“Providing more evidence to the motif ‘you are what you eat’, scientists have found that eating a fast food diet increases the risk for depression by more than fifty percent. The food we eat today will provide the structural network for the cellular matrix that we need to support basic metabolism, cellular regeneration and repair. This is especially pronounced in brain neurons, as grey matter is largely composed of the omega-3 fats, DHA and EPA. When we don’t provide these basic building blocks, especially in the early formative years, the body is forced to use inferior fats such as those provided by hydrogenation, most frequently found in fast and processed foods.

Scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada, publishing in thePublic Health Nutritionjournal have determined that eating commercially baked goods (cakes, croissants, and doughnuts) and fast food (hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizza) is linked to a 51 percent increase in the incidence of depression, compared to those who eat little or none of these foods.

Consumption of fast foods and baked goods doubles risk of depression

Researchers conducting the study found that risk of depression could be predicted in a dose-dependent manner. Lead study author, Dr. Almudena Sanchez-Villegas commented“the more fast food you consume, the greater the risk of depression.”The study found that those participants eating the largest amount of fast food and commercially baked goods are more likely to be single, physically inactive and generally exhibit poor dietary habits. Typically these individuals consumed less fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables, and olive oil, and were more likely to smoke or work more than 45 hours per week.

High consumption of commercially baked goods or fried foods subjected to the oil degradation process known as hydrogenation results in trans-fats that have been shown to dramatically increase heart disease risk in past studies. This current research demonstrates that these misshapen and synthetically processed trans-fats interfere with the proper function of chemical neurotransmitters in the brain and alter normal electrical activity necessary for intercellular signaling.

Depression among children and adults is expanding at an alarming rate, with 121 million people diagnosed worldwide. Antidepressants prescribed to manage depression are largely ineffective and only work to mask the underlying cause of the illness. A wealth of scientific evidence now points to proper nutrition as an effective tool to halt and even reverse depressive episodes. The study team advised against a diet including baked or fried foods, and emphasized the need for whole, natural foods containing plenty of B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and fresh pressed virgin olive oil to significantly lower risk of depression.”

Nushie’s Natural whole foods are certified organic and dairy and gluten free. They contain no artificial additives or preservatives and taste fabulous. Try Nushie’s Natural chia and flaxseed crackers which are rich in Omega-3.

Sources for this article include:

http://journals.cambridge.org
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120330081352.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243624.php
http://www.wellnessresources.com

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035772_fast_food_depression_nutrition.html#ixzz1u2xqKHyd

“Tiny agents found in Omega-3 could potentially be used to block the path of primary cancer tumours according to pharmacy researchers at the University of Sydney.

The researchers behind the study believe these agents, called epoxides, could be used to prevent the advance to secondary stage cancers. Epoxides are produced within the human body from Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

In their study, Dr Michael Murray, Professor of Pharmogenetics at the University, and his team used breast cancer tissue cells to gauge the blocking capacity of epoxides on cancer cell movement. They discovered that epoxides have anti-metastatic actions.

A major life-threatening consequence of malignant breast tumours is metastasis where the disease has spread to distant sites (or tissues) and at present there are no treatments.

Dr Murray said, “We know that epidemiological studies have reported that dietary intake of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids including eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids, decrease the risk of certain cancers. And many of us are including sources of Omega-3 such as tuna and salmon in our diet as a precaution.

“The major objective of our new project is to speed the development of anti-metastatic agents based on Omega-3 epoxides and trial their effectiveness on breast cancer tissue. Longer term we are aiming to develop a completely new class of anti-metastatic drugs designed to inhibit the spread of primary cancers,” Dr Murray added.

Dr Murray said that although not all experts agree, women who eat foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids over many years may be less likely to develop breast cancer.

Previous research has also shown that Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and may help lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and arthritis.”

Nushie’s Natural Organic Flaxseed crackers are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and taste fabulous.

“A QUARTER of cancers could be prevented by 2025 through diet and exercise alone, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in the cost of treatment, the Medical Journal of Australia has found.

Taking data on projected illness, and coupling it with published findings on the association between food, nutrition and physical activity in the prevention of cancer, the journal’s study found that the incidence of cancer in Australia will rise to 170,000 in the next 13 years, an increase of 60 per cent since 2007.

Intervention to improve health and environmental factors could reduce that by 43,000, or 25 per cent, it says in a report published March 19.

Contributing factors in the nation’s poor health include an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the increasing prevalence of overweight and obese adults, climbing rates of harmful alcohol consumption, and an unbalanced diet.

Pip Youl, one of the report’s authors and head of research at Cancer Council Queensland, said that less than 10 per cent of Australians ate the recommended five serves of vegetables a day and only 6 per cent ate two or more serves of fruit a day.

”Ways to encourage better eating are things like improving the number of wholegrain cereals and bread, choosing foods that are low in salt, choosing a low-fat diet, particularly diets that are low in saturated fats,” she said. ”One of the key things is teaching children to eat healthily. So, getting them interested in cooking and eating healthy foods will give them a really good start in life and enjoying a healthy life.”

Poor health has become an economic and geographic issue, the study suggesting that ”inequities in cancer outcomes vary with remoteness or area disadvantage” and that ”increasingly the poor are becoming obese faster than the rich”.

With the cost of healthy food higher than that of high-sugar, fat-soaked, nutritionally poor alternatives, Australians on lower incomes are less likely to make healthy food choices.

Programs needed to be designed to accommodate different needs in different regions, Ms Youl said. Even when people know what they need to do to prevent obesity and disease, it is difficult to motivate populations to improve their health and it was incumbent on governments to implement measures and provide support.

Ms Youl said it was critical to have a co-ordinated approach from state and federal governments to spend money on preventive measures to reduce the $3.8 billion a year spent on direct costs to the health system from cancer-related illnesses.

They needed to ”increase the expenditure on preventive health activities, because we know that treating cancer is very expensive, so if we can prevent it before it happens then we’ll certainly save some expenditure on cancer down the track”.

While only 2 per cent of the total health expenditure in 2007-08 was dedicated to preventive services or health promotion, spending more on raising the profile of good nutrition and physical activity would save more than $674 million in 2025, the authors found.”

Organic whole foods such as Nushie’s Natural are essential to good health. They contain no artificial preservatives or additives and are dairy and gluten free.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/diet-or-die-lifestyle-changes-could-hit-cancer-20120318-1vdm9.html#ixzz1qA7HbsYC

The following article is reproduced from the Fabrizio Poli blog

http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/Articles.asp?ID=430

“(NaturalNews) Adding fresh juices to your diet can be one of the best everyday things you can do for your health. This is the case because with juicing you can take in far more nutrients from fresh fruits and vegetables than you ever could just by eating them straight. And these nutrients both protect us from disease and boost our health and vitality.

For example, it’s easy to consume the nutrients of a couple of pounds of carrots in a day if you juice them. And while carrots are well known to be rich in vitamin A and help with our night vision, carrot juice is also a great juice to detoxify the liver. Vitamin A is also a key nutrient for skin health.

Detoxifying your liver then means that your body can process out more of the chemicals that most people are regularly exposed to – because the liver’s detoxification capacity then becomes available. Because your liver is also your prime fat burning organ, detoxifying your liver will also mean it’s easier to lose excess weight.

If you add some beets to your carrot juice, you can also take in hearty doses of betalains, which raises your body’s detoxification enzymes. This helps your body process out even more manmade chemicals which -without detoxification methods -can be hard to remove. Beet juice in large quantities has also been known to break down cancers and tumors.

Cabbage is another vegetable you can pack in with carrot juice – and it’s been found that folks consuming regular cabbage have far less cancer than folks who don’t. Cabbage also boosts our body’s detoxification enzymes and helps us remove environmental estrogens. Environmental estrogens are chemicals which areoften found in plastics. Theyfill up the estrogen sites in both male and female bodies and then our natural estrogen isn’t used, which creates an abundance of estrogen in the body andsubsequently causes avariety of hormonal problems. Excess estrogen is also connected to stubborn belly fat.

Greens of any sort are another favorite for juicing. Greens are powerful because they add lots of chlorophyll to the body, a powerful blood cleanser and blood builder. Actually, chlorophyll is very similar in structure to our own red blood cells and adding lots of uncooked greens in your diet means your body has the building materials to produce lots of fresh blood – and it often does.

This isactually one of the best things about juicing –youcan add in lots of fabulously healthy vegetables that you might not otherwise include much of in your diet. And these juices are delicious too. In fact, if you give them a try for a while, you might find that they are easy replacements for soft drinks or other processed beverages. If you think about it, why would you choose drinks that are known to create disease (like soft drinks) over drinks that are known to eliminate and prevent it?

Resources include:
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49
http://www.naturalnews.com/027032_beets_cancer_body.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/027729_estrogen_plastics.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/greens.htm

About the author:
Kim Evans is an author and natural health writer. Her book,Cleaning Up! The Ultimate Body Cleanse, outlines deep and powerful at-home body cleansing methods to address the root cause of most health problems. While it’s becoming common knowledge that most people carry an extreme toxic burden and that these toxins can cause any disease imaginable, most people don’t know that there is a direct connection between our spiritual reality and the state of our bodies as well. The methods inCleaning Up!help folks gain both their health and their spiritual connectedness back to live in a love-based reality. Learn more athttp://www.cleaningupcleanse.com ”

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035274_juicing_health_improvement.html#ixzz1pS528Ngm

“Many people today still adhere to the misguided belief that nearly all fats are bad, and that the best way to stay slim and healthy is to cut fats, whenever possible, from your diet. On the contrary, fats are an absolutely vital component of any healthy diet as they aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, as well as feed the brain, heart, liver, lungs, bones, cells and nervous system the nutrients they need to function properly.

It is widely assumed that, because they are called “fats,” these substances must contribute to obesity and obesity-related illnesses like heart disease that afflict millions of people today. This is true for trans fats and certain other unhealthy fats, of course, but there are all kinds of healthy fats as well, such as coconut oil, for instance, or even animal-based fats like grass-fed butter and naturally-produced lard that can actually promote good health.

At the recent World of Healthy Flavors Conference in Napa, Calif., the myth of the low-fat diet was tackled head on by several key figures in nutrition and epidemiology, including Walter Willett, chair of the nutrition department at the Harvard University School of Public Health (HSPH), and his colleague Dariush Mozaffarian. As part of their “Focus on Fat” panel, these experts encouraged their audience to abandon the low-fat mindset and learn about the benefits of consuming healthy fats.

Many low-fat food items contain high levels of processed salt and refined carbohydrates, they pointed out, which are added to low-fat foods to make up for the loss in taste and flavor that results from the artificial removal of fats. Both of these additives, which are devoid of their nutritional counterparts due to over-processing, are linked to numerous health problems, including obesity and heart disease.

“Low fat diets are usually high in carbohydrates, often from rapidly-digested foods such as white flour, white rice, potatoes, sugary drinks, and refined snacks. Eating lots of these ‘fast carbs’ can cause quick, sharp spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels, and over time can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease,” wrote the HSPH presenters in their presentation summary.

“High carbohydrate, low fat diets also have a negative effect on the fats and cholesterol in our blood: They raise the ‘bad’ blood fats (triglycerides) and they lower the ‘good’ blood cholesterol (HDL), both of which can increase the risk of heart disease.”

Why saturated fat is good for you

The conference presenters are correct in their assessment of refined carbohydrates and processed salts — however, they are incorrect in another key area concerning types of healthy fats. Missing the boat on the body’s need for healthy saturated fats, the duo told attendees that unsaturated fats are the “healthiest type of fat,” and claimed that saturated fats are “less healthy” and are responsible for helping raise levels of bad cholesterol.

Ironically, this belief that saturated fats are unhealthy is also a myth, and one that needs to be widely debunked for the sake of human health and well-being. Contrary to popular belief, saturated fats like the kind found in coconut and palm oils, for instance, or in grass-fed meats, milk, eggs, butter, and cheese, are crucial for maintaining healthy cells, healthy organs, and a healthy body (http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller33.1.html).

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035069_low_fat_diet_myths_weight_loss.html#ixzz1oKnITUdC“

Nushie’s Natural Organic Ice Creamery is made from organic coconut milk and cashews. It has good saturated fats and is gluten and dairy free. It is also Australian certified organic, suitable for vegans and has no harmful preservatives or chemicals. Try it is is fabulous.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu

http://www.zesterdaily.com/health/801-say-goodbye-to-low-fat

http://www.ciaprochef.com/wohf2011/pdf/CIA-HARVARD-AFocusonFat.pdf

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035069_low_fat_diet_myths_weight_loss.html#ixzz1oKpnFzs8

“UCLA researchers have recently conducted a study on the correlation between Omega-3 fatty acid levels in the diet and brain capacity.

The research, published in the February 28, 2012 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, studied 1,575 dementia-free participants, with an average age of 67. They underwent a variety of tests including MRI scans, tests measuring mental function, body mass and omega-3 fatty acid levels in red blood cells.

Omega-3 fatty acid, commonly found in fish, contains the nutrients docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).

The UCLA researchers found that those whose DHA levels were amongst the lower 25 percent of participants had lower brain volumes than those individuals with higher DHA levels.  Similarly, participants whose levels of all omega-3 fatty acids in the bottom 25 percent also scored lower on tests of visual memory and executive function, including problem-solving, multi-tasking and abstract thinking.

The findings indicated that the individuals with lower levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in their diet have lower brain capacities equivalent to approximately two years of structural brain ageing.”

Nushie’s Natural flaxseed crackers are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Try them they are fabulous.

Two recent scientific studies have confirmed again the risks we take when we continue to eat non organic foods. That is if we eat foods contaminated with chemical pesticides and herbicides we are most likely to be affected health wise and we will pass this on through generations.

The first study reported in Science Daily reports that a US Washington State University Researcher  has demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring.

The second report from Natural News shows that Monsanto’s herbicide formula Roundup destroys testosterone and ultimately leads to male infertility. The findings add to the more than 25 other diseases known to be linked to Roundup, which include DNA damage, birth defects, liver dysfunction, and cancer.

“ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2012) — A Washington State University researcher has demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring

The animal’s DNA sequence remains unchanged, but the compounds change the way genes turn on and off — the epigenetic effect studied at length by WSU molecular biologist Michael Skinner and expanded on in the current issue of the online journalPLoS ONE.

While Skinner’s earlier research has shown similar effects from a pesticide and fungicide, this is the first to show a greater variety of toxicants — including jet fuel, dioxin, plastics and the pesticides DEET and permethrin — promoting epigenetic disease across generations.

“We didn’t expect them all to have transgenerational effects, but all of them did,” Skinner said. “I thought hydrocarbon would be negative but it was positive too.”

This tells researchers that the ability to promote transgenerational disease is “not simply a unique aspect for a unique compound” but a characteristic of many environmental compounds.

Researchers tested a pesticide mixture (permethrin and insect repellant DEET), a plastic mixture (bisphenol A and phthalates), dioxin (TCDD) and a hydrocarbon mixture (jet fuel, JP8).

The field opens new ground in the study of how diseases develop. While toxicologists generally focus on animals exposed to a compound, Skinner’s work further demonstrates that diseases can also stem from older, ancestral exposures that are then mediated through epigenetic changes in sperm.

The work also points the way to identify and diagnose exposures through the use of specific epigenetic molecular markers.

“In the future we might be able to use these epigenetic biomarkers to determine your ancestral and personal exposure early in life and to predict your susceptibility to get a disease later in life,” Skinner said.

The study was funded by the U.S. Army to study pollutants that troops might be exposed to. Skinner and his colleagues exposed pregnant female rats to relatively high but non-lethal amounts of the compounds and tracked changes in three generations of offspring.

The researchers saw females reaching puberty earlier, increased rates in the decay and death of sperm cells and lower numbers of ovarian follicles that later become eggs. Future studies can use the molecular tools for risk assessment analysis.”

Nushie’s Natural Chocolate Organic Ice Creamery has been announced by Nature and Health Magazine as the 2012 Organic Ice Cream Award Winner.