Tag Archives: flavonoids

Tea – A Cup of Good Health

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Tea stops tumors causing heart disease and stroke, according to Laboratory Studies.
And as it contains clout, it protects against dental cavities.
Also, hundreds of compounds in tea, called polyphenols, act as antioxidants.
Meaning, they help neutralize harmful oxygen molecules in the body known as free radicals, which have been linked to cancer, heart disease, and various less serious problems, such as wrinkles.
“In General polyphenols are very good antioxidants. But tea contains the best polyphenols, and tea has a lot of them,” according to Joe A. Vinson, PHD, professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Seranton in Pennsylvania.”They make up nearly 30% of tea’s dry weight.” This may help explain why tea is the most popular beverage in the world.

Protection of arteries
The results of blocked arteries, high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke,, don’t happen over night.
Years of steadily increasing damage are proceeding, in which dangerous low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol oxidizes and gradually makes arteries stiff and narrow.
Tea can solve this problem. Polyphenols in tea are extremely effective in preventing cholesterol from oxidizing blood vessels. In fact, one of the polyphenols in tea, epigallocatechin (EGCG), was able to neutralize five times as much LDL cholesterol as vitamin C, the strongest of the antioxidant vitamins. Why are the polyphenols in tea so effective? The reason is because they can work in two ways.
They block the harmful effects of oxidized LDL cholesterol in the blood stream and at the artery walls, where LDL really produces atherosclerosis, says Dr. Vinson.

Rresearchers from a Dutch study, involving 880 men, found that those who ate the most flavonoids, a large phytochemical family, including polyphenol in tea, had a 58% lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who ate the least. After further analyzing the results, it was revealed that the healthiest men were those who were getting more than half their flavonoids from black tea, and the rest from onions and apples.
You don’t have to drink lots of tea to get the benefits. In the Dutch study the healthiest men drank about 4 cups of tea per day.
Just as the tea protect arteries leading from the heart, the same effect happens on arteries in or leading to the brain, says Dr. Vinson.
A new Japanese study found that people who drank at least 5 cups of green tea daily had a whopping 62% lower risk of having a stroke from clotting arteries. According to experts, antioxidants in green tea help sticky cells that clump together to form clots, called platelets, to slide safely past each other. When there are no clots, there can be no strokes.

Cancer protection
When you grill a hamburger, compounds called heterocyclic amines are formed on the surface of the food. The body transforms these chemicals into more dangerous forms, which can cause cancer, according to John Weisburger, MD, PhD,vice president for research and director of the Naylor Dana institute for Disease Prevention, in New York,
Other compounds found in tea, called polyphenols, prevents the formation of potential carcinogens, Dr. Weisburger says. In other words, they help stop cancer before it starts.

Skin cancer protection
Cancer researcher Hasan Mukhtar, PhD, of the department of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, has seen tea stopping cancer at each stage of its life cycle, arresting both its growth and spread. And where cancerous tumors have already formed, he has seen tea shrink them.
Dr. Mukhtar studied the effect of sunburn skin on laboratory animals and found that the animals given tea developed one-tenth as many tumors as those given water. Even when the tea-given animals developed tumors, they were often benign, not cancerous. What’s more, tea was equally effective whether given as a drink or applied to the skin. Some cosmetics companies have started adding green tea to skin products for its potential protective benefits.

Dental protection
Tea also help prevent toothache, since it contains many compounds, polyphenols as well as tannin, that act as antibiotics. In other words, tea removes the bacteria that promote tooth decay.
Tea also contains fluoride, which provide further dental protection. When researchers at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston tested a variety of foods for their antibacterial qualities, they found that tea was far and away the most protective.
Researchers at Kyushu University in Fukioka, Japan, have identified four components in tea – tannin, catechin, caffeine and tocopherol ( a vitamin E-like substance) – that help to increase the acid resistance of tooth enamel. This quartet of compounds was made even more effective with the addition of extra fluoride. The extra boost made tooth enamel 98% impervious to the action of acids on the teeth.

Different colors of tea
You can have Green tea, Black tea, Vanilla maple tea, Raspberry tea, Black currant tea, Apricot tea. Which tea has the most healing polythenols? It makes no difference, as long as it is real tea and not herbal tea, which doesn’t contain leaves from the Camellia sinensis , the tea plant. There is not much difference among them. They all contain leaves from the same plant.
However, they are not identical. The lightest leaves, green and white, are minimally-processed and, in general, retain more disease-protective polyphenols and other antioxidants. But darker teas contain healthy theaflavins, which form when their polyphenols ferment and turn orange-red.

Here follows an overview of the various “real” teas:
Black – The color refers to the leaves, the beverage is deep amber. Black tea varieties include Darjeeling and Earl Grey; flavors range from spicy to flowery. Black tea may lower the risk of heart disease and colon cancer; it can also inhibit bacteria that cause cavities and bad breath.

Green – If you find the flavor to “grassy”, try jewel green matcha or Japanese sencha. Green tea has been shown in numerous studies to help prevent many kinds of cancer, lower cholesterol and boost immunity.

Oolong.- Midway between green and black tea in color, flavor, and antioxidant action, oolong has a fresh floral or fruity aroma. When you drink three cups a day, it may help relieve itchy skin rashes.

Pu-ehr. (poo-air) -This dark red tea has an earthy flavor reminiscent of coffee and tobacco.
It’s considered a delicacy in China ( you can purchase it on line), where it’s processing is a highly guarded secret. The most oxidized of teas, pu-ehr is said to mellow and improve with age, like wine. It may help reduce cholesterol.

White.– Rare and somewhat expensive, the least processed tea has an extremely subtle flavor. But it does contain more antioxidants than other teas. Test-tube studies show that it can block DNA mutations (which trigger tumor formation). A study on rats discovered it prevented precancerous colon tumors.

How to get the most Steep for three minutes
It takes three minutes for it to release the health-promoting compounds. That’s also the time researchers use in their studies on tea. Longer steeping causes the tea to go bitter.
Use tea bags.
The pulverized content of tea bags release more polythenols than the larger loose leaves.
That’s because the tiny particles in the bag yield more surface area for polyphenols to dissolve into hot water.

Choose your flavors
Although green tea has been more thoroughly researched than the black variety, both kinds show equally salutary effects, says DR. Vinson. If you prefer decaffeinated tea, that’s okay. The removal of caffeine has little effect on tea’s polyphenol content. The same holds for bottled teas, iced tea, and tea made from mixes. In fact, some soft drinks and juice companies have been so impressed with the benefits of tea that they have begun fortifying their beverages with green tea. Check out your health food store for new products.
Don’t use milk – at least for now. According to an Italian study, adding milk to tea, as the British do, blocked tea antioxidant benefits. “There is some evidence that milk protein binds to some of the tea compounds and blocks their absorption. But those compounds could get unbound in the stomach. So we’re not so sure milk is bad,” says Dr. Vinson.

Keep it fresh
When making your own iced tea, drink it within a few days. “And make sure you cover it to keep it fresh when you refrigerate it” he advises. When you keep iced tea for longer than
a week, the concentration of compounds falls off. Many bottled and powdered iced teas remain spectacular antioxidant levels. In one prevention magazine analyses of antioxidants in various commercial iced teas, even the lowest-scoring convenience iced teas contained at least as many antioxidants as fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries and spinach! But highest honors went to home-made iced tea- cold-brewed refrigerator and classic hot-brewed tea that was than chilled came in even with each other for antioxidant levels. (One tip: shake cold-brewed tea before removing tea bags. It seems to knock more antioxidants into the liquid.)

Drink tea after eating meat
Because polyphenol compounds in tea help to block the formation of cancer-causing chemicals, it’s a good idea to have a cup of tea after eating fried or charred meat.

Doctor’s top tip
When you are a sneezer, drink more green tea, It may be useful against a wide range of sneeze- starting allergens, including pollen, pet dander and dust. Go for two to three mugs a day.

Make the Onion Family part of Your Family

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Onions and other members of the allium family – such as leeks,shallots, and scallions, contain dozens of compounds that provide protection from cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, and asthma. Flavonoids are the first family in onions which promote a healthy heart. I have written about these in my previous articles. Flavonoids are compounds with potent antioxidant powers to prevent the harmful action of free radicals.

One particular flavonoid called quercetin has proved to prevent heart disease in two ways.
Firstly, it helps to keep the dangerous low-density lipoprotein (LDL) type of cholesterol from oxidizing, a process that makes it stick to the lining of artery walls.
Secondly, it helps to prevent platelets in the blood from sticking together and forming harmful clots.

The second group of protective compounds in onions are those that make you cry: they are called the sulfur compounds.
According to experts, these compounds can raise your level of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which help plaque from sticking to artery walls. At the same time, they can lower levels of dangerous blood fats, called triglycerides, which help to make blood thinner, while keeping your blood pressure normal.
You don’t need to eat a lot of onions to benefit from these protective compounds. All you need is just one medium onion, raw or cooked, a day.

Protection from Cancer
According to experts, onions may be a key player in cancer protection, especially cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.It’s the flavonoid called quercetin that stops the progression of tumors in the colons of animals, according to Michael J. Wargovich, PhD, professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.
This means that onions perform a double task in surpressing tumors, because the sulfur compounds also fight cancer.

In the Netherlands,researcher in a large study observed the diets of nearly 121,000 men and women.
They found that the more odoriferous bulbs these onion loving Dutch people included in their daily diets,the lower their risk of stomach cancer.

According to scientists, onions prevent cancer not only by putting the brakes on the development of tumors, but also by killing harmful bacteria that may start stomach cancer.

Onions have proved to protect against other forms of cancer as well. Researcher found, after studying a group of 471 men in China, that men who ate the largest number of onions had a much lower risk of prostate cancer.

Also, eating onions has proved to reduce the risk of cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and renal cell cancer in southern Europe.

The sulfur in onions helps protect against cancer by damaging cancer cells and slowing down their growth, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers at the University of Cornell have discovered that four types of onion: shallots, western yellow, pungent yellow, and northern red, are filled with more ant-cancer compounds than other varieties.

Another advantage of the sulfur compounds in onions is that they inhibit the allergic, inflammatory response like that seen in asthma.
Although we need more research about the ability of onions to attack asthma, you can check the anti-inflammatory effect for yourself. The next time you get an insect bite or other type of minor inflammation on your skin, rub a cut onion on it.
This should help reduce the inflammation.

You only need to eat a few servings of onions a day to keep your breathing passages free and clear.Unlike some foods, where it’s just not conceivable that you could eat enough to produce a significant effect, you can with onions. If you like onions, you can consume them in pretty large quantities. And there is good evidence that you should.

A bundle of Benefits
Either you eat onions for good health or good taste, use onions plentiful. Scallions, shallots, and other allium vegetables not only contain the same sulfur compounds and flavonoids as there bigger brother, they also have a few of their own typical nutrients that can help protect against disease and boost your immunity.

Scallions, also called spring or green onions, are basicly just underdeveloped onions. But they contain more nutrients, in particular the B vitamin folate and vitamin C, than the adult ones.
Folate is essential for normal tissue growth and may protect against cancer, heart disease and birth defects.

Shallots, another member of the allium family, have their own benefits. Just one tablespoon of chopped shallots contains 600 IU of vitamin A, or 12% of the DV. This essential nutrient helps to keep your immune system strong and also guards against vision problems associated with aging, like cataracts and night blindness.

In order to get most nutrients from the onions, eat a variety of onions, like red and yellow onions and shallots, which contain more flavonoids than the white onions.

To keep your breath fresh, eat a spring of fresh parsley. This will help to neutralize the sulfur compounds before they turn bad breath.

A kitchen note.
A delicious way to enjoy onions is to put them on the grill. Put chunks of sweet onions on a skewer along with other vegetables, such as eggplant and squash, and grill them till they’re lightly browned and tender. Brush the onions and veggies with heart-healthy olive oil before putting them on the grill.

Preventing of Memory Problems

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Many researchers have discovered that when people are low in certain nutrients, their mental performance drops. Many people are fine as long as they meet their nutritional needs. Even not getting enough water can cause the mind to get fuzzy.
The thirst mechanism slows down as we get older, as a result, we’re not always aware right away that we need water. However, not all memory problems are caused by your diet, but when nothing else is wrong it may be what you eat that is slowing you down.

Vitamin B for the Brain
The vitamin B complex are probably the most essential nutrients to keep your mind sharp. Your body needs the B vitamins to transform food into mental energy and to manufacture and repair brain tissue. “Deficiencies in thiamin, niacin and vitamin B6 and B12 can all cause mental dysfunction”, says Vernon Mark, MD, author of Reversing Memory Loss.
In fact, pellagra, a niacin deficiency, used to be a leading cause of admissions into mental hospitals,” he explains.
Research has shown that when children are given 5 mg thiamin instead of the Daily Value of 1.5 mg, they achieve remarkeble higher scores when they are given tests of mental functioning, Dr. Mark adds.

Today, many cereals, breads and pastas are enriched with thiamin and niacin, so that most people are getting enough of these vitamins. Niacin deficiencies have become extremely rare, especially in this country. But in older people or those who frequently drink alcohol, levels of thiamin can drop low enough to cause memory problems, says Dr. Mark.

The easiest way to make sure you get enough brain-boosting B vitamins is to eat foods that contain enriched grains. One cup of enriched spaghetti, for example, has 0.3 mg of thiamin, or 20% of the Daily Value (DV), and 2 mg of niacin, or 10% of the DV.
Meat is also a good source for getting these nutrients. Three ounces of pork tenderloin,
for example, provide 0.8 mg of thiamin, 53% of the DV, while 3 ounces of chicken breast deliver 12 mg or 60% of the DV for niacin.

As we get older, it’s not so easy to get additional amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, because it’s harder for the body to absorb them. After the age of 55, it’s common to be low in these vitamins, because the lining of the stomach is changing.
When you get older, it’s a good idea to get more than the DV of both of these nutrients.
Vitamin B6 is abundant in baked potatoes, bananas, chickpeas, and turkey.
One baked potato provides 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, 20% of the DV. and one banana provide 0.7 mg or 35% of the DV. For vitamin B12, meat and shellfish are good choices.

Maintaining the flow to the brain
In order to avoid memory problems there should be sufficient blood flow to the brain.
When adequate blood flow is not maintained, the brain and memory begin to perform poorly.
The lack of blood to the brain is often caused by the same problem that leads to heart disease and stroke: a buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries.
This condition is not only preventable through diet, it is even at least partially reversible.
The primary cause of cardiovascular disease – clogged arteries in the heart and the brain – is too much saturated fat in the diet. Keep your intake of saturated fat low by cooking with small amounts of liquid oils, such as olive or canola oil. instead of margarine or butter and by minimizing your intake of fatty foods, such as full-fat mayonnaise, rich desserts and fatty meats.

Getting plenty of fruits and vegetables is also important. Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, compounds that block the effects of harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals.This is important because when free radicals damage the harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, it becomes stickier and more likely to stick to artery walls.

Studies have shown that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, researchers studied nearly 5,500 people and found that those who ate diets rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and E, lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.Citrus fruits, kiwifruit, sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage are packed with vitamin C. While whole grains, nuts, milk and egg yolks contain vitamin E.

The combination of reducing fat in your diet and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables will help to keep your arteries clear, including those leading to your brain. In fact, it may even help restore blood flow through arteries that have already begun to close up.

Coffee can Improve Memory Function
It’s not without reason that millions of Americans jump start their day with steaming cups of coffee. The caffeine in coffee has been shown to improve mental functioning, including memory.

In one study, Dutch researchers used a chemical to block short-term memory in
16 healthy people. They found that giving these people 250 milligrams of caffeine –
about the amount of 3 cups of coffee – quickly restored their powers of recall.
However,too much coffee can be bad, if only the java buzz wears off within 6 to 8 hrs.
For some people, at least, the after-coffee slump can result in mental fogginess.

Everyone has different reactions to caffeine. For people who rarely drink coffee,
having a cup or two can definitely improve performance and memory.
But if you drink coffee throughout the day, you quickly build up tolerance and you
won’t get the same benefits. In fact, too much caffeine can make you jittery and
reduce your concentration.

Don’t kill your brain cells
“Killing brain cells is not the best way to get a high score in the memory department.
Yet that’s exactly what many of .us do to our grey matter every day. Alcohol is
drinking too much alcohol can cause a significant decrease in memory function.”
In fact, even small amounts of alcohol can damage cells in the brain responsible
for memory.

Many doctors recommend abstaining from alcohol all together to keep your mind
at its sharpest.At the very least, it’s a good idea to limit yourself to one or two drinks –
meaning 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 11/2 ounces of liquor – a day.
When you do drink, choose red wine. It contains resveratrol, a compound that may
keep your brain young.

Optimal Diet for your Brain
You can’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia altogether, but you can keep
them at bay longer with a heart-healthy diet that focuses on the nutrients that have been
found to be critical for brain function and aging.

Aim for a body mass index of 23 to 25
Being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension,
which leads to vascular disease and brain damage.

Choose Dairy
Eat one serving of low-fat, low-sugar dairy once a day, such as milk, plain yogurt,
cottage cheese or ricotta cheese.Epideemiologie studies show that people who drink milk
are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Toast to a young brain
Drink one glass of red wine or 4 ounces of purple grape juice or pomegranate juice a day.
They contain resveratrol, a compound that doctors believe activates a gene that is
associated with longevity.

Buy berries
When you eat one cup of berries a day, it gives your brain resveratrol, and other flavoniods, that strengthens your resistance against the development of chronic diseases associated with aging.

Drink some juice
Drink 8 ounces of fruit juice high in vitamin C daily. Three times a week, substitute a glass of vegetable juice that you buy or make on your own for the fruit juice.
Antioxidants and other compounds in those juices help protect the brain from dementia.

Include fish oil in your diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids are powerful agents for a healthy heart and arteries.
When you eat oily cold water fish such as sardines or mackerel you will ensure that you get enough omega-3. You can also substitute with 2,000 to 3,000 mg of fish oil or flaxseed oil per day.Walnuts are also rich in omega-3. Eating 8 to 10 walnuts per day or using walnut oil in your salads of darrk green vegetables will help protect your brain.

Drink green tea every day.
Green tea is rich in antioxidants and has proved to reduce the risk of dementia.
Experts recommend drinking one to two cups a day.

Multivitamins
To include those in your diet is particularly important for older, inactive adults whose’s
calorie intake doesn’t supply the micronutrients that they need.
Choose a multivitamin without iron or reduced iron if yo ‘re not anemic or menstruating.

Consider supplementing with vitamin D
Vitamin D is a new shining start in the role of brain development and function and many
people are deficient without knowing it.
We get about 95% of our vitamin D from sunlight, but young people who work long
hours and eldery adults who are homebound often don’t get enough sunlight to fill their
vitamin D requirements.

Avoid omega-6 fats
The omega-6 fatty acids in corn- safflower- and sesame oils aren’t as healthy as
omega-3’s found in olivve and canola oil. So use those oils sparingly.

Nourish Your Brain
An overall brain-healthy diet is low in refined carbohydrates, (Found in sugars,
baked food, candy, and other sweets, for example), red meats and trans fats.
It’s high in fatty fish, poultry, soy protein, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Cholesterol Control

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High Cholesterol levels is the cause of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
Almost 100 million Americans have cholesterol levels over 200, of these about 34.5 million
have cholesterol levels of 240 or above.

But there is good news for these people. You can control the risk for heart disease by eating foods that contain less saturated fat and cholesterol. This is an efficient way to reduce the amount of cholesterol in your blood.

Facts about Cholesterol
People in general think that cholesterol is bad for you. But as a matter of fact, your body need cholesterol, which is produced in the liver to make cell membranes, sex hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D. You couldn’t live without it. Cholesterol is found in animal foods such as meats, milk, eggs and butter. But if you get too much of it, it becomes dangerous.

This is particularly true for the type of cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein (LDL).When LDL cholesterol circulates in the bloodstream, it undergoes a process called oxidation. In other words, it spoils and becomes rancid. Your immune system react to it as it would to any other invader. Immune cells gobble up the cholesterol molecules. Once engorged, they
stick to the walls of arteries, and hardening into a dense, fatty layer called plaque.When a lot of plaque accumulates, there is less room for blood to flow. Eventually blood flow may slow down and could even stop. When this happens in the arteries that supply the heart, the result is a heart attack. When it happens in the arteries supplying the brain, the result is
a stroke.

Your body has a mechanism for dealing with this threat. Another form of cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein, (HDL), transports the dangerous type of cholesterol out of the blood and into the liver for disposal. Normally, it does a good job One study found that every one-point rise in HDL cholesterol protects the heart at least as much as a point drop in LDL
cholesterol, reducing risk of a fatal heart attack by 2%. But when cholesterol levels get too high, the HDL cholesterol can’t keep up, and LDL gradually rises to dangerous levels.

Ideally, you want to have high levels of HDL cholesterol and low levels of the dangerous LDL. The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends keeping total cholesterol below 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood. Actually, LDL should be below 130, and HDL should be above 40. An HDL above 60 would be even better to protect against disease.

A good way to keep your blood cholesterol level within healthy limits is to eat no more than 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol a day (a little more than the amount in 11/2 egg yorks). But because the body itself makes cholesterol, limiting the amount of cholesterol in your diet is only part of the solution.

Saturated and Monounsaturated Fat
“The component in food that has the most effect on blood cholesterol levels is saturated fat”, says Mark Kentor, PhD, of the University of Maryland, College Park. Saturated fats, which are found mostly in animal foods such as red meats, milk, egg yolks, butter and cheese, can increase the amount of harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the bloodstream as well as the total amount of cholesterol.

Every day, the Average American eats the fat equivalent of a full stick of butter. Experts strongly recommend to decrease the amount of fat in your diet.

But there is one time of fat you can eat moderate amounts of and that is monounsaturated fat, which you find in avocados, olive oil and canola oil. It can lower levels of bad LDL cholesterol, while leaving the beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) untouched.

Researchers have known for a long time that people in Mediterranian countries where olive oil is consumed every day, have some of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world, even when their cholesterol levels are fairly high.

But we can’t give all the credit to olive oil for all the benefits. People in the Mediterranian region also eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, plus they walk more than Americans and are less likely to be overweight.If you decide to add more olive ol to your diet, use it in moderation, and cut back on all fats.

Health benefits of Nuts
One of the many health benefits of nuts is their ability to reduce the level of LDL cholesterol.an Scientists at the USDA found that nuts contain significant levels of nutrients called plant sterols. These nutrients can lower LDL cholesterol, possibly by keeping your digestive system from absuntorbing the cholesterol in the foods you eat. Researchers in Canada found that when people with high cholesterol levels in their blood, ate 1.8 grams of plant sterols a day, their cholesterol levels dropped by 8%.

You can find sterols in sesame seeds, 144 mg, sunflower seeds, 104 mg and pistachios, 83 mg. in 1/4 cup. Coconut got a bad reputation because it contains more saturated fat than butter, however, more than half of the saturated fat in coconuts is lauric acid. Research discovered that even though lauric acid raises LDL cholesterol, it boosts HDL cholesterol even more.the al So in the long run, this is good for your overall cholesterol profile.

An even more favorable nut than the coconut is the almond. Researchers at Tufts University found that the skin of almonds are rich in antioxidants that help to remove LDL cholesterol. They found that extract of almond skin flavonoids reduced LDL oxidation by 18 % in hamsters.

Eat one to two fistfuls of almonds per day. This amount – 1 to 2 ounces – or raw, unblanchedalmonds each day gives a significant reduction of cholesterol in a University of Toronto study. Even better: the addition of this amount of almonds to the diet didn’t result in any weight gain.

Fiber Support
Besides eating whole grains, beans and fresh fruits to help keep your digestive system in top shape, you will also reduce your cholesterol level by eating these foods. They are filled with soluble fiber, a substance that forms a gummy gel in the digestive tract, which helps lower cholesterol levels.

Researchers from the USDA put 25 people on heart-healthy diets for 5 weeks.
They gave some of the people 3 grams of soluble fiber each day from barley – about the amount in a half-cup. When compared with the other people, who didn’t get the barley, their total cholesterol level dropped by 9%.

The Daily Value of fiber is 25 grams. This is equivalent to eating 2 to 4 servings of fruits, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables and 6 to 11 servings of breads, cereals and grains each day. Eating oatmeal or oat bran cereal several times a week will add even more soluble fiber to your diet. Other good sources of soluble fiber include pinto beans, red kidney beans, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

Benefits from milk and wine.
These two very different beverages may help improve cholesterol levels. Fat free or low-fat milk is best. According to a research, after 4 weeks of consuming 1,060 mg of calcium, 490 mg of phosphorus ( a combination found in dairy products) in supplement form, the cholesterol levels of healthy people were reduced by 6%, compared with people who didn’t get the supplements. One 8-ounce glass of milk contains about a third of the amounts taken in the study.

Another study, conducted in Boston, found that drinking an average of 5 wine drinks a week cut the risk of having dangerously low HDL levels by a whopping 78%. It’s important to keep in mind that drinking more heavily can raise blood pressure, which is another risk factor for heart disease, and can have other damaging effects on your health.

Asian Super food
Asian people eat soybeans and other soy products like tofu, which contain a compound called phytostrogens, which lowers total cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol levels. These compounds help to transport LDL cholesterol from the blood stream to the liver, where it’s broken down and excreted. They also may prevent LDL from oxidizing, which helps to avoid clogging of coronary arteries. To get the benefits of lowering cholesterol levels you have to eat two or three servings of soy foods per day.

Marine Support
Besides watching your cholesterol levels, there is another factor to watch: your level of blood fats called triglycerides. People with high levels of triglycerides are more likely to have low levels of protective HDL. Conversely, lowering your level of triglycerides can help decrease your risk of heart disease.

Salmon, tuna, mackerel and other oily fish contain omega-3 fatty acids, which have proved to lower triglycerides. Omega-3 may raise levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol as well.Fish is also low in calories and saturated fat. To get the maximum benefits from omega-3s, plan on eating 3 to 4 ounces of fish two times a week.

The Superior Protection from Buckweat

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Buckweat has been an under appreciated food in America. In the past, if you had a diet rich in buckweat, you would probably be a farm animal. Until recent years, it was primarily grown as feed for livestock. The name may confuse you. It’s not a grain, but a seed from a plant related to rhubarb.

However, buckweat is popular in Japan and some researchers suspect that this may be the reason for the remarkable low cancer rates in Japan. If you’re familiar with Japanese cuisine, you might recognize soba noodles, which contain buckweat. It’s also commonly available in pancake mixes.

Wide protection
Buckweat contains a variety of compounds called flavonoids that have been shown in studies to help block the spread of cancer. Two compounds in particular, quercetin and rutin, are especially promising because they appear to thwart cancer in two ways.

These substances make it difficult for cancer promoting hormones to attach to healthy cells.
They can literally stop cancers before they start. Should cancer-causing substances get into cells, these compounds may be able to reduce damage to the DNA, the body’s chemical blueprint for normal cell division.

Japanese researchers have found that buckweat extract can help interfere with colon and breast cancer in rats.

Keeping blood flowing
The rutin in buckweat plays yet another protective role. Working in conjunction with other compounds, it helps prevent platelets – the components in blood that assist in clotting – from clumping together.
By helping to keep blood fluid, buckweat can play an important role in any heart-protection plan. Rutin has also proved to stabilize blood vessels and help lower blood pressure, thus helping to protect against heart disease. And it act as an antioxidant, protecting your cells from the damaging attacks from free radicals.

Research believe that when flavonoids are combined with vitamin E, which is also found in buckweat, the benefits are even more significant. Fat-soluble vitamin E can neutralize dangerous free radicals, that can damage cells, in the fatty portion of cells. Flavonoids, on the other hand, are water soluble; they attack free radicals in the watery parts of cells.”That puts an antioxidant in both the watery and fatty portions of cells,” says Timothy Johns, PhD, professor at the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University in Montreal.

An Italian Study tested the antioxidant capacity of a number of spices, fruits, cereal products, and other foods. It found that among the 18 cereal products tested, whole-meal buckweat and wheat bran had the highest total antioxidant capacity.

Protein Power
Buckweat is the best known non-animal source of high-quality protein. That’s good news if you are vegetarian or trying to cut back on meat. It also helps to lower cholesterol as well.
We need protein for everything, from healing wounds to producing brain power.

In laboratory experiments, animals that were fed extracts of buckweat protein had significantly lower cholesterol levels than there non-buckweat-eating companions. Levels in the buckweat-fed animals, in fact, were even lower than in animals given soy protein extract, one of the most cholesterol-busting foods.

In addition, buckweat is an excellent source of essential nutrients. “It’s rich in several minerals, most especially magnesium and manganese, but also zinc and copper,” says Dr. Eskin.

One cup of buckweat flour made from whole groats (the grain with the hull removed ) contains 301 mg of magnesium, or 75% of the Daily Value (DV) for this mineral. It also contains 25% of the DV for zinc, 40% of the DV for phosphorus, 27% of the DV for iron, and 20% of the DV for potassium.

Blood Sugar Control
One of the most valuable aspects of buckweat is its ability to help control blood sugar levels in people with adult-onset, or type-2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

The carbohydrates in buckweat, amylose and amylopectin are digested more slowly than other types of carbohydrates. This causes blood sugar levels to rise more evenly. While this good for everyone, it’s especially important for people with diabetes, whose blood sugar levels tend to rise steeply and stay high too long. Keeping blood sugar under control has been shown to reduce or prevent many of the serious complications of diabetes, including kidney damage.

Because buckweat is absorbed more slowly than grains, it leaves you feeling full longer. This makes it easier to eat less and thus control your weight.

British researchers found that using buckweat flour in pasta made it more filling. One easy way to get buckweat into your diet is in pancake mixes that contain buckweat flour. You may find that buckweat pancakes “stick with you” than those made with regular flour.

People who are sensitive to gluten who have celiac disease, a serious intestinal problem, caused by gluten found in wheat and other grain products will have no problem with buckweat, because it is free of gluten.

Excellent Source of Vitamin B
Buckweat is also an excellent source of several B vitamins. One cup of buckweat flour contains 37% of the DV for niacin, 35% of the DV for vitamin B6 and 33% of the DV for thiamin.

Niacin helps to transform the food your body uses into energy.Vitamin B6 is needed because it helps the hemoglobin in your red blood cells to carry oxygen, and it plays a role in maintaining a healthy immune system and a healthy nervous system.
Like niacin, thiamin also helps to transform fuel into energy and helps your nervous system.

If you have a sweet taste, some honey producers bottle honey that is made by bees that harvest nectar from buckweat fields. This honey is rich in antioxidants, like phenolic acid, and flavonoids. This honey seems to be particularly powerful. Researchers found that buckweat honey has 20 times more antioxidant activity then any light-colored honey.

However, buckweat honey has a strong flavor that some people call “full body”, but it’s taste is not for everyone.

How to use buckwheat in the kitchen
As already mentioned, buckweat contains no gluten like rice and wheat. Without gluten to hold the grain together, it will turn to mush unless you precook it.

Here is what you can do. Put the buckweat in a hot skillet, and toss gently for 3 to 5 minutes. This expands and strenghtens the outer skin, which will help it stay in tact during the simmering process.

If you’re using kasha (the roasted form of buckweat) that’s been cracked, toss it with an egg white before before adding it to the pan. The albumen in the egg will help to keep it firm. Uncracked kasha however, can be cooked without an egg.

Put the buckweat in a saucepan. Cook it the same way as brown rice.Add two cups of boiling water for each cup of buckweat.
Boiling water will seal the outer shell and keeps the buckweat together during cooking.

Simmer the buckweat, covered, untill all the water is absorbed and the kernels are tender. Cracked kasha will take 8 to 10 minutes, and whole kasha 10 to 12 minutes.

The Secret to a Healthy Heart

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From the time when the fruits of fermentation were discovered, wine has been a welcome guest.
Not only at dinner tables, but also at weddings, religious rituals and even in doctors’ offices.

Not so long ago, however, scientists began to investigate the actual health benefits of drinking wine.
And the findings they’ve uncorked are enough to make any wine lover raise his glass and say “Salut!”

When sipped in moderation, particularly red wine, can help lower cholesterol and prevent hardening of the arteries and heart disease. Also, studies discovered that it can kill the bacteria that cause food poisoning and travelers’ diarrhea. Obviously, experts don’t recommend that people start guzzling wine rather than sipping it or that people who don’t drink should suddenly start. Rather, what the evidence suggest is that moderate drinking can be a helpful addition to a healthy diet.

For many years, scientists were amazed that their French allies indulged themselves in cigarettes, buttery croissants, and fatty pates – and were still 2 1/2 times less likely to develop heart disease than their supposedly healthier American counterparts.

Researchers are still investigating the so called French paradox, but it appears likely that the French have healthier hearts, at least partly because of their preference for red wine.
These wines are rich in compounds that help lower cholesterol and prevent harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from sticking to the lining of artery walls – the process that leads to heart disease.
Red wines also help blood platelets from sticking together and forming dangerous clots.

Heart Protection
Red wine keeps your pump primed in complex ways. There are several chemical compounds at work, and some of them have more than one benefit. As a start, the alcohol in red wine may be beneficial. People who drink small amounts of alcohol seems to have increased protection from heart disease, studies proves.

According to research, the reason is that ethanol, or alcohol, in spirited drinks raises levels of good cholesterol , heart-protecting high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Beer and other alcoholic drinks have some benefits, but wine is the only one with health-promoting polyphenols.

The reason for its superior protection is that wine contains powerful flavonoids, like quercetin.
Along with other potentially protective compounds, like resveratrol, , it helps prevent the body’s dangerous LDL cholesterol from oxidizing. This, in turn, makes bad LDL cholesterol less likely to stick to artery walls.

Laboratory studies have shown that resveratrol slows down aging in mice, protect against weight gain, and boost endurance by improving the functioning of mitochondria – which are tiny power plants inside every cell of your body.

“Flavonoids in red wine are more powerful than vitamin E, which everyone knows is an important antioxidant,” says John D Folts, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the coronary thrombosis Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison.

Keeping LDL cholesterol under control is a good start against heat disease, besides helping to prevent platelets in blood from sticking together.
A study led by professor Folts and his colleagues found that when reed wine was given to laboratory animals, it eliminated potentially dangerous clots, which can cause heart attacks and stroke. “Red wine performs double duty, giving you two important benefits at the same time,” says Dr. Folts.

It’s in the color
When we talk about the healing power of wine for a healthy heart, we are referring to red wine.
A laboratory study at the University of California, Davis, revealed that red wines could prevent from 46% to 100% of LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, while white wines were less protective.
In addition, laboratory studies found that white wine miss the blood clot-blocking ability.

The reason why red wine is so much superior to white has to do with wine making.
When vintners make wine, they throw everything in the vat – not just grapes but also the skins, seeds and stems.They’re all mashed up to create a chunky mixture called must, and this contains the healthy flavonoids.

“The longer the must ferments in the alcohol, the more of these compounds release into the wine, according to Dr Folts. With white wine, the must is taken out early so that the wine never darkens. With red wine, the must is kept in a long time, and the wine picks up a lot of flovonoids.”

UC Davis researchers have found that some red wines are also rich in saponins, which lower heart disease risk by binding to cholesterol and preventing their absorption. Saponins may also cool body wide inflammation, which could also lower the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Red wines contain 3 to 10 times more saponins than whites. The ricchest source is red Zinfandel, followed by Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Savignon. The two white varieties, Savignon Blanc and Shardonnay contains less.
The saponin may come from the waxy grape skins and seems to dissolve into the wine during fermentation. Wines with the highest alcohol content also has the most saponin.

Wine may also maintain a healthy weight. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic followed drinking behavior and weight in 8,200 men ad women. They found that those who enjoyed one or two alcoholic beverages a day were 54% less likely to be obese than non drinkers.
Non drinkers and ex drinkers had twice as much change of becoming obese. People who have a glass of wine or beer every day usually have it with there evening meal, and it could be that a drink replaces a later, high-calory evening snack.
However, four or more glasses per day doesn’t make you super slim but gives you 50% more change of becoming obese.

Wine protect against infection
Scientists from Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu tested red wine, white wine and bismouth found that they subsalicylate against some of the meanest intestinal germs, including shigella, salmonella and Escherichia coli, and that both red and white wines were more effective than drugs for wiping out harmful bacteria.

Headaches
For some people with a tendensy toward migraine headaches, even a small glass of wine can cause a lot of headache. Red wine contains substances called amines, which cause blood vessels in the brain to constrict and then expand. For sensitive people this can result in eye-popping headaches.

Although white wine contains fewer headache producing amines than the red varieties, it doesn’t contain as many healing compounds.either. So if headaches are a problem for you, you may want to ask your doctor if a nonalcoholic wine will allow you to enjoy the great tastes without the pain.

Know your limit
The most important tip for getting the maximum health benefits from your wine cellar is knowing when to put your glass down. The daily limit is one 5-ounce glass a day for women and two 5-ounce glasses for men. Experts agree, however, that if you are tempted to overindulging, or if you have a personal or family history of alcoholism, you’re better off skipping a alcohol entirely.

Go for the Gusto
When you are scanning the shelves for the wine with the highest levels of heart-healthy compounds, go for the full-bodied, robust varieties. There is a close relationship between the level of tannin, the substance that makes wine dry, and the level of healing compounds in red wines. Three of the most heart-healthy wines are Cabernet Savignon, Petite Sirah, and Merlot.

Celery: A Strong Protector

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As a member of the parsley family, these stalks contain compounds that may help
lower blood pressure and perhaps help prevent cancer.
Celery is also a good source of insoluble fiber as well as some essential nutrients,
like potassium, vitamin C and calcium.

Lower bad cholesterol
Laboratory tests with animals shows the ability to lower cholesterol.
In a study conducted at the National University of Singapore, laboratory animals were
fed a high-fat diet,plumping them up for 8 weeks and raising their cholesterol.
Then they gave some of the animals celery juice. The animals that drank the celery juice
had significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol than the animals that didn’t
received any celery juice.

Lower Blood Pressure
Celery has been used in Asia as a remedy for people with high blood pressure.
In the United States, a man named Mr. Le with mild high blood pressure and persistence persuaded
researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Rather than cutting back on salt as his doctor advised, he began eating four stalks of
celery per day. Within a week, his blood pressure had dropped from 158/96 to 118/82.

An assistant professor of medicine and pharmacological and physiological science
at the University of Chicago, W. J. Elliott, MD, PhD, decided to put celery at the test.
Test animals were injected with a small amount of 3-n-phthalide, a chemical compound celery
that is found in celery. Within a week, the blood pressure of the animals dropped an
average of 12 to 14 percent.

“Phthalide was found to relax the muscles of the arteries that regulate blood pressure,
allowing the vessels to dilate.” according to Dr. Elliott. In addition, the chemical reduced
the number of “stress hormones” called catecholamines in the blood.
This may be helpful because stress hormones typically raise blood pressure by causing
blood vessels to constrict.

If you have high blood pressure and would like to give celery a try, use this strategy
recommended by Asian practisioners. Eat four to five stalks of celery every day for
a week, then stop for three weeks. Then start over and eat celery for another week.
But don’t overdo it and eat celery by the pound, warns Dr. Elliott.
Each celery stalk contains 35 milligrams of sodium, and for some people, this can cause
blood pressure to go up instead of going down. “Eating a ton of celery can be dangerous
if you have salt-sensitive hypertension.” says Dr. Elliott.

Preventing Cancer
Celery contains compounds that may help prevent cancer, according to research.
Firstly, celery contains compounds called acetylenics, which proved to stop the growth
of tumor cells.
Secondly, celery contains compounds called phenolic acids, which block the action of
hormone like substances called prostaglandins. Some prostaglandins are thought to encourage the growth of tumor cells.
Thirdly, celery contains compounds called coumarins, which help prevent free radicals
from damaging cells. That gives celery a one-two-three punch against cancer.

A Skin Stalker
As celery is such a sweet, succulent stalk, it has to produce its own pesticides to
protect it from hungry fungi.
These compounds protect the celery, however, they could do humans some harm.
For some people, getting these compounds in the diet, or even through the skin,
can make their skin very sensitive to sunlight. So much so that they can get sunburns
after they have spent even a short period of time in the sun.

If you begin having skin problems after eating celery, stop eating it.
You have to wash celery thoroughly before you eat it . That way you remove any fungi
that may have formed on the plant, which sometimes causes the production of those
compounds.

Protect the Flavonoids
Don’t be tempted to cut up celery to eat later. It’s best to eat the celery soon after
you cut it. After only 24 hours in the fridge, the flavonoids are consider ably
decreased, according to researchers in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Save the leaves
While celery stalks are certainly a healthy snack, however, the leaves contain the
most potassium, vitamin C and calcium.

Eat it the way you like it.
While many foods lose nutrients during cooking, most of the compounds in celery
are staying on during cooking. Eating a cup of celery raw or cooked, provides about
9 milligrams of vitamin C, which is 15% of the Daily Value; 426 milligrams of potassium
of 12% of the Daily Value, and 60 milligrams of calcium, or 6% of the Daily Value.

A Heart Healthy Diet Prevent Stroke

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The fact that stroke can strike suddenly without warning is most frighting.
There is often no sign or anything, just a fraction of a second sense that something went wrong.
Although the stroke itself comes out of the blue, the problems that causes it usually develop
over years. When the blood, that contains oxygen and nutrients, can’t reach parts of the brain,
stroke occurs, or when an artery ruptures and blood is lost.

The risk of a stroke will be present by high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes,
and a dangerous prediabetic condition called metabolic syndrome – and all these factors
can be reduced by choosing the right food and a healthy lifestyle.
“Your diet plays a critical role in preventing stroke”, says Thomas Pearson, M.D. PhD,
professor of epidemiology and chairman of the department of community and preventive
medicine at the University of Rochester in New York.

A study involving more than 87,000 nurses at the Harvard School of Public Health showed that women
who ate the most fruits and vegetables had a 40% less change of having a stroke than those who ate the least.
Another study conducted at the University of California, San Diego, discovered that people who ate a single
serving of potassium-rich fruits and vegetables a day where also able to cut there risk of stroke by 40%.

The following six strategies offer powerful protection:
Calm high blood pressure with dairy and potassium. High blood pressure (135/85 or higher)
doubles your risk for a stroke. Here is why. Pressured by high-speed blood flow, arteries
in the brain thicken and can eventually squeeze shut. Small arteries may rupture under pressure.
The risk for developing clot-producing plaque on the artery walls due to high blood pressure.
More than 300,000 strokes annually could be prevented if everyone in the US brought it
under control. Your diet should include low-fat dairy products and plenty of potassium-rich
foods. Not only does potassium fight high blood pressure, it also appears to make blood
less likely to clot, which can reduce the risk of stroke even more.
Potassium rich foods are fat-free milk, low-fat yogurt, vegetable juice cocktail, baby limas,
kidney beans, lentils, baked potatoes, prune juice and died peaches.

Reverse metabolic syndrome with smart meal combo’s.
Metabolic syndrome is a combination of prediabetic conditions including insulin resistance
which occur when your cells stop responding quickly to insulin’s command to absorb blood
sugar – plus slightly high blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides, plus low levels of
good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Nearly everyone with this condition is
overweight. There are at least 40 million Americans at risk for metabolic syndrome.
People with metabolic syndrome doubles their risk of stroke.

You can prevent this condition by eating high-fiber, low-sugar foods, lean protein, good fats
such as nuts, oily cold-water fish, and flaxseed. Fruits, vegetables and grain products low
on the Glycemic Index, also keeps blood sugar and insulin levels lower.
This will cut cravings and help you lose weight and can almost instantly make your body cells
more sensitive to insulin’s signals. Avoid foods like doughnuts, sugary soft drinks, and white
bread, which send sugar levels soaring, fast.
You can also slow the rise in blood sugar after a meal by combining a high-fiber or high-
protein food with a refined carbohydrate – for example, with some navy beans with instant rice,

Lose weight
Not only what you eat but also how much you eat can play a role in controlling stroke.
Overweight can raise a woman’s stroke risk by 75%. Obesity raises it by 100%.
When researchers at Harvard University compared body weight and stroke risk in 116,759
nurses, they found that overweight women were two to four times more likely to have high
blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Being overweight is perhaps the leading cause of high blood pressure, which rapidly increases
stroke risk. As a matter of fact, people with high blood pressure are five times more likely
to have a stroke than those who’s blood pressure are normal.
Also, being overweight increase your risk of developing diabetes and the risk of stroke.

Treat diabetes with slow carbs
Having diabetes in women seems to be a bigger threat for a stroke than for men, because
of raising blood pressure and brain-threatening blood clots, and makes her risk for stroke
two to four times higher than normal.

The best food strategy for keeping diabetes under control is choosing “good”, “slow”
complex carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
These keep blood sugar levels lower and steadier and also help control levels of insulin
in your body. Experts theorize that surges of insulin after a meal heavy loaded with
refined carbs advance biochemical changes in the body that promote high blood pressure
and blood clot formation – which are two big stroke risks.

Rebalance your cholesterol profile with good fats
High levels of bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and low levels of good (HDL)
cholesterol increase the risk of stroke. When the level of good cholesterol is low, your body
is unable to haul away the bad cholesterol , giving it free entry inside the lining of your
artery walls and start the process that leads to clogged arteries.
To get lower LDL and higher HDL levels you should eat less saturated fats and more good
fats. Choose olive oil or canola oil for cooking to maintain healthy HDL levels.
By adding plenty of exercise you give them a boost.

Also, skip full-fat milk, cheese, sour cream, and ice cream….and turn down that fat-marbled
prime rib. What you don’t eat can be just as important as what you do eat.
Research has shown that people who get the most fat in their diet – especially the saturated
fat in meats and other animal foods – have a bigger change of having a stroke than those who
eat healthier foods. This is because a diet that is high in saturated fat raises cholesterol levels.
Cholesterol which is known for clogging arteries in the heart, can also block blood vessels
in and leading to the brain.

“Reducing saturated fat intake is the most powerful dietary maneuver you can make”‘
according to John Crouse, MD, professor of medicine and public health sciences and
associate director of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine General Clinical
Research Center.

Limiting meat servings to 3 to 4 ounces a day, using little or no butter, switching to low-fat
dairy foods, and avoiding high-fat snacks is all what’s necessary for most people to keep
healthy cholesterol levels.

Choose lots of produce as well.
When researchers from the well-known Framingham Heart Study Group scrutinized the diets
of 830 men, they found that for every three servings of fruits and vegetables people ate
every day, their risk of stroke declined 22%.

There are several reasons that fruits and vegetables are so beneficial for preventing stroke.
Most of all, they are high in fiber, which has been shown to lower bad cholesterol.
These foods also contain powerful antioxidants, according to epidemiologist Michael Hertog,
PhD, of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental protection in the Netherlands.
They help prevent the harmful LDL cholesterol from sticking to your artery walls and blocking
blood flow to the brain. Foods that contain a large quantity of antioxidants are: garlic,onions,
kale, carrots, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, blueberries, plums, cherries, oranges and red grapes.

You don’t need a lot of antioxidant-rich food to get the benefits. In the Nurses’ Health Study,
for example, Harvard researchers discovered that women who get as little as 15 milligrams
of beta-carotene daily, which is the amount in a large carrot, reduced their risk of stroke.

Except fruits and vegetables, tea (both green and black tea) is also an excellent source of
flavonoids. When Dr. Hertog studied more than 550 men aged 50 to 69, he found that those
who got most of their flavonoids from tea were able to reduce their risk of stroke by 73%,
compared with those who got the least of these healthful compounds.
He found that those men who drink at least 5 cups of tea daily can reduce their stroke risk
by more than two-thirds, compared with those drink who less than 3 cups a day.

Dropping just a few pounds can cut stroke risk. You don’t have to be model-thin to stay
healthy, says Thomas A Pearson, MD. PhD, of the University of Rochester.
Losing 10 to 20 pounds is often sufficient to lower blood pressure and with it, the risk
of having a stroke.

Benefits of Apples are Skin Deep

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Apples are more than just a wholesome snack. Research have shown that eating apples can help reduce the risk of heart disease, and they may also help protect you from lung cancer. In addition, they may lower your risk of asthma and improve your overall long function.
Antioxidant Protection Phenolics are some of the most powerful disease-fighting components in apples, and they have been getting a lot of research attention lately. Phenolics are a type of phytochemicals that can act as powerful antioxidants, neutralizing free radicals before they can get a change to damage your DNA and other important components within your body.

Researchers at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and Seoul University in South Korea found that these phenolics may provide the bulk of the antioxidant power in apples, rather than the vitamin C. Other research from Cornell set out to rank the total phenolic content in many popular fruits. Apples came in second place behind the cranberries, and beat out other favorites such as the red grape, strawberry, pineapple, banana, peach lemon, orange, pear, and grapefruit.

This study also found that apples have the second highest total antioxidant activity of these fruits, again beaten by the cranberry. If you take into account their tastiness, easy preparation time and versatility, apples are hard to beat as an easy way to get a quick dose of antioxidants.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter
The phytochemicals in apples may make them useful tools in warding off heart disease. A study that followed almost 40,000 women for about seven years associated apples with a 13% to 22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Research in Finland has found that intake of flavonoids – a type of phenolics found in apples – was inversely associated with death from heart disease in women.

Another study, involving more than 30,000 older Iowa women found that, consuming catechin and epicatechin – both flavonoids found in apples – was associated with a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease.

Even though, many people favor the flesh, much of an apple’s healing power can be found in the skin, which ccontains large amounts – about 4 milligrams – of an antioxidant compound called quercetin. Like vitamin C and beta-carotene, quercetin can help prevent harmful oxygen molecules from damaging individual cells.

Even in the healing world of antioxidants, quercetin is thought to be exceptional. Another Finnish study, this one following more than 10,000 men and women, found that the people who ate the most quercetin had a 20% lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease than those who ate the least.

Cancer Protection
A study involving more than 120,000 men and women found that women who ate at least one serving of apples daily had a lower risk of lung cancer. A Hawaiian study looked at the diet history of 582 people who had lung cancer and 582 without the disease found that the people who consumed the most apples and onions and white grapefruit had nearly half the risk of lung cancer than those who ate the least amounts of these foods.

Effect of Apples on Lung Problems Apples may also help reduce your risk of asthma and improve your lung health. An Australian study involving 1,600 adults associated apple and pear consumption with a lower risk of asthma. And a study of more than 13,000 adults in the Netherlands found that those who consumed more apples and pears had a better lung function and less chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Apple Fiber for Digestive Health
Apples are also a rich source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. A 5-ounce apple including the skin has about 3 grams of fiber. Insoluble fiber, found in the skin, has long been recommended to relieve constipation. Studies show that a smoothly operating digestive tract can help prevent colon cancer. Also, insoluble fiber is filling which make apples an excellent weight control food for people who want to lose weight without feeling hungry.

The soluble fiber in apples, which is the same kind that is found in oat bran, acts differently from the insoluble kind. In stead of passing through the digestive tract more or less unchanged, soluble fiber forms a gel-like material in the digestive tract that helps lower cholesterol and with it, the risk of heart disease and stroke.

A particular form of soluble fiber called pectin is very helpful to reduce the amount of cholesterol produced in the liver. An average-seize apple contains 0.7 gram of pectin, more than the amount in strawberries and bananas.

Indeed, it appears that having an apple or two a day really can help to keep the doctor away.

Flavonoids

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Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants, and sturdy defenders against heart disease and cancer. See also my article titled: Antioxidants in green leafy vegetables
Like carotenoids, flavonoids add color – specifically red, yellow, blue and shades of brown
to the foods we eat and drink.
Present mostly in apples, celery, cocoa, (dark chocolate), cranberries, grapes, broccoli, endive, onions, green and black teas, and red wines.

But experts are beginning to discover that these compounds are doing more.
Some flavonoids make the linings of blood vessels more supple, lowering blood pressure and protecting against a buildup of heart- threatening plague. In one study, grape juice and
chocolate had this effect. Flavovoids also act like Teflon coating for the millions of tiny disks in your blood called platelets. They keep the platelets from clumbing together in the bloodstream and forming clots, which helps prevent heart attacks and stroke.

A recent study at the Harvard Medical School lab has found that one magical flavonoid found in wine and grapes: resveratrol, also lowers blood sugar levels and boosts liver function. In fact, in a group of lucky mice, it increased longevity by 31%.
In one study at the university of Virginia, resveratrol – found in grape skins, raspberries,
mulberries, and peanuts – literally starved cancer cells by interfering with a protein called
nuclear factor-kappa B, that helps food them.

In one Dutch study that examined the eating habits of 800 men, aged between 65 and 84,
researchers found that those who got the least flavonoids in their diets, were 32% more
likely to die from heart attacks than those who ate the most. It didn’t take many flavonoids
to get the benefits. The high-flavonoid group had the equivalent of 4 cops of black tea,
a half cup of apple, and 1//8 cup of onions per day.

When it comes to cancer prevention, flavonoids may help out by influencing cel-signaling
pathways – the way cells turn genes on and off in order to perform thousands of everyday
maintenance activities. Flavonoids may help turn on genes that stop cancer cells from
dividing or invading healthy tissues, or even help activate genes that make cancer cells
commit suicide, say experts from the Linus Pauling Research Institute at Oregon State
University in Corvallis.

In a recent study at the University of California, Los Angeles, those prostate-cancer
survivors who drank 8 ounces of pomegranate juice daily, increased by nearly 4 times
the period during which their PSA levels (prostate specific antigens) a cancer biomaker,
stayed constant. The study even surprised the researchers, who say that the combination
of flavonoids, anti-inflammatory compounds, and antioxidants in pomegranate juice
may be responsible.