By Amy Bell •
April 1, 2009
Studies have shown that many illnesses (including several types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease) are largely influenced by chronic inflammation in the body.
Prolonged inflammation causes the immune system to become off balance, and can result in damage to healthy tissue.
Poor diet is a main contributor to chronic inflammation, but several lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise, and excessive stress can promote inflammation as well.
Many health and nutrition experts are now starting to emphasize the importance of following an anti-inflammatory diet.
Here are a few tips to get you started on your way to less inflammation and better health:
By Amy Bell •
February 21, 2009
Every year more than 500,000 people die from cancer in the United States alone.
Many researchers and cancer specialists believe that up to 60% of those deaths can be prevented if Americans adopt healthier lifestyles.
According to Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute,
“The easiest and least expensive way to reduce your risk for cancer is just by eating a healthy diet.”
Here is an overview of ten important cancer fighting foods to include in your diet on a regular basis:
By Amy Bell •
February 1, 2009
Parents have a tremendous influence over how their children eat.
To emphasize this, researchers at Saint Louis University have determined that families who eat out often are more likely to skimp on fresh fruits and vegetables compared to those who eat more meals at home.
After focusing their study on young families in southeastern Missouri, it was found that close to 73% of parents don’t consume the minimum recommended amount of fruits and vegetables each day.
Researchers also discovered that families who eat out frequently are less likely to have fresh produce on hand at home.
By Amy Bell •
January 28, 2009
Stress… it’s something we deal with on a daily basis. Some of us take it all in stride, others let it build up to the breaking point.
When we experience stress too often, our autonomic nervous system rarely has a chance to activate the relaxation response. This can eventually lead to physical or emotional illnesses such as high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, and depression to name just a few.
Making simple diet changes can help reduce stress, here are a few tips to get you started:
(Remember to always use organically grown foods when possible, it’s healthier for you and for the planet.)
By Jennifer Lance •
September 5, 2008
We eat a lot of organic brown rice in our family, which sometimes gets boring. That’s when we remember quinoa! Quinoa is a “sacred, super crop“: sacred to the Incas, super crop to the United Nations for its high protein content. My family likes its nutty flavor, as well as its quick cooking time. It accompanies almost any meal, and it provides a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids, which is important to a vegetarian family. Quinoa contains the amino acid lysine and is a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorous.
Quinoa is actually not a grain, but is related to beets, chard, and spinach. Quinoa is the seed from chenopodium quinoa, and I love it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is good in porridge, served in soup, or by itself as a side dish. We buy it in bulk and eat it weekly.
Cooking Instructions for Organic Quinoa
To make three cups of cooked quinoa:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 1/2 cups water
By Sam Aola Ooko •
April 12, 2008
Half the world is starving and many are becoming hungrier and angrier. Millions more are impoverished daily. Many of these are poor mothers and children in poor nations of Africa and other developing countries.
The New Face of Hunger is not a stark picture of battered and malnourished children in Ethiopia. It is the rise of commodity prices and super inflation now biting all across the globe.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted in October 2007: “If prices continue to rise, it would not be surprising if we began to see food riots.” World food prices have risen 45 percent in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of rice, wheat and maize, according to FAO.
Some of the most wonderful aspects of eating a plant-based diet is choosing from the huge variety of foods at your disposal and experiencing a change in your palate. My favorite foods today were definitely not my favorite foods 25 years ago (my father owned ice cream stores), or 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. It’s so exciting to continually eat better, learn more, and feel healthier all the time. It just
[...]
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: Eat Your Vegetables! From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.
A new study American Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms this: Americans are eating fewer vegetables than ever. Researchers evaluated data from two large national health surveys
[...]
Studies have shown that many illnesses (including several types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease) are largely influenced by chronic inflammation in the body.
