Avocados Have Health Benefits

Avocados were once a luxury food reserved for the tables of royalty but now avocados are enjoyed around the world by people from all walks of life.

Research published in the January 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry indicates that nutrients in avocados can work together to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells. The analysis was conducted at UCLA where researchers discovered that avocados are the richest source of lutein among commonly eaten fruits. Lutein is a carotenoid that acts as an antioxidant and has been linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer in previous studies.

According to Dr. David Heber, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, the study focused on inhibition of human prostate cancer cell growth when exposed to an extract of whole avocado fruit versus treatment with pure lutein. UCLA lab tests showed that when avocado extract was added to two types of prostate cancer cells, cell growth was inhibited by up to 60%, whereas purified lutein alone was ineffective.

In other words, when a single nutrient, lutein, was extracted from avocados it did not offer the same anti-cancer results as the whole avocado extract. Dr. Heber commented: "What's really exciting about this study is that the results indicate that the carotenoids, vitamins, and diverse compounds in avocados might have additive or synergistic effects against prostate cancer compared with pure lutein alone”.

In this story as it is in others, it seems to be that whole foods in their original whole form, offer the best nutrition possible for the human body.

Is Your Health At Risk?

When it comes to safeguarding your health – sometimes, the most important information of all has to come from you.

The Harvard School of Public Health has added a wonderful health tool to their website. This easy interactive tool allows you to determine your risk level with respect to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and stroke.

Within a matter of minutes you can know exactly where you stand. You can rest easy if your risk is low and you’ll know what to do if your risk is elevated. Many of the questions have to do with your diet – they will ask how many servings of fruits, veggies, and whole grains that you eat per day – so here’s something to keep in mind.

URI International Whole foods are very dense in nutrition. Every scoop of our live whole food based "InstaFresh Juice" called "The Feast" provides 1000’s of naturally occurring nutritional compounds from concentrated whole foods and 70+ nutrient dense concentrates from fresh live whole foods.

As you are using this tool it is important to be honest with yourself – it’s completely private and confidential. If you are at low risk, then you deserve to know and to have that wonderful, healthful feeling of comfort. If you are at an elevated risk, then you’ll be offered some good ideas and practical tips on how to lower your risk with healthy lifestyle changes.

Here’s the link to the Harvard website: www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu

Rice Made From Human Genes

No, this is not the plant version of Frankenstein. This is another Genetic Modification of a plant to save the world without a total realization of the potential consequences. I am not sure we should use our farms and crops to become a living drug factory derived from our whole food supply. We already know how cross pollination can mess things up. I may be a pessimist but I do not want to be exposed to a natural whole food drug overdose from eating crops that were accidentally cross pollinated but we did not know it.

They are even researching, testing and introducing human genes, pesticides, viruses, drugs, and vaccines into seeds. Find out more here

I prefer going back to the basics with better convenient organic superfoods. URI International developed a proprietary no heat dehydrating process that converts live whole foods and fresh raw juices into nutrient dense, great tasting, instant, all natural juice powders. Try a sample

Ways to Eat More Fruits and Veggies

You probably already know that a healthy diet includes a moderate quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables. They are a good source of vitamins and minerals. Many fruits and vegetables are lower in calories and higher in fiber than other foods we eat. Eating fruits and vegetables instead of high-fat or high-calorie foods may make it easier to control your weight.

Are you to busy? You can save time, save money, or both as you strive to eat more fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.

Here is a Tip: There is a new and convenient way to get your daily fruits and vegetables. Live Whole Food Based “InstaFresh Juice”

Save Time

• Pick fruits or veggies that require little peeling or chopping, such as baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, or grapes.
• Prepare extra vegetables and freeze leftovers for quick sides. Simply heat to 165ºF and serve.
• Choose ready-packed salad greens from the produce shelf for a quick salad any time.
• Visit the salad bar for pre-cut veggies to top salads, sandwiches, or pasta.

Save Money
• Take advantage of in-store promotions and purchase fresh fruits and vegetables in season, when they are generally less expensive.
• Prevent food waste by properly storing produce and selecting the type and amount you will consume.
• Buy in bulk. Freeze excess, or purchase frozen, canned, or dried varieties that keep longer.
• Shop the local farmer’s market or visit nearby farms and pick your own fresh produce while in season.

Save Time and Money
• Plan meals ahead and create a shopping list to help minimize impulse purchases.
• Buy in bulk and prepare extra or larger amounts. Freeze individual or family-size portions for later use.
• Make vegetable-based one-pot meals using beans or soy or other beans instead of higher cost protein sources, such as meat, fish, or poultry. One-pot meals also reduce the number of pans and other utensils that must be washed, saving you time.
• Keep it simple. Choose quick and easy recipes with few ingredients that use in-season, canned, frozen, or dried fruits and vegetables.

Click here for Live Whole Food Based “InstaFresh Juice”

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.

Chocolate Lovers Health Delight

Some “chocoholics” who just couldn’t give up their favorite treat have inadvertently done their fellow chocolate lovers - and science - a big favor.

A recent study at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was focused on blood platelets and blood clots. The study participants, some of whom were fond of eating chocolate, were given a list of foods to avoid – the list included chocolate. It seems that some of them ended up indulging their cravings for chocolate during the study.

Amazingly, their indulgence led to researchers to an important discovery which is believed to be the first of its kind. Through biochemical analysis, the researchers are now able to explain why just a few squares of chocolate a day can reduce the risk of heart attack death in some men and women by almost 50%. It turns out that the chocolate decreases the tendency of platelets to clot in narrow blood vessels.

“What these chocolate ‘offenders’ taught us is that the chemical in cocoa beans has a biochemical effect similar to aspirin in reducing platelet clumping, which can be fatal if a clot forms and blocks a blood vessel, causing a heart attack,” says Diane Becker, M.P.H., Sc.D., a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Becker cautions that her work is not intended as a prescription to gobble up large amounts of chocolate candy, which often contains diet-busting amounts of sugar, butter and cream. But as little as 2 tablespoons a day of dark chocolate - the purest form of the candy, made from the dried extract of roasted cocoa beans - may be just what the doctor ordered.

Cinnamon - A Spice and a Medicine!

The use of Cinnamon as a spice and as a medicine dates back to 2000 BC. There are two types of Cinnamon which are known to as Chinese Cinnamon and Ceylon Cinnamon. While they have a similar flavor, Ceylon Cinnamon is a bit sweeter and is considered be of a more refined and higher quality.

Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, a new study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problem but are unaware of it.

The discovery was initially made by accident, by Richard Anderson at the US Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. "We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar; one was the American favorite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. We expected it to be bad. But it helped," he says.

The active ingredient in cinnamon turned out to be a water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. In test tube experiments, MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin in cells.

To see if it would work in people, Alam Khan, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Anderson's lab, organized a study in Pakistan. Volunteers with Type 2 diabetes were given one, three or six grams of cinnamon powder a day, in capsules after meals.

All responded within weeks, with blood sugar levels that were on average 20 per cent lower than a control group. Some even achieved normal blood sugar levels. Tellingly, blood sugar started creeping up again after the diabetics stopped taking cinnamon.

In the volunteers, the Cinnamon also lowered blood levels of fats and "bad" cholesterol, which are also partly controlled by insulin. And in test tube experiments it neutralized free radicals, damaging chemicals which are elevated in diabetics.

Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida.

In a study, published in the August 2003 issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, the addition of just a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to approximately 3 ounces of carrot broth, which was then refrigerated, inhibited the growth of the food borne pathogenic Bacillus cereus for at least 60 days. When the broth was refrigerated without the addition of cinnamon oil, the pathogenic B. cereus flourished despite the cold temperature. In addition, researchers noted that the addition of cinnamon not only acted as an effective preservative but improved the flavor of the broth.

Research led by Dr. P. Zoladz and presented April 24, 2004, at the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, in Sarasota, FL, found that chewing cinnamon flavored gum or just smelling cinnamon enhanced study participants' cognitive processing. Specifically, cinnamon improved participants' scores on attention related processes, virtual recognition memory, working memory, and visual-motor speed while working on a computer-based program.

(Hint: simmer a few cinnamon sticks in water while your kids are doing their homework – this will also serve as wonderful yet non-toxic air freshener for your home)

In addition to the active components in its essential oils and its nutrient composition, cinnamon has also been valued in energy-based medical systems, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, for its warming qualities. In these traditions, cinnamon has been used to provide relief when faced with the onset of a cold or flu, especially when mixed in a tea with some fresh ginger.

Benefits of Almonds

"Almonds are a wonderful Whole Food and science has recently discovered the benefits of eating them in their whole form. Recent research reveals that the flavonoids in almond skin works synergistically the vitamin E found in almonds. This synergistic combination creates more than 200% the antioxidant power of the almonds and almond skins when separated.

We have identified a unique combination of flavonoids in almonds," said Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., senior scientist and director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University. "Further blood tests demonstrated that eating almonds with their skins significantly increases both flavonoids and vitamin E in the body. This could have significant health implications, especially as people age."

Blumberg's team tested the effects of almond skin's flavonoids alone and then in combination with the vitamin E found in almonds. The tests were done on blood samples containing LDL cholesterol. While almond skin flavonoids alone enhanced LDL's resistance to oxidation by 18%, when the almond’s vitamin E was added, LDL's resistance to oxidation was extended by 52.5%!

"The synergy between the flavonoids and vitamin E in almonds demonstrates how the nutrients in whole foods such as almonds can impact health," says Dr. Blumberg.

Benefit of 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.