What is the Importance of Eating Artichokes?

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Consider your body a machine for a moment. Just a moment though, you can see the importance of eating healthy. All the fuel this machine gets is from the food you eat. Just as a machine wouldn't run optimally with low grade fuel, neither does your body. For that reason, it is thus clear why we need some sort of fuel to make us healthy. For healthy individuals, these can be anything that has high nutrition content. At the top of our list are vegetables like artichokes.

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What are artichokes? Artichoke originated in the Mediterranean countries and was a popular delicacy at Roman feasts. It is now grown in many hot areas and is an important crop in parts of California. A good artichoke will have a nice color, well closed centre leaves and be without bruises or blemishes.

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The base should be without any tendency to woodiness. Artichoke is often eaten raw as well as cooked, but cooking artichokes in an aluminum pot causes discoloration and blackening. Like other plants in the thistle family, to which it belong, the artichoke contains some therapeutically valuable oils which have a strong stabilizing effect on the human metabolism. There are lots of different recipes out there that will have you cooking artichokes in many different ways, but if you want a simply way cook them you only need a large pot of boiling water. In this case, simply salt the water, dump the vegetables inside of it, and cook them until they are slightly tender. Otherwise, you may find other methods that are more appealing.

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Essentially, preparing these vegetables is a lot like preparing any other type of veggie. All you really need to remember is not to overcook them. This means that you can steam, broil, and even grill them as long as you respect their cooking time. In fact, while most people have no trouble cooking them, almost everyone is confused when it comes to eating them. If you have ever seen this vegetable on a menu, but you are not sure how to eat it, here is one simple technique: take each petal off, place your teeth on the "meat," and allow your teeth to slide off of the meat grasping the insides.

While it may seem time consuming, cooking artichokes (and eating them) is well worth it if they are in season. Also, you may come across a lot of recipes that use the actual "choke" part of this vegetable. If you are going to make one of those recipes, be sure to take off all the small, fuzzy, parts that could literally cause you to choke. Other than that one caution, these veggies are worth all the trouble in the world for just a few moments of delicious pleasure.

You can serve these vegetables with a bit of melted butter, or you can eat them with lemon and olive oil. Either way, give them a shot - you will soon discover a great new vegetable that is heavenly to dine upon. Look for ones that are free of brown spots and are covered with lots of green leafy vegetables.

What is the Importance of Eating Artichokes?

South Beach Diet Recipe