http://offto.net/rtjuice/ Healthy juice recipes 103 Healthy Juicer Recipes…It's Like Having Your Own Personal Nutritionist At Your Fingertips Have you ever wanted to make delicious, nutritious, fruit and vegetable juices but did not know where to begin? Are you already juicing but wish you could enjoy a greater variety of recipes without the time and hassle of flipping through books and magazines? Well Now You Can…. …

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http://www.RenegadeHealth.com - The Argentines have got a winner with chimichurri sauce… It's traditionally put on beef (any cut or part imaginable) but we got a little creative and came up with a few alternative options. If you like food… which I'm sure you do… you'll love this raw version to this one (I think the sauce is raw anyway as long as you don't buy it in a bottle from the supermarket!) …

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Make sure that you cleanse your skin before using bare essentials makeup. It is worthwhile for you to know some of the bare essential information about what can invade your skin. Small infections called pustules which are provoked by staphylococci in the area where the hair protrudes through the skin which is a channel in which fat produced by salacious glands flow. Often these pustules are dilated and they contain impurities such as bacteria, fats, which are visible as black pimples. In the event of a Staphylococcus infection, firstly you will notice a red area around the poly sebaceous follicle and in the middle pustules will be formed.

Pimples

Pimples appear in the case of the acne, a disease which is a consequence of a lack of balance of internal secretion glands, of the gastro-intestinal and hepatic trouble, of the suprarenal insufficiency, of the hypothyroid, or trouble of the neurovegetative system. Because this disease has different causes, you should consult a skin specialist, in order to understand a diagnosis and to follow the right treatment. A great majority of the people who have pimples are tempted to burst them them immediately, without taking hygiene measures, which leads to the infection of the skin and to a breeding of the pimples.

In the case of the treatment recommended by the doctor, the hygiene of the face also has an important role. Don’t touch your face with dirty hands. Your face will be washed with warm water and bare essentials soap, twice a day, and in the evening you will wipe it with Bare Essentials Makeup alcoholic, degreasing lotions. In the local treatment you will use special bare essentials powders based on sulphur or zinc oxide. The black pimples must be regularly removed because they provoke pustules.

Freckles are small, round spots which appear especially in spring, when the sun shines more brightly. They are more frequently seen in the case of blond or red-haired people, more rarely in the case of dark-haired ones and their favorite areas are the face, the arms and the neck opening.

About Freckles

To stop the occurrence of freckles, you can use a Bare Essentials Makeup lotion, to wipe the face before going to bed, based on maillot water, Rose water and ammonium chloride. In order to treat the freckles you can use Bare Essentials Makeup oxidant substances which action more slowly, but they don’t harm the complexion, and which contain perhidrol, natrium per borates, magnesium peroxide, hydroquinone etc. For dry complexions there are recommended bare essentials creams based on lanolin. These creams must be applied on the clean complexion and they must be kept there during the night too.

In some cases Bare Essentials Makeup stores offer you more active substances like mercury and bismuth salt, which action by deactivating some skin pigments. These will be used under medical control or following the advice of a bare essential cosmetician, because they can produce irritations, therefore their long lasting use may be harmful.

You can also use Bare Essentials Makeup masks based on beer yeast, oxygenated water, egg white, lemon juice, yoghurt, acid uric milk and in general substances which make the face white and clean it. For those who present a predisposition for freckle occurrence, bare essentials cosmetics recommend lotions based on water, vinegar or lemon juice. They can be used in the case of dry complexion, but after a few hours you will apply a bare essentials makeup fat cream. The general rule is that no freckle treatment will be applied around the eyes, as that area will be greased with special bare essentials nourishing creams.

Dealing With Wrinkles

Wrinkles appear because the skin loses in time its suppleness and its normal smooth texture. Firstly you can expect to see vertical and horizontal wrinkles on the forehead, then wrinkles around our eyes. Following that you can expect to see some wrinkles around your mouth, these creases start from the nose and they are extended until the corners of your mouth, then appear little vertical wrinkles above the upper lip and your eyelids get wrinkles too. It sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? Wrinkles don’t necessarily appear only when we get older. They appear because of other factors: cold, heat, humidity, temperature variations. when we contract the muscles in our face too much they will appear.

Do Moods Affect Wrinkles?

Our moods and state of mind play a big part in the course and occurrence of wrinkles, emotions such as sadness worry and depression can have a detrimental effect on wrinkles. When we are in a good mood, blood flows more quickly and helps to nourish the skin and when we laugh 13 muscles are activated but when we are depressed 60 muscles are activated. Too much sun has a very adverse effect on our skin but if you must spend time in the sun make sure you use the special bare essentials makeup protective lotion which guards against sunburn. We can even protect our eyes by using bare essentials sunglasses, they are equipped with super high quality lenses.

To conclude , if you try Bare Essentials Makeup cosmetic products you won’t have pimples , or freckles , or wrinkles , only a shiny , fresh complexion

Alison Saunders
http://www.articlesbase.com/women’s-issues-articles/bare-essentials-makeup-revealed-134995.html

Everyone wants to live a longer and healthier life, but it seems like most people don’t want to do too much work to insure that it happens. But what if you knew that just adding a few servings of delicious tasting everyday foods to your meals might help extend your life? If you would be willing to do that then read on and find out what these super foods are.

More and more, science is finding truth in the statement “You are what you eat” and to support that, recent research suggests that some chemicals found in food such as sulforaphane can help to fight off free radicals and cleanse the body of toxins before they can do the damage that causes aging, heart disease and cancer. And where you get this seemingly miraculous chemical? Believe it or not, you can get it right at your grocery store since it is a phytochemical that is contained in the food you probably already eat - broccoli and in higher concentrations in broccoli sprouts.

But broccoli isn’t the only food you should boost your intake of, here are some others that not only tastes good but can help keep you healthier and living longer:

Lycopene is also important for your health and there is much press lately about eating cooked tomatoes which contain a readily absorbable form of it. Lycopene has been shown to reduce the risk of some cancers but it also may help reduce cardiovascular disease and even play a role in reducing macular degeneration. While you can get it from eating fresh tomatoes, and fresh tomatoes have their own health benefits, when the tomatoes are cooked it makes the lycopene more easily absorbable by your body so serving for serving your getting more of it. You probably already eat a lot of foods with cooked tomatoes such as pasta sauce, soups, sauces and even pizza. If you really want the best health benefits, eat foods that are not loaded with preservatives and are made from organic tomatoes. You can also get lycopene from watermelon, guava, pink grapefruit and red bell peppers - generally any fruits and vegetables that are red will have lycopene in them.

Vitamin A is essential for good health and that’s why getting enough beta-carotene as important as your body turns this into vitamin A. This vitamin is essential for good vision and also contributes to healthy skin that can help reduce the risk of some cancers, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Beta-carotene can be found in orange colored fruits and vegetables such as squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, mangoes and cantaloupes. These foods also contain lutein and lycopene which can help reduce premature wrinkling and can also help your body fight damage to your eyes caused by the sun which can result in macular degeneration.

Some other foods to add which can help reduce the risk of heart disease and keep your eyesight healthy are dark leafy greens. You can eat them fresh or frozen but, of course, organic is best. If you find that mixing up salads is a pain try buying one of those premade bags with all the different kinds of greens in them. Don’t go so much for the iceberg lettuce, try making salad with spinach leaves instead since they have a much higher nutrient value.

While it’s great to improve your health and live longer, it doesn’t make much sense if your mental abilities can’t keep up. So you want to add in some foods that help boost your brain power. These foods include foods that have a lot of fatty acids like cold water fish such as salmon and tuna as well as flax seeds. In fact, a recent study suggests that a higher intake of these fatty fish can really put the brakes on mental decline.

So, you can see that adding a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables to your diet can help improve your health and your longevity. But how much is enough? chances are you are not eating enough and, in fact, you should try to get about 10 half cup servings of fruit and vegetables every day. While it might seem like just taking vitamin supplements can do the trick, this is no substitute for the real thing as the real fruits and vegetables have other chemicals and enzymes that are not included in the supplements.

Lee Dobbins
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/these-everyday-foods-can-help-you-live-longer-and-healthier-93937.html

Kids love roller coasters. Moms don’t — well, at least not the ones that take place inside our homes! I’m talking about the “spike and crash” syndrome that describes the rapid ups and downs of children’s blood sugar levels when they eat too much sugar and overly processed carbs, especially on an empty stomach.

Foods that are especially high in sugar — even natural sugar and honey — are known to cause a very quick rise in blood-sugar levels. They are rated high on the “glycemic index” (GI) — a measurement of the effect a food has on one’s blood sugar level. The higher the rating on the index, the more rapid the increase in blood sugar level. The spike doesn’t last very long and is followed by a corresponding fast drop in blood-sugar level. (often it drops even lower than it was before we ate). This is commonly referred to as the “spike and crash syndrome.”

Children seem especially susceptible to this phenomenon. After they eat the kid-favorite jelly beans (the ultimate sugar spike), particularly when it’s on an empty stomach, parents notice them acting as if they’ve had four cups of coffee. They’re bouncing off the walls and then, in a predictable amount of time, they crash — growing sleepy, lethargic, and cranky. The reason is that refined sugars (or carbs) raise blood-glucose levels too quickly, causing a surge of insulin, which soon removes even more sugar than when the person started; the loss of sugar is what makes him feel lethargic. For people who are particularly sensitive, the crash may be accompanied by shakiness, irritability, fogginess, and a feeling of intense hunger even though they just ate an hour ago. Almost all packaged snack foods and cereals that are marketed to kids today have this effect on them.

Examples of slower-burning carbs (those with a low GI) are high-fiber foods such as whole grain breads and crackers, vegetables, beans, legumes, brown rice, oats, and whole grain pasta. These high-fiber foods not only add nutrients, but they also contribute to the feeling of being full, which prevents children from overeating. Including low-GI foods in recipes keeps the blood sugar levels balanced, reduces subsequent cravings for more sugar and the snacks that contain it, helps manage weight, and has a positive influence on moods and concentration, among other things.

We need to get kids to eat these low GI, slow-burning foods more often, and at the right times (along with the high GI snacks, for example). That’s just what the recipes below do, yet none of these sneaky additions are obvious. When your kids eat a Sneaky Chef Corn Muffin (below), all they know is that it’s delicious. They stay satisfied longer than if they’d eaten a donut or candy bar, have more sustained energy, feel happier overall, and don’t crave as much junk food. Your little muffins won’t realize that the muffins they ate had enough fiber from the hidden vegetables, wheat germ and stone ground flour to stabilize their blood-sugar levels. They have no idea why the Sneaky Chef Chocolate Chip Cookie was so gratifying to eat. After all, it tasted just like any other chocolate chip cookie, so they couldn’t possibly guess that it contained pureed white beans, whole grains, and half the sugar. The only one who knows these little secrets is you (and their healthier bodies).

As “The Sneaky Chef,” I’m known for coming up with simple solutions that we can use right now, without radically changing our lives, but that make families healthier without a struggle. I live in the real world where kids eat sugar, junk food, and pizza, but I’ve found ways to boost all their foods with extra nutrition and help offset any ill effects of a less-than-ideal diet.

So here are 7 simple ways to prevent the sugar “spike and crash” syndrome and give your child lasting energy:

1. Sneak vegetables into high-carb foods — these low-GI veggies add not only important nutrients, but lots of fiber that helps slow down the sugar rush. For example, hide pureed cauliflower and zucchini in corn muffins (see muffin recipe below).

2. Sneak whole grains into high-carb foods — the high fiber grains not only slow the sugar rush, but help make kids feel satisfied so they won’t be as likely to overeat. For example, mix wheat germ and whole wheat flour with white flour for homemade baked goods (see cookie recipes below).

3. Sneak beans into high-carb foods — low GI beans add not only important nutrients, but lots of fiber that helps slow down the sugar rush. For example, hide pureed white beans in homemade chocolate chip cookies (see recipe below).

4. Make snacks into “mini-meals” — instead of giving kids a “snack” of high-GI carbs alone (like potato chips, most cereal bars, even most fruits), make it a “mini-meal” and pair that fast-burning carb with some good fat and protein like a cheese stick, slice of turkey breast, or a handful of almonds to help slow the sugar rush.

5. Avoid high sugar foods before going to bed — this can cause the child to wake-up already in a sugar low and on the way to a downward spiral. If you’re going to have the classic bedtime cookies and milk, make it the Sneaky Chef’s high-fiber, low-sugar cookies below.

6. Start the day with fiber and protein — this is far more important than a glass of juice which has too high a sugar count. A whole grain breakfast of old-fashioned oatmeal with almonds (grind them up to hide them, if necessary) will hold a kid way longer than orange juice and a bagel. So will a slice of cheese melted on a whole grain English muffin. For a fast, “grab and go” breakfast loaded with whole grains and protein, try the recipe for Breakfast Cookies and Milk below.

7. Sprinkle cinnamon on cereal, desserts, and juice — One of the easiest ways to balance your blood sugar for the day is to add a sprinkling of cinnamon in oatmeal, hot cocoa, chocolate milk, apple juice, or cereal. Cinnamon has been found to be one of the most effective ways to balance blood sugar levels and prevent the “spike and crash.”

Recipes:

Breakfast Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Corn Muffins

Sneaky Chef’s Breakfast Cookies:

Makes 16 to 18 large cookies

2 cups whole grain cereal flakes (such as Wheaties or Total)

¾ cup Flour Blend (¼ cup white flour, ¼ cup whole wheat flour, and ¼ cup wheat germ)

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup canola oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¾ cup low-fat ricotta cheese

Cinnamon sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or spray with oil).

Using a rolling pin, gently crush the cereal (in a sealed plastic bag) into coarsely crushed flakes. Alternatively, you can quickly pulse the cereal in a food processor.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together Flour Blend, crushed cereal, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, oil, vanilla, and ricotta cheese. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just enough to moisten dry ingredients. Drop single tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch between cookies. Flatten cookies with the back of a fork and then sprinkle tops generously with cinnamon sugar (or just sugar if your kids don’t like the cinnamon flavor). Bake about 18 to 20 minutes, or until nicely browned and crispy around the edges.

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Sneaky Chef’s Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Makes about 50 two-bite cookies

1 cup Flour Blend (⅓ cup white flour, ⅓ cup whole wheat flour, and ⅓ cup wheat germ)

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup rolled oats, finely ground in a food processor

2 tablespoons blanched, slivered almonds, finely ground in a food processor (omit if allergic)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ cup White Bean Puree* (see Make-Ahead Recipe below)

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove butter from refrigerator to let soften.

In a large bowl, whisk together Flour Blend, baking soda, salt, ground oats, and ground almonds (optional). Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until creamy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and White Bean Puree. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Stir in chocolate chips. Make two-bite cookies by dropping rounded half-teaspoonfuls, spaced 2 inches apart, onto nonstick or parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a metal rack.

Store cookies in airtight container at room temperature.

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*Sneaky Chef’s Make Ahead Recipe — White Bean Puree:

1 15-ounce can white beans (great northern, navy, butter or cannellini)

1 to 2 tablespoons water

Rinse and drain the beans and put in the bowl of your food processor. Pulsing in on/off turns, puree the drained beans with just 1 tablespoon of water in processor until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. The goal is a smooth, but not wet, puree. (You are aiming for the consistency of peanut butter.) If necessary, thin with a little more water by one teaspoonful at a time until there are no flecks of whole beans visible.

Store in the refrigerator up to 3 days, or freeze ¼ cup portions in sealed plastic bags or small plastic containers. Makes about 1 cup of puree.

Double this recipe if you want to store another cup of puree.

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Sneaky Chef’s Corn Muffins:

Makes 6 large muffins (or 12 mini-muffins)

½ cup Flour Blend (3 tablespoons white flour, 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour, and 2 tablespoons wheat germ)

½ cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup White Puree* (See Make-Ahead Recipe below)

½ cup fresh or frozen corn kernels, pureed

Optional toppings: ¼ cup chocolate chips or ¼ cup shredded low-fat cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the Flour Blend, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined, then whisk in the oil, White Puree, and pureed corn. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until flour is just moistened (don’t over-mix or the muffins will be dense).

Scoop the batter into muffin tins, filling just over the top. If you’re using mini muffin cups, scale back quantities to fit into the smaller sized cups. Top with a few chocolate chips, or sprinkle with shredded cheese, and bake for 22 to 24 minutes until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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*Sneaky Chef’s Make-Ahead Recipe — White Puree:

2 cups cauliflower, cut into florets

2 small to medium zucchini, peeled and rough chopped

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1-2 tablespoons water, if necessary

Steam cauliflower in a vegetable steamer over 2 inches of water, using a tightly-covered pot, for about 10 to 12 minutes until very tender. Alternatively, place cauliflower in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with water, and microwave on high for 8 to 10 minutes until very tender.

While waiting for the cauliflower to finish steaming, start to pulse the raw peeled zucchini with the lemon juice only (no water at this point). Drain the cooked cauliflower. Working in batches if necessary, add it to the pulsed zucchini in the bowl of the food processor with one tablespoon of water. Puree on high until smooth. Stop occasionally and push contents from the top to the bottom. If necessary, use the second tablespoon of water to make a smooth (but not wet) puree.

Makes about 2 cups of puree. Double recipe if you want to store even more, which can be done in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze ¼ cup portions in sealed plastic bags or the small plastic containers.

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© Missy Chase Lapine, all rights reserved.

Missy Chase Lapine
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/how-to-avoid-kids-blood-sugar-spike-and-crash-130410.html

There are a few distinct differences between vegetarian and raw food diets. Basically, a vegetarian is someone who is committed to not eat meat, fish, poultry or any animal products, but only consumes vegetables, pasta, and rice. On the other hand, a raw foodist is a vegetarian, but one who eats unprocessed, uncooked, organic, whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, nuts seeds, legumes, dried fruits, seaweeds, etc. It denotes a diet that is at least 75% uncooked! Raw foodist cooks very little and definitely doesn’t cook or process fruits and vegetables. Raw foodist simply eats them raw.

Raw foodist, vegans and frutarians are some of the different categories of vegetarians. Yes, raw foodist is a category of vegetarianism as mentioned earlier. However, to be a raw food purist, you should eat raw vegetables like raw broccoli, not steamed. To a vegetarian, who doesn’t eat meat or fish or any animal products, steamed vegetables are just as good, though every person would concur that steaming can take out nutrients from foods and turn them into less nutritious. A vegetarian might consume dairy or egg products but a vegan will not consume any animal products at all. The raw foodist then is a vegan who consumes only uncooked, unprocessed raw foods.

Enzymes are the life force of a food and that every food has its own perfect combination as believed by raw food diet advocates. These enzymes help us digest foods completely, without relying on our body to produce its own cocktail of digestive enzymes.

The cooking process is thought to destroy food enzymes. It can take so much of the basic nutritional value away. Other than that, cooked foods not only take any longer to digest, but they also let the partially digested fats, proteins and carbohydrates to block our gut and arteries.

Below are some health benefits cited by the raw diet followers:

• Improved digestion

• Increased energy levels

• Reduced risk of heart diseased

• Improved appearance of skin

• Weight loss

For more information about vegetarian and raw food diets, visit EatRawFood.com.

Jane Gaynor
http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/differences-between-vegetarian-and-raw-food-diets-81967.html

How do you know what diet to follow? Determining the right diet can be extremely confusing.

Every time you read a different diet book, the author makes a logical argument and seems to back it up with solid science. Each time I read a new book on nutrition, I thought this person had the answer. I had no sense of discrimination, most of these nutritional theories sounded plausible at first.

After much experimentation I found out these gurus were wrong more often than not. They all had some valid and useful information in their books but their actual diets didn’t work.

** So how do you know which diet to follow?

Are you like me and didn’t know whom to believe? No matter how many diet books and theories I read, I still didn’t have enough of an understanding to discern truth from falsehood. I remember reading and then doing the Zone Diet and later trying the Atkins Diet.

At the time of the reading, I was convinced that they were on to something. So I tried their diets. I wasn’t trying to lose weight; I was looking for something to heal my depression, which these two diets claimed positive results with.

After trying the diets and really thinking about them, I realized they didn’t work for me and they didn’t make logical sense. My depression felt a bit better with the Zone Diet, but it didn’t even come close to how much better I felt after eating a diet of at least 50% raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. By switching to 50% raw foods, my 6.5 years of depression went away in one day.

With the Zone Diet, you are required to eat a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat at every meal. The author claimed that early humans ate that way at every meal.

But after thinking about it and further study I realized how ridiculous a theory that was. Early humans ate whatever they could find and I’m sure it varied from meal to meal. They didn’t even know about fats, carbohydrates and protein. They were nomadic and certainly didn’t have a steady food supply. There is no way possible that these early humans ate 40/30/30 at every meal or even close to that.

If it was so hard for me to be able to eat 40/30/30 consistently at every meal, I know it would be impossible for early humans to attain this without any knowledge of calories, protein, etc. Most natural food sources wouldn’t even come close to a caloric ratio of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. Therefore, I concluded that the whole basis for the Zone Diet was false.

Later I learned there were many inaccurate scientific claims in that book. The problem with science is that it usually looks at the part and not the whole. So many nutritional theories are based on partial truths that aren’t true when looked at from the whole picture.

It’s so easy to fool people with diet books. Unless you have a deep understanding of nutrition, it’s difficult to determine the truths from the falsehoods.

I tried the Atkins Diet and didn’t last on it more than three days. I just felt horrible. Eating these high protein foods and not having fruit or carbohydrates felt terrible to me.

Everything felt dead and it certainly didn’t help my depression at all. There is a fabulous electric energy from fruit. You can’t get that feeling on the Atkins Diet because no fruit was allowed at all in the early stage. How could this be a natural diet, when so many supplements are needed? I soon realized for myself that the Atkins Diet wasn’t even close to being the ideal diet.

Eventually I discovered “Fit For Life,” and later the raw food diet. I went raw and had my best results by far. My health, energy levels, happiness and even clarity of thought improved by leaps and bounds.

** The Easiest Way To Narrow Down The Diet Choices **

This is really simple when you think about it. But since you’ve been eating this way your whole life, you may not have considered this idea.

Any diet that contains cooked food is not a natural or ideal diet for humans. No animals out in nature cook their foods, nor do they get the diseases that humans get. But for some reason our pets get the same diseases as us. It’s because we feed them cooked food as well.

The cooking process damages vitamins and minerals, destroys enzymes and turns the food into a poison. In 1912, French chemist Louis Camille Maillard discovered what is now called the Maillard Reaction. Maillard was trying to discover the chemical substances that made the actual tastes in cooked food.

In one experiment he measured the types molecules in a raw potatoes. Then he boiled potatoes and discovered that by just boiling, 420 new types of molecules were created. These molecules never existed in natural and unadulterated foods.

In fact, when you cook, you are creating hundreds of thousands, if not millions of new molecules that the human body considers toxic.

One piece of strong evidence that the body considers cooked food toxic is leukocytosis. Leukocytosis is an excessive rise in the white blood cell count when a food is consumed that was heated between 120 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Paul Kouchakoff discovered this phenomenon in 1930. He conducted over 300 detailed experiments at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, and he discovered some interesting facts.

1. After a person eats cooked food, his/her blood reacts immediately by increasing the number of white blood cells. This is well documented fact called “digestive leukocytosis.”

2. Conversely, eating raw food did not cause a reaction in the blood. In addition, if a food had been heated beyond a certain temperature (unique to each food), or if the food was processed (refined, added chemicals, etc.), this always caused a rise in the number of white cells in the blood.

3. If however these same raw and unaltered foods were then heated, the person would then again experience a pathological rise in his/her white blood cell count.

Cooking also allows us to eat foods that aren’t a natural part of the human diet. We couldn’t eat grains without cooking them. Most people won’t eat meat without cooking it. Most people don’t find making a meal of raw broccoli appealing either. These are signs that nature did not intend us to consume these foods.

There is much more evidence of the damage of cooked foods including the latest findings in 2002 by Swiss studies on the creation of excessive levels of a carcinogenic substance called acrylamide in carbohydrate rich foods cooked at high temperatures.

Cooking is chemistry. Have you ever noticed how much an egg changes color and texture by being cooked? This is obvious visual evidence of the molecular damage done in the cooking process.

Cooking denatures proteins and caramelizes carbohydrates. Caramelization produces six different levels of chemical reactions in the sugar molecule. It has been well known for years that heated oils and fats are carcinogenic.

Why do you think the body seems to attack itself with autoimmune diseases? It’s because we’ve built our bodies up with foods that are not natural to the human body and our body identifies these substances as toxic invaders. Most people switching to a raw food diet, quickly find their arthritis and many other illnesses no longer bother them.

I started getting arthritis in my mid twenties. Now I’m 39 years of age and haven’t had any signs of arthritis in years. Age is not what causes arthritis but an unnatural diet.

** Think About This **

There are about 700,000 species of animals, all of which all thrive on raw foods exclusively. Only humans heat and cook what they eat. There are no gourmet restaurants, fast food joints or pizza parlors in nature.

You can never achieve perfect health while still eating cooked foods. No matter how good you feel now, you could be feeling better. Are you going to be healthier with more poisons or less poisons in your body?

Therefore, the answer seems clear. One of the first things to consider before you chose to eat food is whether or not it is raw or cooked. Raw fruits and vegetables plus limited quantities of nuts and seeds, are the most natural and healthy foods for humans.

If you want to start improving your health rapidly then consider gradually increasing the percentage of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet.

Roger Haeske
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/what-is-the-natural-diet-for-humans-90006.html

The part played by food in the health of your body is to furnish it with the nutrients needed for the biochemistry that keeps you alive. The digestive process breaks the food that you eat down into a form that can be absorbed by your bloodstream, and from there to your liver which is your body’s chemical plant. That is where most of the biochemical reactions of your body take place, such as the manufacture of bile needed to break down fats during digestion.

Most people do not take this into account when eating, and in today’s hectic world nourishment is the last thing on their minds, yet the one aspect of their lives that can provide them with the energy to carry on as they do. They eat to get rid of the feeling of hunger, and any old thing will do: a burger or a pizza, but rarely an orange or some cheese on wholegrain bread.

Poor eating habits lead to poor digestion, which in turn leads to poor extraction of the nutrients from what we do eat, and therefore malnutrition. Yes, malnutrition! It is possible to suffer from that even though you fill your belly every day. It’s not the filling that matters, it’s what does the filling and how well it is digested. Proper digestion is very important to every living creature on this planet. The first step in ensuring that have a proper digestion function is to assess the quality of the food that you eat:

a) What nutrients does your food contain, and

b) Have you sufficient of the proper enzymes needed to break it down so that these nutrients can be extracted?

Nourishing meals are just as easy to find and eat as junk foods, and it is just as easy to a breakfast containing a high protein and fat content as it is to eat a chocolate biscuit. A hard boiled egg with whole meal toast and yoghurt isn’t difficult to prepare for breakfast, and some tuna, or cheese and whole meal crackers make a nutritious lunch. These foods are easier to digest than the greasy high-fat foods that most people eat at lunchtime.

Proper digestion requires relaxation, and eating when stressed or in a hurry creates the wrong pH conditions in your stomach, with hydrochloric acid production being suppressed and the production enzymes by the liver inhibited. Enzymes are essential to your health, and are types of protein that enable most biochemical reactions to take place. Without the proper production of enzymes, your food will pass through your body largely unchanged, and this indigestion can not only give you stomach pains but also weaken you because the nutritional value of your food is not being realized.

You should take the time to eat, and not try to eat on the job: that is why so many high fliers end up with ulcers. Take time to chew, and mix your food with saliva which itself contains the enzymes amylase and lysozyme. Amylase breaks down starch into sugars, while lysozyme inhibits the growth of oral bacteria. The digestive system therefore begins in the mouth when you chew your food. The breakdown of food into smaller particles also produces more surface area from which the nutrients can be absorbed.

Enzymes are very important to proper digestion, and your diet should include enzyme-rich food such as tropical fruits (pineapple and bananas), honey, and many vegetables. Yoghurt and lacto-fermented foods are also rich in enzymes, and many cooked foods also contain enzymes. An enzyme supplement can also be taken to top-up what you eat, and make up for any enzyme deficiency in your diet. Processed foods are fairly empty of good nutritional value, particularly enzymes, which is why so many people are so overweight: their food is a nutritional desert and their body keeps craving for food that leads to eating binges.

For your food to be properly digested your stomach acid has to be at a certain pH. If you drink too much liquid when eating then the acid will be diluted, and you will not properly digest your food. A glass of water is fine but two or three pints of beer, or a gallon of fruit juice, will dilute the hydrochloric acid concentration in your stomach, and it will not be able to break down your food. Consequently, your digestive system loses much of the nutritional content of what you eat. Restrict heavy drinking of liquid to about two hours before and two hours after eating each meal for maximum efficiency. Many people find that they have to take not only vitamin and mineral supplements to replace those which are lost through inefficient digestion, but also other supplements such as enzymes and extra proteins.

When food is processed or cooked, the process destroys enzymes. Since the body stores only a limited supply of enzymes, eating well cooked or highly processed foods continuously, places great strains on the enzyme reserves, and ultimately the metabolic enzyme reserves have to be used in order to digest your food. This diverts them from their proper purpose, and many of the functions of your body are disrupted.

For example, your lose energy and your immune systems begins to weaken, making you feel tired and more susceptible to illness and disease. You should therefore try to eat foods rich in enzymes, or use an enzyme supplement. Natural raw foods are an excellent addition to your diet, and salads and fruit should be regular components of your meals. Obviously you must eat some cooked foods, but that does not mean that you should avoid eating fresh raw fruits and vegetables altogether. That is a recipe for a dietary disaster.

Enzymes are extremely important components of your digestive system, as is dietary fiber. In fact if you eat a diet containing dietary fiber, some raw fruit and vegetables, and protein, either cooked or uncooked, you will be giving your digestive system a boost. If you are unable to maintain that, then enzyme supplementation, together with general multi-vitamin and mineral supplement daily, should help you to maintain a healthy digestive system. However, fiber is essential since without it you will become constipated, especially if you consume a lot of pulpy foods that mainly consist of water.

It is extremely important that you have proper digestion of the food that you eat, and that your body makes the best use of the nutrients that it contains. To achieve this, you have to maintain the correct pH of stomach acid, and eat foods with the nutritional content required by the human body. This means not overcooking a balanced diet containing protein, fiber, enzymes and other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals (plant-based chemicals).

Darrell Miller
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/how-important-is-it-to-have-proper-digestion-489320.html

These little Tibetan Goji berries are plumper than the Chinese ones, and they taste much better to me. I have been feasting on them for a week now, and losing about half a pound a day!

The taste is a little hard to describe. It’s not quite as sweet as a raisin and not as tart as a dried cranberry. They are pleasing to most people.

In Tibet and Mongolia, people love these berries so much that they devote two weeks a year to celebrating the berries, probably something like wine fests in Europe in past times. The most commonly cited side effect of eating too many berries is that they might cause you to laugh more. It is said that a handful in the morning will make you happy all day.

They are a very rich source of vitamin C, having 500 times more vitamin C per ounce than oranges, actually more almost any fruit you could name. They are also a superb source of vitamin A, not surprising because they are a really pretty red color. Goji berries also have vitamins B1, B2, B6, and E; they are becoming a famous antioxidant. They are also a rich source of both selenium and germanium and have hence been used in a number of clinical trials involving cancer patients. When given to patients undergoing chemotherapy, the berries conferred significant protection for the liver.

In Oriental medicine, they are said to correct chi deficiency, meaning that people with low energy, insomnia, heart palpitations, and even anxiety are more comfortable after consuming Goji berries.
The therapeutic dosage is 10-30 grams per day, and the berries may be taken at any time and in any form, from liquid to a snack food. The berries have 18 amino acids and 21 trace minerals, linoleic acid, and more beta-carotene than carrots.

In vitro studies suggest that Goji berries kill many kinds of cancer cells. The mechanism whereby this happens is believed to involve some factor that inhibits the ability of the cell to divide, thus lowering its reproductive capacity.

A large study in Japan suggested that tumor growth was inhibited by 58% among the patients eating Goji berries as compared to the control groups.

A study in Mongolia showed that patients eating the Goji berries had a significant increase in lymphocyte activity and that their blood began to resemble that of much younger persons.

Goji Recipes

Goji Drink:

In a big glass of hot or cold water, juice or herb tea add one handful of Goji Berries and let them sit and hydrate for a few minutes or put several handfuls in a pitcher and enjoy all day as you drink your own delicious Goji Berry elixir. Chewing the Gojis as you drink is a wonderful experience and with 500 times more Vitamin C by weight then Oranges, It’s a great pick-me-up between meals and the most delightful way to enjoy a glass of water.

Goji Fruit Smoothie:

For a unique experience in phytonutrient energy that you feel throughout your body as a buoyant lift that fills you with joy and feeds you right down to a cellular level. Blend together equals amounts of Goji Berries, blueberries, cherries, apples, raspberries and blackberries. Put in a blender for a few seconds; add a cup of water, rice milk, or orange juice for easier blending. To add a special touch dust the top of juice with cinnamon or cocoa powder and a light sprinkle of chopped pine nuts and serve.

Goji Trail Mix:

This is also one of our favorites. We mix up our combinations and play with the recipe almost every time we make a new batch. Our young ones like it when we add dark chocolate chips to the blend. We use the Tibetan Goji Berries with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pecans, small amount of pine nuts, walnut pieces, dried blueberries, apples slices, cherries, peaches, pineapple, and a small amount of coconut shreds.

Cream of Buckwheat with Goji Berries:

For people who struggle with wheat allergies and gluten intolerance, buckwheat is an ideal food. Many people who are having physical and emotional challenges find that removing wheat and other gluten containing foods from their diet makes a profound difference in how they think and feel. Buckwheat has plenty of protein and B vitamins, and is rich in phosphorus, potassium, iron, and calcium. Although buckwheat has many grain-like characteristics, it is from an entirely different botanical family, and is actually a fruit. Since buckwheat is unrelated to the classic cereal grains, those who are allergic to wheat can tolerate buckwheat.

To make a serving for two people: Bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil, slowly stir in 1/2 cup of Cream of Buckwheat, return to boil. Add a handful of Goji Berries per person. A dash of good quality salt is optional. Reduce heat to low, simmer 10 minutes stirring frequently

Tibetan Goji & Blueberry-Peach Pie:

A lavish nutty crust surrounds layers of juicy peaches, Goji Berries and blueberries. A perfect nutrient rich treat.

Crust: 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar or Stevia liquid extract - 20 drops
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
5 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans Peach layer
3 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
2 tablespoons sugar or Stevia liquid extract - 20 drops
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter Blueberry layer
4 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar or vegetable glycerin
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice
dash ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Goji Berry layer: 4 cups Goji Berries - presoak twenty minutes in peach juice to soften
1/4 cup sugar or vegetable glycerin
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice
dash ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preparation:

1.To make the crust, place the flour and sugar or glycerin in a food processor. Process briefly to mix. Drop the chunks of butter into the feed tube with the motor running and process quickly until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg, almond, and pecans and process until just combined. Do not overmix the crust.

2.Form the dough into a flattened ball and press it into the bottom and sides of a 12-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Chill the crust for 30 minutes.

3.Preheat oven to 350F.

4.Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, or until slightly brown around the edge. Cool the crust on a wire rack.

5.To make the peach layer, mash the peaches together with the sugar/glycerin, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the mixture thickens. Add the butter and stir until blended. Cool slightly and pour into the cooled crust.

6.To make the blueberry layer, mash 2 cups of the blueberries with the sugar/ glycerin, cornstarch, lemon juice, and cinnamon and cook in a large saucepan over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until thickened and translucent. Stir in the butter and the remaining whole blueberries. Cover the peach layer with this blueberry mixture. Leave the tart in the pan and cover tightly with plastic wrap before putting into the pack.

7.To make the Goji Berry layer, mash 2 cups of the presoaked or blanched Goji Berries with the sugar or glycerin, cornstarch, lemon juice, and cinnamon and cook in a large saucepan over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until thickened and translucent. Stir in the butter and the remaining whole Goji Berries. Cover the blueberry layer with this Goji Berry mixture. Leave the tart in the pan and cover tightly with plastic wrap before putting into the pack. Makes one 12-inch pie!

Charles Kassotis
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/tasty-health-boosting-goji-berry-recipes-93344.html