Nutrition

The Real Importance of Taking Vitamin Supplements

Beyond Vegetarianism     Food Additives     Recipes     Evaluate Your Diet

Calorie Restriction and Rejuvenation

Nutritional Therapy - Using food and diet to treat disease, and improve or maintain health:
Nutritional Therapy and Consultation available from the Leaflady

Anti-Stress Foods

more on food - Apples, Baby Food, Black Molasses, Digestion, Eggs, Fat Facts, Food Combining, Food for Thought by Karen, Food Irradiation, Food Sources of Iron, Garlic, Honey, Microfood, pH & Food, Salt, Sauerkraut, Soy, SuperSize, Sweeteners, Tomato, Vinegar, Yoghurt 

Food therapy is the oldest known form of medicine. Ancient texts of India (the Vedas) dating back to 4500 BC gave precise descriptions of the therapeutic and medicinal value of hundreds of foods and edible plants. In 400 BC, Hippocrates told his students "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food". The Neijing, a Chinese text dating from 300 BC, states, "Medicine and food are of the same source". All ancient cultures held similar beliefs.

Scholars and historians have shown these ancient cultures provided the foundation for much of contemporary western medicine. Unfortunately, their medicinal knowledge of food did not. This wisdom has mostly been lost to modern cultures. What we eat is no longer used to achieve healing and wellness. Food has become a simple commodity and popular diets are passing fads.

Dr. Francis Pottenger's studies proved wrong diet is a prime factor in the decline of human health. Eight of the top ten leading causes of death can result from poor eating habits alone and can be treated exclusively with diet therapy.

Food is the foundation of health and healing, yet most physicians don't have the time, expertise, or resources to design patient-specific therapeutic diets. Patients are bio-chemically unique; therefore each requires an individualized diet. 

Current nutritional software programs are cumbersome for the patient and the practitioner.

Patient compliance is poor because the diets are hard to follow and often cause new problems while attempting to address existing ones.

What is the right diet? 

Unfortunately, no single diet fits everyone. Our biochemical individuality determines our unique nutritional needs.  Medical conditions, autonomic/oxidative dominance, blood type, body type, allergies, micro and macronutrient imbalances, and ideal weight are factors that must be considered when determining optimal food selections. 

"Cranberry Juice, a friend to your HEART"

Drinking cranberry juice every day could significantly cut the risk of heart disease.  A study suggests 3 glasses a day can raise good cholesterol in the blood, reducing the chances of a range of cardiac conditions by as much as 40%.  Dr. Joe Vinson & his colleagues at University of Scranton in Pennsylvania conducted the long-term study with volunteers who had previously high cholesterol. He unveiled his findings at the American Chemical Society in New Orleans yesterday. Antioxidants increased by over 120% in volunteers drinking 3 glasses of cranberry juice a day.  Dr. Vinson said that cranberry extracts in capsules or tablets could be similarly beneficial if taken regularly.

Note: use unsweetened cranberry juice for best health, or sweeten only with a small amount of organic unfiltered apple juice or grape juice.

Cranberries are a good source of sulfur. They also break down kidney stones and toxic gravel in the urinary system.It is best to make your own cranberry juice from organic cranberry.  Dilute with pure water.  You may add a very small amount of organic, unfiltered apple juice to offset the very tart taste.

If you are unable to find organic cranberries please order our updated Healthy Handout© "Food Cleansing Protocols".

"Vital Missing Goodness in Ready to Eat  Bags of Salad"

Leaves bought in pre-washed packs are missing vital nutrients, scientists have found.  Research has shown that a manufacturing technique used to keep greens cripsy for longer also destroys vitamins & protective anti-oxidants. The process called modified atmosphere packaging is particularly damaging to vitamin C.  Levels of nutritious p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid & quercetin are also depleted, says scientists at Cornell University.   Modified atmosphere packaging creates a balance of gases inside the bag. It is more nutritious to cut up your own salad just before eating, but it is better to eat these packeted salads than to have no salad at all.

"Vitamin A deficiency, by its action of increasing epithelial irritability and infectibility, can be an important factor in the cause of ulcers" and that "other instances of vitamin A deficiency, are often found in conjunction with infections of the intestinal tract, are infections of the eyes, tonsils, sinuses, lungs, buccal and lingual mucosa, and the skin."

"Vitamin A deficiency and other factors associated with severe tuberculosis in Timor and Rote Islands, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia," Pakasi TA, Dolmans WM, et al, Eur J Clin Nutr, 2009 May 27; [Epub ahead of print]. (Address: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia).

B-vitamin deficiency also produces damage to kidneys, spleen, pancreas, testes, ovaries and liver. Since so many persons have health problems centered in these areas, we may reasonably suspect population wide vitamin B deficiency. Naturopathic authorities suspect exactly this. B-vitamins are lost rapidly by the body when it is under stress. Since most of us are indeed under stress, B-vitamin deficiency is almost assured without supplementation.

bioSupplemente Naturalle ( now available as RK BioDrops, and soon as RK BioBlend )

Hidden Dangers of Microwaved Foods

Recent studies prove that when plants are watered with water heated first in a microwave oven, then cooled, they wilt and die.

Amino Acids

Vitamin C helps treat and prevent the common cold and flu (to reduce severity some health experts suggest 3,000mg daily).  It aids in the prevention of a host of viral and bacterial infections. It is said to increase the effectiveness of white blood cells to fight infection within the body.  It is an antioxidant that helps scavenge free radicals which we all know adversely affects the immune system. Interestingly, some factors that multiply free radicals are excessive sunlight and stress, which leads us to the next benefit.  Vitamin C helps the adrenal glands manufacture adrenaline and other hormones that help us cope with stress. Stress can destroy Vitamin C stores in the adrenal glands in a matter of seconds.  It also helps maintain the circulatory system, and can help prevent lower the incidence of blood clots in veins - a concern for frequent flyers.

Parkinson's Dis-ease:  Balancing carbohydrates and proteins makes the drug treatments more effective.  It has been  demonstrated in studies that a 7 to 1 carbohydrate to protein ratio created higher and more stable levels of neutral amino acids in patients taking levodopa.  This eliminated increased symptoms after meals.

Magnesium is considered to be the most deficient nutrient in the average American diet.  Medical science reports that more than 200,000 deaths are linked to this deficiency.  The suggested RDA of 400 mg. daily is substantially low.  The optimal, minimum daily amount is 750 mg.   Find magnesium is almonds, figs, apples, alfalfa, dulse, dandelion, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, red clover...

Magnesium is the natural Beta Blocker:  Today, in many ER's, magnesium is being used as the Beta Blocker of choice.

Supplement Support

In Place of Butter 

1/2 cup cold pressed flax oil

1 tablespoon powdered lecithin

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

salt to taste

Mix and chill

Rice Milk -   You will need  2 cups of rice and 4 cups spring or distilled water.  

Leaflady's Enzyme Rich Seed Milk - Makes 5 cups

Soak over night in a glass container covered with pure water 1 TBSP each: chia seed, flax seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and 2 TBSP raw walnuts

Strain, and add soaked seeds to the blender with about 4 ounces of pure water to blend.

Add 2 TBSP each: raw sesame tahini, raw honey of your choice but try to use unfiltered honey (buckwheat honey has more vitamin C than light honey).

Add enough water to reach the consistency you like, up to almost the top of the blender jar.

Lastly add 2 TBSP fresh vegetable oil, BUT BLEND ONLY AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO MIX IN THE OIL.

Some choose to add a bit of vanilla for taste, but I do not add it.  This is high in EFAs, protein and enzymes.  Not for use in cooking as heat will destroy the enzymes and effect the oils.

MUST BE REFRIGERATED, keeps about 2 days.

Food Sources for Iron  Food News  The Skinny on Fats  Society for the Promotion of Nutritional Therapy  Soy

More on Soy  A Valuable Fermented Food  Yoghurt

When it comes to foods that really work for you, garlic is as good as it gets - This pungent bulb offers a plethora of health benefits. For starters, studies show that people who consume garlic regularly have lower cholesterol levels. Other research indicates that garlic thins the blood--specifically by preventing platelets from sticking together and clotting--and that may translate into lower blood pressure as well as a diminished risk of heart disease and stroke.

What's less well known is that garlic gets much of its goodness from its high selenium content, a trace mineral that has been heralded for its antioxidant and cancer-fighting properties. In fact, if you load your meals with lots of garlic, you shouldn't need to add a selenium supplement to your diet.

Garlic prevents colds and flu, and has been shown to heal antibiotic resistant tuberculosis.

Sugar - Saviour Or Enemy?

Sugar is a basic element in starchy food. Sugar cane contains 14% trace elements, minerals and vitamins, which give us life, plus chlorophyll. The  sugar we purchase in the supermarket for personal consumption is heated up in chalk-milk, so that calcium and protein are extracted. It is first of all becoming alkaloid thus destroys all vitamin content. In the second phase the sugar is mixed with acid chalk, carbonic gas, sulphur dioxide and finally with natrium bicarbonate. This mixture is cooked and cooled off several times and thereafter crystallised and centrifugalized.

This dead mass is then treated with strontium hydroxide. Subsequently it arrives at the refinery where it is passed over chalk carbon acid to clean it. Dark colouring is removed by adding sulphuric acid and then it is filtered with bone charcoal. Finally it is coloured with Indathrenblue or the highly toxic Ultramarine.

This product chemical composition is C12 H22 O11, which you can buy in shops  as "pure cane" sugar, sugar cubes, candy, etc. All its life and protective forces have been destroyed and this product called  sugar has an atomic density of 98.4 to 99.5 %. Such density falls under the category poison. This industrial sugar irritates the mucous membranes, tissues, glands, blood vessels and intestinal tracts of the person who eats it. White sugar also paralyses the intestinal peristaltic and leads to immune system failure.

Tooth tissue has a tissue pressure of 7 At. Industrial sugar increases this osmotic pressure to 34 At. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in human beings, together with bones. We have found teeth that have been 100.000 years in the earth and still intact despite heat and cold, rain, snow, bacteria, etc. However white sugar is capable of destroying tooth enamel within hours, penetrating the structure of the tooth-tissue like a nail and breaking it down. What nature could not do since the beginning of time, man has achieved in no time at all. He is the only being that destroys the nutrient value of his food before consumption.

Here follows an interesting study from Denmark, where death due to diabetes for 100,000 population and the use of sugar consumption per year per person are displayed.

Year Death Sugar Intake Per Person/Year
1880  1.8    13.5 kg
1911   8.0    37.6 kg
1934  19.1   51.3 kg
1955  34.3  74.7 kg
1975  78.6   81.8 kg

In the USA the population takes up to 25% of their  calories from sugar. In the year 1870 diabetes was almost unknown. In 1880 the sugar and sweets intake were 18 kg, in 1927 - 70 kg, in 1950 - 101 kg  person/year.  Nevertheless to date, the cancer hospitals and children's hospitals feed patients with 'denatured' food, conserves, white sugar, white flour etc. trying their best but feed the cancer and other illness of their patients.

Health can only come when we take responsibility for our own body, mind, soul and the environment. Faith without action is dead, the same as food without life-force is dead.

The Relationship Between Sugar and Brain Power - It is common knowledge, that sugar (meaning natural sugar) is the principal food for the brain. Now, what can we learn from sugar, as it is consumed on  an every day basis? There is a saying, that our so-called civilised population does not use its intelligence! How can we prove whether this is true or not? The German department of education has the statistics for their country. Between 1890 and 1940 they have observed a loss of intelligence of 10 %. This means a diminution of the general ability down to one sixth, a diminution of the talented to one half. In contrast the amount of mentally slow persons has tripled. The mental retarded increased four times and there are thirty times more half-idiots than in the time of the Renaissance. I do not want to mention the further diminution of intelligence at this point. However we can say that the loss of intelligence is equivalent to a death sentence.  For our great-great grand parents it must appear, that today's so-called intelligent man is rather a dull person. In these times our genius is hardly ever challenged. Creative acts are performed by a minority with creative power. What originally made humans human was the creative force within.

We can see it in any political theatre, how weak and uncertain the decisions are; or in science, a repaired instrument just gets worse after it returns from the repair-shop. The problems have increased with the consumption of industrial sugar and white starch. The brain was originally stimulated and fed by natural fruit-sugar. This has given the brain its stability and structural thinking patterns.

Fruits coming mostly from mono-cultures, soaked in pesticides and environmental toxins are far from being a good brain-food. The consumption of dead sugar is on an astronomic high. The brain collapses and acts crazy and unreasonable because of the influence of white sugar. This contributes also to family problems - including violence. 

In USA, in 1970 there were 40 millions of people that used medical help because of emotional disturbances. Half of USA is suffering knowingly from one or other mental disturbance and outbreak of violence. In large towns like London there are for every 1000 citizens 30 idiots. We can observe that the performance in schools shrinks from year to year. Now there are already first-graders using the help of teachers at home. The German educational department mentions in 1978, that in Hamburg of 2000 children of the age of six, 55% suffer from important emotional disturbances, 20% have anorexia, 20% have sleeping problems. Out of all foods, sugar is certainly the No1. killer. Starch, which is certainly consumed in no less quantity than sugar in the civilised world is another great contributor for our public mess and loss of intelligence.

Intelligence and feeling are very closely liked. It is not surprising, that in our time there are so many people suffering from violent emotional pain. The brain is the commander of everything. When we destroy the brain, we basically destroy humanity, which depends on brain-power at all times.

It is astonishing where you can find sugar already in today's food. Even in fish conserves you can find among the ingredients the presence of industrial sugar. Any other substance with the same Atomic density is called poison and cannot be obtained without a medical prescription and then only a few grams of it. Poisons are sometimes prescribed in order to cure an illness. However, the purpose of Sugar is to destroy humanity together with its dignity and creative power. It is one of the most sinister products ever made to be legally sold as food.

Sugar linked with mental problems in Norway study - Oslo teens who drank the most sugary soft drinks also had more mental health problems such as hyperactivity and distress, Norwegian researchers reported on Thursday.

Their study of more than 5,000 Norwegian 15- and 16-year-olds showed a clear and direct association between soft drink intake and hyperactivity, and a more complex link with other mental and behavioral disorders.

They surveyed the students, asking them how many fizzy soft drinks with sugar they had a day, and then questions from a standard questionnaire used to assess mental health.

The teens who reported skipping breakfast and lunch were among the heaviest soft drink consumers, Dr. Lars Lien and colleagues at the University of Oslo found.

"There was a strong association between soft drink consumption and mental health problems among Oslo 10th graders," they wrote in their report, published in the American Journal of Public Health.

"This association remained significant after adjustment for social, behavioral and food-related disorders."

Most of the students said they drank anywhere between one and six servings of soft drinks per week.

Those who drank no soft drinks at all were more likely than moderate drinkers to have mental health symptoms, the researchers said. But those who drank the most -- more than six servings a week - had the highest scores.

For hyperactivity, there was a direct linear relationship -- the more sodas a teen drank, the most symptoms of hyperactivity he or she had.

The worst problems were seen in boys and girls who drank four or more soft drinks a day. Ten percent of the boys and 2 percent of the girls drank this much.

The researchers said it was possible that other substances in the soft drinks, such as caffeine, were to blame for the symptoms, and they did not check other possible sources of refined sugar in the children's diets.

But they said many of the teens were clearly drinking too many sugary drinks. Norway's recommended intake is 10 percent of the day's total calories from sugar and the researchers said at least a quarter of the boys were getting this much from soft drinks alone.

"One simple and effective measure to reduce soft drink consumption in this age group would be to remove soft drink machines from schools and other public places where adolescents gather," they wrote. 

Please do not overlook the dangers of artificial sweeteners.

SCIENTISTS PROVE SUPERIOR NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ORGANIC FOOD - Researchers at Rutgers University set-out to disprove the claim that 'Organic Is Better'. They purchased selections of produce at and healthfood stores and analyzed for mineral content. Organic foods were those grown without the use of chemical pesticides or artificial fertilizers. Non-organic foods, referred to here as 'commercial,' were grown with a variety of chemicals that enhance growth or destroy pests, many of which are known or suspected carcinogens (cancer-causing) and which cause greater erosion to the environment and wildlife. The idea that organic crops are nutritionally superior has been accepted largely on faith. There has been very little hard evidence to support this supposition. Rutgers researchers expected the organic produce to be maybe slightly higher in comparison, but the results were astounding! The amount of iron in the organic spinach was 97% more than the commercial spinach, and the manganese was 99% greater in the organic. Many essential trace elements were completely absent in the commercial produce whereas they were abundant, comparatively, in their organically grown counterparts.

MAJOR MINERALS  

Milliequivalents per 100 Grams Dry Weight: Trace Elements, Parts per Million Dry Matter

MINERAL: PHOSPHOROUS MAGNESIUM

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 10.45 0.36 COMMERCIAL 4.04 0.22
CABBAGE ORGANIC 10.38 0.38 COMMERCIAL 6.12 0.18
LETTUCE ORGANIC 24.48 0.43 COMMERCIAL 7.01 0.22
TOMATOES ORGANIC 14.2 0.35 COMMERCIAL 6.07 0.16
SPINACH ORGANIC 28.56 0.52 COMMERCIAL 12.38 0.27

MINERAL: SODIUM MANGANESE

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 40.5 60 COMMERCIAL 15.5 14.8
CABBAGE ORGANIC 60.0 43.6 COMMERCIAL 17.5 13.6
LETTUCE ORGANIC 71 49.3 COMMERCIAL 16 13.1
TOMATOES ORGANIC 23 59.2 COMMERCIAL 4.5 4.5
SPINACH ORGANIC 96 203.9 COMMERCIAL 47.5 46.9

MINERAL: COPPER ASH

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 99.7 8.6 COMMERCIAL 29.1 0.9
CABBAGE ORGANIC 148.3 20.4 COMMERCIAL 33.7 0.8
LETTUCE ORGANIC 176.5 12.2 COMMERCIAL 53.7 0
TOMATOES ORGANIC 148.3 6.5 COMMERCIAL 58.8 0
SPINACH ORGANIC 237 69.5 COMMERCIAL 84.6 0

MINERAL: CALCIUM POTASSIUM

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 73 60 COMMERCIAL 10 2
CABBAGE ORGANIC 42 13 COMMERCIAL 7 2
LETTUCE ORGANIC 37 169 COMMERCIAL 6 1
TOMATOES ORGANIC 36 68 COMMERCIAL 3 1
SPINACH ORGANIC 88 117 COMMERCIAL 12 1

MINERAL: BORON IRON

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 227 69 COMMERCIAL 10 3
CABBAGE ORGANIC 94 48 COMMERCIAL 20 0.4
LETTUCE ORGANIC 516 60 COMMERCIAL 9 3
TOMATOES ORGANIC 1938 53 COMMERCIAL 1 0
SPINACH ORGANIC 1584 32 COMMERCIAL 49 0.3

MINERAL: COBALT

SNAP BEANS ORGANIC 0.26 COMMERCIAL 0
CABBAGE ORGANIC 0.15 COMMERCIAL 0
LETTUCE ORGANIC 0.19 COMMERCIAL 0
TOMATOES ORGANIC 0.63 COMMERCIAL 0
SPINACH ORGANIC 0.25 COMMERCIAL 0.2