In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon set out to find the Fountain of Youth, a legendary spring that could keep people from aging. What he found instead was Florida. Nevertheless, his quest is one that still exists today. Though most of us do not take the extreme measures of de Leon, we still want to know the secret of youth. One of these secrets is vegetable glycerin.

Vegetable glycerin is a type of compound derived from vegetable oil, most often coconut or palm. It is very easy to produce which makes it a common compound in all kinds of things including food, hair care products and makeup.

Depending on its use, vegetable glycerin has many benefits. The following are just a few:
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It doesn’t take a health nut to know that herbal teas are all the rage. They are healthy, tasty, varied, and a great substitute to your morning cup of coffee. But, surprisingly, they are also quite easy to make.

One of the great things about easy to make herbal teas is the control: you can include or omit the herbs you want. If you are hoping to stimulate your mind, you can include vanilla. If you are hoping to fight off a cold, you can include sage. If you are hoping to soothe an upset stomach, you can include lemongrass. Basically, if you have an ailment, you can find a herb to assist you in beating it.
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We don’t have to be dieticians to know that vegetables and herbs are a good source of nutrition for our bodies. The one draw back, for many, is that fresh vegetables and herbs go bad quickly, often before we can eat them. This leaves us with a predicament: we either go to the grocery store every few days, or we buy in bulk, and risk wasting food and money. Luckily, there is also a third choice: finding dried herbs for sale.

Dried herbs are a great way to add flavor to your lunch and dinner without adding a lot of other things you might not want, such as fat, calories, sodium or cholesterol. Though many herbs and spices have distinct flavors and tastes, nothing is set in stone. You can mix and match herbs to get just about any flavor, including those you’ve made up on your own.
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Going to the local coffee shop and ordering a Chai tea almost seems like cheating on your health: surely, you tell yourself, a cup of Chai tea is considered splurging. You won’t, you promise, do this all the time.

But, the above doesn’t have to apply to you, the Chai lover. Luckily for the avid drinker, it turns out that Chai tea is actually quite good for you.

The health benefits of Chai tea are many. The following is just a taste:
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When it comes to tea, there are all kinds of varieties that people drink. Some go for Earl Gray, some love green tea. Some people can’t live without mint tea, others opt for simple black tea. And, of course, some people are all about Long Island iced teas. Then, there are those who drink tea that many of us have not yet heard of. They sip chenopodium tea. Let us help you learn some of the basics of this unfamiliar tea.

Chenopodium tea is also called Epazote tea or Mexican tea. In some instances, it goes by the less flattering names of wormseed, or pigweed. No matter what you want to call it, one things remains the same: it is filled with benefits.

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From old fashioned blueberries to the fad of the acai berry, berries, when it comes to health, have us surrounded. While this is true, not all berries are as well known as the strawberry or the raspberry. Take, for instance, the cedar berry. Chances are, you don’t know a lot about this berry and the benefits you are missing out on.

Cedar berries are a berry of many aliases. They sometimes go by one-seed juniper, cherrystone juniper, New Mexico Cedar, West Texas Juniper, or their scientific name, Juniperus monospermous. Whatever you want to call them, cedar berries hail from the cedar berry tree, a tree with a long history in Native American medicine.

The cedar berry tree is great at flourishing in places of poor soil and can often thrive where other trees suffer. In many instances, the cedar berry tree reaches heights of twenty five feet.

The cedar berry tree is found in the Southwestern US, including New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. In the former, New Mexico, these trees run rampant and cover nearly seventy five percent of the state.

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In the past years, the benefits of green tea have been well publicized: when it comes to health, green tea has gotten all the credit as other teas sit on the sidelines, steaming with jealously. While this press may have been warranted – green tea has been shown to be beneficial to your wellness – it is certainly not the only tea worth sipping. Shu Mee White Tea, for instance, is just as good for you and, in some instances, may even be more beneficial than its green counterpart.

Shu Mee White Tea, in addition to being good for your health, may also be good for your taste buds; it is grown and preserved in a manner that causes it to lose the grassy taste many green teas possess. For this reason, many health seekers find it, quite literally, easier to swallow.

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I don’t know about you but the winter is an awful time for me in regards to skin care. Much like so many others, I suffer from dry skin and cracks in skin because of the dry air and cold winds. As it gets colder, dryer and windier, it’s critical to protect your skin from the elements.

It becomes very important to take proper care of your skin in the winter. One way to make sure your skin stays healthy and beautiful is by using essential oil blends. Essential oils will ensure you and your skin will look dazzling and attractive.

Essential oils have many wonderful uses. You’ll find many of these oils found in aromatherapy products, perfumes, creams, lotions, and bath products. They are used to promote mental health and relaxation along with physical health. Plus, the aroma they give off is absolutely splendid.

Did you know that essential oils are a great therapy for achieving better skin? It’s true. Essential oil blends hold many vitamins which strengthen and rejuvenate your skin. Normally only a few drops are essential oils needed.

Here are a few easy skin care tips you can do in your own home using essential oil blends:

• Try adding eight to ten drops of essential oils into your next bath. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting in a hot bath filled with hot water and essential oils. Another option is to use cool water and essential oil blends to calm an inflammation.
• Try massaging parts of your body with an essential oil. About twenty to twenty-five drops of essential oil with two ounces of canola or any other vegetable oil works great.
• Essential oils are great for facial compresses. Put two to five drops of essential oil in a basin filled with water, stir, and soak it all up with a clean washcloth. Squeeze out any excess water and apply the washcloth to your face. Sit back and relax.
• Use essential oils along with moisturizing products. Ten to twenty drops for every two ounces works best.

I recommend using all of these beauty tips. These are so many different uses for essential oil blends that it would fill up this entire blog! Try some this winter. Your dry skin will thank you for it.

Did you know that there are some spices which can give your body warmth? These are commonly known as winter spices. Adding these spices to your diet on a daily basis can make a big difference in how warm your body temperature is, especially during those cold winter days.

You’ll be surprised at how many winter meals incorporate these ingredients without you even realizing. Some warming spices may not be a shock. Others will leave you wondering if they really do make a difference. Here are just a few:

Nuts and Seeds
Peanuts and almonds are the easiest of the items on this list to incorporate into your diet. Have a few soaked almonds or a handful of peanuts as a snack and give your body a deep warmth that stands up to the coldest winter winds.

Eat some seeds such as sesame, pumpkin and fennel. Sesame seeds are found in many dishes, like green beans or chicken. Pumpkin seeds make for a tasty snack. Seeds are also good for the digestive system.

Spices
Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and pepper are great examples of a warming bulk spice. Ground cinnamon is frequently added for a delicious and sweet flavor to many of our baked foods. Cinnamon sticks provide a wonderful taste to warm beverages, like tea.

Cloves are warming and also a useful mouth freshener. Cloves hold many antiseptic properties. Not only do they fight bad breath, but they also keep other parts of your body healthy. Next time you make soup or cook vegetables, add some ginger to help include this spice into your daily diet.

When we think of pepper, we think of nothing but warmth. Add a touch of pepper onto your foods instead of salt.

These are just a few of the items known as winter spices so frequently used to ward off that cold winter chill. The next time you come in from the cold and curl up under a warm blanket to fight off the winter chill consider purchasing wholesale spices to have on hand for use in in daily cooking. You will definitely be amazed at how great they work.