UnSymmetrical

Raw Honey that has never been heated above the normal temperature of the beehive is a miraculous energy food. When honey is heated above the hive temperature in order to easily fill it into bottles, the innumerable health benefits contained in it are destroyed. Raw honey is almost always crystallized or solid. Cooked honey loses its crystal structure and remains liquid. It is impossible for man to make or duplicate raw honey.

Raw honey contains enzymes such as invertase, diastase, catalase and inulase, which are aids to digestion and assimilation. It has all the B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, D, E, amino acids (great protein builders), proteins, plant pigments, aromatic compounds, healthful acids: acetic, citric, formic, malic, succinic. It contains simples sugars as glucose (also known as dextrose or grape sugar, the most basic sugar that directly goes into the blood stream without need of digestion), fructose (or levulose which is fruit sugar that is easily assimilated by the body), and small amounts of sucrose, dextrin, maltose and many minerals such as silica, iron, copper, manganese, chlorine, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, and magnesium, and it contains some water. These trace minerals make raw honey a powerful blood builder when used as an everyday sweetener. It also soothes the digestive track. In contrast, refined sugar has been stripped of all nutritional value and is detrimental to health when consumed on a daily basis.

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Posted by Vitamin Z at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Though most of our tomatoes come from Florida, the state isn't necessarily the best place to grow the crop... Most tomatoes are grown in sand, which contains few nutrients and organic materials. In addition, Florida's humidity breeds large populations of insects, which means tomato growers need to apply chemical pesticides on a weekly basis.

"In order to get a successful crop of tomatoes, the official Florida handbook for tomato growers lists 110 different fungicides, pesticides and herbicides that can be applied to a tomato field over the course of the growing season," he says. "And many of those are what the Pesticide Action Network calls 'bad actors' — they're kind of the worst of the worst in the agricultural chemical arsenal."

Florida applies more than eight times the amount of pesticide and herbicides as does California, the next leading tomato grower in the country. Part of this has to do with the fact that California processes tomatoes that are used for canning — and therefore don't have to look as good as their Florida counterparts. But part of this also has to do with consumers.

"It's the price we pay for insisting we have food out of season and not local," he says. "We foodies and people in the sustainable food movement chant these mantras, 'local, seasonable, organic, fair-trade, sustainable,' and they almost become meaningless because they're said so often and you see them in so many places. If you strip all those away, they do mean something, and what they mean is that you end up with something like a Florida tomato in the winter — which is tasteless."

Continue reading "How Industrial Farming 'Destroyed' The Tasty Tomato" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 11:04 AM | Permalink

Here are the details:

VITAMIN E: When fed on grass, cattle take in around 15 times more vitamin E per day than they do on a typical concentrate diet, and levels on the meat can be between two and three times higher as a result.

BETA CAROTENE: is an anti-oxidant and vitamin A precursor, and given grass fed beef a rich yellow colored fat rather than Crisco-white colored fat. Grass fed beef contains up to 5.5 times more beta carotene compared to grain finished beef and cattle fed fresh growing grass contained up to 11 times more than cattle fed dried forages. In fact, the levels of beta carotene can decline up to 97% during grain feeding.

CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID (CLA) Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a nutrient found in the fat of ruminant animals that feed on green grass. Researchers are excited about CLA because it is anti-carcinogenic at much lower dosages than many other naturally occurring anti-carcinogens. Grass finished beef has three to five times the amount of CLA as grain fed beef.

Research suggests CLA may:

1. Prevent breast cancer especially when present during mammary tissue development
2. Suppress other cancers
3. Inhibit and reduce atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries)
4. Lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood
5. Induce a relative decrease in body fat and increase in lean muscle mass
6. Increase bone health and formation
7. Normalize or reduce blood glucose levels and control and possibly prevent diabetes
8. Enhance immune system function
9. Combat allergies and asthma

Continue reading "Grain Fed vs. Grass Fed Beef" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 04:45 PM | Permalink

Wine has enjoyed a volatile reputation over the years. Considered sacred in ancient Egypt, it became sinful during the prohibition, an elitist indulgence in the post-war years, a health hazard in the 1960's, and finally a healthy tonic that delivered antioxidants and heart health in recent decades. But now, some disturbing news may cause wine to undergo yet another redefinition.

According to a study out of Kingston University in London, many wines contain heavy metals up to 200 times the amount considered safe. The researchers measured "Target Hazard Quotients (THQ)" in wines from 15 countries throughout Europe, South America, and the Middle East. A THQ of one or more is considered unsafe, but according to the researchers, most wines came in at a whopping 50 to 200. To give you perspective, seafood considered dangerous usually falls between a THQ of one and five.

The Environmental Protection Agency established guidelines for safe levels of heavy metals based on frequent, long-term exposure, so ostensibly, drinking one glass of wine with a high THQ won't have much impact on your health; drinking a glass every night for years most certainly will. Underlining this contention, Dr. Weiss of the University of Rochester commented: "Any time you see numbers like they have in this study, you begin to scratch your head and wonder about the effects over a long period of ingestion: Not one glass of wine last Tuesday, but a glass a day over a lifetime."

Continue reading "Heavy Metals and Pesticides in Wine" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 01:59 PM | Permalink

Wheatgrass juice. That little cup of dark green juice pressed from young wheat plants can be found at virtually any heath store and juice bar. In recent years, wheatgrass juice has become one of the more popular diet foods available.

However, many people cringe at the thought of consuming one ounce of this "miracle food" and will instead turn to their coffee and pastries. Whether it’s because of its pungent taste, or its seemingly undesirable color, chances are most of you have never consumed wheatgrass juice. I’m here to tell you that whether you’ve never thought of sampling it, you just flat out refuse to give it a try, wheatgrass juice is extremely beneficial not only as food, but as an overall tonic for various ailments.

Wheatgrass is grown through a process known as sprouting. Sprouts are "complete foods" because they contain all other essential dietary nutrients, along with the enzymes to help assimilate them. They are easily digested and enter the bloodstream quickly. The nutrients in wheatgrass juice are completely assimilated by the human body in 20 minutes. For this reason sprouts are "quick energy" foods. Wheat sprouts contain four times more folic acid, and six times more Vitamin C, than unsprouted wheat or ordinary grass.

Humans can’t eat straight wheatgrass because the strong cellulose makes it too woody and fibrous for the long and complex intestines in humans. Grass eating animals, however, ( cows, horses, goats, etc.) have short intestines.

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Posted by Vitamin Z at 12:44 PM | Permalink

Spirulina just may be nature's most perfect food. These tiny blue green spiral coils harvest the energy of the sun and turn it into a treasure chest of bio-available nutrients. Designed by nature 3.6 billion years ago, these blue green algae were the generators of the oxygen found in our atmosphere which allowed all higher life forms to evolve. The single cells contained everything needed by life to evolve into the rich diversity we find on earth today.

Spirulina is a great wholefood, budget friendly alternative to isolated vitamins and minerals. It contains the most remarkable concentration of nutrients known in any food, plant, grain, or herb. It is 60% highly digestible vegetable protein, and contains the highest concentration of beta carotene, vitamin B-12, iron and trace minerals, and the rare essential fatty acid GLA so missing in people who weren't breast fed. It also contains popular glyconutrients in the form of polysaccharides. It has a balanced spectrum of amino acids, cleansing chlorophyll, and the blue pigment, phycocyanin.

Spirulina has a long history of safe usage. The Aztecs consumed spirulina in Mexico over five centuries ago. Indigenous people consume spirulina today. For the past 20 years, millions of people around the world have used spirulina as a food supplement to their diets. The United Nations and the World Health Organization recommend spirulina as safe and nutritious for children. Spirulina can be cultivated in a pure culture, away from contaminants.

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Posted by Vitamin Z at 09:21 PM | Permalink