Category — Health Benefits of

Brook Shields is back in the spotlight with her hit series, Lipstick Jungle. Back in the day she burst on the scene with her infamous Calvin jean ads “if these jeans could talk I would be roomed.”

Today she tells Shape magazine she recently gained 9 lbs since her bunion surgery that’s left her unable to exercise for 8 weeks. She reveals her favorite exercise for weight loss.. [Read more →]

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Different grades of olive oil help illustrate how processing can affect not only taste and antioxidant content but have important health implications as well. Extra-virgin comes from the first pressing and contains the largest amounts of polyphenols, which are an important source of antioxidants found in olive oil. Virgin oil, a lesser grade, comes from the second pressing. Pure olive oil is not pure at all. This is a still lower grade of olive oil that has been extracted using solvents and or heat which results in lower levels of polyphenols. [Read more →]

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It was widely reported this week that a diet high in fruits and vegetables provided no added benefit against breast cancer recurrence. In this study published in JAMA, more than 3,000 women (average age 53) who were treated successfully for early stage breast cancer were followed for 6-11 years. Breast cancer recurrence rates were no better for those women who consumed 9 or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables than those who consumed 5. This was surprise to many, and was viewed by the media as a “setback to the hope that better diets can prevent breast cancer recurrence.” [Read more →]

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The Chinese, who have one of the healthier diets, are getting sick and developing higher rates of breast cancer. The culprit? A Western style diet loaded with meats and sweets. New research, which specifically focused on breast cancer, has added to the growing body of evidence that a diet high in animal products and sugar will increase your risk of several types of cancer, as well as heart disease and diabetes. [Read more →]

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Whenever I am cutting onions I am always reminded of the onion chopping scene in a hilarious French indie film Diva, where Jules, the main character, is wearing a scuba mask and snorkel to prevent crying. Crying is good. It means that the onions you are chopping have a lot of organosulfur compounds. These are the same compounds that give garlic its wonderful pungent aroma and are found in the Allium family of vegetables which also include leeks, chives and shallots. The organosulfur compounds found in onions and other Allium vegetables have been linked with anti-cancer benefits. [Read more →]

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Tomatoes contain a carotenoid called lycopene which gives tomatoes their red color and has antioxidant properties. Lycopene may be one of the reasons tomato consumption has been linked with lower rates of cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer. Interestingly, tomato sauce consumption has been associated with an even greater reduction in prostate cancer risk compared with raw tomatoes and the availability of lycopene may be responsible. [Read more →]

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Far from being an “empty calorie” sweetener like refined sugars, honey has demonstrated some surprising anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties. In healthy and high-cholesterol individuals honey:

• lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol
• lowers homocysteine (a risk factor for heart disease and stroke)
• shows anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties by lowering CRP, a blood marker of inflammation. [Read more →]

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Is farmed salmon dangerous to your health? Alarm bells went off when higher levels of PCB’s were found in farmed salmon compared to wild salmon. PCB’s are potentially carcinogenic compounds once used in industrial insulation that have since been banned in the United States. The knee jerk response by many diet and nutrition gurus was to advocate wild salmon consumption and avoid farmed salmon. [Read more →]

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With summertime just around the corner, here’s a favorite cantaloupe recipe of mine that’s easy-to-make, incredibly elegant and will help your skin look younger too. Cantaloupe is loaded with sun-protecting betacarotene, the bright-orange pigment found in cantaloupe that is a powerful antioxidant. Better known for its anticancer properties, betacarotene keeps your skin young and healthy by decreasing your skin’s sensitivity to sunburn. Other foods high in betacarotene include carrots, mango, squash, peaches and broccoli. [Read more →]

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but eat it with the peel. In apples, up to 25% of all antioxidant activity is contained within the peel. New research also shows that apple peels are rich in phytonutrients that have potent anti-cancer properties against breast, colon and liver cancer cells. [Read more →]

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