About 36 million people have died from AIDS around the world, with about the same number of people living with the disease. In a desperate attempt to regain the public’s confidence, the Egyptian military says it has invented a “kebab” like machine to cure AIDS. Oh, and hepatitis C.
Nomads of the Caucasus Mountains attribute their long, vigorous lives to a natural diet, plenty of outdoor exercise – and kefir. Kefir is fermented milk, something like yogurt. Its taste ranges from mildly sour to cheeselike, depending on how long the milk ferments. It has lots of probiotics and proven anti-bacterial power.
The tragedy of two little girls dying from pesticide poisoning in Jerusalem, while their older brothers fight for their lives highlights the immediate dangers of pesticides. This graphic incident has finally succeeded in bringing to the forefront the seriousness of overuse of pesticides in a country whose best loved vegetables carry heavy pesticide loads.
A new trend is sweeping across America: scores of people are ditching shampoo for more earth and hair-friendly alternatives – including nothing at all. But would this work in the Middle East? Would the lovely ladies of Lebanon ever give up their luscious shiny locks? Turns out, they wouldn’t have to. Check out five reasons […]
Jordan is becoming a heavyweight on the global stage, but this is nothing to puff up about. The kingdom is among the world’s worst countries for obesity according to Oxfam’s World Food Index 2013, with 33% of standing Jordanians unable to see their feet. Over 14% of the population is also diabetic.
It’s still chilly in the Middle East – still the season for comfort food. Try driving the cold away with msemmen, a flexible, square-shaped skillet cake (the best of Middle East and North African pancakes!), easily pulled apart into layers so you can stuff it. Msemmen is similar to the Emirati Khameer bread (recipe here), […]
Aquaculture, or fish farming at sea and in land based ponds, has been practiced successfully by Israelis for many years. While most fish farming produces freshwater fish like carp, tilapia and trout in fresh water ponds, salt water aquaculture has also been “successfully” practiced in the Mediterranean Sea.
There’s a huge new movement in Israel. Not politics. Food. Specifically, veganism. Of a country totalling eight million people, an estimated 200,000 are now declared vegans (see Karin’s post about the growing movement here). That’s roughly 2.5 percent of the population.
Why would anyone want to eat plants that sting? And raw nettles do sting. But nettles are a tasty, nutrient-dense food. People have been eating them since antiquity, and probably since pre-history. Their easily-metabolized iron content is so high that nettles tea is a natural remedy for anemia.
I’ve been cooking nonstop out of Nawal Nasrallah’s majestic cookbook, Delights From The Garden of Eden. And my family loves it, because every recipe yields a delicious dish. Like this one.
Terrorists probably come to mind long before honey when people think of Yemen, but the raw Yemeni honey Balqees had for sale at the recent Masdar Festival was far and away the yummiest honey I ever put in my mouth.
Five years following its ban on smoking in restaurants and other public spaces, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will start enforcing the rules. By year end, government will also revoke licenses which allow an estimated 6,000 coffee shops to serve sheesha (the Middle Eastern water pipe used for tobacco smokes).
It happened. I am officially addicted to making ice-cream in my Vitamix machine. It arrived about six weeks ago by courier. At first I didn’t think that it would become such a staple in my life. It’s a high-powered blender, after all.
According to Islam, being breastfed is a right for all children. Now Abu Dhabi has passed a clause in their Child Rights law that requires all women to breastfeed their children – up to the age of two.
This is just one reason why I don’t allow pesticides to come near my home and children: two children have died, and two more are in critical condition after a Jerusalem exterminator applied the pesticide aluminum phosphide in a Jerusalem apartment.
When I think of a meal based on a light protein – something quick to make and yet satisfying – I think of fish. Have you ever considered fish luxuriously drizzled with tahini?
Major changes in how the planet’s marine resources are managed and used are needed to safeguard global food security and ensure the wellbeing of coastal and island countries, the United Nation’s FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told a group of high level policymakers meeting today in Abu Dhabi.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; but you can still get burned with smokeless, say critics of electronic cigarettes. They look just like a teensy personal sheesha pipe. You’d guess it’s safe, right? Think again.
Canada is up there on environmental awareness and monitoring contaminants in seafood. It was one of the first countries in the world to talk about the dangers of mercury from industry in fish, and now concerned citizens are comparing scary data on fish and seafood products from Japan after its 2011 nuclear meltdown.
Pomegranates and their ruby-like seeds are one of the fruits that define the Middle East, or at least the Levante side of the Middle East. Even though suspect pomegranate seeds were traced to an outbreak of hepatitis this past summer in the United States (organic fruit at that!), we have to let bygones by bygones.
I am a fan of baba ghanoush, and I am a fan of food that looks erotic. In today’s way of conventional farming we’ve grown accustomed to getting that perfectly symmetrical eggplant or tomato.
Sustainable urban farming as a viable concept is now beginning to become popular in many parts of the world, including the Middle East.
It could be because the country eats kosher, and many people strictly avoid pizza with both cheese and meat. Or it could be because Tel Aviv seems to be becoming the vegan capitol of the world. But Domino’s pizza chain is rolling with it and delivering what Israeli customer’s want: a vegan pizza.
Listen up. Several Syrian children froze to death this past week because they lacked adequate clothing. The UN predicts that more Syrians will die this winter from exposure to the elements than from the violence of the last three years. There needs to be more sustainable ways of treating refugees. But let’s start with the […]
One advantage of eating vegan is that you probably have all ingredients for home-cooked meals in your pantry, all the time. Another advantage, especially in freezing winter times like now, is how filling and warming vegan foods are, based as they are on grains, like lupini beans, which deserve to be better known, and lots […]
