Monday, April 26, 2010

High Quality Textiles Such as Cotton Fabric

China textiles enjoy an excellent heritage in textile sector and occupy a prominent position in the global textile market.
Textiles were invented a long time ago. The history of textile is almost as old as that of human civilization and as time moves on the history of textile has further enriched itself. Many Asian countries such as China and India are known for their quality textiles. China textiles enjoy an excellent heritage in textile sector and occupy a prominent position in the global textile market. Chinese textiles are world famous and extraordinary for their fine quality and profound symbolic meanings. Textiles in China often form an integral aspect of its heritage and symbolically reflect its tradition and culture. In China, textile is often closely associated with prosperity and involved in the process of elaborate rituals.

Suppliers of Madeinchina provide high quality textiles such as cotton fabric, georgette, suiting fabric and so on
Suppliers of MadeinChina provide high quality textiles such as cotton fabric, georgette, suiting fabric and so on. Cotton fabric of MadeinChina is soft and comfortable with fiber that absorbs and releases perspiration quickly. Suppliers of MadeinChina provide quite slippery and durable georgette. Georgette of MadeinChina gives clothes a slimming effect and a very good fall. Georgette of MadeinChina is perfect to make clothes on weddings, parties, engagements, festivals and special occasions. Suppliers of MadeinChina provide high quality suiting fabric in various weights. Suiting fabric of MadeinChina is soft, wrinkle-free and exquisite to touch. Suiting fabric of MadeinChina could drape the wearers’ bodies with distinctive elegance.

Source : articlesbase

Chinese Textile Machinery Manufacturer Unveils Latest Technologies

After the elimination of global quota system, the textile industry is booming at a rocket speed. The world is on a new path of industrial revolution. The textile hubs like China, India, Pakistan and many more are emerging rapidly among the western counterparts. Analysts are anticipating more growth with latest technologies in Textile Machineries. The textile machinery manufacturing hubs like China, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and India have already dived in immense competition to make and offer best technologies in textile machineries. The Chinese textile manufacturers are developing some of the best answer in technical aspects of textile industry, along with very competitive prices.

Yuyao Textile Machinery Co. Ltd. is among the most excellent textile machinery manufactures in the world from China, located in Yuyao City of Ningbo Municipality, Zhejiang Province, which is know as a celebrated place with splendid cultural legacy and features a good geographical position and a top convenient traffic facility.
Successful Voyage of “Yuyao Textile Machinery Co. Ltd.”
The company of today originated from the Ex-Yuyao Textile Machinery Plant which was established in 1970. More than 30 years history has aggregated a powerful economic strength and valuable experience in this industry for the company, making it capable of providing diverse solutions and best services in meeting the customers' needs and demands. Our business activity covers more than 100 domestic cities and regions. Our products have been the best sellers across the north and south territories to the Changjiang River and also are exported to the European, Asian countries, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions, receiving a unanimous good appraisal from the circle of this industry since many years ago.

The company has been confirmed to be among the provincial model enterprises, withstood the provincial, ministerial evaluations and ISO 9001certification for many times, in addition has been selected a designated production enterprise by the National Textile Material & Equipment Corporation. Our main products have been elected recommended products by the China Textile Machinery Association. Our company engages in the professional designing of the fabric testing and packing projects, in the building of the automatic heat shrink PE-FILM packing machines and serial fabric inspection machines, serial fabric rolling machines and the doubling and folding machines, all of which boast a high Sci-Tech content and stable performance, winning keen appreciations of the users, recognized as the most advanced textile machinery at home for the present time.

Source : articlesbase

Benefits Of Chinese Ginger Soup To Start The Day

In Chinese medicine studies, ginger is consider a more "Yang" type of ingredient for human body to consume. So if you are lack of "Yang" in the body, you will feel cold and weak, so take more ginger will help you to balance up "Ying" and "Yang" in your body. But most of time you will find it difficult to just take it raw, so here is a simple yet very effective recipe for you to have a healthier body and mind by taking raw ginger soup or drink.

According of many reports and observation from doctors, many cancer patients after recovering from serious radiation therapy and chemotherapy, their body will have some sort of very weak signs like no appetite to eat, cannot take in cold dishes, scare of cold, stomachache, easy to get diarrhea. This all due to not healthy or week stomach and the "Yang" ingredients is not enough in the stomach.

Why? As according to Chinese medication, raw ginger soup can help us to regenerate the "Yang Qi" inside our stomach and makes it stronger, just like drinking raw ginseng soup. Hence improving the weak cold stomach sickness that some of us might have.There is a very good suggestion from ancient Chinese medicine mentioning drinking Raw Ginger Soup or Drink early in the morning once you get up from bed.

The recipe is here:

Ingredients:

6 pieces of Raw ginger slice, 6 pieces of red dates, 30 gram of cane sugar

Method:

Rinse all ingredients, remove the seeds from red dates. Put all ingredient into a stewing port, add in 1 bowl of water, stew for like 10-15 minutes. Serve it while it is still hot or warm.

Advice:

1. Drink it with empty stomach in the morning right after you wake up from bed.

2. Not recommended to drink at night.

3. Some people might have soar throat after taking this, you actually can add in 6 pcs of black dried sour plum as it has the effect of bringing down the heat cause by ginger.

Source : articlesbase

Ginger Oil and Its spicy properties

Ginger oil is extracted from a culinary herb highly used in Asia, especially Indian cooking but the essential oil is having great values and it is known for high valued therapeutic grade essential oils. It is highly used to treat stomach problems, ache of tires muscles and improving blood circulation.

The Ginger Essential Oil smells very beautiful, earthy and spicy. As it already being used in curries and other edible things, so the internal use of this oil cannot be avoided. It is safe oil and not cause any kind of allergies, but sometimes it cause photosensitivity. Only more than 4 time's diluted version can be used internally. It should be diluted in water, rise milk or soya milk.

These days Ginger Oil is highly used in scrubs and massage oils. For making the massage oil using a therapeutic grade Ginger oil, one should dilute it into olive oil or any other vegetable oil like Grape Seed Oil. It is highly useful in treatment of arthritis, eases minor aches and joint pains and makes you feel warmer; in result you will feel highly circulated and refreshed.

This warming property of Pure Ginger Oil makes it more wonderful and useful for treating and soothing yet invigorating bath. For treating cold and sore throat, one can put few drops into water and take gargle to feel relaxed. It can ease your throat pain and fever.

Ginger Oil is highly useful in nausea, indigestion and sea sickness and stomach disorders. Easting ginger is prescribed for the patients of morning sickness. One should take this ginger oil after getting prescription from his/her doctor. It should not be recommended for infants or small kids. One can buy Ginger oil from here including Rose Oil, Nutmeg Oil, Clove Leaf Oil, Clove Bud Oil, Jasmine Oil, Cassia Oil.

Source : articlebase

Discover The Health Benefits Of Ginger

Ginger has always been a favourite, whether it is used in medical laboratories or on the kitchen shelf. A lot can be said about it taste as well as its medicinal values. The immense medicinal properties of ginger are due to the presence of volatile oils known as gingerols and shogaols.

Ginger finds first and foremost application in curing stomach ailments. So you can ward off any infections and gas in the stomach. Ginger breaks down food protein and helps in digestion. Its anti inflammatory property makes it a star when it comes to treating inflammation and curing arthritis and ulcers. Ginger is the most effective remedy for treating cold. You can take a mixture of ginger juice and honey; this concoction clears cold in no time at all. Ginger brings down fever as well. Ginger tea is an all time favourite when it comes to clearing cold and congestion.

Ginger warms the body and stimulates blood circulation. It finds application in balancing blood pressure or lowering the bad LDL cholesterol level and maintaining heart health by averting the absorption of excessive cholesterol. Ginger cures migraine and also relieves menstrual cramps. Ginger inhibits the growth of colorectal cancer cells as well. Ginger when boiled with water and had in place of tea, relieves you of morning sickness and heartburn. It also gets rid of nausea due to motion sickness.It is popularly used in the treatment of ovarian cancer and in inhibiting the growth of tumours.

The best way to include ginger in your diet is through the normal use of spices while cooking and it forms a wonderful combination with garlic.

Source : articlesbase

A Look At A Unique And Delicious Variety Of Indonesian Coffee

If you have been drinking coffee for years, as many people have, you may wonder if there are any truly unique and flavorful brews out there to enjoy. There is one type of Indonesian coffee that is truly unique. It is unique not because of the kind of beans that are used in the grind but in the way that the beans are prepared for brewing.

If you have ever had kopi luwak coffee you know how delicious this Indonesian coffee tastes. It is subtle with flavors not found in other Arabica or Robusta beans. You get the full flavor of the beans without any bitterness. How is this possible in a lightly roasted coffee? Because of the unique method in which kopi luwak is produced.

If you don't speak Indonesian, you should know that kopi means coffee and luwak means civet. Kopi luwak translates to "civet coffee" and it is these unique mammals that help with the production of this unique Indonesian coffee. Unlike plain Indonesian coffee from regular beans, kopi luwak involves civets eating ripe coffee cherries and excreting the digested beans in their droppings.

If the idea of drinking coffee made from excreted coffee beans is one that is not something that appeals to you, you should know how incredibly clean and safe the beans are. After being collected, they are dried and roasted at high temperatures. This makes them extremely safe to drink and also brings out the delicate but amazing flavors that can be found in this rarest of Indonesian coffee.

Kopi luwak often commands very high prices. It can range in price between one hundred and six hundred dollars US per pound of beans. This high price tag reflects the labor intensive nature of producing the beans and the relative difficulty of finding the beans themselves.

In the beginning, Indonesian coffee producers needed to track the civets through the forests in order to find where they were leaving their bean-rich droppings. Luckily, civets often would leave their droppings in specific locations. This made it very difficult to find a sufficiently large supply of beans to meet demand. Now, this production method has changed, although kopi luwak is still quite rare and hard to produce.

Now that the value of kopi luwak has been established, Indonesian coffee producers have found ways to allow the civets to range within a more enclosed area where they have a steady supply of ripe coffee beans that they can eat. Because they civets are in a more limited area, finding their droppings also becomes easier. However, despite this more efficient way of finding kopi luwak, there is still a limited amount of the beans available for consumers to purchase.

As kopi luwak has become more popular and the methods of production have become more efficient, finding a source of beans has become easier. Before, fans of this Indonesian coffee would wait outside coffee shops in hopes of managing to purchase beans when they were delivered. Now, it is often possible to find a supply of this coffee on the Internet as well.

Source : articlesbase

The Sumatra Coffees

In the past, the only known ways of  processing coffee are by drying the coffee bean while still in the fruit (dry method) and by removing the fruit from the bean before it’s dried (washed or wet method). Sumatra coffee follows a modified process. After picking, the coffee skins are removed then they will be subjected to an overnight fermentation with the absence of water thus calling the procedure dry fermentation. Afterwards, they will be washed in water to remove the pulp and then set for drying. (In a nutshell, Sumatra coffee undergoes the two procedures.)  However, not all pulp can be removed by mere scrubbing giving the coffee a ferment taste.

The 18th century marked the start of the production of coffee in Indonesia which became first in the northern part of Aceh. The coffee production is widely done in region of Lake Toba and its sub-regions.

Gayo Mountain Coffee

This Sumatra coffee is grown in the Gayo mountain region. The abundance in rainfall, an altitude of 1100-1500 meters and the fertile soil make the region perfect for growing coffee thus making coffee the primary source of income of its people. Gayo Mountain Coffee is best described for being clean and sweet.

Sumatra Mandheling Coffee

Named after an ethnic group in Indonesia, Mandheling is one of the favorites of coffee drinkers all over the world. Hailing from the west coast region of Sumatra at high altitudes, this variety is mildly acidic unlike the other coffee varieties. Truly, Mandheling coffee is Indonesia’s pride because of its complex tastes and flavor.

Kopi Luwak Coffee

Possibly the rarest thus making it really expensive; this coffee is indeed rich, full-bodied with a strong flavor. The way it is produced contributes to its rarity. This coffee originates from Java, Sumatra and Sulawasi. The mammals called Asian palm civets are responsible for the production of Kopi Luwak. They eat the reddest and ripest coffee cherries which will be fermented during digestion by the enzymes in their stomachs. This process reduces their bitterness and leads to the formation of malt. Once excreted by the palm civets, the bean-like waste is collected and processed.

In general, coffee is very rich in taste and aroma. So is, Sumatra which brags of highly coveted coffee varieties which every coffee drinker will surely enjoy.

Source : articlesbase

Relish The Magical Flavour Of Hand Picked Kona Coffee

One of the most sought after and expensive coffees in the world, Kona coffee or the Hawaii Kona coffee , as it is popularly known, is cultivated on the fertile slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai in Kona districts of the island of Hawaii. Each cup of this coveted coffee delivers a wonderful blend of rich flavour, aroma and provenance. Kona, where the coffee is cultivated, has a unique weather pattern with morning sky that is bright and sunny, afternoons that are rainy or cloudy, and evenings mild and little windy. Moreover, the volcanic soil is mineral rich to support the growth of this exotic coffee.

Now you can relish the magical flavour of the freshly hand picked Kona coffee right at your home. Thanks to the online exotic coffee merchants, you can choose from a variety of exotic and rare coffees right from the comfort of your home. No more do you need to go to the far away store to fetch your favourite coffee. All you need to do is just visit the website of these online exotic coffee merchants, make your selection and place the order for your favourite coffee. Whether you are a Hawaii kona coffee aficionado or love to sip the delectable Blue Mountain coffee or Kopi Luwak, these online coffee merchants have a truly vast assortment of coffees that are hand picked from various parts of the globe for you to choose from.

Few of the exotic and rare coffees you can choose from include Royal Tonga Coffee, Jamaica High Mountain Baronhall Estate, Organic Kaffa Forest, Ethiopia, Jamaica Blue Mountain Clifton Mount Estate, Sea Island Espresso Blend, New Caledonia, Domaine du Kouandji, and Greenwell Farms Hawaii Kona coffees.

The online coffee merchants also offer gourmet coffee for the yachts, restaurants, and hotels. For retailers, they offer wholesale options as well. What's more, some of these coffee merchants even guide you about "how to make the perfect cup of coffee".
Coffee is such a wonderful beverage that the more options you try the more you would crave for.
Thankfully, there are enough varieties available for the coffee connoisseurs and aficionados to treat their taste buds with.

Source : articlesbase

Collection Of Coffee Trivia

Coffee is the favorite drink of a lot of people. But few are aware of the many interesting facts behind this popular drink. To increase your knowledge, heres a collection of coffee facts and trivia for your enjoyment:

Ever wonder how cowboys made coffee? The truth may shock you. In the old west, "cowboy coffee" was made by placing ground coffee into a clean sock. This was then immersed in cold water and heated over a campfire. When the coffee was ready, it was poured into tin cups and gulped down.  

Some athletes cant enjoy coffee before they compete. The reason? Caffeine happens to be one of the substances prohibited by the International Olympic Committee. Athletes who have over 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine are banned from the Olympic Games. This occurs after consuming about 5 cups of coffee.
Did you know that the word coffee was once applied to wine? The Mohammedans were responsible for this. When coffee became popular, it was used to replace wine in a lot of religious ceremonies. This black drink was favored since it kept the Mohammedans awake and alert while praying. To honor this strange brew, they gave it the same name that they originally gave to wine.

During World War II, coffee was referred to as a "cup of Joe since it was consumed by many enlisted men in the US Army. These soldiers were later named G.I. Joe after a famous comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate in 1942. Since the soldiers drank a lot of coffee, it was only a matter of time before the popular phrase cup of Joe emerged.

Finally, the worlds most expensive coffee is found in Sumatra and sells for over $500 a pound. Called Kopi Luwak, this special blend is made from coffee beans excreted by the Asian palm civet. This catlike mongoose reportedly eats only the best coffee beans and its gastric juices eliminate the bitter taste. It is patently tracked by Sumatran coffee plantation workers who diligently collect every bean the animal excretes. The coffee beans are washed and later packaged as Kopi Luwak which has a sweet, smooth brew.

Source : articlesbase

Supple Mechanization in Textile Production

Textile manufacturing is perhaps one of the oldest known industries in India. It was in existence since the beginning of civilization, although a crude methodology has been used then. The total contribution towards textiles manufacturing in our country is approximately 20% of country’s industrial production and is also treated as the backbone of economy. This contribution is about 1/3rd of the foreign exchange earned by the government.

The textile engineering industries have reviewed the status of technologies being used in India and has recommended major changes to the Indian textile Industry about the technology being used by the companies to improve their productivity and quality.
The level of automation of textile machinery has undergone a tremendous progress and due to the efforts of indigenous textile engineering companies we are now at a stage where industrial nations are few years back and as more and more technologies are developed indigenously the cost of production, maintenance and spare parts is reduced drastically as these charges lead to the escalation of the price of the end textile product. With more and more indigensation of the textile machinery, we are bound to get the quality at a very competitive price and compete with the international competitors. Now with the help of government agencies more money is being spent on research and development to make the Indian textiles more attractive and consistent.

Automation of the Textile Manufacturing has become the “catchphrase” for the textile manufacturing industry. Automation does play a major role in quality improvement and cost effectiveness of the process of textile manufacturing. In the early 80s and 90s, the modernization and technical developments in textiles concentrated mainly on the automation of the individual machines and processes.

Throughout the 1990s, Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Flexible Manufacturing Systems have played a major role in the production of the textile and clothing industries, both in developing as well as the developed countries. All these textile-manufacturing units would like their industry to be fully automated without any scope for errors and rejections of the exports. The industry has slowly adapted to the modern computer applications in textile operations to the era of computer integrated textile manufacturing.

Source : articlesbase

Indian Textiles

Indian textile tradition is the world's oldest textile tradition. The origin of indian textile can be traced back to the days of indus valley civilisation. The fragments of cotton material originating from gujarat found in the egyptian tombs support that discovery. There are occasional comments about the textile craft in most of the ancient indian writings as well. Indian textile was also exported to various countries since time immemorial. The history of vijayanagar empire (ad 1504), one of india's celebrated dynasties emphasize that textile was an important trade. Indian geography, climate, social customs, availability of the raw material etc defines the art of indian textile.

Manufactured and exported to various countries, indian textile has found a place in the global market. In an extensive range, variety and the textile products are offered, at economic prices. The contemporary Indian textile not only reflects the splendid past but also cater to the requirements of the modern times. The rich tradition of textile in India has been favored by a number of factors. The favorable factors leading to the extensive growth of textile tradition in India follows.

Textile can also make delicate crafts using various fabrics as basic material. The textile crafts ranges from dress making to embroidery, knitting etc. these crafts are basically undertaken a taste for fashion and/or producing various items such as clothing, furnishing, works of art etc. Clothes can make extremely elegant crafts by the keen craftsmen and using different techniques. The modern techniques of textile crafts include crochet and lace making, patchwork, and run making, spinning and weaving, tapestry, batik and tie dyeing.

Source : articlesbase

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Indian Business Directory of Textile and Garments

Indian textile tradition is the worlds oldest textile tradition. the origin of indian textile can be traced back to the days of indus valley civilisation. the fragments of cotton material originating from gujarat found in the egyptian tombs support that discovery. there are occasional comments about the textile craft in most of the ancient indian writings as well. indian textile was also exported to various countries since time immemorial. the history of vijayanagar empire (ad 1504), one of indias celebrated dynasties emphasize that textile was an important trade. indian geography, climate, social customs, availability of the raw material etc defines the art of indian textile.

Manufactured and exported to various countries, indian textile has found a place in the global market. in an extensive range, variety and the textile products are offered, at economic prices. the contemporary indian textile not only reflects the splendid past but also cater to the requirements of the modern times. the rich tradition of textile in india has been favored by a number of factors. the favorable factors leading to the extensive growth of textile tradition in india follows.

Textile can also make delicate crafts using various fabrics as basic material. the textile crafts ranges from dress making to embroidery, knitting etc. these crafts are basically undertaken a taste for fashion and/or producing various items such as clothing, furnishing, works of art etc. clothes can make extremely elegant crafts by the keen craftsmen and using different techniques. the modern techniques of textile crafts include crochet and lace making, patchwork, and run making, spinning and weaving, tapestry, batik and tie dyeing.

Source : articlesbase

The Textile Industry of Surat

Surat, an emerging city in the state of Gujarat, is known as the textile city of Gujarat. And, the epithet is perfectly suited to the city. The textile industry is one of the oldest and the most widespread industries in Surat. A major part of the city’s population is associated with the textile industry.

Overview of the Surat textile industry
The textile industry in Surat is mainly engaged in the activities of yarn production, weaving, processing as well as embroidery.
Surat is well known for its synthetic products market. It is mainly engaged in the production and trading of synthetic textile products.
Nearly 30 million metres of raw fabric and 25 million metres of processed fabric are produced in Surat daily. The city has several textile markets that exist since times immemorial. Zampa Bazaar, Bombay Market, JJ Textile Market and Jash Market are among them. Katat Gam, Magdalla and Udhana are the areas of Surat where manufacturing is mainly concentrated. In the course of time, people from various other places like Rajasthan and Kolkata settled in Surat in order to carry out their textile business.

Brands from Surat
The famous brands of Garden and Vimal textiles evolved from Surat. A few other brands like Parag and Prafful from Surat did become famous for a short time, but failed to create a lasting impression in the market.

Major markets
The main market for Surat’s textile products are India and other Asian countries. Around 90% of polyester used in India comes from Surat. However, international demand for its products is not very significant. The Middle East is the major export market for Surat’s textile products. According to experts, more improvisation in the quality is required to cater to the demands of the international market.

Growth
The Surat textile industry has grown considerably over time. As per recent figures, textile production in Surat has grown by 10% in the last 5 years, while the market for embroidery has grown from an almost negligible amount to around Rs. 30000 million over the same period.

Strengths
One of the main reasons behind the growth of Surat’s textile industry is the city’s ability to adapt to changes and the latest trends. The city is quick to respond to any changes in the preferences of people. The industrialists here have strong entrepreneurial skills.

Source : articlesbase

Eco-friendly Processing in Textile Industry

Textile Industries use different chemicals in different processes like, dyeing, finishing, scouring, bleaching, softening, washing etc. The textile chemicals & dyeing industry consume large quantities of water and produces large volumes of wastewater from different steps in the various processes. Wastewater from textile processing and dyeing containing residues requires appropriate treatment before being released into the environment. Interest in eco-friendly processing in textile industry has increased in the current scenario because of increased awareness of environmental issues.

Huntsman Textile Effects
The textile industry is one of the largest industries in the world, employing over 25 Mio people. Consumers spend around $1.3 Trillion on textiles every year, most of it on clothes.
The study of the environmental impact of textiles is extremely complex. It is clear, however, that enormous amounts of water and energy are consumed in the production and care of textiles in addition to the transportation of the goods.
Huntsman Textile Effects is dedicated to provide innovative solutions to conserve the worlds resources in textile production and textile care.

Huntsman delivers innovative solutions for textile processes, which:
• reduce water and energy consumption during preparation, coloration and finishing
• reduce aqueous waste and off-gases
• improve process efficiency
• reduce exposure to hazardous chemicals

Serving Resources in Textiles:
Huntsman delivers a range of innovative effects, which:
• reduce the amount of energy required in the care of garments
• keep clothes fresher without washing
• keep garments looking new for longer
• reduce or eliminate the need to tumble dry or iron
• eliminate the need to dry clean

Living sustainability for all Huntsman Textile Effects (TE) associates is based on a solid foundation encompassing all aspects of Product Stewardship.

Source : articlesbase

Loss of Chinese Textile Exporters is India's Gain

Limitations ordered by the U.S. over textile exports of China within the first half of 2006 has benefited other countries with active textile exporters. The U.S., as the world's biggest trading economy, began importing its textile needs from other exporters. The Indian textile industry is among the major textile exporters to benefit from these restrictions judging from the increase of its profits in the U.S. Although China is fast becoming another economic giant, its administrative body cautioned its own textile export industry of possible decrease or growth slow down for the rest of 2006.

The Chinese export industry reportedly generated a meager $8.23 billion in sales of textile exports for the months of January to July. This is a decrease of 76 percent compared to the textile sales posted last year. The year 2006 is marked as the only year when the Chinese textile exporters suffered this much loss. The Communist country attributed these losses to the U.S.-imposed restrictions. Conversely, Indian exports reportedly registered an increase of 18 percent within the same time period.

It can be recalled that Indian Textile Minister Sankersinh Vaghela has expressed optimism about the chances of his country's textile exporters against indomitable competitors like China. Vaghela had clearly foreseen the effects of the U.S. restrictions on one of his country's main rivals in the textile exports industry. With its improving textile exports economy, India has projected plans to exceed the set fiscal target of 19.7 billion for the fiscal year 2006 to 2007. This is an increase of more than two billion in profits. The bulk of this excess is credited to Indian textile exports industry which is projected to reach the $40 billion mark by 2010. Plans to upgrade the country's manufacturing community through building integrated textile exports manufacturing parks are underway with a projected budget of Rs.1.4 trillion.

The restrictions imposed on China's clothing industry were founded over concerns by the E.U. and the U.S. that Chinese exporters may stifle competition in the textile exports industry. China has been accused of unfair trade practices because of its tendency to swamp markets with cheap clothing and surplus textile products. This behavior of the Chinese textile industry was traced to the lifting of the quota system, which limits global textile sales of countries. The lifting of the quota system was soon followed by an unprecedented increase in Chinese global textile exports. By imposing the restrictions, the U.S. economy is attempting to prevent the advance of a new world capitalist. By limiting China's access to the U.S. market, China's capitalist streak is controlled.

China has sought a compromise with the two capitalist powers and both have already reached agreements with China and its exporters regarding the issue. The U.S. signed a trade agreement with the Communist nation that will hopefully help resolve the dispute. This agreement, which allows Chinese clothing and textile exporters a rise of an initial 8-10% this year, will undoubtedly have an effect on India's own clothing and textile exports. This is a development that the Indian nation should closely monitor.

Source : articlesbase

Global Textile Industry

Global Textile Industry

With the invention of the spinning and weaving machines in Britain, the world textile industry witnessed a remarkable development, culminating in the Industrial Revolution that would once again change old customs of manufacturing. The high production of wool, cotton and silk, registered all over the world for the past few years, brought its undeniable contributed to the development of economy all over the world.

From the UK, where it was formerly launched, the textile industry and textile production was soon after that passed over to Europe and also North America, in the 19th century, the manufacturing processed was mechanized in these areas. As time passed, other countries especially those of Asia, gradually began investing more in this sector, especially in the industrialization of their economies and nevertheless textile industry, which gradually started to gain more and more ground. So the textile industry also moved to Japan, India, Hong Kong and China, which eventually found their way to being leading textile manufacturers, especially due to the cheap labor force.

The incentive came soon after, with the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century and so the textile industry witnessed a tremendous growth, and the production of clothing was to be changed to mainstream industry. However, the 20th century textile industry acquired a rather bad reputation, since now the workforce was mainly that of immigrants who worked in illegal "sweat shops", and paid less than minimum wages.

Gobalisation, which would later take over, would help outsource the whole manufacturing process, particularly in areas where trade with textile was common. Leaders in this business changed their focus to the whiter collars, and it was that that the industry of fashion design emerged together with fashion modeling, which also started to flourish and t become in our days a million-dollar industry.

The textile industry, also called the "rag trade" in the United Kingdom and Australia, deals with the design and manufacturing of clothing items, and takes care of the distribution process, using textiles. Based on current statistics, the global textile market is at the moment worth a little more than $400 billion, in spite of the fierce competition textile industry had to face, from other industries.

Source : articlesbase

Bright Future for Indian Textile Industry

Introduction

The textile industry in India is substantial, and largely diversified. It is hard to cover all its aspects even within hour-long presentation, however, research team of Fibre2fashion.com has attempted to gather significant pieces of massively complicated puzzle of this industry.

The Indian textile industry roots thousands of years back. After, the European industry insurrection, Indian textile sector also witnessed considerable development in industrial aspects. Textile industry plays an important role in the terms of revenue generation in Indian economy. The significance of the textile industry is also due to its contribution in the industrial production, employment. Currently, it is the second largest employment provider after agriculture and provides employment to more than 30mn people.

Prospect

Considering the continual capital investments in the textile industry, the Govt. of India may extend the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (till 2011-2012), in order to support the industry. Indian textile industry is massively investing to meet the targeted output of $85bn by the end of 2010, aiming exports of $50bn. There is huge development foreseen in Indian textile exports from the $17bn attained in 2005-06 to $50bn by 2009-10. The estimation for the exports in the current financial year is about $19bn. There is substantial potential in Indian exports of technical textiles and home-textiles, as most European companies want to set up facilities near-by the emerging markets, such as China and India.

The global demand for apparel and woven textiles is likely to grow by 25 percent by year 2010 to over 35mn tons, and Asia will be responsible for 85 percent output of this growth. The woven products output will also rise in Central and Southern American countries, however, at a reasonable speed. On the other hand, in major developed countries, the output of woven products will remain stable. Weaving process is conducted to make fabrics for a broad range of clothing assortment, including shirts, jeans, sportswear, skirts, dresses, protective clothing etc., and also used in non-apparel uses like technical, automotive, medical etc...

It is been forecasted that the woven textile and apparel markets will sustain their growth from current till 2010. The imports of apparel and textiles will rise from developed economies like the USA and the western countries of Europe and Japan, along with some newly emerged economies, such as South Korea and Taiwan. Certainly, import growth has been witnessed vertical rise in the previous year.
Apparel is the most preferred and important of all the other applications. Woven fabrics are widely used in apparel assortments, including innerwear, outerwear, nightwear and underwear, as well as in specialized apparels like protective clothing and sportswear. Home textile also contributes considerably in woven fabric in products assortments like curtains, furnishing fabrics, carpets, table cloths etc.

Special kind of woven fabrics are utilized in medical as well as industrial applications. The medical applications include adhesives, dressing bandages, plasters etc.

Where as, industrial applications includes;
Geotextile - interior upholstery, trim, airbags and seat belts and lyre fabrics.
Sailcloth - tent and fabrics used architectures, transportation and tarpaulins.
And many more applications...

The Indian Industry foresees huge demand for industrial woven products for medical and automotive applications. Demand for woven fabrics is anticipated to be rise vertically in the sector of home textiles.

Non woven sector has great future in terms of global demand, thus major facilities of cotton yarn are currently concentrating just on home textiles. It is mandatory, that the peak management of the cotton yarn manufacturers analyze the future prospect and growing graph of demand for non woven products.

Conclusion

Anticipating massive growth in medical and automobile sectors, these sectors assures substantial demand for non woven facilities in India. Albeit, home textiles also will lure higher demand, there are specific demands for home textile facilities also.
The 7th Five Year Plan has huge consideration on agricultural growth that also includes cotton textile industry, resulting a prosperous future forecast for the textile industry in India. Indian cotton yarn manufacturers should rush forward for joint ventures and integrated plans for establishing processing and weaving facilities in home textiles and technical textiles in order to meet export target of $50bn, and a total textile production of $85bn by 2009-2010.

Source : articlesbase

Textile Lasers

With the passage of time, the field of textile and its machinery has enhance a lot in many regions of the world. One of the important and most required equipment in textile industry is a textile laser. Textile lasers are used for last more than 30 years. Many companies are meant for making the textile lasers. The textile lasers are very useful for the people who earn from this industry.


Textile lasers are basically meant to increase output by pouring less input that is getting more profit by inserting les productive amounts. In past machinery itself took its complete expense and the output wasn't that satisfactory but from the time the textile lasers are invented it has brought new life to the earners and the industry of course by taking less time in performance and yielding better results as compared to its past. The textile lasers are worth than other machine, it is all about how to use it, and one can train its operator with the skills like combination of embroidery and screen printing, heat transfers, and embossing making the substrate the most perfectly done each time. Textile lasers do well randomly like in the screen-printing, the red bright lasers make the positioning more focused on the garment and panels not only this it also indicates the seams, pockets, plackets, and collars before printing. Thus the textile lasers produce a better situation when the operators' works on the dark garment printing and the masks applied on it does not give clear appearance as used earlier times. Textile lasers work for a multiple embellishments and other substrates and this is the part of textile laser. The job done manually could be performed in less sophistication, many of the operator at first used to scratch their heads as they had assignments like printing and repositioning of the substrate to do in fixed time, this makes the results bogus and they are handed back with the same assignment thus causing the productivity loss. Textile lasers here save the time; it is it that has made life of the operator easier to tackle couple of assignments at a time with the use of textile laser.


The textile lasers usage made the replacing of the design or rearrangement in the existing pattern easier and convenient thus saving money, the textile lasers make the half of the capital investment and it saves the time and money both. The use of textile laser shortens the wastage, the lasers that are fixed on the machine, performs well and the set-up winds up the work in just couple of time and doesn't lengthen it much. With the textile lasers in use the machines are simplified and this reduces the operator's complex working performance. Textile lasers are best used for the money and time saving, it of course than increases the productivity and benefits at the end of the day by chopping off the setup time. This performance is maintained by the accuracy in its working, the error free working directly promotes time saving. The textile lasers are friendly users; less skilled workers can easily tackle it with its simple eye measurement and guesswork. The textile lasers by some companies is built easier for the less skilled operators so that it takes less time to teach a new operator of it. Almost all textile companies favors its usage, it has solved a bundle of problems that an owner faced before its hiring. Textile lasers have been nowadays replaced by all old machinery. No doubt it is a good replacement of man labor. The textile lasers have few equipments of its own that are provided free with the laser. The screwdriver used to adjust the brightness levels is placed at the back of it and is provided with the textile laser. There are five different projected patterns you can select of your choice. The most famous is the 10" crosshair, than comes the standard Dot pattern with the visibility of up to 21 feet, line with the center dot and the cross of 2". These are innovated according to the utility at different stages.

Source : articlesbase

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Low Carb Diet Tips-sugar Addictions and the Immune System

Anyone on a low carb diet knows that sugar is harmful to the body in so many ways, including weight gain. If you need some motivation to avoid a sugar addiction, read this list of health problems associated with sugar. The information here has been compiled from medical journals and other publications, including, "Lick The Sugar Habit" by Nancy Appleton, PhD.

1. Sugar suppresses the immune system.

This is the most important reason to avoid a sugar addiction, whether you are trying to maintain a low carb diet or not. Two different research projects that have been done at Loma Linda University evaluated the effects of sugar on phagocytes, the white blood cells of the immune system that eat up harmful bacteria. One of the Loma Linda studies showed that sugar caused the phagocytic index to drop dramatically, which had a negative effect on the amount of bacteria that could be removed by the immune system. To put it simply, the more bacteria consumed by the phagocytes, the stronger the immune system, and the less chance for disease. So, to avoid running low on Pac Men that eat foreign invaders in your immune system, stay away from sugar, including high fructose corn syrup and dextrose.

2. Sugar disrupts the mineral balance in a healthy body. Calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, iron and zinc are crucial minerals for the body to function properly. If just one of these minerals is depleted, the entire body chemistry can be disrupted. With just two teaspoons of sugar, micronutrients in the body change radically, causing blood chemistry to shift. Some mineral levels increase, some decrease, and delicate ratios are disturbed. If you are on a low carb diet and concerned about getting enough essential nutrients, such as calcium , this is another good reason to avoid sugar. Even a little sugar can negate the effects of consuming extra calcium or mineral supplements.

3. Sugar can cause obesity, hyperactivity, anxiety, and concentration difficulties in children. Sugar Smacks, Cap 'N Crunch, Corn Pops, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms and Trix are just a few of the cereals loaded with sugar that are still being eaten by kids everywhere before they head off to school. Even something as healthy as oatmeal is full of sugar in those instant flavor variety packs. You may think oatmeal is a good low carb, high fiber food, but once the sugar is sprinkled on it, oatmeal is no longer part of a low carb diet. In addition, look at all the sugar being consumed by children in sodas and other products that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup.

Writing for The Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1986, J. Goldman noted in "Behavioral Effects of Sucrose on Preschool Children" that a dose of sugar equivalent to that found in a 12-ounce soda did indeed disrupt the performance of children at school. It caused their concentration levels to decrease and their inappropriate behaviors to increase. It is important to note that in 1976 the sugar industry found it was less costly to make sugar from corn than from beets or sugar cane. High fructose corn syrup has since replaced sucrose as a sweetener in many processed foods and sodas. It has been shown that fructose causes the white blood cells of the immune system to become inactive and unable to defend the body against harmful intruders. Anyone on a low carb diet should watch out for high fructose corn syrup, and avoid a sugar addiction.

4. A sugar addiction speeds up the aging process. When sugar is consumed on a regular basis the pancreas can become over stimulated and secrete too much insulin. Excess insulin can cause a drop in normal blood sugar levels, and hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, may develop. Symptoms of hypoglycemia can include fatigue, memory failure, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, tremors, headaches and depression. These may sound like diseases of the elderly, but more and more young people are noticing these things. If you notice any of these symptoms, try removing sugar from your diet and see what happens. If nothing else, eating a low carb diet with less sugar will probably give you more energy.

5. A sugar addiction can cause arthritis. Arthritis is another disease that has been linked to old age, but now there are many indications that sugar is playing a role in younger people developing arthritic symptoms. As mentioned earlier, a body that is suffering a mineral imbalance may produce inflammation in the bones, joints and cartilage due to the accumulation of toxic minerals, mostly calcium. Once again, the delicate mineral balance has been upset by too much sugar. When one mineral decreases, another may increase, and in some cases, excess calcium will end up in joints, causing arthritic spurs and other problems associated with bone diseases. Simply eliminating sugar and consuming a low carb diet, may result in weight loss which will help take some of the stress off those achy knees and ankles.

This is just a short list of the many ways that a sugar addiction creates health disasters. It is hard to avoid sugar in foods being sold at grocery stores. However, on the Internet, you can find low carb foods, healthy snacks for a child, nutrition for athletes and other all natural foods that are not loaded with refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Have you ever heard of stevia sweetener? It is the one sweetener that may actually be good for maintaining normal blood sugar levels, and healthy for anyone on a low carb diet. Stevia sweetener is not an artificial sweetener as it is made from the stevia plant. Primarily grown in Peru, stevia has been used by indigenous peoples of South America for centuries as a sweetener for their foods and beverages. So, there are ways to avoid over consumption of sugar, but it takes some awareness. Watch out for high fructose corn syrup, dextrose and dextrin to avoid sugar in many of the foods that line the shelves of grocery stores in America.

Treat Headache With Ginger

Ginger is a wonderful herb that has been used since time immemorial for treating various health complaints. Ginger has a special place in the Ayurveda and is used regularly for curing many ailments. Nowadays people are turning towards ancient and natural ways for treating almost all the ailments, as the relation between mind and body is realized. The Ayurvedic medicines were introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

You might have noticed that most of the pregnant women consume ginger on a regular basis. The reason behind this is the effectiveness of ginger in treating morning sickness and upset stomach. However ginger is one of the best natural remedies for treating headache. Indeed it is so effective and devoid of any side effects that many neurologists have started recommending it to their patients suffering from headache and migraine.

Although the mode of action of ginger in treating headache is not confirmed yet, still it was observed that ginger helps in reducing the rate of recurrence as well as the intensity of headaches in the patients who suffer from headache frequently. Ginger is an anti-inflammatory; hence it cures the inflamed blood vessels thereby reducing headache. It will be good if ginger is consumed in the very beginning of headache, with this it will act quickly and the severity of the symptoms are reduced.

In case you are suffering from gallstones, do not take ginger, as it will make the condition even worse and critical. Ginger acts as a blood thinner so in case you are already on aspirin or any other blood thinning medicines, do not consume ginger otherwise there can be chances of high blood presure, Pregnant ladies should also consume ginger under the supervision of the medical specialist.

Cayenne Pepper and Its Benefits

You must?ve heard of the now famous Cayenne Pepper diet but do you know of the many other benefits that the Cayenne pepper has to offer? The main medicinal property of Cayenne comes from a chemical called capsaicin. This is the main ingredient that gives Cayenne Peppers their heat. Other than adding heat to the capsaicin in Cayenne Peppers also help in reducing platelet sickness as well as relieving pain. Other components of Cayenne Peppers include vitamin e, c and carotenoids. So including Cayenne peppers in your diet can help improve your health.

Cayenne peppers are also used to treat a wide variety of health conditions which include poor circulation, heart disease, weak digestion, sore throats, chronic pains, weak digestion as well as tooth and head aches. If you take Cayenne Pepper with your everyday diet, it could help improve the flow of your stomach secretions as well as saliva. It also helps sooth the digestive tract.

Cayenne Pepper in your everyday diet can also increase your blood flow. It can actually increase blood flown within minutes of intake. If you have an area in your body which feels sick, it?s normally because there is some sort of blood restriction in that area. Blood flow is what brings the nutrition from your food to those places. Blood flow also carries out as well as removes all the waste material. So if there?s a blockage, blood can?t flow properly and thus you feel sick. Cayenne Pepper acts like TNT and blasts its way through whatever is blocking that area. Blood would flow properly again and with it comes the minerals and vital nutrients that the area needs. Again, Cayenne pepper is a must have in your diet.

This is why it?s not unlikely that they included Cayenne Pepper in the famous Master Cleanse diet. It?s a popular choice among dieters because of the many benefits that one can get from it. Not just the weight loss but as well as detoxifying effects that it has on the body. Just like blood flow, your digestive system should always be kept healthy. Cayenne Pepper can also help with some digestive ailments like dyspepsia. Cayenne Pepper has long been used and added in the diet of many people simply because of the many medicinal benefits that can be derived from it. There are even people, including some doctors, who tell people to always have Cayenne peppers handy as they can be great first aid relief for people suffering from a heart attack.

Not only are Cayenne peppers a great addition to your daily diet it can also help you lose weight. As proven by the Cayenne pepper and Lemon diet which was done by Beyonce and many other big named Hollywood stars. Through this diet, you?ll lose weight, get your system detoxified as well as enjoy the many health benefits that Cayenne Peppers can offer. So why not try it now? Add Cayenne peppers to your diet and see for yourself that effects it has on your health. Keep some handy for emergencies or if you have some skin ailments. Yes, it can be used on the skin too.

source : articlesbase

Green Tea Natural Healing Examined

There's much that's been documented concerning green tea and its healing qualities in recent times. Some of that evidence makes interesting conclusions, worthy of our attention.

Few of us may not realize the origins of green tea, but it may surprise you that even the Chinese knew about it's restorative properties, over 5,000 years ago, and cultivated it long before it reached the western world.

They even used it to cure headaches, but modern day studies have probed further into how green tea affects those of us who drink it on a regular basis.

Much of that garnered evidence has highlighted its protective and preventative qualities in relation to a whole host of modern day ailments and health conditions.

I call it the green tea 'triple A list', which includes antioxidant, anti inflammatory and anti carcinogenic. Let's have a quick look at the first one. The potent antioxidants inside green tea are known to help  our body fight the damage we suffer from free radicals, which if left unchecked contributes to those visible signs of aging, like wrinkles and lines.

The second star in the pack is green teas anti inflammatory powers which is better in some cases than maybe using man made formulations. Where it starts to get interesting is when experts looked at its anti carcinogenic properties. What many found was that it's preventative actions could reduce the risks of catching some forms of cancer, but nothing is so clear cut. The sheer volume of studies has some way to go and we should be wary of reading too much into any health claims in general.

But, with so many plus points in green teas favor there is surely a case for most of us to drink it a little more often, or to change our choice of beverage for the good of our health.

source : articlesbase

Important Information About a Green Tea Diet Plan

Everyone keeps telling us that green tea is one of those products that is really good for us. We often start to glaze over and lose interest since we just don't know why this is the case and they go into a long scientific spiel.

Fairly recently one of the good things about green tea that has been discovered is its ability to help people lose weight. For many people green tea can help jumpstart your weight loss program even though some would probably dismiss it as quackery.

The Basics of a Green Tea Diet Plan

Some kind of green tea product is obviously included in a green tea diet plan. A dieter typically takes a certain amount of green tea supplements along with other helpful additives as well. Green tea extracts by themselves are often used in diet pills, weight loss supplements or appetite suppressants which can help you lose weight Green Tea.

The basics are fairly simple of why exactly a green tea diet plan works. According to research, a green tea diet plan works because the green tea supplements help your body burn fat via a process called 'thermogenics.'

All green tea diet plans are going to have a standard disclaimer as with any dietary supplement. Before using this product you should consult your physician. You should do this simply because a lot of herbal supplements have the chance of interacting with prescriptions and over the counter medications which can cause adverse side effects on your body.

Using a green tea diet plan in conjunction with a sensible, healthy eating plan is another type of standard disclaimer. You obviously don't want to eat more than you were before you began dieting if you are trying to lose weight. However, for some they can justify the thought by relying on the green tea diet plan to just take care of the extra food.

There is no miracle diet plan or supplement. Weight won't melt off your body overnight; and for you diet to work you need common sense and moderation. A weight loss diet can help be supplemented by a green tea diet plan, but it can't be done all by itself. Being sensible in your eating can help your diet and a little exercise is always a good idea Green Tea Types.


source : articlesbase

The Many Anti-Aging Benefits of Green Tea

When age catches up and your skin starts sagging, no beauty therapy can come to your aid. You lose your self esteem and draw flak from your boss. Beauty has its share of goodness, even a grave mistake is easily forgiven when you are in the prime of your age. You cut a sorry figure wherever you go. However, oriental wisdom has discovered a magic potion that can curb aging.
Green tea, the wonder drug of this age is endowed with properties that can curb the ageing process. In china they have long identified the beneficial aspects of this drink. Now in the west it is fast catching up. Extracted from the Camellia Sinensis plant, an evergreen shrub, green tea undergoes minimal oxidation. Green tea made from unfermented leaves have highly concentrated anti-oxidants called polyphenols. Anti-oxidants in green tea fight free radicals in the body. Free radicals occur naturally in the body.

Environmental toxins like ultraviolet rays from the sun, smoking and radiation also release free radicals. These free radicals promote aging and cause cancer and heart diseases. The anti-oxidants in green tea can neutralize these free radicals and even reduce the damage they have done.

The super antioxidant power in green tea stimulates the immune system and slows down the aging process. When you are exhausted, the immune system is overworked and you are vulnerable to attack from viral and bacterial infection. So it is very important to protect the immune system from exhaustion to prevent diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Polyphenols in green tea can kill cancerous cells and curb their progression. In Japan people who suffer from cancer are less as they consume green tea every day. Be it a bladder cancer, stomach, breast or ovarian the polyphenols in green tea can prevent it from spreading. As green tea helps to regulate glucose in the body it can also be given to people who suffer from type 1 diabetes. Alcohol drinkers can heave a sigh of relief for green tea can protect your liver from total damage. Now booze around with your regular green tea.

The ever expanding waistline giving you sleepless nights? Just take Green tea pills and forget about it. No, it is not a joke. Green tea extracted from a shrub has the antioxidant polyphenol with thermogenic properties. It can burn those extra calories. No needs to go for sit-ups, no need for dieting; the magic of green tea pills burns away the fat without causing any side effects. Green tea can stimulate the bodies metabolism.

Now green tea comes in the form of gums and pills. If you have difficulty in sipping or don't like the flavor, then it is easy to swallow the pill. As green tea is processed by drying without fermenting the beneficial chemicals are never lost. But anything in overdose can do you harm. Caffeine content in green tea can be a cause for concern. Vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, and loss of appetite may result from overdose of caffeine. Decaffeination can to a great extent avert the side effects of drinking green tea.


source: articlesbase

Why are you Addicted to Chocolate?

Many find chocolate irresistible - including myself. We crave chocolate, we savor it, and we enjoy it. There comes the passion for chocolate - or rather the chocolate addiction.

What is the chemistry inherent in this passion or addiction? How does it make so many of us become addicted to chocolate?

The reason is simple: chocolate is an addicting drug. Scientists have found that naloxone, an opiate blocker, reduces chocolate addiction. This is strong evidence that chocolate is addictive, just like any other drug. However, chocolate is only a mild version of addicting drug - but enough to have the brain effect that creates the real, compulsive attraction.

In addition to caffeine (although not nearly as much as coffee), chocolate contains other chemicals, such as theobromine, phenylethylamine, that create marijuana-like effect on the brain. Such chemical effect of chocolate on the brain is significant and substantial, especially when the chocolate seduction is reinforced by the smell, taste, and texture of chocolate.

But the chocolate industry would like us to believe that chocolate is good for our health.

Chocolate is good for you because it comes from a fruit tree, which contains antioxidants with beneficial heart benefits, especially dark chocolate. According to the American Journal of Clinical nutrition, chocolate reduces your body's absorption of fat. In addition, chocolate contains flavonoids more potent than vitamin C in reducing your bad cholesterol.

But, is chocolate really healthy for you?

The truth of the matter is that if you absolutely love chocolate, you would like to believe anything - especially what you want to believe.

Firstly, most scientific studies on the health of chocolate are funded by the industry - a valid reason to take every positive finding with a grain of salt.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans from a fruit tree. Almost all plants contain antioxidants. If you really love antioxidants, then go for vegetables and fruits, not necessarily chocolate. The problem with chocolate is that coca beans are so bitter that loads of fat and sugar are added to make chocolate taste good and sweet. As a result, chocolate is loaded with calories, sixty percent of which come from fat, which contributes to cholesterol increase and weight gain. One ounce of chocolate contains as much as one-hundred-fifty calories with forty to fifty percent fat. M&M semisweet baking chocolate contains a whopping almost four hundred calories, over ten grams of saturated fat and more than forty grams of sugar! Do you honestly think these ingredients are healthy for you?

In addition, chocolate, which contains caffeine, not only irritates your kidneys and thins your blood, but also changes your mood.

Chocolate is unhealthy due to its unhealthy ingredients, which may cause headaches, obesity, heartburn, and emotional problems. If you must eat chocolate occasionally, go for quality ones, not the cheap ones which are mostly sugar, trans fats, artificial colorings, flavorings, and preservatives. Read the label! Watch out for additives and added fats! Or simply resist the chocolate temptation, if you can!

Eat chocolate just because you like it, and not because it is healthy!

If chocolate does not make you any healthier, does it make you happier?

A study of self-confessed chocolate addicts found that chocolate could give them a sense of contentment. However, the pleasure was accompanied by a sense of guilt, which could trigger an eating disorder. Worse, chocolate cravings were not driven by hunger: they binged on chocolate even when they were full.

If you crave chocolate only occasionally, you need not be overtly concerned. However, if you binge on chocolate, it could spell trouble down the road. Chocolate can do a lot more than just packing on the pounds if the addiction intensifies. The addictive effects differ from one person to the next. So it is of paramount importance that you pay attention to how chocolate affects your mood.

Kopi Luwak: The Most Luxurious Coffee From Indonesia

Kopi Luwak is the most luxurious coffee in the world and you'll find that no other place in the world has come to appreciate that more than its home country. A native coffee from Indonesia, this is one of their most cherished and rarest of gifts to the world and a national crop that was once kept from them. The history of coffee in Indonesia is as unusual as the national history of the country itself and is as large a part of their culture today as that rich history.

Coffee came to Indonesia in the 1600s through Dutch colonists who came to reside and rule there at the time. The colonists had brought coffee beans with them and found that the world's largest archipelago was also the world' best location for growing the coffee plant. Coffee from Indonesia became a major export of the region as the plants enjoyed the rich climate and long growing season (these plants could provide a full 12 month cycle) to afford the colonists a major trade resource. Unfortunately coffee from Indonesia was not profitable to its people in that time and actually led to a decreased amount of essential staples such as rice that the islanders needed for food.

Over time, the islanders grew to know and appreciate this new crop however and in time (shortly after World War II) ownership of the profits and benefits of the plants became theirs. No one knew the island's distinctive wet and dry season like its people and no plant grew to flourish so clearly in this tropical environment as the coffee of Indonesia. The most luxurious coffee in the world is still grown in the region today and more than 300,000 tons of coffee comes from this region alone each year.

The most luxurious coffee grown in Indonesia is the Kopi Luwak or civet coffee that is produced exclusively in the region. More than any other coffee from Indonesia, civet coffee is known as a rare and truly remarkable treat! This is because of the unusual circumstances of how it comes to be made. Most coffee has a strong bitter flavor that is often masked with the aid of additives like sugar and cream. However, Kopi Luwak does not have this strong bitter taste and offers a smooth and delicious alternative to regular coffee. This is because of the special way the most luxurious coffee in world is processed.

This unique and delicious coffee from Indonesia comes from a tree that grows red coffee berries. These berries are a popular treat for the Asian Palm Civet who then ingests only the best and ripest of these berries and passes them through its digestive tract. Once there, the bitter proteins which affect many coffees are stripped away to leave a bean which has been described as chocolaty, smooth and delicious. This amazing process goes on from there. The rare beans are harvested, carefully and thoroughly cleaned and dried by the warmth of the sun. Indonesia us indeed home to the most luxurious coffee grown in the world!

Profound Effects of Green Tea Dieting

For centuries now, the benefits of green tea diets have been the subject of countless writings and scientific investigations.

More than four thousand years ago, green tea diet has become a staple beverage for most Asians because of its countless health and medicinal benefits. It is said that the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was the first one to have discovered green tea diet. Emperor Shen Nung was reported to have been boiling water when some leaves of a nearby plant fell into his pot. The leaves actually came from Camellia sinensis, the herb from which green tea diet is extracted.

Having a green tea diet is associated with several health benefits. One of the benefits of having a green tea diet is providing a potential cure for cancer. According to some studies, certain substances in green tea diet can destroy cancer cells without harming any neighboring healthy tissues. This substance in green tea diets is called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

The results of the study on the cancer benefit of green tea diets were astounding and it led to further more researches that investigate other aspects of green tea diet. In a study conducted by American and Swiss scientists in the University of Geneva, it has been found that the EGCG found in green tea diets can increase the 24-hour energy expenditure of the body. They concluded that this is due to the ability of antioxidants present in green tea diet to stimulate thermogenesis, otherwise known as fat metabolism. According to their findings, people who were on a green tea diet exhibited a significant four percent increase in their normal metabolic rates. This led the scientists to conclude that green tea diet has a major contributing factor in weight loss

Another study conducted in China was designed to investigate further on green tea diet's weight loss benefit. They decided that since green tea diet can significantly increase fat metabolism, then green tea diet probably would help lowering down cholesterol levels as well. Their hypothesis was proven when they introduced green tea diet on 240 people with mild to extremely high cholesterol levels. After only twelve weeks, they observed that those on a green tea diet dropped sixteen percent in their cholesterol levels.

Based on the above study, it can also be hypothesized that green tea diet can cure obesity. Green tea diet's catechin polyphenols can delay the reaction of gastric and pancreatic lipases in the body. These enzymes are the ones responsible for storing calories into fats in the body. By delaying these enzymes, green tea diets can therefore lessen fat concentration and prevent obesity in people.

This being a truly remarkable nutritional supplement, green tea dieting is used to improve the body's health in many ways. Further studies were made on the benefits of green tea diets. The latest ones were able to prove that green tea diet can effectively protect the skin from damage due to ultraviolet light radiation. Green tea diet is also widely recognized as a substance that can protect against many different cancers such as stomach cancer, ovarian cancer, cancer of the colon, oral cancer, prostate cancer, and breast and cervical cancers.

Friday, April 23, 2010

What Are The Most Expensive Coffee Beans

Have you ever wondered if there are coffee beans that are too difficult to obtain because of their expensiveness? If you think that drinking an Espresso or any other designer coffee from one of best coffee shops that charge you around $5 for each cup, makes it the most expensive, then you are dead wrong. The amount you paid for your coffee does not even have anything to do with the price of the most expensive coffee beans in the world. Yes, those coffee beans are that expensive.

The most expensive beans do not come from Hawaii, South America or Brazil, mind you. They come from the islands of Indonesia. It is called Kopi Luwak. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is the name of the animal that partly eats, digests and excretes the coffee bean. The meticulous process in itself is what makes Kopi Luwak the most expensive coffee in the world. Coffee connoisseurs will swear by the fact that the red raw coffee came from the Luwak, an animal that somewhat resembles a weasel. The animal then digests the outer part and waits for the Luwak to excrete the inner beans. It does sound a bit gross to a lot of people when they hear it.

Thanks to the internal digestion process that takes place in the Luwak's body, it gives the beans its distinct, flavorful, rich taste. According to those who have already sampled a cup of the Kopi Luwak, the excreted beans have a more unique flavor to it and the bitterness of the bean is no longer as evident. After they have been excreted by the animal, the locals pick them up and sell them to markets. A pound of Kopi Luwak can sell for as much as $600 and a cup of it can cost you around $50.

One of the most expensive coffee in the world comes from the Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama. A pound of the red coffee beans costs around $140. The beans at the Hacienda are considered to be the "Best of Panama" and as like any other of the most expensive coffees in the world, is also a Cup of Excellence winner. The Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha beans as it is called grow under the shade of guava tress and is bought for its rich aroma and flavor. It set an online record back in 2006 when the unroasted beans sold for $50 per pound at an online auction.

The next on the list that most people would have no trouble recalling would be the beans from the Island of St. Helena. The beans are sold for around $80 per pound and owe its popularity to Bonaparte who loved drinking it when he was in the island during his exile.

These are just some of the most expensive coffee beans that are available around the world. If you are new to the world of coffee drinking, perhaps you can sample one of them and see if they are really worth being as expensive as they are.

source : articlesbase

Ginger Spice Induces Hara-Kiri In Leukemia Cells

Wouldn't it be nice to know that every time you took a mouthful of healthy food any cancer cells lurking in your body would take fright and commit suicide?

Well that's probably what happens when you drink a bottle of REAL ginger ale, have a cup of ginger tea or eat a bunch of those delicious slices of pink ginger with your sushi meal. This is more or less what occurs according to new research published in the February 2010 edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Those of us who keep an eye on these things have known for many years that several compounds found in the ginger rhizome have anti-cancer activity. Phytonutrients such as zingerone, gingerol, curcumin and paradol have strong anti-mutagenic activity. Not only do they protect against DNA damage and the inflammation that underlies most types of cancer, but they also have the ability to kill existing cancer cells.

Now researchers based in Taiwan and the USA have discovered that another ginger-based compound, shogaol also has powerful anti-cancer activities.

Shogaol - the Japanese name for ginger - is a pungent compound similar to gingerol that contributes to this spice's delicious flavor. More importantly, the researchers have found that this compound has the ability to induce leukemia cells to commit hara-kiri - or as the scientists like to call it - apoptosis.

Human cells have a built-in timer, the HRK (hara-kiri) gene that programs them to die within a given time frame. This process is called apoptosis - and, as cancer cells do not have this lifespan limiting factor programmed into their DNA, they are more or less immortal and continue to proliferate.

However, in spices such as ginger we have allies that can actually induce apoptosis in several cancer cell lines. By means of several mechanisms these compounds have the ability to interfere with cancer at both DNA and cellular level thereby inducing apoptosis in a number of different malignancies.

Ginger based shogaol now joins this elite group of cancer fighting compounds as this current laboratory-based research shows that it has the ability to induce apoptosis in human leukemia cells.

It will be a long time before anyone will be using shogaol in clinical trials to see if it can successfully treat existing malignancies such as leukemia. However this research does reiterate what many of us have been saying for a long time - that common, culinary herbs and spices contain compounds that have the ability to protect us against cancer and several other diseases.

In the mean time we need to look at this research from a preventive rather than a therapeutic perspective. The evidence is there and to benefit from it we need to make a commitment to increase our daily intake of beneficial culinary herbs and spices such as ginger.

Chocolate Truffles - Long and Delicious History

The chocolate truffle is number one on every repertoire of richly decadent goodies ever found on earth! This scrumptious chocolate candy has been one of the most popular forms of chocolate for quite a few centuries. At the heart of the chocolate truffle lies a superb history, right from its origins in France to its travels across Europe and its entrance into America and the rest of the world.

The year 1828 was deemed to be the greatest year in the history of chocolate-making, due to a new innovation called the cocoa press, which solidified chocolate by removing the cocoa butter. However, the most important period in the history of the chocolate truffle was 1879, the year Henri Nestle created the first milk chocolate.

Soon after, experiments on this milk chocolate conducted by chocolate producers in France and Switzerland led to the creation of the Ganache, which is essentially a combination of cream and solid chocolate melted together to form a smooth, velvety mixture. In the modern era, this ganache has become the inner core and heart of the chocolate truffle. 

Since the origins of the chocolate truffle were in France, it follows logic that the name should be French too! The truffle is a small wild mushroom found growing near tree roots in the deepest forests of France. Since the chocolate truffle resembles this little mushroom so much, the creators of this masterpiece decided that it should be named after it.

What’s relatively unknown is the fact that the actual truffle was an exquisite dish; very expensive and eaten only by the royals and the extremely wealthy folks of France. Giving the new chocolate creation this name automatically elevated it to that status. And until today, the chocolate truffle is associated with wealth and luxury. 

The chocolate truffle soon found its way past the borders of France, into the welcoming lands of Europe. It became the newest sensation, tantalizing everyone with its sumptuous richness. Not long after, it was introduced to North America, and most other parts of the world.

By the early 1900s, many chocolate producers worldwide had begun making their own chocolate truffles to compete with the originals. Although they are all made in the same manner, no one makes them better than the French! This fact has been proven by the chocolate truffle contest held there every year. Entries from all the regions of France make an appearance in this contest, putting to shame other chocolate truffles!

A veritable treat for the palate, chocolate truffles are easy to make, scrumptious to taste, and lovely to present! There are many different types of chocolate truffles out there today, ranging from the original basic ones to the semi-sweet to the liquor-based. The difference in the making of the ganache leads to the extreme varieties of the chocolate truffle. 

There are three main types of chocolate truffles: American, Swiss and European. These types vary both in the method of producing the ganache, as well as in the basic ingredients used for the ganache. While the American chocolate truffle is essentially basic using milk and dark chocolate, the European version uses thick syrup of cocoa powder and butter. The Swiss type is completely different and makes use of dairy cream, which drastically reduces its shelf life.

The different types of chocolate truffles that can be found on most online chocolate shopping sites include dark chocolate classic truffles, milky almond truffles, chocolate cinnamon truffles, champagne truffles and French Chocolate truffles!

Chocolate truffles make a great chocolate dessert, and are usually served with fresh fruit, or on a sliver tray lined with sprigs of mint. These chocolate candies are extremely popular in chocolate gift baskets, creating an impression of luxury and caring. Other instances where the chocolate truffles can be enjoyed are high teas, breakfast on vacations, romantic picnics, or after a hard day at work!

The chocolate truffle has become synonymous to the quintessential luxury candy of the modern world. This creamy, buttery, smooth chocolate ganache rolled in semi-sweet cocoa powder has shown the world that heaven truly does exist on earth: And it is easily obtained by popping a chocolate truffle into your mouth!

Source : articlesbase

Sugarfree Chocolates

The beginnings of chocolate began in the ancient cultures of the Mayas and the Aztecs, who spent over five hundred years drinking it without sugar. Not until it was introduced to Europe that chocolate was sweetened for the refined palate that wanted a richer taste.  Fast forward two thousand years, and we’ve gone back to where it all started - sugarfree chocolate!

Although sugar-free chocolate was not very popular initially, more and more people are shifting over to it for numerous health benefits. In fact, the number of sugar free chocolates being consumed by consumers has been growing dramatically as have the number of chocolatiers that are creating new and gourmet sugarfree chocolates. Weight-watching has become an unconscious norm in our society, and with sugar-free chocolate candies, chocoholics can finally get their daily fix of chocolate with less worry about their waistlines.

Chocolate, and particularly dark chocolate, can actually be very healthy for you.  There are new studies coming out regularly regarding the benefits of chocolate to your health.  However, you have to be careful because the sugar content in it tends to wipe out any health benefits gained! Sugarfree chocolate choices are easier to find online, as compared to supermarkets. While supermarkets have a range of sugar-free and portion-controlled chocolate bars, the selection and quality of available sugarfree chocolates is greater when you are online shopping.

While there are a number of sweetners on the market, the main ingredient that most chocolate companies use in lieu of sugar is maltitol. Maltitol is essentially a type of sugar alcohol, and is a substitute for the actual sugar in sugar-free chocolates. According to research, the sugar replacement contains other compounds such as mannitol, xylitol and sorbitol.

Chocolates containing this sugar alcohol are also frequently referred to as diabetic chocolates. This is due to the fact that this sugar replacement cannot be absorbed into the blood-stream, and hence does not require insulin to break it down. So, for the diabetic chocoholics out there, there’s no call to curb those urges! Eaten in reasonable quantities, diabetic’s can enjoy a delicious gourmet chocolate break as well!

Although most chocolate companies do produce sugar-free products, they require that you read the possible side-effects from these. Eaten in large quantities, these products can have laxative effect.  Since the sugar replacement cannot be absorbed into the blood-stream, it passes through the digestive system quickly! It’s a good way to make sure that you pay attention to portion control when enjoying your sweet treat -

When watching your weight or paying attention to calories and carbs, every calorie counts! With sugarfree chocolates, you’re saving yourself a little bit of extra working out per week and still having a delicious chocolate treat once in awhile.  However, you should keep in mind that although the sugar content is gone, these chocolates still contain cocoa butter, which contains a lot of saturated fat! So keep to the limits!

There are many, many different types of sugar-free chocolate candies. White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate lollipops, chocolate truffles, chocolate turtles, chocolate kisses, are all types of chocolate candies that can be produced sugar-free! While some companies specialize in sugar free chocolate candies, others produce only traditional chocolates. The trick is to know which sugarfree ones provide the best candies!

There are some sugar free chocolates that taste exactly like the traditional chocolates.   By using high quality ingredients and delicious flavors, these gourmet sugar free chocolates taste delicious and you can not notice that they are missing the sugar!  Due to the quality and cost of the ingredients, these products will be more expensive than supermarket type products.  However, when you want to truly enjoy some delicious sugarfree chocolates, these will truly satisfy!

In the making of sugar-free chocolates at home, always remember that the key ingredient for having sweet tasting candies is sugar alcohol! This can be obtained at most grocery stores or online shopping sites. You can get this as powder or liquid form. However, when making this type of chocolate it is slightly more difficult as compared to traditional chocolates.

Source : articlesbase

Peacock Bass Fisheries in the Amazon

One of the largest, most productive and most exciting peacock bass fisheries in the Amazon has essentially lain fallow for three years in a row. Starting with the unusually severe drought of 2005 and then followed by two years of failed negotiations with the resident tribal leaders, the Igapo Acu region of the Rio Madeira basin hasn't seen a fishing lure in quite some time. It's natural for anglers to expect a fishery to respond to such a long period of disuse by a measurable rise in productivity when they finally return. Well, it certainly did respond, but it went way beyond simply measurable. It went way beyond any of our expectations. We found ourselves in the midst of a gigantic protected reserve full of wild and aggressive peacocks. You can almost guess what happened next.


We caught enormous numbers of fish! We caught them on everything, jigs and plugs and stick baits and especially propbaits. These peacocks were so aggressive that they struck woodchoppers and riprollers and Caribe pavon props with total abandon. The only reason anglers might catch more on other baits was that it simply takes longer to unhook fish from the big propeller lures. The amazing productivity and the sheer fun of catching hundreds of these wild predators each week made even experienced anglers giddy with excitement. The tremendous numbers of fish we landed during our stay in the region surprised even our most grizzled veteran peacock fishermen.


Our first group arrived to slightly high water levels that were dropping steadily, creating perfect fishing conditions. Eight anglers combined for a total of 2,349 peacocks during the week, with plenty of big trophies landed - and plenty more lost! 21 peacocks over 10 pounds were weighed in. Could it possibly get better? It did!
The 2008 fall dry season has been very normal and predictable in the southern Amazon Basin. Coupled with a remarkably bountiful fishery, conditions were ripe for a repeat performance by our second group. They outdid themselves. The presence of a core cadre of seasoned peacock fishermen, together with the great conditions yielded a total of 3,796 peacock bass for the week. One pair of anglers ended the week with a mindboggling total of 910 peacock bass for the week!
The Igapo Acu has long been noted for its high numbers, good average size and the ever-looming presence of huge trophy peacocks. This vast Indian reservation is closed to commercial fishing and all other non-affiliated sportfishing operations. The Blackwater Explorer roams over several hundred miles of prime peacock bass water here in four big, lagoon studded rivers and a huge flooded forest lake. Even though the region is recognized as one of Brazil's premier peacock bass fisheries, it surely outdid itself this season.


If you think you can handle the kinds of numbers we've experienced, then this is the trip for you. Not only is the fishing great, but our logistical advantages here, combined with the Blackwater Explorers capaciousness and efficiency allows us to offer this superior trip at a far lower price than we can manage in other fisheries. Great fishing, low price, comfort and security - Amazon Angling's Igapo Acu peacock bass trip is the best value in the Amazon.

Source : articlesbase