Healthy Herbs and Spices

Naturopath Dr. Natasha Turner http://drnatashaturner.com/ tells us how to incorporate health boosting herbs and spices into our everyday lives.

Boost Your Health with Herbs & Spices

Balance blood sugar with a little cinnamon:

A little cinnamon in your smoothies or topping your oatmeal can go a long way towards balancing insulin levels. A study published in the journal Diabetes Care (2003) showed that cinnamon may cause muscle and liver cells to respond more readily to insulin, and therefore improve weight loss. Better response to insulin means better blood sugar balance and, therefore, less insulin in your body. Cinnamon also seems to reduce several risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high blood sugar, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol. Just a 1/2 teaspoon a day for 20 days is enough to improve your insulin response and lower blood sugar by up to 20 percent.

How to Use :

Add ½ – 1 teaspoon to your smoothies or sprinkled on your oatmeal daily.

Beat inflammation with Ginger:

Ginger is another fabulous herb proven to prevent and treat nausea from motion sickness, pregnancy and chemotherapy. It’s a potent antioxidant that works by blocking the potentially nauseating effects of serotonin on the gut. Like turmeric, ginger also possesses natural anti-inflammatory benefits and may improve blood flow. A study conducted at the University of Miami showed ginger extract also had a significant effect on reducing the pain of osteoarthritis. Similarly encouraging results were found in a 2006 study at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. These researchers found powdered ginger killed ovarian cancer cells just as well or better than traditional chemotherapy. Slice up gingerroot and add it to stir-frys or simply boil it and drink it as a tea a few times a day.
How to Use: Slice up gingerroot and add it to stir-frys or simply boil it and drink it as a tea a few times a day.

Add a little color with Curry:

Curry is a rich source of curcumin (also called Tumeric) which naturally reduces inflammation, pain and swelling. In one clinical trial, participants who consumed 1200mg of cucuminoids (the antioxidant pigment found in turmeric) for two weeks found reduced morning stiffness and joint swelling caused by rheumatoid arthritis.

A study from Tufts University in Boston suggest that curcumin may help with fat metabolism and weight loss. The researchers studied the effect of curcumin both in mice fed a high-fat diet over a period of 12 weeks. They found that curcumin did not affect food intake but reduced body weight gain, fat accumulation, and density of fat tissue. Curcumin also increased expression of key enzymes involved in fat oxidation. Blood cholesterol levels were also lowered by curcumin treatment.

How to Use:

For reducing inflammation take 1,200 milligrams of curcumin, divided into three doses daily, or add ½ – 1 tsp of curry while cooking, according to taste preference.

Boost immunity with Garlic:

Not just for staving off vampires, garlic is well known for its ability to fight off a cold or flu. The substance in garlic called allicin has antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties, according to University of Maryland Medical Center.

How to Use:

Add 1-2 cloves of raw garlic daily to stir fry, entrees, or take 300 mg of dried garlic powder tablet 2-3 times per day with food.

Rosemary Protects Blood Vessels

Rosemary is another one of the healthy herbs on the super list of spices that may help protect blood vessels. Like the antioxidant OPC, the protection and strengthening of blood vessels naturally helps to lower high blood pressure. When you read about herbs for high blood pressure, you’re really finding out which ones reduce the chance for blockage and constriction from inflammation. On a separate note, Rosemary is also great for vision and has been shown to help prevent cataracts.

How to Use:

Use 1 – 2 tablespoons daily, added to meat entrees, cold dishes or salads.

Oregano – the Antioxidant

Oregano has the highest antioxidant levels of the 39 various types of spices. Recently it has gained popularity as a bacterial killer and an anti-fungal agent – but remains one of the most powerful anti inflammatory herbs available.

How to Use: Add ½ tsp – 1 tsp to an entrée. If you feel a virus coming on, or are plagued with candida, you can get Wild Oil of Oregano. Take 3-5 drops in water every few hours for the first few days or until symptoms pass.

Aid Digestion with Caraway:

It is probably one of the best digestive aids. People often take it for gas, bloating, and indigestion, and you can easily make an infusion by using 1 ounce of caraway seeds to 1 pint of water. Then steep the seeds for twenty minutes. Usual dosage is 1 to 2 tablespoons every half hour until symptoms disappear.

How to Use:

As a digestive aid, you can easily make an infusion by using 1 ounce of caraway seeds to 1 pint of water. Then steep the seeds for twenty minutes. Usual dosage is 1 to 2 tablespoons every half hour until symptoms disappear or add 1 teaspoon to dishes while cooking.

Spices:

Club House Canada http://www.ClubHouse.ca

 

Nutrition; Part 6

Carbohydrate Digestion and Absorption

Digestion 

Act 1: The Mouth

Your mouth is your first line of digestion. The saliva isn’t just to keep your mouth from drying out. The enzyme salivary amylase breaks down some carbohydrate bonds (hydrolyzes, hydro = water) into glucose and fructose. This reinforces the message from the last blog to drink lots of water because it is essential for chemical interactions.

Act 2: Stomach 

By the time the food enters the stomach, the stomach’s acid medium stops this enzyme action.  Act 3 is the small intestine where the bulk of carbohydrate digestion occurs:

• pancreatic amylase converts starch to maltose units
• disaccharidases from intestinal cells (the brush borders are storage sites);
• sucrase to convert sucrose to glucose and fructose;
• multase to convert maltose to 2 glucose;
• lactase to convert lactose to galactase and glucose

all ready to be absorbed in the small intestine along with some free fructose and glucose.

Act 4: Large Intestine 

Act 4 is digestion in the large intestine. If a person is lactose intolerant it is because the lactase enzyme is missing. Undigested lactose into the large intestine attracts water molecules producing a bloated feeling. Bacteria ferments the undigested lactose, producing gases creating flatulence.

Absorption

Glucose and galactase pass into cells of intestinal walls mainly by active transport involving simultaneous sodium ion transport. If these two simple sugars are present in very high concentrations they may also transport by diffusion. Fructose absorbed by facilitated diffusion. Very few monosaccharides escape absorption. All of the absorbed monosaccharides go to liver via portal blood. Eventually most diabetics discover the role of their liver in the regulation of blood sugar.

Act 5: The Liver

The liver converts galactose and most fructose to glucose. Some fructose is immediately utilized. About 8% of ingested glucose remains in the liver. After a 12 hour fast, about 50% of an oral glucose load (simple sugar eaten) stays in the liver. The remainder ends up in the other cells of the body.

The liver combines the simple sugar glucose molecules to be stored as the polysaccharide glycogen (called synthesis of glycogen, glycogenesis, for anyone interested). Here the glucose is stuck being part of a glycogen molecule. What’s a glucose to do to get free? The body goes through a removal of glucose units from the glycogen molecules to release glucose into the blood to maintain blood glucose concentrations (a process called glycogenolysis). But the determined glucose doesn’t stop with its liberation from glycogen. It is liberated from lactate, pyruvate, glycerol, and the carbon skeletons of amino acids (called precursors) in a process called gluconeogenesis. This process is very important during fasting when liver glycogen levels are greatly reduced. I personally find it very irritating when the liver doesn’t do this in the middle of the night and my blood sugar goes dangerously low!

Act 6: Blood Glucose Levels 

• Normal range is 70-100 mg glucose/ dl (100 ml) of blood. The average value is about 90 mg/dl. Glucosuria (glucose in urine) occurs when the blood glucose concentration is above 160 mg/dl.
• High blood glucose level exceeds the capacity of the kidneys to readsorb glucose back when the blood is filtered.
• Insulin hormone from pancreas excreated into the blood stream in order to decrease blood glucose concentration by facilitating glucose uptake by muscle and fat tissue.
• Glucagon hormone from pancreas is secreted into the blood stream increasing blood glucose concentration by the increase release of glucose from the liver. Glucagon acts to increase liver glycogenolysis and/or gluconeogenesis (can you say that 3x fast?).

Act 7: Brain Food 101, Carbohydrates

Glucose is the major fuel for the brain. The brain uses about 125 g glucose/day. Red and white blood cells, a part of the kidney and the retina of the eye also use glucose as the only fuel. Together, these use about 35 g glucose per day. A diet providing 2000 kilocalories of food energy per day where 50% of these calories are from carbohydrates will yield about 250 g glucose each day, well sufficient to satisfy normal glucose needs (1 g glycogen and glucose = approximately 4 kilocalories). Remember to get your sugars from fruits and vegetables and do not restrict yourself to starches.

Act 8: Muscle Fuel

Muscles use fat, carbohydrates and some carbon skeletons of amino acids as fuels. Whereas the glycogen and glucose is stored in the liver, muscle, blood and body fluids, energy is also stored as a triglyceride fat under the skin, around blood vessels and internal organs.

There is much more fat available as a muscle fuel, a good thing since we do not want to use up the carbohydrates needed by the brain and other tissues in muscle activity. Thankfully, there is a biochemical control mechanism which operates in the muscle to preferentially supply fat as fuel.

Carbohydrate use as a fuel depends on the intensity of the work. There is an exponential relationship: carbs provide more energy to the muscle per unit of oxygen consumed, broken down anaerobically to produce lactic acid–something fat cannot do. This allows us to work for short periods of times at an intensity beyond the maximal capacity of the circulatory system to deliver oxygen to the muscles.

Muscles have a capacity to regenerate their ATP by only partially breaking down glucose molecules. This partial breakdown doesn’t require oxygen. If the muscular work is long at a high intensity, it is possible that the carbohydrate stores may become so depleted that the work level must decrease or muscular performance may be compromised. 

Exercised muscles of the body increases its glycogen concentration, influencing improvement in future exercise performance. Diet and previous exercise effects muscle glycogen levels. For each gram of muscle glycogen that is stored, an extra 2 to 3 grams of water is retained by the muscle. “Lean and mean” doesn’t necessarily mean lighter in weight.

Janet Wiebe

 

Caffeine: Friend or Foe?

The most recent science tells us that decaffeinated coffee leaves us open to rheumatoid arthritis and heart attacks. Conversely, the big jolts of added caffeine to our beverages, weight loss pills and energy drinks wire up the nervous system, overstimulate the brain, increase blood pressure, puts body under metabolic stress and can cause cardiac arrhythmia.

Is this a case for moderation? A situation of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Of avoiding a temperance movement that really means abstinence movement?

It would seem so. The most recent science has revealed some interesting facts:

1. Americans get more dietary antioxidants from coffee than any other food source, according to chemical scientist professor Dr. J. A. Vincent in 2005 from the University of Scranton. There are 1,299 mg antioxidants from coffee, from 2  8-ounce cups daily. 
2. Japanese researchers in the Journal of National Cancer Institute indicate that coffee drinkers have 1/2 the cancer risk as those who don’t drink coffee.
3. Researchers of Harvard School of Public Health’s study indicated that 6 cups a day of coffee cuts the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 50% for men and 30% by women.
4. Several studies say use of regular coffee confers risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, gallstones, colon cancer, heart disease and gout.

Is this a case of facts meaning what we want them to mean?

Well, let’s look at gout. Gout is caused by a large build up of uric acid in the blood which deposits in joints and then crystallizes. Cherry, blueberries, hawthorn berries and strawberry juice have been able to inhibit the crystallization of the uric acid. The cherries have about 191 mgs of potassium to every 100 grams of sodium. They are also high in bioflavonoids combined with Vitamin C strengthening tendons and cartilage. The matter seems settled when googling: “coffee” “gout”.

We need to rethink our assumptions. Our excesses put us on the pendulum swing towards abstinence in attempt to rebalance. The science affirms natural caffeine already within foods– not the added excesses. 

Indonesia is the third largest coffee supplier in the world known for coffee rich in full bodied flavour, a long finish, gentle acidity, syrupy texture, earthy spicy undertones and wonderful aroma.

Gano Excel North America hired three independent research companies to examine its Gano Classic Coffee (which used to come from Brazil, but now is exclusively from Indonesia). They all came up with similar findings: the caffeine is 120 mg per sachet/packet, which means it is not reduced in caffeine as previously thought. It is comparable to other regular coffees. So, if you  have a sensitivity to caffeine and need to avoid it, the Gano Excel beverage of choice is the tea which is caffeine free.

What is the explanation for Gano coffee not giving caffeine jitters? It’s in the Ganoderma Lucidum. It balances out body systems, providing a healthy brain function and is an anti-depressive.

For myself, it helps me to handle the ups and downs of my diabetes. It doesn’t eliminate the need to watch my portion sizes or the need to exercise. But my mood is stable when it is 4 or when it is 8. I feel energy and stability to want to exercise. I don’t have to coax myself into it. I don’t need any other supplementation according to my glucometer testing of my blood sugar. This is just one example of the leveling capability of Ganoderma. 

Ganoderma minimizes any negative effects of the caffeine allowing us to enjoy all its benefits. But discussion on Ganoderma Lucidum is for a different blog.

Janet A Wiebe

 

Your Diet and Your Health; how do you score?

Check out these indicators of good nutrient intake and absorption:

1. ability of wounds to heal easily and adequately (optimally)
2. adequate or optimal growth and development, appropriate weight for one’s age, height and activity
3. clear eyes
4. clear smooth fingernails
5. clear smooth skin of good colour
6. firm and well-shaped bones
7. firm muscles
8. glossy hair
9. good and normal resistance to infections
10. good appetite
11. good posture
12. good elimination
13. mental and physical alertness
14. restful and relaxed sleep
15. well aligned teeth, healthy gums

How many qualities of good health fit you? What needs improvement? 

Most of us complain of no enough energy. This is an indicator of poor cellular function precipitating fatigue, mental confusion, disease and ultimately death.

Solar energy converts into chemical energy by way of calories, which convert the stored energy to cellular energy (ATP) by removing atoms from the food molecules (carbohydrates, amino acids from protein, and fatty acids from fats). Cells manufacture enzymes which coordinate reactions. Cofactors (vitamins and minerals) are required to work with enzymes to convert calories to cellular energy. Protein builds up and repairs tissues, essential for growth and development. Water, vitamins and minerals regulate body functions. Carbohydrates and fats provide heat and energy.

Consumption of food full of quality nutrients is becoming more and more rare. Over-worked land, herbacides and pesticides compromise the adequate absorption of nutrients. Our foods are picked before theyare ripe and then shipped out. Refined foods have most cofactors removed: white bread, white sugar, many vegetable oils, with only a few nutrients reintroduced. Cells can’t change calories to ATP without sufficient cofactors.

Brain cells transmit messages: production of substance, storage, release, reaction with next cell, termination of action. Mental “disorders”, chronic degenerative diseases, are being treated by diet and supplements: senility, cardiovascular conditions, arthritis, schizophrenia, learning and behaviour disorders, as well as straight physical conditions of cancer of the colon, diverticular disease, peptic ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, prostatitis, etc.

In 1940, 20% processed food was consumed. In 1978, 75% processed food was consumed. How much processed food are you eating? Can you think of any food you are eating that is not overprocessed? No wonder this world is suffering from a massive percentage of chronic degenerative diseases.

Alternative Health News Online, June 14, 1999 indicates  antioxidants appear to help regulate blood sugar in diabetics. Duke University Medical Center scientist Dr. Emmanuel Opara says that his research shows vitamin C and E, beta-carotene combined seem to be the most effective.

When Janet A Wiebe started taking superior grade food supplement capsules, she not only could handle the fluctuations of the blood sugar better, she could eat less because her body was satiated with the nutrients it craved bringing her weight closer to the ideal diabetic weight (10 pounds below normal for height, age and build). It did not take away the diabetes, but it manages it in a superior way giving more energy besides. Blood sugar management is the result.

The Super Antioxidants by Dr. J. Balch, MD, Evans, 1998 indicates the transportation of vitamin C into the cells is accomplished by its connection to insulin. Therefore, diabetics often don’t have enough intracellular vitamin C, and vitamin C deficiency exists in many diabetics despite what would normally be considered adequate dietary intake of vitamin C.

Vitamin C at high doses (at least 2,000 mg per day) effectively reduces the accumulation of dangerous sorbitol in the red blood cells of diabetics. The accumulation of sorbitol is linked to many complications of diabetes, particularly eye and nerve disorders.

There are various food supplements available in health food stores. Your health care professional may be able to assit you in the nutitional supplementation is good for you. See www.healthycoffeepro.com  for the great adaptogenic herb, Ganoderma Lucidum, providing you with over 200 nutrient properties.

If you are keen to improve your score from the list that began this blog, enhance your immune system, decrease inflammatory processes, level out moodiness, lose weight with a healthy beverage or get a more restful sleep, come to Sanctuary Retreat Bed and Breakfast Health Spa to experience a Retreat that will set you lifestyle onto the right track!