Whole Foods Provide Nutritional Balance

Every day thousands of individuals walk the vitamin aisles of health food stores baffled by the hundreds of choices of bottles of pills and tablets on the shelves. Then a more difficult challenge arises. Most hard and difficult-to-swallow pills are only absorbed between 10% and 20% because our stomach was not designed to digest rocks and indigestible binders. The remainder of the so called nutritional pills are filtered out of the body by the kidneys and the liver and they can be found in abundant supply in the nation's sewer plants.

Is it time you stop wasting your hard earned money on vitamin pills, mineral pills and capsules? Join the hundreds of thousands of other health like minded individuals that are becoming more determined to receive the health benefits of eating live whole foods that provide nutrition to the body in natures perfect balance the way it was intended.

If your lifestyle prevents you for eating whole food in adequate quantities, there are now real live whole foods on the market that are a convenient intelligent alternative. Find out more.

Live Whole Food Based Super Foods

By the year 2025, REAL nutrition will come from live, whole food based "super foods". These remarkable super foods will be delicious and will provide a wide variety of live whole foods in adequate quantities. These super foods will come from the purest sources possible, will be an incredible value and will be convenient to use. The good news is you do not wait because the future is here now.

This exciting NEW, Cutting Edge breakthrough, guarantees you REAL nutrition that your body needs and recognizes from whole food vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Even better, it is all without fistfuls of expensive pills or supplements, without messy juicers, without endless peeling, without chopping or cooking of fruits and vegetables or without yucky tasting "green" drinks.

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.

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.

Understand Dietary Fiber

You don't usually see it or taste it, but fiber works wonders for your body. Dietary fiber, or roughage, is a known cancer fighter found only in the cell walls of plant foods. For years, studies have pointed to the fact that increased fiber intake decreases the risk of colorectal cancer.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1999), this protective effect may be due to fiber's tendency to add bulk to your digestive system, shortening the amount of time that wastes travel through the colon. As this waste often contains carcinogens, it is best if it is removed as quickly as possible; so, increased fiber decreases chances for intestinal cells to be affected.

The Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1999) reported that Fiber may also help protect against breast cancer, an effect noted especially with consumption of whole grains and wheat bran. Additionally, studies suggest that high amounts of fiber may also prevent breast cancer by binding to estrogen. When bacteria in the lower intestine break down fiber, a substance called butyrate is produced which may inhibit the growth of tumors of the colon and rectum as reported in the Journal of Oncology Research in 2000. Fiber may also have a protective effect against mouth, throat, and esophageal cancers according to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer in 2001.

If you're like most North Americans, you take in only 10 to 15 grams of fiber per day. However, most studies have shown that optimal intake for cancer prevention is at least 30 to 35 grams per day. Recent studies suggest that small increases in fiber, such as adding vegetables to a chicken stir-fry or having a hamburger on a whole wheat bun, do not offer much protection. On the other hand, when we replace high-fat, animal products such as chicken, fish, cheese, and eggs with plant foods, we easily boost fiber to levels where real protection is possible.

Whole foods contain two types of dietary fiber which are known as soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and is found in a variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains. It cuts cholesterol and adds to your feeling of fullness. Good sources of soluble fiber are oats, oat bran, oatmeal, apples, citrus fruits, strawberries, dried beans, barley, rye flour, potatoes, raw cabbage, and pasta.

As you may have guessed, insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water and is found in whole grain brans, fruit pulp, and vegetable peels and skins. It is the type of fiber most strongly linked to cancer protection and improved waste removal. Good sources of insoluble fiber are wheat bran, whole wheat products, cereals made from bran or shredded wheat, crunchy vegetables, barley, grains, whole wheat pasta, and rye flour.

It is best to choose fiber-rich foods over fiber supplements in order to get the full range of the cancer-fighting phytochemicals that fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains contain. Wholefood Farmacy foods offer you a convenient and delicious way to enjoy whole grains each and every day.

Understand Whole Grains

Whole Grains are the seeds of plants that belong to the grass family. This seed, also known as the kernel, is made up of three key parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.

A whole grain can be a single food, such as oatmeal, brown rice, barley, or popcorn, or an ingredient in another food such as bread or cereal. Whole grains include whole wheat, whole oats/oatmeal, whole-grain corn, popcorn, brown rice, whole rye, whole-grain barley, wild rice, buckwheat, bulgur (cracked wheat), millet, quinoa, and sorghum. Other less common whole grains include amaranth, emmer, farro, grano (lightly pearled wheat), spelt, and wheat berries.

Recent research reported in the May 2007 issue of the online journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, shows that Americans should eat more whole grains like oatmeal, barley and brown rice to help lower their risk of clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes, according to researchers. The study's lead author, Dr. Philip B Mellen, of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina commented: "Many consumers and health professionals are not aware of the health benefits of whole grains".

In a review of seven major studies, the researchers found that higher whole grain intake was consistently linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. On average, adults who ate 2.5 servings of whole grains per day were nearly one-quarter less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than their peers who rarely consumed whole grains. Whole grains are believed to benefit the heart in a number of ways. The fiber and other nutrients in whole grains may help lower cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as improve blood vessel functioning and reduce inflammation in the circulatory system. Yet, surveys show that few Americans get the recommended three servings of whole grains per day, according to the authors of the new study. More than 40 percent of U.S. adults say they eat no whole grains at all.

The Wholefood Farmacy is proud to offer a wide variety of delicious, convenient meals and snacks that are rich in whole grains. Phi Plus, Cranberry Phi, Coco Cherry Phi are rich in whole grains. Our line of Farinas are all handcrafted using our custom whole grain blend that includes Cracked Wheat, Rye, Oats, Millet, Bulgur Wheat Brown Rice, and Quinoa.

Use Ginger More Often

Ginger can kill ovarian cancer cells while the compound that makes peppers hot can shrink pancreatic tumors, researchers told a conference. Their studies add to a growing body of evidence that at least some popular spices might slow or prevent the growth of cancer.

Dr. Rebecca Liu, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues tested ginger powder dissolved in solution by putting it on ovarian cancer cell cultures. It killed the ovarian cancer cells in two different ways. First, through a self-destruction process called apoptosis and second, through the process of autophagy in which cancer cells digest themselves, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Ovarian cancer kills 16,000 out of the 22,000 U.S. women who are diagnosed with it every year, according to the American Cancer Society. Ginger has been shown to help control inflammation, which can contribute to the development of ovarian cancer cells.

“In multiple ovarian cancer cell lines, we found that ginger-induced cell death at a similar or better rate than the platinum-based chemotherapy drugs typically used to treat ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Jennifer Rhode, who helped work on the study.

Ginger mint dressing is great on salads, great for tossing with steamed veggies or drizzling over fresh veggies!

The Need For Organic Foods!

It should not be surprising that chemicals strong enough to kill insects and plant infections can be harmful to the human body and environment. There are literally hundreds of permitted pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, hormones, antibiotics and other chemical additives present in non-organic food, not to mention food additives and flavourings introduced after cultivation and in food processing. All important reasons for eating organic whole food.

Over 3,000 high-risk toxins are present in the US food supply, which by law are excluded from organic food. These include 73 pesticides classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as potential carcinogens. Pesticides also leak into the water supply - for example, a 1996 study by the Environmental Working Group found 96 per cent of all water samples taken from 748 towns across the US contained the pesticide atrazine.

Toxic metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury enter the food supply through industrial pollution of soil and groundwater and through machinery used in the processing and packaging of foods. For example, lead solder used to seal tin cans imparts residue into the food, despite the adversity to health. Cadmium has links with lung, prostate and testicular cancer and mercury is toxic to brain cells and has been linked to autism and Alzheimer's disease. Heavy metals damage nerve function, block haemoglobin production causing anaemia and contribute to lower IQ and diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Organic food safe-guards against toxic metals.

Solvents are also used in commercially processed foods which can damage white blood cells, lowering immune defense. Further, the solvents benzene and toluene, have known links with numerous cancers. Produce imported from developing countries may contain agrochemicals that have been outlawed in developed countries.