Hers are some health snippets bundled together for easy reading.
So how much omega-3 should you be getting in your diet? The American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of fatty fish each week. But I recommend eating as many different types of omega-3 rich fish as you enjoy. Salmon, for example, is a flavorful, versatile fish that you can roast, poach, grill or broil. Look for Alaskan Wild Salmon, free of the additives of much farm-raised salmon.
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Roasting Tomatoes Helps Increase Lycopene Absorption and Reduce Cancer and Heart Disease Risk
Mar 7, '07, 03:00 PM
So, this big burly beefsteak tomato's walking through the vegetable patch with a petite cherry tomato. The cherry tomato can't keep up with the speedy big boy, so the beefsteak says, "Hey, cherry tomato -- catch up!"
Comedy club material? Not really. But there's nothing funny at all about the health benefits of tomatoes. Lycopene in tomatoes helps protect not only against prostate cancer, but breast, pancreatic and intestinal cancers, especially when eaten with fat-rich foods, like avocado, olive oil or nuts.
Scientists have a fancy term for lycopene absorption: bioavailability. I always tell my patients that they can get the most nutritional benefit from tomatoes by eating them cooked, in sauces, soups, stews and salsas. Cooking some high-lycopene foods zaps the nutrient, but tomatoes are different. Cooking actually increases the lycopene content bioavailability to your system.
Tomatoes are a very good source of potassium, niacin, vitamin B6, and folate. Diets rich in potassium have been shown to lower high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. And niacin can be used to raise your healthy cholesterol (HDL).
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Enjoy the Health Benefits of Wine, Without Drinking a Drop!
Mar 1, '07, 03:00 PM
Great news for people who don't like wine! The latest studies show you can get almost the same benefits from grape juice. The reason? Purple grape juice contains powerful disease-fighting antioxidants called flavonoids that give wine many of its heart-healthy benefits.
Heart and vascular problems develop when endothelial cells that line blood vessels don't work properly. Researchers recently found that flavonoids in Concord grape juice activate the endothelial cells to produce nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps protect against cardiovascular disease and helps maintain healthy blood vessels and blood pressure.
Bottom line, grape juice is a terrific way to get many of wine's potential health benefits. When you go for the juice, choose the purple kind, which is far richer in antioxidant flavonoids than red or white.
Enjoy a four-ounce glass with breakfast or for an afternoon snack, and your heart can realize almost the same benefits your wine-drinking friends like to brag about. Or uncork one of the fine nonalcoholic red wines on the market and enjoy with dinner or with appetizers. They're loaded with antioxidants and wonderful flavor -- and you can drink all you like without worrying about the drive home!
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Eating Broccoli & Tomatoes Together May Slow Cancer Growth
Feb 19, '07, 03:00 PM
Researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered eating broccoli and tomatoes together may help slow prostate cancer growth. Now, this hasn't been tested on humans, but studies in the lab are encouraging.
So how does it work? Well, researchers aren't really sure, but they believe it has something to do with the unique interaction of glucosinolate in broccoli with lycopene in tomatoes, as well as the hundreds of other nutrients present in both. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli contain nutrients called glucosinolates. They support your body's normal detoxification processes, which men need to maintain healthy levels of both male and female hormones. And, prostate cancer is essentially the result of a hormonal imbalance.
Lycopene is a carotenoid, a natural antioxidant coloring found in fruits and vegetables like tomatoes. In the body, lycopene is normally concentrated in the prostate and testes, and its consumption is associated with a lower prostate cancer risk. So bottom line, the lower your blood levels of lycopene, the higher your risk for prostate cancer.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the combination of phytonutrients in tomatoes and broccoli may have a significant impact on prostate cancer growth.
Cheers