The human liver is responsible for production and processing of hormones, detoxifying the body, producing cholesterol (the good stuff that your body cannot live without), breaking down fats, keeping your skin healthy, producing enzymes, digesting and processing food, getting rid of drug residues and so much more.

There are a number of foods and herbs that are good for your liver, including beets, parsley, spinach, dandelion, burdock, carrots, milk thistle, cow’s liver, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic and radish.

So if you want to be kind to your liver, here’s an excellent drink:

In a vegetable juicer, combine:

• 1 Organic Beet
• 1/4 burdock root
• 1 handful organic fresh parsley
• 5 organic carrots

The juice has a slightly sweet taste due to the beets. (And, if you’ve never eaten beets, don’t be alarmed if your stools look red for the next day after the juice; it’s just the beets).

In addition to the above, take 6 tablets a day of VitaLiv for one month, and remove all artificial ingredients and transfats from your diet. Your liver will thank you tremendously.

One of the newest suggestions is that green tea may fight lung cancer and could inspire the creation of new lung cancer drugs. It’s a great natural healer, yet the scientific community wants to make it a drug.

Researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) exposed a sample of human lung cancer cells to a decaffeinated green tea extract. The lung cancer cells marinated in the green tea extract for up to three days. The lung cancer cells became more likely to stick together and less likely to move. In essence, the study showed that green tea has the potential to destroy the protein that protects and enables cancer cells.(1)

Another study, reported by MSNBC, states, “Drinking green tea may reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at Japan’s National Cancer Center. It said men who drank five or more cups a day might halve the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.”(2)

Other studies show that green tea reduces death rates from cardiovascular problems, inhibits breast cancer growth and more. In the last few years, researchers have stated, ” …regular consumption of green tea may reduce CRC [colorectal cancer] risk in women.”

Green tea is a superfood, which is why it has become a main ingredient in UltimateDefense, the whole food supplement by NutriPlex Formulas. Formulator Vic Shayne, PhD, states, “Green tea continues to show promise in laboratories across the world in the study of a wide array of diseases and symptoms. It’s only natural, then, that we begin using it in our supplements.”

Sources

1. Hitti, Miranda, Green Tea May Fight Lung Cancer, Green Tea Extract Tweaks Lung Cancer Cells in Lab Tests, WebMD Medical News, Mar 2007
2. MSNBC, Drinking green tea may fight prostate cancer, Men who consume 5 cups a day or more could halve risk, study finds, 2007
3. Shinichi Kuriyama, MD, PhD; Taichi Shimazu, MD; Kaori Ohmori, MD, PhD; Nobutaka Kikuchi, MD; Naoki Nakaya, PhD; Yoshikazu Nishino, MD, PhD; Yoshitaka Tsubono, MD, PhD; Ichiro Tsuji, MD, PhD; JAMA. 2006;296:1255-1265. “Green Tea Consumption and Mortality Due to Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All Causes in Japan,” The Ohsaki Study
4. Green Tea Ingredient, EGCG, Significantly Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth In Female Mice, ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2008)
5. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 16, 1219-1223, June 1, 2007. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-07-0097; 2007

Imagine taking out a can of Raid bug killer, spraying it all over your grapes, letting it sit in the sun then taking them back into your kitchen and eating them. Who would do such a thing? The answer is your typical vegetable corporate farmer. Used to grow foods these days are a series of synthetic, poisonous, cancer-causing, hormone-disrupting chemicals. They are sprayed all over crops then taken to your local grocery store and end up in your house where you and your family eat them under the misguided impression that they are healthful because the government says so. But the truth is that organic and biodynamic foods are healthier because they do not contain the chemical soup found in conventional foods.

If you have to make a choice which organically or biodynamically grown foods to buy and eat, then make sure you avoid these 5 Most Offensive Foods:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes (esp. imported)
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green Beans
15. Hot Peppers

What’s sprayed on vegetables, fruits and grains that make them so poisonous? Herbicides (weed killers), pesticides (insect killers), stimulants (to artificially force plants to grow), fertilizers and various other chemical concoctions. Plus, today’s corn and other crops are genetically engineered which basically means it’s anybody’s guess what they can do to your body and DNA.

According to Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) a non-profit, consumer watchdog association,

There is growing consensus in the scientific community that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially during vulnerable periods of fetal development and childhood when exposures can have long lasting effects. Because the toxic effects of pesticides are worrisome, not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied, shoppers are wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible. Nearly all of the data used to create these lists already considers how people typically wash and prepare produce (for example, apples are washed before testing, bananas are peeled). While washing and rinsing fresh produce may reduce levels of some pesticides, it does not eliminate them. Peeling also reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the peel. The best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce, and choose organic when possible to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

Beware of supplements as well. Where do your vitamins come from? Are they from sprayed crops? Or are they just artificial chemicals made in a laboratory? This is why we recommend NutriPlex Formulas’ whole food supplements. They are natural and chemical-free and they are made of food instead of the typical isolated vitamin chemicals.

Here’s a whole food supplement grown without chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers, the way nature intended. It’s called SuperGreens PhytoFood and contains more than 20 nutrient-rich plant foods and absolutely no artificial ingredients (which is more than you can say about vitamin and multivitamin supplements found elsewhere).

Standard fish farming practices, which include the use of contaminated fishmeal and the intentional fattening of farmed stock, create a cascade of problems that ultimately drive down the nutrient content of farmed salmon, and drive up the contamination levels relative to wild-caught salmon.

Farmed salmon are fed contaminated fishmeal. Farmed salmon are fed from a global supply of fishmeal and fish oil manufactured from small open sea fish, which studies show are the source of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in most farmed salmon. In three independent studies scientists tested 37 fishmeal samples from six countries, and found PCB contamination in nearly every sample (Jacobs 2002, Easton 2002, and CFIA 1999).

After testing fishmeal and fish oil, a team of U.K. scientists noted that “While diets based on marine fish oils are currently favored by the aquaculture industry, it is likely that these oils are contributing greatly to the contamination of farmed salmon by [persistent organic pollutants]” (Jacobs 2002b).

PCBs build up in salmon at 20 to 30 times the levels in their environment and their feed (Jackson et. al 2001), so even low concentrations of PCBs in fishmeal can become a concern for human health.

An expert food safety panel recently convened by the National Academy of Sciences noted that because of the “intensive management approach” of the aquaculture industry, PCBs in fishmeal can accumulate in fish tissues. The panel recommended that the government restrict the use of feed obtained from areas known to have high pollution levels (NAS 2003). Wild Alaskan salmon eat Pacific Ocean fish that the Academy scientists note are naturally lower in persistent pollutants.
Farmed salmon are intentionally fattened and can therefore accumulate more PCBs. The salmon farming industry intentionally fattens its fish to maximize market weight (Jacobs 2002), a process similar to fattening cows or hogs in a feed lot. As a result, an ounce of farmed salmon contains 52 percent more fat than an ounce of wild salmon, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA 2002). PCBs collect in fat, as opposed to muscle or other organs. Farmed salmon, because they are intentionally fattened, are efficient collectors of PCBs. Leaner, wild Alaskan salmon are less likely to accumulate high levels of PCBs.

Farmed salmon contains five to 10 times the PCBs of wild salmon. EWG’s tests confirm findings from three prior, independent studies in which scientists observed differences in contaminant levels between farmed and wild salmon. The average level of total PCBs in EWG’s ten farmed salmon samples was 27.3 ppb, or 5.2 times higher than the average PCB level of 5.3 ppb in four wild salmon tested by Canadian scientists (Easton et al. 2002). Differences in the 12 dioxin-like PCBs appear to be even greater. In Ireland, Scotland, British Columbia, and Alaska studies show higher concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs in farmed salmon than in wild salmon (Easton et al. 2002, FSIA 2002a and 2002b, Axys 2003, and Jacob et al. 2002). In most of these cases, wild salmon were harvested from environments relatively free of industrial pollution. Farmed fish raised in these same environments ate fishmeal with higher levels of PCBs than the native fish consumed by wild salmon.

Farmed salmon contains higher levels of many other persistent pollutants. An influential study published last year showed that PCBs are just one family in a complex mixture of persistent pollutants that appear to concentrate in farmed salmon. The Canadian scientists found that farmed salmon tissue contained significantly higher levels of 151 out of the 158 chemical contaminants that were detected in both farmed and wild salmon samples (Easton et al. 2002). In addition to 110 different PCBs, these chemicals included brominated flame retardants, organochlorine pesticides like DDT and dieldrin, and carcinogenic combustion byproducts called polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). While PCBs may dominate human health risks from farmed salmon, many other contaminants contribute to the overall health concerns associated with these fish.

Farmed salmon may contain two to 40 times more PCBs than any other major protein source. An analysis of data from studies on dioxin-like PCBs in commercial seafood, beef, pork, milk, and poultry shows that farmed salmon may be more contaminated than any other protein source in the U.S. (NAS 2003, EPA 2002, Fiedler et al 2000). On average, farmed salmon from EWG’s supermarket study contained 40 times more PCBs than milk, 4 times the PCB levels of beef, and at least 3.4 times the PCB levels of other commercial seafood.

In their recent review of human exposures to dioxins and certain PCBs, an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences noted that “it is in the public’s best interest for the government to develop a strategic action plan that includes interim steps to reduce exposures as long as the steps do not lead to undesirable consequences to human health,” and further recommended that the government focus on reducing exposures for girls and young women in the years well before pregnancy, since some PCBs are linked to brain damage and immune deficiencies for exposures in utero and in early childhood (NAS 2003). Although the Academy specifically recommends drinking skim instead of whole milk, even greater reductions of PCB exposures would be realized if women who eat farmed salmon ate wild salmon instead.

The fat in farmed salmon contains less healthy omega-3 fatty acids than the fat in wild salmon. Salmon fat is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, essential nutrients important to fetal brain development and linked to reductions in the occurrence or symptoms of autoimmune disease, headaches, cramps, arthritis, other inflammatory diseases, hardening of the arteries, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart attacks. But USDA testing data show that the fat of farmed salmon contains an average of 35 percent less omega-3 fatty acids (USDA 2002).

Because farmed salmon contain 52% more total fat than wild salmon, the total omega-3 fatty acid content of farmed and wild fish is similar. However, in the case of farmed salmon, the fat is contaminated with PCBs and over 100 other pollutants and pesticides. Frequent farmed salmon eaters may exceed government health limits for these pollutants, which are linked to immune system damage, fetal brain damage, and cancer

Source: Environmental Working Group

Italian researchers found that people whose diets are rich in onions, garlic, and other alliums have a much lower risk of several types of cancer than those who avoid the pungent herbs.

Researcher Carlotta Galeone, of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmocologiche “Mario Negri” in Milan, and colleagues say the health benefits of onion and garlic have been touted for centuries, but few studies have been able to prove the benefits.

Pungent Cancer Prevention

In their study, researchers used data from several Italian and Swiss cancer studies to look at the relationship between onion and garlic consumption and cancer at several body sites, including the mouth, larynx, esophagus, colon, breast, ovary, and kidneys.

Overall, consumption of onions ranged from 0-14 portions per week among cancer patients and 0-22 portions per week among those without cancer.

Garlic use was also lower among people with cancer, except for those with cancer of the breast, ovary, or prostate.

Researchers found moderate consumption of onions appeared to reduce the risk of colorectal, laryngeal, and ovarian cancers.

Prostate Protection

What’s more, men who eat garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, scallions, and chives (vegetables of the Allium family) as a regular part of their diets may reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2002;94:1648–51). While consuming these foods has been associated with a reduction in the incidence of stomach, colon, esophagus, and breast cancers, this is the first study to show that eating these vegetables may also lower prostate cancer risk. Read more on this study by clicking here.

Milk thistle feeds the liver. So why is that important for you to know?

In an increasingly toxic world, we place growing burdens on the body’s detoxification system, the hub of which is the liver. Millions of compounds are detoxified within each liver cell, or hepatocyte. Inevitably, this wear and tear compromises liver cells and surrounding connective tissue. Hepatotoxicity is fast becoming a major health issue. In fact, many practitioners believe poor liver function caused by toxin accumulation or by liver-function decline may contribute to other seemingly unrelated illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, migraine headaches and premenstrual syndrome, and may manifest symptoms of its own. As a result, milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is widely prescribed by herbalists throughout Europe and the Americas for liver protection.

Milk thistle, also known as St. Mary’s thistle and lady’s thistle, is native to Asia Minor, North Africa, southern Europe and southern Russia. It has been naturalized to central Europe, North and South America, and South Australia. The herb has dark-green prickly leaves mottled or streaked with white veins, blooms from June to September and can grow to six feet tall. Its medicinal properties are found in the small, hard fruits, sometimes called seeds but known technically as achenes, that appear after the plant flowers.

Read the rest of this story here

Nutrition Science News
Understanding Herbs
“Milk Thistle’s Liver-Protective Properties”
By Lise N. Alschuler, N.D.

Milk thistle is contained in VitaLiv 

The medicinal and nutritional value of grapes ( Vitis vinifera ) has been heralded for thousands of years. Egyptians consumed this fruit at least 6,000 years ago, and several ancient Greek philosophers praised the healing power of grapes — usually in the form of wine. European folk healers developed an ointment from the sap of grapevines to cure skin and eye diseases. Grape leaves were used to stop bleeding, inflammation, and pain, such as the kind brought on by hemorrhoids. Unripe grapes were used to treat sore throats and dried grapes (raisins) were used to heal consumption, constipation, and thirst. The round, ripe, sweet grapes, were used to treat a range of health problems including cancer, cholera, smallpox, nausea, eye infections, and skin, kidney, and liver diseases.

Seedless varieties were developed to appeal to fickle consumers, but researchers are now discovering that many of the health properties of grapes may actually come from the seeds themselves.
Read the rest of this story from the University of Maryland Medical Center

This is the reason grape seeds and grape skins are put into SuperGreens PhytoFood.

Fumes from 519 trailer and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were — on average — about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some trailers, the levels were nearly 40 times customary exposure levels, raising fears that residents could contract respiratory problems.

While there are no federal safety standard for formaldehyde fumes in homes, the levels found in the trailers are high enough to cause burning eyes and breathing problems for people who have asthma or sensitivity to air pollutants, said Mike McGeehin, director of a CDC division that focuses on environmental hazards.

Read the whole story here. 

Healthnotes Newswire —Broccoli is considered a nutritional powerhouse, containing many minerals—including potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc, and copper—as well as plenty of vitamin C and disease-fighting compounds. But how does cooking influence its health-promoting properties?

Broccoli is part of the Brassica family of vegetables; other famous members of this group include cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and collard greens. These veggies have received lots of attention for their health benefits, especially for their potential to help prevent cancer.

Polyphenolic compounds in broccoli lend it antioxidant properties, fighting off the effects of free radical damage to cells in the body. It also contains glucosinolates—parents to other substances that may help protect against certain types of cancer. Previous studies have shown that the content of these compounds can vary widely depending on how the broccoli is prepared.

A study published in the Journal of Food Science investigated the effect of stir-frying broccoli with different cooking oils on its nutritional profile. The broccoli was lightly cooked for just over three minutes in each of these oils: refined olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil. The nutrient content of the cooked broccoli was then compared with that of raw broccoli.

Cooking with different oils didn’t change the mineral content of the broccoli, but vitamin C, polyphenol, and glucosinolate levels were all affected. Peanut oil was the best at preserving broccoli’s polyphenol content; extra virgin olive oil, soy, peanut, and safflower oils were best at maintaining glucosinolate levels; and extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil were best at maintaining vitamin C content.

The best way to prepare your broccoli

• Studies have shown that lightly steaming broccoli helps to best preserve its nutritional content.

• According to George Mateljan, author of The World’s Healthiest Foods, the activity of cancer-fighting glucosinolates can be increased by cutting the broccoli into small pieces, drizzling it with lemon juice, and letting it sit out for five minutes before cooking. This helps activate the enzyme that converts the glucosinolates into their active form.

• If you are going to stir-fry your broccoli, do so for only three minutes, using either extra virgin olive oil or peanut oil.

• An alternative to cooked broccoli is to enjoy broccoli sprouts in salads and sandwich wraps. The sprouts contain 20 to 50 times more cancer-fighting compounds than the mature broccoli heads.

“I’ve worried about defeating the health benefits of broccoli by cooking it,” says Erica LePore, a naturopathic doctor and mother of three young children. “It’s great to know that there are some simple things you can do to maximize broccoli’s nutritional content.”

(J Food Sci 2007;72:S064–8)

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

There’s one more great source of broccoli. If the sight of broccoli turns you off, here’s a way you don’t even have to look at it, because it’s inside our GreenNutrients formula. Just take 8 tablets a day and off you go. This is especially helpful if you have children who don’t eat their vegetables, or if you don’t particularly like the taste of broccoli.

All recovering alcoholics and drug users understand the toll that chemicals take on the body, mind and emotions. Alcohol and drugs cause tremendous nutrient deficiencies as well as a need for very specific nutrients that are only found within nature’s foods. These nutrients:

• Support the liver
• Help the body detoxify
• Produce energy
• Rebuild vitamin and mineral levels
• Feed the brain and emotions
• Support the blood vessels
• Feed the nervous system
• Balance blood sugar

Adjunctive Nutritional Schedule
BFood Complex tablets 8 a day
VitaLiv tablets 4 a day
SuperGreens PhytoFood: 1T powder a day
CodLiver Oil: 3 capsules a day
DigestPlex: 1 tablet per meal

For immune system, add
ImmuneSupport: 4 tablets a day

For additional adrenal support:
AdrenaPlex: 4 capsules a day

For cardiovascular support, add:
VasCor Complex: 3 per day

One of the most obvious (physiological) signs of drug and alcohol abuse is the depletion of the vitamin B complex (See BFood Complex). This chronic depletion can lead to adrenal depletion as well. (See AdrenaPlex). Since vitamin B complex provides cellular energy, nervous transmission, muscle health (contraction and relaxation), heart health, blood sugar metabolism, normal weight control, cellular regrowth and many functions related to emotional stability and thinking processes, this vitamin complex is absolutely necessary for replenishment. But vitamin B complex should only come from food, not from isolated or groups of vitamin pills( See BFood Complex). Similarly, the depletion of minerals such as calcium (See CalMag Balance) is very serious. Other important minerals include selenium, phosphorus, sulfur, zinc, potassium, and magnesium, which are all found in nature’s raw vegetables. (See SuperGreens PhytoFood)

Of course, the liver is one of the most abused organs in cases of alcoholism and drug abuse. The reason is because the liver is part of the digestive system and is used by the body to filter out and store toxins. When it is overtaxed, the liver can become fatty or damaged or both. (See VitaLiv). In some cases, it is advisable to also use fat-splitting enzymes to help. (See DigestPlex)