Chameleons: Your Secret is out….!!!!

We know that the Chameleons are lizards that are part of the scientific family called Chamaeleonidae which can change their colour… How do chameleons change their colour? Swiss scientists have found the answer to this riddle.

Most people believe that Chameleons blend with nature to escape from predators … But is it really so??  Chameleon can run up to 21 miles per hour and can avoid most predators quite easily.  Therefore camouflage is their secondary function. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly bring about a chameleon's change in colour. The chameleon will most often change between green, brown and grey, which coincidently often match the background colors of their habitat. The amazing features of chameleon are more. They also have parrot-like feet, eyes that can look in two different directions at once and long tongues and tails.

Earlier claim was that chameleons change their colour by manipulating specialized cells called chromophores that contain different colors of pigment. But latest version is something interesting and new. The newest study shows that chameleons have a mobile “lattice” of nanocrystals on the surface of their skin, which come together and disperse thereby shifting the wavelength of light reflected by the reptile. Researchers reveal chameleons use futuristic nanotechnology to carry out their extraordinary colour changes.

To discover how the chameleons switch from one colour to another, the researchers employed both quantum physics and in evolutionary biology. Scientists from University of Geneva studied the panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis), native to Madagascar, which has one of the most impressive colour displays in the chameleon kingdom. They studied the skin of the lizards using spectroscopy and have found that the lizards possess a layer of skin cells that contain floating nanocrystals. The tiny crystals called iridophores are roughly evenly spaced throughout the cell and this spacing determines the wavelength of light that the cells reflect. Iridophores contains nanocrystals made of guanine, one of the four key components of DNA.

The guanine nanocrystals are arranged in a lattice throughout the cell, the spacing of which determines the cell’s colour. I.e. chameleons switch colour from green to red by actively changing the spacing between these tiny cellular crystals. When the chameleon is calm, the crystals were found to be organised into a dense network, reflecting blue wavelengths most strongly. When excited, the chameleon was found to loosen its lattice of nanocrystals by about 30%, allowing the reflection of yellows or reds. The chameleons change the structural arrangement of the cells by relaxing or exciting the skin, which leads to a change in colour.

Besides the layer of iridophores an additional layer where the cells were much bigger and more chaotically organised is also spotted. This layer reflects infrared light which prevent the chameleon getting too hot in the tropical sun. I.e. why chameleon is really cool…

"Chameleons invented something completely new in evolution," Prof Milinkovitch of the university, said." They split the iridophores into two layers, one that is specialised for colour change... and one to reduce the amount of energy absorbed by the animal.

While the new study sheds some light on the chameleon, there's still a lot of confusion regarding the animal. The scientists are yet to work out how chameleons cause this change, but it could be due to cells shrinking or expanding, giving the crystals more or less space to fill. More investigations may need in this matter to unveil the mystery further…

Drink Water Eat Bottle…!!!

           

        The ever-growing pile of plastic water bottles can now be stopped. Edible Water bottles are on their way… Inspired by techniques from molecular gastronomy, the Ooho is a magical way to have your bottled water and eat it, too. Ooho is the biodegradable blob bottle that could help to eliminate one of the world’s biggest environmental threats- plastic pollution. 

          This will mark as the beginning of the end of plastic pollution. The Ooho orbs are meant to reduce carbon emissions thus ending epidemic plastic pollution. The Ooho bottle's composition has been likened to that of a jellyfish or a breast implant. Due to it being biodegradable, even if you didn't want to eat the bottle, throwing it away still wouldn't have a negative effect on the environment.

          Instead of creating a bottle and then filling it with water, the design student Rodrigo García González and his team has created an edible Ooho water bottle. This may look simpler on the surface, but they created thousands of prototypes before in an attempt to slowly perfect the prototype. They used a process that allows the bottle to take shape as it coalesces around the liquid.

         González and his team first took a frozen ball of water and dipped it into a calcium chloride solution, which formed a gelatinous layer. Then, the ball is soaked in sodium alginate, another solution made from brown algae extract, which encapsulated the ice in a second squishy membrane to reinforce the structure. Keeping the water in the algae solution for long periods of time allows the mold to become thicker and stronger. This refreshing drink of water doesn’t require a separate vessel like a bottle or a cup.

           

I.e. the water is encapsulated in a double gelatinous membrane. This double membrane protects hygienically the inside and allows locating between the two layers identification labels without any adhesive. . It is said to work like an egg yolk and holds its shape very well for being such a thin membrane. Thus final package is simple, cheap (2ct/unit), resistant, hygienic, biodegradable and even eatable. The method is adapted from a culinary technique known as spherification, the technique of shaping liquids into spheres, first pioneered in labs in 1946.

           Even though plastic offers a convenient solution, it generated enormous amount of waste and health hazard. Ooho is more like a fruit. One blob contains about 4cl of water, the equivalent of a sip. Several of these are packaged in a similar thicker membrane, like the skin of an orange. Therefore makes transporting the object more difficult than a regular bottle of water. Other challenges include figuring out how to make the bottle re-sealable which makes it a one-serving one-time-use item.

            Preparing these things at home also has a climate benefit, as it doesn't involve the fossil fuels and CO2 emissions of the bottle-manufacturing process. The Ooho is a simple and inexpensive alternative to plastic packaging. So simple, in fact, the designers predict that consumers will eventually cook them up in their own kitchens. Although the shape isn’t a typical water bottle, the designers are hopeful that they can scale their product for commercial distribution.

    In an ideal world, Ooho would replace the 50 billion plastic bottles that Americans consume each year. Of course Ooho is a valiant effort in the name of the environment. It signals the beginning of a new way to think about food packing.The Ooho is a creative, healthy, and earth conscience alternative to plastic water bottles. Made of natural ingredients Calcium and Brown Algae, it’s something cheap, sustainable, and durable. This will have a positive impact on the world. In fact the designers predict that consumers will eventually cook them up in their own kitchens.

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A chemical Found in Ayahuasca would reverse Diabetes

   Every year more than 380 million people are affected by Types 1 and 2 diabetes worldwide . Diabetics are a group of metabolic diseases in which the person has high blood glucose (blood sugar), either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body's cells do not respond properly to insulin, or both. Patients with high blood sugar will typically experience polyuria (frequent urination), they will become increasingly thirsty (polydipsia) and hungry (polyphagia). A new line of treatment for diabetes was found by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai …  They found a chemical  in ayahuasca has the potential to regenerate pancreas cells that have been lost to diabetes.

       Islets are clusters of cells scattered throughout the pancreas, which include cells that sense sugar in the blood. Within each islet are several types of cells, which work together to regulate blood sugar. One cell type is the beta cell. Beta cells sense sugar in the blood and release the necessary amount of insulin to maintain normal blood sugar levels. The loss of these cells means the body can no longer produce insulin, the hormone required to convert food into energy for the body’s cells. 

       Although many drugs exist to control the symptoms of diabetes, currently there is no reliable way to replace beta cells and cure the disease. So the best possible way is Beta cell regeneration. This can be done in two ways: stem cells- create stem cells and then transplant them or take a drug that makes your own beta cells grow. Even though the stem cell transplant research is promising, it involves an invasive procedure and it has difficulty in meeting massive demands.

        Currently, there are many medications/drugs that can control the symptoms of diabetes but there is no reliable drug or chemical that can successfully replicate the beta cells.The latest researchers show that a new drug called harmine triggered beta cell growth. Harmine occurs naturally in a number of plants around the world. It’s one of the ingredients in the psychoactive mixture ayahuasca, which is used by some indigenous people for religious purposes. It is found that be potentially used to regenerate lost pancreatic cells, which would then reverse diabetes.

       Loss of insulin-producing beta cells has long been recognized as a cause of Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys beta cells. In recent years, researchers have concluded that a deficiency of functioning beta cells also contributes importantly to Type 2 diabetes. Thus, developing drugs that can increase the numbers of healthy beta cells is a major priority in diabetes research. This chemical is showing the most promising result in treatment of types 1 and 2 diabetes.

        Andrew Stewart, the director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City says, "In children and adults with type 1 diabetes, they have lost 99 percent of their beta cells, so they cannot make enough insulin. That's the cause of their diabetes."

      As humans develop, each cell divides into two, leading to many more cells in subsequent generations as organs form. In the case of beta cells in the pancreas, most of this multiplication comes in a burst during the first year of life and then declines during childhood, leaving a limited supply to last a lifetime. During this burst, about two percent of a child’s beta cells are dividing at any one time. The current study found that harmine re-creates roughly the same amount of beta cell division, both in cell and animal tests.

       To confirm that harmine would cause beta cell growth, the team took islets from the pancreases of deceased human organ donors. Then, they transplanted the islets into diabetic mice. They used far fewer than were necessary to cure the mice’s diabetes. Dosing the mice with harmine triggered the beta cells to multiply enough that they could restore the mice’s blood sugar levels to normal.

     Stewart cautions that harmine itself isn't the answer. Instead, harmine might inspire similar drugs that hone in on beta cells and leave the rest of the body, especially the brain, alone.

       The researchers identified dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase-1a (DYRK1A) as the likely target of harmine and the nuclear factors of activated T cells (NFAT) family of transcription factors as likely mediators of human beta cell proliferation and differentiation. Using three different mouse and human islet in vivo-based models, they show that harmine is able to induce beta cell proliferation, increase islet mass and improve glycemic control. These observations suggest that harmine analogs may have unique therapeutic promise for human diabetes therapy. Enhancing the potency and beta cell specificity of these compounds are important future challenges.

     The researchers believe that beta cell regeneration will play a key role in ultimately curing type 1 diabetes and If successful, this early research could lead to drugs that restore beta cells in people with type 1 diabetes realizing the vision of a future free from insulin therapy.

    Beta cell regeneration is believed to be the answer and ultimate cure for diabetes, but we still have a ways to go.  The team’s discovery is another important step toward developing a medication that may someday reverse diabetes.

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The Great INDIAN Cuisine Tricks....

           Indian cuisines have been honed over centuries, influenced by other cultures; by mouth-burning spices and complex flavour pairings. Indian food has such intoxicating aromas and memorable flavours which is unlike anything found elsewhere around the world.  Why Indian food is so delicious? What is the real reason behind this?? Recently answer has been found out… it’s the fewer number of overlapping flavours and ingredients.

             Researchers at the Indian Institute for Technology (IIT Jaipur) examined how frequently overlapping flavour compounds factored into a dish’s ingredients. They reviewed thousands of recipes scrutinizing the subtle molecular-level differences that distinguish the cuisine. In fact, the more chemically similar two flavourings are, the less likely they'll be paired together in the same dish. I. e. Indian recipes are all about contrasting flavours.

              “We found that average flavour sharing in Indian cuisine was significantly lesser than expected,” researchers wrote.

              The research results revealed that the all the ingredient within a particular dish had contrasting flavour compounds, thus making the taste so distinct. The researchers then established a comparison of the method of preparation of Indian dishes with that of Western cuisines. In Western cuisines, ingredients are usually paired together for their similar flavours. In other words, Indian cuisine is characterized with strong negative food pairing (meaning ingredients put together with different flavour profiles) whereas Western dishes follow a positive food pairing, meaning ingredients are put together because they have similar flavour profiles.

Positive food pairing

Negative food pairing

             



                        Spices individually and as a category occupy a unique position in the ingredient composition of Indian cuisine and play a major role in defining negative food pairing.  They also have medicinal values. Spices also serve as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive, antimutagenic, and detoxifying agents. However an average Indian dish includes at least seven ingredients, most of which do not contain overlapping flavours.  More specifically, many Indian recipes contain cayenne, the basis of curry powder that is in dishes like red curry, green curry, or massaman curry. And when a dish contains cayenne, it’s unlikely to have other ingredients that share similar flavours. The same can be said of green bell pepper, coriander and garam masala, which are found in Indian cuisine.

               Even though food sensation is a result of interplay between various aspects of ingredients, such as texture, colour, temperature and sound, flavour plays a dominant role. Actually let’s see what is a flavour? A flavour is the sensory impression of a type of food or any other substances. It is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. For centuries, chefs have been combining flavours to create something new which is heterogeneously combined and give multidimensional eating experience. Therefore the Indian cuisine is so complicated, no doubt. Spices usually indicate dishes with flavours that have no chemical common ground.

              The study points out that each contrasting spice and ingredient is “uniquely placed” within an Indian dish and cannot be easily replaced with any other flavouring spice or agent. Furthermore, it reflects the idea of complex comprehensive cooking which attributes to appealing taste of Indian food. 

              When observed closely you can notice that most of the Indian food recipes are related to Ayurveda directly or indirectly. This ancient science actually discovered how cooking and the time taken to cook can change the composition of a particular food and its effect on the body. Like the lycopene in tomatoes, which enhances while cooking can be easily extracted. Likewise for onion,tempering it with hing balances the diuretic properties in onion that makes it good for cough and cold and helps in digestion. In fact, Ayurvedic cooking bars from using browned onions that have lost all their nutrients and can cause acidity in a few cases. Blanching carrots robs them off their betacarotene, and so best eaten raw. In fact the all-popular steam cooking done by wrapping vegetable in a leaf is also quintessentially ayurvedic in nature. Salads, mostly prepared raw with sprinkling of ginger slivers and lemon juice, first documented in the Ashoka period. Hence Indian recipes has medicinal value too...

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Healing With a Feeling….

     Ayurveda means science of life… Since “Ayu” is life and “Veda” is science… Ayurveda hails its origin from 5,000-10,000 years back when ancestors inquired of the world they lived in. They looked around at the world on which they lived and wondered about the meaning of my life? They knew the world around them was fraught with challenges and potential dangers. How can I stay safe and healthy they pondered. They got the answer from nature in the form of Ayurveda. Thus it can be said to be the oldest medical system of the world.

Ayurveda is a science that is first and foremost about creating harmony with one's environment. Ayurveda teaches us that when we live in harmony we shall be healthy, and that disease is the normal expression of living out of harmony. Hence, Ayurveda is a health care discipline that first and foremost asks us to look inside of ourselves so that we may discover how we are living out of harmony. Only then can we make the life changes necessary for healing to take place. Ayurveda gives us back both responsibilities for our wellbeing and the power create our state of health.

Ayurveda is a holistic system of healing which focuses on establishing and maintaining balance of the life energies within us, rather than focusing on individual symptoms. Ayurveda describes three fundamental universal energies which regulate all natural processes on both the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. That is, the same energies which produce effects in the various galaxies and star systems are operating at the level of the human physiology and psychology. These three universal energies are known as the Tridosha. They are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. When any of the doshas accumulate in the body beyond the desirable limit, the body loses its balance. Every individual has a distinct balance, and our health and well-being depend on getting a right balance of the three doshas (“tridoshas”). Ayurveda suggests specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help individuals reduce the excess dosha.

Healthy Person will have a balanced Tri-Dosha. However, the proportion varies according to the individual and usually one or two doshas predominate. Within each person the doshas are continually interacting with one another and with the doshas in all the nature.  This explains why people can have much in common but also have an endless variety of individual differences in the way they behave and respond to their environment. Knowing your body type will help to eat and live accordingly!!! Knowing the body type is also important for better understanding of human life, observation of health status, disease susceptibility, Preventive and promotive health care, diagnosis of the diseases. Treatment- is mainly dependant on or according to Prakriti.

Ayurveda teaches us that we are all unique individuals and that each individual's path toward perfect health is equally unique. Our Prakriti or Individual Constitution is like your genetic code which is unique to you. Ayurveda is a system which illuminates our unique journey and helps to guide us to our destination. Ayurveda utilizes diet, herbs, aromas, colours, meditation and yoga, along with special cleansing techniques known as Pancha Karma to assist each person in his or her process. The only important factor is for people to know the right quantity and correct blend of herbs to give them desirable results to cure ailments and diseases.

Ayurveda seeks to heal the fragmentation and disorder of the mind-body complex and restore wholeness and harmony to all people. We can see that it’s not just a medical system but it’s a way of life.  It mainly believes in preventive measures and promotes health aspects such as practising a good diet. It’s a natural system devoid of any side effects not merely the symptoms. It mainly works with the individual not with the disease. I.e. it analyses the root cause of the disease. It also uses most developed science of herbal world as Ayurveda is based on ayurvedic formulations from plant.

To full fill our desires of life we have to stay healthy. Our health is up to us, we can choose illness or health. If we choose wisely, nature will gift us with health and happiness.  Ayurveda aims at maintaining health of an individual to facilitate his life goals. Thus completing body, mind and spirit. Most importantly, however, Ayurveda helps each person to look at their lifestyle, discover areas that are disharmonious, while empowering greater harmony. Where there is harmony, there is health.

Main reason of most present day diseases are english medicines which we consume for curing disease which in turn triggers new health issue..... It itself a big topic. Now I am doing some research on this topic, once it complete I will come back to u........

Please give your Suggestions.............

Too Much Sitting Can Kill You….

Sitting for long hours can kill you… A recent study by Medical College of Wisconsin, US, warns us that sitting for long hours every day is associated with increased coronary artery calcification that can increase the risk of a heart attack. According to the research, each hour spent sitting, regardless of the time spent exercising, boosts the chance of a heart disease by 14 percent.  The results suggest that exercise may not entirely counteract the negative effects of a mostly sedentary lifestyle on coronary artery calcium.

No matter what our work or lifestyle demands we have to move on to live long….Our sedentary lifestyle include at least 8 hours of working in office and rest of time is spent watching TV and sitting in a car. Therefore so-called “sitting disease” is not a medical condition, but rather a lifestyle factor which accelerates early death and diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetics. Even for those who exercise regularly, sitting for long periods of time boosts our likelihood of declining health study says that the risk of poor health "is more pronounced at lower levels of physical activity than at higher levels." I.e. reduced inactivity leads to increased risk for metabolism-related diseases. It further warns that a daily session at the gym won't undo the damage because any increase in fitness from an hour’s exercise is overridden by several hours of sitting.

Coronary artery calcification leads to the formation of sticky plaques inside our arteries, causing narrowing and breaking off to cause heart attacks. Coronary artery calcification, measured through a non-invasive CT heart scan, indicates the amount of calcium contained in plaques within the heart's arteries. Analysing heart scans and physical activity records of more than 2,000 adults living in Dallas, the researchers found each hour of sedentary time per day on average was associated with a 14 percent increase in coronary artery calcification burden. This study offers a unique perspective on the effects of sedentary behaviour because it links sitting with an early marker for heart disease risk. 

Scientists from the Medical College of Wisconsin tracked levels of activity of 2,031 adults whose average age was 50.They compared the number of hours each participant spent sitting down each day with the levels of deposits in blood vessels that act as signal for heart disease. The study found that there is no association with coronary artery calcification and the amount of exercise a person gets, suggesting that too much sitting might have a greater impact than exercise on this particular measure of heart health. The research, titled “Sedentary behaviour is associated with coronary artery calcification in the Dallas heart study,” is set to be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego on March 15.

“It’s clear that exercise is important to reduce your cardiovascular risk and improve your fitness level,” said the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, US, Jacquelyn Kulinski.  “But this study suggests that reducing how much you sit every day may represent a more novel, companion strategy (in addition to exercise) to help reduce your cardiovascular risk,” Kulinski added.

From an evolutionary perspective, we were designed to move and engage in all manner of manual labour throughout the day, which was essential to our survival as a species. But a shift from this perspective, have metabolic and long-term health consequences… With prolonged periods of sitting, fewer skeletal muscle contractions may result in reduced lipoprotein lipase activity and clearance of triglycerides, reduced clearance of an oral glucose load, and less glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Furthermore being inactive for extended periods of time can result in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, more body fat, more fat in the blood and less HDL or good cholesterol. Larger waist circumference is another bonus…

Let Get up and Go be your motto for work time… Let Sit Less and Move More be our slogan. To reduce prolonged sitting following tips may be useful…

• Do stretching, turning and bending six or seven times between your works…Let all your  cramped muscles wake up, freshening you again…
•    Prefer a walk to your co-worker if you have anything to tell him
•   After lunch take time for a 1 hour walk.
•  Walk while on phone
•  Take a stand whenever you can… Standing uses more muscles and burns more calories than sitting.
•  Use stairs instead of elevators
•   If can, use a height adjustable desk so that you can work while standing or sitting.
•   Have standing or walking meetings or presentations

Exercise may be one of the best moves you can make in helping your heart live more… Regular exercise can help you to burn calories, to lower your blood pressure, to reduce LDL or bad cholesterol, to boost your HDL or good cholesterol. These include: - Walking, jogging, jumping rope, bicycling, skiing, skating, rowing, and aerobics or cardio classes. These strengthen your heart and lungs. Over time, aerobic exercise can help your blood pressure and improve your breathing. People need to get out of their chairs more frequently, both at work and at home. Just don’t be couch potatoes and lead a healthy life…..

Is Salt Natural...?

                  Without salt most meals would taste bland and unexciting… Isn’t it? But taste of salt also differs from brand to brand… In fact salt is completely different in terms of 'salt' concentration...

What is salt? In chemical terms, a salt is any compound defined by the ionic bond of a cation (a positively charged ion) to an anion (a negatively charged ion). In table salt, sodium (Na+) is the cation and chloride (Cl-) is the anion.

Of all the nutrients we put into our bodies through eating, water is the most important and salt plays a crucial role in moving water around the body. We like salt because we need it for normal bodily function. We have no sodium storage system, as we do with other minerals (i.e. we store calcium in our bones). Too much or too little sodium in the body affects everything from digestion to blood pressure to brain function.

Saltiness is one of the primary basic tastes the human tongue can detect. Salt is a flavour enhancer high-salt levels activate not only salt taste receptors, but also both bitter and sour taste receptors. So that "yuck" reaction to a cookie that's too salty may be a reaction to the sudden sense of bitterness and sour in your mouth, too.  For example if you add a little bit of salt to any non salty food items, it really enhance the taste of that food item , isn't it...??

How salt is made? Every type of salt comes from a deposit that is created when salt water evaporates. Do salts differ in composition? Not only do they differ in taste and texture, but there are also some differences in mineral and sodium content. I.e. Iodised salt is table salt mixed with a minute amount of various salts of the element iodine. The ingestion of iodine prevents iodine deficiency. Sea salts retain the trace elements while processed salt is devoid of trace elements and include additives like iodine. They share the same amount of sodium chloride, but only sea salt retains the trace elements found in saline water. In some countries, table salt is treated with potassium fluoride to enhance dental health

When we dissolve same amount of salt of different brands into same amount of water. The saltiness felt is different… Why???

The amount of sodium chloride is same in all cases… The salt additives do not create a pseudo-food.  Their purposes are to enable flow and improve health outcomes while the food value remains intact. The impurities, including the trace minerals, can affect both the colour and taste of the salt. The size of the salt can also affect the salty flavour. Salt with a larger grain size can have a stronger flavour and last longer on your tongue.

True sea salt is far better than industrial sodium chloride with aluminium derived anticaking agents.

One of the keys to maintain a heart-healthy diet is to control your sodium intake. If you're consuming more salt because you think it has less sodium, then you may be placing yourself at higher risk of developing high blood pressure, which raises your risk of heart disease. In short, we can say all salt are equally “healthy” when used in appropriate amounts and enjoy tasty foods......................


Please give your suggestions on same....... 

Which is the safest and healthiest cookware option?

        

       This is the most annoying question of all kitchen lovers... The main issues with traditional cookware like non-stick and aluminium are that they react with food and turn them into hormone disrupting chemicals and toxins … Also non-stick cookware can’t be used on high temperatures. This is because high temperatures cause damage to the coating. Therefore not the best choice! Some of the new-old-fashioned options are a lot better….

Let’s concentrate to ceramic cookware only for time being… Ceramic cookware is probably the most versatile cookware in stores. The good thing about ceramic cookware is that it offers more advantages than other types of cookware. For instance, ceramic cookware has great insulation capacities. Thus, you can cook food well – even at low and medium temperatures. Ceramic cookware is specially treated using finishes thereby reducing the reactivity of the components comprising the cookware. Ceramic cookware also has very good heating distribution capacities.

We all know that ceramic pots are made of clay, are nonreactive, absorb heat well and cook food evenly. Because ceramics are fired at a higher temperature, they are more durable and withstand sudden temperature changes. However, ceramics are glazed, and it is this glass-like interior finish that prevents the underlying clay to reduce acidity. Ceramic has the purity factor – there are no metal ions.

Ceramic cookware is manufactured from a mixture of water, clays, fluxing minerals (often feldspar) and finely ground sand. The particular forming method depends largely on the water content of the mixture. High water content (relatively liquid solution) permits casting of the ware in a mold. Lower water content results in a plastic mass that can be forced into the desired shape by a variety of methods.

After forming, the ware is dried and fired (subjected to temperatures in excess of 2000°F) in a ceramic kiln to bond the components of the "body" together. Following this initial firing, the surface of the ware is coated with a glaze that, upon firing in a second ceramic kiln, develops a smooth nonporous surface much like glass. For ceramic cookware with non-stick interiors three layers of non-stick coating are applied to specially prepare interior surfaces and then cured at approximately 800°F.

Have you ever wondered why a tea served in a cup tastes different than served in any other…? It’s just because ceramic cookware are made of clay, free of heavy metals and synthetic polymers. They are non-reactive and emit a far-infrared heat, the most effective and beneficial heat for cooking which enables a full range of subtle flavours to emerge making us to have more of it….  Also it is found that clay neutralizes acidity and so brings out the natural sweetness in foods. Moreover the slow cooking gently infuses the food throughout and persuades subtle flavours from the foods and leaves nutrients intact. 

I don’t recommend using ceramic-coated cookware. But use 100% ceramic cookware as so-called ceramic non-stick cookware is not a true ceramic but rather a chemically based polymer coating that typically covers an inexpensive metal pan or pot. Therefore it will become reactive with use as coating degrades with normal use.… However, some glazed ceramics contain lead, cadmium and other toxic substances. Look for brands that conform to US FDA standards.

For longer life check the manufacturer's recommended care and use instructions before using any ceramic bakeware. These items are usually cleaned with hot sudsy water and soaked if food has been burned on the item. The fact that advanced ceramic does not absorb any food element, allows just a quick rinse and wipe with a kitchen towel. Avoid knives, sharp kitchen tools, scouring pads and abrasive cleaners so that surfaces retain their original smooth finish. Cookware should be stored separately and not nested (one piece stored on top of another).

Always remember it’s not all about the cookware… It’s about how we treat them… We should avoid cooking at higher temperatures. The higher the temperatures, the more we devastate the nutrients in the food and compromise the integrity and safety of the cookware. Thus we can find that besides attractiveness, ceramic cookware is so much user-friendly, reliable, durable and moreover enhance overall cooking too… 


Please give your suggestion..............   :)