10 Nutrient-Rich Foods That Can Change Your Health

10 Nutrient-Rich Foods
That Can Change Your Health

1. Mushrooms
Loaded with antioxidants, riboflavin, selenium and other nutrients that keep the immune system healthy and help stave off cancer.

2. Kale
Rich with antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, kale is also thought to help lower risk of arthritis, as well as ovarian and breast cancers with sulphur-containing phytonutrients.
3. Spirulina
With more iron than beef and more protein than soy, this algae is the only plant source of vitamin B12.

4. Cranberry
Compared to other fruits such as grapes and strawberries, cranberries have the highest level of phenols – an oxidant that decreases the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer.

5. Kefir
Ideal if you're lactose intolerant, this cultured milk product delivers antibiotic properties, protein, minerals and vitamin B.

6. Ground Salba
This ancient grain provides 8x more omega-3s than salmon, 25% more dietary fibre than flaxseed, 30% more antioxidants than blueberries, 7x more vitamin C than an orange... get the picture?

7. Eggs
Cholesterol Shmolesterol. Egg yolks are loaded with choline, which is proven to help combat breast cancer.

8. Cherries
High in phytochemicals (plant chemicals that have disease preventative properties), cherries may also reduce inflammation.

9. Pistachios
Studies show these slow the rate of carbohydrate absorption and contain the fibre, protein and monounsaturated fat you need.
10. Beets
Beets are high in folic acid and contain betacyanine, which is an antioxidant that gives beets their rich, red colour.

Top 10 Superfoods: Goji Berries, Cinnamon, Turmeric And More

Top 10 Superfoods: Goji Berries,
Cinnamon, Turmeric And More
We're often fed news about superfoods and superherbs -- and it's tempting to want to believe everything we're told. Some superfood claims are backed by scientific studies, while other enticing claims turn certain foods into fads, though the foods have few proven benefits. We looked at the studies of 10 pantry picks and give you the real goods about their disease-fighting powers.
1. Rhubarb
Rhubarb is frequently regarded as a fruit (based on how we eat it), but botanically it is a vegetable belonging to the same family as sorrel and buckwheat. Championed for its phytochemical lindleyin, this nutritional all-star makes the cut for its potential role in relieving hot flashes in perimenopausal women. How the plant cools hot flashes is not exactly clear. Researchers have identified an extract in the root that may have estrogen-like properties. Need another reason to eat rhubarb? The plant is rich in potassium, vitamin C and dietary fibre.
Dietary uses: Canadian-grown rhubarb is available from February to July in most grocery stores but is most flavourful in the spring. Rhubarb is commonly eaten cooked in jams or spreads; baked in pies, cakes and muffins; and used in sorbet, ice cream and punch. Further studies are needed to determine the safety of medicinal amounts of the extract -- in concentrated pill form it may cause stomach cramps and mineral and electrolyte imbalances. Rhubarb root should not be consumed by children, or women who are pregnant or lactating.
2. Pumpkin seeds
This versatile seed, also known as pepitas, has long been treasured by American aboriginal peoples for its dietary and medicinal properties. Now these seeds are receiving the superfood attention they deserve. Of all the nuts and seeds typically consumed as snacks, pumpkin seeds are among the leaders of phytosterols -- a naturally occurring compound with an established reputation for cholesterol-lowering properties. Phytosterols are also being studied for their potential role in prostate health. Each 1/4 cup (50 millilitre) serving of the seed provides a healthy dose of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and is a good source of minerals, including phosphorus, magnesium, zinc and iron, making it one of the most nutritious and flavourful seeds around.
Dietary uses: Pumpkin seeds are available year-round from grocery stores but are freshest in the fall when pumpkins are in season. They make a good snack, either on their own or mixed with walnuts, almonds, peanuts and dried fruit. High in fibre, they lend crunch and nutty flavour to salads, vegetables, pasta dishes, sauces and casseroles. But watch your portion size; one cup (250 milliltres) packs 750 calories.
3. Goji berries
Hailed as the newest superfood, goji, a Himalayan berry, has inspired a surge of interest for its use in treating diabetes, hypertension, malaria, fever, cancer and other ailments. Gram for gram, goji berries pack more vitamin C than some oranges and more beta-carotene than carrots. Unfortunately, though, there isn't enough evidence yet to confirm the health claims, since we only have testimonials and animal studies to go by. And goji berries and goji juice are costly.
Dietary uses: Goji berries are similar in taste to raisins but more tart. They can be eaten raw or cooked and are a tasty addition to tea, soup and hot cereal.
4. Cinnamon
Valued in ancient times as currency and once considered more precious than gold, cinnamon -- one of the world's oldest known spices -- has made the pilgrimage from spice rack to science lab. Preliminary studies are investigating its role in lowering blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, most likely due to the insulin-like effects of its polyphenols (natural substances found in plants). It's still too early to know if cinnamon can help curb blood sugars, but with studies suggesting its effects can be seen with a daily dose of just half a teaspoon (two millilitres), it's worth keeping this spice in mind when reaching into the spice cabinet.
Dietary uses: Cinnamon (the inner bark of the tropical cinnamon tree) comes in the form of sticks and powder. Sprinkle it on toast, add it to oatmeal or use it on desserts. Make cinnamon tea by pouring one to two cups (250 to 500 millilitres) of boiling water over one- to 1-1/2-inch sticks; steep for 10 minutes. Caution: Ingesting four tablespoons (60 mL) of cinnamon oil has been linked to serious side-effects.
5. Quinoa
Regarded as a sacred food by the Incas, quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) provides a wide range of vitamins and minerals. This supergrain seed contains more protein than most cereal grains (22 grams per one cup/250 millilitres uncooked quinoa) and is considered a complete protein because it contains all eight of the essential amino acids we need for tissue development.
Quinoa is higher in calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc, and lower in sodium compared with wheat, barley and corn. This gluten-free grain also receives an honourable mention for being low in saturated fat (one gram of fat per one cup/250 millilitres uncooked quinoa).
Dietary uses: Quinoa can be substituted for most hot cereals and is a good replacement for rice. Cook it like porridge, include it in casseroles or stews, or add it (steamed, toasted or baked) to soups, salads or desserts. You can also use ground quinoa in breads, cookies, puddings, muffins and pasta. It's available in most grocery and health food stores.

6. Psyllium
Traditionally, psyllium is renowned as a laxative, since it absorbs water and swells as it moves through the digestive tract. But this all-star soluble fibre has many health benefits: lowering LDL, or "bad," cholesterol, helping control diabetes (it reduces the post-meal rise in blood sugar) and aiding in controlling appetite and weight (it makes you feel full longer). Since psyllium is a concentrated source of soluble fibre (with eight times more soluble fibre than oat bran), it's easy to eat enough of it during the day to enjoy its potential health benefits.
Dietary uses: Just 1/3 cup (75 millilitres) of Bran Buds with Psyllium, available at most grocery stores, provides 12 grams of fibre (almost half of our daily fibre needs). Caution: Incorporate psyllium and other high-fibre foods into your diet slowly to avoid abdominal pain and bloating, and drink plenty of water to avoid constipation.
7. Shallots
This vegetable deserves an award thanks to its active ingredient: fructo-oligosaccharides, a prebiotic that some researchers have chosen as the hottest in food and nutrition research. Prebiotics take centre stage for their potential to promote gut health by encouraging the growth and function of "good bacteria" that live in our digestive tract.
Emerging research is also revealing an important supporting role for flavonoids, antioxidants that are abundant in shallots. Preliminary research is investigating flavonoids for their preventive role in cancer and heart disease, but further research is still needed to support these potential benefits.
Dietary uses: Shallots are more subtle in flavour than their cousins, the onion and garlic, and they do not cause bad breath. Eat them raw or cooked till tender. Add shallots to soups, stews, spreads and stir-fries.
8. Milk thistle
Best known as a liver tonic, the power ingredient in milk thistle is silymarin, which may have protective effects on the liver, due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Differences in research design -- variations in the type and extent of liver disease, and dose and duration of milk-thistle therapy -- make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions on the effectiveness of this herb.
Dietary uses: Milk thistle is available at drugstores and health food stores; take as directed.
9. Turmeric
Curcumin -- the active ingredient of the Indian curry spice turmeric -- may ease aches and inflammation. In Ayurveda (the traditional medicine of India), this herb has been used for thousands of years to treat arthritis and other ailments. Some research suggests that turmeric may help relieve some symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis; however, the evidence to date, while encouraging, is still far from conclusive.
Dietary uses: Turmeric is sometimes substituted for saffron. Use in Indian curries or dishes such as chicken tangine and chicken tandoori.
10. Borage oil
Borage oil, which is produced from the borage seed, has made the nutritional spotlight for its high content of gamma-linolenic acid -- an omega-6 essential fatty acid with anti-inflammatory properties. Evidence suggests that specialty formulas that contain borage oil may reduce inflammation of the lung in critically ill, hospitalized patients with respiratory distress.
Dietary uses: Borage oil is a component of Oxepa -- a specialty formula used in the critical-care unit to reduce lung inflammation. In concentrated (oil) form, borage can cause liver toxicity; pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid using borage oil. The medicinal plant can be eaten raw or cooked. Use fresh borage leaves to add flavour to cream cheese and vinaigrettes.

Easy Ways To Prevent Swine And Other Flu

Easy Ways To Prevent
Swine And Other Flu
The only portals of entry for any flu are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications) .

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach.
Resist all temptations to touch any part of face.

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water. (We recommend hydrogen peroxide. Also swab inside of lower nostrils with it. - ed)

H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population. (Again, we recommend Hydrogen Peroxide. -ed)

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C. If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

8 Nutrients Every Person Needs To Boost Health

As people strive to improve their health and evolve their food choices to a more plant-based diet, it is easy to get lost along the way. When you transition to a healthier diet, it is important to educate yourself about the nutrients your body will need on a daily basis.

It's important to learn how to create a balance of protein, carbohydrates and quality fats with each meal. There are eight essential nutrients including protein, iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, B12, iodine and Essential Fatty Acids which are necessary to boost and optimize our health.

1. PROTEIN
A crucial part of any diet, the average RDA for women is 45 grams and for men 55 grams, which you can easily consume in the form of:

• Beans, legumes, lentils and peas
• Free range eggs
• Raw milk, cheese and yogurt.
• Nuts and seeds, which benefit from soaking in water or sprouting first
• Non-dairy nut and seed milks

NOTE: Pseudo-meats and other pretend protein foods should be avoided if possible, as they are highly processed foods. In an article by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. they write that, “Phytic acid remaining in these soy products greatly inhibits zinc and iron absorption; test animals fed soy protein isolate develop enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increased deposition of fatty acids in the liver.”

2, 3. IRON AND ZINC
One of the most common deficiencies in the world, iron is an important nutrient, integral to many bodily processes. It is especially essential for pre-menopausal and pregnant women, who tend to have this deficiency. If you feel tired, low in energy, suffer from headaches or hair loss, a pale complexion and weak nails, you could be suffering from iron deficiency.

Strong, healthy blood requires proper amounts of Iron. Average RDA for woman 19-50 years is 18mg, women 51+ years is 8mg and adult male is 8mg.

Two billion people may have a zinc deficiency, yet it's an essential mineral required by the body for maintaining a sense of smell, keeping a healthy immune system, building proteins, triggering enzymes, and creating DNA. Zinc also helps the cells in your body communicate by functioning as a neurotransmitter. A deficiency in zinc can lead to stunted growth, diarrhea, impotence, hair loss, eye and skin lesions, impaired appetite, and depressed immunity.

Because the human body does not store Zinc, it is essential to obtain it from the food you eat. The RDA for adult women is 8mg and for men is 11mg.

• Cocao, oysters, wheat germ (zinc)
• Green leafy vegetables: kale, collards, cabbage, spinach, and broccoli
• Nuts, seeds: almonds and cashews
• Beans, lentils, legumes, peas, in cooked and sprouted form
• Fruits and dried fruits: apricots, dates, and raisins
• Date syrup and molasses

4. MAGNESIUM
Magnesium plays a more important role than calcium in the body. It reduces your risk of cancer, and controls the entry of calcium into each and every cell--a physiological event that occurs every time a nerve cell fires! When it comes to building healthy bones, magnesium is as important as calcium and vitamin D are. Without adequate magnesium, too much calcium gets inside the cell. This causes cramping and constrictions in ways you many doctors never consider.

Earlier dietary surveys show that a large portion of adults do not meet even the RDA for magnesium (320 mg per day for women and 420 mg per day for men) which is below the level necessary for optimal health being 500mg+ per day for both men and women.

• Green, leafy vegetables, starches,
• Grains and nuts, and raw milk.

5. CALCIUM
In a nutshell, your body needs calcium to maintain strong bones and teeth, and for your nervous system to function properly. The RDA for adults is 1000-1200mg and can be found in a variety of foods, such as:

• Dark greens: broccoli, kale and Chinese cabbage
• Sea Vegetables: wakame, arame, dulse, hijiki, and kelp
• Dairy products: milk, yogurt and cheese

6. IODINE
Iodine is a mineral found mostly in seafood (including seaweed) that helps the body synthesize hormones, including thyroid hormone. This important mineral has been slowly but steadily leaving our food stream. The chemicals in fertilizers used in modern farming and chlorine added to water bind to iodine and prevent it from being utilized by our bodies. Iodine deficiency significantly affects the brain development of unborn babies and young children and is the main cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage across the world. It also leads to underactive thyroid and may increase the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth, which could be a major problem given the numbers of women suffering from this deficiency. Iodine deficiency is not only common in developing countries, research has suggested that more than two thirds of teenage girls and 15 percent of adult females in the US have an iodine deficiency.

Caution: Too much iodine can also be harmful. although the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 200-300 micro grams of iodine daily during pregnancy for normal fetal thyroid hormone production and neurocognitive development, 1,100 micro grams is considered to be the safe upper limit for daily ingestion by the US Institute of Medicine.

• Eggs, fish and seafood are good sources.
• Vegans can go for seaweed, cranberries, organic strawberries and himalayan crystal salt.

7. VITAMIN B12
Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient, especially for those following strict vegan lifestyles. It is required by your body to make new red blood cells and help keep your nervous system healthy. Without it, permanent damage can result. B12 can also lower homocystein levels, which is great news since elevated homocysteine levels may cause heart disease and strokes. A deficiency leads to anaemia and its symptoms include tiredness, pale complexion and breathlessness. It can also cause memory loss, confusion, mood swings and depression.

Vegans and vegetarians who do not eat eggs or dairy will need to take this essential nutrient in the form of a B complex supplement that includes the RDA for B12 of 1.5 microgram for adults. Shitake mushrooms, sea vegetables and algae contain something similar to B12, but it does not work in the body in the same way as B12 from animal sources. Some nutritional yeast food products contain some Vitamin B12. Meat and eggs are some of the best sources, however, if you're a vegetarian or vegan, it may be essential to occasionally use a B12 patch or high quality B12 supplement in your diet.

8. ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
Research says that eating more omega-3 fatty acids makes one live longer, look better and feel happier. A deficiency, on the other hand, can cause depression, mood swings and even aggressive behaviour. These fatty acids prevent heart disease, are good for your eyes, help you shed pounds and keep your skin and hair in good condition.

The body needs quality fats to help absorb the ‘fat soluble’ vitamins A, D, E and K, to regulate cholesterol, provide energy, maintain heart health and a number of other important functions. Saturated fats from animal sources is limited in a vegetarian diet, but hydrogenated and trans fats in baked goods and chips should be avoided for their harmful health effects. Recommended RDA for Omega Fatty Acids is 1-2 tablespoons.

• Extra Virgin Olive oil
• Sesame oil
• Raw butter and clarified butter
• Coconut oil: a saturated vegetable oil that has proven beneficial in the diet
• Omega-3 oils: Flax, hemp and walnut oils

Source: Prevent Disease

5 Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life

 5 Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life

Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are masquerading around as foods and spices. While they do not lend themselves to being patented, nor will multi-billion dollar human clinical trials ever be funded to prove them efficacious, they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies, and to prevent and treat disease. So valued were these in ancient times that they were worth their weight in gold, and entire civilizations either rose to great power or collapsed as a result of their relationship to them.

What is even more amazing is that many of these "plant allies" are found growing in our backyards, and often sitting there in our refrigerators and spice racks, neglected and under appreciated. In fact, many of us use these daily unaware that this is why we don't get sick as often as those who do not incorporate them into their diet. Let's look at a few examples....


Though Mother Nature's formulas are proprietary, she does not grant patents. ~Sayer Ji
1) Garlic – with the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the failure of the conventional, drug-based model to develop effective solutions against them (nor accepting responsibility for creating them), spices have regained their once universal reign as broad spectrum infection-fighters with sometimes life-saving power.

Garlic, in fact, has several hundred therapeutic properties, confirmed by a growing body of scientific research, which you can view directly on GreenMedInfo.com.[i] One quick example of garlic's power, is in killing multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which the mainstream media has termed the "white plague," roiling the masses with a fear of drug-resistant (but not plant-extract resistant) they are made to believe they are defenseless against.

Last year an article was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal showing that garlic was capable of inhibiting a wide range of multiple drug resistant tuberculosis strains.[ii] The authors concluded "The use of garlic against MDR-TB may be of great importance regarding public health." Garlic's anti-infective properties do not end with MDR-TB, as it has been demonstrated to inhibit the following pathogens as well:

• Amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (parasite)
• Cholera
• Clostridium
• Cytomegalovirus
• Dermatophytoses (a type of topical fungal infection)
• Haemophilus Influenzae
• Helicobacter Pylori
• Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
• Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2
• Klebsiella
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus A. (MRSA)
• Parainfluenza Virus
• Peridontal Infection
• Pneumococcal Infections
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Streptococcus Mutans
• Streptococcus Infections: Group A
• Streptococcus Infections: Group B
• Streptococcus pyrogenes
• Thrush (oral fungal infection)

This amazing list underscores how important it is to keep a supply of garlic close by!

2) Honey – bees produce a wide range of therapeutic substances beyond honey, e.g. propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen, etc., but this sweet, sticky stuff that we all love to dip our paw into occasionally, is the most well-known and most copiously consumed of them all – and for good reason, it tastes great!

But did you know that this sweet treat is one of nature's most powerful healing agents, as well? Here is just a smattering of some of honey's more scientifically researched health benefits and/or applications:

• Aspirin-Induced Gastrointestinal Toxicity (honey coats the delicate linings of the stomach, preventing aspirin-induced lesions and bleeding)
• Bacterial Infections
• Burns
• Candida infection (despite the fact that honey contains sugar, it demonstrates anti-fungal properties)
• Conjunctivitis
• Dental plaque (a recent study showed that Manuka honey was a viable alternative to chemical mouthwash in dissolving dental plaque)[iii]
• Dermatitis
• Diabetic Ulcer
• Herpes-related ulcers
• MRSA (especially for Manuka honey)

There are many more uses for honey than covered here. Needless to say, replacing synthetic sweeteners or highly processed sugars or high fructose corn syrup with a moderate amount of honey may be a great preventative health step to take.

3) Apples – an apple a day does in fact keep the doctor away, especially cancer specialists it would seem.

For instance, one of the most well-established health benefits of consuming apples is to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. The more apples you consume, the less likely you are to develop this potentially fatal disease.

To view the 5 studies that reference this relationship, go to the GreenmedInfo.com apple research page where you will also find 50 other health benefits of apple or apple byproducts (e.g. apple vinegar) consumption which include:

• Aging, Reduce Rate
• Allergies
• Allopecia (Hair Loss)
• Diarrhea
• Insulin Resistance
• Liver Cancer
• Radiation Induced Illness
• Staphylococcol Infection

4) Sunlight – this one may throw some of you off, but sunlight possesses both energy and information with real, metabolic value and is therefore a source of usable energy for the body – and so, in a very real sense it can be considered a form of food that we consume through our skin by way of its built in, melanin-based "solar panels."

Not only does adequate sunlight exposure result in the production of vitamin D, a hormone-like substance that regulates over 2,000 genes in the human body -- and as a result prevents or ameliorates hundreds of vitamin D deficiency associated health conditions -- but sunlight exposure itself has a unique set of health benefits not reducible to simply vitamin D production alone.

One of the more interesting studies performed on sunlight exposure, based on data gathered from over 100 countries and published earlier this year in the journal Anticancer Research, showed that there was "a strong inverse correlations with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer," with weaker, though still significant evidence for the protective role of sunlight in 9 other cancers. Here are some additional benefits of sunlight exposure:

• Alzheimer's Disease
• Depression
• Dopamine Deficiency
• Dermatitis
• Influenza
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Psoriasis

5) Turmeric - quite possibly the world's most important herb. Named "Kanchani," or literally "Golden Goddess," in the ancient Indian healing tradition, its healing properties have been deeply appreciated, if not revered for countless centuries.

Turmeric has been scientifically documented to have over 500 applications in disease prevention and treatment. It also has been shown to modulate over 150 distinct biological and genetic/epigenetic pathways of value in health, demonstrating a complexity as well as gentleness that no drug on the planet has ever been shown to possess.

As there are too many health conditions that turmeric may benefit to list, we are listing the top 10 as determined by the GreenMedInfo algorithm which calculates both the evidence quantity (number of articles) and evidence quality (human study valued higher than animal, and so on). Also, the number in parentheses denotes the number of studies on the database demonstrating the beneficial relationship.

• Oxidative Stress (160)
• Inflammation (51)
• DNA Damage (48)
• Lipid Peroxidation (34)
• Colorectal Cancer (24)
• Breast Cancer (60)
• Colon Cancer (52)
• Chemically-Induced Liver Damage (34)
• Alzheimer's Disease (34)
• Tumors (23)

For a more in depth look at the 1500+ studies on our site on Turmeric (and its primary polyphenol Curcumin), watch the video below and please share it with others if you find the information compelling.


[i] GreenMedInfo.com, Garlic Research Page: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/garlic
[ii] Pak J Pharm Sci. 2011 Jan;24(1):81-5. PMID: 21190924
[iii] Contemp Clin Dent. 2010 Oct ;1(4):214-7. PMID: 22114423

Source: Green Med Info

The Top 4 Foods To Avoid If You Want To Be Healthy

The Top 4 Foods To Avoid If You Want To Be Healthy
You’ve probably heard it before and you’ll going to hear it again now: “Americans are overfed and undernourished.” It means that, as a nation, we are eating plenty of calories but they are doing nothing to nourish our bodies and give us what we need.

We are ‘starving’ as a nation and it’s no wonder that we have high rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. We are what we eat. And few people truly understand how foods can help to keep them healthy or how they can fail to keep them healthy.

We live in an age of scientifically-created foods which have little to any resemblance of how nature did it first. There are certain foods that make up a large percentage of the average American diet.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if these foods were eaten occasionally. But the problem comes when we consistently consume them day after day, meal after meal.

So what are the top 4 ‘foods’ to avoid if you want to be healthy?

1. Sugar

If you can make only one change in your diet, it must be to eliminate sugar completely--or at least as much as possible. Many people tell me that they ‘eat no sugar at all.’ But what they are really saying is that they don’t add sugar to their meals or drinks from the sugar bowl. Once you start reading labels of boxed foods, you’ll soon learn that sugar (in all of its chemically created/altered forms) is present in most, if not all, processed foods. It’s almost impossible to avoid! The average American eats over 160 pounds of sugar a year!

Sugar, even in small amounts, is detrimental to your health. It suppresses the immune system for hours and plays significant effect on your hormones, throwing your body out of balance and into a state of biochemical chaos. If you eat sugar, morning, noon and night, your body is always in this state of chaos leading to disease.

Furthermore, sugar is actually an antinutrient, meaning that it leaches nutrients from your body! Because certain nutrients are removed from sugar in the refining process, your body cannot process it. So, it leaches minerals from your body to attach to the refined sugar molecules in order to move the sugar through your body. Also, because it’s an antinutrient, sugar also causes calcium to be lost in the urine, which in turn is replaced by calcium from the bones, leading to osteoporosis.

It’s important to understand the difference between natural sugar, like that present in fruits and some vegetables and altered sugar - such as white sugar. Natural sugar is good for your body. Refined sugar, on the other hand, is destructive to human health.

2. White Flour

Almost all bread, pasta and baked goods are made with white flour. It’s easy-to-use, easy-to-store, and practically never goes bad. However, white flour contains little nutrition, is toxic and is an antinutrient (like sugar). And the scary part is that the average American consumes more than 200 pounds of white flour every year!

Almost all nutrients that were once contained in wheat are lost in the process of creating white flour. And just like sugar, because white-flour is no longer a ‘whole food’, it actually leaches minerals from the body in order to metabolize it.

To avoid the health problems associated with processed grains, use whole grains such as: millet, oats, quinoa, spelt, amaranth, kamut and brown rice.

3. Processed Oils

Many people think that low-fat is healthy. This is not the case. We NEED healthy fats in our diet. Our cells are surrounded by a cell membrane built with....fats! The important thing though is using high-quality building materials to create these cell membranes. When oils are heated above 392 degrees F (as most supermarket oils are, which are used in junk foods like potato chips, candy, breakfast cereals, and salad dressings) the fat molecules change shape, turning them into a difference and toxic category of fats called “trans-fats.”

When cells are built from trans-fats they become brittle and weak. If the cells throughout your body are made with these types of fats, you have a serious problem. The health of our bodies is boiled down to the health of our 75 trillion cells. If the majority of these cells are weak, then our bodies are going to be weak and diseased.

Put healthful oils into your diet like high-quality olive oil, hemp seed oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, and organic butter or ghee.

4. Milk

Milk products have a reputation of being highly nutritious and necessary in everybody’s diet. And yet the nations with the highest milk consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis, breast cancer, allergies and diabetes. In fact, 70% of the world’s population does not even drink milk or consume other dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream.

One of the largest problems with milk is the pasteurization process: it alters the milk proteins. It actually changes the molecular structure so that the body cannot process and receive the protein in the milk. And not only that, it renders the proteins actually toxic to the body!

And the calcium in milk? Forget about it. Milk robs calcium from bones. The protein in cow milk metabolizes to strong acids which can be harmful to the body. So, what does the body do? It uses calcium (from the bones) to neutralize those acids. Cow’s milk is most certainly NOT ‘nature's most perfect food’ as the milk and dairy administration would have you to believe. Instead, why not try making your own nut milks which are easy-to-make fresh, and loaded with nutrients.

Our foods are more ‘make-believe’ then ever. The further away you get from how nature created our ‘perfect whole foods’ the more likely you are to develop instances of sickness and disease. Aim for a whole-food diet, remove these 4 “foods” from your diet and enjoy vibrant health!

Sources included for this article: Never Be Sick Again

Six Reasons to Avoid Milk to Maintain Wellness

Six Reasons to Avoid Milk to Maintain Wellness

Dr. Mark Hyman explains why milk may be causing health problems. He provides six reasons why milk should be avoided to maintain wellness.

Dr. Mark Hyman: Hi, this is Doctor Mark Hyman. Today I’m going to tell you six reasons why you should avoid dairy. Got milk? Well these days it seems like almost everybody does, celebrities, athletes, even former President Clinton’s head of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala are all proud to wear the white milk mustache.

After all, everybody knows that you need milk to be healthy, right? Not necessarily. Sure, dairy is nature’s perfect food, but only if you’re a calf. If that sounds shocking to you, it’s because very few people are willing to tell the truth about dairy.

In fact, criticizing milk in America is like taking on motherhood, apple pie or baseball, but that’s just what I’m about to do. Based on the research and my experience in practicing medicine, I typically advise most of my patients to avoid dairy products completely. I like ice cream just as much as the next person, but as a scientist I have to look honestly at what we know. In just a second I’ll explore the many ill effects that are documented from eating dairy.

Now that advice flies in the face of the new “up to date” Food Pyramid from the United States Department of Agriculture. Now the USDA’s Food Pyramid recommends drinking three glass of milk a day. What’s wrong with that? Well for one thing, it’s a recommendation that’s not based on strict science. Some of the experts who helped create the pyramid actually work for the dairy industry, which makes the US Department of Agriculture recommendations reflect industry interest, not science or our best interest.

In fact, Doctor Walter Willett, the second most cited scientist in all of clinical medicine and the head of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health is one of the most vocal critics of the US Food Pyramid. He’s even called its guidelines quote “udderly ridiculous,” as in u-d-d-e-r-l-y ridiculous. That’s not something a Harvard scientist says lightly, but Doctor Willett’s right. The pyramid just isn’t based on key scientific findings about health. Just take a look at some of the pyramid’s recommendations and why I disagree with them.

One, consume a variety of foods within and among the basic food groups while staying within your body’s energy needs. Sounds sensible, but which food groups? If you choose dairy, meats, fats, and carbohydrates, the perfect meal could be a cheeseburger, milkshake, fries with ketchup. Let’s face it, tomatoes and potatoes are vegetables, right, and they’re the two top vegetables eaten in America. Generic advice like that is pretty meaningless and potentially harmful.

The second bit of advice is control your caloric intake to manage your body weight. Again, sounds pretty good, but as I wrote in my book, UltraMetabolism, even the best trained nutritionists and dieticians cannot come close to correctly estimating their own caloric intake in a day. And is it okay to consume all of my calories from cola or ice cream as long as I stay within my caloric needs? Of course not, so this is more useless advice.

Number three, they say increase intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, non-fat or low-fat milk products. Well fruits and veggies and whole grains are great, milk not so much; I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Choose carbohydrates wisely, that’s the next bit of advice from the Food Pyramid. Who could argue with that, but how do they define ‘wisely?’ The real advice should be to cut down sugar intake from a hundred and eighty-five pounds per person per year, which is what we currently consume, to less than a pound a year, to avoid flour products, except as a treat, and stick to whole food carbohydrates like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds.

The next bit of advice is to choose to prepare foods with little salt. Not bad advice, but what if not of the food you eat is packages or processed foods that you don’t actually prepare and are full of salt? Like most Americans who eat half their meals outside the homes, this isn’t healthful. So a better recommendation would be to avoid packaged, canned, processed, prepared, and fast foods unless you know exactly how they’re made.

The next bit of advice was if you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Sounds goods, but if you’re usually drinking two bottles of wine a night, then one seems like moderation. I don’t think that’s a good suggestion. I think it’s better to limit your alcohol consumption to half a drink a day or three glasses a week; that seems to have the most benefit with the least risk.

The next tip is don’t eat unsafe foods. Well of course you shouldn’t leave your egg salad in the hot sun or toss your salad with hands and just handle raw chicken coated with salmonella, but the Food Pyramid guidelines don’t mention pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, genetically modified foods despite scientific evidence of their harm; shame on the USDA.

You can now see why I have a big problem with the Food Pyramid. Mostly its guidelines try to sound sensible while still protecting the interest of the food industry, the agriculture industry, and all the lobbyists paying for the elections of Congress. Everybody’s happy, right? Well I’m not, and you shouldn’t be either. The public just isn’t served by the watered down, confusing, useless pyramid. Worse, some of the recommendations are downright harmful, like the one to drink more milk and dairy products.

According to Doctor Walter Willett, who has done many of the studies and reviewed this topic extensively, there are many reasons to pass up milk, including one, milk doesn’t reduce bone fractures. Contrary to popular belief, eating dairy has never been shown to reduce fracture risk, but dairy may actually increase the risk of fractures by fifty percent according to the large Nurses Health Study. Less dairy equals better bones. Countries with the lowest rates of dairy and calcium consumption, like those in Africa and Asia, have the lowest rates of osteoporosis.

Next thing is that calcium isn’t a bone protective as we thought. Studies of calcium supplementation have shown no benefit in reducing fracture risk. Vitamin D, on the other hand, appears to be much more important than calcium in preventing practices. Also, calcium may raise cancer risk. Research shows that higher intakes of both calcium and dairy products may increase a man’s risk of prostate cancer by thirty to fifty percent. Plus, dairy consumption increases the body’s level of insulin-like growth factor 1, a known cancer promoter.

Calcium has benefits that dairy doesn’t. Calcium supplements, but not dairy products, may reduce the risk of colon cancer. And another problem with dairy is that not everyone can stomach dairy. About seventy-five percent or three quarters of the world’s population is genetically unable to properly digest milk and other dairy products, a problem called lactose intolerance.

So based on such findings, Doctor Walter Willett has come to some important conclusions. One, everyone needs calcium, but probably not as much as our government’s recommended daily allowance of fifteen hundred milligrams a day.

Two, calcium probably doesn’t prevent broken bones. Few people in this country are likely to reduce their fracture risk by getting more calcium. Three, men may not want to take calcium supplements; supplements of calcium and vitamin D may be reasonable for women. And four, dairy may be unhealthy. Advocating dairy consumption may have negative effects on health. Now this is from Doctor Walter Willett, not me, so you should think about your next glass of milk.

If all of that isn’t enough to swear you off milk, there are a few other scientific findings worth noting. First, the Federal Trade Commission recently asked the USDA to look into the scientific basis of claims made in their milk mustache ads. Their panel of scientists stated the truth clearly. Number one, milk doesn’t benefit sports performance. Number two, there’s no evidence that dairy is good for your bones or prevents osteoporosis.

In fact, the animal protein in it may actually help cause bone loss. Number three, dairy is linked to prostate cancer. Number four, it’s full of saturated fat and it’s linked to heart disease. Number five, dairy causes digestive problems for seventy-five percent of people with lactose intolerance. And number six, dairy aggravates irritable bowel syndrome. Simply put, the FTC asked the dairy industry ‘got proof,’ and the answer was no. Plus, dairy may contribute to more health problems like allergies, sinus issues, ear infections, type I diabetes, chronic constipation, and anemia in children.

But what about raw milk, isn’t that a healthier form of dairy? Well not really. Yes, raw, whole, organic milk eliminates some of the concerns, like pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and the effects of homogenization and pasteurization, but to me these benefits don’t outweigh dairy’s potential risk. From an evolutionary point of view, milk is a strange food for humans. Until ten thousand years ago, we didn’t domesticate animals, and we weren’t able to drink milk unless some brave hunter gatherer milked a wild tiger or a buffalo.

Now most scientists agree that it’s better for us to get calcium, potassium, protein, and fats from other sources, like whole plant foods, vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and seaweed, great source of minerals. Convinced yet? Well here’s my advice for dealing with dairy. If you want healthy bones, take vitamin D, don’t rely on dairy.

Get your calcium from dark leafy vegetables, sesame tahini, sea vegetables, or sardines or salmon with the bones in it. And try giving up all dairy, and see how you feel after a few weeks. And if you can tolerate dairy, only use raw organic dairy products, preferably fermented products like yogurt or kefir.

Still got milk? I hope not. Remember, dairy is not crucial for good health. I encourage you to go dairy-free and see what it does for you.

Source: iHealthTube

10 Unhealthy Foods You Think are Healthy

I love food. I do also love unhealthy food, unfortunately, and in an attempt to help myself and others with trying to eat healthier, I made this list to make people aware that what you might think of as healthy, might just be quite the opposite. But remember – if eating a kind of food makes you feel good, then do so! Being happy and content is just as important for your health as nutrition is… at least I like to think so!

10

Vegetable Oils

Like some of us learned in Chemistry class, fat is supposed to be more healthy the more liquid it is, therefore it’s commonly believed that all vegetable oils are healthy. And hey, they’re from plants, too! So this sounds about right. It is actually a general rule that the fat is more healthy the more liquid it is, since the “healthy” double bonds in the unsaturated (or good, if you will) kind of fat will decrease the melting point. However, what most people forget, is that ordinary butter can be liquid too, if it’s just heated a little. The “oil” used for frying in fast food restaurants, is most commonly palm oil, an almost purely saturated (unhealthy) oil. It’s semi-solid at room temperature, but is of course liquid when heated and used for frying, and it’s certainly not healthy. If another more healthy oil had been chosen for frying, those tasty fries wouldn’t have been bad for you. Not at all, as long as the potatoes are of good quality. “Then why don’t the fast food restaurants use the healthy kind of oil then?” you might ask yourself. The unhealthy stuff is cheap, and the fast food companies tend to care more about their money than your health.

9

Pasta

Although there are near infinite variations, and therefore several healthy variations of this food swell, the typical pasta you get when you buy your spaghetti, macaroni or noodles, at least in the Western World, is just plain white flour, mixed with water and eggs (although the small percentage of egg included don’t contribute much to the nutritional value of pasta). No vitamins, no minerals, and barely any fiber. Nothing, except empty carbs, shaped as pasta. And just to make things worse, “fast food pasta,” take-away Chinese food for instance, often contain loads of salt, mixed with unhealthy fat.

8

White Bread

This is pasta, but shaped like bread. You probably already knew this, but there are still people left in the world that think that all kinds of bread are good for them. White bread is not, trust me!

7

Soup Mix

I mean come on, you didn’t think that goofy green powder you mix into water could be good for you, did you? Well, it isn’t. When you eat soup, you eat/drink the water, milk, butter, or whatever else you had that powder mixed into, along with a mixture of tasty salt and preservatives. A lot of salt, in fact. Salt is sadly often overlooked as a risk-factor in food. Salt is actually a major contributor to heart disease. It has to be excreted from the body. The kidneys do this job, and without going too deep on the physiology, the blood pressure increases the more salt you consume, in order to excrete it. And high blood pressure is not good for you, which you probably already know.

6

Ketchup

Don’t let the fact that it almost got accepted as a vegetable in the United States fool you. Despite containing the antioxidant lycopene (antioxidants greatly reduce the risks of mutations in your body, and the risk of developing diseases like cancer), ketchup contains loads of sugar (as high as 26% carbohydrates, according to Wikipedia), and also a lot of salt. Most of the ketchup we eat is processed and non-organic, so the lycopene levels are much lower than what it could be from the amount of tomatoes used.

5

Diet Soda

I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this item, as I’m not sure if the definition of “food” includes drinks in the English language, as it doesn’t in my native tongue, but what the heck, I decided to just go for it anyway. You probably knew that soda would never be healthy, diet or not, but did you know that it can be quite bad for you, swell? Scientists are still unsure about this. Some even say diet coke is worse than the sugar-stuffed versions. This is actually a quite controversial debate, as there hasn’t been too many scientific studies done on the health effects of diet soda, but the few there has been, hasn’t exactly proved good for the diet soda fanatics. Some studies have shown that diet soda may not be too bad for you by it self, but it still gave the test group a considerable weight gain. A theory was that diet soda actually stimulated the appetite, so that you “ate back” more than the calories you saved by drinking a diet soda instead of a sugary version. Several animal studies have suggested that the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can cause weight gain, just like ordinary sugars. Also, some of these sweeteners, like Aspartame, have been believed to increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer, although this has not been scientifically proven, as far as I know.

4

Processed Cheese

It’s probably common knowledge that cheese isn’t too good for you, but processed cheese is actually -really- bad for you! Here’s a little story from my childhood, on the subject.
Since when I first ate a hamburger at the local Burger King, I wondered what kind of cheese they used on those delicious hamburgers they sold there. It was so… good and cheesy, and yellow too! Many years passed, and I, as a burger fanatic, tried many types of cheese on my homemade hamburgers without really getting the wanted result. Then, one day when I traveled over the border to Sweden, I found the cheese I was looking for in the first grocery store I went into. “American cheese” it was named, if I’m not mistaken, and I bought a couple of these which I took home to Norway, to put them to the test. And yep, that was the yellow, cheesy cheese I had been looking for! Since we all know that Norway is a much better place to be than Sweden, despite the two countries being pretty much the same, EXCEPT for the Swedes selling this cheese, I felt had to do some investigation.
And indeed, my bad feelings turned to disbelief, as I found out that processed cheese (which doesn’t actually meet the requirements for being called cheese), was so high in salt that it was actually not sold here. Some sources also showed that the average processed cheese you get on your fast food burgers contain so much salt that you can reach far past the recommended daily intake with just 2-3 slices of cheese. I’m not sure how the Burger King here gets the cheese though, but that’s probably another story…

3

Soy Sauce

This actually came as a shock to me, being a lover of soy sauce. I was enjoying this tasty, fat-free sauce with a good conscience until I wrote this party popper of a list. Oh well. Unlike many other soy products, soy sauce does not contain certain antioxidants known as isoflavones, but the level of antioxidants in soy sauce is still so high that it’s often viewed (or mistaken), as healthy. On the negative side, however, soy sauce contains very high amounts of salt. There has also been several studies showing that there are often chemicals known to increase the risks of certain types of cancer, found in soy sauce. Luckily, after much stricter regulations on these chemicals and the relatively fresh knowledge of the dangers associated with high salt-contents, there now excises several kinds of low-sodium soy sauces, free of dangerous chemicals. Sadly, as with most healthy variants of various foods, it is not as tasty as the real deal.

2

Peanuts

Nuts are generally healthy. Most sorts come packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and lots of goodies for your body to enjoy. Peanuts is not a horrible exception, but it might not be as good as other kinds of nuts. The majority of peanuts sold as snacks come packed with salt, and they are often roasted and come coated in unhealthy fats. But the nuts themselves are healthy, you say? Well, maybe. Of course they have the before mentioned benefits of containing a lot of vitamins and minerals, but they contain A LOT of the kind of unsaturated fatty acids known as omega-6 fatty acids. You might have heard about it before, along with the omega-3 acids.
It is a scientific fact that a food intake with a too distorted omega 6:omega 3 ratio (in favor of the omega 6 version), increases the risk for many common diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The ratio SHOULD be 1:1, but the American diet ranges between 1:20 and 1:50, in favor of the omega 6. Maybe I shouldn’t go as far as to say peanuts are bad for you, but they should be consumed in a limited quantity, and they should be eaten as nature made them – raw and without added salt.

1

Fruit Juice

Controversial perhaps, but this entry is number 1 for a good reason – so many people believe fruit juice is so healthy that they substitute it for all whole fruit in their diet. Now it is true that fruit juice contains a lot of vitamins but it is at great cost; most fruit juice is pumped up with extra sugar and aside from a few varieties has its pulp removed. The pulp in fruit provides essential fibre which can be considered a good counterbalance to all the natural sugar contained in the fruit. So my advice to you: ditch fruit drinks and eat whole raw fruit instead.

10 Weird Foods Sold By Victorian Street Vendors

In our plush, modern lives – with delicious stuff like bacon pizza with extra bacon and a side of bacon available at the touch of a cell phone button – we’ve largely forgotten that our nineteenth century ancestors had it much harder. They had to eat some seriously weird foods.

Many lower-income families lived in tenements without kitchens or even fireplaces, making cooking impossible. Street food—the original fast food—sold by vendors kept body and soul together – though much of the fare seems odd by today’s standards. Here are ten weird foods you could purchase if you invented a time machine, and possessed a curious palate and a strong stomach.

10

Sheep’s Trotters

Sheep’s trotters were sold either cold or hot. These delicacies were typically bought cheap by vendors from the slaughterhouses, skinned and parboiled at their home, before being sold on the street. Customers would purchase a whole trotter, and suck the sticky meat and fat off the bones. If you were lucky, the vendor cleaned the nasty, dingy looking stuff from between the toes of the hoof before he cooked it – or at least before you ate it.

9

Hot Eels

Eels were imported from Holland, cut into pieces, and boiled. The juices were thickened with flour and parsley, and the whole thing seasoned with pepper and kept hot for sale. A portion of meat was served in a cup (the liquor separately). Customers could add vinegar if they chose. A scrape of butter cost extra. A customer had to eat his snack quickly, since the vendor needed the cup returned. If you were lucky, the vendor would dip the cup in a bucket of dirty water before service. Most of the time, he didn’t bother.

8

Saloop

Saloop had been popular since the 1600s. It was a hot and supposedly nutritious, heavily sweetened drink made from ground orchid roots. Towards the latter part of the nineteenth century, the basis of the drink changed to sassafras bark, flavored with milk and sugar. Regardless, saloop was considered a delicious and starchy way to start or finish the day. If you were lucky, the beverage was made with the proper roots or bark, and not something like used tea leaves picked from the trash heap.

7

Plum Duff

Basically a carbohydrate bomb, plum duff was a British-style boiled “pudding” or dessert resembling a dampish dough. The plum part of the name comes from the raisins sprinkled throughout. A somewhat gluey experience – yet it was loved by working class children and adults more concerned with filling their bellies than having a nutritious meal. Adding a trickle of treacle cost extra. If you were lucky, the raisins were dried fruit rather than mouse droppings.

6

Pickled Oysters, Whelks, and Periwinkles

Most types of shellfish could be bought for practically nothing. Of course, shellfish has a distressing tendency to go off quickly – hence the popularity of pickling to preserve the goods as long as possible. When shellfish was sold fresh, about half of the customers preferred to eat it raw and still alive as opposed to boiled. If you were lucky, the oysters, whelks, etc., were relatively fresh when they went into the pickling solution.

5

Donkey’s Milk

Regular cow’s milk was available in summer from vendors who had the animals on the street, udders ready to deliver. They also purchased skim milk from dairies for resale, carrying pails or milk cans in yokes across their shoulders. However, some customers preferred richer, more exotic beverages such as donkey’s or asses’ milk. A few women believed drinking this milk – or eating curds and whey (cottage cheese) – made them appear more youthful. If you were lucky, you got actual dairy – not a mixture of chalk and water.

4

Bloaters

A bloater (common enough to be painted by Van Gogh above) was a salted herring, cold smoked whole – head, eyeballs, guts and all. Hence the bloating. Vendors would impale the fish on a long fork and “toast” over a flame to cook it before selling to customers who consumed the whole gamey, soft, flabby thing.
If you were lucky, the fish had roe in its belly cavity. If you were really lucky, the fish fell off the fork, a stray cat stole it, and you didn’t have to eat it.

3

Ginger Beer

The original ginger beer was a mildly alcoholic beverage made by boiling water with ginger and sugar, adding yeast, and flavoring with citric acid and cloves. It was generally bottled and sold within a couple of days. Mild fermentation could be achieved in as little as twelve hours, in a pinch. The cheaper “playhouse ginger beer” was sweetened with molasses. Vendors made the drink at home, where if you were lucky, they brewed it in something other than the washtub used by the wife for boiling the baby’s dirty diapers..

2

Rice Milk

Rice “milk” was made by boiling rice in … that’s right, skim milk. A cupful was served hot with a spoonful of sugar and a sprinkle of allspice. The dish resembled a very thin, watery rice pudding. Cheap to produce, it was often sold by female vendors from a metal basin over a charcoal fire. Once again, customers consumed the portion while standing in the street. If you were lucky, the vendor wiped off the spoon before you ate with it..

1

Blood

Though technically not a street food, I had to include this one on the list. Tuberculosis – then called consumption – was rampant at the time. It was believed that the fresh, hot blood of a slaughtered animal would build up the sick person’s constitution, alleviating the disease. Consumptives would line up in the slaughterhouse with cups ready to catch the blood, which was swallowed right away. If you were lucky, the animal was dead when the collecting began.

Bonus

Meat Pies

Meat pies were a popular street food. The meat was usually mutton, or occasionally scraps of beef (the gristly, rubbery, and/or wobbly bits nobody else wanted to buy). Pie vendors complained that people mocked them by calling out, “Meow! Meow!” when they passed. Henry Mayhew’s work, London Labour and the London Poor (1851) records one such pie vendor asserting that cats were hardly ever used anymore.
Lest you think the Victorian poor were the only ones to suffer from indigestion and heartburn (not to mention nightmares) as a result of eating weird food, the lower middle class also put some strange dishes on the table … but that’s a list for another day.

10 Recipes with 3 Ingredients or Less

Every kitchen has a cupboard containing ingredients that are either rarely used, or of such a small quantity that you are left wondering “what could I possibly make out of these?”. Before diving for that phone, or computer to order in takeaways, have a look through the following list for ideas on how to use up those odds and ends that are lurking in your kitchen cupboards!

1. Delicious Fruit Cake Serves 4

1 kg mixed fruit
2 cups fruit juice
2 cups self raising flour
Preheat oven to 125C. Soak fruit in juice for 2 hours. Stir flour into soaked fruit and mix well. Put into large lined baking tin. Bake for 2 hours in the bottom of your oven on 130C. Remove and leave to cool. Put into container or wrap in foil. Keep for 2-3 days before cutting.
2. Easy Pineapple Cake

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
450g can crushed pineapple
Sift flour into a mixing bowl and combine with sugar. Add pineapple and mix well. Pour into a greased cake tin and bake at 180C for 40 minutes.
(For best results bake in a ring cake tin.)
3. Scones Makes 12

4 cups self raising flour
300ml cream
1 can lemonade
Sift self raising flour into a bowl, make a well and pour in cream and lemonade. Mix to make a firm dough, roll out, cut with a scone cutter and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.
4. Mango, Avocado and Bacon Salad Serves 4

2 large mangoes
2 avocadoes
8 rashers of cooked, crispy bacon
Cube Mangoes and avocados, cut bacon in largish chunks and mix together in a small bowl.
5. Potato Bake Serves 6

6 potatoes
300ml tub of cream
1 pkt French Onion Soup mix
Slice potatoes into 1cm thick slices, place into a baking dish. Combine cream and soup mix, pour over potatoes and bake in oven at 180C for 30 minutes.
6. Sweet and Spicy Chicken Serves 2

6 chicken legs
½ cup of orange marmalade
1-2 tsp chili powder
Preheat oven to 180C. Combine marmalade and chili powder in a plastic bag, add chicken legs and shake until evenly coated. Place chicken on foil on a baking tray and spoon any remaining marmalade/chili powder. Bake for 30 minutes or until done.
7. Baked Fish Serves 2

2 fresh white fish fillets
1 tsp butter
1 lemon
Coat fish with melted butter and then season with salt and pepper. Cut lemon and put slices on fish. Wrap fish in foil and cook in oven for 20 minutes at 180C.
8. Moroccan Salmon Serves 2

2 Salmon Steaks
Macadamia nut oil spray
Moroccan seasoning
Place Salmon on foil on a baking tray. Spray with cooking oil and coat thoroughly with Moroccan Seasoning. Bake at 160C for 15 minutes.
9. Apple Turnovers Serves 8

2 sheets of puff pastry
1 tin pie apple with cinnamon
2 tbs milk
Cut the pastry in quarters. Fill one side of the quarter with pie apple, and then fold into turnovers. Glaze with milk for a golden finish and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
10. Mini Muffins Makes 12

1 cup self raising flour sifted
1 cup thickened cream, not whipped
3 tbs raw sugar
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into mini muffin tray. Bake for 10 minutes at 180C.