Tag: Eat

The expert: why it’s good to eat an orange a day – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Why is it good to eat an orange a day? This fruit at the table is one of the most consumed and praised especially due to its good vitamin C content. But there are many reasons why it is worth not giving up the goodness of this food, which gives its best especially if consumed whole or in freshly peeled cloves, rather than the drinking version (juice or squeezed juice) less rich in this nutrient, which is very sensitive to air and heat, and fibre. «The latter, present above all in the albedo, the white part that surrounds the pulp, are able to slow down the assimilation and absorption of sugars and fats and provide long-lasting satiety explains the nutritionist Salvatore Ercolano. “Eating an orange a day, for example at breakfast, lunch, dinner or as a snack, helps keep your appetite under control and counteract weight gain.” But the benefits of this fruit are also many others. This is why it is good to eat an orange a day.

Keeps the skin elastic

«Eating an orange a day allows you to stock up first of all on anthocyanins present in abundance especially in those with red pulp, capable of neutralizing free radicals and protecting against wrinkles. The vitamin C present in this fruit is also fundamental for the production of collagen, a protein produced by the skin that keeps it soft” says nutritionist Salvatore Ercolano. «The consumption of even just one orange also ensures good quantities of copper and zinc, two minerals which respectively stimulate the production of elastin, a protein that keeps the skin compact and the synthesis of hyaluronic acid, which preserves its luminosity.

Protects against aging

Few people know: one of the benefits of eating an orange a day is that it promotes longevity, due to the anti-aging properties at the center of several Education. «Among the many advantages it boasts is the presence of antioxidants, such as carotenoids, which in addition to fighting free radicals, protect against the weakening of the skeleton and osteoporosis and which are also precious for preserving eye health explains nutritionist Salvatore Ercolano. «Then there is another reason to eat an orange a day: the presence of prebiotic fibres, excellent allies for keeping the good intestinal bacteria in balance, facilitating the production of metabolites with anti-inflammatory action, which protect against overweight, obesity and chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes.”

Protects the heart and immune defenses

«Flavonoids, in particular anthocyanins, present mostly in blood oranges are antioxidants whose intake in the diet is associated with the reduction of oxidative stress, a condition which over time damages the arteries and increases the risk of suffering from stroke, atherosclerosis, hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders”. Eating an orange a day allows you to enjoy the benefits of a truly natural supplement of precious nutrients to boost the body’s defenses. «This fruit provides minerals such as magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and selenium and B complex vitamins, including folates, useful for the correct functioning of the immune system.

How to cut orange

Easter holidays: where to go (also) to eat very well – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

We have at least four days available for the Easter holidays: from Good Friday to Easter Monday. A long bridge perfect for picking up and leaving, for those who can do it, taking advantage of the mild spring air, the real one. At least, these are the forecasts given that Easter this year is – as they say – “high”: it arrives on March 31st. The best time of year to be outdoors: taking long walks among the cities of art, among the woods on the hills and in the mountains and maybe even at the seaside enjoying the first sun.

Easter holidays 2024: where to go

From here we started to do a selection of addresses throughout Italy where, in addition to all this, you have the certainty of eat very well: tenacious cuisine with typical regional products and recipes, such as that of the farmhouses, a great Easter classic, but also gourmet and starred cuisine. Because holidays are special, and it’s worth treating yourself to some luxury at the table if there’s an opportunity. Here are our proposals:

Easter holidays: where to go in Italy

What do you eat during Lent? – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

What do you eat during Lent? The Catholic religion gives precise prescriptions: for those who practice and believe, it should be a period of restrictions. Forty days of “penance” to be observed to “purify” oneself before Easter, the resurrection of Christ.

What do you eat during Lent

In the common imagination, Lent is a period of total abstention from meat, but also from alcohol, sweets and all fatty and opulent foods. Until the beginning of the 20th century, in fact, it was more or less like this: ecclesiastical rules, among other things, expressly required one to also deprive oneself of eggs and dairy products. Now they are less restrictive. The fourth of the five general precepts of the Church on the subject is clear. Read: «On days established by the Church, abstain from eating meat and observe fasting.

What are the days of Lent when you don’t eat meat

Therefore, first of all, meat is prohibited only on established days: this is the Ash Wednesdaywhich is the day immediately after Carnival, and of Good Friday, in which Christians commemorate the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As for the Holy Saturday, abstention and fasting are only “recommended”. Among the observant, there are those who interpret the rule in a broader sense: during Lent he avoids meat every Friday and deprives himself of particularly expensive foods and alcohol.

What is Lenten fasting

The fasting rule should not be understood in a literal sense either. The church prescribes having only one meal during the day, the midday meal, but does not prevent you from eating something to fill your stomach in the morning and in the evening. Everyone should do it: from the age of 14 you start with abstinence from meat, from 18 to 60 you also continue with fasting. Barring exceptions, for example for health reasons. It’s all written down, on the Code of Canon Law and on the apostolic constitution “Paenitemini” of Pope Paul VI of 1966 (which also marked a small revolution by widening the range of “allowed” foods): rules and precepts for spending the most important period of the year in the most spiritual way possible, symbolically reliving the days that Jesus spent in the desert in abstinence from temptation. Days which, however, as Pope Francis has repeatedly recalled, cannot ignore prayer, almsgiving and good works.

Why you don’t eat meat during Lent (but you do eat fish)

On lean days the rule is therefore that of “carnem-levare”, eliminate the meatan expression from which the term derives not by chance carnival, the period of excesses. Hence the common custom of eat fish. Why not meat and yes fish? The explanations may be different: the assonance between meat and Jesus on the cross, but also the fact that meat – especially red meat – has always been considered an opulent food, therefore not very suitable for a moment of reflection such as Lenten. In its Summa Theologiae Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that red meat gives more pleasure, therefore eliminating it would be a demonstration of greater sacrifice. Pleasure that would also derive from white meat, such as chicken, which is excluded from the permitted foods because it is a warm-blooded animal, unlike fish. Not convincing you? Faith is also this: you believe it or not.

Lent recipes

The Catholic precept has guided the culinary tradition as always: starting from the rule of lean fish, each Italian town, city and region has developed its own recipes in which it is the protagonist. Recipes which, however, in reality, are not always so punitive, but on the contrary. There polenta and herring from the Treviso area was created to be eaten during Lent. It is also Lenten Ligurian lean capon, which in truth is not that lean given that it is made with toasted bread, vegetables, fish interspersed with sauces also made with eggs. It deserves a separate chapter salted cod: poor and very tasty fish, which for Lent is made in many different ways: Vicenza style, cappuccina style (in Friuli), in sauce or fried in Naples.

The list of first courses is also long, although not always with fish: always in Naples they make the scammaro omelette, with a tomato and olive sauce for spaghetti. Spaghetti that Pellegrino Artusi recommended seasoning for Lent with simple ingredients following the rule of the Lenten period, that is nuts, sugar, spices and breadcrumbs. Perhaps an ancestor of Umbrian sweet macaroni, or perhaps not, but still an inviting variation. After all, desserts were also created specifically for Lent: Lenten desserts, for starters, which – like the previous dishes – are not exactly that privative. In short, apparently even in Lent we have allowed ourselves some sins. At least in the throat.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes