Crouching Garnish, Hidden SuperFood: The Secret Life of Kale

Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

Could kale, a less domesticated, disheveled form of cabbage, really be one of the most potent healing foods in existence today?

Few foods commonly available at the produce stand are as beneficial to your health as kale. And yet, sadly, it is more commonly found dressing up something not as healthy in a display case as a decoration than on someone's plate where it belongs.

Kale is actually a form of cabbage that evaded domestication, sharing many of the same traits as wilder plant relatives unafraid of holding on to their bitter principle, and relatively unruly appearance.

Kale is perfectly content letting its luscious green leafy hair down, being the 'hippie' member of a family that includes the more tightly wound broccoli, cauliflower and the Brussel sprout, whose greater respectability as far as most restaurant menus go means kale is more likely to be found forgotten, shriveling up somewhere on the bottom shelf of someone's refrigerator, no doubt possessed by someone with every intention (but not the time and appetite enough) to eat it.

But please do not underestimate this formidable plant, which grows as high as six to seven feet in the right conditions, casting a shadow as long as the impressive list of beneficial nutritional components it contains. Its nutritional density, in fact, is virtually unparalleled among green leafy vegetables.

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Pinkwashing Hell: Breast Removal as a Form of "Prevention"


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Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

Following closely on the heels of the year's most intensive annual cause-marketing campaign, October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, two chilling events of grave concern to women and their health were widely (but mostly superficially) reported on in the mainstream media.

First, Allyn Rose, Miss America contestant, announced in early November that she would be undergoing a double mastectomy to "prevent" breast cancer. Rose, a healthy 24-year old Maryland native who lost her mother to breast cancer when she was 16, has been lauded by certain media outlets as an "awareness raising" role model for having the courage to take this "precautionary step" and for spreading her mastectomy-inspired "message of preventive health care" to the masses. Many of the reports discussed how her decision was spurned by her awareness of having a genetic predisposition for breast cancer.

Second, on Nov. 22nd, the New England Journal of Medicine published a review of the past 30 years of mammography finding that not only has the widespread promotion and adoption of breast screenings by millions of women not reduced their mortality (on the contrary, screenings have increased their relative risk of mortality), but that 1.3 million of these women were overdiagnosed and wrongly treated for abnormal findings that were not even cancer, i.e. were screening detected breast abnormalities that if left untreated would have caused no harm to women.

Not surprisingly, this paradigm-challenging finding, in the tradition of embargoed science, was exactly timed to be released to the public on the eve of a major holiday.

10 Tips for a Thinner Thanksgiving

English: Oven roasted turkey, common fare for ...
English: Oven roasted turkey, common fare for Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
 
Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, so why not go ahead and splurge? Because gaining weight during the holiday season is a national pastime. Year after year, most of us pack on at least a pound (some gain more) during the holidays -- and keep the extra weight permanently.
But Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your weight, experts say. With a little know-how, you can satisfy your desire for traditional favorites and still enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving feast. After all, being stuffed is a good idea only if you are a turkey!


THE TOP 10  - CLICK HERE

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Study Links BPA to Lower Thyroid Function

3D chemical structure of bisphenol A
3D chemical structure of bisphenol A (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ever since a study showed bisphenol A (BPA), a major molecule used in the plastic industry, was an endocrine disruptor that could exert negative effects on human health, it has been the focus of even more health studies.

The latest, by researchers in France, has found that an unborn child exposed to BPA can be at increased risk of lowered thyroid function. The findings are based on a study of newborn sheep.
Hypothyroidism is characterized by poor mental and physical performance in human adults and in children can result in cognitive impairment and failure to grow normally.

Read the Rest Here>>>>>>>>>>>

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Kitchen Chemicals Hurt Fertility


Chemicals in the kitchen may put human reproduction at risk.
Exposure to common chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may hamper a couple's efforts to conceive a child, a new study shows.
"This suggests that some environmental chemicals might be important for human reproduction, specifically the time it takes couples to get pregnant," said lead researcher Germaine Buck Louis, director of the division of epidemiology, statistics and prevention research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, Md.


Experts Now Blame Parents Who Discipline Their Children for Future Cancer, Cardiac Disease and Asthma


Andrew Puhanic, Contributor
Activist Post

A new study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine has concluded that parents who discipline their children place them at greater risk of developing health related problems later in life.

Researchers from Plymouth University in the United Kingdom based their study on the parenting styles of parents from Saudi Arabia and discovered that there was a link between parents who used physical punishment and insults as a means of discipline and the incidence of cancer, cardiac disease and asthma of their children later in life.

It was also discovered that parents who discipline their children by smacking them only once per month significantly increased the risk for developing cancer, cardiac disease and asthma.

The lead researcher, Professor Michael Hyland, was quoted as saying:
This study shows that in a society where corporal punishment is considered normal, the use of corporal punishment is sufficiently stressful to have the same kinds of long-term impact as abuse and trauma.
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How Dangerous Is Genetically Modified Food?


Alex Daley
Casey Research

Last month, a group of Australian scientists published a warning to the citizens of the country and of the world who collectively gobble up some $34 billion annually of its agricultural exports. The warning concerned the safety of a new type of wheat.

image source

As Australia's number-one export, a $6-billion annual industry, and the most-consumed grain locally, wheat is of the utmost importance to the country. A serious safety risk from wheat – a mad wheat disease of sorts – would have disastrous effects for the country and for its customers.

Which is why the alarm bells are being rung over a new variety of wheat being ushered toward production by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia. In a sense, the crop is little different than the wide variety of modern genetically modified foods. A sequence of the plant's genes has been turned off to change the wheat's natural behavior a bit, to make it more commercially viable (hardier, higher yielding, slower decaying, etc.).

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All About Bee Pollen And Diabetes – How Bee Pollen Can Aid In Weight Management In Diabetics

Unidentified Meliponini bee, covered with poll...
Unidentified Meliponini bee, covered with pollen, visiting a flower of the Vegetable Sponge Gourd (Luffa cylindrica) in Campinas, Brazil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There have been a lot of research about this supplement and its positive effects in counteracting complications and side effects of diabetes. Diabetes is a difficult disease to live with everyday because it costs time, and effort to manage.

One complaint of is weight gain. Bee pollen can help patients deal with diabetes and the weight gain associated with it.

Bee pollen is considered the ultimate food because of its high content of nutrients that is unmatched by any other substance. This is the reason why besides diabetes, it is also used in lowering the risk of cancer and other forms .

Bee pollen helps aid in managing weight with diabetes and its other complications because of its following benefits:
  • it is not loaded with calories that can add up to a person’s weight. in fact, it is considered a low-calorie food.
  • This substance also enhances a person’s metabolic process. This is essential in proper digestion of food in order for the calories and nutrients to be absorbed by the body.
  • it contains an amino acid called phenylalanine that acts as a natural suppressant. it makes a person crave less for food. Perfect for those with obesity problems besides diabetes.
  • Lecithin is another component of this natural substance that can benefit those with diabetes and obesity problem. it helps dissolves excess fat in the body in order to be used as energy.
  • it does not contain high like those in honey. This is good news for who need to control their sugar intake.
This supplement makes it possible for diabetics to fight obesity by letting them have a healthier and weight control regimen. This can also lessen other complications from diabetes such as slow healing of wounds and fatigue.

Bee pollen can be taken as a supplement because eating it as it is may not be as pleasant as other food. are convenient and are easier to take. Unfortunately not all of it is made of good quality. Invest in that use pure bee pollen without any preservative included.
The best pollens are those harvested in new Zealand because it is known to be one of the cleanest places on Earth. Pollens are affected by pollution and its potency greatly diminishes if gotten from polluted places.

So invest only in bee pollen supplements that are free from contaminants and toxins in order to help manage diabetes and obesity effectively.
LINK
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Crazy in love: What happens in your brain when you really do have chemistry


love
Scientists have mapped the chemical changes that occur and discovered the parts of the brain that activate - and more importantly, the parts that shut down - during the heady days of courtship. And far from being blissful, they have discovered how it can make us nervous and unstable.

The Milk Cure: Real Milk Cures Many Diseases

Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by J. R. Crewe, MD
January 1929
The following is an edited version of an article by Dr. J. R. Crewe, of the Mayo Foundation, forerunner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, published in Certified Milk Magazine, January 1929. We are grateful to Dr. Ron Schmid, ND of Middlebury, CT for unearthing this fascinating piece. The "Milk Cure" was the subject of at least two books by other authors, written subsequently to Dr. Crewe's work. The milk used was, in all cases, the only kind of milk available in those days—raw milk from pasture-fed cows, rich in butterfat. The treatment is a combination of detoxifying fast and nutrient-dense feeding. Note that Crewe quotes William Osler, author of a standard medical textbook of the day. Thus, this protocol was an orthodox, accepted therapy in the early 1900s. Today the Mayo Clinic provides surgery and drug treatments, but nothing as efficacious and elegant as the Milk Cure.

For fifteen years the writer has employed the certified milk treatment in various diseases and during the past ten he had a small sanitarium devoted principally to this treatment. The results obtained in various types of disease have been so uniformly excellent that one's conception of disease and its alleviation is necessarily changed. The method itself is so simple that it does not greatly interest most doctors and the main stimulus for its use is from the patients themselves.
To cure disease we should seek to improve elimination, to make better blood and more blood, to build up the body resistance. The method used tends to accomplish these things. Blood conditions rapidly improve and the general condition and resistance is built up and recovery follows.
In several instances, Osler (Principles and Practices of Medicine, by William Osler, MD eighth edition) speaks of milk as being nothing more than white blood. Milk resembles blood closely and is a useful agent for improving and making new and better blood. Blood is the chief agent of metabolism. Milk is recognized in medical literature almost exclusively as a useful food and is admitted to be a complete food.
The therapy is simple. The patients are put at rest in bed and are given at half hour intervals small quantities of milk, totalling from five to ten quarts of milk a day. Most patients are started on three or four quarts of milk a day and this is usually increased by a pint a day. Diaphoresis [copious perspiration] is stimulated by hot baths and hot packs and heat in other forms. A daily enema is given.
The treatment is used in many chronic conditions but chiefly in tuberculosis, diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular and renal conditions, hypertension, and in patients who are underweight, run-down, etc. Striking results are seen in diseases of the heart and kidneys and high blood pressure. In cases in which there is marked edema, the results obtained are surprisingly marked. This is especially striking because so-called dropsy has never been treated with large quantities of fluid. With all medication withdrawn, one case lost twenty-six pounds in six days, huge edema disappearing from the abdomen and legs, with great relief to the patient. No cathartics or diuretics were given. This property of milk in edema has been noted in both cardiac and renal cases.
Patients with cardiac disease respond splendidly without medication. In patients who have been taking digitalis and other stimulants, the drugs are withdrawn. High blood pressure patients respond splendidly and the results in most instances are quite lasting. The treatment has been used successfully in obesity without other alimentation. One patient reduced from 325 pounds to 284 in two weeks, on four quarts of milk a day, while her blood pressure was reduced from 220 to 170. Some extremely satisfying results have been obtained in a few cases of diabetics.
When sick people are limited to a diet containing an excess of vitamins and all the elements necessary to growth and maintenance, which are available in milk, they recover rapidly without the use of drugs and without bringing to bear all the complicated weapons of modern medicine.
Under the head of Treatment in Chronic Gastritis, Osler has said, "A rigid milk diet should be tried" (Principles and Practices of Medicine, by William Osler, M.D., eighth edition). And quoting from George Cheyne, he wrote, "Milk and sweet sound blood differ in nothing but color: milk is blood." Under the heading of treatment in many diseases, it was true that he had little to say about drugs but did say a good deal about diet and particularly as in most every instance he recommended large quantities of milk.
Under chronic Bright's disease (p 704) he says, "Milk or buttermilk should constitute for a time, the chief article of food." Under treatment of cancer of stomach (p 505), he says many patients do best on milk alone. Under treatment of rheumatic fever (p 378), he says, "Milk is the most suitable diet." With Olser as a background, one need not hesitate to go a bit farther. In fact, practically all medical men are agreed as to the value of milk as a food, and as an important part of the diet in the treatment of many diseases. But as the chief remedy in the treatment of disease, it is seldom used.
For more than 16 years I have conducted a small sanitarium where milk is used almost exclusively in the treatment of various diseases. The results have been so regularly satisfactory that I have naturally become enthusiastic and interested in this method of treating disease. We used good Guernsey milk, equal to 700 calories to the quart.
Interestingly, diseases that have no similarity respond equally to this treatment. For instance, psoriasis clears up beautifully. The improvement in tuberculosis or nephritis is equally interesting but there is no similarity in these diseases. I once heard a very distinguished medical man discussing a case of psoriasis. He said, "This was the worst case of psoriasis I have ever seen. This boy was literally covered from head to foot with scales. We put this boy on a milk diet and in less than a month he had a skin like a baby's." To me, this means that there was evidently some nutritive substance or vitamin or glandular secretion lacking, that was furnished by the milk.
It is well known that there is no time in the life of practically any mammal, but especially of the human, when the body is so beautiful and perfect as during the period when milk is the only food. It will be admitted that there is no period in life when the body is so perfect as in infancy, the infant being fed on milk from a healthy mother.
The Arabs are said (Encyclopedia Brittanica) to be the finest race, physically, in the world. Their diet consists mostly of milk and milk products with fruits and vegetables, and some meat.
You are all familiar with the writings of Colonel McCarrison, a medical officer in the British Army. He tells us that for nine years he was stationed in India in a district in the Himalayan Mountains. He said that the natives were very fine physically, that they retained a youthful appearance to advanced age and lived long and that they were very fertile. During the nine years of his residence there he saw practically no disease, no cases of malignancy or of abdominal disease. The diet of these people was simple and consisted principally of vegetables and fruits and milk and milk products.
Steffanson wrote most interestingly of the Eskimo, who, when uncontaminated by civilized conditions were hardy and robust. Their diet of course was almost entirely of meat and fish. He tells us, however, that the habits of meat-eating people are similar to those of carnivorous animals. The wolf first attacks the heart and gets the blood and later eats the glandular organs and viscera, leaving the muscle meats till the last. The Eskimo does the same thing.
During one expedition Mr. Steffanson and party started on a nine months' trip over the Arctic ice with only one day's provisions. All previous Arctic explorers had said that civilized men could not live in the Arctic regions without bringing in their supplies. Mr. Steffanson and his party, during the nine months, were almost never without an abundance of food, and much of it was eaten frozen and raw. I wish to show from Steffanson's experience, first, that it is possible for people to be robust and maintain good health on various types of food of limited variety. That the condition common to all types of diet is, that much of the food is eaten raw. I wish to say here that our very excellent results obtained in the treatment of disease were had with uncooked food and raw milk.
The experience of seeing many cases of illness improve rapidly on a diet of raw milk has suggested more and more the feeling that much of modern disease is due to an increasing departure from simple methods of preparing plain foods. The treatment of various diseases over a period of 18 years with a practically exclusive milk diet has convinced me personally that the most important single factor in the cause of disease and in the resistance to disease is food. I have seen so many instances of the rapid and marked response to this form of treatment that nothing could make me believe this is not so.
We have often seen most satisfactory results in the treatment of anemia, including pernicious anemia, on a milk diet. I have repeatedly seen a marked reduction in the size of simple and toxic thyroid, with improvement in the symptoms of the toxic one. In prostatic diseases and associated conditions, this treatment will achieve rapid and marked improvement in the infection and in the reduction of the gland and lessening of obstruction. A professor of surgery in one of our state universities once said to me, "Since I have used your method in preparing prostate cases, I have had most excellent results and no mortality." I replied that if he had continued the treatment a little longer, he would not need to operate. All infections of the urinary tract are greatly improved by this treatment.
An old friend of mine, a woodworker, aged 74, had a marked heart lesion and complete prostatic obstruction, so that it was necessary to use a permanent catheter. He had been taking digitalis but this was discontinued, and he received no medication of any kind. The prostate was very large and the residual urine very foul. His recovery has been rapid, and he has been able to work since that time and is now in very good health at 77 years of age. Another local man was treated six years ago for a severe chronic winter cough and prostatic disease, which necessitated his getting up many times at night. He volunteered the information a few days ago that he had no more trouble with any illness since that time.
Indeed we had a number of patients who took the treatment for "beauty treatment." The tissues become firmer and the general appearance is markedly improved. One patient with very advanced cardiac and nephritic disease lost over thirty pounds of edema in six weeks. One would expect the large quantities of fluid would increase the edema but the above experience has been repeated many times in lesser degrees.
Hypertension responds with equal gratification. The blood pressure improves rapidly. I have never seen such rapid and lasting results by any other method. One of the patients lived almost exclusively on milk for more than three years.
About ten years ago a very sick man came to the Sanitarium suffering from a severe cystitis and nephritis. He was a diabetic. As milk contains about five percent milk sugar, it was feared that he could not manage this amount of sugar. But he did manage it, and improved in every way and in eight weeks was sugar free. My experience with milk diet in diabetes has been limited, but very interesting. These few patients, only seven or eight, have been much pleased with the results. Insulin was used for a time in some of the cases. They all became sugar free, or nearly so, after from four to ten weeks. From the fact that these patients were able to use a much more liberal diet than diabetics usually can take [after the treatment], it would seem to indicate that at least a partial regeneration of the pancreas is not impossible.
Recently I received a letter from a soldier who was confined in a government hospital in Arizona [for tuberculosis]. He said a former patient of mine had induced him to try this method. He said that he had done so well that a number of the men were also attempting it and he had written for more definite instructions. He also said that the patients had to buy their own milk and received no encouragement from the hospital authorities.
There is a large class of patients who are ill but in whom no definite organic lesion can be found. These patients are often underweight. They may consume a fairly large amount of food but they do not gain in weight or strength. These patients do respond admirably to our system of large quantities of milk.
The chief fault of the treatment is that it is too simple. Patients attempt to do it at home, but there are many pitfalls, and it does not appeal to the modern medical man.

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Why You Need to Avoid Low Fat Milk and Cheese


Low Fat MilkJust about every piece of dietary advice you can find recommends low-fat or non-fat dairy. But a growing number of experts are arguing that it's healthier to eat and drink dairy products with all the fat left in.
The fat in dairy foods is roughly 50 to 60 percent saturated fat, but the idea that this is bad for your heart may be nothing more than a mistaken interpretation of the science. In a 2010 analysis, scientists said:
"...There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of [coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease]."
What's more, according to dLife:
"If only half of dairy fat is the saturated kind, what kind is the rest? Dairy fat contains lots of oleic acid (the stuff that makes olive oil so healthy), along with a type of fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) that may help with weight loss. Recent studies strongly suggest that something -- possibly the CLA -- in dairy fat does indeed help with weight management."
 
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Eating curry every day can 'stave off infections'

It’s the perfect excuse for a take-away – experts say a curry a day could keep infections at bay.

U.S. research has shown that curcumin, which is found in the popular curry spice turmeric, causes a sizeable increase in a protein that boosts the immune system.
It helps the body to fight bacteria and viruses, including those that cause tuberculosis, even if it has not encountered them before, the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry reports.
Health benefits: A chemical found in curry spice turmeric helps fight infection
Health benefits: A chemical found in curry spice turmeric helps fight infection
Professor Adrian Gombart of Oregon State University, who found that curcumin caused levels of the protein, cathelicidin anti-microbial peptide, to almost triple, said: ‘Curcumin is generally consumed in the diet at fairly low levels.

'However, it’s possible that sustained consumption over time may be healthy and help protect against infection, especially in the stomach and intestinal tract.’
Immune boost: Curcumin in turmeric caused levels of the protein, cathelicidin anti-microbial peptide, to almost triple
Immune boost: Curcumin in turmeric caused levels of the protein, cathelicidin anti-microbial peptide, to almost triple
He added: ‘This research points to a new avenue for regulating CAMP gene expression.

‘It’s interesting and somewhat surprising that curcumin can do that, and could provide another tool to develop medical therapies.’ 

He said that the impact of curcumin wasn’t nearly as potent as that of vitamin D but said it could still have physiological value.

Curcumin is also believed to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Prof Gombart and his colleague Chunxiao Guo had looked at the potential of both curcumin and omega-3 fatty acids to increase expression of the CAMP gene.  

They found no increase with the omega-3 fatty acids, but curcumin caused levels of CAMP to almost triple.

Vitamin D has been studied intently in recent years for its potential therapeutic benefits in treating a range of diseases including cancer.

Prof Gombart said that any alternative ways of eliciting the same biological response merited further research. 

Turmeric has been used for 2500 years as a medicinal compound and also in religious ceremonies, as well as being a favourite ingredient in curry.
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