Lots of good for you plant foods....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 10-26-2010

A few days ago one of my health emails that I get had a list of many high fiber plant foods many of which have other health benefits.

And writer on foods that are good or bad for your health, Michael Pollan’s summary rule is “Eat Food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”

And our posts often stress what NOT to eat, so I thought I’d do a post on good for you plant foods.

The ones that are high fiber help you feel full without eating too many calories. And virtually all of them have multiple health benefits, particularly if you get organic ones. Some of them have so many or such powerful health benefits they are considered superfoods. (I put a ! after those on this list.) By eating a variety of these every day and every week, you can get healthier and stay healthy.

In fact, eating MORE such foods is a key to losing excess fat or not gaining it and keeping it off once you lose it. You don’t get hungry and have less room for foods that have more calories. Once you eat these foods, much of your not eating more of other foods is on automatic pilot. To some extent you don’t even have to work at it to eat less of the more calorie dense foods.

That really helps with the “Not too much” part of things!

Here’s a partial list of good for you plant foods:

Almonds*

Apples (Best if organic and eaten with the skins.)

Applesauce with no sugar added

Artichokes

Asparagus

Avocados! (Health OK fat plus multiple vitamins plus fiber plus good taste.
Eaten as guacamole, they are very tasty!)

Bananas

Barley +

Beans!& Lentils!
(Very inexpensive sources of plant proteins and high in fiber.)

Blackberries

Blueberries! (Brain protective and even may restore some lost brain function.)

Broccoli! (Raw florets are the best at preventing cancers.) Also good cooked for a filling green vegetable that will help keep you trim or help you lose fat.

Brussels sprouts!

Cabbage!

Carrots!

Cauliflower! (Raw florets are the best at preventing cancers.)

Celery

Cherries!

Cocoa, unsweetened with no fats added either

Garlic!

Ginger!

Green Beans

Kale!

Kiwifruit!

Oatmeal – rolled or steel cut oats – NOT quick or instant +

Onions!

Nectarines (Only organic is best.)

Oranges

Papaya

Peaches Only organic is best.)

Pecans*

Peas

Plums

Pumpkins!

Raisins (Best if eaten with less sugary foods at the same time but high in fiber.)

Raspberries!

Squashes! (Acorn, Butternut, and Spaghetti are all good.)

Strawberries!

Sweet potatoes

Tomatoes! (Good for you and your heart eaten raw. Even more nutritious and cancer preventing when eaten cooked with some extra virgin olive oil.)

Walnuts*

Wheat Germ!+

Wild Rice +

Yams

Zucchinis

*Some people are allergic to tree nuts. But for everyone else, they are a superfood.

Also note, only raw or dry roasted nuts with no oils or salt added are health supporting and good for you. When nuts are salted it’s too easy to eat too many nuts and too much salt. And, most of the time the oils added are NOT good for you. Some are even partially hydrogenated omega 6 oils!)

+ Barley, Oats, Wheat Germ, and Wild Rice are grains. For best fat loss results eat them in moderate amounts only and not every day. They are a bit high glycemic. (Applesauce with no sugar, Bananas, Raisins, Sweet potatoes, and Yams on this list are not grains but are similarly a bit on the high glycemic side and should also be eaten in moderation only.)

If most of what you eat is from this list or the many similar foods I didn’t remember or get to, virtually every study I’ve ever seen says you will be far healthier in every way.

The many ways of eating that are known to produce good health results otherwise differ but all have in common that they virtually ALL include these foods.

Nuts are so filling unless you eat them until you are a bit overfull they have been found NOT to cause weight gain. (They have nutrients, good taste, crunch, protein, health OK fats or oils, AND fiber.)

And, with the exception of the foods listed to eat moderately, eating MORE of these foods is often better for you than eating less. Most of them are low glycemic foods. Eating MORE of them will make you LESS fat.

Many of them help prevent cancer. Eating berries and nuts increase your heart protective HDL levels. Virtually all of them are high in fiber, vitamin C, and
potassium. Garlic, Onions, and Ginger, well used help add massive amounts of flavor and each of the three has health benefits when you eat them.

Keep trying new ones and develop a list of foods from this list that you find you like and eat those often.

Good for you foods....

Today's Post: Friday, 12-18-2009

Too much bad for you foods and all soft drinks will make you fat and sick & particularly likely to get type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, & every kind of heart disease from heart attacks & heart failure to strokes, peripheral artery disease (PAD), erectile dysfunction,& vascular dementia; and Alzheimer’s disease.

But there are so many good for you foods and so many kinds you can stop eating and drinking all the bad stuff and have so many choices of what to eat instead you would be hard pressed to taste it all even once each.

Except for soy, Dr Steven Pratt’s SuperFoods Rx & his subsequent books do a superb job of listing these foods.

If you’ve never seen one, check one out of your local library or buy one online and read it.

He does a great job.

(There’s ample reason to believe all soy NOT processed into the traditional foods and made from non GMO, not genetically modified, soy is NOT safe to eat more than once or twice a year if at all. Soy protein based energy bars, and soy protein added to foods, and soy based bacon and other “meatless” foods are best not eaten! And, for men & some women, eating the traditional soy based foods such as tofu, miso, tempeh, etc is likely best held down to once or twice a week.)

Here’s just a small & quickly listed set of them. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are some incredibly good for you foods in this list. But there are hundreds if not thousands more.

Find the ones that you like or have health benefits you want and eat those. Then keep finding more like that and eating them. You’ll be less fat; a lot healthier; & you’ll age more slowly and live longer and in good health.

*Vegetables.

Virtually every variety of eating on the planet associated with good health results contains nonstarchy vegetables & even some that are somewhat starchy.

For example, it becomes easy to get and stay trim and free of excess fat if you eat 5 to 9 servings a day of vegetables most of which are nonstarchy.

a) The cruciferous vegetables fight cancer and multiple ways, particularly when eaten raw and when grown organically.

Broccoli and its florets when eaten raw do this well. And, broccoli also is high in carotenes. Kale and cauliflower do this well. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, watercress, radishes, horse radish as a spice, also work great.

All of them can be eaten raw for best cancer fighting results. But they are so nutritious they also are great cooked. Some people find them much more palatable that way; & the ones like broccoli that contain carotenes actually will give you MORE of it when it’s cooked.
Two examples.

You can eat the broccoli florets raw; & then cut off the worst soiled spots and the toughest skin off the stalks; then dice them up fine and boil with curry powder and garlic with some extra virgin olive oil until there are MUCH softer; then let that cool and blend it with 2% lowfat traditional, unflavored yogurt. It actually tastes pretty good with virtually now harsh taste from the broccoli nor un-chewable fibers; plus all the flavors of the spices blend together with the creamy yogurt. It’s a great way to not only eat but enjoy the fibrous stalks you’d otherwise be tempted to toss in the compost bin.

Second, you can sauté a whole head of washed off organically grown kale in a pan after you cut the head into chunks that will fit initially with some extra virgin olive oil & then add crushed raw garlic after its cooked. This will serve two people a tasty and hot dish that’s very filling.

You can also make coleslaw with homemade real mayo using only extra virgin olive oil and add some diced onion &/or diced sweet onion & through in your favorite additions, diced carrot or washed & diced cilantro or washed & diced basil leaves that have been de-stemmed.
The cabbage, red or green or a combo is raw; but diced up with the other ingredients, it is a lot more fun to eat.

b) Dark leafy greens other than cruciferous such as organic romaine or red leaf lettuce or spinach leaves are also good. They are high in magnesium which is a mineral critical too good health, good heart health, and normal blood pressure, and avoiding constipation. Getting enough magnesium is also a little known way to get better sleep. Since 80 % of current US residents are deficient that’s quite valuable.

c) Carotene rich vegetables help protect your health and tend to prevent cancers. Both raw and cooked tomatoes with cooked tomatoes and sauces the most effective sources, broccoli, dark green greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, and squash are all great carotene foods. (In broccoli and greens, the red or orange carotenes are hidden by the dark green; but they are still there.)

*Berries, etc

Virtually all organically grown berries, cherries, and grapes are good for you.

Two examples are blueberries and cranberries.

Blueberries are one of the SuperFoods. They taste good, particularly with milder and contrasting foods such as 1% lowfat milk or shredded coconut or cooked old fashioned oatmeal. They increase HDL cholesterol and provide fiber and vitamin C. They have a cancer fighting phytonutrient. But what really is exciting is that they not only help prevent age relate mental decline but have actually reversed it in mild cases.

Cranberries are very intensely flavored with almost no sugar. Eating whole, unsweetened cranberries is a challenge. But diced up with a bit of orange juice and orange zest from organic oranges, they make a great counterbalancing addition to many kinds of meats and savory foods. Also, people who drink a daily glass of juice get many health benefits including a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. But, though they have health benefits, apple, grape, and orange juice have too much sugar to drink very frequently if you want get and stay free of excess fat. (If you overdo such juices it can approach being as fattening as drinking soft drinks.) Vegetable juices work as more frequent choices to solve this problem. And so does cranberry juice. Real 100 % cranberry juice is more than a little tart but is much more palatable than whole cranberries and approaches having no sugar in comparison to other fruit juices. And, that juice has many of the health benefits of grape juice AND it prevents bacteria from sticking to your internal surfaces and can prevent and even do a good job in treating bacterial infections of the bladder. (It’s advisable for kidney infections; but those will and bad bladder infections may also need antibiotics from your doctor.) Of course if you drink enough water and drink a few glasses a week of cranberry juices, you have an excellent chance of never getting these.

*Wild caught seafood not high in mercury such as sardines, salmon, and shrimp are high in omega 3 oils and magnesium.

*Dark chocolate, unsweetened cocoa, unsweetened chocolate such as baker’s chocolate & cacao nibs made from the crushed beans chocolate is made from – all lower high blood pressure, promote and increase healthy blood circulation, and help prevent fatal heart attacks if you eat or drink them with no milk before, during, or after.

Even better, the unsweetened cocoa and cacao nibs have no sugar and not too much fat. If you eat & drink one of these foods each day, you can be a lot healthier even with the sugar in the dark chocolate and the extra fat in the chocolates without gaining fat if you do it right. Each of these forms has the part of chocolate that makes people feel good; each of them is good for your health; each of them is very high in antioxidants; & they are also all rich in magnesium.

*Foods that are high in quercetin help keep healthy; help you be far less allergic; and – just as CoQ10 or its end-result form, ubiquinol do, quercetin protects and helps activate your mitochondria that are the power source of each of your cells. That helps you have more energy, persistence, endurance, and ability to exercise vigorously. It also keeps your heart strong.

Tea, apples, capers, onions – particularly the red part of red onions, red grapes, citrus fruit, tomatoes, broccoli, leafy green vegetables, cherries, and most berries including raspberry, & wild cranberries. Wikipedia also said that a “recent study found that organically grown tomatoes had 79% more quercetin than "conventionally grown".”

*Virtually all raw and dry roasted nuts are SuperFoods for people not allergic to them.

Walnuts, pecans, almonds, and dry roasted almonds all are SuperFoods.

(Salted nuts & nuts roasted in oil high in omega 6 oils or in any kind of hydrogenated vegetable oil should be carefully avoided however.)

Eating them increases your HDL cholesterol. They make a virtually zero glycemic but enjoyable and satisfying snack. They are high in magnesium. And the gamma tocopherol form of vitamin E in them helps prevent cancers and prostate and likely breast and ovarian cancers.

In people who are not allergic those who eat a serving of nuts daily or on most days actually live something like 5 or more years longer than similar people who don’t eat nuts.

Talk about a good health track record! You have to add regular exercise or stop smoking to get effects like that. Nuts are so good for your health if you aren’t allergic, they are that valuable.

They work well as a snack by themselves, as a crunchy addition to salads or savory foods, and as a crunchy but very low glycemic addition to sugary dessert foods or whole grain breakfast cereals.

Why eat more kinds of fruits & vegetables....

Today's post: Monday, 4-6-2009

There are a number of key things you can do to keep or restore your health & live longer.

Some of those key things also help you get or stay thin.

Massive amounts of research show that people who eat a lot of vegetables and a moderate amount of whole fresh fruit most days and do it every week and eat very little “fast carbs” such as refined grain foods, foods containing sugar or high fructose corn syrup, etc are dramatically healthier than people who do the reverse. Five to seven servings of nonstarchy vegetables and one or two servings of whole fresh fruit each day is the ideal.

The research on the DASH diet proves eating that way lowers or prevents high blood pressure. You get more potassium, natural vitamin C, fiber, and the natural form of folic acid by eating this way, for example.

Weight Watchers has found that doing this is a key to losing fat and keeping it off. (They rate nonstarchy vegetables as having zero points. That means eating too much of anything else will make you fat; but eating lots of vegetables will not. And that means that eating lots of vegetables means you can still eat a lot of food and not be fat. This makes it dramatically easier to lose fat and keep it off.)

Lastly, we now know that fruits and vegetables are like natural, high quality supplements and, particularly if they are organically grown, contain literally hundreds of vitamins, minerals, and micro- or phyto- nutrients. And those nutrients do every thing from prevent heart disease to preventing cancer. For example, it was in today’s online health news that eating broccoli sprouts not only prevents cancer, if you eat broccoli sprouts often, it can wipe out the h pylori bacteria that causes stomach ulcers.

Even better, eating a lot of vegetables makes it far easier to NOT eat junky carbs that tend to make you fat AND cause type 2 diabetes.

So, anything that’s been discovered to increase the amount of vegetables you eat is quite literally worth its weight in gold or more.

So today’s Early to Rise health article was both interesting and important. Here it is.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com .”

“A Great Diet for Your Heart

By Craig Ballantyne

One of the easiest and most effective things you can do to improve your health is to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Researchers from Iran's Obesity Research Center examined fruit and vegetable intake in 840 men and women from Tehran - and the results were dramatic. The subjects who ate a lot of different fruits and vegetables were significantly and inversely associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Specifically, it appears that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables leads to lower LDL cholesterol in a dose-responsive manner. That means you'll get more benefits from eating an apple, an orange, a banana, and some broccoli than you will from just eating an apple and an orange.

So every time you are at the grocery store, add at least one new fruit and one new vegetable to your cart. You can choose from kiwi fruit, avocados, asparagus, pears, spinach, and so many other amazing foods.

Try to be a little better every week with your fruit and vegetable intake and you'll reduce your risk of heart disease in one of the simplest possible ways.

[Ed. Note: Extending your life and living out your years in tip-top health is really a matter of making simple lifestyle choices - like eating a wider variety of fruits and veggies. ….]”

X* X* X* X* X* X*

The reasons for this effect are pretty simple. If you know and have eaten a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that you like or at least find edible, you’ll be more likely to eat some each week. To find out what they taste like in the first place you, or the person who buys your food, have to make a regular habit of going by the produce section in your store and buying food from it. And, if you have eaten enough of a vegetable or eaten it often enough, you’d like a change of pace, you’ll already know a decent size list of things to get instead.

For example, the cruciferous vegetables, particularly if eaten raw, prevent cancer. But if you get tired of broccoli or simply don’t care for it, you can eat broccoli sprouts or raw cauliflower or coleslaw made with both red and green cabbage and some diced onion, you get as much, or more in the case of the broccoli sprouts, of the cancer fighting ingredients.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, you can also try radishes, water cress, Brussels sprouts, or kale.

Or, if you want to have take in a lot of natural carotenes, you can eat broccoli; but you can also eat pasta sauce with garlic, other spices, and extra virgin olive oil and get even more carotenes. Or you can eat carrots or sweet potato.

Even better, you can try several kinds of berries, blueberries, strawberries, black berries, raspberries, and more.

(The book, SuperFoods, is incorrect on its information about soy foods. But it’s superb on everything else; & it contains extensive lists of similar foods for each fruit and vegetable it lists as a superfood if you need a good starter list for reference.

Another good place to look is a large book of salad recipes.)

Eating these real foods that are very low calorie and high nutrition is like any other skill. The more you practice it and the more variations you try, the more skilled you become at using it.

And the benefits to your health and pocket book are extremely large.

Doing this improves and protects your health better than any prescription drug can other than antibiotics when you have dangerous bacterial infection. Eating a wide variety of fruits an vegetables costs far less than the doctor and hospital visits and statin drugs and type 2 diabetes drugs and high blood pressure drugs that it can make unnecessary! And other than making you less hungry it has no bad side effects.

Some soy foods to avoid....

Today's post: Monday, 10-6-2008

Some people have listed soy foods as superfoods or as beneficial to your health. They are a vegetarian source of protein and also have appealed to people wanting a protein food other than grain fed red meat even if they are not vegetarians.

However, they may be a mixed review food at best and may even be bad for you at worst.

That information is still not well known by some people who are well informed and give great advice on other good for you foods. (The otherwise excellent book “ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A Food Lover's Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy” is in that group, which I discovered after I posted on back on 9-16 that it sounded promising and bought a copy for my wife and me.)

There is some evidence that soy foods lower testosterone and the sex drive of both men and women who eat them in large amounts. And, soy also apparently lowers male fertility a study recently reported. The authors explained that in cultures that eat soy foods, a reason that the fertility rate is not very low is that people in those cultures eat some soy but not only soy and thus eat less than many people have believed. (There is another reason listed later in this post.)

One preventive medicine doctor I know, Dr Mike Nichols, even found evidence in the scientific literature, NOT the medical literature, that eating a lot of soy increased lp(a) in the bloodstream of the people who ate that much. Since high levels of lp(a) tend to help cause plaque build up in your arteries, that’s NOT good. He also pointed out to me that eating soy lowers bioavailable testosterone. He said eating it a few times a month was likely safe but that he himself ate none.

However, Dr Mark Harmon said he found that the problem was in part NOT just because soy was bad for you or that it had no health benefits. He found some evidence that traditional forms of soy foods that are fermented avoid many of the problems reported with soy foods. And, he said that some problems with soy foods were also avoided in a different way with tofu, which is also a traditional soy food.

He was very definite however, that the other forms of soy that are NOT traditional foods such as the soy protein in soy flour, in meatless meats and in health bars, soy milk, and those nontraditional soy foods were likely NOT good for you.

So, when today’s Early to Rise health article was on this subject & was well done, I decided to post it today and comment on it.

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”

“Soy Foods: Friend or Foe?

By Kelley Herring

You might think there's very little difference between tempeh and tofu. But when it comes to your health, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Why? Unfermented soy foods - like edamame, soy nuts, soy sprouts, soy flour, soy protein isolate, soy milk, and tofu - contain two anti-nutrients: trypsin inhibitors and phytic acid.

Trypsin inhibitors reduce the body's natural ability to digest proteins, and, therefore, assimilate the amino acids in them. Phytic acid reduces the absorption of minerals like magnesium and zinc, essential components of enzymes that participate in hundreds of biochemical processes.

Fermented soy foods, on the other hand - including miso, tempeh, soy sauces, and fermented soy milk and tofu - actually stop the effects of phytic acid. Plus, they create probiotics - "good" bacteria that benefit gut health and increase the assimilation of nutrients in the body.

Studies have shown that it's these traditionally fermented soy foods that should be credited with the reduced rates of cancer and heart disease seen in Asian populations. Not the soy burgers, soy shakes, and other processed soy foods that have been popularized in the last decade.”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

So, the bottom line is that nuts and some whole grains and eggs and whey and such foods as beef fed only grass, pasture raised poultry, wild caught fish and seafood that’s not high in mercury and is sustainably harvested, and nonfat and very lowfat dairy are the best protein foods for your health.

And, full fat cheese and fermented soy foods are best eaten as occasional foods rather than every day or every week foods. (The full fat cheese, particularly from grain fed cows, is too high in omega 6 oils and saturated fat to eat often.)

It does NOT look wise, this information suggests, to eat unfermented soy foods or foods made from them.

And, this specifically includes soy feeding formula for babies. (My wife and I fed our daughter a soy formula plus iron to help ensure she didn’t become allergic to cow’s milk which has since been found unnecessary to prevent that allergy. Unfortunately, she DID become allergic to all soy foods, peas, and peanuts. So far she has survived the experience. But I am not at all sure it’s safe to feed babies soy feeding formula after going through that experience. It has been both scary and obnoxious for her and for my wife and me.)

So, stick to light or occasional or light moderate intake of traditional soy foods and you should be OK if you aren’t allergic to soy. But avoid the nontraditional kinds of soy as they are not that good for you.

Safe superfoods....

Today's post: Thursday, 9-11-2008

When I heard that salmon was actually good for my health to eat as it was low in saturated fat & high in omega 3 oils I was delighted. It’s got a mild but rich flavor and is so tender you can cut it with your fork.

So, for a couple of years I always ordered salmon when I ate in a nicer restaurant. Unfortunately, as I learned about two years ago, that was likely NOT a good idea. It seems virtually all those salmon dishes were farmed salmon. And, unfortunately, farmed salmon is closer in its oil content to the grain fed beef that tends to give people heart disease; and the farmed salmon has considerably MORE health harmful pollutants than the grain fed beef.

As some of you remember, we did a post earlier on why NOT to eat farmed salmon. But some of you have not yet seen this information.

Today’s Early To Rise email has that information & similar information on how to get the superfoods and foods that are both good for you AND safe to eat. And, it explains what you tend to get if you don’t get the wild caught, grass fed, &/or organic foods instead.

Even with superfoods such as salmon and strawberries your net health benefit is completely positive instead of at least partly negative only if you get the OK kinds.

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

By Kelley Herring

How much is your health worth to you? For most people, the answer is quite simple: Everything.

But in this age of "pill and procedure" medicine, many wait until it's too late to make an investment in their health. And with the rising cost of food, it's tempting to scrimp and save wherever you can.

I have two important messages for you: (1) The time to invest in your health is now! Not when your quality of life has become compromised. And (2) the good news is that eating high-quality food - the finest Mother Nature has to offer - doesn't have to break the bank.

Food, like anything, tends to be less costly when it is mass produced. Producing it the right way - with care and attention to the environment - often costs more. Still, there are many conventional foods that give you the same nutritional bang for the buck as organics. At the same time, there are some "superfoods" you should be eating - and willing to pay a little more for.

Here's the scoop on five of them...

#1: Wild Salmon

Salmon has been heralded for its many health benefits (and deservedly so). The popularity of this fish has created wide demand. And to satiate consumers' appetites, thousands of fish farms have arisen on the world's coasts. Unfortunately, in this case, Mother Nature has not been successfully mimicked.

What was once touted as a health food for its robust levels of essential omega-3s has become a fishy substitute at best. At worst, farmed salmon will do you more harm than good. And that's why I urge you to buy only wild salmon.

How does this superfood turn from friend to foe? Here are the facts:

Farmed salmon contains endocrine-disrupting PCBs. Farmed salmon are fed fishmeal pellets that concentrate known cancer-causing pollutants called PCBs. While all salmon have some level of PCBs, farmed salmon have seven times higher levels than wild salmon.

Farmed salmon are lower in powerful antioxidants. Wild salmon dine on krill, which contain a carotenoid called astaxanthin (pronounced: asta-ZAN-thin) - one of the most powerful antioxidants ever discovered. Astaxanthin is also the nutrient responsible for wild salmon's beautiful red-orange color.

Farmed salmon are treated with artificial coloring. Because farmed salmon are fed cornmeal, soy, and canola oil - not their natural diet of krill - they are gray in color. They turn pink only when given chemically synthesized astaxanthin or treated with artificial coloring agents.

Farmed salmon promote inflammation. As a result of their diet, the flesh of farmed salmon contains up to four times the amount of inflammatory omega-6s than the flesh of wild salmon... and far less essential omega-3s.

Farmed salmon are loaded with antibiotics. Due to the cramped quarters in fish farms, lice and disease spread rapidly. And, in fact, farmed salmon are administered more antibiotics by weight than any other form of livestock.
You can't afford not to eat wild salmon. It is one of the few fish that is still remarkably unpolluted, it is sustainably harvested, and it's one of the healthiest proteins you can put on your plate.

The additional cost per serving of wild salmon ranges between $0.50 (Target, Archer Farms brand) to approximately $2.00 (Vital Choice)... a very small price to pay for a huge improvement in quality.

#2: Coffee

If you love coffee, you'll be glad to know that you can indulge yourself and promote your health too. Coffee is a rich source of age-defying antioxidants, and recent research even suggests it helps prevent Parkinson's and fight diabetes.

But I have some jolting news. If the coffee you drink is not organic, you're exposing yourself to cup after cup of high levels of pesticides. Some of the many chemicals commonly used against the "coffee borer" include highly toxic endosulfan, dursban, basudin, and disulfoton.

Get the most out of your morning java by choosing organic, shade-grown coffee. You can find it in most food stores, or buy in bulk online from a company like Cafe Altura. Expect to pay about $11 per pound for organic whole beans versus $7 for conventional whole beans.

#3: Grass-Fed Beef

Beef was once believed to be harmful due to its saturated-fat content. However, research now shows that the real culprit is the extremely high level of inflammatory omega-6 fats that are created when cattle are fed a steady diet of corn. Not to mention the hormones used to hasten the trip of mass-produced beef to the butcher.

Way back when, cattle ate grass. Not corn. And they weren't pumped full of growth hormones (rBGH) and antibiotics and packed into pens. These few changes have turned a healthful food into one of your body's worst enemies.

But there is a way to have your beef and stay well too. Choose grass-fed! When cattle graze on their natural diet of grass, they have a healthier lipid profile - with much higher levels of healthy omega-3s and very low levels of inflammation-causing omega-6s. These animals are also naturally healthier, which means they are given antibiotics sparingly and only when necessary.

You can expect to pay about 50 percent to 100 percent more per pound for grass-fed beef, but the higher quality of the meat and many health benefits are worth it. For amazingly sumptuous cuts of the finest naturally raised beef, go straight to the appropriately named source - U.S. Wellness Meats. The company is managed with the same dignity and honesty as the folks who did it "way back when."

Looking for a bargain? Try buffalo! These animals aren't kept in pens (Would you want to try to put a buffalo in a pen?) and it's illegal to give them hormones. That makes buffalo a natural alternative to grass-fed beef that is relatively inexpensive (about $7 per pound) and available in stores nationwide through Maverick Ranch.

#4: Berries

It's hard to believe that sweet and juicy berries are so chockfull of age-defying, disease-fighting substances. And despite their taste, they are very low in sugar and score low on the glycemic index.

But I do have some bad news to share. Berries are one of the crops most highly contaminated with pesticides. In fact, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries are on the top-12 list of contaminated crops (a.k.a. The Dirty Dozen) that you should always buy organic.

Escaping harmful pesticides isn't the only reason to choose organic berries. Research shows that organic strawberries, for example, boast 25 percent more antioxidants and more cancer-fighting power than their conventional counterparts.

Expect to pay about $1 to $2 more per pound for frozen organic berries.

#5: Cocoa

The news that cocoa is good for you has folks gobbling it up... like candy. And as long as the cocoa products they choose aren't packed with sugar or artificial ingredients, they're probably doing their bodies a big favor.

In addition to its many mood-boosting and heart-healthy compounds, organic, natural cocoa has an antioxidant score higher than that of almost any other food. Measured in ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) units, cocoa's is around 80,000. Compare that to "antioxidant-rich" blueberries, which have an ORAC of around 6,500.

But before you grab the first box of cocoa you see on the shelf, here's something you need to know. Most cocoa is "alkalized" - treated with alkali, a harsh chemical base that cuts its considerable antioxidant capacity in half. The solution: Choose organic, non-alkalized cocoa.

NOW Foods makes a delicious organic, non-alkalized cocoa that's easy on the wallet. At only $5.50 for 12 ounces (versus $3.15 for 8 ounces of Hershey's), you'll enjoy higher quality and a more valuable product for less than a dime more per ounce. Mix it into your coffee, whirl it in a smoothie, or add it to low-glycemic dessert recipes.

The Bottom Line

When you invest in your health by spending a little extra on the above superfoods, you'll get many of the rewards - like more energy, a better mood, glowing skin, and a youthful vibrancy - almost immediately. Later, this investment will pay off by not only increasing your lifespan but your health span too.

Well worth the money, don't you think?

[Ed. Note: Health should be your top priority - even if that means spending a little more on your food. Fortunately, keeping your body in tip-top condition doesn't have to be expensive... or difficult…]”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

Note on salmon: Canned Alaskan salmon is wild caught & available year round. So, you don’t have to buy it fresh at high cost or take a lot of prep time to eat wild caught salon. Eating right doesn’t always cost more.

Also, I’ve found that a store that tends to stock many of the safe kinds of foods and superfoods from organic berries to wild caught salmon to grass fed beef is Whole Foods Market. Some of these foods are a bit more expensive than the less safe versions. But some are about the same price. And some even cost less. Check it out.

Lastly, if you eat in a fish & seafood restaurant they can tell you which kinds of the fish they can serve you or are on their menu. Sometimes they have wild caught salmon even though usually they don’t. But they will tell you if you ask. I’ve found Scott’s Seafood quite good about this; but have also had the same experience in other better restaurants. So always ask.

Cherries are a Superfood….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-21-2008

It’s beginning to look as if tart or sour red cherries are a real superfood.

And, fresh, canned, dried, or as a real juice, the evidence is accumulating to show they have significant health benefits.

I’ve read that they really help people who have gout.

And, it’s already known that making, cooking, & eating hamburgers to which dried cherries have been added both makes eating the hamburgers better for your health AND makes them taste juicier.

(Making them using beef fed only grass & eating them Atkins style-- using no refined grain bread or even whole grain bread-- & adding lots of onions is the healthiest way to eat them.)

It seems tart or sour red cherries do a great deal more than that. And, we may now know why they help people with gout.

Recently, I got this article in my Early to Rise email. (I add my comments after it.)

"This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com."

“Tart Cherries Reduce Inflammation

By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

Tart cherries might not be one of the first foods that come to mind when you think "heart healthy," but perhaps they should be. New research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center shows that compounds in cherries may protect against the kind of inflammation that's been associated with both heart disease and diabetes.

Researchers fed two groups of rats bred to be particularly susceptible to heart disease the equivalent of an unhealthy human diet (aptly abbreviated SAD for Standard American Diet). Both groups got the same number of calories, but the diet of one group included dried extract of tart cherries. And the results were impressive. Markers of inflammation - TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor) and IL-6 (Interleukin 6) - went down significantly in the group fed the cherry extract.

This is an important finding, because inflammation is a factor in every major degenerative disease, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and even cancer. In addition, the cherry-fed rats had significantly lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. And they were far less likely to build up fat around the middle. (Abdominal fat - in both rats and people - is linked to diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, a kind of pre-diabetes.)

The researchers believe that the secret ingredient in cherries may be anthocyanins, the pigment responsible for making cherries dark. The high levels of antioxidants in the fruit may also play a role.

How much would a human have to eat to get the same potential benefit? It's hard to make a perfect extrapolation to a 150-pound human from a rat that weighs a few ounces - but an educated guess is that it would take only about a cup and a half of cherries (fresh or frozen).

[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden - a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health - can point you toward delicious and natural foods that will help you feel better and live longer. Check out his book, The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth, for additional strategies to keep yourself in tip-top shape. For more information, go to www.jonnybowden.com. And read more of his articles on healthy living in ETR's natural health e-letter.]”

(See www.TotalHealthBreakthroughs.com .)


X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

The reduced inflammation may be one of the reasons that cherries help people with gout. They may do more; but that alone would be helpful.

I was also very interested to read that this study suggests that eating dried cherries or whole ones most days might help keep fat off your tummy. If that proves true in people, it could be very useful. For most people, taking fat off their tummy does the most to improve their appearance. So adding the right exercise and eating right otherwise and an effective fat loss plan with eating cherries might be a great way to take inches of fat off your waist and would improve your appearance enough to be quite motivating. As a bonus, it’s been found that taking fat off your waist does the most to protect your heart.

And, this data definitely shows that cherries are heart protective. If, as blueberries, which are also high in anthocyanins, do, eating cherries raises your HDL cholesterol, this may be even more the case.

This study DID show that cherries lowered triglycerides. If eating them also raises HDL, that means that eating cherries lowers the kind of small particle LDL that acts like a kind of sandy glue that causes plaque to build up your blood vessels. This study shows that by lowering triglycerides it might do that. If eating them also raises HDL, they would be very heart protective.

And, they may be that heart protective even if they don’t also raise HDL. This study didn’t measure CRP as an inflammation maker; but cherries did lower other inflammation makers and may lower that also. That would be very heart protective as high CRP levels are quite predictive of heart disease and heart attacks.

This study doesn’t mention that cherries have vitamin C and may have other antioxidants as blueberries do. That also is heart protective.

So, between what tart or sour red cherries have been shown to do in this study and what I suspect they also do, they may be one of the most heart healthy foods you can eat.

And, there are also related foods and supplements with proven health benefits that you can use besides cherries for similar effects.

Blueberries are a known and proven superfood. You can also take bilberry extract. And, bilberries are a kind of blueberry. Concord grape juice may have some similar compounds. And, grape seed extract also is high in anthocyanins. Dried cranberries also may have similar benefits.

(Dried cranberries are much sweeter and more palatable than fresh ones.)

I’ve never tried making a dessert with dried cranberries, canned sour cherries with no sugar added, and coconut or walnut halves. But I bet it would taste good.

And, this study suggests it would be really good for you.

Cherries are a Superfood….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-21-2008

It’s beginning to look as if tart or sour red cherries are a real superfood.

And, fresh, canned, dried, or as a real juice, the evidence is accumulating to show they have significant health benefits.

I’ve read that they really help people who have gout.

And, it’s already known that making, cooking, & eating hamburgers to which dried cherries have been added both makes eating the hamburgers better for your health AND makes them taste juicier.

(Making them using beef fed only grass & eating them Atkins style-- using no refined grain bread or even whole grain bread-- & adding lots of onions is the healthiest way to eat them.)

It seems tart or sour red cherries do a great deal more than that. And, we may now know why they help people with gout.

Recently, I got this article in my Early to Rise email. (I add my comments after it.)

"This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com."

“Tart Cherries Reduce Inflammation

By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

Tart cherries might not be one of the first foods that come to mind when you think "heart healthy," but perhaps they should be. New research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center shows that compounds in cherries may protect against the kind of inflammation that's been associated with both heart disease and diabetes.

Researchers fed two groups of rats bred to be particularly susceptible to heart disease the equivalent of an unhealthy human diet (aptly abbreviated SAD for Standard American Diet). Both groups got the same number of calories, but the diet of one group included dried extract of tart cherries. And the results were impressive. Markers of inflammation - TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor) and IL-6 (Interleukin 6) - went down significantly in the group fed the cherry extract.

This is an important finding, because inflammation is a factor in every major degenerative disease, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and even cancer. In addition, the cherry-fed rats had significantly lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. And they were far less likely to build up fat around the middle. (Abdominal fat - in both rats and people - is linked to diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, a kind of pre-diabetes.)

The researchers believe that the secret ingredient in cherries may be anthocyanins, the pigment responsible for making cherries dark. The high levels of antioxidants in the fruit may also play a role.

How much would a human have to eat to get the same potential benefit? It's hard to make a perfect extrapolation to a 150-pound human from a rat that weighs a few ounces - but an educated guess is that it would take only about a cup and a half of cherries (fresh or frozen).

[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden - a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health - can point you toward delicious and natural foods that will help you feel better and live longer. Check out his book, The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth, for additional strategies to keep yourself in tip-top shape. For more information, go to www.jonnybowden.com. And read more of his articles on healthy living in ETR's natural health e-letter.]”

(See www.TotalHealthBreakthroughs.com .)


X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

The reduced inflammation may be one of the reasons that cherries help people with gout. They may do more; but that alone would be helpful.

I was also very interested to read that this study suggests that eating dried cherries or whole ones most days might help keep fat off your tummy. If that proves true in people, it could be very useful. For most people, taking fat off their tummy does the most to improve their appearance. So adding the right exercise and eating right otherwise and an effective fat loss plan with eating cherries might be a great way to take inches of fat off your waist and would improve your appearance enough to be quite motivating. As a bonus, it’s been found that taking fat off your waist does the most to protect your heart.

And, this data definitely shows that cherries are heart protective. If, as blueberries, which are also high in anthocyanins, do, eating cherries raises your HDL cholesterol, this may be even more the case.

This study DID show that cherries lowered triglycerides. If eating them also raises HDL, that means that eating cherries lowers the kind of small particle LDL that acts like a kind of sandy glue that causes plaque to build up your blood vessels. This study shows that by lowering triglycerides it might do that. If eating them also raises HDL, they would be very heart protective.

And, they may be that heart protective even if they don’t also raise HDL. This study didn’t measure CRP as an inflammation maker; but cherries did lower other inflammation makers and may lower that also. That would be very heart protective as high CRP levels are quite predictive of heart disease and heart attacks.

This study doesn’t mention that cherries have vitamin C and may have other antioxidants as blueberries do. That also is heart protective.

So, between what tart or sour red cherries have been shown to do in this study and what I suspect they also do, they may be one of the most heart healthy foods you can eat.

And, there are also related foods and supplements with proven health benefits that you can use besides cherries for similar effects.

Blueberries are a known and proven superfood. You can also take bilberry extract. And, bilberries are a kind of blueberry. Concord grape juice may have some similar compounds. And, grape seed extract also is high in anthocyanins. Dried cranberries also may have similar benefits.

(Dried cranberries are much sweeter and more palatable than fresh ones.)

I’ve never tried making a dessert with dried cranberries, canned sour cherries with no sugar added, and coconut or walnut halves. But I bet it would taste good.

And, this study suggests it would be really good for you.

Why NOT to eat today’s farmed salmon….

Today's post: Wednesday, 8-15-2007

For many years, at special occasions, I liked to order salmon in restaurants.

I don’t do that anymore. Every time I ask if the salmon they use is farm raised, they always say yes. (Hopefully, that will gradually change.)

And, I’ve now learned that farm raised salmon tends to not have the full health benefits of wild caught salmon. This is largely because, like factory farm raised cattle & poultry, farmed fish are fed grain & other processed feeds instead of eating their natural diet.

Even worse, farmed fish are MUCH higher in PCB’s, & pesticides & herbicides, & other organic chemicals.

Monday, I found out, farmed fish today have even worse problems.:

>>> This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

“Why JS Should Avoid Farm-Raised Salmon (and Why You Should Too)
By Jon Herring

Last week, I received an e-mail from an ETR reader helps to illustrate a few important points. JS writes:

"First, I would like to congratulate you on an excellent newsletter. I know you're busy, so I will get straight to the point. I eat [Brand X] Pink Salmon every day. Basically, I want to know is it dangerous to eat that much?"

There should be nothing unhealthy about eating a lot of salmon. However, you shouldn't eat any food EVERY day. It can cause an allergy to that food. In fact, doctors specializing in food allergies report that many people are allergic to their favorite foods for this very reason.

But there is a bigger issue here: JS is eating a brand of salmon that I am fairly certain is farm-raised. And that could very well be detrimental to his health.

According to laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group, farmed salmon is the most PCB-contaminated source of protein in the U.S. food supply. These fish are also known to have harmful levels of mercury, DDT, and dioxin.

And that's not all. Farmed salmon are fed corn and soy meal (not exactly the natural diet of a salmon). Because of this unnatural diet, these fish have far more unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids and fewer healthy omega-3s than wild salmon.

And it has been shown that farmed salmon consume more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock.

So, instead of farm-raised salmon, be sure to insist on wild Alaskan salmon. These fish live in some of the most pristine waters on earth. They have extremely low levels (usually not a trace) of mercury and PCBs. And they are rich in heart-healthy and brain-boosting omega-3s. You can find canned wild Alaskan salmon in most grocery stores, and most health food markets will have fresh fillets.”


My comments:
Eating foods with antibiotics added is a sure way to help increase the number of antibiotic resistant or antibiotic proof bacteria. Even worse, it may well guarantee it will likely happen to you personally.

Why eat such foods? And why not eat the kind that benefits your health instead of harming it?

It may be that future farmed fish may be safe to eat & have more of the health benefits of the wild caught fish. But the challenges are considerable.

It may well be more useful to help see to it that we use sustainable methods of using wild caught fish & help protect them from environmental harm with our resources instead.

Why NOT to eat today’s farmed salmon….

Today's post: Wednesday, 8-15-2007

For many years, at special occasions, I liked to order salmon in restaurants.

I don’t do that anymore. Every time I ask if the salmon they use is farm raised, they always say yes. (Hopefully, that will gradually change.)

And, I’ve now learned that farm raised salmon tends to not have the full health benefits of wild caught salmon. This is largely because, like factory farm raised cattle & poultry, farmed fish are fed grain & other processed feeds instead of eating their natural diet.

Even worse, farmed fish are MUCH higher in PCB’s, & pesticides & herbicides, & other organic chemicals.

Monday, I found out, farmed fish today have even worse problems.:

>>> This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

“Why JS Should Avoid Farm-Raised Salmon (and Why You Should Too)
By Jon Herring

Last week, I received an e-mail from an ETR reader helps to illustrate a few important points. JS writes:

"First, I would like to congratulate you on an excellent newsletter. I know you're busy, so I will get straight to the point. I eat [Brand X] Pink Salmon every day. Basically, I want to know is it dangerous to eat that much?"

There should be nothing unhealthy about eating a lot of salmon. However, you shouldn't eat any food EVERY day. It can cause an allergy to that food. In fact, doctors specializing in food allergies report that many people are allergic to their favorite foods for this very reason.

But there is a bigger issue here: JS is eating a brand of salmon that I am fairly certain is farm-raised. And that could very well be detrimental to his health.

According to laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group, farmed salmon is the most PCB-contaminated source of protein in the U.S. food supply. These fish are also known to have harmful levels of mercury, DDT, and dioxin.

And that's not all. Farmed salmon are fed corn and soy meal (not exactly the natural diet of a salmon). Because of this unnatural diet, these fish have far more unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids and fewer healthy omega-3s than wild salmon.

And it has been shown that farmed salmon consume more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock.

So, instead of farm-raised salmon, be sure to insist on wild Alaskan salmon. These fish live in some of the most pristine waters on earth. They have extremely low levels (usually not a trace) of mercury and PCBs. And they are rich in heart-healthy and brain-boosting omega-3s. You can find canned wild Alaskan salmon in most grocery stores, and most health food markets will have fresh fillets.”


My comments:
Eating foods with antibiotics added is a sure way to help increase the number of antibiotic resistant or antibiotic proof bacteria. Even worse, it may well guarantee it will likely happen to you personally.

Why eat such foods? And why not eat the kind that benefits your health instead of harming it?

It may be that future farmed fish may be safe to eat & have more of the health benefits of the wild caught fish. But the challenges are considerable.

It may well be more useful to help see to it that we use sustainable methods of using wild caught fish & help protect them from environmental harm with our resources instead.