Eating fruits and vegetables can starve cancer

According to Dr. William Li, a regular diet of red grapes, strawberries, soy beans, parsley, garlic, cooked tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables can starve cancer of blood supply. Watching this 20-minute video might change your life or the life of someone you love.

Dr. Li also cites research by the Harvard School of Public Health by Dr. Lorelei Mucci of 79,000 men: "Men who consume 2-3 servings of cooked tomatoes per week have a reduced risk for developing prostrate cancer by 40-50%."

Eat your fruits and veggies!



Complementary Medicine | Natural Health | Nutrition | Herbal Supplements | Nutritional Supplements | Dr. David Ross, ND, CNHP | DrDavidRoss.com

Drinking hibiscus tea lowers blood pressure, study shows

Drinking herbal tea has always been good for you, and now the American Heart Association is saying so, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) website.

Drinking hibiscus tea lowered blood pressure in a group of pre-hypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults, according to a report recently presented by nutrition scientist Diane McKay at the American Heart Association's annual conference in New Orleans, La. Hypertension is a condition in which blood pressure is chronically high, and it affects one-third of all U.S. adults.

Those who drank hibiscus tea had a 7.2 point drop in their systolic blood pressure, compared to a 1.3 point drop in the volunteers who drank the placebo beverage.

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An apple a day really can keep the doctor away

Apples have over 300 naturally occurring compounds in them, including polyphenols that can "mop up" free radicals. Free radicals are molecular fragments produced when we breathe oxygen that can lead to cell damage, including heart disease and cancer.

Dampen those free radicals with antioxidants... vitamins and polyphenols found in abundance in apples.

Even one apple a day provides enough antioxidants to reduce tumor development, a recent study at Cornell University discovered.

An apple a day apparently really can keep the doctor away!

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Vitamin D, cardiovascular disease, obesity

• Turn to the sun for help in protecting your heart. A new study found a significant association between low levels of vitamin D in the body and risk factors for cardiovascular disease. While smaller studies found similar findings, this was the first large-scale study to validate the link between vitamin D and cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D is produced by the body with exposure to sunlight, but it can also be found in fortified foods such as milk and soy milk, as well as in fish liver oils and supplements.



• A report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute states that consuming more cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower, could lower a man's risk of developing agreesive prostate cancer.



• Who are you spending time with? A shocking study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that a major factor determining people's chances of becoming obese is their social networks. It was found that in spousal relationships, if one partner became obese, the other partner was 37 percent more likely to also become obese. The risk dramatically rises in friendships — from 57 percent up to 171 percent. This new evidence of how our relationships affect us physically may sound scary, but if viewed from the other side it could be quite beneficial. Workout partners and diet buddies can be very useful when trying to get in shape.



• To cook or not to cook. It's long been believed that raw vegetables contain more nutrients than cooked ones, but the latest in a growing collection of research is suggesting that this many not always be true. Scientists in Italy found that cooking some vegetables may actually release key nutrients, making them more bioavailable. The study concluded that it might be possible to find a cooking method for each vegetable that best preserves or increases its nutrtional value.

— From The Art of Growing Young magazine, May/June 2008

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Homeopathy: Like cures like

I found a nice, concise, easy-to-understand article today about homeopathy on a blog called Watersana.

The blog describes itself as being "about healthy living, staying green, and doing your part!"

Check it out.

Image: Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the founder of homeopathy.


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Natural solutions for the common cold

Registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer was recently interviewed by MSNBC's iVillage, and was asked how best to prevent and deal with the common cold. You can read the entire article here.

Here is Ms. Somer's quick summary:

To avoid a cold:

• Eat eight or more colorful fruits and vegetables every day


• Cut back on saturated fat


• Consider taking extra vitamins C and E

Once you’re sniffling:

• Boost vitamin C and possibly zinc


• Eat more garlic


• Consider certain herbs, such as echinacea and goldenseal


• Drink lots of water and eat lots of homemade chicken-and-vegetable soup


• Diet is one part of the anti-cold battle. Also remember to keep stress at bay, exercise daily and moderately, wash your hands frequently (the cold virus can live on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours, so it's not just immediate contact with a sniffler that can do you in), get enough sleep... and don’t smoke. Finally, if your cold has not abated within a week, check with your doctor to make sure you haven't developed a secondary bacterial infection.

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Antioxidants absorbed at different rates, levels

New details about the antioxidant power of more than a half-dozen fruits have emerged from studies led by an antioxidants expert based at the ARS Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, Little Rock, Ark. (Journal of the American College of Nutrition, volume 26, pages 170 to 181).

Antioxidants — color-imparting compounds in fruits and veggies — are thought to stall aging, ward off disease and reduce the harmful effects of molecules known as oxygen free radicals.

Researchers measured blood (plasma) antioxidant capacity, or AOC, of volunteers shortly after these healthy women, age 18 to 70, had eaten blueberries, cherries or dried plums, or had downed 10.6 ounces of dried-plum juice. Analysis of the samples confirmed that antioxidants in some foods apparently are easier to absorb and use than others. Dried plums, for instance, did not raise volunteers' plasma AOC levels, perhaps because one of plums' most plentiful antioxidants—chlorogenic acid—isn't readily absorbed, or is readily degraded, by our bodies.

Though grapes and kiwi both led to noticeable spikes in plasma AOC, scientists haven't yet pinpointed which antioxidants were responsible for the increases.

Further research may help establish national guidelines that indicate the kinds and amounts of antioxidants we need for optimal health.

— Reprinted from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's "Food and Nutrition Briefs," July 2007

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