What are “superfoods” and “superfruits”? Neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor the Merriam-Webster Dictionary recognizes either term; but as our language evolves, one of these days, they may.
What are “superfoods” and “superfruits”? Neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor the Merriam-Webster Dictionary recognizes either term; but as our language evolves, one of these days, they may.
Increasingly, Americans are getting wise to the important health benefits of eating whole, unprocessed, chemical-free foods. A great way to ensure that the foods that you and your family eat are all-natural, is to grow them yourself! Growing your own foods can also be great fun.
In the case of vegetables, it might surprise some folks to know that you don’t need a whole lot of land to grow them. Whether you have a lot of space, or a relatively small plot, with a series of simple steps, you, too, can be on your way to harvesting your favorites from among the thousands of vegetable varieties. In the end, they will be much cheaper, and often better-tasting, than the store-bought kind!
Plants and herbs have been used for millennia to treat a myriad of medical conditions. The first apothecaries (pharmacies) were stocked with botanical ingredients, and the practice of using these plants today is as strong as ever.
Well-established medical organizations in most developed countries recognize the healing benefits of plants and herbs. Pharmacognosy, the study of medicines derived from natural sources, is a growing medical and pharmacological discipline.
How would you like for your doctor to tell you that to help you stay healthy, you will need to start having a glass of red wine with your dinner and eating chocolate daily?
Many people who enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages rejoiced not long ago, when researchers told us that light to moderate daily consumption of alcohol helps to promote good health. A little alcohol a day has been found to lower a person’s risk of dying from heart disease and stroke, improve circulation and lower blood pressure.
A new study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that people who drink diet soda regularly are more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who don’t, while coffee drinkers are slightly less likely to develop depression than people who do not drink coffee.
The study is to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in March, 2013. It examines more than 260 thousand people between 50 and 71 years old, and studied their soda and coffee consumption between 1995 and 1996. Ten years later, researchers asked the participants whether they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000.
Researchers found that the risk for depression was (more…)
A genetically modified organism is an organism whose DNA has been altered through genetic engineering techniques, also called biotechnology, or recombinant DNA technology. One or more genes can be added in a laboratory from one species to another. Organisms that have been modified in this manner include plants, bacteria and yeast, insects, fish, and mammals. Organisms are genetically altered to produce foods, as well as non-edible goods.
In the case of foods and agriculture, genetically modified crops are engineered for (more…)
Constipation can affect all of us some of the time. And according to the National Digestive Diseases Clearinghouse, four million adults in the United States suffer from constipation frequently — earning the laxative manufacturing industry three-quarters of a billion dollars a year!
You are constipated, if you: (more…)
There is no other single ingredient that exists in greater abundance in our bodies than water.
About sixty percent of the human body is made up of water. The brain is 70 percent water; blood is 83 percent water; lean muscle tissue is 75 percent water. Even bones — hard, unwieldy bones — are 22 percent water! Babies have the highest water content; an infant is made up of 78 percent water when he or she is born.
Drinking plenty of water every day, whether (more…)
It is hard to escape, or to not be captivated by, those glitzy, high-priced TV ads that soda manufacturers inundate TV viewers with.
In 2011, The Coca-Cola Company, the world’s biggest soda and beverage manufacturer, spent an astounding $3 billion in advertising — more than one-third of its $8 billion net income profits for the same year. With that kind of promotional budget, the company continues to be very successful at selling many consumers on the idea that its sodas are not harmful to people’s health, or are even good for those who drink them.
Surely, a company that has been around for more than one hundred years couldn’t be selling us bad products. Or could it?
There are so many reasons why a person (more…)