What are antioxidants and why are they so important?

Antioxidants are very important to our body. Antioxidants are the nutrients that help protect the cells within the body from being damaged by free radicals in our system. Unfortunately free radicals come in part as we continue to consume processed nutrient depleted, chemically laden food. These junk foods and chemicals are what contributes to the level of free radicals in our body.

A good way to know the value of the antioxidants protection you get in a product is a test called ORAC value. It is an indicator for that product to provide antioxidant protection against free radical damage. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. When you understand the ORAC value of the MannaFeast, it is naturally occurring so it is more effective and the level of ORAC is literally off the chart.

Ways To Reduce Inflamed Arteries - Without Drugs

The experts predict that as a result of a study, which seemed to show that the statin drug Crestor lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes in those with high levels of inflammation, will lead to millions of people being put on statin drugs. But the benefits were actually tiny -- about 0.72 percent of the statin takers in the trial had a heart attack or stroke, compared with 1.5 percent of those taking placebos.

As an alternative to going on a statin drug that comes with dangerous side effects, you may want to try these five measures first:

1. Stop smoking. Smoking hardens the arteries and increases inflammation. But research shows you can reverse all the damaging effects to your arteries within 10 years of quitting.

2. Think olive oil, fish, and nuts. People who stick with a Mediterranean-style diet based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and olive oil can lower their levels of inflammation. It works by increasing the amount of foods you eat that are rich in omega-3 fats, which fight inflammation.

3. Get active. Exercise is a great way to lower inflammation without any of the side effects associated with medications.

Shrink your waist size. If you're a woman with a waist measurement of over 35 inches or a man with a waist of over 40 inches, you probably have high inflammation. Whittling a few inches off the waist by reducing your portions and increasing activity can go a long way toward solving that problem.

4. Get enough sleep. A new study shows that elderly people with high blood pressure who sleep less than 7.5 hours a night have dramatically elevated chances of having a stroke or heart attack. Other research has shown that both too little and too much sleep increases inflammation. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says most adults need between seven and eight hours of sleep each night.

5. Reduce stress. High levels of stress hormones can lead to the release of excess inflammatory chemicals.

Source: U.S. News & World Report November 11, 2008

Whole Foods & Male Fertility

At a recent American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting, new research revealed that eating more whole food fruits and veggies can help men boost their fertility. These new findings indicate that the more produce a man consumes, the healthier his sperm will be. In a study group of infertile men, 83 percent of them were found to be eating less than five servings of fruits and veggies a day. Overall, the men who ate the fewest whole food fruits and veggies had the lowest sperm motility.

"We think that sperm quality is affected by dietary antioxidant intake," said study author Dr. Vivian Lewis, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. "Antioxidants, like those found in whole food fruits and vegetables, may help prevent damage to sperm that causes them to become sluggish and lose the ability to fertilize an egg".

In particular, the antioxidants glutathione and cryptoxanthin, which are prevalent in brightly colored produce such as leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and oranges, were associated with strong, healthy sperm, Lewis said. She recommended that men hoping to father children eat "a variety of fruits and vegetables, at least five servings a day." With The Wholefood Farmacy, getting your 5 a day has never been easier.

The modern day researches continue to confirm what the ancients knew. Focus on giving your body what it needs - it knows how to do the rest.Visit The Wholefood Farmacy Here

Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Fruits and vegetables are clearly an important part of a good diet. Almost everyone can benefit from eating more of them, but variety is as important as quantity. No single fruit or vegetable provides all of the nutrients you need to be healthy. The key lies in the variety of live whole foods and different fruits and vegetables that you eat.

Some basic fruit and vegetable tips:

1. Try to eat more fruits and vegetables. If you need 2,000 calories a day to maintain your weight and health, aim for at least nine servings (4½ cups) a day.
2. Choose a variety of different fruits and vegetables. It's easy to get into a rut when it comes to the food you eat. Break out and try a wider variety - include dark-green, leafy vegetables; yellow, orange, and red fruits and vegetables; cooked tomatoes; and citrus fruits.
3. If you have a fast paced lifestyle that prevents you from getting your daily requirements of whole food fruits and vegetables, there is a new convenient way to supplement with whole food nutrition. Visit www.best-whole-food-nutrition.com for more info.

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.

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?

Hot Peppers May Kill Cancer

Capsaicin (pronounced: cap-say-a-sin) is the stuff that turns up the heat in jalapeños. Not only does it cause the tongue to burn, it also drives prostate cancer cells to self-destruct, according to studies published in the March 15, 2006, issue of Cancer Research.

According to a team of researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical and their colleagues from UCLA, the capsaicin in hot peppers caused human prostate cancer cells to undergo “programmed cell death”, a process otherwise known as apoptosis (pronounced: ap-op-toe-sys). Apoptosis is a natural process in many tissues that maintains a healthy balance between newer replacement cells and aged or worn out cells. In other words, the old worn out cells are naturally programmed to self-destruct. Cancer cells, on the other hand, often dodge this process by mutating the genes that participate in the process of apoptosis.

This new research showed that capsaicin induced approximately 80 percent of prostate cancer cells growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis. Moreover, prostate cancer tumors treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in non-treated mice.

“Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture,” said Sören Lehmann, M.D., Ph.D., visiting scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the UCLA School of Medicine. “It also dramatically slowed the development of prostate tumors formed by those human cell lines grown in mouse models.

”Lehmann estimated that the dose of pepper extract fed orally to the mice was equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to a 200 pound man, roughly equivalent to between three and eight fresh habañera peppers per week – depending on the pepper’s capsaicin content.

The pepper extract also curbed the growth of prostate cancer cells through regulation of androgen receptors, the steroid activated proteins that control expression of specific growth relating genes. On top of all that, the hot pepper component also reduced cancer cell production of PSA, a protein that often is produced in high quantities by prostate tumors and can signal the presence of prostate cancer in men. PSA is regulated by androgens, and capsaicin limited androgen-induced increases of PSA in the cancer cell lines.

Habañeras are the highest rated pepper for capsaicin content according to the Scoville heat index. Habañera peppers, which are native to the Yucatan, typically contain up to 300,000 Scoville units. The more popular Jalapeño variety from Oaxaca, Mexico, and the southwest United States, contains 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units.

Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables

Eating your fruits and vegetables is a great recommendation for a healthy diet for good reason. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.

How much do we really need? If you don't count potatoes - which should be considered a starch rather than a vegetable - the average American gets a total of just three servings of fruits and vegetables a day if that much. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one's caloric intake. For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4½ cups per day.

Over the past 30 years or so, researchers have developed a solid base of science to back up what generations of mothers preached. Eating required amounts of fruits and vegetables for your nutritional needs will benefit your health as every no profit organization in the world will tell you.

If this is not possible due to your busy lifestyle, there is a new InstaFresh Juice called "The Feast" that is a convenient way to get your daily requirements of fruits and vegetables.

Healthy Living is Powerful

Dr. Dana King and his team of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina have just completed a very inspirational study. Dr. King and his team set out to find if middle-aged adults could reap the rewards of habits like eating vegetables and walking 30 minutes a day.

The researchers reported in June 2007 that middle-aged adults age 45 to 64 who began eating five or more fruits and vegetables every day, exercising for at least 2 1/2 hours a week, keeping weight down and not smoking decreased their risk of heart disease by 35 percent and risk of death by 40 percent in the four years after they started.

"The adopters of a healthy lifestyle basically caught up. Within four years, their mortality rate and rate of heart attacks matched the people who had been doing these behaviors all along," said Dr. Dana King at the Medical University of South Carolina, who led the research. Dr. King added "even if you have not had a healthy lifestyle previously, it's not too late to adopt those healthy lifestyle habits and gain almost immediate benefits."

The four key habits are eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables everyday, exercising for 2 ½ hours per week, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight. The study participants who adopted all four healthy habits enjoyed a sharp decline in heart disease risk and in death from any cause.

It took all four -- having just three of the healthy habits yielded no heart benefits and a more modest decrease in overall risk of death. Still, said Dr. Nichola Davis at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "These benefits are on a continuum. The more of the healthy habits that you can adapt, the better. ...These are modest changes that they're talking about."

The Whole Food Farmacy Foods offer you a convenient and delicious way to enjoy five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each and every day. How many servings have you, your family and your children had today?

Importance of Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is vital for photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light. Animals maintain life when they eat other organisms, either plants or other animals. They mostly can't make nutritive substances on their own. Plants can make nutrients, such as glucose, protein, and vitamins, by photosynthesis. When they spread their leaves toward the sun, the chlorophyll that colors them green absorbs solar energy and produces glucose from water and carbon dioxide -- an economic method of nutrition productivity.

Chlorophyll bears a striking chemical similarity to hemoglobin, the vital component of blood. Chlorophyll's phorphyrin structure has magnesium as its central metallic element; hemoglobin has iron. When an animal eats grass, a metathesis occurs in its intestinal villi, transforming a large amount of magnesium into iron. Metathesizing chlorophyll creates increased hemoglobin in the blood, which is why vegetarian animals can maintain life by eating only green grass. That's also why some people call chlorophyll "green blood."

Chlorophyll is primarily found in leaves and is responsible for a plant's ability to make food through photosynthesis. It is responsible for transforming carbon dioxide in the air to oxygen and it uses the energy of the sun to manufacture nourishment for the plant.

According to a 1999 study by the Eighth Asia Nutrition Study Board, chlorophyll also helps prevent cancer by defending against harmful variations in meat produced by cooking. But chlorophyll is also easily damaged by heat -- you'll notice that steamed vegetables produce greenish liquid, which contain the dissolved chlorophyll. That's why it's better to eat green vegetables raw.

Cooked Veggies Can Weaken Immune System

You may believe cooking is needed for food to get rid of bacteria and make food more digestible. This is true in vegetables that are more difficult for some to digest raw, such as broccoli(cruciferous family) but most foods do not become more digestible once cooked.

As far back as 1930, Dr Paul Kouchakoff observed that after eating a meal, a person`s white blood cells (leukocytes) would increase. Generally an increase in white blood cell count can indicate a stress reaction by the body. Eating a raw meal does not have this same effect on the body. He also observed that most foods that have been altered produce this immune suppressing effect.

Our immune system is basically finishing the digestion process for us, although this is a function that it was not meant to do consistently. It is wise to minimize this effect by eating fresh, raw vegetables to go with anything cooked. Also chew your food thoroughly and that will lessen the immune systems response to the cooked food.

A good practice is to eliminate as much processed, altered, and cooked food from your diet as possible. That includes milk, as it is pasteurized and homogenized. Try to removing sugar and white flour from your diet also. Begin eating most meals with a big salad or fresh cut vegetables to save your immune system a lot of unnecessary work.

You can well imagine the toll this has taken on your immune system after years of cooked and processed foods. If you at least include raw vegetables or supplement with live whole foods with your cooked meals, you are giving your immune system a break. Nutrition from live whole food have positive effects, like keeping you healthy! Cooking also can take away the antioxidants and reduce the amount of bioavailable vitamins. In effect, you double your benefits when you can eat raw whole foods.

If you can not give up cooked food, at least add some raw whole foods to your diet to prevent further harming to your body. Feed your body the whole foods it wants and needs so it has a chance to heal itself since that is what it has been designed to do. Eat the right foods so you can work on having a healthier body and mind!

Importance of Carbohydrates Before Exercising

The consumption of carbohydrates is important for several reasons. Most importantly the body depends on carbohydrates to provide almost all the energy for the first 20 to 30 minutes during exercise. In an intense workout such as high intensity aerobics or weight training, the percentage of carbohydrate use can be as high as 100%. So it is important to eat properly in the two hours before you exercise. This will lead to a meaningful productive workout.

Active people need more water than the average person and carbohydrates are a great source of naturally fortified water. The weight of fruits and vegetables is mostly water. Also carbohydrates are a natural source of vitamins and minerals. Many of the these nutrients are necessary for muscle contraction during physical activity.

Eat your Fruits and Vegetables

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.

What does "plenty" really mean? It is usually more than most Americans consume. If you don't count potatoes - which should be considered a starch rather than a vegetable - the average American gets a total of just three servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one's caloric intake. For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4½ cups per day.

There is a new way to conveniently get your daily requirement with "The Feast" Ultrafresh Juice powder. You just mix the powder in water or simply take the vegetarian capsules with water.

Black Beans Health Benefits

Black Beans are a wonderful source of dietary fiber which has been shown to naturally help lower cholesterol. In addition, the high fiber content in Black Beans helps keep blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making them a wise choice for people with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia.

When Black Beans are prepared with whole grains such as barley or wild rice, the Black Beans provide a virtually fat-free, high quality source of protein. But that’s not all. Recent research also shows that Black Beans are rich in antioxidants as well. Antioxidants destroy free radicals, and when eaten regularly, have been shown to offer protection against heart disease, cancer and aging.

Researchers from Michigan State University tested the antioxidant activity of flavonoids found in the skin of 12 common varieties of dry beans. The research was published in the November 2003 issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

Black Beans crossed the finish line in first place having more antioxidant activity, gram for gram, than other beans, followed by red, brown, yellow and white beans, in that order. In general, darker colored seed coats were associated with higher levels of flavonoids, and therefore higher antioxidant activity, says lead investigator Clifford W. Beninger, Ph.D., a research associate at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

"Black beans are really loaded with antioxidant compounds. We didn't know they were that potent until now," says Beninger, formerly a researcher with the USDA's Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit, located at Michigan State University in East Lansing, where he worked on the project under the leadership of co-author George L. Hosfield, Ph.D., a geneticist who recently retired from the USDA.

The study found that one class of compounds in particular, anthocyanins, were the most active antioxidants in the beans. Based on a previously published study of the anthocyanin content of black beans, Beninger found that the levels of anthocyanins per 100 gm serving size of black beans was about 10 times the amount of overall antioxidants in an equivalent serving size of oranges and similar to the amount found in an equivalent serving size of grapes, apples and cranberries.

Dust off the cook book and try some of the Black Beans and Rice recipes! Black Beans and Rice can be a quick, easy and very healthy addition to any whole food meal.

Reduce Junk food and Fast Food Dependence

Today, consumers are becoming more aware of the dangers of junk food and fast food. Obesity rates are at their highest levels ever and conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are showing up in young children. The pressure is mounting as bans on Trans Fats are now being passed into law. What can we do about it?

Parents across the country are insisting that schools shift to healthier foods and more exercise for the kids. People everywhere are searching for answers and there are new convenient live whole foods being sold in a powdered form to be a juice.

Uri International supplies healthy, convenient whole food powders and capsules to provide the nutrition you are not getting in the junk food and fast food. This new trend is expected to be the largest mass consumer shift that we've seen in decades because it involves a product that everyone uses every day..... FOOD.

As a fast growing food market segment, healthy organic foods like "The Feast" and "Beyond Berries" are convenient and nutritious alternatives to get 5 to 9 servings of fresh vegetables and fruit each day. Both come in a powder that is mixed in water to make a nutritious juice or capsules to drink with water for the ultimate convenience for people on the go.

Test your Fruit and Veggie IQ

Eating fruits and vegetables everyday as part of a healthy diet can help you fight disease.
TRUE: A good source of many essential vitamins and minerals, fruits and vegetables are important to promoting good health. Research consistently shows that compared with people who consume a diet with only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts as part of a healthful diet* are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and perhaps heart disease and high blood pressure.

Most people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables for good health.
TRUE: Despite the many health benefits, most Americans do not consume enough fruit and vegetables every day. Are you meeting your needs? Visit www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov to see how many cups you need each day. Here is a Tip: There is a new and convenient way to get your daily fruits and vegetables. Live Whole Food Based “InstaFresh Juice”

Fruits and vegetables can play a role in weight management.
TRUE: Besides having vitamins and minerals that can help protect your health, many fruits and vegetables are lower in calories and higher in fiber than other foods. Studies have shown that when people eat more low-calorie foods, they naturally eat fewer high-calorie foods. That’s because people tend to eat similar amounts of food even when the calories in the food vary. As part of a healthy diet, eating fruits and vegetables instead of high-fat foods may make it easier to control your weight.

Green vegetables are the most nutritious.
FALSE: No one food contains all the nutrients your body needs. To get a healthy variety, think color. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors, including plenty of dark green vegetables, gives your body a wide range of nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C.

Fruits and vegetables are always more expensive than other foods.
FALSE: The USDA analyzed the prices of 154 different forms of fruits and vegetables and found that more than half cost less than 25 cents per serving. Compared to a candy bar, soda, or snack grab bag, fruits and veggies are a bargain. Based on 1999 A.C. Nielson Homescan data.

Fresh, frozen, canned, and dried varieties of fruits and vegetables all count toward your daily recommendation.
TRUE: No matter what the form ― fresh, frozen, canned, dried, juice ― all varieties of fruits and vegetables count toward your daily recommendation. Choose fruits without added sugar or syrups and vegetables without added salt, butter, or cream sauces. Although 100% fruit or vegetable juice counts toward your daily recommendation, the majority of the total daily amount of fruits and vegetables should come from whole fruits and vegetables to help you get enough fiber.

Preparing fruits and vegetables always takes too much time.
FALSE: With so many varieties to choose from, it’s easier than ever to eat more fruits and vegetables. Look for simple recipes that take only minutes to prepare. See reverse side for three great options. Or try whole fruits and vegetables. There are many varieties you can just rinse and eat.

* In addition to fruits and vegetables, a healthy diet also includes whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk products, lean meats, fish, beans, eggs and nuts, and is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars. A healthy diet also means staying within your daily calorie needs.

Eat Fruits an Vegetables with Color

Eat a colorful variety every day

You probably already know that a healthy diet includes a variety of fruits and vegetables. Most are lower in calories and higher in fiber than other foods. As part of a healthy diet, eating fruits and vegetables instead of high-fat foods may also make it easier to control your weight.

Compared to people who eat only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts — as part of a healthy diet — are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases. These diseases include stroke, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and perhaps heart disease and high blood pressure.

Find Your Balance

Becoming a healthier you isn’t just about eating healthy — it’s also about physical activity. Regular physical activity is important for your overall health and fitness.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

Adults should be physically active at a moderate intensity at least 30 minutes most days of the week.
To prevent weight gain, adults should be physically active at least at a moderate intensity approximately 60 minutes a day most days of the week while not exceeding caloric requirements.
Children and teenagers should be physically active for 60 minutes most days, or preferably all days of the week.
For even greater health benefits, increase the time or intensity of your activity.
get the most nutrition out of your calories

Consider this: if you use up your total daily calories on a few high-calorie items, chances are you won't get the full range of vitamins and nutrients your body needs to be healthy.

To get all the nutrients you need, without consuming too many calories, you should choose foods that are packed with nutrients, but lower in calories, from each of the food groups. These foods include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products.

To get a healthy variety, think color. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C. Some examples include green spinach, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, yellow corn, purple plums, red watermelon, or white onions. For more variety, try new fruits and vegetables regularly.

TAKE A HEALTHY BITE
Fruits and vegetables are great live whole food sources of many vitamins, minerals and other natural substances that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Some of these nutrients may also be found in other healthy foods. Eating a balanced diet and making other lifestyle changes are key to defending your body’s good health.

FIBER
Diets rich in dietary fiber have been shown to have a number of beneficial effects, including decreased risk of coronary heart disease.

Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
navy beans, kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, white beans, soybeans, split peas, chick peas, black eyed peas, lentils, artichokes

FOLATE*
Healthful diets with adequate folate may reduce a woman’s risk of having a child with a brain or spinal cord defect.

Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
black eyed peas, cooked spinach, great northern beans, asparagus

POTASSIUM
Diets rich in potassium may help to maintain a healthy blood pressure.
Good fruit and vegetable sources:
sweet potatoes, tomato paste, tomato puree, beet greens, white potatoes, white beans, lima beans, cooked greens, carrot juice, prune juice

VITAMIN A
Vitamin A keeps eyes and skin healthy and helps to protect against infections.
Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, collard greens, winter squash, cantaloupe, red peppers, Chinese cabbage

VITAMIN C
Vitamin C helps heal cuts and wounds and keeps teeth and gums healthy.
Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
red and green peppers, kiwi, strawberries, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, broccoli, pineapple, Brussels sprouts, oranges, mangoes, tomato juice, cauliflower * According to the Institute of Medicine, a daily intake of 400 μg/day of synthetic folic acid (from fortified foods or supplements in addition to food forms of folate from a varied diet) is recommended for women of childbearing age who may become pregnant.

Benefits of Carrots

All our lives we have been told to eat our carrots because they help improve our eyesight. Maybe you have wondered - what exactly is it about the carrot that is good for our eyes? That would be the beta-carotene. In addition to giving the carrot its name and orange color, it also converts to vitamin-A in the body which helps improve vision. The vitamin-A forms a purple pigment called rhodopsin the eye needs to see in dim light. Rhodopsin production is spurred by vitamin-A, raising the effectiveness of the light-sensitive area of the retina.

But that's not all that carrots can do for you. The beta-carotene in carrots is an antioxidant combating the free radicals that contribute to conditions like cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration. Medical studies conducted in Texas and
Chicago indicates that men with the high levels of beta-carotene and vitamin-C had a 37% lower risk of cancer than the men with lower levels. Carrots also contain another antioxidant called alpha-carotene. A study conducted in Bethesda, MD concluded that men who consume high amounts of alpha carotene have a lower incidence of lung cancer.

Cooking carrots actually raises the nutritional benefits. The fiber in carrots can trap the beta carotene, making it difficult for your body to extract. By cooking them slightly, you free the beta-carotene, from the fiber, which allows your body to absorb it better. Eating only a half-cup serving per day will give you more than the recommended dosage of beta-carotene. Remember, when you buy carrots raw at the store, you should cut off the leafy tops before storing for maximum vitamin retention. Getting your carrot-a-day is easy, considering the vegetable's versatility and “blendability”.

Carrots can subtlety enhance but do not overwhelm. Here are a few ideas.

Cook grated carrots with beans, split peas, lentils, rice, or pastas. Carrots are great in stuffing. Try them roasted - split large carrots lengthways and brush with a little olive oil then put on a roasting tray in a 400 degree (F) oven for about 45 minutes until tender and browned. Try roasted carrots, potato, sweet potato and pumpkin served with steamed green vegetables and a nice sauce.

Add to sauces, white or red. Grated carrots give body and impart subtle
flavor, and they fit any tomato or creamy soup, sauce, or casserole.

Mix finely-ground carrots into peanut butter for a new kind of healthy crunch. (If you want to make a really GOOD Peanut Butter & carrot sandwich, add a few slices of banana.)

Hot & Cold
Salads: Sauté onions, green peppers, and grated or finely
sliced carrots. Remove from heat and pour your preferred
salad vinegar over hot veggies. (It will hiss and steam.)
While hot, add to chilled salad greens. Toss and serve.

Herb and Vegetable Bread or Biscuits: To your regular dough, add
finely grated carrots; minced onion (dried flakes or fresh
green); parsley; garlic powder; sprinkle of basil and pinch
of oregano or sage. Top it all off with some dried or pesto
tomatoes and a few hearty shakes of parmesan cheese.

Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Scientists are suggesting that tomato lovers may be more likely to reduce the risk of serious disease. Lycopene, an anti oxidant which gives tomatoes their lovely rich red color, helps remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals are unstable oxygen molecules and have been implicated in cancer and other serious diseases.

Professor Michael Avirim of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel who is testing lycopene in clinical trials says, ' In its natural form, lycopene is an excellent anti oxidant that helps to prevent formation of oxidized LDL, the 'bad' cholesterol in blood, which contributes to the build up of plaque that narrows, stiffens and constricts arteries and can lead to heart attacks. When this natural extract was added to cancer cell cultures, the lycopene inhibited their growth. Lycopene is the most potent nutritional antioxidant found to date.

Another study compared men who had had a heart attack with the same number of healthy men and found that those with high levels of lycopene appeared to reduce their risk of heart diseases by 50%. The study’s coordinator, Lenore Kohlmeier, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the university of North Carolina, said, 'Based on our findings, and other research, lycopene can be an excellent antioxidant, we recommend that people eat tomato based cooked foods.

Several recent studies have shown that a diet rich in tomatoes and tomato products is strongly linked to a reduced risk of certain cancers. In a six year study of 48,000 male professionals, Dr Edward Giovannucci and colleagues at Harvard Medical School found that consuming tomatoes and tomato based products between five to seven serving a week was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer of 21% to 34%.

Another study published in the International Journal of Cancer said that lycopene appears to protect against cancer of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum. Researchers at the University of Illinois report that women with the highest lycopene levels had a five fold lower risk of developing precancerous signs of cervical cancer than women with lowest lycopene levels.

The human body does not produce lycopene alone and therefore relies on a consumption of tomatoes and tomato based products for this anti oxidant. Nutritionists and other health professionals have long advocated the cancer preventative benefits of a diet high in fruits and vegetables.

Lycopene: Just The Facts

Research by Dr. Joseph Levy and colleagues from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, may have identified the unique mechanism through which lycopene protects against cancer which is by activating cancer-preventive phase II enzymes. Lycopene is an open-chain unsaturated carotenoid that imparts red color to tomatoes. Lycopene is a proven anti-oxidant that may lower the risk of certain diseases including cancer and heart disease. In the body, lycopene is deposited in the liver, lungs, prostate gland, colon and skin. Its concentration in body tissues tends to be higher than all other carotenoids.

Epidemiological studies have shown that high intake of lycopene-containing vegetables is inversely associated with the incidence of certain types of cancer. For example, habitual intake of tomato products has been found to decrease the risk of cancer of the digestive tract among Italians.

In one six-year study by Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, the diets of more than 47,000 men were studied. Of 46 fruits and vegetables evaluated, only the tomato products (which contain large quantities of lycopene) showed a measurable relationship to reduce prostate cancer risk. As consumption of tomato products increased, levels of lycopene in the blood increased, and the risk for prostate cancer decreased. The study also showed that the heat processing of tomatoes and tomato products increases Lycopene bioavailability.

Ongoing research suggests that lycopene can reduce the risk of macular degenerative disease, serum lipid oxidation and cancers of the lung, bladder, cervix and skin.

Why More Fruits and Vegetables?

There is nothing better than fresh live whole foods for optimal nutrition. So eating fruits and vegetables is one of the tried and true recommendations for a healthy diet - and for good reasons. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.

What does "plenty" mean? More than most Americans consume. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

The largest and longest study to date, done as part of the Harvard-based Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, included almost 110,000 men and women whose health and dietary habits were followed for 14 years. The higher the average daily intake of fruits and vegetables, the lower the chances of developing cardiovascular disease.

Increasing fruit and vegetable intake by as little as one serving per day can have a real impact on heart disease risk. According to these two Harvard studies, for every extra serving of fruits and vegetables that participants added to their diets per day, their risk of heart disease dropped by 4 percent.

Fruits and vegetables are clearly an important part of a good diet. Almost everyone can benefit from eating more of them, but variety is as important as quantity. No single fruit or vegetable provides all of the nutrients you need to be healthy. The key lies in the variety of different fruits and vegetables that you eat.

My favorite URI International live whole foods are made from a wide variety of fruits and veggies! They are a very convenient way for you and your family to get plenty of fruits and veggies every day even if you have a busy lifestyle.