A new study published October 22 (2014) reinforces once again that olive oil is one of the best oils for cooking compared to other seed oils. Researchers based their conclusion on a few different factors, including nutritional content and the oil’s ability to maintain quality under high temperatures.

Published in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists note that various oils have different physical, chemical and nutritional properties that can be degraded under high heat and repeated use.

Many cooking oils can become impaired while heating in the pan or frying, and the food that you’re cooking can actually also lose its nutritional content, making your choice of oil critical for producing a healthy dish. Continue reading →

A handful of almonds a day could be the key to a longer and shapelier life.

The nutrient-rich snack can get rid of your muffin top, give you slimmer legs and stave off heart disease by reducing cholesterol, scientists say.

And eating 42g (1.5 oz) of the superfood every day could reduce the likelihood of an early death. Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: We are no longer certain that the Swiss Water Method is safe, so please disregard our recommendation until we have an opportunity to do further research. For now, our recommendation is to avoid all decaffeinated tea and coffee.

Decaffeinated drinks have been touted as a healthy alternative for several decades at the behest of the chemical industry, but these drinks are often more dangerous than the unmodified versions.

Early decaffeination efforts were abruptly terminated because of the toxic solvents that were used in the process (benzene, chloroform, and trichloroethylene). Of course, the F.D.A. is okay with benzene being inside your soft drinks (Coke, Pepsi, etc.), where it can be found in remarkably high amounts, and inside all of your microwaved foods. Money from its industry partners makes all the difference. In the early days of decaffeination, the new industry was not lucrative enough to buy F.D.A. safety studies. Continue reading →

Unbeknownst to most, a Copernican revolution has already taken place in cancer theory. Today, the weight of evidence indicates that plants and not chemicals are the solution for reversing the global cancer epidemic.

Our understanding of what causes cancer has undergone something akin to a Copernican revolution in the past decade. Biological fatalism has been the predominant force in medicine over the past half century, where most conditions including cancer were believed predestined ‘in the genes,’ and therefore impossible to reverse. Instead of looking for root cause resolution of disease (RCRD), we resigned ourselves to ‘finding it early’ and in the case of cancer, when doing so (even when it was benign), we waged war against it, quite literally using weapons grade materials (mustard gas- and nuclear materials-derived agents). Now, however, in this post-Genomic era, factors above (epi-) the control of the genes – epigenetic factors – are taking center stage; these include environmental exposures, stress, nutritional factors, and various lifestyle-based variables that are within the ambit of our control and volition, and which are often reversible. Continue reading →

A glass of red wine, a handful of peanuts or a nibble of chocolate could protect against osteoporosis.

Resveratrol, a natural compound found in red wine and grapes, mulberries, cocao powder and peanuts has anti-inflammatory properties which protect against bone loss in mice and rats.

Now Danish researchers have shown the plant compound, a type of natural phenol, increased spinal bone density in men with metabolic syndrome which has been linked to low-grade inflammation that can cause bone loss.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors, such as obesity or high blood pressure, that raise the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Continue reading →