Orionsnexus

What Are You Eating?

As you sit down to eat the magnificent dinner you prepare have you ever wondered what’s in your food?

You’ve made chicken on the BBQ, grilled veggies and a terrific looking green salad with fresh berries. You are quite pleased with yourself for choosing such a healthy meal.

Did you know that the chicken sitting on your plate, depending on where it was purchased could be pumped full of hormones, and the veggies grown in nutrient depleted soils and heavily sprayed? you are ingesting all these chemicals into your body everytime you consume non-organic foods.

What is “organic”? Organic means food that is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.

Why should you choose organic vs. conventional grown foods?

Some reasons are:

• higher nutritional content
• less toxins
• better quality
• better taste

I have seen articles stating that there is no difference between organic and non-organic food and that “organic” is more hype than anything. I wonder how this can be true when you think of the two different processes used?

When growing organic produce, food is rotated in such a way as to keep soil rich in nutrients and optimal for supporting many years of growth and supplying optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals. Toxic chemicals are not used, therefore freeing your body of the many potential effects from the chemicals. According to Paul Chek, author of “How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy” possible effects are:

• carcinogenics
• reproductive abnormalities
• immune system damage
• dermatitis
• damage in developing nervous system and brain and many more

I realize that organic meats and produce costs more, and we generally can come up with a thousand excuses to not spend the extra money, but you’re body reacts to everything you feed it. If you consume meats and produce heavily laden with hormones and chemicals, how can you possibly expect your body to function properly let alone optimally?

Take baby steps. If you are currently not eating organic foods, try purchasing one or two vegetables then slowly keep adding one food every month. By doing this you will not notice a huge difference in your wallet all at once.

By eating organic foods, you will give your body more nutrients, less chemicals and help improve the environment.

Kelly Parker is an ACE and Can-Fit Pro certified fitness professional and has been helping people reach their health and fitness goals for over 11 years

No doubt, you’ve probably heard the name “Goji” before. The Goji berry has been hailed as a super food by many experts, and it’s quickly becoming the hottest product in the health-food industry. The loudest arguments for its use are coming from those that have something to gain from its sale, so it’s no wonder that half-truths, myths, and even outright lies abound. To understand the hoopla around this little red berry, you have to understand the facts.

In the English-speaking world, “Goji berry” has been widely used as a synonym for “wolfberry” which is the name for the fruit of two very closely related species, Lycium barbarum and Lycium chinense. They are also known as Chinese wolfberry, Red medlar, Bocksdorn, Cambronera, Duke of Argyll’s Tea Tree, or Matrimony vine. The origin of the word “Goji” seems to be unclear, until you dig a little deeper.

In 1973, Amchi Thubten Lekshe (Dr. Bradley Dobos), and his Tibetan medical teacher, Dr. Amala Lobsang, were on a botanical collection trip in the mountains of Tibet. After several weeks of walking and collecting many varieties of botanicals, including the ancient Tibetan Lycium, Dr. Bradley made a decision. Many of the Tibetan names in the numerous dialects had sounds like “qouki”, “qou ki ji”, “quak qou”, “kew ji”, and “kew ki”, so Dr. Bradley started calling it “Goji”, in order to stop stumbling over the many sounds, and to make it simpler, when talking and writing about the Tibetan Lycium. His teacher agreed that this was an easier sound to work with.

After doing extensive research, they concluded that the name “Goji” never existed in China or Tibet before Dr. Bradley started using it in August of 1973, and they could not find the word, in relation to the berries, in any other language. In 1976, Dr. Bradley began using these ancient Tibetan berries in his tea blends and formulas, at the ‘Tenzing Momo’ herbal apothecary and clinic, located in the world famous Pike Place Market, in Seattle. People from many countries purchased these teas, and the “Goji” name stuck. However, it wasn’t until he started packaging and selling the berries, with the “Goji” name printed on the labels, that it started getting world recognition. It was only then that the Chinese wolfberry growers started calling their wolfberries ‘Goji’, for marketing purposes. (There is no mention of “Goji berries” anywhere in the world, prior to 1974.)

* In Tibetan the berries are called dre-tsher-mai-dre-bu, with dre meaning “ghost”, tsher-ma meaning “thorn”, and dre-bu meaning “fruit”.

* In Japan these fruits are called kuko no mi, or kuko no kajitsu.

* In Korea the berries are known as gugija.

The species produce a bright, orange-red berry, that tastes something like a cross between a cherry and a cranberry. The majority of commercially produced wolfberries come from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, where they are grown on plantations, ranging up to 1000 acres. In addition, commercial volumes of wolfberries grow in the Chinese regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Shanxi and Hebei.

In Ningxia, wolfberries are celebrated each August with an annual festival that coincides with the berry harvest. In Tibet and Mongolia, celebrations last for two weeks out of the year, where the locals honor it with festivities.

Pesticides are extensively used in commercial wolfberry cultivation in China, to prevent the destruction of the delicate berries by insects. The FDA has detected high levels of insecticide and fungicide residues in some imported Chinese wolfberries and wolfberry products, leading to their seizure. Organic certification currently does not exist in China, yet many Western resellers falsely state that their wolfberries are organically grown. These berries are often marketed as “Tibetan” or “Himalayan Goji” berries and claimed to have been “wild crafted” or “wild harvested.”

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Despite claims that wolfberries sold in Europe, the United States, and Canada meet organic standards, there is no public evidence for standardized organic certification of commercially grown wolfberries coming from China. It seems that there is only one source for authentic, wild crafted Tibetan Goji berries, and it comes from “The Tibetan Goji Berry Company“. “The Tibetan Goji Berry Company” is associated with the Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute of Tibetan Medicine. Since 1974 the institute, along with directors of His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s Institute of Tibetan Medicine, is using the Goji berry as a vehicle to bring support to the Tibetan farmers and to Tibetan exiles in general.

The original Tibetan Lycium (Goji) has been used extensively in Tibetan medicine, going back seventeen centuries. China never had an indigenous Lycium and research shows that although Tibet has forty one Lycium types, China has only one. The relocation of the plant to China, thousands of years ago, created great differences between the Chinese Lycium barbarum and the ancient Tibetan Goji berry. The Chinese wolfberry has undergone many environmental changes since it was taken from Tibet, and the Chinese growers openly admitted to using DDT and other toxic chemicals, for over sixty years. This has made the Chinese Lycium undesirable for medicinal purposes, or as a food source.

The names “Himalayan Goji berry” and “Tibetan Goji berry” have been thrown around in the global health food industry for a while now. It’s supposed to indicate berries that have been grown or collected in the Himalayan region, yet the companies marketing such berries tend not to specify the exact location their berries supposedly come from.

Earl Mindell’s website does state that his “Himalayan Goji berries” actually come from Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and the Tian Shan Mountains of western Xinjiang, China, but these are not the Himalayas.

Here is the truth.

Although Lycium species do grow in some regions of Tibet, commercial production of wolfberries in the Tibetan Himayalas is a myth. The mountain range bordering the Tibetan Plateau is a region inhospitable to commercial cultivation of plant foods. At 10,000 ft, the Tibetan plateau creates unfavorable conditions for fruit crops. While it is true that limited fertile regions exist in the valleys of Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse, and the Brahmaputra River, there are no reliable reports on the commercial production of Lycium berry species from these Tibetan regions. For these reasons, true Goji production is only possible in fertile valleys, with an elevation of no more than 2,000 feet.

Wolfberries have long played an important role in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), despite a history of extensive use of pesticides. In TCM terms, wolfberries are sweet in taste and neutral in nature. They act on the liver, lungs, and kidneys and enrich yin. They can be eaten raw, consumed as juice or wine, brewed into an herbal tea or prepared as a tincture. The berries are also used in traditional Korean medicine, traditional Japanese medicine, and of course in traditional Tibetan medicine. An early mention of wolfberry occurs in the 7th century Tang Dynasty treatise Yaoxing Lun. It is also discussed in the 16th century Ming Dynasty Compendium of Materia Medica of Li Shizhen.

Wolfberry polysaccharides were shown to have an antioxidant activity in vitro and might also have biological activities in vivo. This is currently being researched. Wolfberry fruits also contain zeaxanthin, a carotenoid that is selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea where it is thought to provide protective light-filtering properties. Several published studies, mostly from China, have also reported possible medicinal benefits of Lycium barbarum, especially due to its antioxidant properties, including potential benefits against cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, vision-related diseases (such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma), having neuroprotective properties or as an anticancer and immunomodulatory agent.

Wolfberries contain many nutrients and phytochemicals, including 11 essential and 22 trace minerals,18 amino acids, 6 essential vitamins, 8 polysaccharides and 6 monosaccharides, 5 unsaturated fatty acids (including the essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid), beta-sitosterol and other phytosterols, 5 carotenoids (including beta-carotene and zeaxanthin, lutein, lycopene and cryptoxanthin), and numerous phenols.

The wolfberry is best known in the United States and Canada as a juice, marketed over the Internet, and has been increasingly mentioned in reports as an “exotic superfruit”, with an unusual antioxidant strength. However, juice prepared only from fresh wolfberries is rare. The great majority of these commercial juice products are blends of several other fruit juices, yet they are being labeled as pure “Goji juice.” (The percentage of wolfberry contained in these juices is usually not stated on the labels.)

Out of all the companies selling Goji products, there are two that needs mentioning — “FreeLife International“, a Multi Level Marketing company that markets a product called “Himalayan Goji Juice”, and another company, called “Tibet Authentic“.

The driving force behind FreeLife’s product, is pharmacist and nutritionist, Earl Mindell. FreeLife’s website claims that theirs is “… the first company to perfect a difficult and demanding proprietary extraction process and create the only standardized form of this incredible plant available in the world today.” In light of the above information, this has been questioned by many.

FreeLife also claims that “Thanks to years of dedicated scientific research, FreeLife is the only company in the world to have developed a Spectral Signature to identify, isolate, and harvest only those special Goji berries with the exact nutrient profile of the legendary Goji from the Himalayas.”

Spectral signatures don’t mean much. They only indicate chemical markers and the amount present in the sample. And considering that FreeLife’s wolfberries are coming from China, where most wolfberries come from, it’s highly unlikely that the berries FreeLife uses are anything special.

However, the biggest offender with the most outlandish claims for the Goji berry is Tibet Authentic.

Tibet Authentic’s website claims that the Tibetan Medical College is partly owned by the “Government of Tibet”. This is not true, since Tibet has been under Chinese occupation since 1949. The website also claims the following: “Our partnership with Tibet the Tibet Medical college brings to you authentic wildly grown Goji Berries. Only Tibet Authentic wildly grown Goji Berries are certified grown and harvested in the pristine Himalayan mountains of Tibet.”

Taking into account the above mentioned conditions of the Tibetan plateau, it’s obvious that this statement is false.

In his article “The fruitless search for the Tibetan Goji berry” (dated December 2, 2006) Simon Parry, reporter for the South China Morning Post, exposes the flamboyant man behind Tibet Authnetic. The man’s name is Antony Jacobson. He is a 42 year old father of two, who used to own a patenting business in Melbourne, until a trek through the Himalayas five years ago gave him the idea to get into the health products business.

When you look at the claims Tibet Authentic makes, you find that they are full of holes, exaggerations, and even outright lies.

Tibet Authentic claims that their berries come from the remote Shannan and Nyingtri regions of Tibet. But, when Parry flew to Lhasa and asked to be taken there, company officials refused. Parry was determined to find out the truth and hired a four-wheeler to take him to Nyingtri, one of the areas Tibet Authentic claims their berries come from.

Nyingtri is a Chinese military base, located in a fertile valley, near the Indian border. Of course there were no signs of wolfberry production, no matter how hard Parry looked. When he consulted a local medicine expert, the man confirmed that only small quantities of berries grow in the surrounding hills. And when Parry told him about the scale of exports Tibet Authentic claims, this same man laughed and added… “That’s impossible — there aren’t enough around here to send even one tonne overseas.”

So what’s the take home message? Do your research! And if you do decide to buy Goji berries, contact “The Tibetan Goji Berry Company“. They have an “authentication service” that assures that you are using authentic, Tibetan, wild-crafted Goji berries, that have been harvested in managed co-ops in the pristine valleys of Mongolia and India.

This way at least your conscience will be clear, and who knows… maybe it will even improve your karma a bit.

One: Drink 3L of Water a day - not coke, coffee, or fizzy drinks

Two: Alkalise your body with Greens!! Such as Green Juices, Green Drinks (eg. Ultimate Greens from life stream) and Green Veggies - full of Chlorophyll which is a blood builder.

Three: Eat mostly alkalising foods such as fresh veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, sprouts, and complex carbohydrates. These foods will turn your body into a power house of energy and being consistently at your peak in performance.

Four: Reduce your intake of meat, pasta, dairy, wine, and fatty foods so your body will restore its balance – these are highly acidic to your body.

Five: Exercise! Walk, Jog, Yoga etc… just get your body moving.

Six: Get the sleep your body needs so it can rest & repair itself.

Seven: Keep your body warm by rugging up

Eight: Take nutritional supplements – greens, vitamin C, fish oil, multi vitamins etc…

Nine: Take time out to relax!

Ten: Quit SMOKING! Smoking is ridiculously toxic and causes harm to your body and those around you who inhale the smoke.

To learn more ways to better your health & wellbeing visit our website www.yourinspiredwellbeing.com and sign up to received your FREE report on the “top 37 things to improve your health”.

This report is full of information on what foods work and what foods to reduce out of your diet. It will help you develop an understanding of what you are eating as well as aid you in getting your life back – energy, vitality and balance.

The website also has a variety of articles on health, nutrition, and wellbeing.

“Louise & Tracey have a passion for health & wellbeing especially nutrition. Both in the past have had health problems due to bad eating habits and not knowing what is really nutritional. Now they lead a life of abundant energy and feeling alive again and a passion to share their found knowledge with others!

Is there such a thing as longevity food? Is there one answer that can fit us all? Can we consume certain foods in mass quantity in order to live longer? Are these foods the same for everyone?

Many people are in the habit of jumping from one “fountain of youth” food to another, hoping to stave off aging.

Unfortunately, no such food exists. The main reason is that people have differing physical constitutions and require different foods in order to stay in good health or to be immune to disease. It’s much better to select foods that pertain to your specific constitution, genetic profile and susceptibilities (family history). A foods’ longevity or “fountain of youth” factor really depends on whether your body needs it.

For example, if you’re susceptible to hypertension you should eat foods that can either prevent it or lower blood pressure. According to Chinese medicine, those foods that would be good for a hypertensive constitution would include celery, peanuts, garlic, jellyfish, and seaweed. If you are susceptible to hepatitis you should consume foods that would help prevent this particular disease. Such foods may include malt, tea and button mushrooms. As you can see, these foods are not the same for each disease.

So, when you’re reaching for your new “fountain of youth” food (that you may consume each day in larger quantities), ask yourself, “Is this food good for my specific constitution?” If you don’t know or you would like an analysis, it is best to consult a professional that deals with this specifically.

Good luck and good health to you!

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. Research has shown that vitamin D may help prevent osteoporosis. Studies have shown it may also play a role in maintaining a healthy immune system. It also helps the body with the absorption of calcium from food and supplements, therefore it is essential for strong bones and teeth.

How much do we need? In the US, The National Institute for Health recommends that men and women aged between 19 and 50 should get a minimum of 5mcgs (microgrammes) daily and people over 51 should try for a minimum of 10mcgs per day. In the UK, 10 - 15 minutes of sunlight a couple of times a week will be sufficient. However, if you don’t live in sunnier climes, or it’s the depth of winter then 10mcgs is sufficient.

What happens if we don’t get enough? Adults who become deficient in vitamin D run the risk of developing osteomalacia, the weakening and softening of bones leading to increased risk of breakages. Or in older adults, deficiencies can lead to osteoporosis. Other symptoms may include muscle weakness and immunity weakness. In children, deficiencies can result in rickets.

And too much? Too much vitamin D can lead to problems that include nausea, increased thirst , drowsiness, weakness and weightloss. Taking too much over the long term may cause increased calcium deposits in the soft tissues, which ultimately can lead to serious kidney damage.

Who needs extra? Vegans and people who don’t get to see a lot of sunshine should monitor their vitamin D intake.

Good sources of vitamin D include:

Most people today need to add more of the omega 3 oils to their diet. These are considered the healthy oils. Instead most of us consume an overabundance of omega 6 oils which can cause an imbalance in our system. Getting enough omega 3 oils is important in prevention and improvement of different illness and health problems. They have been credited as being a significant help for the good health of our brain and our heart. Omega 3 oils help fight sleep disorders, depression, diabetes, ADHD, Alzheimers, arthritis, strokes, skin disorders, etc.

Previously, eating fish at least twice a week was recommended as a good source of omega 3 oils. The problem industrial pollutants and toxins like mercury, PCB’s, heavy metals and poisons. The FDA and EDA have issued health advisories against fish and shellfish consumption for young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Watch out for that fresh salmon!

You might think that adding fish oil supplements to your diet would be an ideal solution. However, taking fish oils actually increases the need for antioxidants in your body. It is also highly perishable.

Krill oil is a better choice since it has protective antioxidants and phosphdipids in it. Two smart ways to help improve our health is with omega 3 oils and antioxidants. Antioxidants are free radical scavengers (I like to call them “little army men”!), which mean they neutralize the free radicals in your body. Free radicals cause damage to the cells and tissues.

Antioxidants promote heart health and provide immune system and memory support. They also help reduce signs of aging. I think we can agree that these little army men are a good thing!

Genuine Neptune krill are found in the Antarctic waters and are the only ones that have been tested and proved to have incredible health benefits. Be wary of the ones with cheap substitutions. A good, reliable source of the Neptune krill oil supplements is this Antarctic Pure Krill Oil.

This article is for informational use only and is not designed for treatment or for diagnosis. Please see your health professional for your health concerns