Salad with spicy, tantalizing to the taste and good for health

New data from a study inglese.Uno study published in the British Journal of Nutrition and conducted by the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Urbino highlights how the use of spices and medicinal herbs and aromatics in combination with raw vegetables, boost the effect antioxidant vegetables themselves. Antioxidants are important allies of health: protect the body from the attack of free radicals, responsible for cardiovascular disease, cancer and aging. Vegetables and fruit are already well equipped, more or less, of these protective substances. Researchers have now discovered that (as taught by the Mediterranean diet) just add to our salads to dips, a few grams of oregano or marjoram, thyme, wild fennel, turmeric, and so on, to see this ability greatly enhanced. An example? 3 g of marjoram in 200 g of salad increases the antioxidant capacity by 200%! Among the spices tested by researchers in those which enter into synergy, amplify, with the antioxidant capacity of vegetables are cumin and fresh ginger. Some of Mediterranean herbs to put on the table for a summer cooler, the banner of health. wild fennel sweet, the scent of anise, if you use fresh sprouts in late summer, the seeds. Its use is very popular in the South, where over the Sicilian pasta with sardines, with the most tender leaves are delicious flavor tomato sauces. Excellent is also the Calabrian liquor, prepared with an alcoholic infusion of the plant, water and sugar. Wild fennel and digestive, tonic, vermifuge and useful to new mothers because it stimulates the production of milk. oregano: There are approximately 25 species that grow wild in the woods, in uncultivated land, in sunny places in the Mediterranean. If they use leaves and flowers, fresh or dried. Oregano has an intense aroma and almost spicy, with its flowers in the past prepared a drink aperitifs and digestifs, sweet taste. E 'tonic and stimulant, antispasmodic and useful in combating cough strongly antiseptic is an excellent preservative for broth, olive oil and pickles. Marjoram: oregano similar, with small leaves and oval, it did taste more delicate. Marjoram is an herb typical of traditional Ligurian cuisine, few fillings that do not provide the list of ingredients. E 'aperitif, digestive and antispasmodic, fit to fight the abdominal pain and menstrual pain. basil: Each variety has its own characteristic aroma, flavor tending more or less lemon or mint. When the plant is very small (one week of life) contains traces of a substance blamed for causing cancer in humans (the plant used to defend against parasites): do not worry, by growing the plant is "cleansed", and when ready to collect the toxic substance has vanished, word of experts. In any case, the healthy habit throughout the Mediterranean association with tomatoes, olive oil or extra virgin olive oil, garlic and pine nuts, typical of the Ligurian pesto is more than sufficient to counteract the side effects of its components. chives: its flavor is somewhere between what the fresh garlic and onion, more delicate and aromatic of the two. We use the leaves, filiform and quarries, chopped raw. This herb, which grows wild but is grown successfully in the garden, has digestive, purifying, antiseptic, stimulating and cardiotonic. Even its flowers (July and August) are edible. Mint: digestive, refreshing, stimulating, using both raw and cooked. Its tantalizing taste and its pungent aroma correct the strong flavors, such as egg, tomato, meat. And 'the more "ethnic" of Mediterranean herbs, popular in the couscous, with the cod to the Moroccan, with infusions of tea, but it is also the most "fusion", to use the best fruit salad of strawberries and raspberries, combined with sensational a melon and chocolate.