Article by Rick Stanfa

Tempting Your Child with Natural Food Colors – Food

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We’ve all heard the phrase “kid in a candy store.” It refers to how children can go crazy in any house of sugary sweets, and if you’ve ever been a kid, you definitely know what that’s like! But did you know that one of the main reasons why kids go crazy is not because of the taste of these treats, but because of the colors they come in?

Color has a lot to do with how tempting food looks to us, and the more tempting it looks, the more willing we are to eat it. You can use this knowledge to help get your kids eating healthy! You simply have to invest in some fruits and vegetables with natural food colors that look like candy!

For a long time, doctors have been conducting tests and doing research on fruit, vegetables, and their pigments, and they have discovered that a fruit or vegetable’s colors can reveal just how healthy they are for your body. The natural food colors contain phytonutrients, which help fight off free radicals while helping reduce the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular illness, osteoporosis, and other illnesses.

Here are some great examples of natural food colors you can use:

Red – Tomatoes and strawberries make great candy reds! This color also helps fight off prostate cancer and other types of cancer!Yellow – Sweet potatoes and corn can help protect against macular degeneration, which is not just great for kids but is also really important for adults too!Orange – Carrots, apricots, and oranges all come in varying healthy shades of orange that can help fight off heart disease!Green – The deep green of leafy vegetables or the bright green of kiwis can help keep your system clean and help destroy free radicals that can cause cancer.Purple – Blueberries, eggplant, and grapes are just three ways you can add this color to your healthy palette! Eat these regularly and keep heart disease far away!

Try bunching several colors up together. This should attract your child’s attention and get them curious about eating these healthy foods. Some great color combinations include red strawberries and bright green kiwis, which can make a great summer snack; orange slices and fresh blueberries, which are a wonderful addition to any breakfast; yellow corn and purple eggplant, a good side dish to many meals!

The trick of using natural food colors that look like candy works best if you keep these foods around your house from the time your child is very young. The more often they see these colorful foods, the less strange it will be to them, and the more tempted they will be to eat it regularly!

For more tips and tricks on how you can get your children eating healthily, visit KidsFoodSecrets.com where you will find tons of techniques to get your child on the right dietary track!

About the Author

Rick Stanfa is a life coach, author and blogger who writes widely on a variety of topics. His well-thought articles have appeared in different article directories and websites all over the world. You can find some of his well written articles at KidsFoodSecrets.com.

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Rick Stanfa

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Related Food Coloring Articles

Article by Liza Othman

There is a fascination about colouring one’s own material that only one who has proved it can understand. As an artist mixes his colours, one dye after another is tried until at last a fortunate blending gives the desired shade. Solid extracts of vegetable dyes are sold which simplify the process; or, if one lives in the country, hedgerow dyes are plentiful for those who have eyes to see and patience to use them. If one does much dyeing, rubber gloves are almost a necessity, and a brass preserving kettle will be found useful. If small quantities of material are dyed at a time half- worn basins or saucepans of medium size will do. Wash the rattan and raffia, especially the latter, in soap or soda and water and rinse thoroughly before dyeing. One of the secrets of even colouring is to boil the dye slowly, leaving the material in it for hours. In this way full deep colours will be obtained even on rattan.

Indian Red. A beautiful shade of Indian red is made by boiling the material slowly for six hours in the following solution. Two tablespoonfuls of cutch extract and a small crystal of blue- stone (about as much as would go on a ten-cent piece) dissolved in one quart of boiling water.

Green from Indigo and Fustic. Mordant the material to be dyed with alum (three ounces of alum dissolved in a quart of water), and dye in a solution of one tablespoonful of indigo and a small crystal of copperas in one quart of boiling water. When the desired depth of colour is obtained remove the material, wash the loose dye from it and dye in a fustic bath (one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of fustic has been dissolved) to the shade required. Instead of fustic, bark extract may be used. If a brighter shade is needed, add one or two tablespoonfuls of alum mordant to the bath.

Olive Green. Soak the rattan or raffia in water, then in one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of copperas has been dissolved, for half an hour. Boil in a fresh bath of one tablespoonful of bark extract, half a teaspoonful of indigo and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of logwood to one quart of water.

Dark Bluish Green. Soak the material in a bath composed of one tablespoonful of copperas in one quart of water for half an hour. Then boil in a fresh bath of one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of bark extract, three quarters of a teaspoonful of indigo and a piece of logwood extract the size of a pea have been dissolved. Let it simmer for several hours or until the desired shade is obtained. The same proportion of dye in two quarts of water will give light shades.

Dark Red. A good dark red is made with three- quarters of a teaspoonful of logwood extract, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of fustic extract, two tablespoonfuls of cochineal, two tablespoonfuls of stannous chloride and one-quarter of a tea- spoonful of cream of tartar, in one quart of water. Boil slowly for several hours.

Orange. A beautiful orange may be made with one tablespoonful of orange fustic, one- quarter of a teaspoonful of cochineal, two table- spoonfuls of stannous chloride, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of alum in one quart of water. Boil slowly until the colour is a little deeper than you wish, as it will dry lighter.

Yellow Brown. Boil the material slowly in the following solution for several hours. One tablespoonful of cutch extract to one of fustic in one quart of water.

Olive Brown from Cutch. To one tablespoonful of cutch extract allow one tablespoonful of fustic and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of logwood. Dissolve in one quart of water. The material should boil slowly in this bath for several hours.

Brown from Madder. In one quart of water dissolve one to two tablespoonfuls of madder. Do not allow it to boil, but leave the material in it for five or six hours, just below the boiling point.

More tips and tricks of making baskets at htp://MoreBaskets.FunHowToBooks.com

www.goindigojeans.com Natural Indigo Dye Fermentation Process in The Colours Of Nature Auroville Tamil Nadu India www.thecoloursofnature.com

Roman textiles – a demonstration of how to dye using indigo – watch the magical colour changes. Download more free resources from nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa/learning/
Video Rating: 0 / 5

Article by Teresinha Roberts

Brazilwood, logwood and fustic are famous traditional natural dyes that produce bright colours on wool, cotton and silk; brazilwood yields rich reds, logwood purples and fustic strong yellows. These three dyes are made from the heartwood of medium to large trees originally found in tropical forests. With proper care, all three dyes have a good light-fastness. Eventually they mellow to paler but still pretty colours.

By late 1500′s large quantities of brazilwood, logwood and fustic were imported into Europe from Latin America. These three new dyes cost much less than those previously available therefore allowing more people to have colourful clothes.

Brazilwood

Brazilwood is found both in Asia and Latin America and Brazil takes its name from the tree. The wood comes from several species of Caesalpinia trees and it gives lovely rich reds.

Even though I was born and brought up in Brazil, I never saw a brazilwood tree, never read about the fiery reds it produces and was never taught that the word brazil comes from the Spanish brasa which means glowing embers. It was only when I came to live in England and became interested in natural dyes that I learnt more about this tree. I was very surprised to learn that my country of birth was named after the wood found there, rather than the other way round.

Brazilwood, however, was well-known for centuries, long before Brazil was discovered by Europeans; it was first mentioned as a dye in 1321, sourced from East Indies and India.

Most of brazilwood sold as a dye now comes from Asian trees. The species from Brazil, Caesalpinia echinata, is also known as pernambuco and is sometimes referred to as the music tree because its wood is used for making violin bows.

Logwood

Logwood dye is made from the heartwood of Haematoxylon campecianum, a forest tree from Central America. Haematoxylon literally means blood wood and it refers to the colour of the heartwood, while campecianum refers to the city of Campeche in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico where this tree was abundant. Logwood was floated down rivers as large logs, hence its name.

Logwood chips produce purples, greys and blacks, the colours depending on the mordants used and the acidity of the dye bath. The dye haematoxylin produced from logwood is still used as histological stain for microscopic slides.

Old Fustic

Old Fustic, or Dyer’s Mulberry, is made from the heartwood of Maclura tinctoria, a medium to large tree of the mulberry family originally found in the forests of Brazil and the West Indies. It is a beautiful wood for wood turning and is then known as amarillo, which means yellow in Spanish.

Fustic yields a range of colours from strong dark yellows to an attractive peach colour on silk, cotton and wool and it has good light-fastness. It was used extensively from about 1600 to 1850, as it produces a strong colour at low cost. During the WW1, fustic was one of the dyes used to produce khaki for army uniforms.

Dyeing with Brazilwood, Logwood and Fustic

These three dyes are normally sold as wood chips but are also available as natural dye extracts. I prefer to use brazilwood and logwood as wood chips, as I seem to get a better colour this way. However, I find the fustic extract better than the wood chips.

To obtain strong colours, put 50g of wood chips in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and then leave them overnight. The following day, boil the chips in the water for about an hour. You must remove the wood chips before adding the fibre as they have small barbs that attach themselves to the fibre and would have to be carefully picked off one by one. The best way to remove the chips is to leave the dye bath to cool down for an hour or two and then pour the contents of the saucepan through a sieve, saving the liquid. You can also save the chips by spreading them out to dry, as they can be re-used several times. Add 100g of wool mordanted with alum to the dye bath and simmer for 30 minutes. Take the wool out and add another 50g of wool for paler colours. You might still get some colour on a further 50g of wool.

A pinch of iron mordant changes the final colour; brazilwood becomes darker and purpler, logwood goes greyer and fustic greener. A strong dye bath of logwood and fustic together with a pinch of iron will produce a black with great depth of colour, whilst brazilwood and fustic produce a fantastic orange.

Advantages of Wood Dyes

Brazilwood, logwood and fustic are great dyes for beginners, as they are both easy to use and very economical. If you want vibrant tropical colours that conjure the spirit of Brazil and the Caribbean, then tropical wood dyes are the ones to use.

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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 27, 2012

Zion Health announces Adama Minerals Natural Claymask is now available at Whole Foods Market in Southern California. As part of Zion’s healing clay line of wholesale natural skin care products, Claymask uses a unique formula of mineral-rich clays and plant extracts that naturally cleanse and firm skin while helping prevent adult acne.

Claymask can be applied in a thin layer for makeup removal and natural skin cleansing or as a paste for deep pore detox and removal of blackheads. The combination of acne reducing botanical extracts and detoxifying healing clays in Zion Health’s Claymask is known to stimulate skins immune defenses, reduce inflammation and naturally nourishe skin tissue.

Zion Health’s Claymask contains the active ingredients meadowsweet and yarrow and the healing clays Kanwa and kaolin. Commonly used in prescription medications, meadowsweet stimulates the anti-microbial peptide in a skin defense mechanism to inhibit bacterial growth. A study in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science demonstrated that participants witnessed a drop in facial oil secretion and a reduction in acne lesion counts after the application of meadowsweet extract.

Yarrow root is a known anti-inflammatory agent that helps prevent skin blemishes and stops skin cell deterioration leading to fine lines and wrinkles. Further studies from the International Journal of Cosmetic Science showed that yarrow root significantly improved the appearance of wrinkles and pores. Yarrow also contains silica, which is known to enhance the production of collagen and improve skin elasticity. The use of herbal extracts such as meadowsweet and yarrow root in Zion Health Adama Minerals Claymask offers a natural alternative to astringent, chemical-based skin masks.

Mineral-sourced clay has been used for natural skin care for centuries across indigenous civilizations. Kanwa, or calcium montmorillonite, is known as a living clay, and is both detoxifying and nourishing with more than 57 trace elements. The rich collection of minerals have been known to help firm sagging tissues and restore nutrients to moisture-deprived skin. Scientifically proven to bind and eliminate harmful bacteria and toxins, pure Kanwa clay combined with botanical herbs in Adama Minerals Claymask naturally cleanses skin and tightens pores.

Zion Health’s Natural Claymask is now available at Whole Foods Market in Southern California, as well as select local health food stores in the United States and Canada. Products may also be purchased online at http://www.kanwaminerals.com. Zion Health provides consumers with pure skin and body care products that are 100% vegan, free of parabens, aluminum and sulfates and formulated using certified organic ingredients whenever possible. For more information on Zion Health’s wholesale natural skin care products, go to: http://www.zionhealth.net.

Some cool natural dye images:

natural dye is recognizable at first sight


Image by nicolas.boullosa
Natural dye is much richer and changes depending on the light.

Eucalyptus on Linen


Image by statelyenglishmanor
It’s been a while since I played with natural dyes. This was an interesting experiment–the piece on the right is the result of laying the dried leaves on the linen, making a roll, then steaming it for just over an hour. The piece on the left was soaked in the liquid in the bottom of the steamer. I will likely do this again with a length of silk. I wanted a more distinct outline of the leaves.

#dailyimage2011 1 Oct dying


Image by pdugmore2001
Spent the afternoon dying some tussah silk and some silk caps. I did some with synthetic dyes and a couple with natural dye – Usnea sp. lichens for one, and the other used onion skins.

Article by Samara Short

Finding people with experience is a nice way to increase your knowledge. But, as you already know, experience should never be compromised. Ask yourself, that who could be the person spending maximum time with the rugs? Well, a rug dealer spends ample time with various rugs and he/she knows how to scoop out the best from others. The inventories that these rug dealers have may prove to be very beneficial for you. However, it is important that you bring diversity into your methods of learning. You may go to several dealers, instead of sticking to one or two. When you interact with several dealers, you will be viewing more types of rugs and your knowledge will expand too.

There are few places, where you can find tons of knowledge about rugs. One of these places is the rug conventions, including dealer fairs, sale previews etc. Such events give you an opportunity to view thousands of rugs at a single place. Moreover, on such occasions you also have the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about those rugs. There are several experts present in such occasions, who may guide you appropriately. You may add auction house staff, collectors, dealers etc in the list of your teachers.

Useful Things for New Learners!

You must remember that learning about rugs and their dyes can only be possible, if you get some practical experience with several types of rugs. You may find a common issue in rug industry, concerning the color blue (whether it’s synthetic or natural). Now, the type of natural dye that is used for ‘blue’ shade is similar to other synthetic dyes, such as indigo. Indigo is a dye that has an interesting attribute; it doesn’t colors whole yarn! Indigo shades only cover the surface of yarn; once, the surface peels off the original yarn shade come in view.

One thing that would definitely surprise you is about green dyes. Green natural dyes are most rare type. There are early Turkoman rug pieces that contain dark green color of natural dyes; however, most green shades that are being used nowadays in rug industry are synthetic. The brown and black dyes have been derived from sheep with wool, initially. You need to be a keen observer to know the difference between natural and synthetic black dyes. Now, another important thing to keep in mind is that natural purple dyes are very rare to find. Red dyes are also very difficult to be distinguished from natural to synthetic shade because of diverse hues available. So, learning to distinguish natural and synthetic dyes is not a simple task, as many people may assume.

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Valuable hints from a veteran botanist and weaver on dyeing fibers and fabrics, what soap plants to use for cleaning textiles, advice on fragrant plants to scent and protect fabrics, plant materials to use as tools, suggestions for planning and creating a garden featuring cotton, flax, indigo, and much more. Includes an abundance of illustrations.

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Natural Dye-Free Wax Chanukah Candles, Set of 45

• Sized to fit most standard-sized Menorahs
• Made from premium organic vegetable waxes
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• 100% cotton wicks
• Burn for approximately one hour

These Natural Dye-Free Wax Chanukah Candles are sized to fit most standard-sized Menorahs. Each of these traditional candles is made from renewable resources and hand-dipped by skilled artisans. These eco-friendly, naturally colored ivory candles burn clean and bright for approximately one hour. Petroleum-free, biodegradable and hypo-allergenic. 100% cotton wicks. Size: 4-3/4"L x 2-1/2"W x 6"H. Adult supervision recommended.

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Some cool natural dye images:

inside the natural dye unit at Avani


Image by rickbradley