Tomatoes

The tomato, the Italian "pomodoro," was long regarded as an unhealthy fruit. Though it began to be used in Spain and Italy, it took a long time before it could be eaten in tomato salads, sandwiches, or sauces. In fact, until the 1930s, in our grandmothers' time, it was claimed that eating a raw tomato was lethal and that it needed to be cooked for at least three hours to rid it of its harmful properties! 

Fortunately for us, tomatoes are now part of our daily diet. Biting into a juicy, freshly cut tomato, bursting with the flavors of earth and sun, is one of the greatest pleasures of summer. Tomatoes contain calcium and vitamin C, to name just two of their beneficial properties. 

A study done recently found that people in Northern Italy who ate 7 or more servings of raw tomatoes per week had up to 60 less chance of developing colon, rectal, or stomach cancers compared to individuals who ate two servings or less. There are also indications that tomatoes may play a role in prevention of heart disease, high cholesterol, and fatty deposits in the arteries. As little as two glasses of tomato juice per day can be very beneficial in preventing these problems. 

The tomato is a "vegetable-fruit" that plays an important role in a balanced diet. Low in calories, it is a good source of vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals. Its acidic flavor stimulates digestion and assists in nutritional absorption - thanks to the pigments that give it its attractive red color and its content of vitamins C and E, provitamin A and other carotenes. Tomatoes also help maintain the body's acid-base balance and promote ongoing vitality. Lycopenes give tomatoes their red color. Lycopenes are bioflavonoids; antioxidants related to beta-carotene and are present in tomatoes. They are also good for prevention of prostate cancer. Eating raw tomatoes every day may reduce the risk of prostate cancer and other types of cancer, including lung, stomach, pancreatic, breast, cervical, colorectal, oral and esophageal cancers. All forms of tomato (raw, in ketchup, spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, soup, and salsa) had beneficial effect; however, tomatoes cooked in oil (such as in tomato sauce) appeared to be the most protective. Individuals from southern Mediterranean countries, including Portugal, Italy, and Greece, have a low incidence of prostate cancer. Coincidentally, in these countries, tomato consumption is high. Raw salads play a crucial role in our diet. We should have at least one raw salad a day. Raw food means life.

Disclaimer: These articles from Dr. Tony's desk are for educational purposes only and are not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. 

If you have any questions regarding the information presented, please contact:

Tony Morais, ND 

Hope for Health 

(309) 343-5853

Adapted from: Alfons Balbach and Daniel S. F. Boarim 

As Hortalicas na Medicina Natural, Edicoes 

Vida Plena, Itaquaquecetuba, SP (Poruguse), 1993 

The Truth About Kiwi

Everybody tells us that we need to eat more green foods but sometimes our children give us some resistance when it comes to the green stuff. However one green thing most children love are kiwis, even though they are green and are packed full of nutrients and antioxidants. You can feed kiwis to them every day and won't get a complaint. They are yummy plain but can be cut up in cereal, put in smoothies, and used in fruit salad.

You don't have to tell them all of the nutrition they are getting, but if you are a little curious...continue reading and find the truth about kiwis!

Kiwis are one of nature's perfect foods: low in calories, high in energy and an excellent source of antioxidants. Each one delivers a world of nutrition benefits, including:

• Vitamin C: Each serving of kiwifruit has nearly two-and-a-half times the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, proven to boost the immune system and fight the effects of stress and aging.

• No fat: Kiwifruit is fat-free, an important consideration in today's healthy diets and a rarity among foods containing so many other nutritional benefits.

• Fiber: Two kiwifruit contain more fiber than a bowl of bran cereal, the tasty way to maintain heart health, regular digestion and lower cholesterol.

• Potassium: A serving of California Kiwifruit has more potassium than a banana, ideal for maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance and for releasing energy during exercise.

• Antioxidants: Kiwifruit is an excellent source of antioxidants which are important in reducing your risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

• Low glycemic index: With a glycemic index of 52, kiwifruit is a fat-free, low-carb fruit that's safe for diabetics and a smart part of any weight-loss diet.

• Magnesium: Two kiwifruit deliver 30 mg of magnesium, which improves nerve and muscle function while boosting your energy level.

• Lutein: Kiwifruit contains the phytochemical lutein, which works to prevent age-related blindness and protect eyes from various kinds of damage.

• Folate: With nearly 10% of the recommended daily value of folate, kiwifruit is a good way to protect the health of mother and baby during pregnancy while helping prevent birth defects.

• Zinc: Men will appreciate kiwifruit's zinc content, which helps produce testosterone, while everyone can enjoy its other benefits like healthy hair, skin, teeth and nails.

• Vitamin E: Kiwifruit is one just a handful of fat-free sources of vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that helps lower cholesterol and boost immunity.

Have you seen how kiwis grow?

What is your favorite way to eat a kiwi?

Correction

Last month I posted an article about harmful levels of Benzene that build up in parked automobiles and the warning of it. I have since learned that the information given me was false and I apologize. I will be more careful to check things out from now on. Here is the truth...

Summary of the eRumor:

A warning about a chemical called benzene that is linked to cancer such as leukemia .  The warning says that benzene can build up inside parked automobiles and suggests that drivers roll down their windows to ventilate the car's interior prior to switching on the air conditioner.

The Truth:
Benzene is a harmful chemical that can exist both inside vehicles and in the open air but warnings such as this eRumor about airing out your car interior may be overblown.

Correction
The American Chemical Society released a report in 2007 saying that the interiors of motor vehicles were found to contain of a "wide variety of synthetic materials, which emit volatile organic compounds." The investigation concluded that there was no indication of the emissions being any sort of "apparent health hazard of parked motor vehicle indoor air." Go to this link for the report:  http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es0617901

Benzene comes from coal and petroleum products and is one of the most commonly made chemicals in the United States. It is a colorless liquid with a sweet smell that evaporates when it makes contact with the air.  Benzene is present in cigarette smoke, car exhausts, and can also be found in glues and paints, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC Fact Sheet on Benzene says, "Breathing in unusually high doses of benzene can cause difficulty in thinking, changes in heart function, unconsciousness, or death. In smaller amounts over longer periods of time, benzene can also decrease the formation of blood cells. Benzene is considered to be a cancer-causing chemical."

Exposure to benzene can come from consuming contaminated food or beverages but most people come into contact with it by breathing it in the air. The CDC says, "Benzene gets into the air from forest fires, car emissions, gasoline vapors, and tobacco smoke. People who work with petroleum products, including gasoline, are exposed to benzene by touching or breathing in the chemical."

This warning might have been sparked by a report from almost decade ago by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). In a December 19, 2001 report, the organization found "high levels of air toxic emissions in new motor vehicles for up to six months and longer after they leave the showroom." That research, however was conducted on three automobiles manufactured in Australia and one imported vehicle, the origin of which was not revealed.

Digestion: A Churning Question

Have you ever noticed when you take your trash out on a hot summer day how ripe it gets in there? It stinks, doesn’t it? On a hot day the warm sun shines down on the moist food inside a garbage can and it gets the sugars in the foods and they all begin to break down and ferment and decay and that’s exactly what we do is make trash cans out of our stomachs, rotting, fermenting and decay takes place right inside our own bodies.

How does it affect you? What types of foods do that and how can you prevent it?

Digestion is an issue that many people really do NOT understand. They don’t understand how important it is and how it plays into their health and their proper assimilation of food.

Where does digestion start? Sight and smell begin digestion process. It triggers the stomach to get activated for food that is coming.

So far no food has entered the system but it's very important to get the system ready by drinking 2-3 glasses of water ½ hour before we eat as the body needs digestive juices to properly break the food down. It needs to be water so you are not stimulating the stomach for digestion, juice, coke, milk or any other liquid starts digestion, so just water because then it will rush straight to the stomach in 15-30 minutes. If it has any sugar or chemicals that the digestive process acts on then it will delay it. The water needs to be OUT of the stomach before food enters.

Warm or room temperature water is best or the stomach as to warm it up first and it takes longer.

If you look at the structure of mouth you see biting teeth in front and chewing teeth in the back. This give us an idea of what we are designed to eat, not to tear food and swallow whole but to bite, off what we can chew and then swallow. We are not like dogs. They can handle huge amounts of butter fat and their cholesterol will never rise but if you give that same butter fat to a bunny their cholesterol will go up. We need to chew our food very well; our stomach does not have teeth, so chew your food because there are no teeth in the stomach, so chew your food until it is the consistency of applesauce.

The key parts of digestion begin when chewing our food. Our molars are designed to chew food. It breaks down the amylase that breaks down the complex sugar called carbohydrate into sugars and that is what the body wants for energy so it begins to digest that carbohydrate for that energy source immediately beginning in the mouth.

There is no need to drink when eating because if you have had your water the saliva will flow so abundantly you won't be thirsty at all. If you drink any liquid w/meals chewing is less than ideal and it will slow down the digestive process as the stomach ends up having to do the chewing and it has to chemically chew it and it takes lots longer as it has to mix the digestive juices with the food to break the food down.

The stomach should be done digesting in about 4 hours and then another hour to empty. You should never put any more food in your body until this process is done.

Have you ever left food out all day and then realize it's no good? Well that’s because the warmth spoiled it. In our bodies the temp is higher than room temp so the rate of decay, putrefaction is actually accelerated then you get heart burn and reflex, indigestion and gastritis and gastro enteritis and can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

When you go on a trip in your car do you fill w/gas? Same with our bodies they want a full tank as we begin the day so it can take us thru the day.

One thing all overweight people have in common…….no bkfst!!! When you eat an evening meal you tend to follow that with no activity because the day is ending and we are tired and want to rest, so while our body is trying to rest the stomach is in full gear working and we wake up totally fatigued with no appetite and so we don’t eat breakfast.

Breakfast should be eaten like a king, lunch like a queen and supper like a pauper if at all.

If you put too much food in your stomach it begins to ferment and rot and also from eating between meals. Fluids drank irritates the stomach (called gastritis) can actually trigger your brain into thinking its hungry again. So it’s a viscous cycle of overeating and taxing the system. The stomach is not the only organ involved in digestion, the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder are all involved too!

The stomach is a dynamic organ preparing the food for the small intestine. It’s a under the rib cage and on the right by small intestine. We are designed to digest food while we are awake and upright so that when the food is being moved up and gravity pushes it back down and the stomach pushes it back up and then gravity back down and if you are laying down then this whole process is not working as well. The emptying point of the stomach has a muscle with receptors and tells the pylorus to open so the food can move out but if the food is too big or the temperature is not just right or if not enough acid level developed it will say keep mixing…and finally when the stomach has completely prepared the food so all the receptor sites are satisfied then the pyloric muscle will relax and food will empty out at a small rate as quickly as the small intestine can handle the food then more is given. It's not like flushing the toilet and out it all goes.
Our bodies are designed to run on a time release mechanism. The most important nutrient our body wants is sugar, but it wants it slowly so our Creator has designed sugar with fiber which acts as a sponge to hold back the rush of sugar into the system. Take an apple, you eat it and as it mixes in the stomach it gels up and it's like a sponge. It slowly provides with a little sugar, but if you drink just apple juice it will go right thru like a burst to the system rather than a slow release.

Most heart attacks come in at night cuz they ate a heavy meal….digestion of fat is delayed and the heavy meal is digested after about 5 hours and then the food begins to empty into the small intestine and that is where the fat digestion occurs because the gallbladder releases the bile and the bile mixes with the fat so that it can be dissolved in water and brought into the blood stream. As soon as the fat enters the blood stream when it is in high concentrations it makes the red blood cells stick together and when that happens the person is more prone to develop a blood clot and as it moves to that narrow coronary artery the blood flow stops and the heart attack follows.

Lets look at a man who eats a huge meal and then eats at 10 pm. The pylorus will tell stomach to empty when everything is just right, then you throw off the perfect balance and everything stops and so the pylorus cleans stops and the acid level and particle size has to be just right or it wont release the food, so it has to start all over, its like a foreign body. There have been numerous studies and if you eat every 2 hours starting at bkfst and then take a tube and put it in the stomach to empty it you will still find your breakfast is still in there!!!

Putrefaction fermentation makes alcohol in your stomach.

In the brain stem which is between the spinal cord and the brain which is called the reticular activating system which keeps you awake and alert and on top of things, however its that same part of the system that drives digestion so if you eat a heavy meal and want to fall asleep its because the nervous energy that is trying to keep you awake and alert is trying to digest your food, but the stomach will demand that nervous energy, so its best to go for a brisk walk after the meal.

Eat a good breakfast, wait 5-6 hours before you eat another meal and drink nothing, but water between so your stomach can rest.

Any defect in one phase of digestion hampers another. As an example: eating between meals not only increases stomach emptying time, but also confuses the colon so that defecation schedule may be altered, resulting in constipation.
Nutrition for Vegetarians by Dr. Calvin and Dr. Agatha Thrash, page 93.

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to be a living sacrifice so how we treat them is very important! God gave us the instruction and He knows best, so let's do the right thing to keep healthy!