DIABETES

Watching Oprah's show on Diabetes with Doctor Oz last Wednesday 3rd Feb. was positively frightening and the frightening part was when they wheeled out how much sugar we consume in a year the difference between what we consume and what we used to consume......AMAZING!
Everything we eat now has sugar as long as it's processed.....
It also showed that we just eat for eating sake and poor black people are bearing the brunt of the attack eating processed, nutrition-less food.....nothing in it but junk and sugar so they are obese, hypertensive and have diabetes...Look around you,the other day I stood at the door of a supermarket one of these mega stores waiting on some pictures to be done (they sell nothing in there for me) and while I stood and people-watched I grew very sad and tears came to my eyes....Why?
People were so happily pushing out trolleys ladened with junk.....they had just spent thousands of dollars to make themselves sick and I guarantee if we interviewed all of them at last three quarters of them didn`t know that's what they are doing, it's just sad... only word for it SAD!
Those of you who have this disease please try and watch this show...GO ON OPRAH.COM AND FIND IT! IT'S THAT IMPORTANT.......

MANGOES FOR CANCER ?

IF THE ARTICLE I RECENTLY RECEIVED CLAIMING THAT MANGOES HAVE BEEN FOUND TO SAFELY STOP CANCER IS TRUE, A LOT OF US HERE IN JAMAICA ARE GOING TO BE VERY HAPPY !
My teachings is that when you are fighting cancer cells too much sweet fruit is NOT THE WAY TO GO.....but I guess as with all things moderation is the key. So take a read and maybe someone would like to do some more research to see if this is indeed true or just hype.

Mangoes have been found to prevent or stop certain colon and breast cancer cells in the lab, according to a study by Texas AgriLife Research food scientists, who examined the five varieties most common in the U.S.--Kent, Francine, Ataulfo, Tommy/Atkins and Haden. Though the mango is an ancient fruit heavily consumed in many parts of the world, little has been known about its health aspects. The National Mango Board commissioned a variety of studies with several U.S. researchers to help determine its nutritional value.
"If you look at what people currently perceive as a superfood, people think of high antioxidant capacity, and mango is not quite there," says Susanne and Steve Talcott, who conducted the study on cancer cells. "In comparison with antioxidants in blueberry, acai and pomegranate, it's not even close."
But the team checked mango against cancer cells anyway, and found it prevented or stopped cancer growth in certain breast and colon cell lines, Susanne Talcott notes.
"It has about four to five times less antioxidant capacity than an average wine grape, and it still holds up fairly well in anticancer activity. If you look at it from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking super food," she says. "It would be good to include mangoes as part of the regular diet."
The Talcotts tested mango polyphenol extracts in vitro on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancers. Polyphenols are natural substances in plants and are associated with a variety of compounds known to promote good health.
Mango showed some impact on lung, leukemia and prostate cancers, but it was most effective on the most common breast and colon cancers.
"What we found is that not all cell lines are sensitive to the same extent to an anticancer agent," she says. "But the breast and colon cancer lines underwent apotosis, or programmed cell death. Additionally, we found that when we tested normal colon cells side by side with the colon cancer cells, that the mango polyphenolics did not harm the normal cells."
The duo did further tests on the colon cancer lines because a mango contains both small molecules that are readily absorbed and larger molecules that would not be absorbed and thus remain present in a colon.
We found the normal cells weren't killed, so mango is not expected to be damaging in the body," she says. "That is a general observation for any natural agent, that they target cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone, in reasonable concentrations at least."
The Talcotts evaluated polyphenolics, and more specifically gallotannins, as being the class of bioactive compounds (responsible for preventing or stopping cancer cells). Tannins are polyphenols that are often bitter or drying and found in such common foods as grape seed, wine and tea.
The study found that the cell cycle, which is the division cells go through, was interrupted. This is crucial information, Suzanne Talcott says, because it indicates a possible mechanism for how the cancer cells are prevented or stopped.
"For cells that may be on the verge of mutating or being damaged, mango polyphenolics prevent this kind of damage," she says.
The Talcotts hope to do a small clinical trial with individuals who have increased inflammation in their intestines with a higher risk for cancer.
"From there, if there is any proven efficacy, then we would do a larger trial to see if there is any clinical relevance," she says.
Source: Texas AgriLife Research

I WILL GLADLY VOLUNTEER FOR THAT TRIAL..........

Frederic's most important health principles

Here are the Top 10 Most Important Health Principles from Frederic Patenaude....He is who got me excited about raw food! His videos and recipes gave my son the info to place me on the road to health.......take note of his comments about dental health........raw food people eat so much dates and raisins that they MUST clean their teeth constantly as these foods stick to teeth!

I prefer to look at health in terms of principles to follow. Here are the main ones that make the most difference:
1.Eat low-fat — This one took me a long time to understand. At first, I understood that it was important to “not eat too many nuts”, but the low-fat concept took longer to be incorporated. It’s a key principle. Most people eat an overly high-fat diet. For ideal results, keep the percentage of your diet below 15%, and ideally below 10%.
2.Create demand by exercising — Whenever I don’t exercise for several days or weeks in a row, I start feeling like a caged animal. To quote from an article from Parade magazine, by Dr. Henry S. Lodge:“The hard reality of our biology is that we are built to move. Exercise is the master signaling system that tells our cells to grow instead of fade. When we exercise, that process of growth spreads throughout every cell in our bodies, making us functionally younger. Not a little bit younger—a lot younger. True biological aging is a surprisingly slow and graceful process. You can live out your life in a powerful, healthy body if you are willing to put in the work. (…)
Though we’ve moved indoors and left that life behind, our cells still think we’re living out on the savannah, struggling to stay alive each day. There are no microwaves or supermarkets in nature. If you want to eat, you have to hunt or forage every single day. That movement is a signal that it’s time to grow. So, when you exercise, your muscles release specific substances that travel throughout your bloodstream, telling your cells to grow. Sedentary muscles, on the other hand, let out a steady trickle of chemicals that whisper to every cell to decay, day after day after day.
3.Listen to your body and fast when necessary — One of the best things you can do when you feel a bit “out of it” is to skip a couple of meals. It’s amazing how quickly our good mood comes back with a little fasting. You just have to pay attention to your body and avoid eating when you’re really not hungry — but just have an appetite for something.
4.Avoid stimulants — Stimulants are a double edged sword. On the one hand, they appear to give you energy. But on the other hand, that energy is only borrowed, and you have to pay it back later, with interest to boot. The most common culprits are caffeine and Theo bromine (in cacao).
5.Fruits and vegetables are our natural foods — I don’t like the “raw is law” principles. Most raw-foodists have an extremely unhealthy diet because all they try to do is eat raw-foods and avoid cooked foods. A lot of raw foods commonly consumed — such as cacao products, raw cakes with coconut oil, nut bars, and many others — are not really healthy. What we’re designed to eat are fruits and vegetables. Eat only raw fruits and vegetables, and you will be very healthy.
6.Follow a strict dental hygiene routine — I used to think that diet was the most important factor in dental health. I thought that if you have a good diet, your teeth would be healthy. Years later (and 30+ cavities repaired), after lots of research, I understand that this disease called dental decay is actually contagious. It’s a war against bacteria. The bacteria will feed on anything: sugar, carbohydrates, morsels of food stuck in the teeth. If you try to win the battle with food, you will lose.You have to eliminate the problem at the root: by keeping the bacteria to a level where they cannot do much damage. The way to do this is to have a very precise and disciplined hygiene routine. For me, it means 4 minutes of brushing (in a certain pattern) with an electric toothbrush after dinner, followed by flossing, tongue scraping and water irrigation with my VitaJet.
Then I also brush in the morning and before or after lunch. The good thing is once you’ve been able to keep your bacteria level very low for a long time, plaque no longer accumulates. Then if you get lazy one day and don’t brush, the bacteria won’t really be able to do any damage. The problem is when someone has had any problem with their teeth — a standard form of dental hygiene is simply not enough to eliminate the problem at the root.
7.Keep your body hydrated — You need more water in hotter weather, and less in cold climates. It’s very hard to trust our sense of thirst to guide us. The best thing is to actually make a habit of drinking extra water when you think you’ll need it. In the tropics, I have to drink at least 1 or 2 extra liters of water every day. A good habit is to start the day with one liter of water with some lemon juice.
8.Keep your body alkaline — It’s very simple: fruits and vegetables make your body alkaline. Most nuts and grains are acid-forming. Animal products are the most acid-forming of all. To keep healthy bones and low-levels of inflammation in the body, eat alkaline foods at least 90% of the time.
9.Get the right amount of sleep you need — There are different opinions on sleep. Natural hygiene generally recommends sleeping as much as possible. However, it’s also possible to get too much sleep. It’s been found that the one thing all depressed people have in common is getting too much sleep. As soon as they put the alarm clock back on, a large percentage of these depressions go away.
So to me, it’s more a matter of finding the right amount of sleep. I found that in my twenties, I needed more sleep. I could not do well if I got less than 9 or 10 hours of sleep every day. Now at 33, I find that I need less sleep. I also function better on the days I don’t get enough sleep. I do well now with 7 to 9 hours of sleep, depending on my activities for the day. More than 9 hours makes me feel a bit “comatic”, so I avoid oversleeping as well.
10.Eat some blended greens — Eating some greens will make a big difference in your health. But more if you can actually assimilate them. Try to consume some greens in a blended form: either in a blended salad (or Veggie Stew) or as a green smoothie. Once a day, a big bowl or tall glass is about what we need.

GRAMMYS

WOW so many things happening. I thought I was at cirque du soleil with Pink's performance last night.......Performance Art at its highest.... I must have missed where the water came from??
Taylor Swift - album of the year!!!!! she couldn`t harmonize with Stevie Nicks and that's the future of music???
I keep playing Justine Timberlake's performance from the Haiti telethon - just two men singing how nice and so rare these days...... and BY THE WAY SPEND THE $7:99 AND DOWNLOAD THAT ALBUM TO HELP HAITI WORTH IT AND MORE!
Back on the rock great things are happening on the music scene it's not all fake, fake hair, fake music, lots of smokescreens and costumes and we don`t even know what we are seeing...NO!! Our JAZZFEST went off with oldies but goodies like Gladys Knight, Hall and Oates, Babyface, Maxie Priest singing with live bands no tracks. Music you can feel .... even a group called the Whispers I`m sure most of you never heard of them, yes they were there .....We had Roy Ayers playing the xylophone..anybody know what that is anymore? Makes great music. It was wonderful! Relative newcomer Joss Stone a young woman singing real music was great too.......
All I have to say is thank God for Michael Jackson's tribute at the Grammy's with the little girl and the butterfly in the video clip playing in the background while singers sang real music...He was the master of performance art and none of his music was "covers' like what most of the so-called singers of today do as he had talent!
MISS YOU MIKE!

LAUGHING /HUGGING /LOVING - GREAT MEDICINE!

They say laughter heals the worried beast(breast).
Why are you worrying?
If you can change something you don`t need to worry and if you can`t change it you worst don`t need to worry...plus most of us are worrying over things that have nothing to do with us.... for example a lot of us worry over our children's problems which we can do nothing about!
We worry about our spouses and their trials that they alone can solve....we need to get over it and get along with our lives!
We need to laugh more as Mac Anderson from 'Simple Truths' tells us to do in Laughter is an instant vacation.
Mary Manin Morrisey just had a 'National hug someone' day ...when my son was a baby, my husband who is a psychiatrist and not a hugger used to tell me I should hug my son at least 4 times a day if not more as children who get lots of hugs grow up to be loving people.... He was preaching to the converted as I used to hug this child and kiss him from birth as I had never seen a more fabulous child (don`t we all think that?) he being cute and fat certainly helped until said husband used to say " you don`t have to overdo it" but I`m here to tell you as a child growing up in a beauty salon with lots of 'aunts' adding to the hugging ,today my son is a hugger and a loving man...his daughter is hugged and kissed non-stop so I have passed that one on!
And by the way love triggers hormonal changes in your body that have a profound impact on your health ...Yes you can truly die from a broken heart!
If you were not healed from laughing and hugging today , it felt good trying didn`t it? I know for sure you enjoyed feeling the LOVE.
These things do work....as Johnny Coleman would say "IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT"

TURMERIC

I get interesting articles all the while and as I think that our fight begins with us being informed I have to pass them on and leave you to assess the pros and the cons then decide! The following AICR story :"Can Curry Kill Cancer Cells?" provides much "food' for thought - there is no doubt that spices are good for us and if cayenne pepper is the king of herbs then turmeric must be the queen of spices....no harm eating this full-of-flavour spice while they continue to check just how powerful it is and exactly what it does for us.

New headlines tout the anti-cancer potential of curcumin. Is there a savior in your spice rack? You may have seen some recent headlines touting the ability of curcumin to inhibit stomach cancer in the lab. (Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice turmeric, which lends curry its distinctive yellow color.)
These new findings with stomach cancer cells are only the latest to suggest that this hotly studied spice may possess anti-cancer potential. AICR has funded several grants involving curcumin; in these and other studies, curcumin seems to reduce the formation and growth of breast and colon cancer cells.
The laboratory evidence is impressive. However, we still know relatively little about curcumin’s effect in humans. In some laboratory studies, benefits are only seen from amounts of curcumin that far exceed the quarter-teaspoon of turmeric typically found in a serving of curry dishes.
Using modest amounts of turmeric, as is the tradition in Indian and North African cooking, is safe for most adults. Using large amounts might have some negative effects, from mild stomach upset to disturbing liver function or exacerbating existing gallbladder disease; we clearly need more research on this.
Recently, some studies have suggested that curcumin could have synergistic effects with compounds in onions or cruciferous vegetables. If borne out by further research, it’s possible that relatively small amounts could prove to exert important protective effects.
All Curry Powders are Not Alike
Although curcumin content will vary from one batch of the spice to another, the curcumin content of curry powder is even more variable, because curry powder is not just one spice, but a mixture of turmeric, cumin, fenugreek and other spices.
But whatever its potential anti-cancer power, turmeric provides flavor and color. You might consider adding a little extra turmeric when cooking, even if you start with a commercial curry powder as your base.

So what do I do ? I use straight turmeric! And remember when you are using curry don`t forget the cummin......

Thoughts on Haiti

This natural disaster in Haiti has given me a lot to think about. Could I survive 7 days without food and water? An 84 year old just did!
Am I spiritually tuned to know to stay calm and let go and let God knowing that there is a bigger plan than the one I can see in front of me...sitting with a broken bone could I bear the pain? Would I say yes, free me by cutting off my leg without an anesthetic.....could I watch my 4 year old slipping in and out of consciousness due to a head injury while doctors tell me he needs surgery to survive but there is no neurosurgeon around but I hear help has arrived....
Everyday it goes on and on and I think yes this is the day it will be better but it gets worse.
I honestly believe there are hundreds of people under the rubble that the dogs can`t sniff and the rescue workers can't hear. How does it feel to be tombed alive?
For somebody who eats like me, could I eat chemical rations when I know it's going to make me violently sick and there are no bathrooms. Did fruit shake off the trees -are any fruit trees left? I don`t see any.... would I have the strength to walk to other towns that look greener hoping to find a fruit or a vegetable? Port-Au-Prince is not Haiti folks,its only the Capital!
Have we all gotten the lesson?
The Jewel of the Caribbean - the first Black nation to be granted Independence reduced to rubble because of years of corruption and neglect.....yes all who kotched up 'Baby Doc'and his father before him...when you watch your TV now do you feel? Are you comfortable in your skin or because they are black it doesn't matter? John Maxwell's piece in last Sunday's Observer No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain! is a history lesson for anyone who cares to know the truth about how Haiti became one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere.
We in Jamaica need to reflect on how corruption has taken hold in our society - have you noticed the absence of steel in the 5 story buildings in Haiti? One announcer this morning said although the earthquake that hit Cayman was not as strong they have better building codes anyway. I remember when I was building my house, at each stage a man would come from the parish council to make sure I had enough steel etc. in it before I could continue. That doesn`t happen again. You now pay a man at the parish council and build what you want, how you want, with what you want!
We all need to remember the good old Jamaican saying and "Tek Sleep Mark Death!"