Book: Super Healing Foods

“Super Healing Foods”  is an excellent resource book for the home consumer, and those who want to improve on their health and wellness.

Some of my favorite sections that I have read and reread:

Antioxidants:

The National Institute of Health recommends five or six servings of fruits and vegetables in this 1995 Edition book.  Recently, I read in the news this has been increased to 9  -10 /day.   I don’t know about you, but for me this is a very high challenge.

For example, my daily routine is hot or cold cereal with half a banana, 1 glass of orange juice. On most days , I eat a green salad, consisting Mixed greens, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sliced celery, walnuts.   So far, that is 6 fruit and vegetable ( vege)  items.   On some days, I think of Vitamin C rich foods, and I’ll pare and slice a whole kiwi.  The only way I eat a kiwi is sliced into little rounds. My reason is , that the first time I tasted Kiwi was a Jr Women’s club function some years back.   It was an outdoor summer party, and this young woman brought sliced kiwi.  I recall her saying, ” how come the kiwi’s are barely touched?, try it. come on. Skeptical, I tasted one. My first taste, I did not care for it.  I”ll have to admit it took some time to acquire a taste for it.  Strawberries for example, I grew up with  my mother serving them soaked for a few minutes in white granulated sugar.  This is the only way we ate strawberries at home.

While working on my health, I decided some time ago, to eat the strawberries plain, and now I don’t mind. In fact,  for my packed lunch, I wash and rinse about 5 strawberries and when I eat them, I grasp the green stem and eat the whole strawberry just like that.

Yesterday was Christmas day, and my mother came to visit.   I put on the table a plate with sliced kiwi and the whole strawberries.  My mother said, ” I can’t eat the strawberries like that, I need sugar, they are too tart.”  I said in reply, ” Ok, there is a sugar container, you can sprinkle on some sugar if you like.”  I did not tell her that the sugar I have is ” Splenda”, blended to look like the granulated white sugar, te he.  Splenda has fewer calories that regular sugar.

Four Anti oxidant eater tips:

1. your best source is whole foods.

2.  Fresh raw fruits and vegetables are more potent than frozen.

3. “The deeper the color ( orange, red, or purple, yellow, green), the higher th anitoxidant level in any food or drink.

4.  Long-cooking , non instant whole grains and dried beans deliver more antioxidants than instant or fast-cooking types.

An apple a day keeps the Dr. away.  There are now six benefits.  Apples are low in calories,80 calories each) high in water, rich in natural fruit sugars.  Apples are rich in carbohydrate food fibers including cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin plus the non-carbohydrate fiber lignin in the apple peel which lowers cholesterol, normalizes blood pressure, and prevents digestive disorders.   The cardiovascular benefit is low sodium, and provides 70 % more potassium , the mineral that enhances heart muscle function, than fresh oranges.

Carrots:

Carrots are a member of the umbelliferous family ( celery, parsnips,caraway,fennel, dill, and chervil), and a root vegetable.

The USDA rates very highly carrots for providing the most protein, calcium, iron, and Vitamins A,C, and B finishing ahead of squash, green  beans, and cauliflower, and just behind broccoli, tomatoes and corn.

A carrot a day, ( 1/2 cup of grated, or sliced or juiced to beat cancer and coronary heart disease.

Carrots block the progressive, cellular damage characteristic of cancers of the larynx, esophagus, prostate, bladder, cervix, and liver as well as premature aging and cataracts. as reported by the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Bibliography:

Author:  Frances Sheridan Goulart 1995

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