September 14, 2012

Green Foods

“What’s all the hype about eating green foods?” This is a question many of my patients are asking me more often these days. It seems everywhere you look there is some mention of going green in one way or another. People are not only becoming more conscious about preserving the environment, they also want to protect their bodies from everyday pollutants. Choosing foods described as “detoxifiers” are considered good for the liver and helpful in ridding the body of food preservatives. Detox diets usually recommend cutting out many foods with additives, along with meat and dairy products to combat what […]
May 4, 2012

Green Coffee Bean Extract Shows Weight Loss Potential

Looking to lose a little weight? If that’s the case, according to a recently published clinical trial, you should try green coffee bean. Now, we’re not talking about drinking tons of coffee to increase caffeine intake, which can also help to lose weight — this is something different. What we’re talking about with this study is an extract derived from green coffee beans. These young coffee beans are rich in chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant currently known for helping to tame blood sugar spikes. As it turns out, that samechlorogenic acid may also be able to help you drop some pounds. Pretty convenient, […]
March 7, 2012

Seaweed – The Ancient Asian Superfood

Increasingly, my patients have become more and more interested in trying to improve their health using natural foods and supplements.  Lately, several of them have asked me about seaweed – the centuries old staple of Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures revered for its many health benefits.  As I tell my patients, seaweed – a sea vegetable – has many outstanding nutritional benefits that are worth taking advantage of.  Here’s what you should know about seaweed. Seaweed – A Legendary Nutritional Powerhouse If you’ve ever eaten sushi – a traditional Japanese food – you may know that the edible wrapper that […]
February 14, 2012

Berries Protect the Brain in Several Ways

The 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held recently in Boston was the site of a presentation by Shibu Poulose, PhD, of the US Department of Agriculture about new findings for berries in protecting aging brains.* Dr. Poulose studied the brain’s natural “house-cleaning” process, which involves autophagy by cells known as microglia. These cells remove and recycle toxic proteins that can interfere with brain function. “In aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up,” Dr. Poulose explained.
February 8, 2012

Red Meat and Stroke Risk: Beyond the Headlines

Red meat is back in the news , and once again it’s being singled out as being uniquely bad for you.  Here’s the sound bite: Eating red meat increases stroke risk while eating poultry reduces it.   But, there’s a little bit more to the story. (There usually is.) First of all, the 28% increase in stroke risk applied to people eating more than half a pound of red meat a day. That’s two or three servings of red meat every single day–or twice the average amount of red meat consumed by Americans.   Surely that should be part of the story. But here’s what […]