The Many Benefits of the Acai Berry

The Acai berry is a small and round berry that is purple in color that comes from the acai palm tree. It is about the size of a small grape. They start off being dark green in color, but as they mature their color changes to a dark purple. The taste of the acai berry is a mixture of chocolate blended with a variety of berries.

The Acai berry is highly concentrated with antioxidants and therefore have many benefits. Aside from that, they also contain monounsaturated fats, dietary fiber, phytosterols, and the necessary amino acids. With that being said, there are a plethora of benefits to be gained from the Acia berry.

Health Benefits of the Acai Berry: 

• Contains antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins that are good for your health and can help to prevent diseases
• Contains many polyphenolic anthocyanin compounds and pro-anthocyanidin tannins that are said to be anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer compounds
• Contains fatty acids that reduce LDL cholesterol levels, raise HDL cholesterol levels, and help to prevent heart disease
• Contains fiber that will help to remove cholesterol
• Contains potassium, manganese, copper, iron, and magnesium; all of which aid in controlling the heart rate as well as blood pressure
• Contains vitamin B, vitamin B6, vitamin K, niacin, and riboflavin; all of which are helpful in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

The Acai Berry Being Used in Medicine:

McDonald’s is Becoming More Diet Friendly for Kids and Adults

As a someone who just had a baby four months ago, I know how crucial a proper diet is to maintain my slim figure I recently got back. As a parent, I don’t try to take the fun out of being a kid by putting my children on an outright diet. However, I do try to make certain they are eating healthy. With the busy life between work, going back to school, and being a parent; the time to cook isn’t always available. So, sometimes we do get something quick from McDonald’s. I know McDonald’s is about as unhealthy as they come. However, coming next month and following years McDonald’s is looking to make some changes.

September 2011 McDonald’s will now be including both produce and fries in every happy meal. However, with them now offering both, the fries will be a small portion. The portion of fries offered in a happy meal will be going from 2.4 ounces to 1.1 ounces. While normally the produce will be apples, there will be some other options depending on location and time of year. Some of the other possible produce options include carrots, pineapple, raisins, and mandarin oranges.

Aside from what McDonald’s plans to do to better the diets of children, they are also looking to better the diets of everyone who eats their food. They are realizing the impact sodium has on people’s bodies and are therefore looking to make a change. They plan on reducing the sodium content in all of their items by 15% by the year 2015.

So, it looks as though McDonald’s is making an honest effort to improve their food. I will no longer dread getting my children food from McDonald’s because they will have less unhealthy food with a side of produce. That’s good enough to make any parent happy. I will also be happy when they minimize the sodium content.

Ancient Nutrition Myths and Modern Medicine

Recently, modern medicine had ignored the healing power of everyday foods, considering it a popular belief no proven scientific validity. But mainstream scientists have begun to study the principles of folk medicine and dietary practices of the past, seeking remedies and antidotes for modern diseases. The investigation of natural medicine is advancing at a rapid pace.

Why this sudden interest in the medicinal aspects of food? Why such prestigious institutions as Johns Hopkins and Harvard begin to announce with great fanfare that broccoli or broccoli is full of very powerful agents against cancer and that eating too much carrot seems to reduce drastically the risk of heart disease and stroke?

The reason: for the first time in history, science begins to validate the hard fact ‘that diet in the first instance determines the events that occur in cells where the real tragedies occur and mysteries, which are lost and permanently wins battle to build the health and longevity, or, conversely, to condemn us to disease and death.

That is where life begins and ends: in the seas of liquid cellular and structural genetic material where fate may depend on the presence of a particular enzyme or a fatty acid metabolized from one molecule of food. I recommend reading the article (the great miracle of food)

If you know what is happening in their cells, know what is happening to their health. The body consists of about 60 trillion cells. Each cell is an amazing and complex miniature universe in which occur billions of chemical reactions every second of life. And what those dependent intracellular chemical reactions?.

The only source of energy is in the food you provide them. For the first time, science can now study how foods promote health or disease since the cell itself, validating the assertion of the ancient wisdom that foods have medicinal powers.

Certainly the first physicians to use food as a pillar of the fight against disease. In a medical journal, Dr. John Potter of the University of Minnesota, recently spoke count of the first medical uses of food: “In ancient Egypt, Pliny said the cabbage. Cured to eighty-seven diseases and onion, twenty.

Garlic was considered sacred. Cruciferous (cabbage and broccoli were grown primarily as medicinal plants and used to cure headaches, deafness, diarrhea, gout and stomach problems … The Romans believed that lentils cure diarrhea and balanced temperament . The fresh and dried grapes had many medicinal uses and are used in various oral preparations, enemas, inhalation and topical applications.

Since the dawn of civilization we have sought remedies for diseases in forests, fields and orchards.

About 75% of the world’s population still does. Such a knowledge cluster do not be ignorant, says James Duke, Ph.D., a physician and expert on medicinal plants of the agriculture department of the United States. He said that the popular belief attributed to food is the ability to heal, proof of its validity.

After all, he notes, is precisely the popular usage that has led scientists to discover powerful elements in medicinal plants.

At least 25% of laboratory medicine come from plants, including taxol, a new cancer drug.

Doctors and healers ancient herbal medicine used to treat the diseases were based on their own experience and that of their ancestors and relatives. Obviously, they knew nothing about invisible germs, hormones and cholesterol, or the way they act analgesics and anticoagulants, let alone how to determine the pharmacological properties of food.

How to improve child nutrition

A date almost coincides with the presentation, a few days ago, the draft Law on Food Security and Nutrition, a standard that focuses specifically on issues related to child nutrition. The draft of the new rule on Food Safety and Nutrition has been prepared jointly by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy and the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine.

This law aims to comprehensively address food security in our country and fight the bad eating habits and obesity, poor increasingly widespread (according to national health survey, one in four Spanish children is overweight) .
Improve the nutrition of schoolchildren

The new draft Law on Food Security and Nutrition emphasis on promoting the adoption of good nutritional habits and infant feeding, especially in schools.

In this line:

* It is intended to restrict the sale of foods high in sugar, saturated fat and salt in vending machines, bars or canteens of schools (in this way is intended to industrial products such as pastries, crisps and soft drinks will disappear from the school environment).
* It is anticipated that there will always be a check on school menus from a professional with adequate training and accredited university in nutrition and dietetics.
* You want to promote nutrition education and nutrition.

With measures like these, the law seeks to address some of the most common problems in infant nutrition, failures and shortcomings that the OCU has complained on several occasions, as the imbalance in school menus.
Less advertising

In addition, the bill also focuses on limiting advertising to children, within hours of 6 to 22 hours. The novelty is that for the first time spoken of minors (under 18): so far only provided PAOS code restrictions on advertising aimed at children under 12 years.

Also want to limit the gift, prizes and giveaways associated with food, a practice which has denounced the OCU abuse in an article on marketing in fast food. Our studies have helped us to check out are precisely those foods high in fats and sugars more newsworthy by the big brands targeting children and adolescents.
Better nourished, healthier

Since the OCU welcome this new standard. It is a comprehensive blueprint that is certainly regulate some of the gaps that we have reported our articles: from the deficiencies in vegetables, fish, eggs and dairy products from school menus, abuse of foods high in fat or low quality excesses of advertising directed at children. We hope that you approve the draft and put into practice.