What's Your Excuse For Not Eating More Fruits & Vegetables?

By David Butler

Everyone is aware of the fact that fruits and veggies are
excellent for the body, due to their abundance of fiber and
disease-fighting nutrients. Mom said we should eat plenty of
them every day and we knew she was right, but did we pay any
attention?

An unpleasant visual to call up is us driving with one
finger on the steering wheel as we cram greasy French fries
and hamburgers in our mouth while washing it all down with a
chocolate shake. Although, we may not be making that pit
stop every day, we still make bad choices for convenience
like grabbing a bag of chips instead of an apple or banana.
The fruit is just as fast, but so much better for us.

If it's simple you want, why not try some watermelon,
grapes, or a cantaloupe? Fruit only needs a quick wash and
it's ready to snack on. Another example might be veggies
such as carrots or celery soaked in a light dressing.
Research has shown that we don't eat enough of the
low-calorie, wholesome broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and so
we are overweight and disease-prone. Nutritional experts
hope to wake us up to healthy eating and inspire us with
five-a-day campaigns that remind us that we should be eating
at least five servings daily of vegetables and fruits.

In the beginning, five servings per day appears like a lot.
Fruit at breakfast is a practical idea to work in one extra
serving of fruit to start the day. Fruit on cereals,
waffles, or pancakes is another idea. Apples or bananas make
great portable snacks.

Veggies are very easy to get in during the day. It's easy
and smart to have a salad for lunch. When you have lunch or
dinner out, order a sandwich made with lettuce, tomatoes and
sprouts. You can add vegetables to baked goods, or use them
as ingredients in stews and soups, and with sauces for meat.


Do you like peanut butter? Add some celery with it. Kids
especially love this snack. Toss some raisins on top as
well! Cheese and celery make a nice snack too. Sometimes
kids are reluctant to try new fruits and vegetables. But
keep giving them different kinds to try. A lot of well
meaning parents will tell their children that they must
first clean their plate of vegetables before they can even
think about dessert. The problem here is the psychology this
creates. You're basically communicating the idea that
vegetables are something unpleasant to 'get through' so you
can move onto the sweet stuff in live. Think about how
different everyone's health would be if we didn't see our
vegetables in this manner.

Carrots after you finish all of your pudding!? Juice is
another simple way to increase your fruit and vegetable
consumption. The downside of juice is that it lacks fiber.
You don't get that benefit of vegetables and fruits when you
drink them. It also kills your appetite. How many times have
you seen a child drink a large cup of juice and then refuse
to eat, claiming they aren't hungry? Juices also often have
more calories than the fruit they come from.

The benefits to your health of fruits and vegetables are
obvious. Research has shown us that people who consume the
recommended servings of fruits and vegetables a day have
about half the chance of contracting 14 different types of
adult cancers than those who don't. By eating more
fruits and vegetables you can lower the risk of heart
attack, stroke, and adult blindness.

This is information that everybody should know;
nevertheless, we can come up with millions of excuses for
not eating properly. One excuse that people use is that it
costs a lot to eat healthy, and other people say that it
just takes too much time to prepare healthy foods. What
excuse keeps you from eating the way you know you should?


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A List Of High Fiber Foods

By Beth Hoover

Fiber is a critical part of the diet. Ironically your body
isn't able to digest fiber so it passes right through your
body. Fiber food is necessary because it keeps your colonic
tract healthy and keeps your body regular.

Put simply, its main job is to scrub your guts. Here is a
high fiber food listing to help you get started with your
healthy lifestyle! You may also need to know that fiber can
help you control your blood sugar and can even lower your
cholesterol. Oh and it also releases poisons from your body.

Almonds

Cashews

Flax seeds

Garbanzo beans, well cooked

Kidney beans, well cooked

Lentils, red cooked

Lima beans, cooked 1 cup

Gooseberry

Elderberry

Grapes

Grapefruit

Kiwi fruit

Rhubarb

Pawpaw

Papaya

Peanuts

Pistachio nuts

Pumpkin seeds

Soybeans

Sunflower seeds

Walnuts

Apple

Crabapple

Hawthorn

Pear

Apricot

Peach

Nectarines

Plum

Cherry

Blackberry

Raspberry

Mulberry

Strawberry

Cranberry

Blueberry

Barberry

Currant

Melon

Watermelon

Figs

Dates

Olive

Jujube

Pomegranate

Lemon

Lime

Key Lime

Mandarin

Orange

Sweet Lime

Tangerine

Avocado

Guava

Kumquat

Lychee

Passion Fruit

Tomato

Banana

Gourd

Bitter Gourd

Bottle Gourd

Cashew Fruit

Cacao

Coconut

Custard Apple

Jackfruit

Mango

Pineapple

Carrot

Wheat-bran cereal

Oatmeal

Whole wheat bread

Rice

Corn tortilla

Enriched pasta

Bulgur

Whole wheat spaghetti

Wheat flakes

Barley

Wheat bran muffin

Fig bars

Whole wheat tortilla

Couscous

Graham crackers

Pita bread

Enriched white rice

Try to add fiber to your diet steadily so that your body has
time to adapt to the rise in fiber content. Fiber has also
been shown to help with a weight loss plan, nevertheless, be
certain to talk with your health practitioner prior to
beginning any diet regimen or if you have got any illness
that may require less fiber. This is the best way to make
sure you stay healthy, especially since your physician knows
tons about you.

Brown Rice: More than Low GL or High Fiber

Brown Rice has been a mainstay of organic, whole food nutrition and food plans for a very long time.  It has also been a mainstay of more macrobiotic food plans for as long or longer.  Both choices have suffered the ridicule of mainstream medicine and dietitians for as long or longer than I have been involved as a health care professional which has been more than 40 years.  I have studied nutrition for far longer and it amazes me how slow mainstream is to learn about the benefits of such whole foods as brown rice, and then how they get the credit as if they are the first to discover it.

I have for decades now been recommending a special brown rice meal to people with diabetes or those at risk.  I've also been recommending it as a special meal for deep cellular detoxification.  And if you knew the nutritional benefits you would understand why.

White rice 'raises diabetes risk', say US experts

White rice has a higher glycemic load than brown rice.

Replacing white rice with brown rice and wholemeal bread could cut the risk of diabetes by a third, US experts say.

White rice poses a diabetes threat because it causes steep rises in blood sugar, say Harvard researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Brown rice and other wholegrain foods are a healthier option as they release glucose more gradually, they say. Complete article

What I think is more important and not addressed in this report is the basic nutritional profile of this whole food and that connection to health or dis-ease.

Brown rice is high in the mineral manganese. Manganese is important for many functions. It can

• Help your body utilize several key nutrients such as biotin, thiamine, ascorbic acid, and choline
• Keep your bones strong and healthy
• Help your body synthesize fatty acids and cholestorol
• Maintain normal blood sugar levels
• Promote optimal function of your thyroid gland
• Maintain the health of your nerves
• Protect your cells from free-radical damage 

Biotin and Thiamine are part of the vitamin B complex.  B vitamins are especially important for people with diabetes.  It is also important to support healthy thyroid function because it has a direct link to diabetes.

Brown rice is also high in selenium which helps support your thyroid and iodine metabolism, and it is high in magnesium which is also very important for people with this health problem.  This unhulled rice also is known to be high in phytonutrients that may be equal to or higher than fruits and vegetables.

Brown rice is helpful as well for lowering cholesterol, preventing cardiovascular disease, weight management, protecting against breast and colon cancer (other cancers too), preventing gallstones, and aiding childhood asthma.

Purchase organic brown rice when possible to reduce risk of arsenic exposure and store it in the refrigerator to prevent it from becoming rancid as it contains rice bran oils.  The oil is a source of vitamin E and tocotrienols. It also contains trytophan.

I always suggest soaking this rice overnight before cooking to reduce the phytic acid load.

More about Brown Rice nutrition

Combining brown rice with sesame seed in my special recipe adds more preventive nutrition for diabetes. This combination raises the level of IP6 availability.  IP6 (inositol) boosts your  immune system, helps lower cholesterol, prevents kidney stones, helps prevent osteoporosis, prevents or reduces the complications of diabetes and sickle cell anemia, reduces risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack and stroke.

IP-6 + Inositol Against Diabetes - Experiments with isolated murine pancreatic beta cells have shown that IP-6 stimulates these cells to secrete insulin" [Hoy et al, Journal of Biological Chemistry Vol: 278 #37 pages 35168-35171, September 12, 2003]. And Dilworth and colleagues report that IP-6 supplementation when administered in diet lowered blood glucose levels in rats. That diabetics could be benefited from IP-6 + Inositol is further supported by data from Nascimento and colleagues who report in the January 3, 2006 issue of the PNAS that in their experimental model, inositol itself may work as an antioxidant and not only prevents but also reverses many of the complications of diabetes. Thus, on one hand, IP-6 causes direct stimulation of insulin from pancreatic beta cells and inositol on the other hand helps in the prevention of complications of diabetes; combination of IP-6 + Inositol gives dual benefits. Read more here

We published an entire issue of herbalYODA Says! about diabetes some time ago,  This informative issue is available with a donation to keep our work alive and well.

Our bioSupplemente has IP6 (now RKBioBlend) and ADVENTURx, with a magnesium base, both help support health for people with diabetes.

Resources: whole health foods, Natural Healing through Natural Health
Archives of Internal Medicine 

NB:  I appreciate this comment regarding this and many other articles I write at Natural Health News.  It is from a member of a medical list to which I subscribe -

Is this really new information! We know and have known for years that whole grain (with the germ and husk) is healthier for you than one stripped of it's outer shell and germ. there is more fiber in whole grain which slows down the absorption of sugars. It blows my mind that information we have known for years gets money for research. It would be similar to studying" does putting your hand on a hot stove burn you" of course it does do we need to prove it?

Brown Rice Recipe for Heavy Metals - Soak 3 cups of organic brown rice ovenight.  Pour off water and place in pot with tight closing lid.  Add 7 cups of pure water and one sliced medium red onion and 1 tabespoon dulse.  Cook and eat several servings daily until gone, maintain a regulr healthy food plan.  This is not a fast.

One brown rice recipe I enjoy - Asian Brown Rice
Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained  2-1/2 cups water  2 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped  1/2 tsp. Oriental sesame oil  1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. soy sauce
Cooking Instructions:
Combine all ingredients, except soy sauce, in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil 5 minutes. Lower heat as low as possible. Cover pan tightly and let rice simmer 45 minutes without lifting lid. After 45 minutes, turn off the heat, and  let stand covered for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Serve drizzled with soy sauce.

How To Achieve A Healthy Body Weight

The portion of Americans who are overweight and heavy is
increasing at an alarming rate. "Overweight" is determined as
having a Body Masses Index (BMI) of 25.0 to 29.9 whereas a
BMI of 30 or above is defined as "obese." According to the
National Center for Health Statistics, 56% of the population
was overweight during the reporting point from 1988 through 1994,
and 23% was obese. During the period from 1999 through 2002,
these shares had increased to 65% and 30%, respectively.

Not only is there strong proof that dieting does not work in the
long run, but of even more concern is the proof that
they can really contribute to further weight gain and turn
down in health. In fact, yo-yo dieting can weaken the immune
system by as much as 30%.

A search of the research literature on weight loss
powerfully supports the general consensus that key life
style and dietary modifications are absolutely essential to
achieving success. Here is a fairly general listing of what is
needed to achieve a healthy body weight:

1. Eat lots of veggies and fruits.

2. Increase protein intake to build and support lean muscle
tissue.

3. Utilize fiber-rich foods, which are more fulfilling and
encourage a healthy digestive system.

4. Promote calcium and other minerals to aid in the
disposal of unwanted fat.

5. Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids by taking fish,
flax, and nuts.

6. Reduce amounts of "junk" carbs, containing
sugar and white flour to a minimum.

7. Greatly reduce--or eliminate--saturated and trans fatty
acids.

8. No alcohol.

9. Reduce the amount of food eaten gradually to head off the
unfavorable results of sudden diet.

10. Eat on steady, small snacks, to maximize calories
used up for energy.

11. Never skip breakfast. Always eat a solid breakfast to
aid in controlling cravings later in the day.

12. Be sure to work out for a half-hour, at least 3 times a
week

13. Get some sun for at least 15 minutes each
day.

14. Get a good night's sleep - 6 to 8 hours.

16. Incorporate all of these changes into your lifestyle and
maintain them consistently, and you will feel and see the
difference, guaranteed.

'Old treatments' better

Two of the most effective treatments I have ever used with clients experiencing GI problems have been peppermint oil (and tea) as well as fiber or a favorite fiber blend.

A Novartis drug taken off the market recently made me want to pull my hair out because it had such offensive ads. Women were targeted and I think the tome was that IBS was one of those "hypochondriac" and imaginary illnesses.

I guess no one at Novartis knew, or cared, that IBS and other issues like diverticulitis often were from a lack of fiber in the diet.

I like to use peppermint oil. Generally these come in coated capsules but I have had clients use peppermint tea and essential oil effectively. Peppermint oil does soothe and relax, but can fight bacteria as well.

Not to overlook the stress related GI problems, herbs such as marshmallow root for reducing inflammation along with scullcap or similar herbs, and selected flower essences can do quite a remarkable job.

'Old treatments' better for IBS
Older "overlooked" treatments for irritable bowel syndrome may end up being the best option for patients, research suggests.

Fibre, anti-spasmodic drugs and peppermint oil were all found to be effective in a review of the evidence.

Guidelines on IBS should be updated in light of the findings, the researchers say in the British Medical Journal.

A UK expert said there had been a general feeling among doctors that the therapies "didn't work".

Between 5% and 20% of the population is estimated to suffer from IBS which is characterised by abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.


This puts these simple remedies back on the agenda
Professor Roger Jones, King's College London

The exact cause of the condition is unknown and recommendations for treatment include dietary advice, antidepressants and alternative therapies.

Fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil are used to treat IBS, but evidence of their effectiveness is unclear because of conflicting results from studies, the researchers said.

They have also been overlooked because of the focus on newer more expensive drugs which ended up being withdrawn due to lack of efficacy and safety concerns, they added.

Benefits

By trawling through all the studies comparing the therapies with dummy pills or no treatment, the researchers were able to look at data from 2,500 adult patients with IBS.

Fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil were all found to be effective, with doctors needing to treat 11, 5 and 2.5 patients, respectively for one patient to benefit.

Insoluble fibre such as bran was not beneficial; only isphaghula husk - a soluble form of fibre - significantly reduced symptoms.

Hyoscine - extracted from the cork wood tree - was the most successful antispasmodic drug looked at and should be the first choice, the researchers said.

Out of all three treatments, peppermint oil seemed to come out on top.

Both peppermint oil and hyoscine - an antispasmodic not currently widely prescribed in the UK - are available from the pharmacy.

Study leader Dr Alex Jones, a gastroenterologist who has recently moved from Canada - where he did the research to St James University Hospital in Leeds - said the treatments were cheap, safe and had been in use for 15 to 20 years.

"They fell out of favour with the development of new drugs.

"This is good news for patients."

Professor Roger Jones, head of the Department of General Practice at Kings College London, and founding president of the Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology, said: "There is a general feeling that they don't work very well.

"With all of the treatments for IBS, there is a huge placebo effect so it is easy to imagine your treatment is working then the trials come along and suggest they don't.

"This puts these simple remedies back on the agenda."

He added that the study did not pick out which patients would benefit from which treatment but as they are safe and cheap, patients can test what works best for them.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7727459.stm
Published: 2008/11/14
© BBC MMVIII