Summertime is great for spending time outdoors in the sun. But if you slather on sunscreen before heading outside, I would strongly encourage you to learn why this might not be a good idea. Most sunscreens contain a host of toxic chemicals and block your body’s absorption of Vitamin D–a powerful cancer-fighting agent.
Nutrition
Fighting Skin Cancer with Food
Fuel for Your Cells
You are made up of about 75 trillion cells.
That’s a lot of cells!
Your job is simple–give your cells what they need and keep them away from what they don’t need.
Your cells must have nutrients and must be free of toxins. So health comes down to Toxicity and Deficiency.
How to Get Rid of Acne
Even though people have thought for many years that diet and acne were linked; most scientists have dismissed this link for decades. Today, studies have found links between certain foods and acne and no, it’s not chocolate.
The Western diet is linked to more outbreaks of acne among youth and young adults while people who eat traditional diets rarely experience this problem. Why? Processed and refined foods lack nutritional value, and they’re forms of simple carbohydrates. Nutrient deficiencies and high blood sugar add up to acne, says Dr. Robert Preston.
Health is Not a Feeling
How do you know if you’re healthy or sick? I have asked thousands of people that question over the years and I have heard one common theme every time.
I am healthy if I… feel good.
I’m here to tell you that health is about more than just feeling good. In order to know if you are truly healthy
Simplifying Sea Vegetables
Sea vegetables, or what Westerner’s often call “seaweeds” aren’t just an Asian delicacy anymore. Many of you might avoid recipes that use these strange sounding sea vegetables. If that’s you, then read on to learn more about the amazing health benefits of these foods.
Many varieties of sea vegetables have traveled out of health food stores and into local supermarkets and American homes. Why? According to the George Mateljan Foundation, “they offer the broadest range of minerals of any food, containing virtually all the minerals found in the ocean—the same minerals that are found in human blood.”
Inflammation at the Root of Most Diseases
Inflammation has been found to be associated with just about every health condition and researchers are furiously investigating chronic inflammation’s effects on health and possible preventive medical applications.
It’s “an emerging field,” says UCLA’s Dr. David Heber. “It’s a new concept for medicine.”
Why is it a new concept? Because modern medicine focuses on treating symptoms, not addressing the root cause of an issue.
How to Eat African
I recently went on a mission trip to Africa and had some of the best food of my life. It was simple, tasty, and super healthy. Here is plate of what I ate for lunch which contained 3 of my favorite 5 superfoods:
Vegetables (Turnip Greens and Cabbage)
Grass fed meat (Lamb)
Beans (Kidney beans)
Healthy Eating on a Budget
There was a time when imported foods and processed and prepared foods were considered a luxury only within the reach of the rich. But if you’ve so much as walked into a grocery store recently, you know things have changed. Healthy food is not the least expensive food from a financial standpoint.
I will often remind people that the financial cost is not the only thing to consider when choosing what foods you put into your body. In the long run, when you factor in healthcare costs and the cost of quality of life lost due to poor nutrition, a slightly higher grocery bill right now doesn’t seem all that bad.
Fighting Free Radical Damage
Antioxidants, ORAC scores, free radical damage, oxidative stress…these things have become trendy topics where health is concerned. Have you jumped on the antioxidant bandwagon or are you wary of manufacturer’s liberal use of these latest buzzwords?
Many people have heard that antioxidants protect us from free radical damage in our bodies. But what exactly are free radicals, why are they bad and where do they come from?
Real Foods vs. Fake Foods
“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby” – Marvin Gaye
Today, the question is not: What foods should you eat to be healthy?… The real question is: Are you eating food at all? Are you eating real food or fake food?
When you pull up at the drive thru at the fast food restaurant and order chicken nuggets, fries, and a soda, do you think that’s real food? When you are shopping at the supermarket and throw some cereal, milk, and bread into your cart, do you think that’s food?
High Fructose Corn Syrup is Not Natural
You’ve probably seen the “Sweet Surprise” television commercials posted by the American Corn Grower’s Association. They challenge people to actually report what’s specifically wrong with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and say: “It’s made from corn, doesn’t have artificial ingredients, has the same amount of calories as sugar and its fine in moderation.”
The implication that HFCS is a “natural product” doesn’t really say much. And “they,” as in “You know what they say about it…” should have you questioning a thing or two.
Both of these implications are simply not true. They actually have a lot to say about why high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, and HFCS is anything but natural.
Your Body is a…Garbage Bucket?
As a kid growing up my mom would always say things like: Don’t touch this! Or Don’t eat that! And Always wash your hands to get rid of germs because germs make you sick!
You’ve probably heard the notion before that germs make you sick and just took it as truth. The truth is that germs don’t make you sick, it’s what the germs are attracted to inside you that make you sick. Germs, bugs, viruses, parasites, and rats all love one thing… and it’s garbage.
Nutrient Density: Count Calories No More
Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live, coined the now-trendy term “nutritarian.” I love this term! A nutritarian describes someone who chooses foods based on their micronutrient per calorie content: they don’t bother counting calories, avoiding fats or eating only raw foods; a nutritarian doesn’t follow a “one-size-fits-all” diet plan or theory. Instead they focus on foods that are nutrient-dense, real and unprocessed.
I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
Coconut is one of the healthiest foods you can put in your body. I can hear you now: “Isn’t coconut super fattening?” The truth is, the saturated fats found in coconut and coconut products (like its milk, oil or water) are healthy fats that your body needs. Consuming these kinds of fats will actually help you lose weight!
It’s important to begin by debunking the myth about the dangers of saturated fat.
5 Cooking Tips for Beginners
Many people can get overwhelmed by the concept of cooking, much less cooking healthy meals! I’ve heard all the excuses–I don’t have time to cook, I don’t know how to cook, I’m bad at cooking….
Really, cooking is not that hard at all. Even if you’ve never cooked a day in your life, you can whip up a great healthy meal. You just need a little inspiration and you need to relax!
Are You Eating Rancid Oils?
When most people think of cooking oils, what immediately comes to mind is vegetable or canola oil. These oils are found in abundance in the grocery stores because they are cheap to produce–due in part to the government subsidization of corn crops. But these oils, along with oils like soybean, cottonseed and safflower, are highly processed and rancid. I can’t encourage you strongly enough to remove them from your diet!
Factory Farmed Meats: Why a Hamburger Costs a Dollar
Have you ever wondered how fast food joints can afford to sell a double cheeseburger for a dollar? It all boils down to the practice of industrial farming.
Industrial farming provides us with cheap but dangerous animal meats and products. The farming methods used on these factory farms do more than denature the animal products themselves.
Refined Carbohydrates: Avoiding ‘White on Rice’
Things like white bread, white pasta and white rice have become staples in the Standard American Diet. Even though there is a trend toward seemingly healthy wheat bread or whole grain pasta, these grains are still processed and refined–to the point that I would not even call them food! Refined carbohydrates are fake foods and should be avoided if you want to build health in your body.
Pasteurization & Homogenization 101
Most of us take it for granted that milk and other foods are pasteurized and homogenized. When certain practices go unquestioned, we accept them as being “just the way things are.” But pasteurization and homogenization denature foods. They alter the chemical structure of food, make fats rancid, destroy nutrients and result in the formation of free radicals in the body.
It’s not just dairy anymore either. Pasteurization is used on everything from fruit juices to shelled nuts.
Many people choose not to “do dairy” at all, but among those that do; you should know that there’s a big difference between pasteurized milk and raw milk and many myths about both.
The Dangers of Farmed Fish
You may have heard that eating fish is a healthy option. That’s a true statement, but in most cases today, it’s only a partially true statement. The reality of where our fish comes from is of paramount importance for our health! There is a vast different between wild caught fish and farmed fish.
Fish farms produce supermarket protein with high concentrations of antibiotics, pesticides and lower levels of healthy nutrients.
To Salt or Not to Salt?
Doctors and scientists have long been telling us to reduce our salt intake, so it may be hard to swallow when I tell you research shows that a low-salt diet doesn’t reduce high blood pressure. But the type of salt you are consuming does make a world of difference for your health.
Nutritionist Sally Fallon reminds us that all traditional cultures have used salt in some form. But they didn’t, of course, use the refined table salt we find in our salt shakers. They used salt from the sea.
The Heat is On: Raw vs. Cooked Foods
“With the proper diet, no doctor is necessary. With the improper diet, no doctor can help.”
~ Gabriel Cousens, author of Conscious Eating
Some “raw foodies” may seem extreme and obsessive, but there’s a lot to be said for increasing the amount of raw food in your diet. As naturopath Dr. Humbart Santillo says, “A human being is not maintained by food intake alone, but rather by what is digested.”
Digestive Health: What’s on Your Plate?
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), upward of 60 to 70 million Americans are affected by digestive diseases. 234,000 US citizens die of digestive-related disease every year and 1.9 million are disabled. Digestive disease and disorder cost the US over $100 billion per year.
The crazy thing about those numbers is they are preventable.
What’s the Deal with Gluten?
Gluten-free diets and gluten-free menus at restaurants have become more and more prevalent. So what is gluten and what’s the big deal?
Gluten is a sticky protein found in wheat. The prevalence of wheat and wheat products, especially processed and refined varieties, have led to a greater percentage of the population developing gluten intolerance or an allergy to gluten.
Are School Lunches Healthy
Do you eat on the run? Have a drive-thru habit? Grab a daily snack from the vending machine? We’ve heard repeatedly how important breakfast is, but lagging lunches are certainly an overlooked health danger in these times. What about your kids?
Some of the worst meals around are school lunches.
Balancing Act: Why pH is Crucial to Health
Most of us never consider the acid/alkaline balance of our blood, but a proper pH is a crucial aspect to health. Many doctors stress the importance of pH because a balanced pH protects us from the inside out. Disease and disorder, they say, cannot take root in a body whose pH is in balance.
Going Mad for Mushrooms
Usually thought of as a vegetable, a mushroom is a fungus that is full of nutrients that can boost the immune system and combat many diseases and conditions.
Mushrooms are low in carbohydrates and calories and high in B vitamins, chitin, fiber, iron, niacin, potassium, protein, riboflavin, selenium and zinc. They also contain high levels of beta-glucans, compounds that keep immune cells alert, and ergothioneine, an important antioxidant.
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
We’re at the tail end of a low-fat diet craze that warned people to avoid nuts as a high-fat snack. But in reality, low-fat diets are one of the worst things you could do for your health! Your body needs healthy fat sources. It’s the type of fat that really matters. Refined and processed fats are bad for us. But plant fats, or physterols, found in nuts are one of many healthy and natural fats.
Nuts contain a host of nutrients that battle heart disease and diabetes, boost brain function and the immune system and can help you lose weight.
Eating Seasonally
Walk into your typical supermarket and you can find grapes from Brazil, persimmons from China and papaya from Peru. Although most of our fruits and vegetables come from warm-weather states like California, Florida and Texas; we also get a great deal of produce from the Chile, China, Italy, Israel, Egypt, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa and Thailand.
Strawberries in winter, rutabaga in spring—cross-country and global commerce puts a wealth of food at our fingertips no matter the season. Great right? Unfortunately, not really.
Prostate Health the Natural Way
1 in 3 American men turn to surgery or prescription drugs to treat an enlarged prostate. But it is absolutely possible to manage an enlarged prostate with lifestyle changes and herbal supplements. In Europe, only 1 in 10 men turn to surgery. Side effects are the most common concern when surgery is considered and in some cases, symptoms can return within a couple of years. As always, prevention is the best remedy of all.
Cancer’s Link to Your Diet
Although you may have heard about many different anti-cancer diets, most of them share common elements. Cancer is a systemic disease with various causes. One extremely important way to prevent and/or treat cancer is nutritionally.
A cancer (or anti-cancer) diet consists of:
- Lowering toxin intake
- Supporting the body’s cleansing and detoxifying processes
- Eating healthy and nutrient-rich foods to support all of your body’s functions
Raw Milk Myths Part 3 of 3
Make sure you have read Raw Milk Myths Part 1 and Raw Milk Myths Part 2. If you have, we’ll move onto the 3rd myth:
Myth #3: Pasteurization is in everyone’s best interest.
This argument is the one legislators and health officials used in the early 1900’s when sanitary regulation of dairy producers was lacking. Today, the practice of pasteurization helps mega-farms to maintain inhumane animal practices, produce inferior product and preserve plenty of profit and power.
3 Things Everyone Should Know About Vitamin D
1. Vitamin D is inextricably linked to your overall health.
“Low vitamin D status is linked to a number of different conditions. These include certain cancers, muscle weakness and types I and II diabetes—possibly even schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis,” says Professor James Fleet, of Purdue University.
Vitamin D isn’t just about strong bones. It plays a role in cardiovascular disease, estrogen excess, brain cell growth and the inflammatory immune response.
Fiber: More Than Just a Regulator
We hear a lot about how important it is to include fiber in our diet but many of us don’t understand why we don’t get enough, what good sources of fiber are, or how fiber can help us.
The “Western diet” is made up of mostly highly processed and refined foods. White bread, white rice and processed pastas are stripped of dietary fiber. Canned vegetables instead of fresh and raw, fruit juice instead of whole fruit, refined cereals instead of whole grains…our bodies are literally starving for fiber.
Raw Milk Myths: Are We Prisoners of Pasteurization? Part 1 of 3
Got milk? It does a body good, right? Milk is likened to a super-food. In fact, it is considered a nearly perfect food because of its abundance of protein (which contains all of the essential amino acids,) carbohydrates, fats and array of vitamins.
The Masai tribe in Africa consume up to 7 quarts of the stuff a day and have virtually no heart disease, diabetes, arthritis or atherosclerosis. The French eat plenty of cheeses, creams and other dairy products and have one of the lowest rates of coronary heart disease among industrialized nations.
Probiotics: A Pro or Con for Your Health?
Probiotics are one of the latest health crazes and manufacturers are cashing in on the consumer trend. You can find “healthy probiotics” labeling on more than yogurt; this marketing ploy is appearing on products like relish and even pizza!
Probiotic purchases tripled from 1994-2003, sales in 2005 have been estimated at $764 million and the market is estimated to reach $1 billion by 2010.
Unfortunately for us, many of these products won’t give you the health benefits they claim. Of the hundreds of probiotic products in the supermarket today, only “15-20 have clinical studies behind them,” says a microbiology professor from Lawson Research Institute.
Why Butter is Better
by Stephen Byrnes, ND, RNCP
One of the most healthy whole foods you can include in your diet is butter.
“What?!” I can hear many of you saying, “Isn’t butter bad for you? I thought margarine and spreads were better because they’re low in saturated fat and cholesterol?”
Sugar Shock: 4-Year-Olds on a High
A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics (January 2005;146(1):105-11) uncovered another contributing factor to the rising childhood obesity rates: The amount of added sugars in your child’s diet. The well-being of preschoolers is being seriously compromised as those who consumed higher amounts of added sugars in their diets were reported to receive less calories from healthy food sources such as those rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. This means the more added sugars from sodas and sweets in kids’ diets, the fewer the number of good nutrients their bodies get in order to remain healthy.
