Traditional Chinese Medicine includes the use of mushrooms. However, the medicinal properties of mushrooms have only been studied in the West for the past 30 years or so. Nevertheless, cancer drugs have been patented as a direct result of mushroom research.

Probably the most famous is PSK, an anti-cancer pharmaceutical derived from the turkey tail mushroom. It came about as a result of Japanese research on the Maitake mushroom conducted in the 1980s.

Mushrooms contain sugar-like molecules called ‘polysaccarides’ that stimulate immune system cells. As a result, the immune system is stimulated to kill malignant cells in the body. End result? Mushrooms are anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, and good for cardiovascular health.

What are mushrooms – animal, vegetable, or mineral? Mushrooms are fungi that have been part of the human diet for thousands of years. They are low in calories and fat, but rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber.

Despite being readily available to all, some mushrooms are considered status symbols. These include black truffles, boletes, and chanterelles from Europe and the Matsutake from China and Japan. But don’t just like mushrooms because of their celebrity status. You should like them because they’re good for you.

Medicinal Mushrooms and Cancer

There are numerous mushrooms that have medicinal properties, but let’s talk about three of the more popular ones:

Maitake
Several published studies say that when Maitake mushrooms are used in conjunction with conventional cancer therapy, a lower dose of medication is needed.  They have a natural stimulating effect on the immune system, lower blood pressure, and regulate blood glucose as well.

Shiitake
Lenitan is a phytonutrient that boosts the function of cancer cell killers.  Since Shiitake mushrooms contain lenitan, some cancer specialists prescribe it to stop the spread of cancer. Studies from Japan show it lowers cholesterol as well.

Reishi
Reishi mushrooms contain ganoderic acid which is a phytonutrient.  As a result, it has a high level of antioxidant activity. It has been used to treat prostate cancer when used in combination with other herbs.

Benefits of Medicinal Mushrooms

Research has also demonstrated the mushroom’s possible usefulness for HIV, bronchitis, allergies, cancer, inflammation, liver, and protection against radiation. Eating all three together will give you the cardiovascular and antioxidant benefits of three superfoods.

Incorporating mushrooms into your regular diet is a great idea. From a nutritional point of view they are rich in vitamins and low in calories. You can always take supplements derived from mushrooms, but it’s preferable to get nutrition from whole food. Whole foods contain more than just vitamins and minerals as in the case of medicinal mushrooms that are immunity boosters too.

Apples are such a standard fruit in so many cultures. They come in so many colors and varieties that you’re bound to find one you like. While they’re available all year, the best are usually found from September through the end of the year.

Apples are nice in that it’s easy to tell when they are ripe. Many fruits will continue to ripen and over ripen if you don’t pick them. Apples fall when they are ripe. The stem thins until the apple is ready to just be plucked from the tree.

Apples from the grocery store tend to be attractive and uniform in color. This is often due to the pesticides and waxes used. On the other hand, organic apples may not be so uniform in color and may have the occasional spot on them. This does not detract from their nutritional value. If the apples are firm and have no soft spots or splits, you can work with them.

Recently the European Respiratory Journal published a study linking apples and lung health. The study showed that children who drank apple juice at least once a day were half as likely to suffer from wheezing as those drinking it less than once a month.

It is believed that the phytochemicals in apples — flavanoids and phenolic acids — were helping to calm the inflammation in the airways which is a key feature of both wheezing and asthma.

In an American study from 2006 at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, research suggests that consuming apple juice may protect against cell damage related to age-related memory loss. Mice showed stronger mental acuity when they consumed the human equivalent of 2 to 3 cups of apple juice or approximately two to four apples per day. It is believed this is due to the apple’s naturally high level of antioxidants.

What is the best use of an apple? Apple pie, apple cider, apple butter, caramel apples, candy apples, apple fritters. The recipes are endless, but a juicy apple pie is always a hit. However, all apples are not suited for pies. My personal favorite is aptly named Delicious. They tend to be sweet so you shouldn’t have to lots of sugar to the pie.

Gala apples are sweeter than Granny Smith apples and crisp. A mix of the two in a pie or a cobbler provides the perfect cross between sweet and tart. Gala apples complement green and fruit salads.

Mushier apple varieties can be cooked and mashed to make homemade applesauce. The process is time-consuming so be sure to make it worth your while by producing a large batch. Still got apples left? Consider fresh apple cider as a solution. If you aren’t used to tasting it fresh, know that it will be pulpier than the pasteurized kind you can buy in the store.

When all else fails, stick a Popsicle stick in the center and cover them with hot caramel or sticky candy. Many people make candied and caramel apple at Halloween but they are good all year round. Experiment to see what other uses can be found when you have too many apples.

Apple Rhubarb Pecan Crisp

Ingredients:

3 cups apples, cored, peeled and diced
2 1/2 cups red rhubarb, cleaned and diced
16 packets of sugar substitute, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup pecans, chopped very fine
2 tablespoons low fat margarine, melted
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the apples and the rhubarb in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle 10 packets of the sugar substitute over the top. Place the cornstarch in the mixture. Mix until blended together well. Pour into a small baking dish.

Place the apple juice and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Stir slightly to blend juices together. Pour over the top of the fruit in the baking dish. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake 22 minutes. Fruit should be soft when done.

Pour the quick oats into a bowl. Fold the pecans into the bowl. Sprinkle with the other 6 packets of sugar substitute and cinnamon. Pour the melted margarine in and stir. When the fruit has softened remove the aluminum foil from the top of the baking dish.

Crumble the raisin mixture over the top being sure to get out to the edges. Continue baking 12 minutes or until the topping has begun to brown and get crispy.

Nutritional Information (Approximate Values):

177 calories, 3 g protein, 8 g fat, 26 g carbohydrate, 10 mg cholesterol and 45 mg sodium per serving.

Resources: Apples, Apples Everywhere – Favorite Recipes From America’s Orchards | Meal Planning Made Simple

There are many ways to curb overeating without having to resort to starving yourself. In fact, experts agree that when you attempt to starve yourself in order to lose pounds, you may actually gain weight when you return to normal eating habits. You’ve seen what happens to some celebrities such as Kirstie Alley and Oprah Winfrey when they forgo their diet plans for real food. It’s a yo-yo diet syndrome that puts on the extra pounds.

The natural way of controlling overeating is the best way to develop good habits that will never leave you. Even if you vary from the natural way of eating for awhile –for example, during holidays — you can easily return to eating well every day. Here are a few tips to control overeating:

• Portion Control – Controlling your portions is the best – and most natural – method to control overeating. Don’t let your eyes rule your mind and stomach. Even if something you crave is being served, dish out a small portion in the beginning. You’ll be amazed at how little it takes to satiate your cravings and hunger.
• Eat Salads – Boring, huh? But, if you know you’re going to get to eat something you love after the salad, it may seem a bit more appetizing. A natural trick to curbing an overeating habit is to eat a tossed, green salad before you eat lunch or dinner. You won’t be as tempted to load your plate with large helpings of an entrée.
• Share Entrees at Restaurants – Most restaurants serve incredibly large portions of their entrees. Plan ahead to either share with a dining companion or get a carry-out box. Some restaurants will let you order a half portion of an entrée – others may let you order from the kid’s menu for smaller servings.
• Eat Several Small Meals – When you eat several small meals during the day, you’re not as tempted to binge on food in the evening. Concentrate on eating fruits and veggies during the day to fill you up, but add fewer calories.
• Treat Yourself – You can’t be a diet saint all the time. Treat yourself at least once a month to a meal or item that you love to eat. Pay attention to the tips listed above so that you won’t overdo it. But, if that happens, immediately go back to your natural eating plan. It will be easier knowing that you don’t have to suffer to lose weight.

Attaining that full feeling the natural way can cut your calories immediately without making you feel deprived. You’ll find that you’re not as apt to binge eat when you’re alone or have the opportunity to indulge in rich foods loaded with calories that can cause you to lose control.

As you gain control over an overeating problem, you’ll also gain self-control and self-esteem, knowing that you have the skills to do it the natural way.

Eating in a holistic way need not be difficult or complicated. Many people associate healthy eating with depriving themselves of the foods they love, but this need not be the case either. Here is a holistic eating tip or two to get you on the right path.

My main healthy eating tip would be to eat as wide a variety of different foods as possible, especially fruit and vegetables. Not only are they are low in calories, so can help fill you up, they are also full of antioxidants, vitamins, fiber and minerals which help the body repair itself and protect against diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables will ensure that you receive an intake of many different antioxidants and vitamins. Ideally each meal should contain fruit or vegetables, and they can be eaten as a snack to substitute candy bars and fries.

Another good eating tip is to not expect too much at once. It is a bad idea to completely change your diet overnight- you will lose motivation and be tempted to cheat. Try to make small changes at a time; for instance, substitute one of two of your daily snacks for fruit, and add a side salad to your meals. You should be able to make these changes without too much hardship, which will encourage you to make further changes.

If you try to completely ban your favorite foods, you will find yourself craving them all the more. Allowing yourself a planned occasional treat will also help to keep motivation levels high.

Another tip is to reduce your portion sizes. Food serving sizes have become much larger over recent years, especially when eating out. As a result, we have lost track of how much we are actually eating, and have become conditioned to accept larger amounts of food than we need.

There are a lot of people who eat a very healthy diet- just too much of it. Use smaller plates and serve yourself a smaller portion than you normally would. Eat slowly and savor every mouthful; this will give your brain the chance to signal that you have had enough.

When eating out, try sharing a dish, and don’t go for super sized options. Try planning ahead. Write down a rough meal menu for the next week and make sure you have all the ingredients to hand. Write a list- when you go grocery shopping with a list you are less likely to be tempted by impulse buys.

When you know what you will be cooking each evening, you are less likely to order take out food because you have nothing in your cupboard. Try batch cooking- prepare a larger amount of pasta, soups and casseroles and freeze some in individual portions. These are ideal for those busy days as they will just need heating through.

Another good holistic eating tip is to avoid eating in front of the television or computer. Studies have shown that people tend to eat more when they do this as they are not aware of what they are eating. Make your meals an event. Gather the family around the table and switch the television off. If you live alone, eat at the table and savor your meals without distraction. Don’t snack on the run as you will likely be consuming foods which are high in salt or sugar.

Eating healthy is not as hard as people think. With a little meal planning and preparation, you will soon be making lasting changes to your eating habits.

There is a school of thought that says when we changed to an agricultural grain-based diet, our gut was re-colonized with different bacteria and we haven’t had the time, as a species, to adapt to the toxins they produce.

Whether or not that’s true, dietary changes can be helpful for many conditions – arthritis, migraines, diabetes, hypertension, and even psychiatric disorders like bipolar and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be helped by good nutrition. A nutritional intervention has been reported to slow the decline in many of the diseases that plague Western countries.

Dr. Weston Price was a dentist in the 1930s. He was curious about why some children presented with bad dental problems. He assembled a multidisciplinary team of physicians, dentists, ethnographers, soil scientists, nutritionists, and other medical specialties that studied 14 different ethnic groups around the world.

This team conducted exams which included medical histories, mental assessments, dietary histories, as well as many photographs. The results of his research found that those who ate a primitive diet had healthy teeth and were in good physical condition (no arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease).

Those who were the first generation to eat a Western diet had crooked teeth and around a 50 percent cavity rate. Also, mental and physical fitness declined. The second generation eating a Western diet resembled the children in Dr. Weston’s practice, and there were higher incidents of mental health issues as well as higher rates of arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, etc.

Dr. Price concluded that in the absence of good nutrition, deterioration of the species is rapid. He predicted higher rates of disease in the populations he studied as their diets became westernized and, of course, that came to pass.

Today we know that genes turn on and off in response to the local environment (epigenetics). If you eat a diet high in sugar/carbohydrates, genes that cause inflammation will respond. Diseases with an inflammatory component include Parkinson’s, arthritis, depression, heart disease, dementia, hypertension, and diabetes to name a few.

Conversely, a diet high in green leafy vegetables, whole fruits, and protein will activate genes that lower inflammation. You could make the argument that the DNA is not the problem, it’s the environment. Just because you have the gene for a disease doesn’t mean you’ll get it. Your environment – your diet and the toxins you’re exposed to — will determine that.

Your health problems don’t have to be debilitating for you to get relief via a nutritional intervention. Common health issues like chronic indigestion, acne, or dry skin could all be resolved with diet. In fact, you need to change your diet before your issues become debilitating.

Every second that you’re alive, your brain has to make trillions of chemical reactions simultaneously. If it does not have the correct building blocks – minerals, amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids, and carbohydrates — it has to make substitutions. Sometimes it cannot get the job done. Ever hear of brain fog or a senior moment? That’s your brain on a Western diet.

Most Americans do not eat the recommended daily allowance of anything, and that’s not even what’s necessary for optimal health. Deficiency in nutrients is associated with autoimmune diseases, obesity, brain fog, and mental health problems.

When the brain has sufficient nutrients, the appetite center is ‘off’, and we are not hungry. Without sufficient nutrients, the appetite center is ‘on’ and the brain tells us to keep eating. It needs nutrition but we’re not eating the right food so the cycle continues, and the result is obesity.

Our diet produces excessive free radicals which cause inflammation. The brain wants to quench inflammation with antioxidants so we crave sweets. 50,000 years ago during the Paleolithic age that sweet would have been antioxidant-rich berries. Today it’s something containing white flour and sugar.

Add to that the fact that the food industry has manipulated the salt, sugar, and fat content of foods to increase dopamine – the feel good chemical released by the brain. Now you’re addicted to food that is destroying your health. Worse yet, we’ve exported this food all over the world.

Over the course of human development, the bacteria in our guts developed with us. Those bacteria helped us digest the food we ate. Our bodies learned to neutralize toxins by making use of the by-products of this process. A few thousand years ago we changed our diet. We quit eating green leaves and whole fruit. We began eating more sugar and grain.

A different set of bacteria started growing in our gut.

We didn’t have a cooperative relationship with these new bacteria that went back thousands of years. These new bacteria create different toxins, different nutrients, and are sometimes toxic to us. They kick start autoimmune system diseases like arthritis and lupus. They cause chronic digestive problems like Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s disease.

Probiotic supplements are popular today because people have figured out that these ‘good’ bacteria can put an end to their digestive problems, but if you ate the diet your ancestors ate you wouldn’t need supplements to digest your food properly. When people eat from the Paleo Recipe Book they often report losing weight without dieting, improved sleep, and more energy.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably already making changes to your lifestyle for better health and wellness. You know like I do that nothing will reap more health benefits than a change in diet. There’s no need to flounder around looking for the right recipes or list of ingredients. The work has been done for you. You just have to buy the book.

It is a well known fact that antioxidants can help protect the body from the damage caused by atoms known as free radicals, as well as helping to prevent common diseases such as, high blood pressure cancer and heart disease. There are many natural foods which contain a variety of antioxidants. Here is a list of some of the best foods with antioxidants to include in your diet.

Fruits

Fruits containing antioxidants include grapefruit, pomegranate, pineapple, oranges and kiwi fruit. Red grapes contain antioxidants known as resveratrol and quercetin, which help promote a healthy heart by reducing the damage to blood platelets caused by free radicals and maintaining healthy blood vessels. This is why some experts recommend drinking a small amount of red wine regularly.

Berries in particular are full of powerful antioxidants, as well as containing essential minerals and fiber. Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries contain ellagic acid, a compound known to combat certain carcinogens.

Blackberries and raspberries, along with blueberries, also contain antioxidants known as proanthocyanidins, which can help prevent heart disease and some cancers.

Blueberries are also thought to help prevent dementia type conditions which can occur as part of the aging process. Other berries high in antioxidants are bilberries, black currents, red currents, cherries, goji berries and crowberries.

Tomatoes are full of lycopene, which is thought to help prevent some cancers. They contain an antioxidant known as glutathione which has immune system boosting properties. Eating tomatoes can also help to reduce risks of age related eye problems, such as cataracts and macular degeneration.

Vegetables

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower contain an antioxidant called indole-3-carbinol, which can help prevent heart disease, breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Spinach is rich in the antioxidant lutein, which can also protect against age related vision problems. Yellow- orange vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and beets contain beta-carotene, which can protect against heart disease, some cancers and arthritis.

Garlic

Garlic is full of antioxidants which can help prevent a host of diseases, from heart disease and high cholesterol to cancer. The antioxidants found in garlic will also fight free radicals, reduce blood pressure, delay the aging process and prevent yeast infections.

Whole grains are a good source of vitamin E which can prevent prostate cancer. It is also thought to help prevent and control arthritis, delay the progression of Alzheimerís disease and boost the immune system. Whole grains also contain an antioxidant known as IP-6, which can help prevent certain cancers.

Spices and herbs also contain some powerful antioxidants. Good spices to use include paprika, turmeric, mustard seed, ginger and cinnamon. Recommended herbs include oregano, basil, sage, thyme, peppermint and marjoram. Spices and herbs can also add flavor to dishes and help make foods more palatable.

There are so many foods with antioxidants and the above is only a brief list. The best way of making sure you receive a powerful daily dose of antioxidants is to eat a good variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, and make sure you use spices and herbs in freshly prepared, healthy dishes. Take a look at this diet for recipes rich in antioxidants — Paleo Recipe Book.