Sunday, September 21, 2008

Super Fruit, Super Food For You


Super Fruits, Super Tasty and Super Good For You Too


by: Steven A Johnson

Healthy and nutritional super fruits are touted to reverse cell damage, rejuvenate and revitalize your body from within. Maybe you have heard this before. However maybe you have never heard the term super fruit and are wondering what in the world a "super fruit" is and what do they do for you.

Superfruits refer to certain fruits that are exceptionally rich in nutrients and antioxidants that have a pleasing taste. Super fruits are mainly developed into juices and can fill the nutritional gaps in our diets.

There are many types of super fruits and as you read you will discover some of them and you will also discover some of the restorative health benefit and natural energy you can get from them.

Pomegranate: This super fruit is high in phytonutrients and antioxidants that improve your heart health, strengthen your immune function, and help to maintain prostate health.

Goji Berries: This super food (pronounced "go-gee") is berries that are related to tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant and are red-orange in color. Goji Berries are a native fruit of China and they are rich in vitamin C and beta carotene. They are a powerful antioxidant that helps keep our cells healthy and unharmed. Some people say these berries taste like a mix of raspberries and plums and some say that they taste like a cross between a cherry and a cranberry.

Acai Berries: This super fruit (pronounced "ah-sigh-ee") is a small purple berry that is a native to the Amazon rainforest. Acai berries are rich in vitamins and minerals. And it is said that they are extremely high in antioxidant properties in which protect the cells in the body from oxidation damage. This berry is usually marketed as a juice due to its delicate nature. Acai has a berry flavor and a faint chocolate after taste.

Mangosteen: This superfood, not related to the mango, is a purple-colored tropical fruit with white pulp. The bright-colored skin of the mangosteen fruit is what contains most of its phytochemical properties, which is a natural plant substance with health benefits. Mangosteen fruit is said to be high in Xanthones which is one of natures more potent antioxidants and is important for normal cardiovascular health, as well as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti-fungal properties.

Most of these super fruits are sold as individual products in juice form. To get the well rounded results you are looking for to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet you would have to consume an awful lot of juice. However there is a product that gives you all of the whole food anti-oxidant goodness you expect from a supplemental product plus something unexpected, a great berry taste! This product is called Miracle Reds. The Miracle Reds formula will fill in most any nutritional gap.

Each scoop of Miracle Reds is a healthy and natural combination of all of the nutritional "super fruits" that help to rejuvenate and revitalize and more. This unique formula of Miracle Reds utilizes all of the rare fruits that are high antioxidants, plant sterols, co-nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other health-promoting nutrients and it taste fabulous too.

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Solution For Super Bones

Superfoods Solution For Super Bones

by: Paul Hata

Many people believe that the primary cause of osteoporosis is the lack of calcium in their diet. However, in the overall picture, calcium is only a small piece of the puzzle. Though calcium supplements can certainly help, there are other dietary concerns that need to be examined.

Actually, the primary dietary cause of osteoporosis is the eating foods that are highly acidic in nature, such as refined white sugar, refined white flour, high-fructose corn syrup, soft drinks, cookies, candies, sweets, desserts, and anything containing sweeteners.

The over-consumption of these products causes the pH level in your blood to become very acidic. In an attempt to counterbalance this, your body reaches out for any calcium and magnesium it can find, and releases those into your bloodstream in an attempt to keep the pH level at a healthy balance.

Therefore, with every soft drink, candy, cake and goodie you indulge in, you are robbing your skeleton of its bone density. The calcium and magnesium the body harvests in an attempt to counteract this acidic environment gets passed through your kidneys, where it can also contribute to kidney stones and exits your body through your urine.

To prevent losing your bone mass to dietary causes, simply avoid consuming any white flour, processed sugars, added sugars, soft drinks, sweets, candies, breads, or any other ingredients that are made with refined carbohydrates.

In addition, certain superfoods, like broccoli, cabbage, celery and other dark green leafy vegetables help keep the pH balance in a healthy equilibrium. You need to get plenty of calcium and magnesium from healthy sources such as organic, plant-based vitamins. You also need to supplement your diet with various sea vegetables, which are naturally alkaline. Those include seaweed, kelp, and many others. Sprouts are also an awesome superfood choice.

Blueberries have been shown to shield the brain from stress, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Research has also shown that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills.

Avocados, though considered a fatty fruit,contribute to healthy blood flow and decreased blood pressure, lessening the chances of developing hypertension, which can lead to a stroke.
Deep-water fish, such as salmon is a wise, freshwater fish choice. It's abundant in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are essential for healthy brain function.

Nuts and seeds are good sources of vitamin E, an important vitamin needed by your brain to stave off declining cognitive functions. Cashews, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower and sesame seeds and almonds are all great choices.

Whole-grain breads, brown rice, and oatmeal also contribute to a healthy brain by reducing the risk for cardiac disease. By promoting a healthy heart and improved blood flow, the brain is sure to thrive via excellent oxygen and nutrient delivery through the bloodstream. Complex carbohydrates also supply the brain with a steady stream of glucose that enhances brain function.

It's important to avoid simple carbohydrates often found in junk food because the glucose gives the brain a short-lived sugar high, often followed by a crash that makes you feel hungry and tired.

Freshly brewed tea also has potent antioxidants, especially the class known as catechines, which also promotes healthy blood flow. Since black teas do contain caffeine it's important to use it sensibly.

Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidant properties, contains several natural stimulants, which enhance focus and concentration, and encourages the production of endorphins, which helps improve mood. Again, moderation is the key.

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Raw Food Lifestyle

The Benefits and Challenges of a Raw Food Lifestyle

by: Kevin Gianni
This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Dhrumil Purohit shares on his journey to a raw food lifestyle, including the benefits and the challenges. Renegade Water Secrets with Dhrumil Purohit, the lead contributory, visionary and creator of welikeitraw.com and giveittomeraw.com.

Kevin: Well, let's get right into it. For those people who have never heard of you, they soon will, and why don't you just tell us a little bit about how you started into this and how you got to where you are now.

Dhru: Sure. First of all, again, thank you for having me here. And everybody who's listening in, it's an honor to be here. The thing that I enjoy the most is connecting with other individuals, and that drives everything that I do. So to connect and build communities, that's been such an important part of my journey and that's actually how I got started.

My dietary journey started where at a conference I heard Ingrid Newkirk. She's the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She was talking about milk, blah, blah, blah this, and dairy cows blah, blah, blah, that and at that time my level of consciousness wasn't hip to maybe the plight of certain animals. But she mentioned something that really hit me, she said, "Blah, blah, blah, if you get rid of milk then you might see your acne go away." I was in high school at the time, I'm trying to talk to girls, I'm trying to be a more social individual, but even though I had been raised vegetarian, coming from an Indian background, I always dealt with acne. So when she said that I said, "Ok, you know what, she say's that in about a month's time you can start to see a major difference, so let me get rid of the dairy in my diet." So when I got rid of the diary in my diet, naturally people ask you, "What the heck are you doing?" So you have to read up on it and you have to get educated a little bit and that's when I finally started to understand and make the connection, that even though I was brought up vegetarian I had never really understood fully the connection between food and health.

Then once that started, for a year and a half, as many people there have kind of gotten their start, I was a processed vegan. I was eating soy burgers and tofutti and carbitarian totally all the way. The finally one day at a health food store, in the aisle, I'm shopping for my produce and I see this guy who I've seen like a hundred times before shopping at the same organic co-op. And I always noticed that the whites of his eyes are really white, he was a very fit gentleman, he looked fairly young as well.

So I went up to him and I finally said, "Hey bro, what is it that you actually do? What is it that you eat?" And he was like, "Oh, man I'm into raw food." And I was like, "Raw food, what is that?" And over the next 40 minutes, this gentleman, who's name is actually Nature Love, kind of over the next 45 minutes gave me a full breakdown of the relationship between food and why raw food matters and how it can improve the health. And from that day, which was the year 2001, that's when my journey really began. It was on that day.

Kevin: Wow, that's pretty nice. Let's just get right into it here. What are some of the biggest challenges that you encountered from that day till now that really stand out in you head, that say, "This is what happened, here's how I dealt with it and here's how I'm better because of it?"

Dhru: Sure, absolutely. Well one of the things that I talk about a lot is the physiological challenges and I noticed that... I'll give you a specific example, when I first started my journey after meeting Nature, the next day Nature, after I met up with him in the aisle, he came over to my place to show me and my roommate a little bit about raw foods. And when Nature told me that he was 40, and this guy literally, like... there's photos of him on our website, welikeitraw.com, you can see how fit he is, how young he looks. When he told me he was 40-years-old I totally flipped. I was like, "OK, I'm doing this today."

So that was the first biggest challenge that I faced, I went 100 percent overnight embarking on raw foods. And what kept me going solid 100 percent for the first 8 months was discipline and excitement. Sheer excitement because I was looking forward to the future. I kept on thinking that in the future this will all be worth it and I'll be at some place where my health and everything else will click and it won't be as tough as it is now. And then discipline, which is simply one desire that's trumping another desire. I had this desire to look fit, to be energetic, to be healthy, and then I also had this desire to eat a donut or eat this, or eat that.

But my desire for being fit and healthy was strongest. But the challenge with discipline is, after a certain time, because discipline comes from a place of desire, discipline will always fail you. At some point in time discipline will always fail you because resisting your desires is... well it's resisting your desires. It's still a desire that's inside of you. So for eight months solid I was going through the physiological challenges of wanting to stick to this thing, I felt good, but I had all these desires inside to try different foods, to eat different things.

And it was right around that point, that after I, at the time I considered it "'failing." I failed on my raw food diet by yo-yoing back and forth; I realized that there was a better way, a smarter way, a more intelligent way to approach diet. And, yes there were some very practical things that I did to improve my relationship with food. Having more green smoothies, having some transitional foods, things like that.

But overall I saw that the biggest shift, the thing that benefited me the most, and now I'm seeing that it's benefiting so many other people as well too, is that to actually ask yourself, "Why am I doing this in the first place? Am I waiting for the future to be better than the present moment? Am I doing this because someday I think things will be better?" It's all right to have goals, it's all right to have health goals, it's all right to build a foundation, but the biggest challenge that I see is that a lot of people have, regardless of whatever dietary regimen they're trying to follow, if they're trying to just eat healthier, or exercise more, they are their biggest enemy because of these physiological battles they play with themselves back and forth.

It's easy to open up a book and know what to do. There are so many nutrition books and websites that are out there that give you great information now, especially with things like Goggle. And you can see what you can do.

The same thing goes with exercise. But when you look at it, it's not that people have a problem with information they have this physiological battle with identifying themselves with certain goals and living in the future instead of bringing their attention back into the present moment.
Kevin: So you said in that first eight months you were living in the future, correct?

Dhru: Yeah, I was living in the future. I was just constantly thinking that things will be better, it'll be easier. I'm eating towards some future goal; I'm eating towards some future goal of being fit in my ideal version of what I had as fitness in my head. And then also along with that I was identifying with something, my ego was identifying with the concept of being 100 percent raw.

Which, I'm sure Kevin, you've seen with the excellent work that you do, a lot of people probably write in to you that say they need to be 100 percent raw but they can't. And that's just some arbitrary goal. That doesn't mean that I was actually any healthier, I was just fixated on this concept of being 100 percent raw.

So instead of being 100 percent healthy and just enjoying and having a beautiful relationship with food, I was focused on this arbitrary idea of being 100 percent raw because I thought that it would bring me something that wasn't something that I had with me right then and there at that moment. I was looking to diet as a way to fulfill me, which is an exact example of people that have really bad challenges with food. They're looking to food for fulfillment. People that go through, I don't want to speak personally, because I haven't gone through this, but from what I've read, individuals that suffer through bulimia and other eating disorders, often what they're looking for in certain ways is that they treat food as a vehicle to fulfillment, to fulfill them even if they don't want to eat it. They're rejecting food as a way to fulfillment with something to fulfill themselves with something that isn't with them right then and there.

I know it starts to become really abstract, but the easiest way to say it is that just take a look at anything that you're doing in your life right now. And if you're running off of shear discipline, if you're running off the hope that someday in the future that you'll make it, the chances are that you're going to face so many more struggles along your journey.

As opposed to the flip side is, everybody wants a challenge, everybody is down for a good challenge and the difference between a challenge and a struggle is the added dimension of resistance. When you go through a struggle, when you're yo-yoing in your diet, when you can't stick to your exercise plan, when you're having a hard time doing something that you want to do, that's a struggle.

And what accompanies a struggle is resistance. You're resisting something; you're resisting something that you're not ready to be at a level that you want to be at. Maybe you need to go slower. Whatever it is that you're resisting, because you're resisting it you're using discipline as a way to kind of mask that, to kind of keep your eyes not focused on the total picture. And then you end up sending yourself back further because you haven't actually taken baby steps to build a proper foundation in whatever journey you're trying to make progress in.

articlesbase.com/health-articles

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The Effect of Words

The Effect of Positive and Negative Words


My friend sent this email but unfortunately the source is not mentioned. However, due to the fact that the experiment result was very important for our knowledge, we, on behalf of the publisher, ask for the permission to publish this article.

The email states:

Peace be with you. It is better for us to start controlling our words we pronounce by using good and positive words. Why?

After reading the information about the effect of negative words to the water, written in the book "The Hidden Messages in Water" by Masaru Emoto and on the page 31 of that book, many people did the experiment and it made me interested to do the following steps:

Place the rest of rice, which has ben kept for one night into two small glass jars with the same amont of rice, then close it tight:

At the respective jars, put the label with the following words:

Glass Jar A :

"You are Clever, Smart, Beautiful, Good, Diligent, Patient. I Love You. I Am Happy to See You. I Want To Be With You. I LOVE YOU. Thank You.”

Glass Jar B :

"You are Stupid, Fool, Ugly, Bad, Lazy, Fierceful. I Hate to See You. I Hate to Be With You.”

I put those two jars separately at the place that is easily to see. I asked my wife, son, and the nanny to read the labels at the jars, every time they see the jars.

And, it was what happened to the rice then:

The rice in the jar with negative words was rotten and darkened fast and the smell was bad.

Whereas, the rice with positive words was still yellowish white and smell was still good like yeast. You can try it!

View from front side

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View from behind

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View from upper side

In that book, someone did the experience to three jars. The third jar has no label or no treatment. Then, the rice in the third was rotten faster than the bottle with negative words. Imagine! What will happen to our children, our spouse, our colleague, and the people surround us, as well as to the animals and floras around us, that experience the effect resulted by the vibration from our mind, and words to them?

Be aware and wise to choose the words you say, and control your state of mind..

I wish this message useful for us. Peace be with you.

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Friday, September 19, 2008

How Poor We Are

by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown

One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be.

They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"Very good Dad!" "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon." When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!"

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The House of 1000 Mirrors

by: Author Unknown, Japanese folktale

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."
All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?
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Honesty

by: Bill Greer, Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul

Morality may consist solely in the courage of making a choice. Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything. But over time you learn, you can't make wrong work.

There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy. And your only reward is that it's easy. You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.

You can never lose anything that really belongs to you, and you can't keep that which belongs to someone else.

You always experience the consequences of your own acts. If your acts are right, you'll get good consequences; if not, you'll suffer for it.

Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

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