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March 2 - May 5, 2022
It’s not what you eat but what you absorb, and cooked tomatoes appear able to better boost your lycopene levels.
Thankfully, there is a solution that is both cheap and effective: salt water. A 10 percent saltwater rinse has been found to work as well as full-strength vinegar.86 To make your own pesticide-reducing bath, add one part salt to nine parts water.
Many are surprised to learn (I know I was!) that a review of hundreds of studies found that organic produce does not seem to have significantly more vitamins and minerals. Organic fruits and vegetables do, however, appear to have more nontraditional nutrients like polyphenol antioxidants,
Based on its elevated antioxidant levels, organic produce may be considered 20–40 percent healthier, the equivalent of adding one or two servings’ worth to a five-a-day regimen.
At least half your plate should be filled with vegetables. Here’s a simple rule: Include vegetables in everything, and the more the better. Bean burritos are better than carnitas, but better still is a bean burrito with lots of veggies wrapped inside. Instead of spaghetti with marinara sauce, make it spaghetti with marinara sauce … and loads of veggies. Marinara is certainly better than Alfredo, but it’s even better still to go the extra veggie mile and heap on your favorite vegetables.
The Global Burden of Disease Study calculated that not eating enough nuts and seeds was the third-leading dietary risk factor for death and disability in the world, killing more people than processed meat consumption. Insufficient nut and seed intake is thought to lead to the deaths of millions of people every year, fifteen times more than all those who die from overdoses of heroin, crack cocaine, and all other illicit drugs combined.
A clinical study found that men who ate three to four handfuls of pistachios a day for three weeks experienced a significant improvement in blood flow through the penis, accompanied by significantly firmer erections.
The flavors are the antioxidants. You can use this knowledge to help you make decisions at the grocery store. You can see that red onions have more antioxidants than white, and you can taste that regular onions have more antioxidants than mellower, milder Vidalia-type onions.
There’s evidence to suggest that the cooked and raw forms may have different properties. Cooked turmeric appears to offer better DNA protection, while raw turmeric may have greater anti-inflammatory effects.
Well, curcumin is described as the active ingredient in turmeric,24 but is it the active ingredient or just an active ingredient? In fact, it’s just one of many different components of the whole-food spice.
Fenugreek appears to significantly improve muscle strength and weight-lifting power output, allowing men in training, for example, to leg press an extra eighty pounds compared to those ingesting a placebo.
Mother Nature has been described as the most comprehensive pharmacy of all time, and cilantro is one of her oldest herbal prescriptions.46 About twenty sprigs of cilantro daily for two months reduced inflammation levels in arthritis sufferers and cut uric-acid levels in half, suggesting that lots of cilantro may be useful for people suffering from gout.
Unlike the wimpy medical students who rated the nose burning as an eight or nine on the ten-point pain scale, those used to the violence of cluster headache attacks rated the pain caused by capsaicin at only a three or four. By day five, they too became desensitized to the pain of the capsaicin.
double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial was performed comparing the efficacy of ginger for the treatment of migraine headaches to sumatriptan (Imitrex), one of the top-selling, billion-dollar drugs in the world. Just one-eighth of a teaspoon of powdered ginger worked just as well and just as fast as the drug (and costs less than a penny). Most migraine sufferers started with moderate or severe pain, but after taking the drug or the ginger, ended up in mild pain or were entirely pain-free. The same proportion of migraine sufferers reported satisfaction with the results either way.
The researchers concluded that oregano may “act as a potent radioprotective agent.”
when you smoke a spice or make a water-based solution like liquid smoke, the smoke flavor compounds are captured without capturing most of the smoke cancer compounds.
“Whole-grain intake cools down inflammation.”18 Even excluding heart disease and cancer, habitual whole-grain intake is linked to a significantly lower risk of dying from inflammatory diseases.
This is what’s called the nocebo effect. The placebo effect takes place when you give patients something useless and they feel better; the nocebo effect occurs when you give someone something harmless and they feel worse.
So only about 2 percent of the population appears to have a problem with wheat, but that’s potentially millions of people who may have been suffering for years and could have been cured by simple dietary means, yet were unrecognized and not helped by the medical profession until recently.
For the 98 percent of people who don’t have wheat issues, there is no evidence to suggest that following a gluten-free diet has any benefits.
Less than a week of added gluten protein may significantly increase natural killer cell activity,42 which could be expected to improve the body’s ability to fight cancer and viral infections.
The reason people may feel better on a gluten-free diet—and therefore conclude they have a problem with gluten—is because they’ve suddenly stopped eating so much fast food and other processed junk. In other words, if you eat a deep-fried Twinkie and your stomach aches, it may not be the gluten.
There is a wonderful universe of whole grains out there. You may have tried quinoa, but what about kañiwa or fonio? Even wild rice (which is not actually even rice) may not sound as wild as the grain called freekeh. Have fun and try some amaranth, millet, sorghum, or teff to expand the amber waves of your horizon. Buckwheat is my mom’s favorite.
consider cooking a big pot in advance on the weekend so you can simply reheat for your meals throughout the week. Or get a rice cooker—you can buy one for less than twenty dollars.
Thpuught recridgeratingcrice was bad idea?
when you eat grains intact, even if you chew your food thoroughly, pieces of whole seeds and grains transport starch and other goodies all the way down to your colon for your flora to feast on.58 But when grains are unnaturally processed into flour, almost all of the starch is digested in the small intestine, and you end up starving your microbial self. When that happens regularly, it can result in dysbiosis, an imbalance in which bad bacteria can take over and increase your susceptibility to inflammatory diseases or colon cancer.59 The moral of the story: Whole grains are great, but intact
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A morning oatmeal habit is a great way to kick-start your day, and then there are a variety of quick-cooking whole grains that serve as convenient, filling ways to fight chronic disease risk all day long.
there’s actually extensive evidence suggesting that not drinking enough water may be associated with a variety of problems, including falls and fractures, heat stroke, heart disease, lung disorders, kidney disease, kidney stones, bladder and colon cancer, urinary tract infections, constipation, dry-eye disease, cavities, decreased immune function, and cataract formation.
recommend you drink five glasses of tap water a day. I prefer tap not only because it’s less economically and environmentally costly but because it may have less chemical and microbial contamination than bottled water.
One of my colleagues at work has a SodaStream on his desk, and he makes his own sparkling water for about twenty-five cents a cup. In addition to making water more interesting, carbonation may also help relieve gastrointestinal symptoms. A randomized trial of the effects of sparkling versus still water found that drinking carbonated water may improve symptoms of constipation and dyspepsia, including bloating and nausea.
People with glaucoma,39 or perhaps even with merely a family history of glaucoma,40 may also want to stay away from caffeinated coffee. Coffee intake is associated with urinary incontinence in both women41 and men.
The culprit compound, cafestol, is found in the oils of coffee beans that become trapped in the paper filter, so drip coffee doesn’t raise cholesterol as much as french press, boiled, or Turkish (“mud”-style) coffee.
“low-dose” caffeine, which was defined as drinking fewer than about six cups of coffee a day, may even have a protective effect on heart rhythm.
drinking a few cups of coffee a day may actually extend your life a bit54 and even has the potential to slightly lower your overall cancer risk.
Drinking tea may protect against gynecological malignancies, such as ovarian cancer59 and endometrial cancer,60 as well as lower your cholesterol,61 blood pressure,62 blood sugar,63 and body fat.64 It may protect the brain from both cognitive decline65 and stroke.66 Tea consumption is also associated with decreased risk of diabetes,67 tooth loss,68 and up to half the risk of dying from pneumonia.69 Those who suffer from seasonal allergies
Alpha, however, is where you want to be—fully alert and focused, yet calm. How do you get there? If you relax in a pleasant, peaceful place, after about ninety minutes, you can start to generate some significant alpha activity (though such practicing meditators as Buddhist monks can achieve this state much earlier and maintain it even with their eyes open). To acquire this talent, you could meditate every day for a few years—or you could just drink some tea. Within minutes of tea consumption, anyone may be able to attain that same relaxed but alert brain-wave pattern.73 That dramatic
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Which tea is healthier? The answer seems to depend on whether or not you add lemon. If you drink your tea without lemon, green tea appears preferable to white tea. But if you add lemon, white tea jumps ahead.
the consumption of kombucha “should be discouraged,” according to one case report of a person who ended up in a coma after drinking the stuff.
During the 1990s, research out of Japan found that steviosides, the “active” ingredient in stevia, appeared harmless. But in the guts of rats, intestinal bacteria transformed steviosides into a toxic substance called steviol, which can cause a big spike in mutagenic DNA damage in vitro.88 Unfortunately, it turns out that humans have the same bacterial activity in their guts.89 It’s the dose that makes the poison, though.
As with any sour food or beverage, make sure to rinse your mouth with water after consumption to prevent the natural acids from dissolving your enamel.100 Do not brush your teeth within an hour after eating or drinking something sour, as your enamel may be in a softened state and be further damaged by brushing.101 If you sip continuously throughout the day, I suggest using a straw to bypass your teeth.102
research suggests that the level of physical activity may have actually increased in the United States over the past few decades.5 We know that obesity is rising even in areas where people are exercising more.6 This is likely explained by the fact that eating activity levels are outstripping physical activity levels.
Screen time in general—including playing video games—appears to be a risk factor for premature death.
sedentary sitting. After tracking the health of more than one hundred thousand Americans for fourteen years, an American Cancer Society study found that men who sit for six hours or more per day have a 20 percent higher overall death rate compared to men who sit for three hours or less, while women who sit for more than six hours have a 40 percent higher death rate.
And they don’t have to be long. Breaks could be as short as one minute and not necessarily entail strenuous exercise—just walking up and down stairs may be enough. Another option at a sedentary workplace is to opt for “walking meetings” rather than traditional sit-downs.
Smoking a single cigarette can significantly impair endothelial function.28 Diet-wise, drinking green tea every two hours can help keep your endothelium functional,29 as can eating meals with greens and other nitrate-rich vegetables.
the combination of curcumin and exercise appears to work even better than either option alone.
you’re suffering from an inflammatory reaction, might anti-inflammatory phytonutrients help? The bioflavonoids in citrus can help with the lactic acid buildup,33 but you may need to ramp up to the anthocyanin flavonoids in berries to deal with the inflammation.
guys doing arm curls taking about 1,000 mg of vitamin C ended up with more muscle damage and oxidative stress.
After two months of eating a daily serving of watercress, no DNA damage resulted, no matter how much it seemed the subjects were punished on the treadmill.
Rather than taking drugs, you can prevent the numbing of your pleasure center in the first place by sticking to green-light foods. This can help return your dopamine sensitivity to normal levels so that you can again derive the same pleasure from the simplest of foods.
When you regularly eat calorie-dense animal products and junk foods like ice cream, it’s not just your taste buds that change but your brain chemistry.
