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- Almonds promote a healthy heart. Two ounces, or about 40 almonds,
give you more than 50% of your daily requirement of magnesium. Eating almonds may
also reduce the risk of colon cancer.
- Preparation Tips - Almonds are great ground and sprinkled over a
salad, used as part of a raw pie crust, made into raw almond butter, or simply eaten
alone as a nutritious snack.
- Asparagus quickly changes the pH of the body. Asparagus changes the
body chemistry and eliminates wastes while breaking down constituents of nitrogen,
sulphur, and ammonia. It's a good source of folate (6 spears contain 135 mcg, a
third of the adult RDA), and also has 545 mcg of beta-carotene and 200 mg of potassium.
Asparagus is a powerful antioxidant and contains the elements necessary to eliminate
free radicals.
- Preparation Tips - Try eating
asparagus like celery or carrot sticks.
You can also enjoy them chopped into
salads, juiced, or lightly steamed. To
make the perfect steamed asparagus,
lightly steam for 3 minutes. Place the
spears into cold water, drain.
- Avocados are known as nature's butter and help prevent heart disease and some types
of cancer. Avocados have about a quarter of the calories of total fat as dairy butter.
By weight, they provide more heart-healthy monosaturated fat, vitamin E, folate
(the plant source of folic acid), potassium, and fiber than other fruits. It's the number one fruit source of the cholesterol-lowering phytosterol,
called beta-sitosterol, which helps prevent certain types of heart disease and cancers,
including prostate cancer. Avocados also help protect your eyes from cataracts and
from age-related macular degeneration. They also have a reputation as an aphrodisiac!
- Preparation Tips- Spread on whole grain bread, mash it into baked potatoes
instead of butter or margarine, and even use it as a great hydrating facial mask.
If you are dieting, limit your consumption to just one a week because
of their high fat (albeit healthy fat) content.
- Blueberries are known to prevent and reverse abnormal, physical and mental decline.
Despite their small size, one cup of blueberries contains only 80 calories and a
whole pint gives you about 180 calories, so they're a dieter's best friend.
Blueberries are packed with tannins, anthocyanins
that have been linked to prevention - and even
reversal - of age-related mental decline and
anti-cancer effects.
- Preparation Tips- Eating them
several times a week either fresh or
frozen in the wintertime.
- Broccoli fights cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions. It has two powerful
cancer-fighting substances. First, sulforaphane destroys any carcinogenic compounds that you've
eaten, and
then it creates enzymes that destroy any carcinogens left over from that reaction. Second, broccoli boasts indole-3-carbinol which helps
your body metabolize estrogen, potentially warding off breast cancer. Broccoli may
also inhibit the herpes simplex virus from reproducing.
- Preparation Tips- Eat broccoli raw, lightly steamed, juiced, and in the form of
sprouts which magnify broccoli's potent healing powers.
- Chilli peppers raise endorphin levels. Chillies
are so rich in vitamin C that they have been
used as natural remedies for colds, coughs,
bronchitis, and sinusitis around the world. Just
one raw, red hot pepper (1 1/2 oz, 45g) contains
about 65 mg of vitamin C, nearly 100% of the
RDA. Chilies act as preventive
medicine against strokes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks, and may also help
prevent blood clots that can lead to a heart attack or stroke by acting as an anticoagulant.
- Preparation Tips- Handle chillies with care. When preparing meals with chilies,
wear thin gloves, and be careful not to rub
your eyes.
- Garlic keeps the body chemistry balanced. Herbalists and folk healers have used
garlic to treat myriad diseases for thousands of years. Garlic is a rich source of unique sulphur compounds
that keep your body chemistry in balance. Aged Garlic Extract (also known as Kyolic)
is effective in its
ability to resist and fight cancer, cardiovascular disease, other respiratory ailments
and infections, and fatigue.
- Preparation Tips- If you do not like the taste or odor of garlic, you can still
receive its benefits by taking the odorless liquid extract, capsules, or tablets.
- Grapefruit protects against cancer and heart disease. This fruit eases constipation
and improves digestion by increasing the flow of gastric juices. Deep inside the
white rind and membranes of this fruit lie bioflavonoids, citric acids, and pectins
- compounds that protect against cancer and
heart disease. Some people with rheumatoid
arthritis find that eating grapefruit daily
seems to alleviate their symptoms. The pectin
content of grapefruit juice helps reduce fever
and soothes coughs and sore throats.
- Preparation Tips- Whenever possible, choose pink and red varieties because they
are more nutritious than white grapefruits.
- Kale may help prevent breast and lung cancer. It also helps prevent age-related
macular degeneration of the eyes and aids in fundamental processes of cell circulation
and respiration. Kale is also rich in folate,
iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium.
- Preparation Tips- Juice kale with other green vegetables and herbs (such as celery,
Swiss chard, collard greens, romaine lettuce, cucumber, parsley, beet tops, etc.)
and add some carrot and apple for sweetener. On an empty stomach, this superior
fresh-juice tonic will revitalize your cells and body in minutes.
- Lemon is an alkalizer for the body. Of all the citrus fruits, lemon is the most
potent detoxifier. It kills some
types of intestinal parasites (eg
roundworms) and dissolves gallstones. Limonene,
the volatile oil responsible for the distinctive
lemon aroma, helps treat some forms of cancer
such as breast cancer. If taken in the morning,
lemon juice is known to improve liver function
and has been used to help eliminate kidney
stones. Lemons also help relieve colds, coughs,
and sore throats.
- Preparation Tips- When a recipe calls for fresh lemon zest, which is the grated
outer peel, make sure it's from an organic lemon or else it might have been waxed
or sprayed with chemicals.
- Parsley detoxifies and rejuvenates the body. Nibble on a few leaves when you want
your breath to be sweeter. Parsley is a
great source of the volatile oil apiol,
which improves appetite and digestion. It helps prevent kidney stones
and various urinary tract ailments and is effective in slowing the aging process,
reducing depression, lowering cholesterol, strengthening the kidneys, and detoxifying
the cells.
- Preparation Tips- Include parsley when you make fresh juices or chop it and add
it to grains, salads, soups, sandwiches, and whole grain pasta dishes.
- Tomatoes are an internal sunblock. It's an important part of the antioxidant defense
network in the skin and, in combination with other nutrients, can raise the sun
protection factor (SPF) of the skin. Eat tomatoes to enhance your skin's ability
to withstand the assault from the damaging rays of the sun. Ounce for
ounce, cherry tomatoes give more nutritional value than large tomatoes, because
most of the nutrients are contained in the skin.
- Preparation Tips- Cooked tomatoes, like those in sauce, contain more absorbable
lycopene than raw tomatoes. They make a delicious snack and thirst-quenching treat,
especially cherry tomatoes. Eat them just like an apple.
- Walnuts may lower cholesterol. They provide two heart-healthy essential fatty acids:
linolenic and linoleic fatty acids. Linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) is associated
with a lower risk of coronary artery disease. Linoleic acid may reduce your chances
of having a stroke. Walnuts are a good source of fibre and protein. They also provide
magnesium, copper, folate, and vitamin E. In
terms of nuts, walnuts have the highest overall
antioxidant activity.
- Preparation Tips- Choose nuts that are
fresh and raw, not roasted and salted. Walnuts are superb alone or incorporated
in trail mix and sandwiches, chopped and sprinkled on salads and vegetables, added
to whole grain cookies and breads, and blended in smoothies and soups.
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