3 SUPER FOODS

When it comes to fighting and REVERSING premature aging there are 3 super foods. In the case of the first, you need a good quality supplement that gives you massive doses of the ingredients it contains or you risk becoming a drunk!!
1.Red Wine
Not the red wine per say but the resveratrol in it.....resveratrol has extended the life span of every organism its so far been fed to.
2.Dark chocolate
But that doesn't mean you can eat chocolate bars all day!
The real benefit of chocolate comes from the extremely high level of antioxidants found inside the active components. In fact,a Harvard study reviewed 136 scientific articles published between 1996 and 2005 on chocolate and its ingredients. Their analysis found that eating 50 grams of dark chocolate per day may reduce the risk of heart disease by 10.5%. Plus, dark chocolate contains antioxidants universally praised for their ability to fight off free radical damage (which causes aging) and make you look and feel younger. And no substance contains higher concentrations than pure cocoa extract !
3.Green Tea
According to the October issue of Harvard Women's Health Watch, Green Tea's health benefits are largely due to its high content of flavonoids - plant-derived compounds that are antioxidants. Studies have found an association between consuming green tea and a reduced risk for several cancers, including, skin, breast, lung,colon, esophageal, and bladder.
Additional benefits for regular consumers of green teas include a reduced risk for heart disease. The antioxidants in green, black, and oolong teas can help block the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol, increase HDL (good) cholesterol and improve artery function.
A Chinese study published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed a 46%-65% reduction in hypertension risk in regular consumers of green tea, compared to non-consumers of tea.
I`m tired of telling people that drinking teas to help you doesn't mean you only have a cup in the morning or one at night and worst yet it doesn't mean you put milk and sugar in it!!

Food Addicts

I saw comedian Jeff Garlin from Curb Your Enthusiasm on GMA talking about his lifelong addiction to food and while I listened to him I remembered one of my closest friend saying to me that if she had to eat like me to live she would rather die.....and as Oprah would say I had an aha moment.....YES food is an addiction just as bad as drugs and alcohol because it kills and makes you an outcast in the same way....when you are obese other people don't want to be around you just as when you are drunk or high........they find you disgusting, you snore, have sleep apnea, huff and puff as you walk always blowing hard.......some smell as if their creases are not properly washed and most of all they have lots of health issues!
Watch some of us eat..... we never stop pushing food in our mouths and some of the skinniest ones among us are the guiltiest of this....they eat for eating sake they are always hungry and they eat anything,the good the bad and the ugly at anytime, and 2 minutes later they are eating again. Being slim does not mean being healthy and some of the unhealthiest people surrounding me are the skinniest......
Food addiction makes you indulge in more than the normal daily requirements - you never have enough so you eat double the junk, double the fats, double the pesticides, double the chemicals. By the way just a little piece of important information for you people who drink 6 and 7 cups of coffee per day sometimes more.....coffee is the most heavily sprayed food or beverage commodity in the world, enormous amounts of chemical pesticides and herbicides are used in its propogation.
Those of us who are married to these people who indulge in all kinds of junk foods, our mornings are a horror story.... we have to listen to them as their sinuses drain, their eyes are filled with mucus, some have headaches as they react badly to some food or the other but they don`t know which as they ingest so many things at one go that it's hard to know exactly what they are allergic to. Their digestive system stops working so they repeat all the mess they had the night before and the doctors tell them they have acid reflux, how about telling them not to eat so much acidic food instead of giving them chemicals to cover the cause?
The sad part is we really can`t control our food addictions as our taste buds are shot, everything in our lives surround food, the more the merrier. When we are happy, we have food when we are sad, we have food....going on a date we have food, staying home alone we have food, at weddings, at funerals, it's all about the food. Some of us try but vegetables really can`t replace the taste of Doritos and the double whopper with cheese....can it? And even when coffee drinkers switch to decaf, do you know that it is made from methylene chloride, commonly used as paint remover and known as a cancer causing agent?
Everyday as I talk and watch and fight my own demons, I realize that FOOD is the epidemic of this century...FOOD people, NOT SWINE FLU!

Soft drinks and cancer!

As I watch the Haitian situation I wonder how come someone who had barely anything before the earthquake is pulled out of the rubble 27 days later only dehydrated not dying........do you think it's because the Western diet didn`t reach them as they couldn`t afford it? Have you noticed old and young there are no fat people in Haiti? If they are there, they are not being shown.
Everywhere in the USA they are saying that the obesity crisis comes from the poor, black people not being able to eat proper food because they can`t afford it....but they can afford to go to MacDonald's and Kentucky Fried , how come ??? Haiti, in this you are so lucky, lets hope they don`t come to save you and bring their carcinogens to kill you!(they are already trying to steal your children)
Ask them not to send you any sodas in the care packages as here is a lovely little article on soft drinks from CancerSupportInternational.com that should open our eyes to why we should avoid them.....

Drinking two or more soft drinks a week may nearly double a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, researchers are warning.
Cancer of the pancreas, the disease that killed actor Patrick Swayze last year, is one of the most rapidly fatal tumours in adults; only six per cent of people are alive five years after a diagnosis.
The pancreas makes insulin, and scientists believe high concentrations of insulin can drive the growth of pancreatic cancer cells.
Eating too much sugar increases insulin levels in the body, and one of the leading sources of added sugar in our diets are soft drinks.
The new study, by researchers from the University of Minnesota, was based on more than 60,000 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Healthy Study who were followed for 14 years. During that time, 140 people developed invasive pancreatic cancer. At the start of the study, as part of a food frequency questionnaire, people were asked to report how often they drank one glass of pop. A glass was considered 237 millilitres, or about the equivalent of one cup.
Those who reported drinking two or more soft drinks per week had an 87% increased risk of pancreatic cancer compared to those who didn't drink soft drinks. The pop drinkers were averaging five drinks per week.
The finding held after researchers took smoking, obesity, diabetes, red meat intake, coffee consumption and a "whole myriad" of other nutritional factors into account, said lead author Noel Mueller, now a research associate at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington.
There was no significant association between juice consumption and risk of pancreatic cancer.
Other studies have looked at the association between pop and pancreatic cancer, but the results haven't been consistent. One of the strengths of the new study is its size.
However, there were only 140 cases of pancreatic cancer, so the finding was based on a relatively small number of cases.
Dr. Mueller also said caution needs to be taken when extrapolating the findings from the Singapore Chinese study to a western population. But other studies in American and European populations have found similar associations.
A study of 88,794 U.S. nurses and 49,364 male health professionals found that women who consumed three or more sugar-sweetened drinks a week had a 57% greater risk of pancreatic cancer than did women who drank no more than one soft drink per month. In that study, there was no association between sweetened soft drinks and pancreatic cancer among men. But a Swedish study involving nearly 78,000 women and men reported in 2006 that high consumption of sugar and high-sugar foods -- including soft drinks -- was associated with a greater risk of pancreatic cancer in both sexes.
An estimated 3,900 Canadians were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.
The pancreas is a large gland that sits behind the stomach, deep in the upper part of the abdomen. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect, because symptoms -- such as nausea, vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen or upper back -- often only develop in the late stages, and once the disease has begun to spread, "which is often the canary in the mine shaft," Dr. Mueller said.
"By the time you do detect this type of cancer, it has often spread to different parts of the body, making it difficult to treat."
Known risk factors include smoking, diabetes and obesity, said Gillian Bromfield, senior manager of cancer control policy at the Canadian Cancer Society.
"There's a lot about pancreatic cancer risk factors that are so unexplained. It's really important to be doing research in this area."
The new study is published this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Anemia

Anemia is usually the result of insufficient iron in the diet which the red blood cells need to do their job. Signs that you might need more iron in your diet are tiredness and shortness of breath. Friends and family may comment that you look pale and flush easily, signs of poor circulation. You may also feel more moody and irritable than usual as well. There are several reasons for iron deficiency.
Women, especially the young ones among us, who don`t realize that a monthly period leads to iron deficiency and that they need to replenish supplies before the next month rolls around again, always suffer from anemia......you come across them everyday at the workplace!
Then you have those among us that for every ache and pain they pull out the Ibuprofen bottle ,I`m here to tell you that prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen and Aspirin can sometimes result in bleeding in the stomach, depleting reserves of iron. Other causes of stomach bleeding can be heavy periods and pregnancy. You could have an iron deficiency simply because your diet is low in iron as can be the case with vegans or indeed heavy tea drinkers because tea prevents the absorption of iron from plant sources. Drink orange juice, the vitamin C helps the body absorb iron from the diet
As anemia is often linked to diet, changing the diet is going to be the most effective solution. Lifestyle changes you should consider is to start the day with breakfast. Snack during the morning on nuts and raisins with some orange juice. Eat a normal evening meal but add some herbs and spices if you can because thyme and curry powder are top iron-rich ingredients.
Eating raw foods is the quickest way to get back in tip top shape-just as how raw food is the quickest and healthiest way to lose weight.
Here is some useful information from the art of raw and healthy living website

A raw food diet is already rich in iron and vitamin C which help absorb iron. The following are the best sources:
* Vegetables – green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, green cabbage, spinach, kale and watercress (all rich in iron)
* Fruit contain vitamin C and help the body to absorb iron
o Oranges (rich in vit C)
o Prune juice (rich in iron)
o Guavas (rich in iron)
o Watermelon (rich in iron)
o Kiwi ( rich in vit C)
* Dried fruits
o Apricots (rich in iron)
o Prunes (rich in iron)
o Raisins (rich in iron)
* Nuts (rich in iron)
* Salad vegetables contain vitamin C and help the body to absorb iron
o Tomatoes (rich in vit C)
So the easiest way to absorb iron is to have it with some vitamin C. However here are other things to think about:
Beetroot Juice: As far as anemia is concerned, beetroot increases the uptake of oxygen by as much as 400 percent.Because it is so strong, you should not have it everyday.
Herbs: Herbalists consider nettle (Urtica dioica) as a nutritious plant that is rich in iron, as well as vitamin C, chlorophyll, and other minerals. It is an effective supplement in the treatment of iron-deficiency anemia.
Spirulina, or Blue-green Algae: has been used successfully to treat anemia. The standard dose is 1 heaping teaspoon daily. Sea vegetables are rich sources of iron
So if you have teenage girls in your family, encourage them to have a big breakfast and give them a bag of nuts and raisins to snack on at school. This is probably good advice for us all because the benefits of having a good supply of iron in the body is that more oxygen will pump round your body enabling you to exercise for longer which is a good way to prevent illness and keep your body healthy.
*NOTE* There are many different kinds of anemia caused by several different underlying causes. This information focuses on iron-deficiency anemia and is the most common type of anemia and the most common cause of anemia in the general population,especially teenage girls and young women.

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!