• Health

    Fermented Foods: From Tradition to Trend

    Where delicious meets nutritious. Long before fermented foods became a wellness trend, they were simply part of life in my family’s kitchen. When I was a teenager in the Philippines, my mother and I made atchara together—a sweet-and-sour relish traditionally made with green, unripe papaya and colorful vegetables. We would grate the papaya into long, thin strips, add carrots and other vegetables for color and crunch, and prepare a tangy mixture with vinegar, ginger, garlic, and a little sweetness. I can still remember working beside her in the kitchen.  We made sweet and salty pickled cucumbers, too. And because German […]
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June 2, 2020
Published by Ginger Hultin, MS RDN CSO

Brazilian Pepper Tree: A Berry with BIG Benefits

You may not have ever heard of the Brazilian Peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia, but have likely heard of its relatives which produce pink peppercorns, pistachios, and cashews. This thorny tree is native to Brazil and becomes invasive in subtropical areas like Florida, California, and Arizona. Unlike its relatives, the Brazilian Peppertree isn’t used to season food; its role is more medicinal. The small pink fruits from this tree have been used by traditional Amazonian healers for generations to treat infections and wounds. Traditional folk medicine has asserted that the Brazilian Pepper Tree possesses antibacterial activity which can be harnessed by isolating […]
May 5, 2020
Published by Life Extension

Broccoli Compound Helpful For Diabetes

The June 14, 2017 issue of Science Translational Medicine published the finding of an ability for sulforaphane, a compound that occurs in broccoli and other vegetables, to lower the liver’s production of glucose. By comparing gene signatures for diabetes with the potential ability of 3,852 compounds to affect these genes, Anders Rosengren and colleagues identified sulforaphane as having the highest overlap. “A large number of genetic variants and tissue gene expression profiles (“disease signatures”) have been associated with complex polygenic diseases over the last decade,” the authors explain. “One potentially interesting approach is to use genetic and gene expression data […]
May 5, 2020
Published by FoodTrients

A Healthy Debate: Vegetarianism vs. Regenerative Beef

Industrial meat production is a leading cause of global warming, yet a plant-based diet alone might not solve the problem—or could it? What’s the way forward on this contentious debate? We put the challenge to two of our senior editors, Bill “Reg” Giebler and Jenna “Veg” Blumenfeld. Here’s what they had to say to one another. Bill Giebler: As we explore the ethics of meat eating, I look to the history of humanity. Eating animals was the hunter part that accompanied the gatherer; therefore, as cultivation became the norm for food production some ten thousand years ago, animal management was […]
April 21, 2020
Published by Life Extension

Most of Us Will Age Normally

Memory declines as we age, but most people will never experience the severe neuronal loss of dementia. “The Aging, Demographics and Memory Study” on the prevalence of dementia concluded that 13.9 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 71 has some form of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for just less than 10 percent, says brain researcher Carol Barnes. “That means 86 percent of us age normally.” The likelihood of dementia increase as people age, hitting 1 in 3 by age 85. Barnes, director of the University of Arizona’s Mc-Knight Brain Institute, has studied the aging brain for […]
April 21, 2020
Published by Dr. Mark Rosenberg

Toxic Tuna: Too Much Mercury?

Like many of my patients, and readers, you probably know that there have been concerns about eating different types of tuna as they can contain methyl mercury.  Some recent news stories regarding children eating tuna have suggested that tuna may be even less safe than previous guidelines advised.  Several groups of researchers, though, have differing opinions on how much tuna is safe for you to eat and that’s what I’d like to tell you about. USDA vs. Other Agencies – Selenium vs. Methyl Mercury First, let me explain to you the concern about methyl mercury.  Tuna, like other fish, absorb […]
April 7, 2020
Published by Ginger Hultin, MS RDN CSO

Try Some Natural Swaps for These Medications

While you may think of prescription medications as being created by scientists in a lab, the truth is that many drugs started as natural products. These plant-derived compounds are refined, isolated, and replicated in a lab where they become the common medications you’re familiar with. Many natural products can still offer health-promoting support and have powerful effects, just like medications. Keep in mind that you’ll need to work with your doctor on this for safety but here are some examples of natural counterparts to pharmaceutical drugs you may already be using. 1. PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG: IBUPROFEN Ibuprofen is one type of […]
March 18, 2020
Published by Dr. Mark Rosenberg

What Are the 7 Top Foods To Fight Cancer?

I have long believed that people can transform their health with the foods they eat. I encourage patients with a wide array of conditions to examine their diets in addition to using traditional treatments and medicines. For some, adopting a healthy diet full of produce, whole grains and lean protein can improve symptoms through weight loss. For people with certain diseases, choosing foods with unique, wellness-promoting qualities can provide a major boost to their health. For those seeking to actively prevent cancer, the foods you eat can bring big health benefits. Countless studies have been done on the effects of different diets or […]
March 18, 2020
Published by Dr. Mark Rosenberg

You May Be Causing Your Low Immunity

Do you know that your body is equipped with an incredible defense mechanism known as your immune system? It fights back against viruses, bacteria, chemical pollutants, and free radicals in the environment. It heals wounds, infections, and bruises. It even has the ability to draw antidotes to some diseases that happened as far back as childhood. How the immune system functions is a hard thing to explain to patients. It’s not just an organ that battles illness and infection but rather an interaction of many organs and structures within your body. This remarkable infrastructure is responsible for recognizing things that […]
March 10, 2020
Published by FoodTrients

FDA Tests Find Asbestos in Nearly 20 Percent of Cosmetics

Laboratory tests commissioned by the federal Food and Drug Administration of talc-based cosmetics products found the notorious carcinogen asbestos in roughly 20 percent of the samples assessed. AMA Analytical Services, Inc., the nation’s leading laboratory in matters of asbestos-contaminated talc, was contracted in September 2018 by FDA to test popular cosmetics products that contain talc as an ingredient. Today FDA released the AMA results in its final report, which shows nine out of 52 cosmetics products tested positive for asbestos. Concern over the presence of asbestos in cosmetics, particularly those marketed toward children and that include talc as an ingredient, is […]