How to Be Healthy

Greens are vegetable foods found from the sea and land.  They include land based vegetables and cereal grasses, sea weeds and algae to mention but a few.  They can all be used to enhance human health in a variety of ways.  They contain a healthy mix of phytonutrients, amino acids and enzymes and plant sterols federal needed for healthy expression of human health.  Ten years ago, phytonutrients were almost unheard of.  Today, they are one of the hottest research and consumer-interest topics imaginable.  In what was a relatively new field of research just a decade or so ago, we have already learned a great deal.  On the other hand, what we’ve mostly learned is that there is a lot more to learn.

  It is estimated that in order to maintain good health, humans need over forty separate nutritional elements; however this number continues to rise year after year.  A good diet consisting of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and grains is one of the most effective methods of accessing these nutritional elements.  Evidence presented at the World Agricultural Forum’s 2001 World Congress on May 22, 2001 suggested that eating a balanced diet is not good enough.  This was the conclusion of Dr. H. DeWayne Ashmead as well as Ministers, Ambassadors, and corporate leaders from around the world.  A report given by Ashmead stated that because of widespread mineral deficiencies in the world’s crops and soils today, it is now more than ever, critically essential to the health of the human race to supplement and to fortify our foods and the soil for proper balance.  Ashmead presented findings from many countries around the globe that showed a direct correlation between high incidences of mineral deficiencies and disease.  I am sure the same conclusion could be made pertaining to essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency and ratio issues.

  Despite the fact the vegetables and fruits grown today don’t have nearly the nutritional value we need from a mineral and vitamin standpoint, there is compelling evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables despite the fact there not as nutrient dense as they could be, can nevertheless lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.  The largest and longest study to date, done as part of the Harvard-based Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, included almost 110,000 men and women whose health and dietary habits were followed for fourteen years.  The final report suggested that the higher the average daily intake of fruits and vegetables, the lower the chances of developing cardiovascular disease.  Compared with those in the lowest category of fruit and vegetable intake (less than 1.5 servings a day), those who averaged eight or more servings a day were 30% less likely to have had a heart attack or stroke.  High blood pressure is a primary risk factor for heart disease and stroke.  As such, it’s a condition that is very important to control.  Diet can be a very effective tool for lowering blood pressure.  One of the most convincing associations between diet and blood pressure was found in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) study. This trial examined the effect on blood pressure of a diet that was rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and that restricted the amount of saturated and total fat.  The researchers found that people with high blood pressure who followed this diet reduced their systolic blood pressure (the upper number of a blood pressure reading) by about 11 mm Hg and their diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by almost 6 mm Hg.  This change is as much as many cardiac medications can achieve.

  With this new interest in increasing the amounts of fruits and vegetables available to the average person, there has been a huge influx of new products on the marketplace.  These products are so-called super foods, green drinks that are organic, concentrated and an effective method of dramatically increasing the fruit and vegetable content in diet.  Often one serving of these super foods is equal to three or four or more servings of fruits and vegetables.

  Green foods, which are found in both liquid and powder formats and are commonly concentrated and organic, commonly contain up to 60 different ingredients from both land and sea. These super foods are an extremely easy and cost-effective way to access easily digested, incredibly nutrient rich health producing foods in extremely small serving sizes as little as 3 grams per day.

  An example of the health building properties found in green foods is the recently discovered sulforaphane, which is formed when cruciferous vegetables such as kale and broccoli are chopped or chewed.  It not only triggers the liver to produce enzymes that detoxify cancer-causing chemicals, sulforaphane inhibits chemically-induced breast cancers in animal studies and persuades colon cancer cells to kill themselves, and now a new study published in the September 2004 issue of the Journal of Nutrition reports that this broccoli extract stops breast cancer growth even in the end stages. 

  These plants are well known by scientists as safe and nutritious edible algae.  Over thirty years of international scientific research, thousands of published peer-reviewed papers document their safety and nutritional and therapeutic health benefits. Spirulina and Chlorella sold on the market are grown in pure cultures in scientifically designed algae farms.  As a microscopic plant, algae like spirulina is a micro vegetable, and just a few tablets a day contains concentrated amounts of substances like natural beta-carotene, Vitamin B-12 and GLA (an essential fatty acid).  Broccoli and other vegetables are great, but there aren’t as concentrated as these particular products. 

  All green foods contain chlorophyll, which aids in the healing of intestinal ulcers, gastritis, liver disorders, eczema, hemorrhoids, asthma, high blood pressure, anemia, constipation, body odour and bad breath, bleeding gums, infections, burns, athlete’s foot and cancer.

  This plant is one of the most mineral-rich green food ingredients known perhaps because of its deep root system when growing.  It contains most of the B vitamin complex, vitamin A, vitamin C, and many minerals. 

  This is a concentrated source of chlorophyll supporting the immune system and the cleansing process.  It also contains B vitamins, vitamin K for bone metabolism, minerals and enzymes.

This plant contains catechins and epicatechins, plant compounds belonging to the flavonol category. These are powerful antioxidants, and have been known to aid in conditions as diverse as skin cancer to diabetes.

  This is a type of seaweed that is a rich source of vitamins, especially the B Vitamins, as well as of many valuable minerals but has primarily been used in the treatment of under active thyroid problems because of its iodine content.  Iodine is one of the elements that farm soils are totally deficient in so therefore is helpful in low thyroid conditions such as hair loss, obesity and ulcers. 

  This root has been used an Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years due to its anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antiparasitic and antibacterial properties.  It is also a blood cleanser and a potent antioxidant with a particularly strong effect on effect on liver toxicity. 

This popular green food contains a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals and is not toxic in any amount. It creates an unfavourable environment for bacteria growth. Protein rich wheatgrass contains all seventeen amino acids in addition to enzymes which needed to renew cells create hormones and affect repair on all cells and human tissues throughout the body. Concentrated green products help boost stamina and support the body’s inherent healing ability as well as close the nutritional gap most of us have in our diet.