The miracle of lemons

Lemons are antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic, antifungal, astringent, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine, provide masses of  Vitamin C and can be used in cleaning and beautifying.  The amazing benefits of lemons for health are fully explained in the book, The Miracle of Lemons, by Dr Penny Stanway.

What few people realise is that lemons may be acidic in the mouth, but when they are digested the acids are broken down into water and carbon dioxide, and the other contents release alkalising minerals in the body – including calcium, iron, potassium, sodium. Far from avoiding them because they are too acidic, they keep the body alkaline, so we should be using them more!
The nutrients in lemons are so numerous that we can’t even list them all here. Here’s a flavour of them:
• Vitamin C aka ascorbic acid.  A small lemon contains 60-100mg of Vitamin C.
• Antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body – the chemicals that cause disease  – these include Vitamins C and E, selenium, and zinc.
• Citric acid which removes water from the body’s tissues into the bloodstream.
• Glucaric acid which lowers LDL cholesterol (the harmful one) from the body.

Health benefits:

Digestion: The acids in lemons – ascorbic, citric and glucaric – aid digestion for anyone who has insufficient gastric acid.
Arthritis: Lemons are good for arthritis, which thrives on an acidic system, despite the fact that people often warn sufferers to avoid citrus fruits.
Stabilises blood sugar levels: The acids and pectin within lemons slow the absorption of sugar after a meal with a high glycaemic index (that normally raises blood sugar levels).  This helps to stop low sugar dips which often lead people to eat more.
Sore throats or coughs: Lemon is often included in cough preparations – hot lemon and honey can be very soothing when you’re feeling ropey.
Athlete’s foot: Lemon juice is antifungal and can clear up a mild case of athlete’s foot when applied direct.
Dr Stanway mentions many more health benefits in her book.

How to eat or drink lemons

The easiest thing you can do is to squeeze lemon juice into meals – casseroles, stews, fish dishes, salad dressings. You can simply make a dressing of olive oil with lemon juice.
Or drink a glass of water with a fresh lemon wedge in it, or if making smoothies add lemon juice. You will barely notice the taste but will get all the benefits.

Choosing the best fruits

The long list of fungicides, pesticides and insecticides that growers put on lemons could put you off completely.  Far better to go for the unwaxed versions – the wax contains fungicides, and better still, organic lemons that are not subjected to such harsh chemicals.

To buy The Miracle of Lemons click on the Amazon carousel on the home page.

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Patrick Holford’s Feel Good Factor

Feeling just ‘alright’ is not all right, according to Patrick Holford, nutritionist, author, broadcaster and director of the Brain Bio Centre  He surveyed 55,000 Britons to find out what makes them leap out of bed in the morning with enthusiasm, a consistent good mood and a sharp mind.

The Brain Bio Centre works with people who have depression, anxiety, insomnia, and dementia, who have been helped by making lifestyle and diet changes.  In the large survey Patrick and his team found that:

  • one in eight people complain of low energy
  • one in two often feel depressed
  • and 47 per cent have difficulty concentrating.

Patrick has written The Feel Good Factor book and is on tour around the UK to give people tips about how to improve their energy and develop the feel good factor.  (See the Amazon carousel on the home page to buy this book).

These are the topics he’s covering:

•           How to increase your mental energy and motivation

•           10 proven ways to improve your mood

•           The secret to keeping your memory sharp

•           How to increase your ability to stay focused

•           How to stop your brain shrinkage

Patrick is a prolific author and has written many books about diet, nutrition, and preventing serious illness. See the Amazon carousel below.  Find out more from www.patrickholford.com

Screened out?

PCs, laptops, iPads, mobile phones, games consoles, and TV – many of us are spending our lives flicking from one screen to another, using social networking sites, sending emails, watching TV, working, texting friends, and even reading books.

A survey by Childwise* found that on average 90 per cent of children use the Internet for two hours a day, five days a week usually in their own room – on laptops, games consoles or mobile phones.  They go on social networking sites even though two million of them are below the permitted age of 13, and parents have little control over what they are looking at.

As for TV, 63 per cent have a television in their bedroom and in total they spend four and a half hours on TV or computer screens every day (as reported by the Daily Mail). By comparison they only do an average of two hours’ sporting activities every week.  So why is this a problem?

There may be plenty of social problems but as for health problems, it’s obvious that we don’t know all the answers yet as the younger generation are breaking new ground. 

Health issues from screen gazing:

Eyesight problems (see Strategies for saving eyesight at the computer) – whether or not there is scientific evidence many people reckon that their eyesight deteriorated after they started spending more time in front of a computer.

Back pain  There’s no doubt that our bodies weren’t designed for sitting at computers all day, especially slouching over them. It’s bad enough sitting at a desk, but when you’ve got a laptop and you sit on the floor or the bed as many young people do, you are likely to build up back and neck problems.  See Back Pain.

Electro-magnetic radiation  Most natural therapists believe that the amount of electro-magnetic fields that surround us are sapping our energy and building up future problems for our health.  How many people go to bed with the mobile phone by them as their alarm clock? How many electronic devices are still on standby or switched on as we sleep? See Sleeping Soundly.
Obesity   It goes without saying that if kids are spending more time in front of a screen than exercising they are likely to put on weight. Schools encourage the use of computers with homework often being done through the Internet, and to provide key skills for the workplace.
Mental health Getting out and about and playing team games, and breathing in fresh air has to be better than spending lots of time in your bedroom on the computer. Addiction to computer games and social networking sites can become serious, with less and less time spent interacting with real people.

For further information: Childwise, www.childwise.co.uk

Soya good for cholesterol, weight and hot flushes

People who have to give up dairy products because of allergies are often concerned that they won’t get enough calcium, but soy is a good substitute. Soya is also a high quality plant-based protein which is very digestible. Young girls should be eating soya from a young age as its ability to protect against bone loss in osteoporosis, breast cancer, and heart disease is much improved if you start young.

Japanese and other women from the far east suffer much less from these illnesses and 50 per cent of them sail through the menopause without knowing what hot flushes are, compared with only 25 per cent of women in the west. A study in Japan of 27,435 women showed that strokes came down by 65 per cent and heart disease reduced by 63 per cent in the group that ate a lot of soya.

The health benefits:

  • Soya has a direct effect on LDL (harmful) blood cholesterol levels and displaces some other foods such as saturated fats – not only does it prevent cholesterol increasing but it can displaces it, lowering levels.
  • It is rich in polyunsaturated fats and effective at lowering the incidence of heart disease which is very high among women in Europe.
  • It can reduce hot flushes in menopausal women (by 88.5% in one trial*).
  • It can improve insomnia (by 63%*) in menopausal women.
  • Soya can protect against bone loss and prevent osteoporosis. A study showed a 1/3 reduction in fractures in women who ate a lot of soya.
  • Early intake of soya can protect against breast cancer – and is noticeably better the younger they eat just 12 to 15g a day.

How to take soya

At supermarkets and health food stores you can find soya milk, yoghurt, ice-cream, cheese, desserts and tofu made from soya beans. Alternatively you can take soya capsules.

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Dispelling myths about soya

There are a lot of myths about soya that are dispelled by experts (and much of this is disinformation deliberately put out by companies who do not want soya to become too popular). It has no noticeable effect on fertility and no effect on thyroid function.

See also The Cholesterol Myth

Is soya environmentally friendly?

And if you are concerned about the environment, the soya on sale as food in this country is not genetically modified, and is grown in north America. It is true that large swathes of Amazonian rainforest are cut back for soy crops to grow, but this is a different crop, which is genetically modified and fed to cattle. There is no concern about the effect on the environment of the supermarket brands.

Research cited

*A study in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, gave 38 women of 50 to 65 who suffered from hot flushes and insomnia 80mg soya isoflavones, or a placebo. There was an 88.5 per cent reduction in hot flushes, and 63 per cent improvement in insomnia in the women who were in the soya group. Hachul, H et al, Isoflavones decrease insomnia in post-menopause, Menopause, 18,2: (2010)

Food intolerance testing

In a survey commissioned by Allergy UK and carried out by the University of York it was found that three out of four people were suffering unnecessarily from food intolerances. After they had an intolerance test they cut out the foods that were causing them problems, and felt considerably better within three weeks.

Most of them (38 per cent) had gastro-intestinal problems, 13.7 per cent had skin problems, and the rest were respiratory, psychological, musculo-skeletal and random. The 5,286 men and women surveyed in the Testing Times study took the Yorktest 113 foodSCAN IgG (ELISA) blood test to identify their intolerances.

Not all allergies are to do with food – one of the best known allergens is pollen which accounts for thousands of people suffering hay fever in the spring and summer. They can also be the cause of asthma, eczema and irritable bowel syndrome. Symptoms include:

•runny nose
•upset stomach
•itchy eyes
•itchy skin and rashes
•bloated stomach and indigestion
•aches and pains
•painful sinuses
•headaches

Increase in allergies and intolerances

Every year 5 per cent more people including children develop allergies and this is believed to be due to the constant assault on our bodies by the environment – through pesticides in food, airborne pollution such as fumes from cars, and chemicals in our homes. The immune system becomes so worn down fighting all the alien substances it is coming into contact with that it becomes increasingly intolerant of a variety of foods and other substances.

Unfortunately the medical profession finds it hard to deal with allergies – there are not nearly enough allergy clinics in the UK to deal with the thousands of people who need them. More details on these clinics can be found on: www.bsaci.org/clinics

For more information: www.allergyuk.org

The Yorktest

The Yorktest FoodScan range contains three types of test:

  • The First Step Food Intolerance Test will tell you ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you have a food intolerance, and costs £9.99
  • A FoodSCAN 113 Food Intolerance Test costs £265 tests for 113 food intolerances. The tests include a telephone consultation with a nutrition consultant, a year’s membership of Allergy UK, plus extra advice and support materials.
  • Vegetarian FoodSCAN Food Intolerance Test also costs £265 and includes the same as above, excluding meat products.

The 113 foodSCAN will provide you with all the information you need to start getting the best out of your health. The list of foods selected for this test covers the most commonly eaten foods in the UK.

All they need is a small sample of blood, which you can collect yourself at home. People taking the 113 foodSCAN have their sample analysed against specific foods and not groups of foods, and find the results easier to work with and obtain the best health improvements.

You will get a result for every single item on the list. The ‘green’ foods are the ones you can continue to eat normally. They do not appear to be causing your body to have an adverse reaction. The middle group, ‘amber’, displays the foods that you have shown a mild reaction to and should only be eaten once every four or five days. The ‘red’ list contains all the foods which you react strongly to and try to eliminate from your diet – the scores are on a scale of +1 to +4 with +4 being the highest. The ‘green’ list is usually much bigger than the other lists!

Benefits of using the 113 foodSCAN service:

* Comprehensive Guidebook, 12-Week Diary and Motivation booklet in a folder to help you achieve the best results
* Two telephone consultations with our qualified nutritionists, one of 30 minutes and one of 15 minutes with further consultations available for a fee
* Priority results turnaround service
* Handy results reminder card to keep in your purse or wallet

Case study:

Erica Hadley sat down to her first Christmas dinner in eight years knowing the food on her plate won’t be making her ill. The 24-year old Barnsley girl was living, day-to-day with a chronic case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) until a food intolerance test revealed turkey as one of the foods which were making her ill.

Sometimes it hurt so much it made me cry and I was in so much pain I couldn’t even stand up,’ said Erica. ‘I couldn’t go out, I didn’t sleep and always felt exhausted from the moment I got up on a morning.’

From the age of 16, Erica went back and forth to her GP and was prescribed several different types of painkillers. He eventually referred her to a specialist gastroenterologist when she was 18 who conducted a colonoscopy – a camera to look at the bowel – and a barium enema. The test didn’t show up anything and the specialist told Erica that there was nothing wrong with her.

Erica was reluctant to believe this. ‘I knew it couldn’t be true,’ said Erica.

Erica tried a varied mix of other treatments in a bid to combat her condition. It wasn’t until she was off sick from work and watching ITV’s ‘This Morning’ programme that she heard a presenter talking of the food intolerance test and decided to give it a go.

‘I didn’t expect it to work but I sent off for the test and received the kit in the post containing a small pinprick lancet and a small container to collect the two drops of blood needed.’

Erica took the YorkTest FoodScan 113 home food intolerance test in November 2005. The results showed she was intolerant to wheat, gluten, milk, lamb, turkey, millet, peaches, white fish, cashews, coffee, cola nut, hops, sunflower seeds, tea and yeast.

Within three days of eliminating these foods from her diet, the constant pain had reduced by about 90%. Luckily, Erica had never drunk coffee or tea, but she loved chocolate, so found the first two weeks incredibly hard. She is back to normal now and the improvement has continued. Another unexpected benefit is that her skin is much clearer and she is sleeping brilliantly.

Erica considers the home food intolerance test to be the best thing she has ever spent money on. Erica said that it was difficult at first finding things she could eat, but this has got far easier over time as she realises that there are actually a lot of products available on the market for those with food intolerances.