The Health Revolution - 5 Superfoods

We are in the midst of a health revolution: twenty-five years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find any scientific papers highlighting the importance of our diet in relation to our health; today, the medical journals are filled with such references. It appears that the scientific world is finally recognizing that the foods we eat play a key role in the health and disease that we experience.

The Well-Balanced Diet - a myth?

Many of us believe that if we are eating a well-balanced diet, that we are receiving all the necessary nutrients for optimum health. However, according to a leading nutritionist, Patrick Holford, no single piece of research over the past decade and a half has been able to support this assumption. It appears that the concept of the "well-balanced diet" is a myth; the foods we eat do not give us the nutrition that we need.

The problem stems from today's practice of over-farming and the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals exhaust the soil of its nutrients and kill off the micro-organisms that change inorganic minerals into organic form. As a result, we can no longer rely upon the nutritional quality of our food. Indeed, the vegetables and fruits in our supermarkets can have only fractions of the vitamins and minerals that they had earlier this century. Some oranges have even been found to have no vitamin C! It may be no coincidence that this dramatic fall in the quality of our food is shadowed by the equally dramatic rise in degenerative diseases and immunological problems.

It is always a surprise for people when they start to eat high-quality, organically grown foods, for only then do they truly understand the importance of diet. They find that food not only sustains them but can positively influence their health, lifting them to new levels of well-being and vitality. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, recognized this fact over two and a half thousand years ago and wrote, "Each one of the substances of a man's diet acts upon his body and changes it in some way, and upon these changes his whole life depends, whether he be in health, in sickness, or convalescence."

Five Superfoods

Quick List for people in a hurry

If you are in a hurry, here's a quick list. If you have a few minutes, then you can read more details about each of these foods below. Alternatively, print them off for reading at your leisure.

1. Blackstrap molasses

2. Lecithin enriched with high level of Phosphatidyl Choline

3. Klamath Lake Blue Green Algae

4. Garlic

5. Live Sprouts
   
   More superfoods will follow in subsequent newsletters
   
   Blackstrap Molasses

   Blackstrap molasses is the by-product of sugar refining. It contains all the minerals, vitamins and trace elements lost in the refining process that makes sugar such an empty food. A tablespoon of blackstrap molasses contains as much calcium as a glass of milk, as much iron as ten small eggs, more potassium than virtually any other food, and a whole host of B vitamins and vitamin E. It's also rich in magnesium and copper. The taste varies greatly from brand to brand, so try them all until you find the one you like best. Then take about a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses a day. It works well if you add the juice of half a lemon to a cup of hot water and then add a tablespoon of the molasses. Your skin and hair will love it, and women who are anaemic will greatly benefit. It's a great pickup when you've been working too hard and need extra nutritional support. It's a good idea to clean your teeth after taking black strap molasses with lemonjuice.

Lecithin

Lecithin is found in some foods, most notably egg yolk and soybeans. It also comes in supplementary granular form.

Lecithin has many important functions in the body:

• Think of it as nature's washing up liquid - it helps with digestion and absorption of fat. It helps with the breakdown of fat and cholesterol.

• Lecithin has also been shown to increase immunity to viral infections and help prevent gallstones.

• It's a good source of choline. One of the most important nutrients associated with the brain and nervous system is phosphatidyl choline. Studies have shown that granular lecithin enriched with extra phosphatidyl choline can enhance learning, improve memory, stimulate lagging brain functions in older people and even help regulate the dramatic mood-swings of manic depressives.

• The choline found in lecithin is used to make acetylcholine in the body. Acetylcholine is a very important neurotransmitter (neurotransmitters pass messages from cell to cell, so that we can think, feel and act). When there is too little acetylcholine available in the body, the ability to reason, remember and control muscles all over the body goes awry. Insufficient acetylcholine is also associated with nervous system disorders ranging from foggy thinking, nervousness, anxiety, hyperactivity in children, slowed reflexes and sluggishness and senility. It has been used successfully for vascular diseases.

• Taking choline on its own as a nutritional supplement has the disadvantage of giving your skin and breath a fishy smell. But when it is taken in the form of enriched granular lecithin, this fishy smell does not occur, and the lecithin has the action of making the phosphatidyl choline more effective. (Lecithin HiPC from Higher Nature).

• Lecithin is also a good source of essential fatty acids and helps encourage the even distribution of body weight. It helps cleanse the liver and purify the kidneys.

• Last but not least, lecithin is wonderful for the skin.

A tablespoon a day, sprinkled into yoghurt or other food, or eaten directly off the spoon is delicious, and one of the best things you can do for yourself. (If you would like to know more - or even buy some lecithin, click here.)

Klamath Lake Blue Green Algae

One organic food that can dramatically change people's lives is a blue-green algae from Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon.

Its scientific name is Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, and today there are hundreds of thousands of people who include small amounts of this wild food in their diets. Ask them why and you will hear a whole host of reasons:

• increased vitality;

• improved memory and heightened mental clarity;

• relief from symptoms of physical and mental stress;

• loss of food cravings and excess weight;

• improved skin, nail and hair condition;

• alleviation of symptoms of yeast and digestive problems;

• reduced allergic responses;
  and an overall boosting of the body's resistance to disease.
  Even people who have specific health complaints, including the common degenerative diseases, are finding improvement in the quality of their lives.

 A few might say that they do not know how it is helping them, but somehow, when they stop taking algae, they really notice its absence.

Some nutritional facts on algae include:

• 60% high-quality protein - weight for weight more than any other food - and with an amino acid profile that closely matches the needs of the human body.

• Contains a little of almost all the vitamins and minerals needed by the body, including invaluable trace minerals.

• Highest vegetable source of vitamin B12 - often deficient in vegetarian diets - and unlike the B12 in some spirulinas, Upper Klamath Lake algae's B12 is totally usable by the body.

• Contains a host of pigments currently the focus of research into new treatments for cell abnormality. These include carotenoids, phycobilins and phycocyanins.

• Remarkably high in both cis and trans forms of beta carotene (provitamin A) - a proven immunity booster and powerful antioxidant. Also contains 16 other carotenoids.

• Richest known source of chlorophyll - a cell regenerator and blood purifier.

• Enzyme active, allowing for maximum absorption at no cost to the body's own enzyme reserve.

• Cell wall consists of a glycolipoprotein complex, making it easy to digest - unlike the cellulose found around most other plant cells.

• Contains the building blocks of neuropeptides, thereby helping to nourish nerve cells and enhance brain activity.

• A source of nucleic and fatty acids.

• Its carbohydrates and proteins are in forms that are easy for the body to assimilate and metabolize.

• Strongly alkalizing - counteracts the acidity of modern diets.

• Only 4.2 calories per gram.

• 100% vegetarian.

• A wild, organic wholefood.

If you would like to read more about Klamath Lake Blue Green Algae or even buy some, click here.)

Garlic

Garlic was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, chewed by Greek Olympic athletes and thought to be essential for keeping vampires at bay.

A good example is Supergar from Higher Nature. Click on this text if you'd like to know more or if you'd like to consider buying some.)

Modern research has shown garlic may:

• Lower blood pressure

• Lowers LDL cholesterol

• Protect your heart by reducing plaque in the arteries

• Help prevent blood clots from forming

• Help prevent cancer by preventing growth of certain tumours while reducing the size of others

• Help regulate blood sugar

• Act as a powerful antibiotic

• Act as an antifungal agent, and so reduces yeast infection such as candida albicans

• Act as an anti-viral agent, reducing incidence of colds and flu

• Has anti-oxidant properties

• Is a good source of selenium and sulphur

Live sprouts

Sprouted grains and seeds are powerhouses of live food nourishment. They are a superb source of protein, minerals, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and small quantities of essential fatty acids. Germinating seeds and grains increases their nutritional value enormously. When grains and seeds are soaked in water, remarkable changes start to take place. Dormant enzymes are activated, which break down the starches into simple sugars such as glucose and fructose, and protein molecules are broken down into free amino acids. Meanwhile the seed's saturated fat content is turned into free fatty acids.

Many practitioners claim that when sprouts are eaten in this way as part of a healing programme, this rich activity of enzymes stimulates the body's own enzyme activity and leads to a regeneration of cells and tissues and an overall improvement in cell metabolism. In effect, the sprouted seeds become almost pre-digested and you gain far more nutritional value from them than from the original seeds (which in themselves are already highly nutritious).

Live seeds can be purchased in some supermarkets, but it's easy to grow your own. Here's how:

Put a heaped tablespoon of seeds or grains into a jar, cover it with lukewarm spring or filtered water, and leave it overnight. In the morning, cover the jar with a loose-weave cloth and, holding the cloth down, pour off the water. Rinse the seeds in fresh lukewarm water and pour off this water. Leave the jar on the windowsill. In the evening, rinse again and pour off excess water. Repeat this process morning and evening, and in 3-6 days, depending on the kind of seeds you're sprouting, they will be ready to eat. They're tasty in salads, sandwiches or omelettes.

Try alfalfa, mung beans, sesame seeds, chick-peas, soybeans, wheat, buckwheat, etc. The seeds or grains you choose must be 'untreated' or they won't sprout.

Grow two or three different seeds at a time, in different bottles, for variety. Enjoy!