Tag: bergamot

Rice Flavored With Bergamot

8.7.2019

RICE WITH BERGAMOT OF LOCRI

Near one of the main city of Calabria (Reggio Calabria), in Locri’s restaurants and hotels tourists love Rice Flavored With Bergamot.

This fantastic dish makes tourists go crazy just like the linguine pasta with Genoese pesto (which is universally a must of the Ligurian and then Italian cuisine).

In 2015 this bergamot rice was the Italian dish preferred by foreign tourists, who visited the “Bel Paese”. This is what emerges from a study carried out by a famous Italian hotel chain. The dish, obtained with the juice of the citrus fruit, called Bergamot, gained the winner position, in comparison with dishes much more known and noble, conquering the top of the top ten, also in the challenge with the internationally known Bologna’s lasagna and with Tuscan crostini with livers.

The green gold

The salient feature of such dish is that the rice spreads the ineffable perfume, smell and taste of Bergamot coming from Reggio Calabria, the city whose geographic area is the only to cultivate the best Bergamot of the World.

This fruit intensively cultivated herein and in the lower Jonio is an authentic richness of the Region (the so called “green gold”).

Particularly, the fruit is currently cultivated on an area of around 1,500 hectares, with an average production of 100,000 kilos of essence.

Experts say that such crops, according to the 2016 trend, have satisfied all producers goal, letting foreign tourists discover the Italian culinary specialties always respecting balance and taste, focusing on the pleasantness and on authentic rediscovery of the flavors of Calabrian land.

A SUCCESS FOR CALABRIA AND MEDITERRANEAN DIET

The ten dishes that competed for the preferences of over 1,000 tourists, who came to Italy in the last year, ranged from the first to the side dishes, to the most appetizing and delicious appetizers and they saw the Calabrian and Ligurian specialties in their head with 18% of preferences on an equal footing.

Magnificent green color

Pesto and rice with bergamot, a sort of Calabria-Liguria tandem, have received a plenty of votes by French, German and Spanish tourists.

However, according to the study, also the “farfalle (a type of pasta) with bergamot scent” have literally conquered tourists in Italy on vacation or for business; they were very popular, according to the study.

Conclusively, this is a very clear success for the characteristic citrus of Reggio Calabria and its province – whose use ranges from gastronomy (from pastry to the production of drinks and liqueurs) to perfumes, thanks to its essence, which is fundamental for the water of Cologne.

Bergamot Against Cholesterol

3.3.2019

CALABRIAN BERGAMOT AS MEDICINE

The bergamot is nowadays included in the international anti-cholesterol guidelines. The green gold of Calabria can be used in the treatment of patients intolerant to statins or with metabolic syndrome (“statins”, also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are a class of lipid-lowering medications. They reduce cardiovascular disease and mortality in those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease).

Bergamot enters fully among the list of lipid-lowering nutraceuticals, both in national and international guidelines. Among the different factors, its reduction of total cholesterol and LDL-c (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) levels is an important help for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, the main cause of worldwide death and disability in developed countries.

A different approach

An increase of cholesterol causes many diseases and is a general health problem, with a great economic impact: the expenditure of the Italian National Health Service for hypocholesterolemic therapies amounts to over a billion a year, while it reaches 15 billion euro for the management of cardiovascular diseases.

Based on statistics of Italian Institute ISTAT, population aging is expected to increase the likelihood of their incidence and prevalence in the near future; just think that the increase in chronic patients has led Italian healthcare spending to grow faster than the national health fund.

DRINKING JUICE AS PREVENTION

Inside this scenario, the nutritional supplement of Bergamot juice emerges as an excellent candidate to be included in a strategic framework of primary prevention, combining bergamot juice consumption with tools such as proper nutrition and sporting activity, inside the well known paradigm shift of prevention of diseases, instead of only a posteriori medical treatments.

The juice offers a wide spectrum beneficial for patients because it guarantees the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle and health conditions that prevent the establishment of chronic invalidating events.

As nutraceutical the bergamot is now included in the cardiometabolic area among the lipid-lowering factors, thanks to the contribution and work of a large panel of experts. In a recent scientific article, titled “Lipid lowering nutraceuticals in clinical practice: position paper from an international lipid expert panel” there are clinical studies on bergamot, which highlights its lipid-lowering effects in reducing the levels of sdLDL (cholesterol in small and dense lipoproteins) and TG (The Triglyceride) with a significant increase in HDL-c levels (the so-called good cholesterol).

Research and Nature

Some other studies have also been interested in evaluating the administration of bergamot derivatives in association with statins; the positive results showed significant efficacy in terms of reduction of LDL and TG levels. The absence of side effects has also promoted the bergamot as a valid substitute in those conditions of intolerance to statins, or in association with the latter to reach the therapeutic target, avoiding the typical side effects such as myalgia .

CONCLUSIONS

Therefore it is suggested the possibility of resorting to bergamot in the treatment of hypercholesterolemic and / or hypertriglycemic patients, intolerant to statins or with metabolic syndrome.

Drink this magnificent juice and Best wishes!