recent years with the tea industry’s onslaught of information geared to those concerned about the health hazards of caffeine who don’t want to switch to carbonated soda. Even at this late stage, there are many who are confused as to how the caffeine level in tea compares to that of coffee. To set the record straight, tea does contain caffeine and generally speaking it contains less than coffee. However, the actual caffeine content of both coffee and tea varies according to, among other things, the types used and how they are prepared.

Caffeinated soft drinks first began appearing in the late 1800s, but didn’t really explode as a consumer product until the last half of the 20th century. The sheer number of caffeinated soft drinks is astounding and most people have become so used to caffeine content in their favorite soda that they have no problem tasting the difference when provided with a non-caffeinated version. Obviously, the popularity of the soft drinks that contain higher levels of caffeine was the inspiration for the energy drinks that have become so prevalent.

Of course, there may have been another inspiration behind the creation of these beverages as well. Because they aren’t technically considered a carbonated soda, energy drinks aren’t subject to the same FDA limit on caffeine content as soft drinks. Energy drinks are not even required to label their caffeine content, which in most cases far exceeds the FDA limit for soft drinks.

Energy drinks may be the most popular new method for consuming caffeine in a liquid form, but they are far from the only new kids on the block. Perhaps the most unexpected new combination of fluid and caffeine is the idea of jazzing up beer. Although the very idea of mixing the stimulant caffeine with the depressant alcohol has been enough to give rise to any number of easy jokes, is it really any more bewildering than adding the energy jolt of caffeine to the already existing sugar rush of soft drinks?

Probably the strangest caffeinated beverages on the market are the caffeine-infused spring waters. Think about it. There is really no other reason on earth to buy water other than that you are health-conscious. Let’s face it, nobody drinks water for the taste, right? And since caffeine has the potential to adversely affect one’s health if consumed in large amounts, who is drinking this product? Must be somebody because several are still are the market.

Those crazy party dudes of the social sciences, anthropologists, have discovered evidence as only they can that caffeine has been knowingly used as a stimulant since the Stone Age. This may not be exactly on the level, since apparently their primary source of information is an episode of The Flintstones.

Seriously, the official history of caffeine as a separate substance from coffee doesn’t really trace back very far into history, though, yes, anthropologists have suggested its effects were known to our ancient brethren. Our story really begins with, of all things, a poet. One of the most famous poets of all time, in fact, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, best known for her version of the Faust legend. It was Goethe who first gave a young chemist named Friedrich Ferdinand Runge some coffee beans, suggesting that he give the beans the same type of chemical analysis that Runge had been going with extract of belladonna. Don’t let anybody ever convince you that the entire history of the world isn’t built upon a foundation of intimate events. Runge took those not-so-magical beans and isolated caffeine sometime around 1819. And we’ve all been climbing that beanstalk ever since.

And, actually, even before then. Because even though the actual reason for coffee’s stimulating effects weren’t known, it was still quite obvious the effects were there. The Chinese took advantage of the caffeine found in tea at least as far back as 2700 BC and coffee first appeared in Africa in the 6th century AD. Of course, it’s well known that mighty civilizations in pre-Colombian South Africa drank both coffee and chocolate, well known for their caffeine content.

Because caffeine has obviously been around as long as man, it is exceedingly difficult to get a grip on its history. Many legendary stories abound as to its ancient uses, including one that awards a goat herder with discovering its stimulating effect by observing the behavior of his flock after they had chomped down on coffee beans. He supposedly tried the beans himself and was rewarded with a rush. The story probably isn’t true, however.

Yes, for most of the history of caffeine, it was inextricably tied to coffee and tea. They made perfect delivery systems for the drug. Unless, of course, you didn’t much care, or couldn’t afford, coffee or tea. Although the first espresso machine appeared almost in conjunction with Runge’s discovery, it wouldn’t be until the 1880s that a method for delivering caffeine into a beverage artificially was discovered.

Caffeinated soft drinks instantly became all the rage and even those who were happy enough receiving their stimulant via coffee picked up the occasional sugary drink. What made this a true turning point in the history of caffeine, however, is that for the first time children began ingesting it. In fact, large numbers of children started getting the rush of caffeine and the health risks associated with this is still being debated today as the soft drink industry continues to thrive.

By the 20th century, caffeine had pretty much become the most popular legal drug in the world. It is consumed in one way or another in every country. Although most of the history of caffeine could also be written as a history of coffee, its uses exploded in the latter half of the last century. Caffeine is found not only in coffee and tea, but soft drinks, alcohol, medicine and even water! It is surely no accident it has become omnipresent in a society that finds itself with an ever-increasing need for a longer day than the 24 hours we are stuck with.

Low carb diets are currently the most popularity type of diet regimen being used by many fitness conscious people. The low carb philosophy is taking the world by storm as millions of people are now trying out this new diet in the hopes of losing excess weight and fat.

Proponents of the low carb diet philosophy are also saying that aside from losing weight, it also has other inherent benefits. They said that it lowers cholesterol, helps control diabetes or completely stop it from developing in certain individuals. These are claims that seem to have been supported by actual facts as followers of a low carb diet plan have reported the same thing.

This is well and good because it is a good development to finally find a diet plan that is not only going to help you lose weight but will also have very noticeable and significant medical benefits.

But it cannot also be denied that there are many diet plans out there that are either not effective, bogus or even harmful and have a detrimental effect on one’s health. So the question also remains. Are low carb diets safe?

Not surprisingly there are certain arguments that are being presented against low carb diets and ultimately there are also moves to debunk the low carb diet philosophy. In fact, in 2004 a Canadian court made a ruling that foods that are sold in the country are prohibited from being marketed with reduced or no carbohydrate content. This is because, as the court ruled, carbohydrates have been seen as having no health risks. The ruling also stated that all packaging that has and indication of “low carb” or “no carb” be phased out by 2006.

According to some critics and detractors of the low carb diet philosophy there are side effects to following this diet regimen. Some of the side effects of consuming low amounts of carbohydrates include ketosis. This is a certain metabolic state that is characterized by headaches, nausea, tiredness, dehydration, and dizziness. There is also the emanation of an sweet-smelling breath odor. There is also a chance of constipation because dietary fiber is usually cut down in the prepared dishes. In fact, because of the prevalence of constipation among Atkins Diet followers, there is now a clear guideline for the addition of fiber supplements during the induction stage.

The cutting down of calories that are taken from carbohydrates and replacing them with calories taken from meat may also increase the likelihood of raising the intake of both saturated fat and cholesterol – and this could increase your chances of getting heart disease. It has also been a contention that with the lessened carbohydrate – increased protein intake the kidneys will have to work harder to flush out impurities in the body. There is also a marked change in the acidity levels of the blood which can result in bone loss.

But according to trials made to prove the hypothesis, there was no evidence that following a low carb diet will damage the kidney or result in bone density loss.

The frustrating part will be that after you are off the low carb, you will very probably gain back all the weight that you have loss and even more. This is because your muscles are active and they continuously burn calories. Since you have less fewer muscle mass now, your body’s metabolism or capacity to burn calories slows down tremendously.

In other words, when you put on weight again, you are putting on body fat instead of muscles if you do not exercise. You will be fatter and less healthy than before you went on the low carb. To compound matters, because of lesser muscle tissues resulting in lower metabolism and thus lesser calories being burnt, you are going to get fatter.