Creative Commons License photo credit: James Jordan

by Vic Shayne, PhD

There’s a huge movement now to buy locally. This seems to make good sense, especially if you care about the environment, which you should if you like to breathe.

If you buy your produce from locally grown farmers, you’ll save the environment from extra fuel consumption, highway usage, trucking pollution and all sorts of other costs involved in transportation, refrigeration, spoilage,etc. Another advantage is that of economics. Buying from smaller farmers gives the little guy a chance to succeed against Big Agra, one of the biggest evils of our time.

Marketing matters

A few years back, Ohio State University researchers reported: “.. the average supermarket shopper is willing to pay a premium price for locally produced foods, providing some farmers an attractive option to enter a niche market that could boost their revenues. [S]hoppers at farm markets are willing to pay almost twice as much extra as retail grocery shoppers for the same locally produced foods. Both kinds of shoppers…will pay more for guaranteed fresh produce and tend to favor buying food produced by small farms over what they perceive as corporate operations, according to the study.”

The study to which the researchers are referring was published in the May 2008 edition of  American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Sounds Great. So what could be bad about the locally grown idea?
Locally grown seems to imply something about food quality. Think again.

Growing numbers of people are starting to wake up to the fact that most foods are poisoned. They contain alarming amounts of pesticides, steroids, antibiotics, herbicides, chlorine, fluoride and artificial ingredients from sweeteners to preservatives.

More and more people want cleaner sources of food, without these poisons.

The problem is that the term “locally grown” is being used interchangeably with the idea of healthfulness. But they aren’t necessarily. Buyer beware.

Are we just trading one evil for another?

While growing locally can lessen the impact of fuel usage and food freshness, what about local air, land and water quality? Locally grown produce that is drenched with toxic pesticides and herbicides affect the local groundwater, air quality and soil health.

Would you spray your backyard with tomatoes Raid
You can’t get more “local” than your own backyard, right? But there’s nothing stopping you from going into your little garden with a can of Raid, Black Flagg, Roundup or other poisonous substance and spraying the hell out of your fruits and vegetables. By definition they would still be “local.”

Similarly, any local farmer can bombard his yield with poisons. This is more the norm than the exception, unless your local farmer also happens to have a conscience about what he’s doing to our planet and to the people who eat what he has to offer.

Thus, locally grown food should NEVER be compared with organic, clean, biodynamic and/or wildcrafted food. That is, unless the locally grown produce is toxin-free.

We have to compare apples with apples. Locally grown is only as good as the farmer who chooses not to poison you.

Yet another study recently emerged showing new promise for grape seed extract. With nearly 12,000 people dying  of head and neck cancer in the United States each year and with worldwide cases exceeding half a million, the good news is that grape seed extract can turn the tide.
Grape Seed Extract kills cancerous cells of the head and neck

A study published  in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
“It’s a rather dramatic effect,” says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
It depends in large part, says Agarwal, on ahealthy cell’s ability to wait out damage.
“Cancer cells are fast-growing cells,” Agarwal says. “Not only that, but they are necessarily fast growing. When conditions exist in which they can’t grow, they die.”
Grape seed extract creates these conditions that are unfavorable to growth. Specifically, the paper shows that grape seed extract both damages cancer cells’ DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair (as seen by decreased levels of the DNA repair molecules Brca1 and Rad51 and DNA repair foci).
“Yet we saw absolutely no toxicity to the mice, themselves,” Agarwal says.
“I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells,” Agarwal says.

The Agarwal Lab hopes to move in the direction of clinical trials of grape seed extract, potentially as an addition to second-line therapies that target head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that has failed a first treatment.

If you don’t know what goes on in the olive oil industry, chances are you maybe eating olive oil that’s not really olive oil.

Massive fraud
The olive oil industry is riddled with fraudulent practices. Most olive oil is a low-grade mixture of olive oil and canola oil that has been deodorized and artificially colored — even if the label states “extra virgin, cold pressed.” Even if (and most likely) the label states that it was made in Italy.

Restaurant “olive oil” isn’t
Restaurants the world over are offering their patrons a brand of olive oil that is sold as “grocery store olive oil” — it’s cheap and adulterated. Worse, many restaurants cut their olive oil with canola oil.

Health benefits
Olive oil in its pure and unadulterated form is a great food. It’s one of the pillars of the much-heralded Mediterranean Diet that holds the greatest potential for the lowest disease rates (especially heart disease) and the greatest states of health. Of course, when the olive oil is tainted, there goes the neighborhood.

Polyphenols protect your health
Olive oil is a wonderful source of polyphenols. Research shows that these lower cholesterol* and yield other benefits. Polyphenols are antioxidants that protect the cells from the oxidative damage by oxygen “free radicals” that continually circulate throughout the body.

A Portuguese study of the major antioxidants in olive oil showed that one in particular, DHPEA-EDA, protects red blood cells from damage more than any other constituent in olive oil. This compound is the major health benefit associated with virgin olive oils, which contain increased levels of DHPEA-EDA compared to other oils. In virgin olive oils, DHPEA-EDA may make up as much as half the total antioxidant component of the oil.**

But if your olive oil isn’t really olive oil, then you’re not only lacking the important constituents of the food, but you’re actually injuring yourself by eating bad oil. Bad (and altered) oils harm the body, while good oils build the health. And contrary to popular belief, good fats actually protect the body from heart (and other) disease. They also support the nervous system, hormonal system, vascular system, eyes, brain and skin.

Olive oil is  a great source of good fats and vitamin E and is rich vitamins A, B-1, B-2, C, D, E and K and in iron. For thousands of years olive oil has been used by native Mediterranean cultures to as a curative food as well as a topically-applied salve.

Uninformed public can’t recognize good oil
Good olive oil gives off a slight burning sensation in the back of the throat. It’s a sign of high polyphenol count. Unfortunately, because we are so out of touch with the growing, harvesting, tasting and creation of real food these days, few people understand how good oil is supposed to taste.

How do you know which olive oil to buy?
First, I highly recommend that you read the book Extra Virginity by Tom Mueller to understand the length and breadth of this problem. Then you can go online and read about the industry fraud. The more educated you are the better chance you’ll find the real and be eating for health.

Olive growers who do things right
Go to the website of the California Olive Oil Counsel and you’ll find some reliable olive oil sources.
One such grower and producer is KATZ.

Albert Katz, whose family produces olive oil in the Suisun Valley (eastern neighbor to the Napa Valley), California, and has won twenty-four gold medals over the last ten years told me, “I was a chef for the first half of my working life and I fell in love with olive oil in the 80′s. After a trip to Italy in 1990, I became addicted to the green elixir and vowed that I would come back to California and figure out how to produce it. It has been over 20 years since that trip, but I think I finally have attained that dream.”

Regarding the integrity of olive oil on the market today, Katz explained, “Americans in general do not really understand that ‘extra virgin’ as used by most of the industrial brands found in supermarkets throughout the US means absolutely nothing and is not policed by any federal agency. As you might know most oils labeled with this designation are not actually EVO even measured against commonly accepted world standards. In fact, studies have shown that close to 80% of those industrial brands are not even made with olives! We have seen a dramatic increase in consumer awareness and education over the last 5-10 years and the proof is in the pudding…so to speak…as we sell out every drop of oil we can produce from our trees every year. So we know many ‘enlightened’ consumers actually get it!”

Eat olive oil as if your health depended on it, because it does.

* Ann Intern Med. 2006 Sep 5;145(5):333-41.
The effect of polyphenols in olive oil on heart disease risk factors: a randomized trial.
Covas MI, Nyyssönen K, Poulsen HE, Kaikkonen J, Zunft HJ, Kiesewetter H, Gaddi A, de la Torre R, Mursu J, Bäumler H,Nascetti S, Salonen JT, Fitó M, Virtanen J, Marrugat J; EUROLIVE Study Group.

** Wiley-Blackwell (2009, April 1). Source Of Major Health Benefits In Olive Oil Revealed.

Creative Commons License photo credit: bradleypjohnson

by Vic Shayne, PhD

Professor Maurice Bennink, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, says eating beans can reduce malnutrition and chronic diseases.

Bennink says, “Chronic diseases (certain types of cancer, Type II diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases of the blood system) typically take many years (10 to 30 years) to develop. Chronic diseases are the most common causes of death in industrialized countries and they significantly lower the quality of life for millions.”

But hold on a minute! Aren’t beans known to have lots of carbs?

Yes, beans have carbohydrates, but they are also a great source of protein. Plus, their carbohydrate content is not to be confused with bad carbs such as table sugar, cookies or white bread. Such foods have been linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Elevated glucose (blood sugar) and chronic low blood sugar are two major problems that result from poor diets. Beans can help.

Beans are low on the glycemic index

High glycemic foods cause a more rapid and greater rise in blood glucose and insulin than foods with a low glycemic index even though the amount of carbohydrate consumed is equal. Not all carb foods are the same. Compared to other carbohydrate sources, beans have a low glycemic index. This means they do not cause stress on your pancreas or the ups and downs in blood sugar levels that are unhealthy.

High glycemic index foods are known to cause rapid elevations in blood glucose and insulin following a meal.

Beans are also high in fiber, which is good for lowering cholesterol, keeping the bowels working and regulating blood sugar.

What’s wrong with being overweight?

Bennink reports, “Excess body fat increases the risk of developing heart disease, strokes, Type II diabetes mellitus, and some types of cancer. There has been a steady increase in the percentage of overweight and obese individuals in North America and Western Europe. The increase in obesity is considered to be of epidemic proportions in the U.S. and in most developed countries. For example, on a worldwide basis, more than one billion adults are overweight and more than 300 million are obese . In the U.S. more than 60% of the adult population is overweight or obese. Obesity and overweight account for approximately 300,000 deaths per year in North America and the cost associated with excess fatness is estimated to be greater than 117 billion dollars per year.”

A good food

In the 1960s I remember watching President Kennedy making an appeal to the American public on television. He was bemoaning the fact that so many underprivileged children were eating beans instead of meat and he hoped we could change that picture. While the president was well-meaning, now that we know more about the nutritional value of beans, it’s clear that his administration could have made more of a push to wipe out the wave of refined and processed foods that were about to swamp the nation and cause the most harm.

Swedish women studied for antioxidant-rich diet
Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes regardless of whether they had a previous history of cardiovascular disease, in a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.Antioxidant foods inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation

“Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation,” said Susanne Rautiainen, M.Sc., the study’s first author and Ph.D. student at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. “This means people should eat more foods such as fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity.” 

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of cell-damaging free radicals and the body’s ability to neutralize them. It leads to inflammation, blood vessel damage and stiffening.Real foods contain vital nutrients

Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenoids and flavonoids can inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation by scavenging the free radicals. Antioxidants, especially flavonoids, may also help improve endothelial function and reduce blood clotting, blood pressure and inflammation. 

“In this study, we took into account all the antioxidants present in the diet, including thousands of compounds, in doses obtained from a usual diet,” Rautiainen said.Researchers collected dietary data through a food-frequency questionnaire.

They used a standard database to determine participants’ total antioxidant capacity (TAC), which measures the free radical reducing capacity of all antioxidants in the diet and considers synergistic effects between substances.Researchers categorized the women according to their TAC levels — five groups without a history of cardiovascular disease and four with previous cardiovascular disease.

For women with no history of cardiovascular disease who had the highest TAC, fruits and vegetables contributed about 50 percent of TAC.Other contributors were whole grains (18 percent), tea (16 percent) and chocolate (5 percent).

The study found:
•    Higher TAC was related to lower stroke rates in women without cardiovascular disease.
•    Women without cardiovascular disease with the highest levels of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 17 percent lower risk of total stroke compared to those in the lowest quintile.
•    Women with history of cardiovascular disease in the highest three quartiles of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 46 percent to 57 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke compared with those in the lowest quartile.
“Women with a high antioxidant intake may be more health conscious and have the sort of healthy behaviors that may have influenced our results,” Rautiainen said. “However, the observed inverse association between dietary TAC and stroke persisted after adjustments for potential confounders related to healthy behavior such as smoking, physical activity and education.”

For the study, researchers used the Swedish Mammography Cohort to identify 31,035 heart disease-free women and 5,680 women with a history of heart disease in two counties. The women were 49-83 years old. 

Researchers tracked the cardiovascular disease-free women an average 11.5 years and the women with cardiovascular disease 9.6 years, from September 1997 through the date of first stroke, death or Dec. 31, 2009, whichever came first. 

Researchers identified 1,322 strokes among cardiovascular disease-free women and 1,007 strokes among women with a history of cardiovascular disease from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry. 

“To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the relation between dietary TAC and stroke risk in participants with a previous history of cardiovascular disease,” Rautiainen said. “Further studies are needed to assess the link between dietary TAC and stroke risk in men and in people in other countries, but we think our results are applicable.” 

Co-authors are Susanna Larsson, Ph.D.; Jarmo Virtamo, M.D.; and Alicja Wolk, Dr.Med.Sci. Authors’ disclosures are on the manuscript. The Swedish Research Council for Infrastructure and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research funded the study. 

photo credit: Tarter Time Photography

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New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that rats fed homobrassinolide, found in the mustard plant, produced an anabolic effect, and increased appetite and muscle mass, as well as the number and size of muscle fibers.

If you are looking to lean out, add muscle mass, and get ripped, a new research report published in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests that you might want to look to your garden for a little help. That’s because scientists have found that when a specific plant steroid was given orally to rats, it triggered a response similar to anabolic steroids, with minimal side effects. In addition, the research found that the stimulatory effect of homobrassinolide (a type of brassinosteroid found in plants) on protein synthesis in muscle cells led to increases in lean body mass, muscle mass and physical performance.

Scientists hoping for a drug alternative

“We hope that one day brassinosteroids may provide an effective, natural, and safe alternative for age- and disease-associated muscle loss, or be used to improve endurance and physical performance,” said Slavko Komarnytsky, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Plants for Human Health Institute, FBNS at North Carolina State University in Kannapolis, N.C. “Because some plants we eat contain these compounds, like mustards, in the future we may be able to breed or engineer these plants for higher brassinosteroid content, thus producing functional foods that can treat or prevent diseases and increase physical performance.”

To make this discovery, Komarnytsky and colleagues exposed rat skeletal muscle cells to different amounts of homobrassinolide and measured protein synthesis in cell culture. The result was increased protein synthesis and decreased protein degradation in these cells. Healthy rats then received oral administration of homobrassinolide daily for 24 days. Changes in body weight, food consumption, and body composition were measured. Rats receiving homobrassinolide gained more weight and slightly increased their food intake. Body composition was measured using dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry analysis and showed increased lean body mass in treated animals over those who were not treated. This study was repeated in rats fed high protein diet and similar results were observed. Additionally, researchers used surgically castrated peri-pubertal rat models to examine the ability of homobrassinolide to restore androgen-dependent tissues after androgen deprivation following castration. Results showed increased grip strength and an increase in the number and size of muscle fibers crucial for increased physical performance.

“The temptation is to see this discovery as another quick fix to help you go from fat to fit,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, “and to a very small degree, this may be true. In reality, however, this study identifies an important drug target for a wide range of conditions that cause muscle wasting.”

— Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

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by Vic Shayne, PhD

Psychology and physiology are merging in some areas, and it’s proving to be a good marriage. Leading edge doctors of both disciplines are now recognizing that the mind and body are one organism. And nutrition helps.

Modern medicine is a new enterprise. While drug companies, physicians and hospitals may love to brag about how they are the best thing going, the reality is that they are the new kids on the block and have a lot to learn in order to fully address most of the health issues of the modern world.

Mindbody medicine is as old as the eastern hills

In the ancient world, in places such as China, Tibet and India the idea that the mind and body enjoy a symbiotic relationship and affect one another is a foregone conclusion. Traditional eastern healing disciplines have recognized for thousands of years that the emotions, stress and thoughts affect specific parts of the body depending on the type of mental state.

But modern thinkers are going beyond these ancient systems and have begun to understand that the mind is not to be confused with the brain. The brain is in the head, but the mind is literally everywhere because its impressions, trauma and feelings are stored throughout billions of cells in the body. In addition, thoughts and emotions are apt to create physiological effects such as restricting blood flow and oxygen to various parts of the body.

The mindbody connection is a deep, interesting and inspiring subject. Doctors are studying not only how pain and disability such as headaches, backaches and urogenitary conditions can result from mental states, but they’re also looking into how to use thoughts to reverse illnesses.

Feeding your mind and body with nutrients

For the moment, however, without going into detail on the fascinating topic of mindbody health care, what’s worth considering is that when you feed your brain, you are also feeding your body.

Many problems with emotions, stress, anxiety and the inability to concentrate can be addressed with specific nutrition. Chief among this nutritional approach are vitamin B complex and essential fatty acids. These nutrients play an important role in nervous transaction, brain activity and more.

You can begin with BFood and Fish Oils

If you are involved in psychological counseling or have stress and anxiety, or even aches and pains, these nutrients will offer both your mind and body with support.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Sister72

by Vic Shayne

Does an apple a day do what they say? University of Wisconsin scientists say apples are a source of soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber such as pectin actually helps to prevent cholesterol buildup in the lining of blood vessel walls, reducing the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. The insoluble fiber provides bulk in the intestinal tract, holding water to cleanse and move food quickly through the digestive system.

It is a good idea to eat apples with their skin. Almost half of the vitamin C content is just underneath the skin. Eating the skin also increases insoluble fiber content.
Make sure your apples are organic

But eat organic apples, otherwise the skin is source of poisons. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) placed non organic apples at the top of their chart of foods with the most pesticides. Apples are the first on the EWG’s “dirty dozen” list, followed by celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach and nectarines.

The historical apple travels across the world

The apple tree is one of the earliest trees to be cultivated and its fruits have been improved through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great (or one of his flunkies) has been credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan and Asia in 328 BCE. He brought the fruit back home to his native Macedonia. Apples were brought to North America by colonists in the 17th century and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was near Boston in 1625. In the 20th century, irrigation projects in Washington state began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.1

1. “Origin, History of cultivation”. University of Georgia. Archived from the original on 21 January 2008. Retrieved 22 January 2008.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Andrea Rinaldi

A man sits down in a restaurant and asks the waiter: “Do you have frogs legs?” to which the waiter replied, “No, I just walk this way.”

Okay, so the joke doesn’t have much to do with this email other than the topic of legs, and specifically legs that have varicose veins.

Varicose veins plague the elderly. But they aren’t the only ones to suffer from painful, bulging veins. With faulty diets, more and more people are having problems with them.

They’re caused by pooling blood due to structural weaknesses
The University of Maryland Medical Center reports: “Veins move blood from your body to your heart. When the one-way valves in your veins weaken, they may allow blood to flow backward and pool in your veins. Your veins then become enlarged. Varicose veins usually show up in the legs and feet, because standing and walking increases the pressure on these veins. They look like bulging, bluish cords beneath the surface of your skin. Spider veins are similar to varicose veins, but they are smaller and closer to the surface of your skin.”

Flavonoids and carotenoids to the rescue
When veins cause pains, think flavonoids and carotenoids. These are two ingredients found within nature’s whole foods that work to support and build blood vessels, from your heart to your toes to your eyes to your nose.

Food nutrients make a difference. Vitamins miss the point.
You cannot address problems with blood vessels with vitamin pills. Why? Because vitamin pills do not contain the natural bioflavonoids and carotenoids that are in whole foods such as fruits, berries and vegetables.

Two important flavnoids: rutin and proanthocyandins
While flavonoids and carotenoids are important in building and repairing blood vessels, two in particular stand out: rutin and proanthocyandins. You can get these in wild pansy, buckwheat and grape seed extract.

These are contained in NutriPlex’s formulas: SuperGreens (grape seed extract and more), FlavoC (rutin and more) and CaroC (lots of carotenoids) on our website.