It is the gourmet staple favoured by celebrity chefs for its health benefits and distinctive taste.

But shoppers who cook with extra virgin olive oil could be wasting their money – because it loses most of its benefits when it is heated.

Olive oil has more antioxidants than other oils and also contains bioactive components – called phenolic compounds – thought to help ward off cancer and other diseases.

However, when oils are heated they degrade in quality, say researchers from Portugal’s University of Porto.

Writing in the journal Food Research International, they said their research showed that any kind of heating reduced the power of the phenolic compounds in the oil.

They said: ‘Virgin olive oil consumption, as final seasoning or within cooked foods, is increasing worldwide, mainly due to its recognised nutritional benefits.

‘However, different cooking practices, from common frying, to boiling and microwave cooking, undoubtedly modify the olive oil chemical profile.’ Continue reading →

To stave off death by a few extra years, a vegetarian diet appears to be superior to a non-vegetarian one, according to results of a study of more than 73,000 people published today (June 3) in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The study, the largest of its kind, compared the longevity of meat eaters to that of four types of vegetarians: vegans, who eat no animal products; lacto-ovo–vegetarians, who consume dairy products and eggs; pesco-vegetarians, who eat fish but rarely meat; and semi-vegetarians, who eat meat no more than once weekly.

The winners, in terms of cheating death the longest, were the pesco-vegetarians, followed by vegans, and then the lacto-ovo-vegetarians. The vegetarian groups, on average, had a 12 percent lower risk of dying over the study period compared to meat eaters. The study participants were all members of the Seventh-Day Adventist church. Continue reading →

Parsley Tea a common herbal remedy

Do you know the benefits of parsley tea? This was used as one of the common herbal tea remedies in the past. Do you have it growing in your herb garden?

Parsley tea has been used for its therapeutic properties for centuries. The parsley plant, also known as Petroselinum crispus, is the most easily identified of all herbs. It name is from the Greek word meaning “rock celery” (it is a relative of celery).

It can be found in the produce departments around the world. This is probably the most familiar garnish used when plating food. There are two common varieties of parsley, curly and flat leaf (Italian) parsley. The Italian variety is more fragrant and has less bitter taste than the curly variety.

Growing Parsley
Parsley is a bright green biennial herb that develops clusters of yellow flowers from June through August. Parsley has a long taproot, so it needs area that is deep for planting. It requires a location that gets at least six hours of sun and needs mulched and regular deep watering. It does not recover well if left to wilt, so it is important to keep it watered. Continue reading →

Seafood is generally deemed to be healthy; however, a number of popular ones you should avoid at all costs. Prevention magazine reported that the nonprofit Food & Water Watch compiled a list of the 12 least-healthy seafood products; they also note healthier alternatives. It is likely that a number of your favorites are on the list.

Food & Water Watch notes that our oceans have become so depleted of wild fish stocks, and so polluted with industrial contaminants, that trying to figure out the fish that are both safe and sustainable is a daunting task. They note that “Good fish” lists can change year after year, because stocks rebound or get depleted every few years. Continue reading →

If you are what you eat, and you regularly eat meat that comes from animals that were depressed and stressed their whole lives, do you then live depressed and stressed? Conversely, if you eat vegetables which grow bountifully in nutrient and mineral rich soil, vegetables never sprayed with pesticides or insecticides, are you then a nutrient rich and “bountiful” person?

The U.S. drought is quickly wiping out up to 80 percent of the corn, soy and beet production in the United States, but those foods, IF NOT ORGANIC, cause disease and sickness anyway, because they are genetically modified, doused with pesticides, OVER AND OVER, and then processed with more chemicals in a laboratory, where money rules and health has no value. (http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm)

Beets are used to make monosodium glutamate, and GMO corn meal is fed to cattle, which destroys their digestive track and puts them in need of high doses of antibiotics – ones that the public, in turn, consumes regularly! It’s a vicious cycle. It’s time to ignore what the media is telling you, and consider that the drought is a blessing in disguise. Continue reading →

All it is…..is a frozen lemon

Many professionals in restaurants and eateries are using or consuming the entire lemon and nothing is wasted. How can you use the whole lemon without waste?

Simple.. place the washed lemon in the freezer section of your refrigerator. Once the lemon is frozen, get your grater, and shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on top of your foods.

Sprinkle it to your vegetable salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes…. the list is endless.

All of the foods will unexpectedly have a wonderful taste, something that you may have never tasted before. Most likely, you only think of lemon juice and vitamin C. Not anymore.

Now that you’ve learned this lemon secret, you can use lemon even in instant cup noodles.

What’s the major advantage of using the whole lemon other than preventing waste and adding new taste to your dishes?

Well, you see lemon peels contain as much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself.

And yes, that’s what you’ve been wasting.  Continue reading →

What shelf stable item can be used (nutritiously) in place of butter, shortening, and cooking oil, and then pressed into duty as a health and beauty aid?

Coconut oil!

One of my favorite pantry items is my big jar of organic virgin coconut oil, and the crazy thing is, I don’t even like coconuts. If you slip me a cookie that has those nasty little flakes of coconut in them, I’ll probably spit it out – I really, emphatically don’t like coconut! I am stressing this point because coconut oil has a place in the kitchen of even the most die-hard coconut hater (like me!).

Sometimes people who are seeking a healthier lifestyle make the mistake of avoiding all fats. Sure, eating a bag of Doritoes covered in cheese is terrible for you (in more ways than just the fat content!) – but certain fats can be a healthy, and very necessary, part of your diet. In fact, these “healthy fats” can actually aid in weight loss, if that is your goal. Some examples of these healthy fats would be those from nuts, avocados, seeds, certain fish, and coconut oil. Consumption of these fats will improve your hair, your skin, your immune system, and your organ function when consumed in moderate quantities. As well, certain nutrients are fat soluble and can only be properly used by your body in the presence of fat. For example, Vitamins A, D, E, and K should be taken when you eat a small amount of fat.

All coconut oils are not created equally. There are a few basic types of coconut oil, and it’s important to get the “right” kind for your needs in order to reap the full benefits of your purchase. Continue reading →

Xenobiotics and Xenoestrogens are chemicals in our environment and in our food supply that have a hormone-like activity. There is mounting evidence that exposure to these chemicals may be a significant cause of breast cancer, the decline in male sperm production, testicular cancer, prostate cancer and other serious health conditions.

Nearly all xenobiotics are derived from a petroleum source. They are found in literally thousands of products that we use everyday. These products include plastics, microchips, medicines, foods, soaps, lotions, clothing, pesticides, herbicides, cleansers, etc.

Our main source of xenoestrogens in food is from animal fats, particularly red meat and dairy products. Cattle and chicken are given estrogenic substances to make them gain weight. Additionally, they are exposed to xenobiotic chemicals through their food supply that has been grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Anyone who eats meat and dairy products from traditional commercial sources is exposed to these compounds. Continue reading →

I am writing this just in case some of your readers and others you may know that are considering changing diets but are rather afraid to do so, or whatever prevents it. Maybe it will help a few to make the change.

My two favorite sandwiches used to be bologna, a slice or two of other processed luncheon meats (especially the very slimy, greasy salami), processed cheese, white bread (later so-called wheat bread), pickles, onions, peanut butter, mustard and lettuce, while the other was a super thick hamburger cooked until the fat coming out was clear, with processed cheese, bread as described above, pickles, onion, lettuce and mustard (sometimes also with ketchup). Both were eaten with chips or french fries or tator tots. It was as if I lived for those two.

But after nearly dying a few years back from 230 beats a minute, being hospitalized, put on some drug, and then blacking out many times during the time from then up until last year, which I essentially missed due to extremely low blood pressure and erratic heart beat, and then nearly dying, collapsed on the Orschlein’s farm and home parking lot in August 2011, I decided it was time to completely change my diet. Continue reading →

What if the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down becomes the medicine itself?

When I was young I assumed that anything medicinal must be nasty to the taste. This assumption was partly the fruit of experience – medicines that were given to me were nasty to the taste – and partly attributable to the puritanical Zeitgeist in which I grew up, according to which anything that I enjoyed was morally suspect. It seemed to follow in my young mind that displeasure was therefore virtuous. Health, of course, was the natural reward of virtue, and disease of vice; hence nasty things were good for you. The logic is not strict, but it is understandable.

The unpleasantness of medicine, either to the taste or in side-effects, is one of the reasons, no doubt, for the poor compliance of patients with what doctors prescribe. Therefore, as the kitsch song puts it, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. But what if the spoonful of sugar should become the medicine itself? That would be a therapeutic revolution indeed. Continue reading →

Coconuts are a versatile superfood providing nutrition, health benefits, and amazing medicinal properties all wrapped in one delicious package. Coconuts are totally natural, easily available and affordable; and every part of the fruit is useful.

~ Green coconut water uses ~

• Natural, healthy source for hydration, energy and endurance, making it the perfect sports drink.

• Restores electrolytes after exercise, vomiting, diarrhea.

• Antiseptic properties provide antibacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal agents to purify blood killing measles, herpes, influenza, AIDS, SARS, hepatitis C…

• Useful for emergency transfusions due to being close in composition to human plasma. Continue reading →

If you’ve ever experienced a cupcake coma (you know, the period of extreme lethargy that follows a sugar high brought on by consumption of one or more cupcakes), you might not be surprised by some recent findings on the effects of processed sweeteners. A team of UCLA researchers has observed that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) makes rats more forgetful, while omega-3 fatty acids—chemical compounds that research has shown can protect the brain’s synapses—seem to have the opposite effect.

The researchers, whose paper will be published this week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology, trained a group of rats to navigate a maze. Then, they randomly divided the rats into four groups, and for six weeks they fed each group a slightly different diet in addition to the usual rat chow: One group received HFCS in its water; another received omega-3 fatty acids. A third received both HFCS and omega-3s, and the fourth, a control group, received plain old rat chow. Continue reading →

Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The tomato, whose genome has just now been decoded, turns out to be one well-endowed vegetable, possessing 31,760 genes. This rich legacy, possibly a reflection of the disaster that killed off the dinosaurs, is some 7,000 more than that of a person, and presents a complex puzzle to scientists who hope to understand its secrets.
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A consortium of plant geneticists from 14 countries has spent nine years decoding the tomato genome in the hope of breeding better ones. The scientists sequenced the genomes of both Heinz 1706, a variety used to make ketchup, and the tomato’s closest wild relative, Solanum pimpinellifolium, which lives in the highlands of Peru, where the tomato’s ancestors originated. Their results were published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The tomato, though a fruit to botanists, has been decreed a vegetable by the United States Supreme Court. The verdict is not so unreasonable given that the tomato has a close cousin that is a vegetable, namely the potato. The genomes of the two plants have 92 percent of their DNA in common, the tomato researchers report. The main difference is that the potato is thought to have a handful of genes that direct the plant’s energy away from producing fruit and into the generation of tubers. But even with the genomes of the two plants deciphered, those genes have not yet been identified, said Daniel Zamir, a plant geneticist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the report’s two principal authors. Continue reading →

Are we digging our own graves with our teeth? Is the food that we eat every day slowly killing us? When I was growing up, I just assumed that everything in the grocery store was perfectly safe and perfectly healthy. I just assumed that the government and the big corporations were watching out for us and that they would never allow something harmful to be sold in the stores. Boy, was I wrong! Today, the average American diet is extremely unhealthy. Most of the foods that we all love to eat are absolutely packed with things that will damage our health.

Many of the ingredients that make our foods “taste good” such as fat, salt and sugar can be extremely damaging in large amounts. On top of that, most processed foods are absolutely loaded with chemicals and preservatives. The next time you go to the grocery store, just start turning over packages and read the “ingredients” that are being put into our food. If you have never done this before, you will be absolutely amazed. In many of our most common foods there are “ingredients” that I cannot even pronounce. Sadly, most Americans have no idea that eating a steady diet of these processed foods will likely leave them massively overweight, very sick and much closer to death.

Eating healthy takes more time, more effort and more money than eating poorly does. Continue reading →

Eating dietary trans fatty acids (dTFAs), typically referred to as unsaturated or trans fat is linked to bad behavior ranging from impatience to overt aggression, according to a new study.

Irritability and aggression can now be added to the long list of ill effects that have previously been linked to unsaturated fat consumption, like increased risk for coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, liver dysfunction, infertility in women and major depressive disorder. Continue reading →