raw-food-health.net - Nutrition Requirements On A Raw Food Diet

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When they adopt raw food diets, many people start caring about their nutrition requirements due to concerns over inadequacy. What's the RDA for calcium? Am I getting enough zinc? What about protein? 

Knowing what recommendations to follow can be a bit tricky, as different bodies of experts suggest different things. There's also no assurance their recommendations even apply to you because good raw food diets are so radically different than what most people eat, and require different standards.

For most nutrients my diet meets - and in many cases exceeds by large factor - the standard RDA suggestions, but in some areas I'm "deficient," by the SAD nutrition requirements proposed by the usual bodies of experts. Yet in following this diet since 2005, my health has been near perfect, with not so much as a head cold in sight. So can I really be deficient?

We have to look at why the RDAs are set where they are to understand that a healthy intake of some nutrients can be much lower than the official suggestion.  

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Medical News Today - Nutrients May Stop Brain Shrinkage Linked To Alzheimer's

Medical News Today, 29 Dec 2011 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239762.php

A study of elderly people finds that those whose diets were high in certain essential nutrients were less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer's disease and more likely to score better on tests of mental performance. The researchers published a paper on how they came to these findings in the 28 December online issue of Neurology.

The paper's first author is Dr Gene Bowman from the Departments of Neurology and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. He and his colleagues describe three sets of findings:

Elderly people with diets high in several vitamins or omega 3 fatty acids were less likely to have the brain shrinkage that usually accompanies Alzheimer's disease than people whose diets were low in those nutrients.

Those whose diets were high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins were also more likely to score better on tests of mental ability than those whose diets were low in those nutrients.

Those whose diets were high in trans fats were more likely to have brain shrinkage and perform less well on thinking and memory tests than those whose diets were low in trans fats.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for human health but the body can't make them. These are primarily found in fish, also an essential source of vitamin D; some plants and nut oils are also good sources of omega 3 fatty acids, which are also called polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).

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[Video] Gary Null's Tips on Sustainable Organic Farming

Dr. Gary Null takes you on a tour of his Florida organic farm and shares his own tips on sustainable farming techniques!

Medicine For Sale: Tracing the Shadowy Money Trail that Exploits your Health (Part 1)

By Gary Null, PhD and Jeremy Stillman

Each day, millions of Americans visit a physician. Whether they go to the office of a primary care physician, consult with a specialist or seek medical assistance at an outpatient clinic or hospital emergency room, in all cases, there is an underlying assumption that the quality of care they are given must be the best in the world because we spend nearly twice as much as any other country in the world on individual healthcare.   Also, we are led to believe by our physicians and nurses, the media and the many federal agencies that oversee the medical-industrial complex, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) that everything offered to patients is based upon scientifically proven therapies for safety and efficacy or science-based medicine.  

At the same time, we are told that any approaches to health involving non-science-based medicine is to be rejected; these include homeopathy, ayurvedic medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, massage, aromatherapy, magnet therapy, chiropractic medicine and supplementation with vitamins.  We are told that such modalities have no foundation in science and that they have an almost cult-like following.  Our health authorities make it clear that patients pursuing these alternative therapies have never made any improvements, in any circumstances, simply because they aren’t dealing with science-based medicine.  The medical establishment tells us that anyone who sees improvement in their health using a non-science-based therapy was either misdiagnosed in the first place or improved only because they were treated by some form of science-based medicine that they must have received before.  Hence, all practitioners of alternative medicine must be at best delusional, and at worse, out-and-out frauds and quacks who should be disgraced and imprisoned.  

This has been the existing medical paradigm for nearly a century.  Confronted with this situation, we ask a few basic questions: Is science-based medicine safe and effective?  If so, where is the proof? And if it is not safe and effective, where is the proof?  We also ask are alternative therapies are safe and effective? If they are, where is the proof? If they are not, where is the proof?  These are reasonable questions to ask.

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'Ethan A. Huff' - Raw organic foods have stronger 'energy field' than cooked or pasteurized conventional foods

(NaturalNews) Food is food, some might claim, and it does not really matter whether or not it is cooked or raw, conventional or organic. The nutritive value remains the same regardless. Or does it? A recent report from Activist Post explains that, based on analysis using a technique known as Kirlian photography, researchers have discovered that the energy fields surrounding raw, organic produce are stronger and more uniform than the energy fields surrounding cooked, conventional produce.

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"Joseph Mercola" - Why Vegetarianism Will Not Save the World

Many vegans and vegetarians choose not to eat meat and/or animal products because they believe it is the morally superior, environmentally friendly choice. But this theory is being put to the test by the book The Vegetarian Myth, written by ex-vegan Lierre Keith. In it she argues that saving the planet and ending the suffering found in factory farms can not be achieved by refusing to eat animals, it can only be achieved by boycotting modern agricultural practices, which Keith calls "the most destructive thing that people have done to the planet."

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"ScienceDaily" Organic Tomato Juice Contains More Beneficial Phenolic Components Than Juice from Conventionally Grown Crops

(Sep. 27, 2011) — Organic tomato juice contains more phenolic components than juice from conventionally grown crops, according to a new study published in the journal Food Chemistry.

The study was directed by Rosa M. Lamuela, a lecturer from the Department of Nutrition and Bromatology of the University of Barcelona (UB) and researcher for the Nutrition and Food Safety Research Institute (INSA) and the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre-Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn). Also participating in the study are Anna Vallverdú-Queralt and Alexander Medina-Remón, from INSA and CIBERobn, and Isidre Casals-Ribes and Olga Jáuregui, from the UB's Scientific and Technological Centre (CCiTUB).

Polyphenols: health benefits

The research, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, brings new data to the debate over organic and conventional crops, from a study of polyphenols in tomato juice -- particularly relevant as the tomato is the most widely consumed fresh and processed vegetable in Spain. According to the lecturer Rosa M. Lamuela, head of the UB's Natural Antioxidants Group, "This is an innovative scientific study to determine the phenolic compounds found in organic and conventional tomato juice and their possible health benefits. Strangely, although tomatoes are consumed in large quantities across the world, until now only certain components with nutritional value had been studied, such as carotenes (lycopene), whereas little work had been done on polyphenols."

Polyphenols are a family of natural compounds with important nutritional properties that can protect the body against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases and some forms of cancer. These substances neutralize free radicals and are capable of regulating enzyme activity, producing numerous health benefits. The team behind the study analysed the total content of flavonols and hydroxycinnamic acids in commercial tomato juices and revealed significant differences -- undescribed until now -- between the levels of bioactive components in organic tomatoes and the levels found in conventionally grown crops.

Organic versus traditional agriculture

The researcher Anna Vallverdú-Queralt, first author of the study, explains that "the results could be explained by the defence mechanisms of plants according to the type of manure used in organic and conventional production. In any form of cultivation, the most important factor for the growth of the plant is the availability of nitrogen. In conventional agriculture, the nitrogen can be added in soluble form, as a fertilizer, whereas in organic production the plant receives no artificial nutrients and therefore responds by activating defence mechanisms that increase the levels of polyphenols. As a result, conventionally grown plants can lose resistance to disease and present lower levels of nutrients, minerals and secondary metabolites."

Scientific literature has for years reflected widespread disagreement over the relative benefits of organic and conventional foodstuffs, and the results of studies published in scientific journals are often contradictory. "It should be noted that the study published in Food Chemistry only analyses the phenolic components present in tomato juice," points out Rosa Lamuela, "and is part of a much wider project to analyse the factors that may increase the content of bioactive components in tomatoes and tomato products."

The UB's Natural Antioxidants Group, headed by the lecturer Rosa M. Lamuela, is part of the Generalitat's Food Technology Reference Network (XaRTA) and INSA. The group has participated extensively in international projects for the study of polyphenols in foods, their bioavailability and the effects of these substances on human health. The researchers are currently working on a range of clinical and epidemiological studies, focusing on resveratrol, grapes, wine and archaeological remains, as well as citrus fruits, cocoa, chocolate, beer and olive oil, and other common components of the human diet.

Anna Vallverdú-Queralt, Alexander Medina-Remón, Isidre Casals-Ribes, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventos. Is there any difference between the phenolic content of organic and conventional tomato juices? Food Chemistry, 2012; 130 (1): 222

The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto

In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America's organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market [1], Organic Valley [2], and Stonyfield Farm [3], has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for "coexistence" with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.

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An Important Update on IV Vitamin C

After our Action Alert on the FDA’s move against intravenous vitamin C, a number of rumors have sprung up. Today we want to sort through the confusion. As we reported to you last week [1], the US Food and Drug Administration recently sent a warning letter [2] to McGuff Pharmaceuticals, ordering it to stop manufacturing and distributing intravenous vitamin C. The warning letter lists several issues, but the issue of concern falls under the subheading Unapproved New Drug and Misbranding Violations. The FDA letter tells the firm, “You manufacture and market unapproved new drugs in violation of sections 505(a) and 502(f)(1) [21 U.S.C. §§ 355(a) and 352(f)(1)] of the Act”—that is, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FD&C.

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Congress sticks it to U.S. farmers with passage of food safety bill that will actually cause fresh produce to be more dangerous

(NaturalNews) The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2751 yesterday with a 216 to 144 vote (yes, many members of the House did not even vote). The so-called Food Safety Modernization Act now heads to the President to be signed into law.

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