Use These 5 Alternatives to Popular Foods for Better Health

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Smart substitutions will not only improve the way you look, but they will also make you feel better, and can help encourage healthier habits on your journey to a new and better you. Making these 5 easy food swaps will help you lose weight, improve the appearance of your skin, reduce cravings, and increase your energy levels. It is time for “out with the old and in with the new!” Why wait? Start today!

Image: Live Love Fruit

Instead of candy eat fruit!
Fruit is literally nature’s candy! Candy is essentially refined sugar, some kind of corn product, and weird thickeners. It isn’t really food, at all, just something that we have substituted for what our brain truly craves – fruit sugar, or in other words, fructose (and some glucose). Fruit also contains beneficial vitamins and minerals which help shut off hunger signals in our brain and prevents us from eating the entire fridge after a hard days work. Fruit provides our body with proper carbohydrates, healthy starches, and cellulose which provide fiber. Instead of reaching for some candy, reach for a banana, peach, mango or if you really want something sweet, try some fresh medjool dates, or dried apricots or goji berries!

Instead of salt swap in fresh or dried herbs & spices!
Sodium dehydrates, and raises blood pressure putting us at risk for developing heart disease or suffering from a stroke. Most people think not using salt will lead to bland tasting foods – this is usually because they leave out salt and don’t add in anything else to help maximize flavour. This is where herbs and spices come in! They help add incredible flavour to your foods and contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which help fight off disease. I particularly like to use dill because it is very salty and makes everything taste amazing. The variety of herbs and spices you can use are endless! From mint to basil, to chile flakes and garlic – you won’t even remember that you forgot to add salt.

Instead of butter or margarine eat avocado!
Using avocado in place of butter is a great food swap! Butter is laden with artery-clogging saturated fat and margarine is loaded with ingredients that are found in plastic products – so what better to use than omega rich avocado? Avocados have a naturally smooth, creamy texture, and can be used as a healthy substitute in baking for butter and eggs! You can also use it as a spread on toast in the morning, or just scrap the toast and eat the avocado itself! Avocado is also loaded with vitamins and can help reduce cholesterol and fight heart disease. You can even make a raw chocolate pudding using avocado – click HERE for the recipe!

Instead of mucus-forming milk drink body-slimming almond milk!
Almond milk is a popular milk substitute, and is about 500x healthier than cow’s milk due to it’s incredible vitamin and mineral content and heart-protecting properties. People who are lactose intolerant can also safely consume almond milk without any adverse side effects! Almond milk is packed with vitamins and minerals like vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, fiber, zinc, and calcium! It is also incredibly low in calories (only 40 calories per 8 oz. serving) and is very low in fat. It is free of casein, gluten, lactose, and is completely cholesterol free – it is also void of saturated animal fats which regular cows milk is full of. Cows milk also contains pus (white blood cells), which we probably shouldn’t be consuming. It is also a leading cause of runny and stuffy noses (congestion) and creates a lot of mucus in the body – clogging up our cells and giving us brain fog. Switch to almond milk today! It can be used in place of milk in any situation!

Instead of bagels for breakfast eat bananas!
Grains are not necessarily a human food – in fact, before the Agricultural Revolution, a couple hundred thousand of years passed without consumption of grains. In fact, studies have found that the human brain’s physical ability and functioning was highest just prior to this wheat-based revolution. Not just that, but archeological evidence has shown that since humans became more involved in their agricultural practices, human strength has slowly, but surely declined. Grains contain a compound called Phytic Acid which blocks the ability of our bodies to absorb calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc – when grains begin to sprout, vitamin and mineral content increases and phytic acid content decreases. However, most of the grains individuals consume today are not sprouted, leading to a variety of mineral deficient diseases like osteoporosis. Instead, eat some fruit carbs like bananas! Fully ripe bananas are packed with vitamins and minerals and will nourish your body instead of depleting it! If you please, make a banana smoothie with bananas, dates, and coconut water – you will feel 100x better, compared to the tiredness most individuals feel after consuming breads and pastas.

Source: Live Love Fruit

Soda Linked to Aggression, Attention Problems, and Social Withdrawal in Young Children

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Soda has already been blamed for making kids obese. New research blames the sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children too.

Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.
Although earlier studies have shown an association between soft-drink consumption and aggression in teens, none had investigated whether a similar relationship existed in younger children.

To that end, Columbia University epidemiologist Shakira Suglia and her colleagues examined data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which followed 2,929 mother-child pairs in 20 large U.S. cities from the time the children were born. The study, run by Columbia and Princeton University, collected information through surveys the mothers completed periodically over several years.

In one survey, mothers answered questions about behavior problems in their children. They also reported how much soda their kids drank on a typical day.

Suglia and her colleagues found that even at the young age of 5, 43% of the kids consumed at least one serving of soda per day, and 4% drank four servings or more.

The more soda kids drank, the more likely their mothers were to report that the kids had problems with aggression, withdrawal and staying focused on a task. For instance, children who downed four or more servings of soda per day were more than twice as likely to destroy others’ belongings, get into fights and physically attack people, compared with kids who didn’t drink soda at all.

Read full article

Source: RealFarmacy.com

15 Easy Tips to Add More Veggies to Your Diet

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Graphic: The Green Footprint, Dave Sommers

Try these easy ways to get more vegetables into your diet. Vegetables are one of those foods people either love or hate. The problem with hating vegetables is that they are arguably the most health-promoting food group on the planet.

1: Add veggies you almost like to dishes you already love.

2: Try them in soup.

3: Slip them into salads.

4: Serve them raw.

5: Take raw vegetables skinny dipping.

6: Sneak them into spaghetti and pizza.

7: Drink your vegetables.

8: Increase the fun factor.

9: Grill, baby, grill!

10: Know how to cook the stronger flavored veggies.

11: Try them where you least expect them.

12: Be sensitive to textural turn-offs.

13: Even fast-food vegetables count.

14: Don't reward your kids (or yourself) for eating vegetables.

15: It's all about the cheese.

Sources: Dave Sommers
 webmd.com

The Amount Of Food The Average American Eats Yearly Will Shock You

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What Are We Eating? How Much Are We Eating? While I find the following chart very sobering, I do not find it shocking. Healthy diet is foundational to good health and well-being.  In fact, we can say that in most instances one’s diet will be proportional to their current state of health and wellness.

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5’9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year, Americans eat 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils. They eat 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork. Americans eat 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken. They eat 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs.

Americans eat 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year and 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products. They drink 181 lbs. of beverage milks. Americans eat 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour. They eat 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup. Americans consume 56 lbs. of corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables. Every year, Americans eat 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts. Americans eat 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year.

These foods include 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream. Americans drink 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week. Americans eat 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners each year. They eat 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended. Americans consume 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg. In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day.

Source: Oasis Advanced Wellness

Rate of Chronic Disease Increasing Exponentially

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A growing global epidemic of chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, will cause at least 35 million deaths this year, costing the world economy billions of dollars, even though medical science has identified the principal causes and knows ways to prevent it, experts said at a AAAS seminar in Washington, D.C.

www.DiscoveryDoodles.com

 Speakers at the first Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar said that twice as many premature deaths are caused worldwide by chronic diseases as by all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies combined. And while the toll from infectious diseases is declining globally, deaths from chronic disease are expected to increase by 17 percent in the next 10 years.

The 8 December seminar included speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO), from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and from university research labs. It was the inaugural event in a series named for Abelson, a researcher in physics, biology and other sciences, and the editor for 22 years of Science, which is published by AAAS. Abelson died last year at the age of 91.

Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, said the seminar series would address major societal challenges and focus on the frontiers of science and technology.
Robert Beaglehole, WHO's director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, said in the keynote address that the toll of premature death from chronic disease is increasing worldwide principally because of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco and the aging of populations in almost all countries.

Diet and the lack of physical activity is contributing to a growing pattern of obesity, a key risk factor for diabetes and early heart disease. And it's not just happening in the rich countries, such as the United States and South Africa, where recent reports show that 75 percent of women aged 30 and over are overweight. A "very frightening statistic," said Beaglehole, is that in countries both rich and poor, about 22 million children worldwide under the age of five are already obese.

"We've done a lot to observe the emergence of this problem," he said. "We have done practically nothing to solve it."

Beaglehole said that common misunderstandings about chronic disease have affected policy decisions and slowed the worldwide response to the emerging epidemic.
 
For instance, he said it's widely believed that premature heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases are mostly a plague among the elderly and among the rich in high-income countries.
Actually, said Beaglehole, 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases are in low- and middle-income countries. A WHO report found that poor people, in all but the least developed countries, are more likely than the rich to develop chronic diseases and are more likely to die early. And it is not just the elderly who are victims. The WHO report found that almost half of the deaths from chronic diseases occur in people under 70 years old.

"A very dangerous misunderstanding is that chronic disease is the result of unhealthy lifestyles under the control of individuals," Beaglehole said. "The reality is that poor people and children have very limited choices, and it is unfair to blame them for the environmental conditions in which they suffer."
There's also the belief by many that chronic diseases and premature deaths cannot be prevented.
"The reality is that approximately 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is preventable, as are 40 percent of all cancers -- many of which result from tobacco consumption," said Beaglehole. "A few known risk factors explain the vast majority of premature chronic disease deaths."

A global effort to attack the causes of chronic disease could reduce death rates by 2 percent a year and save 36 million lives within a decade, he said. Ninety percent of the lives saved, said Beaglehole, would be in low- and middle-income countries. Slowing the epidemic of premature death from chronic diseases will have to involve policy issues beyond the health field, he said. For instance, farm subsidies often affect the type of food available in some countries. An example: The consumption of full fat milk is encouraged in schools in some European countries because of subsidies, said Beaglehole. Excessive fat, sugar and salt in the diet lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Other specialists at the Abelson seminar reported recent findings that offer new hope for treatment and management of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
Eric J. Topol, provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said studies of families with heart attack have demonstrated specific genes that are causative or induce susceptibility. This will allow strategies of lifestyle and individualized therapy early in life to prevent heart attacks decades later.

The battle against the growing epidemic of obesity will require fundamental changes in attitudes toward food and exercise, said Holly Wyatt, the program director at the Centers for Obesity Research and Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In American society, she said, "we've had a lot of pressures to not expend more energy than we have to and we had a lot of pressure to eat more than we need."

To change the behaviors that lead to obesity will require encouragement from virtually every element in society -- employers, schools, churches, community centers and retail stores, she said. Such programs have worked in the past to discourage tobacco use and encourage using seat belts in cars. Without such an effort, Wyatt said that by 2008 about 75 percent of Americans will be at a body weight that negatively affects health.

Basic research on how the kidneys regulate salt in the body has given medical science a new understanding of the causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Rick Lifton, Sterling Professor and chairman of Genetics atYale University School of Medicine. He said there are biological pathways and gene mutations that cause the kidneys to sequester sodium, leading to increases in blood pressure. Drugs to counter these effects could lead to dramatically improved treatments for hypertension, a disorder that affects a billion people world wide and is linked to about 5 million deaths annually.

Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale University, said that new, non-invasive studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have demonstrated that the development of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is directly related to the build-up of fat inside muscle and liver cells where it disrupts normal insulin signaling and action in these organs. Studies in transgenic and knockout mice as well as in humans have shown that removing this excess intracellular fat can restore insulin sensitivity and cure type 2 diabetes. The results from these studies provide new targets for novel therapies that might be developed to reduce intracellular fat levels and reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Shulman.

Copyright 2005. American Association for the Advancement of Science

Source: oasisadvancedwellness.com

80% of the Packaged Food in the US is Banned in Other Countries

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Natural News

According to the new book Rich Food, Poor Food, ingredients commonly found in up to 80 percent of all pre-packaged foods on grocers shelves in the U.S. have been banned in other countries. As alarming as such information is, our food safety outlook becomes even bleaker when we consider other banned and toxic food items.

The toxic banned ingredients in our food
In the book, authors Mira and Jason Calton provide a list of banned ingredients which they term "Banned Bad Boys" as well as the countries which have banned them. Among the items is Olestra - commonly used in low/no-fat snack foods and known to cause serious gastrointestinal issues - which has been banned in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Worse is brominated vegetable oil, a substance found in Mountain Dew and Fresca which has been banned in more than 100 countries. As the authors state, brominated vegetable oil "has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man."

Other dangerous items listed include food colorings - such as yellow #5 and yellow #6, dyes used to make mac & cheese dinners visually appealing. Those dyes are made from coal tar, an active ingredient in lice shampoo which has been linked to allergies, ADHD, and cancer in animals.

Other banned and toxic items in our foods
The toxic banned ingredients listed in the book, horrible as they are, are but part of the bad news when it comes to food items most Americans regularly consume. Here is a partial list of some other toxic ingredients and unsafe food items:

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical used to make plastic drinking bottles, baby bottles and storage containers as well as the lining of food and drink cans which can leech into foods http://www.naturalnews.com/food.html from high heat and prolonged storage. Currently, it is found in virtually all canned goods and most baby bottles. It mimics estrogen and can offset the delicate hormonal balance in the developing child, and is blamed to be largely responsible for the age of puberty in young girls being lowered to as young as seven years old. In 2010, Canada became the first country to ban.

Increasing number of countries are banning the sale and/or cultivation of GM crops. Some of the GM crops are engineered to produce their own pesticides and research has shown that the genes are passed on to humans and even down to several generations after consumption. Other crops are engineered to withstand heavy applications of the toxic pesticide Roundup.

Thanks in part to GM engineering, US produce contains serious levels of pesticides as well as herbicides such as Roundup and other glyphosphates. Researchers in Europe have found that the weed killer Roundup has serious toxic effects due to inert ingredients that amplify the toxicity of Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate. As a result, Roundup is banned in nearly every European country.

Due to growth stimulators such as ractopine as well as antibiotics which are added to our meats, over 160 countries say "no" to U.S. meats.

Chemical fertilizers are yet another widespread problem. From 1990 to 1995, 600 different companies from 44 states sent a whopping 270,000,000 pounds of toxic waste to both fertilizer companies and farms. The waste was not treated to remove toxic substances including arsenic and dioxins.

Sadly, greed and cash are kings in the US and our government is too often for sale to the highest bidder. This explains why we have a Monsanto insider over our food safety, much like we have a Merck insider over our medicines.


Found on Raw For Beauty via Natural News

Sources for this article include:

http://shine.yahoo.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/035504_BPA_puberty_chemicals.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/030343_BPA_toxic_chemicals.html

http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=5537&catId=1

http://www.examiner.com/article/what-countries-have-banned-gmo-crops

http://www.offthegridnews.comm

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041098_groceries_banned_foods_American_diet.html#ixzz2aqgTBjVh

The World According To Monsanto (Full Documentary)

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Image: geke.us

There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the
cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world. The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.

 Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.

Source: YouTube

Fluoridated Water Is Causing Thyroid Health Problems

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But aside from all the sordid history, the suppression of scientific concern, and the labeling of dissenters as off-balanced "fluorophobes," what should a sensible person do? Here are three appropriate actions for regular daily life, especially if you are bothered by feeling fat, fuzzy, frazzled, fatigued, depressed, beset by intolerance to heat or cold, annoyed by problems with skin-hair-nails, or suffering with severe constipation, low libido, infertility, or uncomfortable menopause.

First, if you are not a thyroid patient, have your thyroid status carefully checked. Insist on more testing than the simple AMA panel of TSH and Free T4. Add a Free T3 and the Thyroid Antibody Panel. You may be one of the millions of people whose fluoride exposure over the years has finally made you low thyroid.

Second, if you are already a thyroid sufferer and treatment is not going as well as you would like, consider an enhanced fluoride avoidance program. Stop drinking and cooking with tap water if it is fluoridated. Well-chosen bottled water is preferable. Start buying non-fluoridated tooth paste. It's available at the health food store if you really look closely. Decline the fluoride dental treatments and make sure it is not in your mouth wash. The various other food sources are probably not a significant factor.

Commentary on 2006 Research Findings

Third, start speaking out against the unhealthy practice of fluoridation. Don't expect that the Public Health Service will ever willingly admit to the most colossal error ever in the history of government science. The change will instead occur as more and more local communities decide against fluoridating their city water. They will thereby join those whole countries that have rejected or banned the practice, such as Japan, India, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Holland. Be guided by the credo of health professionals, "Above all, do no harm." If fluoridated water is now highly suspected of harm, then let's put a moratorium on proceeding further with it.

Key Resources

EPA Standard for Fluoride in Drinking Water Is Not Protective/2006
http://thyroid.about.com/od/newscontroversies/a/fluoride2006.htm

Drs. Richard and Karilee Shames
http://www.feelingfff.com/
Portland Tribune Article

Sources: oawhealth.com

Mary Shomon

Top 10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Food

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1. Get The Nutrition You Need and Enjoy Tastier Food!
Many studies have shown that organically grown food has more minerals and nutrients that we need than food grown with synthetic pesticides. There’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes—they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and, ultimately our bodies.

2. Save Money
Growing your own food can help cut the cost of the grocery bill. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars and month at the grocery store on foods that don’t really nourish you, spend time in the garden, outside, exercising, learning to grow your own food.

3. Protect Future Generations
The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. Food choices you make now will impact your child’s future health.

“We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers,
we are borrowing it from our children.”
– Lester Brown

4. Prevent Soil Erosion
Soil in developed nations is eroded several times faster than it’s built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. However, in conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, many farms worldwide are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history.

5. Protect Water Quality
Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. Pesticides – some cancer causing – contaminate the groundwater an can pollute the primary source of drinking water.

6. Save Energy
Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming a significant percentage total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest crops. If you are growing your own food in the city, you are cutting down on transportation and pollution costs.

7. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
In the United States, many pesticides approved for use by the Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an extra 4 million cancer cases among Americans. If you are growing your own food, you have control over what does, or doesn’t, go into it. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also harm humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations.

8. Protect Workers and Help Small Farmers
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers have risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973 and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in the state. Farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide use can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides.

Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned family farms of fewer than 100 acres. It’s estimated the United States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that half of this country’s farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for family farms.

9. Promote Biodiversity
Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts. Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making farmers more reliant on pesticides. Despite a tenfold increase in the use of pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubled—partly because some insects have become genetically resistant to certain pesticides.

10. Help Beautify Your Community
Besides being used to grow food, community gardens are also a great way to beautify a community, and to bring pride in ownership.

Sources: Prevent Disease

realfarmacy.com 

5 Reasons Why GMO's are a Recipe for Global Famine

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Related Article:

Ousting Monsanto And Ushering In An “Earth Democracy” Vandana Shiva

Health Benefits of Watercress

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Watercress is a popular european leafy green herb that grows along springs and slow running water streams. It has a faint pepper taste to it, and has been used in ancient times for medicinal uses in Europe, Central Asia and the Americas. It is closely related to mustard greens, garden cress, cabbage and arugula. 

This leafy herb contains more vitamin C than some fruit and vegetables! You can get over 72% of your daily vitamin C from just 100 grams of watercress leaves. Vitamin C helps to scavenge free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Vitamin C not only helps boost your immunity against infection, but it also helps prevent iron deficiency anemia, and helps maintain bone health and keep skin supple and radiant looking.

This amazing little herb also happens to be one of the best vegetable sources for vitamin K! Just 100 grams of watercress leaves will leave you absorbing over 200% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin K! Vitamin K is important in bone health by promoting the strengthening and formation of bones (osteotrophic activity). Vitamin K also reduces the amount of neuronal damage in the brain and thus has been used in treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Vitamin A, which is important for skin, eye, bone, hair and nail health is a fat soluble vitamin that is stored in our liver. Vitamin A acts as an antioxidant in our bodies, however, it is the carotenes (i.e., alpha carotene, beta carotene; the precursors of vitamin A) in the watercress that can either be turned into vitamin A or turned into antioxidants (the body does this! It is very intelligent and will turn carotenes from the plant into vitamin A only if your body needs it. The rest will function in your bloodstream as antioxidants – so you can’t really overdose on carotenes). Watercress is particularly rich in vitamin A with 100g of the leaves providing you with 70% of your RDA of vitamin A.

Watercress is also rich in B vitamins which help to relieve stress, treat anxiety and depression, aid in memory and relieve PMS. Some B vitamins also help cells burn fats and glucose for energy, whereas others help make serotonin (the feel-good neurotransmitter created in our brain). Not only do B vitamins do all of the aforementioned, but they also assist with the production and repair of DNA!

Glucosinolates in watercress help to boost and regulate activity of detoxification enzymes in the liver. When consumed, the glucosinolates in watercress are converted to isothiocyanates, which then have the ability to inhibit tumorigenesis by modulating the metabolism of carcinogens. This effect found to have an even stronger impact when consuming watercress that has not been cooked.

As an anti-inflammatory, watercress has been used for treating eczema, acne and other skin issues (again, we can thank vitamin’s A and C here). It can also be used as a liver tonic to help aid your liver in the detoxification process. It is also interesting to note that watercress is (in terms of calories) 85% protein, making it a great source of plant protein for vegans.

Next time you make a green juice, or a salad, add in some watercress to pack in some of the amazing benefits listed above! Your body will love you for it!

Sources:

Gill, C., Haldar, S., Boyd, L., Bennett, R., Whiteford, J., Butler, M., Pearson, J., Bradbury, I., & Rowland, I. (2007) Watercress supplementation in diet reduces lymphocyte DNA damage and alters blood antioxidant status in healthy adults. Am J Clin Nutr, 85, 504-510.

Rose, P., Won, Y., Ong, C., & Whiteman, M. (2005) B-Phenylethyl and 8-methylsulphinyloctyl isothiocyanates, constituents of watercress, suppress LPS induced production of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2 in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Nitric Oxide, 12, 237-243.

Getahun, S., & Chung, F. (1999) Conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates in humans after ingestion of cooked watercress. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev., 8, 447-451.

Connecting With Nature Boosts Creativity and Health

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"I've been arguing for a while that connection to nature should be thought of as a human right," Richard Louv told the crowd assembled in the courtyard of National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Louv was there to inspire the staff about the benefits of spending time outdoors.

Louv, the author of the bestsellers Last Child in the Woods (2005) and The Nature Principle (2011)-coined the term "nature-deficit disorder" to describe the loss of connection children increasingly feel with the natural world. Nature-deficit disorder is not a clinically recognized condition, he explains, but rather a term to evoke a loss of communion with other living things. Nevertheless, he argues, nature-deficit disorder affects "health, spiritual well-being, and many other areas, including [people's] ability to feel ultimately alive." (See "The Nature-Deficit Disorder and How It Is Impacting Our Natural World.")

The causes of the disorder include loss of open space, increasingly busy schedules, an emphasis on team sports over individualized play and exploration, competition from electronic media, and what Louv and others call a "culture of fear," in which people are afraid to visit natural areas or even go outside due to heavy media coverage of violent events.

To dive deeper into Louv's ideas, National Geographic sat down with him for a few questions.

It has been a few years since you published Last Child in the Woods in 2005. What has changed since then?

Quite a bit. I wrote another book, called The Nature Principle, extending the idea [of nature-deficit disorder] to adults. That's because I kept hearing from adults, who said, "It affects us too." At the time there were a lot of great people doing great work around nature, but in the media that issue was nowhere near the stove, let alone the front burner.

I didn't know it would have the impact it has. I never claim Last Child in the Woods started anything, but it proved to be a very useful tool, and things took off. Today, if you look at childrenandnature.org [the website of the Children & Nature Network, a group Louv founded], you'll see all kinds of good news from all over the country, and it's increasingly international. Nature preschools are beginning to take off. There are 112 regional, provincial, or state campaigns in the U.S. and Canada that are working on getting kids outdoors, many of which didn't exist before.

It doesn't seem to matter what someone's politics or religion is, they want to tell me about the treehouse they had as a kid, if they are old enough—for the younger people that is less likely to be true. This is the only issue I've seen that brings people together, because nobody wants to be in the last generation where it's considered normal for kids to go outdoors.

This week you spoke at an event with Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at the Center for American Progress in Washington, on the importance of getting children and adults outside. How did that go?

Sally Jewell is a former head of REI, and she is one of the people who stepped forward when Last Child came out. She took an REI daypack filled with copies of the book, went to the White House, and handed them out to staff and the president.

She will be the third Secretary of the Interior in a row to be fully committed to this issue. The first was Dirk Kempthorne, a conservative Republican under President [George W.] Bush, who was very committed to this. So was Ken Salazar [under Obama], and now Sally, who probably has the most experience with this issue. [Tuesday's] event illustrates that this issue is growing.

Can you share some specific examples of how a connection to nature improved someone's life?

[National Geographic Emerging Explorer] Juan Martinez is one example. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where he was headed for gangs and trouble. A principal told him he'd have to go to detention or join the eco club. He thought the club sounded like a bunch of nerds, but he joined. He resented it at first, but then had an assignment to grow something.

He had seen his mother break up concrete behind their house to grow chilis to eat. So he grew a jalapeno chili plant and took it home to show her that he could nurture life too. That plant, and later an eco club trip to the Grand Tetons, changed his life. He is now an environmentalist and head of the Natural Leaders Network, which is part of the Children &  Nature Network. He is also a National Geographic explorer and has spoken at the White House twice.

So nature can transform your life. He found not only nature, he found people through nature. He reconnected to South Central in a new way. (See video of Juan Martinez.)

How can city dwellers connect with nature?

As of 2008 more people lived in cities than the countryside. That marked a huge moment in human history, and it means one of two things: Either the human connection to nature will continue to fade, or it means the beginning of a new kind of city.

One way is through "biophilic design" [nature-inspired design], which is the incorporation of nature where we live, work, learn, and play, not only as something we drive an hour to visit. Not only parks, but also in the way we design our neighborhoods, our backyards, and our buildings.

I believe cities can become engines of biodiversity. It starts with planting a lot of native plants, which revive the food chain and bring back butterfly and bird migration routes.

The word "sustainability" is problematic, because to most people it means stasis, survival, and energy efficiency. We have to do those things, but that only goes so far in igniting the imagination. Increasingly, I talk about a "nature-rich society," a different way to look at the future that is not just about survival, but about something much better.

How do we get to a greener future?

I visited the Martin Luther King memorial yesterday. King demonstrated and said that any movement will fail if it can't paint a picture of a world people will want to go to. That world has to be more than energy efficient, it must be a better civilization.

I think we're in a cultural depression. The number one young adult literature genre today is something called dystopic fiction, which portrays a post-apocalyptic world in which vampires aren't even having a good time. I have a theory that most Americans carry images of the far future that look a lot likeBlade Runner and Mad Max. If those are the dominating images, and we don't have a balancing set of images of a great future, then we better be careful what we imagine.

You have written about the impacts of "nature time" on problems like anxiety, depression, ADD, and obesity. How important is that?

If you look at a new body of research on depression, ADD, physical health, child obesity, and the epidemic of inactivity, nature is a good antidote to all of that. I didn't coin it, but I like the phrase "sitting is the new smoking," because new evidence shows that sitting long hours every day can have serious health risks similar to those caused by smoking.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are investigating whether time in the woods could be used to supplement treatment of ADD. A study at the University of Kansas found that young people who backpacked for three days showed higher creativity and cognitive abilities. People in hospitals who can see a natural landscape have been shown to get better faster.

As an antidote, we need to figure out ways to increase nature time even as technology increases. It has to be a conscious decision.

Speaking of technology, how much are "screens" like TV, the Internet, video games, and smartphones to blame for keeping kids indoors?

I always resist demonizing technology and video games, specifically, partly because when people write about this issue they go immediately to that. But then they ignore these other things, like "stranger danger" [Louv has argued that sensationalist media has made parents fearful of letting children go outside] and bad urban design, the fact that our education system needs a lot of work, the fact that we are canceling recess and field trips—there are a lot of other reasons out there.

Having said that, there's no doubt that electronics have something to do with this. The Kaiser Foundation found that kids spend 53 hours a week plugged in to some kind of electronic medium, and I imagine that's true of adults too. I have an iPhone and iPad, I spend a lot of time with screens, but I think the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need as a balancing agent.

How can parents know if their kids might suffer from nature-deficit disorder? Are there warning signs?

I don't think this is something that can be reduced to individual symptoms in individual children. I've always felt it was a more generalized issue, a disorder of society that has implications for all of us.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Sources: Higher Health

Nat Geo News

Amazing Health Benefits of Mango

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Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the most cultivated fruits in the tropics and has become a staple in the households of many. The fruit is generally sweet although you will find that different varieties supply your taste buds with very different flavours. The texture of mango also varies across different species. Some have a soft, pulpy texture, which others have a more firm, fibrous texture. Mangos contain many phytochemicals and nutrients, and is high in prebiotic dietary fibber, vitamin C, beta-carotene (responsible for producing vitamin A) and a diverse array of polyphenols. Please continue reading to discover the miraculous benefits of our fruity friend, the Mango!

Cancer Prevention:
Mango (Mangifera indica) possess antioxidants that help protect against disease such as cancer, diabetes, liver disorders and oxidative stress (1). One study found that mango has hepatoprotective properties (ability to prevent liver damage) in human hepatocarcinoma cells (cancer cells of the liver). The mango extracts demonstrated significant antioxidant property and efficient scavenging of free radicals. They also protected liver cells from chemical-induced damage (1).

Another study found that the flesh and peel of mango fruit and the bioactive compounds found within these areas of the fruit were effective in inhibiting human breast cancer cell proliferation in vitro (2).

In addition, researchers from Texas A&M University (3) looked into the anticarcinogenic effects of polyphenolics from different mango varieties (Francis, Kent, Ataulfo, Tommy Atkins, and Haden). They studied mango’s effects on cell cancer lines including leukemia, lung, breast, prostate, and colon cancer cell lines as well as a non-cancerous colon cell line.

The extracts of all mango varieties exhibited efficient inhibition of cell growth in the colon cancer cell lines, where Ataulfo and Haden demonstrated the greatest antioxidant capacities followed by Kent, Francis and Tommy Atkins. Leukemia cells were most efficiently eradicated by Ataulfo and Haden, followed by breast, lung, and prostate cancer cells in decreasing efficacy.

In fact, Ataulfo inhibited colon cancer cell growth by up to 72%! As well, the growth of non-cancerous colon cancer cells was not inhibited, suggesting that mango can efficiently select and destroy cancerous cells and will not interfere with normal cellular growth.

These mango extracts inhibited cancerous growth mainly due to their ability to increase mRNA expression of pro-apoptotic biomarkers and cell cycle regulators, cell cycle arrest, and by reducing the generation of reactive oxygen species.

Improves Vision:
Mango’s are excellent for our vision! Why? Mainly because they contain Vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency can cause nyctalopia (night blindness), hemeralopia (day-light blindness), xerophthalmia (eyes fail to produce tears), and even blindness itself (4).

The carotenoid pigments in mango, specifically, beta-carotene provides the highest vitamin A activity (5). Haden and Tommy Atkins have lower beta-carotene levels than Palmer and Uba, however they still provide our bodies with the vitamin A we need (regardless of which variety you choose – if you had a choice, I would go for Palmer and Uba, however, the most common mango varieties in store are Tommy Atkins – this also depends on time of year too).

How does vitamin A improve our vision? Vitamin A is a molecule in the retina that helps to transform light energy into nerve impulses inside the retinal matrix. It helps maintain the health and repair of the mucous membranes in the eye, and thus helps protect the cornea and eye surface, and prevents dry eye.

100 grams of mango provides 765mg or 25% of our daily vitamin A! If you ate four mangoes, you would have your daily vitamin A intake at around 100% – and eating four mangoes is incredibly easy – they just taste so amazing, and the benefits you get are incredible.

High in Copper:
Did you know that mangoes are high in copper? Micronutrients such as copper are often paid very little attention even though they have excellent benefits to our health and wellness. Of course, mangoes grown in soils that are more copper rich will contain higher levels of copper, but in general, mangoes do contain sufficient amounts of copper to have an impact on human health.

Copper is essential in supporting many biochemical processes of life such as cellular respiration, utilization and transport of oxygen via the blood, DNA and RNA reproduction, maintaining integrity of cell membranes, and eradicating free radicals via cascading enzyme systems like cytochrome c-oxidase and superoxide dismutase (6) which helps to reduce the risk of cancer and slows the aging process. Red blood cell production is also dependent on the presence of copper.

Improves Sex Life:
Eating mango will provide you with supple amounts of vitamin E – just one cup of mango provides us with over 2mg of vitamin E – multiply this by four cups (which can easily fit in a salad) and you get up to 8mg vitamin E. It is recommended that you consume 15mg of vitamin E daily, so eating mango will ensure you increase your vitamin E levels.

Aside from keeping our skin soft and supple, how does vitamin E help improve one’s sex life? Vitamin E regulates the body’s sex hormones and helps to boost sex drive, all of which increase attraction, mood and desire. Most men and women who get adequate vitamin E levels notice more sexual energy and pleasure when touched and more powerful and frequent orgasms. The root cause of female sexual dysfunction is an excess of estrogen – interestingly, vitamin E (600 to 800 IU daily) helps the woman’s body produce estriol and progesterone which help balance estrogen, and thus bring high estrogen levels back to their normal levels.

Alkalizes the Body:
Acid-producing foods that are highly acidic (such as meat, dairy & eggs, processed foods, coffee, white sugar, and alcohol) can cause the body to not function at its prime state, resulting in disease and illness (7). Numerous studies over the years have correlated acidic environments to perfect cancer-thriving conditions (8, 9, 10), thus is it crucial that we maintain an alkaline state in the body through a diet rich in foods that promote an alkaline effect on the body (namely, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds).

The mango is a perfect example of a fruit that alkalizes the body. It is considered an alkaline-forming food, so that when you eat it, the end products of digestion and nutrient assimilation will result in alkaline ash which gets buffered. Since mango is so alkaline, our buffering system doesn’t need to work as hard as if we ate a steak, which can over burden our buffer systems, and turn to other areas of the body such as our bones to draw upon calcium reserves which can result in osteoporosis. Muscle also has the ability to break down in an acidic body, so that alkalizing amino acids from the muscle can help support our buffer system and bring our pH back to normal levels. This results in muscle wasting.

Thus, consuming alkaline fruits and vegetables (all fruits and vegetables this includes, in fact, the most alkaline is the lemon! The effect it has in the body is the opposite from it’s label – acidic fruits does not mean that they have acidic effects in the body).

Improves Digestion:
Mangoes contain 25 grams of fibre per fruit, which accounts for around 20% of our daily fibre intake. Fibre helps to fill the stomach and intestines and stimulates healthy muscle contractions which moves food smoothly through the GI tract. Fibre absorbs water in the intestine and gathers waste which helps to create smooth and regular bowel movements. It helps to prevent constipation and diarrhea.

Digestive enzymes are crucial for a healthy GI tract – and mangoes contain just that. They contain a similar digestive enzyme as the papaya, called papain, which soothes the digestive tract and helps break down proteins and fats. Mangoes also contain enzymes such as mangiferin, katechol oxidase, and lactase, all of which stimulate our metabolism and purify the intestines.

 Lowers Cholesterol:
Plant stanol esters (such as those in the mango) are very efficient in reducing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. They inhibit cholesterol absorption from the intestine in humans. Plant stanol esters at around 2-3 grams per day are efficient in reducing LDL cholesterol by 10-15% (11).

Mangoes are also rich in vitamin C. Vitamin C controls the transformation of cholesterol into bile acids in the liver, and helps reduce cholesterol accumulation in blood serum as well as the liver (12). Vitamin C also works to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease via higher plasma HDL- and HDL2 cholesterol (13), thus it helps to increase our good cholesterol while lowering our bad cholesterol.

Pectin also helps reduce cholesterol levels, and mangoes contain significant amounts of this fibre type. Pectin is a form of soluble fibre and has been shown to provide cholesterol-lowering benefits. One study found that mean serum-cholesterol levels fell significantly when participants consumed up to 36 grams of pectin over a two-week period (14). Pectin can reduce cholesterol levels by preventing glucose absorption in the gut, and thereby prevent blood sugar spikes and elevated triglyceride levels. It’s gel-like consistency also acts as a physical barrier in the intestines to prevent absorption and movement of cholesterol in the GI tract.

Improves Memory & Concentration:
Mangoes contain glutamine which converts into glutamic acid in the brain and becomes an important excitatory neurotransmitter which has numerous benefits for our memory and concentration. Glutamic acid stimulates glutamate receptors in the brain which helps in hippocampal long-term potentiation and memory processing (15). Glutamic acid is also thought to play a role in mental alertness, which is beneficial for children in school who have a hard time concentrating, or for individuals with the inability to concentrate and/or focus on projects/work for long periods of time.

In addition, mango extracts and their antioxidants called mangiferin, have the ability to prevent glutamate-induced excitotoxicity of cerebral cortex neurones (16). In general, mangiferin is a neuroprotector that has therapeutic potential to treat neurogenerative disorders such as dementia which can develop into Alzheimer’s disease.

Mangana Smoothie Recipe:
3 Mangoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
3 Bananas, peeled
1 Cup fresh young thai coconut water
2 sprigs of mint leaves
3-4 stalks of kale (stalks removed, with leaves left over)

Place kale, mint leaves and fresh young thai coconut water into a blender and blend until smooth (it is okay if your blender is not incredibly strong and there are some tiny pieces left over). Next, place in the fruit (mango & banana) and pulse blend (to reduce oxidation) until uniformly mixed. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Sources:

(1) Hiraganahalli, B., Chinampudur, V., Dethe, S., Mundkinajeddu, D., Pandre, M., Balachandran, J., & Agarwal, A. (2012) Hepatoprotective and antioxidant activity of standardized herbal extracts. Pharmacogn Mag., 8, 116-123.

(2) Wilkinson, A., Flanagan, B., Pierson, J., Hewavitharana, A., Dietzgen, R., Shaw, P., Robers-Thomson, S., Monteith, G., & Gidley, M. (2011) Bioactivity of mango flesh and peel extracts on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARy) activation and MCF-7 cell proliferation: fraction and fruit variability. Journal of Food Science, 76, H11-8.

(3) Noratto, G., Bertoldi, M., Krenek, K., Talcott, S., Stringheta, P., & Mertens-Talcott, S. (2010) Anticarcinogenic effects of polyphenolics from mango (Mangifera indica) varieties. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, 58, 4104-4112.

(4) Meda, N., Chevalier, P., & Mathieu-Daude, C. (2000) Ocular manifestations associated with vitamin A deficiency in a rural area of Burkina Faso. Med Trop (Mars)., 60, 57-60.

(5) Ribeiro, S., Queiroz, J., Queiroz, M., Campos, F., & Sant’Ana, H. (2007) Antioxidant in mango (Mangifera indica L.) pulp. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 62, 12-17.

(6) Chan, S., Gerson, B., & Subramaniam, S. (1998) The role of copper, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc in nutrition and health. Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 18, 673-685.

(7) The University of California at San Diego: Acid and Alkaline foods.

(8) Park, H., Lyons, J., Ohtsubo, T., & Song, C. (1999) Acidic environment causes apoptosis by increasing caspase activity. Cancer Research Campaign, 80, 1892-1897.

(9) Gatenby, R., & Gillies, R. (2007) Glycolysis in cancer: A potential target for therapy. The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, 39, 1358-1366.

(10) Xu, L., & Fidler, I. (2000) Acidic pH-induced elevation in interleukin 8 expression by human ovarian carcinoma cells. Cancer Research, 60, 4610.

(11) Nguyen, T. (1999) The cholesterol-lowering action of plant stanol esters. The American Society for Nutritional Sciences, 129, 2109-2112.

(12) Ginter, E. (1973) Cholesterol: vitamin c controls its transformation to bile acids. Science, 179, 702-704.

(13) Hallfrisch, J., Singh, V., Muller, D., Baldwin, H., Bannon, M., & Andres, R. (1994) High plasma vitamin C associated with high plasma HDL- and HDL2 cholesterol. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 60, 100-105.

(14) Jenkins, D., Newton, C., Leeds, A., & Cummings, J. (1975) Effect of pectin, guar gum, and wheat fibre on serum-cholesterol. The Lancet, 305, 1116-1117.

(15) Flood, J., Baker, M., & Davis, J. (1990) Modulation of memory processing by glutamic acid receptor agonists and antagonists. Brain Research, 521, 197-202.

(16) Lemus-Molina, Y., Sanchez-Gomez, M., Delgado-Hernandez, R., & Matute, C. (2009) Mangifera indica L. extract attenuates glutamate-induced neurotoxicity on rat cortical neurons. Neurotoxicology, 30, 1053-1058.

Additional Sources:
http://envisionoptical.com.au/how-does-vitamin-a-help-the-eyes/

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/mango-fruit.html

http://www.the-vitamin-and-supplement-guide.com/vitamineandsexdrive.html

http://www.alkalinelifestyle.com/nutrition_Phase1

http://www.livestrong.com/article/492225-fruit-pectin-cholesterol-cure/

http://www.barbara-simonsohn.de/mango.htm