Are Your Clothes Clean?

Wash up on washday
Just how clean are your just-laundered clothes? If you’re like most Americans, not very. Only 5 percent of Americans now regularly wash their underwear and towels in water that’s hot enough—at least 160° F—to kill bacteria, according to University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba, Ph.D. That means live bacteria can spread from one garment to another; when when you remove your wet laundry, those live germs can get on your hands. Touch your mouth or rub your eyes and you might get a cold, an infection, or even E. coli.
Your defense: unless you use bleach or your wash water is 160° F or hotter, head to the sink for a soapy hand wash immediately after putting laundry into the dryer (which is hot enough to kill bacteria). “In order to kill germs, you need to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, and use plenty of soap and hot water,” says Gerba. It’s also wise to regularly use a commercial sanitizer to wipe the bottoms of handbags, which collect dangerous germs when placed on tabletops and public-restroom floors.

Kids Need Our Help With Health

Top 10 Ways to Help Children Develop Healthy Habits
Be a positive role model. If you’re practicing healthy habits, it’s a lot easier to convince children to do the same.
Get the whole family active. Plan times for everyone to get moving together. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming, garden or just play hide-and-seek outside. Everyone will benefit from the exercise and the time together.
Limit TV, video game and computer time. These habits lead to a sedentary lifestyle and excessive snacking, which increase risks for obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Encourage physical activities that children really enjoy. Every child is unique. Let children experiment with different activities until each finds something that he or she really loves doing. They’ll stick with it longer if they love it.
Be supportive. Focus on the positive instead of the negative. Everyone likes to be praised for a job well done. Celebrate successes and help children and teens develop a good self-image.
Set specific goals and limits, such as one hour of physical activity a day or two desserts per week other than fruit. When goals are too abstract or limits too restrictive, the chance for success decreases.
Don’t reward children with food. Candy and snacks as a reward encourage bad habits. Find other ways to celebrate good behavior.
Make dinnertime a family time. When everyone sits down together to eat, there’s less chance of children eating the wrong foods or snacking too much. Get the kids involved in cooking and planning meals. Everyone develops good eating habits together and the quality time with the family will be an added bonus.
Make a game of reading food labels. The whole family will learn what’s good for their health and be more conscious of what they eat. It’s a habit that helps change behavior for a lifetime.
Stay involved. Be an advocate for healthier children. Insist on good food choices at school. Make sure your children’s healthcare providers are monitoring cardiovascular indicators like BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. Contact public officials on matters of the heart. Make your voice heard.

Are You Fishy?

Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet.
Fatty fish such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon, are rich in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Foods such as tofu, soybeans, canola, walnuts, flaxseed, and their oils contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which convert to omega-3 in the body. Even though the benefits of ALA are controversial, the AHA still recommends foods containing it as part of a healthy diet.
In addition to their heart-health benefits, there is some evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may also soothe an overactive immune system, says Johnson. Even though this benefit is still being studied, she says there appears to be a link between getting more omega-3s in your diet and reducing allergies, asthma, eczema, and autoimmune disorders.

Food Additives and Childhood Hyperactivity

According to research recently published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2008; 336: 1144), eliminating food additives should be part of a standard treatment program. "Despite the lack of agreement on the effect of dietary modifications on hyperactivity in children, increasing evidence suggests that eliminating food preservatives and artificial colorings from a child's diet may help."

Another study published in the Lancet last year (2007:370:1560-67) found that artificial colors and/or sodium benzoate preservative in the diet led to increased hyperactivity in 3,8, and 9 year-old children who did not have ADHD - attention defecit hyperactivity disorder.

Are You Flexible?

Do you feel any pain in your lower back or legs when bending over to retrieve an object off the floor? If so, your low back and hips may be tight and lack flexibility. Back pain may soon be a problem. It's very important to have good flexibility in the spine, because excessive tightness in the spine can impede normal movement. Muscles weaken when movement is limited.
Flexibility allows muscles and joints to move through their full range of motion. It is joint specific. This means that a person may have excellent range of motion in one joint and be limited in another. Poor flexibility of the back and hips may lead to stiffness, poor posture, back problems, movement limitations, and a higher risk for injury to muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
With ageing and inactivity comes less range of motion. What is unclear is how much of this reduction in joint flexibility is caused by ageing or by the reduced physical activity related to ageing. Anyone, regardless of age, can improve flexibility. Stretching is the best way to maintain good flexibility. It offers relief from muscle tension and stiffness. It allows us to move normally and without effort.
Stretch all the major joints at least 3 times a week for the best results. Stretch to the point of mild discomfort then ease off and hold for 30 seconds. It should not be painful. Do not pull hard or bounce, which may tear muscles or tendons. Bouncing while stretching may also cause hyperextension of a joint. This extends the joint beyond its normal limit. Serious injury to the soft tissues can occur as a result.
Many stretching exercises exist. A fitness instructor can show you safe exercises that will best suit your specific needs. A regular habit of stretching will enhance your mobility throughout life.

Healthy Sugar Substitutes

I use organic applesauce, apple butter, plum butter, mashed bananas and stevia powder for sweetening.The sweeter spices (vanilla, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cloves). Orange squash and sweet baby carrots sometimes.I use almond flour instead of wheat for most baking. Dried currants pack a lot of flavor and their acidity makes apples taste sweeter without sugar. Stevia doesn't work with everything - sweetens acidic fruits, goes well with pumpkin (Thanksgiving pies, yum) but doesn't seem to help egg-heavy or chocolate things.I tried making a cheesecake with it once, bad idea, but it makes the most amazing lemonade you ever tasted. Try lemon-merengue pie sweetened with stevia, with a ground nut crust instead of wheat?Vegetable glycerine is supposed to be a low-glycemic sugar substitute, makes baked desserts nice and moist too.Many summer fruits are sweet enough not to need anything added. Slice an assortment with blueberries in a bowl. Cinnamon and a drizzle of unpasteurized honey in one dish, clotted fresh cream in another, a bunch of cocktail forks.. watch them disappear.From a macrobiotic point of view, cooking fruit makes it less yin as water is removed and the flavor is more concentrated. So cooked fruit tastes sweeter without adding sugar.Brown rice, pinch of salt, spices and stevia make a nice pudding.Barley and rice syrups tend to have mold toxins unfortunately so they are not a good choice

Prescription for Happiness

While laughter may not be a panacea, there's still much to be gained from it. And, truth be told, there's room for plenty of additional chortles in our lives: Fry found that by the time the average kid reaches kindergarten, he or she is laughing some 300 times each day. Compare that to the typical adult, whom Martin recently found laughs a paltry 17 times a day. (Men and women laugh equally often, Martin adds, but at different things.)
Fortunately, if you're attracted by the idea of using laughter to improve your spirit and health, chances are you've already got a good sense of humor. Meaning, of course, that you're just the type of person who might benefit from what Fry calls "prophylactic humor"—laughter as preventive medicine.
For people who want to inoculate themselves with laughter, Fry recommends this two-step process.
First, figure out your humor profile. Listen to yourself for a few days and see what makes you laugh out loud. Be honest with yourself; don't affect a taste for sophisticated French farces if your heartiest guffaws come from watching Moe, Larry, and Curly.
Next, use your comic profile to start building your own humor library: books, magazines, videos, what have you. If possible, set aside a portion of your bedroom or den as a "humor corner" to house your collection. Then, when life gets you down, don't hesitate to visit. Even a few minutes of laughter, says Fry, will provide some value.
"We're teaching people a skill that they can use when, say, deadline pressures are getting close," explains nurse/ clown Patty Wooten, author of Compassionate Laughter (Commune-a-Key) and president of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor.
"The deadline will remain, but by taking time out to laugh, you adjust your mood, your physiology, your immune system. And then you go back to work and face what you have to do."

Do You Eat Breakfast?

Breakfast eaters are champions of good health. Research shows people who have a morning meal tend to take in more vitamins and minerals, and less fat and cholesterol. The result is often a leaner body, lower cholesterol count, and less chance of overeating.
"That one act [of eating breakfast] seems to make a difference in people's overall weight," says Melinda Johnson, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She says breakfast can hold off hunger pangs until lunchtime and make high-calorie vending machine options less enticing.
Not only that, researchers at the 2003 American Heart Association conference reported that breakfast eaters are significantly less likely to be obese and get diabetes compared with nonbreakfast eaters.
Another study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition showed that people who consumed breakfast cereal every day reported feeling better both physically and mentally than those who rarely ate cereal in the morning.
For kids, breakfast appears to enhance alertness, attention, and performance on standardized achievement tests, reports the ADA.
To get the full benefits of breakfast, the Mayo Clinic recommends a meal with carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of fat. They say that because no single food gives you all of the nutrients you need, eating a variety of foods is essential to good health.
Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good; many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning. They include not having enough time and not feeling hungry. For these people, Johnson suggests tailoring breakfast to the day.

Is Plain Soap Better Than Antibacterial Soaps?

Antibacterial soaps show no health benefits over plain soaps and, in fact, may render some common antibiotics less effective, says a University of Michigan public health professor.
In the first known comprehensive analysis of whether antibacterial soaps work better than plain soaps, Allison Aiello of the U-M School of Public Health and her team found that washing hands with an antibacterial soap was no more effective in preventing infectious illness than plain soap. Moreover, antibacterial soaps at formulations sold to the public do not remove any more bacteria from the hands during washing than plain soaps. Because of the way the main active ingredient---triclosan---in many antibacterial soaps reacts in the cells, it may cause some bacteria to become resistant to commonly used drugs such as amoxicillin, the researchers say. These changes have not been detected at the population level, but e-coli bacteria bugs adapted in lab experiments showed resistance when exposed to as much as 0.1 percent wt/vol triclosan soap. "What we are saying is that these e-coli could survive in the concentrations that we use in our (consumer formulated) antibacterial soaps," Aiello said. "What it means for consumers is that we need to be aware of what's in the products. The soaps containing triclosan used in the community setting are no more effective than plain soap at preventing infectious illness symptoms, as well as reducing bacteria on the hands." The study, "Consumer Antibacterial Soaps: Effective or Just Risky"" appears in the August edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. The team looked at 27 studies conducted between 1980 and 2006, and found that soaps containing triclosan within the range of concentrations commonly used in the community setting (0.1 to 0.45 percent wt/vol) were no more effective than plain soaps. Triclosan is used in higher concentrations in hospitals and other clinical settings, and may be more effective at reducing illness and bacteria.

Are Your Emotions Healthy?

Healthy Emotions: Healthy LivingWhat are healthy emotions? Do you know the difference? Why is it that it seems like we feel more than we think?
Knowing the difference between your thoughts and feelings is very important. We think therefore we feel. The challenge is to learn how to cope with emotions associated with our thinking in a more proactive rather than a reactive way. If we can learn how to first identify our emotions, we can then effectively cope/express or act on in a productive manner and let them go. For every emotion there is a healthy and unhealthy way to express that feeling (healthy sadness vs. unhealthy depression, healthy fear vs. unhealthy fear, healthy anger vs. unhealthy anger, etc.) Below listed are healthy emotions compared to unhealthy emotions.
Healthy Emotions
You are able to feel emotions and identify your feeling (I feel?)
You are able to communicate/express your emotions in a productive manner
Your feelings are appropriate in response to an event or situation
Your negative feelings go away after a short period of time
You are able to identify the thought associated with your feeling (Thinking about living healthy makes me feel happy)
Symptoms of Unhealthy Emotions
You are unable to identify your feelings (I feel fine or I don't know how I feel)
You are unable to communicate/express your emotions effectively
Your feelings are far out of proportion (over-reaction) to situations
Your negative feelings do not seem to go away
You are unable to identify the thoughts associated with your feelings
The above gives you some idea about recognizing if your emotions are healthy or unhealthy. The first step is awareness. Once we become aware of our problem areas, we can than implement change and new skills

Are You Enzyme Deficient?

Enzymes are energized protein molecules essential for the digestion of food, brain stimulation, tissue, cell and organ repairing and generating cellular energy. Even though they are a catalyst for many biochemical reactions they do not change or get consumed in the process.
There are three types: metabolic, digestive and food.
Digestive
Digestive enzymes are secreted along the gastrointestinal tract and break down the food in the body so that the nutrients can be absorbed. Enzymes are present in the food you eat which is why there is great importance placed upon having plenty of raw foods in the diet. The enzymes in raw food help start the process of digestion which reduces the body's need to secret digestive enzymes.
Food enzymes are destroyed when cooking at moderate or high temperatures. They are "turned off" at a dry-heat temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit and a wet-heat temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
If your body has to rely too much on its own digestive enzymes the result is more stress is placed on your system and organs leaving less time and energy for other jobs such as rebuilding and replacing damaged cells and tissue and keeping your immune system strong.
A diet that consists mainly of cooked food requires the pancreas to "work overtime" and the extra effort leaves it exhausted. If the pancreas is always having to produce enzymes that could come from food it will eventually cease to function properly. The late Dr. Edward Howell suggested that when a person eats an enzyme-poor diet consisting of lots of cooked food, the result is illness, lowered resistance to stress and a shortened life span.
Eating lots of raw foods and taking a high-quality enzyme supplement can help avoid depletion of the body's own enzymes thereby reducing stress.
In the book, The Healing Power of Enzymes, Dr. DicQie Fuller talks about the importance of enzymes and says:
"Eighty percent of our body’s energy is expended by the digestive process. If you are run down, under stress, living in a very hot or very cold climate, pregnant or a frequent traveler, then enormous quantities of extra enzymes are required by your body. Because our entire system functions through enzymatic action, we must supplement our enzymes. Aging deprives us of our ability to produce necessary enzymes. The medical profession tells us that all disease is due to a lack or imbalance of enzymes. Our very lives are dependent upon them!"
Importance of Digestive Enzymes
There are approximately 45 essential nutrients that the body needs to carry out normal bodily functions. Essential means that the body cannot manufacture them and they must come from outside sources.
There are at least 13 kinds of vitamins and 20 kinds of minerals, in addition to fats, carbohydrates and water that are required for proper metabolic function. When food is consumed it gets broken down for absorption and transported by the blood stream.
Nutrients, including enzymes, work synergistically which means they cooperate with each other acting as catalysts. This promotes absorption and assimilation. The importance of digestive enzymes resides in the fact that the human body cannot absorb nutrients in food unless digestive enzymes break them down.
The body progressively loses its ability to produce enzymes with major drops occurring roughly every ten years of life. At the beginning it may not be that noticeable, however, later on you will discover that you cannot tolerate or enjoy certain foods like you did before. This may also be accompanied by a feeling of reduced stamina. Yes, you're running low of enzymes.
How Do You Know if You Are Lacking Enzymes?
Heartburn, gas, constipation, bloating, allergies, ulcers, lack of energy and reduced functioning of the immune system may occur when there are not enough enzymes.
Digestive Enzymes Benefits
Digestive Enzymes can be beneficial for more things than most people think. They have been shown to benefit people with:
Acne rosacea
GERD
Indigestion
Candidiasis
Crohn's disease
Food allergies
Low back pain
Sinusitis
Rheumatoid arthritis...
among others.

Do You Know How To Reduce Stress?

STRESS REDUCTION TECHNIQUES
Progressive Relaxation:
Progressive relaxation of your muscles reduces pulse rate and blood pressure as well as
decreasing perspiration and respiration rates. Deep muscle relaxation can be used as an “antianxiety
pill.” The body responds to anxiety-producing thoughts and events with muscle tension
which in turn increases the anxiety. Muscle relaxation reduces tension and is incompatible with
anxiety. Typically, it involves tensing individual muscle groups for several seconds and releasing
the tension -- allowing the muscles to gradually relax.
Deep Breathing:
Proper breathing is essential for good mental and physical health. The next time you feel a surge
of stress, try a few moments of deep breathing. Sit in a comfortable position and take deep,
measured breaths, e.g., inhaling while counting up from 1 to 4; exhaling while counting down
from 4 to 1. Do this 20-30 times and you=re sure to feel refreshed. Deep breathing assists in
relaxation by increasing the amount of oxygen in the body.
Visualization:
If you think anxious thoughts, you become tense. In order to overcome negative feelings, you
can use the power of your imagination to refocus your mind on positive, healing images. Get into
a comfortable position, close your eyes and visualize a scene or place that you associate with
safety and relaxation. It makes no difference what you visualize, as long as it=s calming to you.
As you relax your mind, your body also relaxes.
Thought Stopping:
Thought stopping helps you overcome excessive worry, repetitive thoughts, and negative
thinking, which may take the form of self-doubt, fear, and avoidance of stressful situations.
Thought stopping involves concentrating on the unwanted thoughts and, after a short time,
suddenly stopping and emptying your mind, by using the mental command “stop” or a loud noise
to interrupt negative thinking. Then, you may use thought substitution to focus on positive
thoughts and outcomes. If the thoughts can be controlled, stress levels can be significantly
reduced.
Assertive Skills:
Being assertive can reduce stress as you express personal thoughts and feelings. You are
behaving assertively when you stand up for yourself, express your true feelings, and do not let
others take advantage of you. Be specific and clear about what you want, think, and feel; deliver
your message in a clear and non-blaming manner; make personal statements such as, “I want ... ,
I think ... , I feel ...” etc. Ask for feedback and cooperation. Being assertive means being able to
express yourself openly, honestly, and directly, while being considerate of others= feelings.
Being assertive increases self-satisfaction, respect from others, self-esteem and confidence.

How Is Your Breathing?

Oxygen is the most basic requirement for human life. Go without it for five minutes and you'll die. Yet most of us pay little attention to our breathing unless we are having respiratory problems. The fact is, an astonishing number of physical ailments and diseases are rooted in poor breathing and oxygen deficits. And even symptoms that are not caused by incorrect breathing can be eased and improved by conscious breathing practices.
Dr. Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize, in 1931, for proving that cancer cells are anaerobic, which means they cannot survive in the presence of oxygen. Cancer is fast becoming the number one killer in this country. Not surprising. As much as we humans fear death, more than 80% of us are breathing just barely enough to stay alive!
Add to the equation the oxygen-robbing pollutants we all inhale daily, and our modern-day "health crisis" is far less mysterious than the pharmaceutical industry would like us to believe.
"The simplest and most powerful technique for protecting your health is absolutely free - and literally right under your nose," says Harvard Graduate Andrew Weil, MD, author of the NY Times Bestseller, Spontaneous Healing.
Are you ignoring the most powerful muscle in your body - the diaphragm - and therefore getting only 30% of the oxygen your body craves? Are you holding your breath when under stress?

While not widely publicized, perhaps due to low profit potential, clinical studies with thousands of participants, provide strong evidence that the most significant factor in health and longevity is how well you breathe. The famous Framingham Heart Study, for example, focused on the long-term predictive power of vital capacity and forced exhalation volume as the primary markers for life span.
According to researchers Helen Hubert and William B. Kannel of Boston School of Medicine (1981), "This pulmonary function measurement appears to be an indicator of general health and vigor, and literally a measure of living capacity". These researchers could predict how long a person was going to live by measuring how well s/he breathes.
The study concluded that vital capacity declined at the rate of 9% to 27% per decade, depending on age, sex and the time the test was given.

What has been largely overlooked is the fact that vital capacity can be maintained or increased, even in severe cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Any opera (not necessarily voice) teacher will attest to the fact that breathing volume can be increased, as will Dr. Weil and many open-minded and well-informed health professionals.
Yet engaging in activities such as singing and sports does not necessarily lead to optimal breathing. In fact, they can aggravate existing breathing restrictions, (ie., gasping, forcing the exhale, and panting). Conversely, you don't have to be an opera singer to have a huge pair of lungs or to overcome restricted breathing patterns and increase oxygen intake.
Unlike all the other involuntary functions of the body, breathing becomes voluntary as soon as you make a conscious effort to breathe differently. We offer a variety of techniques and exercises that help restore natural, healthy breathing patterns, balance nervous system function and expand vital capacity.

You can get the complete Framingham Heart Study by visiting the National Institute of Health's database online at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed

Benefits of Live Foods

I had always preferred the name Live Foods rather than Raw Foods. The name Live Foods is self-explanatory: We are alive, so eat live foods!
Some of the comments I get from people on the Raw/Live Foods diet are: "Boring, unpalatable, bland, unsustainable etc". Personally, I think it is just a question of how to, and whether you want to make an effort towards better health. After you take action to start, its impossible not to carry on because you taste the sweetness & power of superior Health, Energy AND Clarity!
There is an endless list of the benefits of going raw......When we first start on a clean & fresh diet, our magnificent body goes into the healing & re-building mode, where millions of chemical processes are carried out to rid our toxins, nourish our cells & heal the impaired organs for a maximum performing body. Behold the magic of our body!
Just for the fun of it, I always like to notice the positive benefits, list them down, and then think about how much I would love to share that with everybody I know :)
Today, let's just list 10 of them:
1) You literally jump out of bed every morning feeling vibrant, alive & totally awake.
2) You have more energy than you can remember before, AND you are more energetic than most people your age.
3) You have clear sparkling eyes. If you already have large, sparkling eyes, than eating live foods will give you the most beautiful pair of shutters!
4) You drop excess weight naturally, AND you maintain your ideal weight effortlessly. Ladies, imagine that! (Seriously, the benefit of weight loss & maintenance is a "by-product" that is good to have. People who have gone raw before will know exactly what I am talking about!)
5) You have clear, dewy skin that is the envy of all your friends. If your skin is already in good condition before, than eating live foods will give you young, firm skin which is irressistable to touch! Another bonus for the ladies ;)
6) You are already taking a road AWAY from the top killers like diabetes, cancer & heart diseases on a live foods diet, because the diet excludes all the causal factors by default. Goodbye to diseases & Hello to good health!
7) You have better stamina than before, even if you do not exercise that much. The first time i went raw, I could run 10 km all the way breathing through my nose. And if you are a weight-lifting fanatic, this is something you definitely want to try because you will have so much more energy to train and build your dream body!
8) This is my favourite: after about 4 months, my grey hair started turning black! I have personally come across people who was bald before had their hair grow back after 6 months on raw, and some others who reported disappearing of grey hairs after 30 - 60 days.
9) You feel happy, smiley & peaceful. There are countless raw foodies who experiences a natural & lasting "buzz" or "high" all the time!
10) It is fun & you get to eat a large variety of foods. Mother Earth has presented to us such a large array of fuits, vegetables, nuts & seeds that you can create new tasty dishes for every day of your life! Have you ever noticed how good a durian or mango taste the moment you cut it up & devour it? It does not need seasoning, cooking or additional ingredients to make it edible because that is what nature has given us.
Live today!
Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is Mystery, Today is a Present.
Cheers to Your Best Health & the Greatest Laughter Possible

Tai Chi for Diabetes Defense

Taking up tai chi may have an immune enhancing effect on people with diabetes, according to a small study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. After 12 weeks of practicing the gentle martial art, 30 diabetes patients had a drop in their levels of interleukin-4, a protein that suppresses immune response. Levels of immune stimulating interleukin-12, meanwhile, doubled after they'd finished their course.

"Other studies have shown that tai chi seems to strenghten the immune system," says Peter Wayne, Ph.D., director of Tai Chi Research Programs at Harvard Medical School. "That may be particularly revelant to people with diabetes, who are more vulnerable to infection." What's more, he adds, tai chi's positive impact on heart health and stress reduction, and possibly on weight management, might aid in diabetes prevention. Wayne recommends practicing for 45 minutes three times a week.

Dangers of Fluoride

Fluoride is an acute toxin with a rating slightly higher than that of lead.According to "Clinical Toxicology of Commercial products," 5th Edition, 1984, lead is given a toxicity rating of 3 to 4, and Fluoride is rated at 4 (3 = moderately toxic, 4 = very toxic). On December 7, 1992, the new EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for lead was set at 0.015 ppm, with a goal of 0.0ppm. The MCL for fluoride is currently set for 4.0ppm - that's over 350 times the permissable level of lead.Fluoride is also considered toxic waste. It is one of the most bone seeking elements known to mankind. The US Public Health Service has stated that fluoride makes the bones more brittle and the dental enamel more porous.

Is White Bread Dangerous?

Is Your Bread Slowly Killing You?Are there "hidden dangers" in every slice of bread you eat? Are you slowly being poisoned by your daily bread? You could be. Find out now if you are, and what you can do about it. If you eat white (or any kind of store bought) bread, then here are a few things you need to know before you put that next slice in your mouth. For example...did you know that the inclusion of hydrogenated oils, artificial preservatives, emulsifiers, additives and other chemicals in bread became standard practice in the mid 1950’s? At this same time whole wheat flour was replaced by bleached, enriched white flour. In this process, grain is bleached and sterilized with chemicals to make it white and soft. It is then artificially "enriched" by adding vitamins, minerals and other materials destroyed in the chemical process. Despite what you may have been told, trying to "enrich" something with the very vitamins and minerals that were removed from it in the first place, does not make it even half as healthy as the natural unrefined version. When you think about this, it doesn’t even make much sense. Your White Flour Isn’t Just White Flour It is also a growing practice in many bread producing factories to replace white flour with substances like alum, ground rice, and whiting. Alum is the most commonly used of all these substances, because it gives the bread a whiter color and causes the flour to absorb and retain a larger amount of water than it would otherwise hold. This enables the factories to produce bread which imitates bread made from a higher quality flour. This tainting of your bread with harmful, cancer causing chemicals such as potassium bromate, emulsifiers (both commonly used in bread production), and alum jeopardizes your health. Do you know why your store bought bread has such a long shelf life? The mysteriously prolonged shelf life is because of a particular emulsifier used in making the bread. This emulsifier is mainly used as a softening agent and tends to deceive buyers as to the real age of their bread. This emulsifier can hide the signs that your bread is rotting (it certainly doesn’t stop the rotting) for a few extra weeks, but the harm it does to your body (and the harm in eating the half rotten bread) makes the cost for this "convenience" very high. Is it any wonder then, that every year a growing number of people just like you and I, are being hospitalized with illnesses and incurable diseases?

7 Fish Oil Benefits

1. Less Pain and Inflammation. Omega 3 fatty acids, particularly EPA, have a very positive effect on your inflammatory response. Through several mechanisms, they regulate your body's inflammation cycle, which prevents and relieves painful conditions like arthritis, prostatitis, cystitis and anything else ending in "itis."
2. Cardiovascular Health. Omega 3 fatty acids have also been proven to work wonders for your heart and the miles and miles of arteries and veins that make up your cardiovascular system. They help to lower cholesterol, tryglicerides, LDLs and blood pressure, while at the same time increasing good HDL cholesterol. This adds years to your life expectancy.
3. Protection from Stroke and Heart Attack. When plaque builds up on arterial walls and then breaks loose, it causes what's known as a thrombosis, which is a fancy way of saying clot. If a clot gets stuck in the brain, it causes a stroke and when it plugs an artery, it causes a heart attack. Research shows omega 3 fatty acids break up clots before they can cause any damage.
4. Better Brain Function and Higher Intelligence. Pregnant and nursing mothers can have a great impact on the intelligence and happiness of their babies by supplementing with fish oil. For adults, omega 3 improves memory, recall, reasoning and focus. You'll swear you're getting younger and smarter.
5. Less Depression and Psychosis. Making you smarter is not all omega 3 does for your brain. Psychiatry department researchers at the University of Sheffield, along with many other research studies, found that omega 3 fish oil supplements "alleviate" the symptoms of depression, bipolar and psychosis (Journal of Affective Disorder Vol. 48(2-3);149-55).
6. Lower Incidence of Childhood Disorders. Just to show how fish oil fatty acids leave nobody out, studies show that children (and adults) with ADD and ADHD experience a greatly improved quality of life. And those with dyslexia, dyspraxia and compulsive disorders have gotten a new lease on life thanks to omega 3 oils.
7. Reduction of Breast, Colon and Prostate Cancer. And finally, omega 3 fish oil has been shown to help prevent three of the most common forms of cancer – breast, colon and prostate. Science tells us that omega 3s accomplish this in three ways. They stop the alteration from a normal healthy cell to a cancerous mass, inhibiting unwanted cellular growth and causing apoptosis, or cellular death, of cancer cells.

Sea Salt Does A Body Good

• Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure - in conjunction with water. Naturally the proportions are critical.
  
• Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells.
  
• Salt is vital for balancing the sugar levels in the blood; a needed element for diabetics.
  
• Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells of the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites where energy is needed.
  
• Salt is vital to the nerve cells' communication and information processing all the time that the brain cells work, from the moment of conception to death.
  
• Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.
  
• Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.
  
• Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and congestion of the sinuses.
  
• Salt is a strong natural antihistamine.
  
• Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps.

How Much Sugar Are You Eating?

The average American consumes an astounding 2-3 pounds of sugar each week, which is not surprising considering that highly refined sugars in the forms of sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup are being processed into so many foods such as bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and a plethora of microwave meals.
In the last 20 years, we have increased sugar consumption in the U.S. 26 pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year! Prior to the turn of this century (1887-1890), the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! Cardiovascular disease and cancer was virtually unknown in the early 1900's.
The "glycemic index" is a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels, with each food being assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the absorption and digestion process, which provides a more gradual, healthier infusion of sugars into the bloodstream. On the other hand, a high rating means that blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin to drop blood-sugar levels. These rapid fluctuations of blood-sugar levels are not healthy because of the stress they place on the body.
One of sugar's major drawbacks is that it raises the insulin level, which inhibits the release of growth hormones, which in turn depresses the immune system. This is not something you want to take place if you want to avoid disease.
An influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sugar, you're making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Complex carbohydrates tend to be absorbed more slowly, lessening the impact on blood-sugar levels.
Sugar depresses the immune system.
We have known this for decades. It was only in the 1970's that researchers found out that vitamin C was needed by white blood cells so that they could phagocytize viruses and bacteria. White blood cells require a 50 times higher concentration inside the cell as outside so they have to accumulate vitamin C.
There is something called a "phagocytic index" which tells you how rapidly a particular macrophage or lymphocyte can gobble up a virus, bacteria, or cancer cell. It was in the 1970's that Linus Pauling realized that white blood cells need a high dose of vitamin C and that is when he came up with his theory that you need high doses of vitamin C to combat the common cold.
We know that glucose and vitamin C have similar chemical structures, so what happens when the sugar levels go up? They compete for one another upon entering the cells. And the thing that mediates the entry of glucose into the cells is the same thing that mediates the entry of vitamin C into the cells. If there is more glucose around, there is going to be less vitamin C allowed into the cell. It doesn't take much: a blood sugar value of 120 reduces the phagocytic index by 75%. So when you eat sugar, think of your immune system slowing down to a crawl.
Here we are getting a little bit closer to the roots of disease. It doesn't matter what disease we are talking about, whether we are talking about a common cold or about cardiovascular disease, or cancer or osteoporosis, the root is always going to be at the cellular and molecular level, and more often than not insulin is going to have its hand in it, if not totally controlling it.
The health dangers which ingesting sugar on an habitual basis creates are certain. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, move mood swings, provoke personality changes, muster mental illness, nourish nervous disorders, deliver diabetes, hurry heart disease, grow gallstones, hasten hypertension, and add arthritis.
Because refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins, they must draw upon the body's micro-nutrient stores in order to be metabolized into the system. When these storehouses are depleted, metabolization of cholesterol and fatty acid is impeded, contributing to higher blood serum triglycerides, cholesterol, promoting obesity due to higher fatty acid storage around organs and in sub-cutaneous tissue folds.
Because sugar is devoid of minerals, vitamins, fiber, and has such a deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, major researchers and major health organizations (American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association) agree that sugar consumption in America is one of the 3 major causes of degenerative disease.
A good source of supplies for diabetics is diabeticdrugstore.com. They offer healthy eating diabetic food, hard to find sugar free candy and medical alert jewelry for diabetes care.
Honey is a simple sugar
There are 4 classes of simple sugars which are regarded by most nutritionists as "harmful" to optimal health when prolonged consumption in amounts above 15% of the carbohydrate calories are ingested: Sucrose, fructose, honey, and malts.
Some of you may be surprised to find honey here. Although honey is a natural sweetener, it is considered a refined sugar because 96% of dry matter are simple sugars: fructose, glucose and sucrose. It is little wonder that the honey bear is the only animal found in nature with a problem with tooth-decay (honey decays teeth faster than table sugar). Honey has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 calories/tablespoon, compared to the 48 calories/tablespoon found in table sugar. The increased calories are bound to cause increased blood serum fatty acids, as well as weight gain, on top of the risk of more cavities.
Pesticides used on farm crops and residential flowers have been found in commercial honey. Honey can be fatal to an infant whose immature digestive tracts are unable to deal effectively with Botulinum Spore growth. What nutrients or enzymes raw honey does contain are destroyed by manufacturers who heat it in order to give it a clear appearance to enhance sales. If you are going to consume honey, make sure it is raw, unheated honey. Good to use in special cures, but not as an every day food. It is not much better than white or brown sugar.
Here is a list of ways sugar can affect your health:
Sugar can suppress the immune system.
Sugar can upset the body's mineral balance.
Sugar can contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children.
Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
Sugar can reduce helpful high density cholesterol (HDLs).
Sugar can promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDLs).
Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
Sugar contributes to a weakened defense against bacterial infection.
Sugar can cause kidney damage.
Sugar can increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
Sugar may lead to chromium deficiency.
Sugar can cause copper deficiency.
Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
Sugar can increase fasting levels of blood glucose.
Sugar can promote tooth decay.
Sugar can produce an acidic stomach.
Sugar can raise adrenaline levels in children.
Sugar can lead to periodontal disease.
Sugar can speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair.
Sugar can increase total cholesterol.
Sugar can contribute to weight gain and obesity.
High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Sugar can contribute to diabetes.
Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
Sugar leads to decreased glucose tolerance.
Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.
Sugar can increase systolic blood pressure.
Sugar causes food allergies.
Sugar can cause free radical formation in the bloodstream.
Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
Sugar can overstress the pancreas, causing damage.
Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.
Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.
Sugar can cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver.
Sugar can increase the amount of fat in the liver.
Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.
Sugar can cause depression.
Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention.
Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance.
Sugar can cause hypertension.
Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly.
Sugar can increase blood platelet adhesiveness which increases risk of blood clots and strokes.
Sugar can increase insulin responses in those consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets.
Sugar increases bacterial fermentation in the colon.
Source: www.nancyappleton.com

Attitude

Attitude is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, education, money, circumstances, failure, successes, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company, a church, a home.
The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We are in charge of our attitudes.
We run our own race and are in competition with ourselves, so choose to improve from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year and then at the end of your life you will be healthy, wealthy, and wise

Dangers of Mercury

Mercury is the second most toxic element on earth to plutonium. Toxicity of mercury has been linked to many different diseases, including autism, learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, depression, and bipolar disorder. The amount of mercury found in one mercury thermometer is enough to pollute a small lake.
Health effects of mercury toxicity have been a concern because of the potential for it to act as a poison. Toxic doses of mercury can cause developmental effects in the fetus, as well as affecting the kidney and the nervous system in children and adults. Mercury exists in a number of different chemical forms, each one consisting of different levels of toxicity. The forms of mercury can also be converted from one to another in the environment and in the body, so symptoms caused by mercury poisoning depends on the precise chemical forms involved.
Mercury can be toxic when inhaled, eaten, or when placed on the skin. Low concentrations of mercury may appear to have no effect but signs of toxicity can develop later or become more noticeable with continued exposure. When toxicity in humans takes place loss of feeling or a burning sensation in arms and legs, psychological effects, loss of memory, loss of vision, loss of hearing, paralysis, congenital malformations, kidney toxicity, and death may occur. Prenatal toxicity can result in a child with normal appearance at birth but who later exhibits a developmental delay in the ability to walk and/or talk. Because of the long latent period for observable effects, the need for treatment may be recognized too late.
Health effects vary according to the amount of mercury exposure is taken into the body. The health risks of mercury at low levels of exposure remain uncertain, but this continues to be a highly debatable topic with ongoing scientific investigation. Fetuses, infants and small children appear to be particularly sensitive to mercury because their brains are still developing. Vaccines with mercury have been considered to contribute to autism, learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s Disease, and other neurological conditions, and an FDA review conducted in 1998 determined that, at the time, children who received the full complement of childhood vaccines were potentially exposed to levels of mercury that were sometimes 30 to 50 times the acceptable levels established by the EPA.
High-level exposures to mercury can cause serious effects or even be lethal. Several historical examples of epidemic mercury poisonings in other parts of the world provide classic examples of investigative epidemiology and toxicology and serve to highlight the reasons why regulators are concerned about mercury. Effects on the brain and nervous system are frequently seen with high-level exposures to mercury and can be quite severe.

Health and Happiness

Happiness is in the mind, and the mind is supported by the body – a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. Your happiness depends on your mind and it depends on your body. Without physical health you can't be completely happy, and without mental happiness you can't be completely healthy. Health is a positive state; not just the absence of a negative one. It's not only the absence of disease. For too long now traditional Western medicine has treated illness as only a disease: an enemy that attacks you and needs to be counter-attacked; but in reality it's nothing more than an imbalance in the natural harmony of body and mind. True healing means restoring that balance, and true health means keeping it.
Yoga means "to unify." It's the holistic approach to all aspects of life: physical, mental and spiritual. Yoga views the person as a whole; as a unique combination of body, mind and soul, and its techniques maintain that body-mind-soul harmony. Try it today.

Meditate For An Open Heart

Meditation might be your prescription for a happier mind and kinder heart, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows. Scientists worked with 16 Tibetan monks and 16 meditation novices, giving the beginners lessons on compassion meditation two weeks prior to a series of brain-scan experiments. Those brain scans-taken while the participants responded to different emotional cues-revealed that the monks had more activity in certain brain regions involved in processing empathy. The findings, according to study authors, suggest that meditation may train the brain to increase feelings of compassion and happiness.

Booze and Your Body - Part 4 of 4

Heart Health. Moderate alcohol consumption is good for your heart. A meta-analysis that looked at 42 studies consistently showed that one drink a day was beneficial, reducing risk of heart disease by almost 25 percent. A recent study from Medical University of South Carolina looked at middle-aged people who began to drink moderate amounts (one drink per day or less for women, two drinks per day or less for men) and found a quick benefit: lower rates of cardiovascular disease. These new drinkers had a 38 percent lower chance of developing heart disease than their nondrinking counterparts. I still say no Drinking!

Booze and Your Body - Part 3

Mental Health. Alcohol seems like a great stress reducer, but it typically serves as an escape, one that brings a cascade of unhealthy effects. While it may make you feel better in the moment, keep in mind that it's a depressant; overall, it can make mood and depression worse. Relationships can pay a price, whether that minifests as snapping at the kids or withdrawing from your spouse. The sleep problems caused by alcohol can also affect mental health.

Booze and Your Body - Part 2

Cancer. There seems to be a linear relationship between the amount of alcohol a woman drinks and her risk of breast cancer. In other words, the more you drink, the greater your risk. In an analysis of multiple studies, women who drank 3/4 to one drink per day increased their risk of breast cancer by 9 percent compared with nondrinkers. Women who drank two to five drinks increased their risk by 41 percent. Alcohol use is also strongly associated with liver cancer and cancers of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, and pharynx.

Booze and Your Body - Part 1

Alcohol can have wide-ranging health effects. To understand what that means for you, consider your other risk factors and talk to your doctor.

Bone Health. The current consensus is that consuming two to four drinks per day can increase your risk of fracturing a hip by 44 percent. Those who consume one or two drinks per week, however, have increased bone density compared with people who don't drink at all.

Got Milk?

Do you really know the truth about dairy? Is dairy as good as the Dairy Council and the governement claims? Is dairy making you sick? That is the point to the website DairyTruth.com. DairyTruth.com will show you the research and the truth about all those dairy products that are supposed to be good for you: milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt. They delve into modern dairy farming practices that require more of a knowledge of chemistry than farming and husbandry. And they look at how dairy products from cows are handled by the human body. After all, humans are not cows and human dietary and physical needs are far different than those of a cow. And DairyTruth.com looks closely at how cow’s milk affects human babies. Human babies are not calves, yet marketing tells us that mother’s milk is bad for babies and inconvenient. Yet cow’s milk, milk designed to nurture an animal from 100 pounds to 1000 pounds in a short span, is the best solution for a human baby. A hot topic right now is osteoporosis and the huge epidemic it has become in the country’s aging population. Conventional medical wisdom screams, “Drink more milk and eat more dairy. The extra calcium prevents osteoporosis. Milk does a body good!” In actuality, milk does a body bad! The proteins in cow’s milk actually destroy the calcium in the human body worsening the disease it is purported to cure. So how did we get conditioned into thinking that dairy is good for us? Just blame the Milk Marketing Board and the various dairy marketing associations that for years have been blasting the public with misleading advertisements. All the while, they have been injected their cows with chemicals and steroids to force the cows to produce more milk. And what happens to all those chemicals and hormones? They wind up in the milk we feed our children everyday! And if you don’t believe it, look at the age of puberty in girls in the United States. Puberty in girls is not uncommon in eight year-old girls and one percent of the girls start puberty at age three! How can this be? Plain and simple, it’s the hormones! When you pump a female cow full of hormones to produce more milk, those hormones are passed into the cow’s milk. This milk is then consumed by our daughters causing extremely early puberty. The effects are the same on boys. Boys consume the same hormone- and chemical-rich milk we feed our girls. Boys are reaching puberty younger as well. And one could argue (though scientific research has yet to prove this out) that our young men are becoming more effeminate by consuming female hormones in their milk. It would be interesting if science would test this theory. Even if this is not the case, our children drink way too much cow’s milk. What our children need to be drinking is clean, pure water. However, that is a topic for another article as our source’s of clean water are becoming harder and harder to find.
Dean Novosat writes about health and nutrition. He has two websites http://www.DairyTruth.com and http://www.FastingLife.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dean_Novosa

Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kills

Excitotoxins - MSG and Aspartame
Hidden Sources of MSG by Julie K. DiazThis is a list of ingredients that contain MSG or other related excitotoxins. This comprehensive list was compiled from books written by Russell Blaylock M.D. and George Swartz M.D. These books can be found by clicking on Book List.
MSG and Aspartame, Two Known Toxins, are Found in Almost Every Type of Food and Beverage Americans Consume by Julie K. DiazWhy does the FDA continue to allow food industry giants to add toxic substances to our food and beverages, especially those marketed to children? Solid research studies have shown links between MSG and Aspartame, with ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Brain tumors, Depression, and even rage disorder and paranoia. In light of the increasing violence in schools, including mass murders, like those at Columbine, why doesn't the FDA take immediate action and look ONLY at research that is NOT biased due to funding by the Glutamate industry?
Food and Beverages that contain Aspartame by Julie K. DiazThis article provides a list of foods and beverages that typically contain Aspartame, or Nutrasweet (Equal).
The Deadly Deception of Aspartame by the FDA and Searle"The Deadly Deception" cites chapter and verse of the coverup by Searle and the FDA. Here are some highlights from the book "The Deadly Deception": http://www.mercola.com
FDA Ignores Complaints of Neurological SymptomsIn 1989, the FDA received over 4,000 complaints from people who described adverse reactions. Research also indicates that aspartame, when combined with glutamine products (such as MSG, widely used in foods) increase the likelihood of brain damage occurring in children. http://www.mercola.com
Aspartame - avoid it - Dangerous symptomsA double blind study of the effects of aspartame on persons with mood disorders was recently conducted by Dr Ralph G. Walton. The study showed a large increase in serious symptoms for persons taking aspartame. Since some of the symptoms were so serious, the Institutional Review Board had to stop the study. http://www.mercola.com
METHANOL - AKA WOOD ALCOHOL or POISON - 10% Of AspartameMethanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison. Some people may remember methanol as the poison that has caused some "skid row" alcoholics to end up blind or dead. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounter the enzyme chymotrypsin. http://www.mercola.com
Most Visited Health Sites on the NetOf all the medical journals in the world, only the British Medical Journal now has more traffic than this site. More people visit this site than the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and the Lancet. This article shows the top Natural Health Sites and the top General Health Sites. http://www.mercola.com
Sweet on Stevia?Stevia comes from a shrub native to Paraguay, Stevia rebaudiana. It also grows in Brazil and Argentina, and is now widely cultivated in China. The leaves have been used for centuries by native peoples to make sweet teas, or to sweeten other foods, with no evidence of adverse reactions. http://www.drweil.com
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)ToxicityThis link contains a short article describing the toxicity of MSG and Aspartame, and the health problems that their consumption is linked to.
Battling the MSG MythThis website is a comprehensive resource about the health problems associated with MSG and how to avoid it. The author's story is a compelling one, as she and her son experienced severe illness as a result of any foods containing MSG.
The Effects Of Different Storage Temperatures on the Taste and Chemical Composition of Diet CokeJennifer Cohen is an eleven-year old student who conducted an experiment which proved that aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet soda, breaks down into two deadly neurotoxins when stored at different temperatures.
The Bitter Truth About Artificial sweetenersAspartame sugar substitutes cause worrying symptoms from memory loss to brain tumours. But despite US FDA approval as a 'safe' food additive, aspartame is one of the most dangerous substances ever to be foisted upon an unsuspecting public.
Culturally Conditioned Nutrition Patterns and Physiological DegenerationThis site provides Online Research data from the Leading Edge Research group. It includes information on food additives (e.g. MSG, Aspartame), as well as the effects of meat and dairy products, sugar, excess protein, and hormones.
No MSG Website: The National Organization Moblized to Stop GlutamateThe NoMSG mission is to educate consumers regarding the dangers of Monosodium Glutamate and the ways in which it is hidden; to encourage MSG-free products; to support MSG sensitive individuals; and, to promote independent MSG research.
Reprinted from:http://www.excitotoxins.com/

Berry Good for You

Here's a good excuse to snap up that extra pint of rasberries on your next farmers' market run: A recent study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that snacking on berries might help bring down your blood pressure and boost your levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol. After eight weeks of eating about a cup of berries daily, 72 middle-aged men and women with some heart-disease risk factors showed a 5.2 percent increase in HDL cholesterol and a 1.5 point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number on a blood pressure reading).

Juicy-sweet enough to savor on their own, berries can make yummy additions to salsas and smoothies. Sarah Krieger, a St. Petersburg, Florida based dietician, also recommends a berry-infused breakfast: Adorn oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt with a mix of strawberries, a squeeze of Meyer lemon juice, a dash of cinnamon, and a drizzle of honey.