Fruits & Vegetables Affect Vision

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help keep your eyes in good shape. You may know that the vitamin A in carrots aids night vision. There are other whole food fruits and vegetables that help prevent two common aging-related eye diseases - cataract and macular degeneration. This disease afflicts millions of Americans over age sixty-five. Cataract is the gradual clouding of the eye's lens, a disk of protein that focuses light on the light-sensitive retina. Macular degeneration is caused by cumulative damage to the macula, the center of the retina. It starts as a blurred spot in the center of what you see. As the degeneration spreads, vision shrinks.

Free radicals generated by sunlight, cigarette smoke, air pollution, infection, and metabolism cause much of this damage. Dark green leafy vegetables contain two pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin, that accumulate in the eye. These two appear to be able to snuff out free radicals before they can harm the eye's sensitive tissues.

In general, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains appears to reduce the chances of developing cataract or macular degeneration.

Blueberries Are Rich In Antioxidants

Recent USDA studies show that Blueberries are a tasty way to eat right and stay healthy. Scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University ranked blueberries #1 in antioxidant activity compared with 40 other commercially available fruits and vegetables.

Dr. James Joseph, PhD, Chief of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University is working with blueberries to examine their potential to help improve motor skills and reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging.

"The blueberry has emerged as a very powerful food in the aging battle," said Dr. Joseph. "Given the possibility that blueberries may reverse short-term memory loss and forestall other effects of aging, their potential may be very great."

A University of Illinois study by Mary Ann Lila Smith, PhD, looked at a particular flavonoid that inhibits an enzyme involved in promoting cancer. Of the fruits tested, blueberries showed the greatest anti-cancer activity of all.
According to research findings at the Rutgers Blueberry Cranberry Research Center in Chatsworth , N.J. , blueberries help promote urinary tract health. According to Rutgers scientist Amy Howell, PhD, blueberries, like cranberries, contain compounds that prevent the bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections from attaching to the bladder wall.

You can find blueberries in many of your favorite Wholefood Farmacy foods such as Phi Plus, Coco Cherry Phi, Cranberry Phi, and ElectriPhi.

Nutritional Synergy

Jeff Prince is the vice president for education at the American Institute for Cancer Research. In his August 2004 interview with The Washington Post he said that "the thousands of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in whole foods act synergistically together to create a more powerful effect than the sum of their parts, producing a result which cannot be recreated by supplements".

Dr. Rui Hai Liu is an associate professor in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University . He is a member of the graduate fields of Food Science and Technology, and Environmental Toxicology. Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. in Toxicology from Cornell University . He also holds a M.D. in Medicine and a M.S. in Nutrition and Food Toxicology from Harbin Medical School in China .

Dr. Liu recently appeared at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) International Conference on Food, Nutrition and Cancer to present some of his latest findings. "Different plant foods have different phytochemicals," he said. "These substances go to different organs, tissues and cells, where they perform different functions. What your body needs to ward off disease is this synergistic effect - this teamwork - that is produced by eating a wide variety of plant foods."

That's why we call We call Phi Plus "the healthiest food in the world". It is a synergistic combination of dozens of all pure whole food ingredients including nuts, seeds, grains, fruits, vegetables, berries, herbs, oils, & spices.

Synergy or synergism (from the Greek synergos meaning working together, circa 1660) refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete agents, acting together, create an effect greater than the sum of the effects each is able to create independently. Phi Plus is nutritional synergy in edible form. Phi Plus is always ready to go when you are. Treat yourself to some Phi Plus today and be sure to share some with your family, children, and loved ones.

Berries Excellent Antioxidants

Antioxidants are natural substances found in plants, which are known to aid in the prevention of heart disease, cancer and stroke. Berries have an especially high level of antioxidants, according to a recent study published in the journal BioFactors (Vol. 23, pages 197-205). The pigments that give berries their rich red to blue, black and purple colors are a type of phytochemical that has been shown to have significant disease-fighting, cell-protecting antioxidant capacity. In addition to boosting your immune system, these valuable compounds are also known to slow the effects of aging by improving things like memory, balance, coordination and motor skills.

The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC Value) of foods is a measurement of the Antioxidant levels. The higher the ORAC Value, the more Antioxidants a food has. It's believed that foods high in these powerful nutrients give the body its greatest protection.

Berries are some of the most delicious and powerful disease-fighting foods available. Blueberries are among fruits and vegetables with the highest Antioxidant levels with an ORAC Value of 5486. Right behind blueberries are blackberries with an ORAC Value of 4654; strawberries at 3520 and raspberries, 2789. Berry ORAC levels top that of many other fruits and vegetables such as oranges, grapefruit, cherries, plums, brussell sprouts, broccoli and spinach.

Single servings of fresh or freshly cooked fruits and vegetables supply an average of 600-800 ORAC units. Scientists believe that increasing intake of foods that provide 2000-5000 units per day may be needed to increase serum and tissue antioxidant activity sufficiently to improve health outcomes. This is why it's important to eat 5 to 9 servings daily of fruits and vegetables.

The Wholefood Farmacy has whole food that makes it easy and convenient to get your 5 to 9 servings each day and to enjoy the very best that nature has to offer. You can find many different types of berries in your favorite Wholefood Farmacy whole foods including Phi Plus, Cranberry Phi, Coco Cherry Phi, Fruitalicious & Fruitalicious Plus.

A Woman's Heart

Amazing new research was published in the October 2007 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. This new study shows that women who eat a healthy diet, drink moderate amounts of alcohol, are physically active, maintain a healthy weight and do not smoke have a significantly reduced risk of heart attack – a reduced risk of up to 92 percent!

Dr. Agneta Akesson, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and colleagues identified dietary patterns in 24,444 postmenopausal women by analyzing food frequency questionnaires, on which the women supplied information about how often they ate 96 common foods.

The low-risk lifestyle, characterized by a high intake of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish and legumes, in combination with moderate alcohol consumption, not smoking, maintaining the proper weight and being physically active was associated with 92 percent decreased risk compared with findings in women without any low-risk diet and lifestyle factors.

Several components of fruits, vegetables and whole grains such as fiber, antioxidant vitamins and minerals, have been associated with a reduced risk for coronary heart disease, the researchers note. In addition, previous studies have found beneficial effects of small amounts of alcohol in preventing the buildup of plaque in the arteries, which could help prevent heart attacks. "The combined benefit of diet, lifestyle, and healthy body weight may prevent more than three of four cases of heart attack in our study population," Dr. Akesson and colleagues report.

The Wholefood Farmacy whole foods make it easy and convenient for you to enjoy the benefits of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and dietary fiber. How many servings of fruits and veggies have you, your family and your children had today?

Quinoa - Whole Food Nutrition Powerhouse

Quinoa, though not technically a cereal grain like wheat or oats, has been cultivated and eaten as a cereal for thousands of years by South Americans. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is the tiny seed of the Chenopodium Quinoa, a leafy plant that is a distant relative of spinach and beets.

Quinoa was called the "mother grain" by the Incas (chisiya mama). Now, as people in the rest of the world learn more about Quinoa, they're discovering that its ancient nickname was well deserved - Quinoa is indeed a nutritional powerhouse.

Quinoa's protein content, about 16 percent, is higher than that of any other grain. Wheat also has a high protein content, about 14 percent, but the protein in wheat and most other grains is lacking in the amino acid lysine, which Quinoa has in abundance. In fact, the amino acid composition in Quinoa is almost perfect. The World Health Organization has judged the protein in Quinoa to be as complete as that in milk. In addition, Quinoa contains more iron than most grains, and is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, folate, and many B vitamins.

Eating a serving of whole grains, such as Quinoa, at least 6 times each week is an especially good idea for postmenopausal women with high cholesterol, high blood pressure or other signs of cardiovascular disease.

A 3-year prospective study of 229 postmenopausal women with cardiovascular disease, published in the July 2005 issue of the American Heart Journal, shows that those eating at least 6 servings of whole grains each week experienced:

• Slowed progression of atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque that narrows the vessels through which blood flows.
• Less progression in stenosis, the narrowing of the diameter of arterial passageways.

Quinoa can be found in your favorite Wholefood Farmacy whole food nutritional products such as Phi Plus, as well as all seven of our Whole food Farinas: AmpliPhi, BeautiPhi, ClariPhi, DetoxiPhi, ElectriPhi, FructiPhi & GloriPhi.