1. Firstly…
Finalise your reception venue, date and time.
Know what reception rentals you need to provide
Check with your venue coordinator if you can engage a caterer of your choice or can only use someone recommended by the venue management
Start with someone recommended by the venue management as they would most likely have a good reputation, and are familiar with the site kitchen, layout, coordinator, etc.
If you prefer to engage someone else, get 5-6 recommendations from trusted friends and family
2. Know how much you are willing to spend
Ask yourself how important a role food and drinks play in your dream wedding
Most couples spend roughly 30-50% of their total wedding budget on receptions
Factors that affect catering costs:
Number of guests
Number of courses and food choices
Cost of ingredients
Rentals
The way the food is served (seated service, tray passed or buffet style)
Caterer’s level of expertise
3. To maximise your time, do preliminary research over the phone
Is the caterer available on your wedding date?
Can they work within your budget?
4. Schedule meetings with your top three or four picks
Have a clear idea of your dream event before the meeting
Describe your event clearly to the caterer
Questions to ask:
What range of menu options and courses can you offer that are within my budget?
How much deposit do you require to reserve your services for my wedding date?
What is your payment schedule like?
What is your refund or cancellation policy?
Do you charge extra to pour coffee for guests?
Do you have a minimum and maximum requirement for number of guests?
When do you require the final head count?
Who will oversee the event and catering staff?
How many servers will be at my event?
Do you offer any rentals? If not, can you coordinate rentals, including pick-up and return, with a third party? Can I bring in my own rentals if the cost is less?
How much time do you need to set up and break down?
Do you provide bartenders? If yes, how many do I need?
Do you provide liquor? What is the cost per drink/bottle? Will you buy back unopened bottles?
Can I bring my own liquor? Is there a corkage fee?
How do you handle guests who require vegetarian or special meals?
Do you provide food for the photographer, musicians and/or videographer?
When do I have to finalise the menu? When will you provide the final cost?
Will you pack a to-go snack for the bride and groom?
Will you provide a wedding cake? What about a groom’s cake?
Will you provide cake boxes for the guests to take home the cake?
Will you box the top tier of the cake for freezing?
Do you offer food tasting?
Sunday 27 February 2011
Friday 25 February 2011
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Healthy Shopping & Healthy Cooking with Akea
Healthy Shopping with Akea
Read labels.
When shopping for groceries, ask yourself: Is this something people in the Longevity Hot Spots would eat? Yes if it’s locally grown produce and meats—no chemicals, processing, or preservatives.
Keep to the perimeter of the grocery store, where the fresh produce tends to be. Avoid the interior aisles, where the chips and other junk foods tend to be.
On the interior aisles, avoid the UFOs—unidentified food objects. You’ll know them when you see ingredients that are artificial, unrecognizable and unpronounceable.
When purchasing fruits and vegetables, always look for labels such as Local, Organic, and No GMO (genetic modified organisms).
If you can't find fresh produce, your second choice should be frozen fruits and vegetables. Canned foods are lower in nutrients and higher in sodium.
Look for free-range, organic beef and poultry products. Levels of saturated fats and harmful chemicals should be much lower than in the products of industrial-farmed animals.
Choose deep-water, wild-caught ocean fish, which is likely to have lower levels of PCBs, dioxin, and other toxic, cancer-causing chemicals. Avoid farm-raised fish.
Avoid having tuna more than twice a month. It can be high in mercury. Choose tuna caught by the pole-and-line method. It’s friendlier to dolphins and sharks.
When buying breads, choose 100 percent whole grain, rather than white breads made with refined flours. Avoid the high-fat, high-calorie pastries altogether.
Avoid high-fat and high-sugar snacks. Choose whole-grain crackers or baked snacks.
Try to buy nuts in their shells, since the oils in pre-shelled nuts go rancid quickly. Children love cracking the shells open, so it’s a great way to eat nuts.
Choose water, juice, herbal tea, and organic fair trade coffee over sugary soft drinks and diet drinks, which contain harmful chemicals.
“Sugar-free” on the label only refers to sucrose or table sugar. Other sugars to watch for are fructose, maltose, lactose, glucose, dextrose, corn-syrup solids, corn sweeteners, and hydrolyzed corn starch.
Look for products with healthier sweeteners, such as agave, stevia, or evaporated cane juice. Try sweetening your coffee and tea with raw honey instead of table sugar.
If you want to use salt in cooking, use sea salt rather than refined table salt, as it should contain some beneficial minerals. Still, use it sparingly.
When buying soaps, lotions, cleaners, and detergents, look for unscented products. Items with fragrances may contain potentially harmful chemicals.
Avoid antibacterial soaps with the chemicals triclosan and triclocarban. They’re thought to affect reproductive hormones and the nervous system, and might contribute to the evolution of antibacterial-resistant superbugs.
Healthy Cooking with Akea
Steam or slow-roast vegetables. Or eat them raw so as to preserve vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.
Avoid burning or charring meat. You can create pro-aging free radicals and carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs).
Use fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and spices such turmeric liberally in your food preparation for flavor—rather than salt.
Try to consume foods that are produced locally to insure they are as fresh as possible.
Avoid frying. It damages oils and can make them unhealthy. Try sweating onions in olive oil in a heavy-based pan instead.
If pan-searing or frying, use oils with a very high smoke point, such as coconut, grape seed, or avocado oils. These oils are more stable higher temperature than canola, corn, or even olive oil.
Cook orange and red vegetables such as sweet potatoes and red bell peppers in olive oil. You’ll help make the anti-cancer carotenoids in them more bioavailable in your body.
Use meat and dairy products to flavor vegetable dishes, rather than using them as the main feature of the dish.
Read labels.
When shopping for groceries, ask yourself: Is this something people in the Longevity Hot Spots would eat? Yes if it’s locally grown produce and meats—no chemicals, processing, or preservatives.
Keep to the perimeter of the grocery store, where the fresh produce tends to be. Avoid the interior aisles, where the chips and other junk foods tend to be.
On the interior aisles, avoid the UFOs—unidentified food objects. You’ll know them when you see ingredients that are artificial, unrecognizable and unpronounceable.
When purchasing fruits and vegetables, always look for labels such as Local, Organic, and No GMO (genetic modified organisms).
If you can't find fresh produce, your second choice should be frozen fruits and vegetables. Canned foods are lower in nutrients and higher in sodium.
Look for free-range, organic beef and poultry products. Levels of saturated fats and harmful chemicals should be much lower than in the products of industrial-farmed animals.
Choose deep-water, wild-caught ocean fish, which is likely to have lower levels of PCBs, dioxin, and other toxic, cancer-causing chemicals. Avoid farm-raised fish.
Avoid having tuna more than twice a month. It can be high in mercury. Choose tuna caught by the pole-and-line method. It’s friendlier to dolphins and sharks.
When buying breads, choose 100 percent whole grain, rather than white breads made with refined flours. Avoid the high-fat, high-calorie pastries altogether.
Avoid high-fat and high-sugar snacks. Choose whole-grain crackers or baked snacks.
Try to buy nuts in their shells, since the oils in pre-shelled nuts go rancid quickly. Children love cracking the shells open, so it’s a great way to eat nuts.
Choose water, juice, herbal tea, and organic fair trade coffee over sugary soft drinks and diet drinks, which contain harmful chemicals.
“Sugar-free” on the label only refers to sucrose or table sugar. Other sugars to watch for are fructose, maltose, lactose, glucose, dextrose, corn-syrup solids, corn sweeteners, and hydrolyzed corn starch.
Look for products with healthier sweeteners, such as agave, stevia, or evaporated cane juice. Try sweetening your coffee and tea with raw honey instead of table sugar.
If you want to use salt in cooking, use sea salt rather than refined table salt, as it should contain some beneficial minerals. Still, use it sparingly.
When buying soaps, lotions, cleaners, and detergents, look for unscented products. Items with fragrances may contain potentially harmful chemicals.
Avoid antibacterial soaps with the chemicals triclosan and triclocarban. They’re thought to affect reproductive hormones and the nervous system, and might contribute to the evolution of antibacterial-resistant superbugs.
Healthy Cooking with Akea
Steam or slow-roast vegetables. Or eat them raw so as to preserve vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.
Avoid burning or charring meat. You can create pro-aging free radicals and carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs).
Use fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and spices such turmeric liberally in your food preparation for flavor—rather than salt.
Try to consume foods that are produced locally to insure they are as fresh as possible.
Avoid frying. It damages oils and can make them unhealthy. Try sweating onions in olive oil in a heavy-based pan instead.
If pan-searing or frying, use oils with a very high smoke point, such as coconut, grape seed, or avocado oils. These oils are more stable higher temperature than canola, corn, or even olive oil.
Cook orange and red vegetables such as sweet potatoes and red bell peppers in olive oil. You’ll help make the anti-cancer carotenoids in them more bioavailable in your body.
Use meat and dairy products to flavor vegetable dishes, rather than using them as the main feature of the dish.
Fermented Foods are Our Friends
The right nutrition can help your body not only heal itself, but possibly even reverse chronic disease. One or two servings a day of fermented foods will get you started down a healthier path.
But what is fermentation?
Technically speaking, fermentation is the addition—deliberately or by chance—of lactobacillus bacteria, such as Lactobacillus bulgaricus or Lactobacillus acidophilus, to milk or other foods to convert the carbohydrates to an organic acid.
It's how we get yogurt—the bacteria convert lactose into lactic acid, which curdles the casein to make yogurt. It’s also how we get beer and wine. Sugars are fermented into alcohol with the help of yeast rather than bacteria, so they are a different kind of fermented food.
Fermentation has a long history. It was used in pre-modern times primarily to preserve food. Yet over the years, science has learned that the process of fermentation yields powerful health benefits. Fermented foods…
improve gut health
enhance digestibility
enhance nutrient content.
You can easily get the benefits of fermentation in your diet by enjoying delicious foods like yogurt, kefir, marinaded vegetables and miso.
The people who live in the Longevity Hot Spots like to eat certain foods which are teeming with friendly bacteria. Put another way, they are expert zymologists, meaning they know all about the science of fermentation.
Whether it’s an aged lump of pungent cheese, a piquant caper in a jar, a square of melt-in-the-mouth tofuyo, or a marinated olive, they know how to make it, they love eating it, and it brings them good health.
Then and Now
People began fermenting foods and drinks long ago to keep them from rotting. If you dip a stick in the ground or run your finger along some tree bark in Bulgaria, it will emerge covered in the beneficial fermentative bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Add those bacteria to milk, and the milk ferments.
The Thracians of ancient Bulgaria found they could preserve their milk this way by putting it in lambskin bags and carrying the bag around their waists to keep it warm. In fact, it’s thought that the word yogurt comes from the Thracian yog (“thick”) and urt (“milk”).
The Bulgarians weren’t the first, of course. There’s evidence the ancient Babylonians drank fermented milk circa 3000 BC, and its use probably dates long before that. Miso, sauerkraut, yogurt, and many other fermented foods are ancient culinary traditions all around the world.
And they are still popular in areas where modern cooking methods have not yet taken over—places like the Longevity Hot Spots.
Great for the Gut
Fermenting foods gives them a stronger flavor and enriches their nutrient content. Plus, fermentation begins the breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, making the foods easier to digest.
For instance, when milk is turned into yogurt or cheese, much of the lactose is broken down. That’s why lactose-intolerant people can usually eat yogurt.
When you eat fermented foods, you introduce friendly bacteria, or probiotics (“for life”), into your digestive system. What they do in food, they also do in the gut—they repel pathogenic bacteria and help break down nutrients so you can absorb them more easily.
Friendly bacteria are fundamental to good health in so many ways. They…
Protect the integrity of the intestinal lining.
Maintain immunity, since around half of the body’s immune cells are in the intestines.
Manufacture B vitamins (useful for vegans).
Manufacture essential fatty acids.
Extract calcium from dairy products.
Aid absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Produce enzymes to break down foods.
Produce butyric acid, required for building colon cells.
Produce anti-tumour substances.
Produce antiviral substances.
Produce anti-fungal substances.
Prevent candida overgrowth.
Destroy e coli, shigella, and salmonella by making the intestinal tract more acidic and by releasing substances such as lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and selective antibiotics.
Neutralize endotoxins produced in the body.
Neutralize potentially carcinogenic nitrites in the digestive tract.
Aid peristalsis (the movement of the gut muscles for stool elimination) to prevent constipation.
Get rid of excess cholesterol by breaking down bile.
Regulate cytokines so as to reduce inflammation.
Produce anti-cancer isothiocyanates, such as sulfurophane and indol-3-carbinol from foods. (These beneficial compounds are also found in fermented foods.)
Get more flora
The modern diet lacks beneficial bacteria—and is high in factors which prevent it from colonizing in our guts as it should. Dysbiosis, a bacterial imbalance, is common in Western society thanks to diets high in sugar and meat, but low in probiotics.
Dysbiosis encourages yeasts and putrefactive bacteria to flourish, instead of fermentative beneficial bacteria. In turn, toxins build up and damage the sensitive microvilli brush border that lines our intestinal wall. When it’s healthy, that area helps assimilate nutrients and prevent toxins from passing through the gut wall into the bloodstream.
The modern diet also causes inflammation of the gut and excessive intestinal permeability (leaky gut syndrome), leading to conditions such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome. Allergies, systemic candida, eczema, autoimmune disease, arthritis, and even mental illness have all been linked to dysbiosis. If your stool smells unpleasant, it is a good sign of too much putrefaction and an imbalance of gut flora.
So how can you get more of the good stuff?
Making sure you get enough probiotics from fermented foods or probiotic supplements can protect you from these illnesses and help you attain optimum health. Another tip: By eating plant foods rich in plant fibers, you also provide fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), the food beneficial bacteria feed off, thus helping them thrive in your system. Avocados, bananas, and Jerusalem artichokes are high in FOS.
When researchers analyzed the stool of people aged 80-109 years old in Bama, a Longevity Hot Spot in China, they found that it contained from 53 to 87 percent bifidobacterium—significantly more than elderly Chinese from other districts. This finding was attributed to their diets rich in FOS and their intake of fermented foods. It’s likely the findings would be the same for people in the other longevity communities, given their intake of FOS and probiotics.
Here’s how to increase your levels of friendly flora:
Eat more fermented foods, including live yogurt. See the list below.
Take probiotics.
Avoid excessive sugar and animal fats.
Avoid stress, which can kill friendly flora.
To add probiotics to your diet, choose from among these fermented foods:
Yogurt
Yogurt is milk which has been fermented by live cultures so as to enhance its nutritional value and digestibility. The best yogurt is low fat with a creamy, slightly sweet texture which has been fermented with one part L. bulgaricus to seven parts S. thermophilus, these being the best yogurt cultures. Yogurt which has been pasteurized after the addition of probiotics will not contain live cultures and will not provide the same benefits. Pasteurizing live yogurt is forbidden in some states including New York.
To test whether or not the ‘live’ yogurt you buy is really live, mix a tablespoonful with a cupful of milk which has been heated but not boiled. Leave overnight in a warm place. If the mixture has thickened by morning, you have live cultures present.
Kefir
Kefir is a fermented milk product originating in the Caucausus. The word kefir (which rhymes with ‘see-her’) means ‘pleasure’. Kefir is tangy like yogurt, and contains a mix of cultures such as Saccaromyces kefir, Torula kefir, Lactobacillus brevis and Streptococcus lactis, amongst others. True kefir has a slightly alcoholic content due to the presence of yeast, which gives it its unique flavor (and presumably its name).
Aged cheese
Symiots, Hunzakuts, Sardinians, and Campodimelani all eat traditionally fermented cheese made from sheep’s, goat’s, or cow’s milk. Hunzakuts also enjoy maltash, a fermented butter which is wrapped in birch bark and buried underground for years or even decades and served at weddings, funerals, and births.
If you want to eat cheese, choose high-quality matured cheeses which have been made in a traditional way, rather than processed cheese.
Crème fraiche
Crème fraiche is cream which has been soured with bacterial culture. It is thick with a slightly tangy taste and is popular for making sauces in French cuisine.
Traditionally fermented soy products
miso, tempeh, traditionally brewed soy sauce
Fermenting soy products raises their levels of isoflavones, the beneficial plant estrogens thought to protect against breast cancer and osteoporosis. It also makes them much more digestible than modern processed soy products, which are an invention of the West and are not eaten by long-lived Japanese or Chinese populations such as the Okinawans or people of Bama.
Sauerkraut
This pickled cabbage dish is popular in Eastern Europe. Its origins trace as far back as the 13th century, when Genghis Khan fed fermented vegetables to his plundering hordes. Captain Cook also used sauerkraut to prevent scurvy in sailors.
Traditionally fermented pickled vegetables
capers, olives, pickles
Capers are traditionally preserved by the Symiots and used as a relish and for stomach ailments. Modern pickled foods such as capers and olives are mass-produced and do not contain beneficial bacteria. However, traditionally marinated and fermented vegetables such as olives, artichokes, peppers and mushrooms can be obtained in specialist delicatessens.
Sprouted foods
Soaking a bean, grain, or seed in water causes the outer hull to be broken down by probiotics—fermented—which enables the sprouting process. Foods treated in this way have higher, more easily absorbed nutrient contents. Sprouting also reduces the content of antinutrients, such as phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of minerals such as iron and zinc from these grains.
Sprouted wheat or rye bread can be obtained from good health food shops. Some delicatessens make sourdough rye bread from dough which has been fermented with lactic acid. These breads are much more digestible than ordinary bread.
You can make porridge by buying organic whole oats and soaking them overnight, then adding yogurt after cooking for a creamy texture. This will make a filling breakfast which is far more digestible than packaged cereals which are processed in a modern way and contain anti-nutrients such as phytates.
Umeboshi plums
These are small, reddish-purple, wrinkled, salty and very tangy pickled plums which are sometimes eaten in Japan after a meal as they are thought to aid digestion. Good umeboshi plums are left for six months to ferment in a mixture of salt and shiso leaves. They are sometimes referred to as ‘The King of Alkaline Foods.’ Japanese scientists studying umeboshi plums have found them to contain probiotics with powerful antibiotic properties and they are also thought to be beneficial for hangovers and bad breath. They are very potent (and salty) and two or three a week is enough!
Thai fish sauce
Known as Nam Pla in Thailand, is a fish sauce made from fish (often anchovies, but sometimes whatever comes up in the net) which have been allowed to ferment and is popular in Asia as a dipping sauce and for use in cooking. Nam Pla which has been allowed to ferment for a long period has a slightly nutty, cheesy flavor whereas sauce which has fermented for only a short time tastes more fishy.
Tofuyo (fermented tofu)
Also called “the cheese of the east,” it’s an Okinawan delicacy made from tofu which has been fermented for three to four months in awamori (rice wine) and malted rice. It is prized for its medicinal properties, mellow flavor, and succulent texture. Okinawans will eat a single cube while sipping awamori and watching songs or dances; they describe this as Nuchi-gusui—”the medicine of life.”
When tofuyo was given to hypertensive rats, it was found to significantly lower blood pressure and cholesterol due to its angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity (1).
Contraindications
If you have candida, you may want to use caution. Fermented foods contain yeasts and molds that are unlikely to cause candida—but your body might be sensitive to them.
Fermented foods such as capers, olives, and umeboshi plums can be very high in salt. If you are on a low-salt diet, keep these to a minimum.
Cheese and wine are high in histamines. Avoid or limit them if you are intolerant.
Download a printable list of fermented foods here.
Fermented Foods References
(1) Kuba M, Shinjo S, Yasuda M. Antihypertensive and Hypocholesterolemic Effects of Tofuyo in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats. Journal of Health Science, vol 50 (2004), No 6. 670-673.
But what is fermentation?
Technically speaking, fermentation is the addition—deliberately or by chance—of lactobacillus bacteria, such as Lactobacillus bulgaricus or Lactobacillus acidophilus, to milk or other foods to convert the carbohydrates to an organic acid.
It's how we get yogurt—the bacteria convert lactose into lactic acid, which curdles the casein to make yogurt. It’s also how we get beer and wine. Sugars are fermented into alcohol with the help of yeast rather than bacteria, so they are a different kind of fermented food.
Fermentation has a long history. It was used in pre-modern times primarily to preserve food. Yet over the years, science has learned that the process of fermentation yields powerful health benefits. Fermented foods…
improve gut health
enhance digestibility
enhance nutrient content.
You can easily get the benefits of fermentation in your diet by enjoying delicious foods like yogurt, kefir, marinaded vegetables and miso.
The people who live in the Longevity Hot Spots like to eat certain foods which are teeming with friendly bacteria. Put another way, they are expert zymologists, meaning they know all about the science of fermentation.
Whether it’s an aged lump of pungent cheese, a piquant caper in a jar, a square of melt-in-the-mouth tofuyo, or a marinated olive, they know how to make it, they love eating it, and it brings them good health.
Then and Now
People began fermenting foods and drinks long ago to keep them from rotting. If you dip a stick in the ground or run your finger along some tree bark in Bulgaria, it will emerge covered in the beneficial fermentative bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Add those bacteria to milk, and the milk ferments.
The Thracians of ancient Bulgaria found they could preserve their milk this way by putting it in lambskin bags and carrying the bag around their waists to keep it warm. In fact, it’s thought that the word yogurt comes from the Thracian yog (“thick”) and urt (“milk”).
The Bulgarians weren’t the first, of course. There’s evidence the ancient Babylonians drank fermented milk circa 3000 BC, and its use probably dates long before that. Miso, sauerkraut, yogurt, and many other fermented foods are ancient culinary traditions all around the world.
And they are still popular in areas where modern cooking methods have not yet taken over—places like the Longevity Hot Spots.
Great for the Gut
Fermenting foods gives them a stronger flavor and enriches their nutrient content. Plus, fermentation begins the breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, making the foods easier to digest.
For instance, when milk is turned into yogurt or cheese, much of the lactose is broken down. That’s why lactose-intolerant people can usually eat yogurt.
When you eat fermented foods, you introduce friendly bacteria, or probiotics (“for life”), into your digestive system. What they do in food, they also do in the gut—they repel pathogenic bacteria and help break down nutrients so you can absorb them more easily.
Friendly bacteria are fundamental to good health in so many ways. They…
Protect the integrity of the intestinal lining.
Maintain immunity, since around half of the body’s immune cells are in the intestines.
Manufacture B vitamins (useful for vegans).
Manufacture essential fatty acids.
Extract calcium from dairy products.
Aid absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Produce enzymes to break down foods.
Produce butyric acid, required for building colon cells.
Produce anti-tumour substances.
Produce antiviral substances.
Produce anti-fungal substances.
Prevent candida overgrowth.
Destroy e coli, shigella, and salmonella by making the intestinal tract more acidic and by releasing substances such as lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and selective antibiotics.
Neutralize endotoxins produced in the body.
Neutralize potentially carcinogenic nitrites in the digestive tract.
Aid peristalsis (the movement of the gut muscles for stool elimination) to prevent constipation.
Get rid of excess cholesterol by breaking down bile.
Regulate cytokines so as to reduce inflammation.
Produce anti-cancer isothiocyanates, such as sulfurophane and indol-3-carbinol from foods. (These beneficial compounds are also found in fermented foods.)
Get more flora
The modern diet lacks beneficial bacteria—and is high in factors which prevent it from colonizing in our guts as it should. Dysbiosis, a bacterial imbalance, is common in Western society thanks to diets high in sugar and meat, but low in probiotics.
Dysbiosis encourages yeasts and putrefactive bacteria to flourish, instead of fermentative beneficial bacteria. In turn, toxins build up and damage the sensitive microvilli brush border that lines our intestinal wall. When it’s healthy, that area helps assimilate nutrients and prevent toxins from passing through the gut wall into the bloodstream.
The modern diet also causes inflammation of the gut and excessive intestinal permeability (leaky gut syndrome), leading to conditions such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome. Allergies, systemic candida, eczema, autoimmune disease, arthritis, and even mental illness have all been linked to dysbiosis. If your stool smells unpleasant, it is a good sign of too much putrefaction and an imbalance of gut flora.
So how can you get more of the good stuff?
Making sure you get enough probiotics from fermented foods or probiotic supplements can protect you from these illnesses and help you attain optimum health. Another tip: By eating plant foods rich in plant fibers, you also provide fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), the food beneficial bacteria feed off, thus helping them thrive in your system. Avocados, bananas, and Jerusalem artichokes are high in FOS.
When researchers analyzed the stool of people aged 80-109 years old in Bama, a Longevity Hot Spot in China, they found that it contained from 53 to 87 percent bifidobacterium—significantly more than elderly Chinese from other districts. This finding was attributed to their diets rich in FOS and their intake of fermented foods. It’s likely the findings would be the same for people in the other longevity communities, given their intake of FOS and probiotics.
Here’s how to increase your levels of friendly flora:
Eat more fermented foods, including live yogurt. See the list below.
Take probiotics.
Avoid excessive sugar and animal fats.
Avoid stress, which can kill friendly flora.
To add probiotics to your diet, choose from among these fermented foods:
Yogurt
Yogurt is milk which has been fermented by live cultures so as to enhance its nutritional value and digestibility. The best yogurt is low fat with a creamy, slightly sweet texture which has been fermented with one part L. bulgaricus to seven parts S. thermophilus, these being the best yogurt cultures. Yogurt which has been pasteurized after the addition of probiotics will not contain live cultures and will not provide the same benefits. Pasteurizing live yogurt is forbidden in some states including New York.
To test whether or not the ‘live’ yogurt you buy is really live, mix a tablespoonful with a cupful of milk which has been heated but not boiled. Leave overnight in a warm place. If the mixture has thickened by morning, you have live cultures present.
Kefir
Kefir is a fermented milk product originating in the Caucausus. The word kefir (which rhymes with ‘see-her’) means ‘pleasure’. Kefir is tangy like yogurt, and contains a mix of cultures such as Saccaromyces kefir, Torula kefir, Lactobacillus brevis and Streptococcus lactis, amongst others. True kefir has a slightly alcoholic content due to the presence of yeast, which gives it its unique flavor (and presumably its name).
Aged cheese
Symiots, Hunzakuts, Sardinians, and Campodimelani all eat traditionally fermented cheese made from sheep’s, goat’s, or cow’s milk. Hunzakuts also enjoy maltash, a fermented butter which is wrapped in birch bark and buried underground for years or even decades and served at weddings, funerals, and births.
If you want to eat cheese, choose high-quality matured cheeses which have been made in a traditional way, rather than processed cheese.
Crème fraiche
Crème fraiche is cream which has been soured with bacterial culture. It is thick with a slightly tangy taste and is popular for making sauces in French cuisine.
Traditionally fermented soy products
miso, tempeh, traditionally brewed soy sauce
Fermenting soy products raises their levels of isoflavones, the beneficial plant estrogens thought to protect against breast cancer and osteoporosis. It also makes them much more digestible than modern processed soy products, which are an invention of the West and are not eaten by long-lived Japanese or Chinese populations such as the Okinawans or people of Bama.
Sauerkraut
This pickled cabbage dish is popular in Eastern Europe. Its origins trace as far back as the 13th century, when Genghis Khan fed fermented vegetables to his plundering hordes. Captain Cook also used sauerkraut to prevent scurvy in sailors.
Traditionally fermented pickled vegetables
capers, olives, pickles
Capers are traditionally preserved by the Symiots and used as a relish and for stomach ailments. Modern pickled foods such as capers and olives are mass-produced and do not contain beneficial bacteria. However, traditionally marinated and fermented vegetables such as olives, artichokes, peppers and mushrooms can be obtained in specialist delicatessens.
Sprouted foods
Soaking a bean, grain, or seed in water causes the outer hull to be broken down by probiotics—fermented—which enables the sprouting process. Foods treated in this way have higher, more easily absorbed nutrient contents. Sprouting also reduces the content of antinutrients, such as phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of minerals such as iron and zinc from these grains.
Sprouted wheat or rye bread can be obtained from good health food shops. Some delicatessens make sourdough rye bread from dough which has been fermented with lactic acid. These breads are much more digestible than ordinary bread.
You can make porridge by buying organic whole oats and soaking them overnight, then adding yogurt after cooking for a creamy texture. This will make a filling breakfast which is far more digestible than packaged cereals which are processed in a modern way and contain anti-nutrients such as phytates.
Umeboshi plums
These are small, reddish-purple, wrinkled, salty and very tangy pickled plums which are sometimes eaten in Japan after a meal as they are thought to aid digestion. Good umeboshi plums are left for six months to ferment in a mixture of salt and shiso leaves. They are sometimes referred to as ‘The King of Alkaline Foods.’ Japanese scientists studying umeboshi plums have found them to contain probiotics with powerful antibiotic properties and they are also thought to be beneficial for hangovers and bad breath. They are very potent (and salty) and two or three a week is enough!
Thai fish sauce
Known as Nam Pla in Thailand, is a fish sauce made from fish (often anchovies, but sometimes whatever comes up in the net) which have been allowed to ferment and is popular in Asia as a dipping sauce and for use in cooking. Nam Pla which has been allowed to ferment for a long period has a slightly nutty, cheesy flavor whereas sauce which has fermented for only a short time tastes more fishy.
Tofuyo (fermented tofu)
Also called “the cheese of the east,” it’s an Okinawan delicacy made from tofu which has been fermented for three to four months in awamori (rice wine) and malted rice. It is prized for its medicinal properties, mellow flavor, and succulent texture. Okinawans will eat a single cube while sipping awamori and watching songs or dances; they describe this as Nuchi-gusui—”the medicine of life.”
When tofuyo was given to hypertensive rats, it was found to significantly lower blood pressure and cholesterol due to its angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity (1).
Contraindications
If you have candida, you may want to use caution. Fermented foods contain yeasts and molds that are unlikely to cause candida—but your body might be sensitive to them.
Fermented foods such as capers, olives, and umeboshi plums can be very high in salt. If you are on a low-salt diet, keep these to a minimum.
Cheese and wine are high in histamines. Avoid or limit them if you are intolerant.
Download a printable list of fermented foods here.
Fermented Foods References
(1) Kuba M, Shinjo S, Yasuda M. Antihypertensive and Hypocholesterolemic Effects of Tofuyo in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats. Journal of Health Science, vol 50 (2004), No 6. 670-673.
The Amazing Power of Superfoods
Your body is a remarkable machine. Put the right fuels into it—whole, local, fresh, unprocessed, chemical-free foods found right in your grocery store—and it will run like it should. Give it optimal nutrition, and it can protect itself and help prevent illness. Akea has researched the global food market and nature’s gardens to discover which foods provide the healthiest benefits—the foods that are shared across tables in the world’s key Longevity Hot Spots. We’ve shared them with you here.
What do we mean by "super"?
The term superfoods gets bandied about a lot these days. It seems each time you turn around there’s a fanfare about another food that’s packed with nutrients and—if you pay a ton of money for it after it has been flown halfway across the world—has the power to transform you instantly to a state of radiant health. Acai berries! Goji berries! Cacao nibs! Spirulina! In the midst of the hype, it’s important to remember some key points…
Individual nutrients work in the context of the food they are in.
Foods work in the context of the diet they are part of.
Diet works in the context of overall lifestyle.
The Akea superfoods described here will benefit you most if you view them as part of an overall plan, like the Akea BluePrint for Life. This is, of course, the way they are used in the Longevity Hot Spots. The idea of everyday superfoods simply means that superfoods can be quite ordinary and easily available—apples, garlic, and tomato paste, for example, are found in the most modest of kitchens.
You can start getting healthier today by learning about superfoods and their nutrients. The goal isn’t to consume them in pharmacologically huge doses. Rather, it’s to learn to enjoy superfoods as part of a daily routine, just as longevity populations do.
Keep these notes in mind:
Be practical! Some superfoods will be more within reach than others. If you live near an organic apple orchard, for example, as opposed to a lush valley in remote China, you can choose to eat apples more often than goji berries.
Put color on your table! The more vibrant the color of a plant food, the greater the benefits, since the phytochemicals (plant chemicals) are represented by the plant pigment. A table rich with reds, yellows, oranges, blues, purples and dark greens will bring you a wide range of nutrients working in concert to rejuvenate your cells and send vitality coursing through your veins.
Go organic where you can. While organic plants don’t necessarily have higher mineral levels, they do have more phytochemicals. That’s because they use phytochemicals to grow strong and protect themselves against bugs. When you eat them, you get the benefits, too.
Now you’re ready to learn more about superfoods. This is the definitive Akea list of top superfoods:
Akea Superfoods
(Click on the superfood name for additional information.)
* Found in Akea Essentials
Acai berries
Ginger*
Apples
Goji berries*
Apricots*
Green tea*
Avocados
Mushrooms*
Blueberries
Red Wine and Resveratrol*
Beans
Soy
Brassica vegetables*
Spinach*
Buckwheat*
Sprouted Foods*
Chocolate (cacao)*
Sweet Potatoes*
Chlorella and Spirulina*
Tomato Paste and Tomatoes
Cinnamon*
Turmeric*
Flax
Yogurt*
Garlic
* Download a printable list of Akea Superfoods
Acai Berries
The acai (ah-sah-ee) fruit is a small purple berry grown in Brazil, where it is a dietary mainstay of local Caboclo populations and sold in towns in numerous acai shops. It’s recently become something of a poster superfood in the West, thanks to two popular news stories:
one about its alleged ability to aid weight loss by speeding up fat-burning and suppressing appetite
another about a University of Florida study that found acai extract can kill cancer cells in vitro.
At Akea, we believe the acai deserves its celebrated status. It has an extremely high rating on the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score, a measure of antioxidant power. While prunes have traditionally topped the fruit list at 5,770 units per 100g, the acai has now shot past at about 18,500 units per 100g and up to 50,000 units when freeze-dried. Scientists recommend we consume between 3,500 and 6,000 ORAC units daily to neutralize aging free radicals. So, eating a handful of acai berries daily may have a powerful anti-aging effect.
The acai also contains anthocyanins, fiber, plant sterols, and both omega 6 and omega 3 essential fatty acids. Acai also contains five hundred times more vitamin C than oranges, making it a valuable anti-aging food.
How to eat: Acai berries are sold freeze-dried or in supplements. Add a handful to your breakfast cereal, smoothies, crepes, or yogurt.
Remember: There is a delicate balance of free radicals and antioxidant levels in our bodies which needs to be maintained, since free radicals do not exist without reason and they do have their uses. Superdosing acai supplements (and other antioxidant supplements) is not advisable. Acai berries are best used in their whole fruit form in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
Apples
It might not be exotic or flashy, but don’t forget the humble apple! White apple blossom fills the beautiful Hunza valley in spring. Locals pick the apples when they are perfectly ripe and eat them fresh, when they are highest in nutrients.
Apples contain antioxidant vitamins and are also one of the best sources of pectin, a soluble fiber that helps keep blood cholesterol levels low, blood glucose levels steady, and toxic heavy metals where they should be—out of your digestive tract.
Apples also provide insoluble fiber, which helps sweep the intestines clean.
How to eat: Slice and add to cereal, fruit salad, smoothies, or desserts. Gently stew and puree them, or simply eat them as they are. Chewing the seeds will also provide you with vitamin B17, which might have the ability to kill cancer cells. Buy organic, locally-grown apples in season if you can and eat while fresh.
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Apricots
[Found in Akea Essentials] Apricots became known as an important anti-aging food in the 1970s when Westerners discovered apricot trees dotted all over the Hunza valley, home to the legendary long-lived Hunzakuts of Pakistan. The bright orange fruit is spread out over the roofs of the houses to dry after harvesting and eaten in large quantities all year long. When Hunzakuts want a snack, instead of opening a bag of potato chips they pick a few apricots. When bored, they hold apricot-eating competitions.
Apricots are a rich source of minerals, fiber, and antioxidant beta carotene, especially when dried. Hunzakuts also crack open and eat the almond-like apricot kernels, which contain protein and omega 6 essential fatty acid. The kernels are also crushed to make a marzipan-flavored oil which is spread on chapattis and used as a beauty product. The kernels are also the best known source of anti-cancer vitamin B17.
How to use: Eat dried or fresh on their own, together with a handful of kernels or almonds as an energy-boosting snack. Or eat as jam, or added to breakfast cereals, oat bars, or desserts.
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Avocados
Avocados were once known by the Aztecs as “the fertility fruit.” The name comes from the Aztec word ahuacatl, meaning testicle, a reference to the shape of the fruit. Today we know just how life-giving avocados can be. They’re full of…
immune-enhancing plant sterols
protein
fiber
the powerful antioxidant glutathione
the antioxidant lutein
fat-soluble vitamin E, which protects cell membranes and blood vessels
fructo-oligo-saccharides, the fibers that encourage friendly bacteria to flourish in our intestines.
In addition, avocados contain monounsaturated fat, a healthy fat that can lower LDL cholesterol levels. This fat also aids absorption of fat-soluble vitamins: One study found that eating them with tomatoes and/or carrots raises absorption of prostate-protecting lycopene by up to 4.5 times and anti-cancer beta-carotene by 13.6 times (4). Avocados also contain their own carotenoids and have been found to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro (5). They are high in potassium, making them useful for lowering water retention.
How to eat: Cut avocados in half and eat with salad dressing and/or shrimp with grape seed mayonnaise (available at health food stores, or make your own with grapeseed oil–there are many good recipes on the internet) as a starter. Eat with salad leaves and pumpkin seeds, in a chicken sandwich, or as guacamole.
Especially good lycopene- and beta-carotene-boosting combinations are avocado with salsa; avocado with tomato, mozzarella and basil; and avocado with carrot, cottage cheese, and basil in a sandwich.
Avocado oil, a rich source of vitamin E and monounsaturated fats, can be used to make salad dressings and can be used for cooking at high heat as it has a high smoke point.
Believe it or not, avocado makes a delicious addition to a fruit smoothie.
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Blueberries
[Found in Akea Essentials] Blueberries, as indicated by their rich color, are particularly high in the prized antioxidants anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin. They also rank high (fourth) on the ORAC antioxidant score for fruits, with 2,234 units per 100g.
Proanthocyanidins have the unusual ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier to enter the brain, where they can protect nerve tissue, help form new pathways, and help regenerate brain cells. Studies on rats have shown that blueberry consumption can actually reverse cognitive decline (6).
Proanthocyanidins do more good things:
improve circulation
reduce inflammation
protect blood vessels
neutralize free radicals
They’ve also been shown to be twenty times more effective than vitamin C and fifty times more effective than vitamin E in preventing the oxidant damage, which is linked to accelerated aging. They greatly enhance the action of vitamin C, which is why sailors in the sixteenth century were saved from scurvy by eating lemons along with proanthocyanidin-rich pine bark.
Other red, blue, and purple berries—strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blackberries—are also high in anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins and are an excellent anti-aging food. Most, including blueberries, also contain ellagic acid, a compound which causes cancer cells to self-destruct in a process called apoptosis.
How to eat: When in season, have a bowlful of blueberries and other berries daily with cereal or yogurt or in smoothies. You can also make home-made ice cream or frozen yogurt with berries.
If you can find them, wild blueberries have up to 100 times the amount of antioxidants than cultivated ones and are also relatively high in omega 3 essential fats. Check the frozen fruits section in your supermarket.
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Beans
Beans are a quick, easy way to make a meal more filling and raise protein levels without having to eat too much meat. Black beans, green beans, aduki beans, soy beans, fagioli beans, cannellini beans, lima beans, mung beans…they can all be found at your local grocery waiting for you to add them to soups, casseroles, and salads, just as the people in the Longevity Hot Spots do.
The Campodimelani are especially fond of their cicerchie beans, which are small but packed with antioxidants. They use them in soups, stews, and salads.
Beans are also plentiful in soluble and insoluble fiber, antioxidant flavonoids, phytosterols, minerals, and energy-boosting, heart-friendly B vitamins. Many beans also contain phytoestrogens, such as genistein, which are thought to protect against hormone-related cancers.
A study from Tulane University School of Public Health in New Orleans found that people who included beans in their diets at least four times a week lowered their heart disease risk by 22 percent compared to people whose diets included a serving or less each week.
How to eat: Add beans to onion, garlic, and tomatoes cooked in olive oil or grape seed oil and add a spoonful of turmeric for a superfood quintuple-whammy. Then mash them up, sprinkle coriander and a little lemon juice over them, and serve in a buckwheat pancake.
You can also add them to casseroles and soups for a hearty but non?fattening meal. Or add beans to a salad for a quick but satisfying lunch.
Sprouting beans prevents them from causing gas.
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Brassica Vegetables
[Found in Akea Essentials] Brassica, or cruciferous, vegetables—like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, pak choi or bok choi, kale, and watercress—are what everyone should be eating if they want to lower the risk of cancer.
Epidemiological studies reveal a link between brassica-eating populations and lower cancer rates. Plus, brassicas have been shown in studies to prevent tumors in animals given a potent carcinogen or even exposed to radiation. They are eaten in plentiful quantities by the long-lived Okinawans, Sardinians, Campodimelani, and Hunzakuts.
Their cancer-preventive effect is likely due to a range of compounds working together, almost as if they were designed to do so just for our benefit.
Sulfurophane and indole-3-carbinol help the liver eliminate carcinogens during detoxification
Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, folic acid, selenium, carotenoids, and fiber have a synergistic antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, toxin-neutralizing effect (7-10)
Brassicas also increase levels of an enzyme which converts estradiol into a safer form, thus possibly protecting against hormonal cancers such as breast cancer
How to eat: Steam or lightly stir-fry brassicas, as cooking degrades the beneficial chemicals. They also taste better when they are crunchier. Cut small and add raw to salads or use as dips. One study showed that just one or two servings of raw broccoli per month significantly reduced bladder cancer risk.
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Buckwheat
[Found in Akea Essentials] Buckwheat is highly digestible, nutrient-rich, gluten-free—and, in spite of its name, it’s no relation to wheat. Buckwheat flour, used for baking and making noodles, comes from the seed of the plant.
Buckwheat bread is given to the Hunzakuts when they are ill, while the Japanese can be found downing buckwheat noodles when hungover. Buckwheat’s many beneficial properties include…
rutin, which supports capillary health
anti-cancer vitamin B-17
protein, fiber, and minerals such as iron, zinc, and selenium
a protein that is thought to bind to cholesterol, thus lowering LDL cholesterol levels
a compound, called D-chiro-inositol, which is involved in insulin use and is being studied for use in treating Type II diabetes
Buckwheat also contains choline, a B vitamin that supports liver health—hence the hangover cure.
How to eat: Make pancakes easily and quickly by combining buckwheat and water with a little salt, then frying in olive or grape seed oil. Make the mixture fairly runny. Spread in a thin layer and cook until golden. Serve with smoked salmon, dill, chopped spring onion, and crème fraiche, or another filling such as beans.
You can also make versatile breakfast pancakes with buckwheat by adding egg, vanilla, oat milk, and/or bananas and raisins.
Buckwheat noodles are also available from Asian stores and health food outlets and are good with mushrooms, soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil.
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Chocolate (cacao)
[Found in Akea Essentials] Cacao nibs, from which modern chocolate is derived, have a long history of medicinal use. Perhaps surprisingly, they rate near the top of the ORAC score for antioxidant levels (28,000 units per 100g).
That’s higher than any fruit or vegetable!
Dark chocolate has been found to lower heart disease risk by 20 percent, probably because it can:
reduce total cholesterol
reduce blood clots and inflammation in arteries
keep arteries elastic
There are still more unexpected benefits to cacao and chocolate. They are…
vasodilators, meaning they can lower blood pressure.
high in magnesium, required by women during menstruation. That might be why women sometimes crave chocolate before their menstrual period.
sources of theobromine, which increases feelings of well-being, and phenylethylamine, a chemical released when we are in love.
One study, called the “sweet babies” study, found that mothers who ate chocolate while pregnant had happier children (11).
How to eat: Choose chocolate that is at least 70 percent cocoa. Eat it in small amounts since chocolate also contains sugar. Cacao is available as a supplement.
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Chlorella and Spirulina
[Found in Akea Essentials] These ancient species of algae have developed a reputation for having almost miraculous healing powers—and not without reason. Much studied by scientists, they are extremely nutrient-dense and have been found to possess antiviral, anti-tumor, anti-bacterial, and anti-HIV properties.
They induce apoptosis (cell “suicide”) in diseased liver cells and decrease blood pressure in hypertensive rats (12, 13). These important superfoods are even being hailed as the answer to some of the planet’s 21st century problems of nutrient deficiency.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae containing around 100 nutrients and a very high protein content of 60 to 70 percent. This superfood…
contains all eight essential amino acids we need, making it a complete protein.
is rich in the antioxidants lutein, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene.
contains remarkably high levels of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
Spirulina has also been found in studies to reduce viral replication including HIV-1, mumps, and measles.
Chlorella is a green algae with 58% protein content and the complete set of essential amino acids. This superfood is…
one of the few vegan sources of bioavailable vitamin B12.
a rich source of chlorophyll, which can chelate toxins from the body and cleanse the bowel, liver, and bloodstream
the source of chlorella growth factor, which has the potential to repair human genetic material and therefore have significant anti-aging powers.
Both algae contain a wide range of the minerals and trace elements our bodies need, as well as vitamins, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. They are also high in calcium and magnesium, which work together to improve our bone density. They are also thought to have prebiotic compounds to support growth of the friendly intestinal flora you need to be healthy.
All of these benefits add up to a super-superfood with the potential to detoxify the body, improve immunity, rebuild nerve tissue, improve mental function, aid in bone health, and help prevent and even reverse disease.
How to use: Spirulina and chlorella are available as a powder, capsule, or tablet, both together and separately. Purchase from a reputable company and take as directed.
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Cinnamon
[Found in Akea Essentials] As with all spices, cinnamon has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities and is high in antioxidants. In fact, it measures almost off the scale on the ORAC score at 6,000 units per third of a teaspoon.
Cinnamon is a traditional remedy for flatulence, diarrhea, and other digestive problems. It’s said that King Solomon took cinnamon as a remedy for his indigestion. Because of its chromium content, this spice may also have the potential to treat type 2 diabetes—although studies have yet to support this.
How to use: Cinnamon comes as a stick or a powder. Dust it on your toast, pancakes, or soup. Drink as an herbal tea, make a tea with dried powdered bark, or mix into ground coffee for cinnamon-flavored coffee. Cinnamon is also available as a supplement.
Caution: Because cinnamon has extremely high antioxidant levels, half a teaspoon is probably more than enough. Consuming high levels of antioxidants is not advisable—in fact, eating more than four tablespoons has been found to cause serious side effects.
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Flax
Flax seeds, an old favorite of Hippocrates, have earned their status as a superfood due to their high content of plant lignans, sterols, isoflavones, omega 3 fatty acids, protein, and fiber. The Hunzakuts mix flax into a paste and spread it on their chapattis. It’s one of their main sources of the essential fats that are so indispensable to good health.
Flax is the best source of plant lignans, which have the power to redirect estrogen metabolism and thus might help prevent hormone-related cancers of the breast, endometrium, and ovaries (14), (15). (The next best source? Sesame seeds.)
Flax is also rich in phytosterols, cholesterol-like plant fats that have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol levels in men and women (16), (17). Exciting new research suggests that phytosterols are immune-modulating and so may be a valid treatment for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and other diseases of the immune system including HIV. Several studies also suggest that sterols may reduce the risk of cancer of the breast and prostate, stomach, lung, and endometrium, although it is not known whether this is due to the sterols in flax alone (18-21).
Early human diets were rich in phytosterols. But now they’re lacking, partly because of farming methods and partly because of our diet. Eating flax is a good way to get your phytosterol levels where they should be.
Nuts and seeds generally are an excellent source of protein, sterols, minerals, fiber, and essential fats.
How to use: Use a tablespoon of ground flax sprinkled over your breakfast cereal or in pancakes. Mix it with applesauce or in yogurt or smoothies. You can cook with flax without destroying the lignans, so use it in baking. Buy the seeds, grind enough for three days, and keep the seeds in an airtight jar in the fridge. Or, buy from a dark vacuum packet and store in the fridge.
You can also soak the seeds overnight and drink the gel-like mixture in the morning, or add it to a smoothie. This is an excellent colon cleanse.
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Garlic
Garlic—once known as the stinking rose—has a long tradition as a cure-all. It was used medicinally by Hippocrates as well as by monks in the Middle Ages to ward off the plague.
Because of its pungent aroma, garlic is sometimes viewed with suspicion. One myth goes that when Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left footprint. Another says Muhammad reportedly forbade anyone who had recently eaten garlic from entering a mosque.
Garlic has a long list of healing qualities:
the ability to protect against gastric and colorectal cancer
boost immunity
lower blood pressure and cholesterol
prevent colds
It has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties—to the extent that it was used by the Russian army during World War II to keep wounds clean. As an antifungal, it is a useful treatment for candida, especially as it does not kill friendly bacteria. Garlic and onions are both good sources of quercetin, an effective natural antihistamine.
Garlic can protect against cancer in several ways. It…
kills H. pylori, the bacterium linked with stomach cancer
is one of the best sources of organosulfur compounds, which have been found to slow the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro
contains the mineral selenium, which is linked to low cancer rates.
A meta-analysis of studies on garlic and cancer found that those with highest garlic intakes had a 50 percent lower risk of gastric cancer than those with low intake and a 30 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer (22).
How to use: Crush and use raw in salad dressings and dips such as tzatziki. Or, lightly sweat garlic as a base for cooked dishes such as stews and soups, just as the Symiots, Campodimelani, Sardinians, and Hunzakuts do.
Cooking garlic destroys some of the beneficial enzymes and cooked garlic has been found in studies to lose its cancer-protective qualities (23). However, letting the garlic stand for ten minutes after chopping and before heating preserves some of the active enzymes.
Eat the real thing! Research shows that garlic itself is more useful than garlic supplements, which can vary in quality.
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Ginger
[Found in Akea Essentials] Ginger is well-known for relieving nausea during pregnancy and after surgery, as well as being a remedy for coughs and colds. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and antioxidant.
Ginger also contains pungent antioxidant compounds, gingerol and zingerone, which may protect against heart disease and cancer. Gingerol relaxes blood vessels, thins the blood, and stimulates blood flow thus protecting heart health and boosting circulation. It has also been found to prevent the development of tumors in animals. Zingerone was found to reduce damage to cells in mice when they were exposed to radiation (24, 25).
How to use: Drink as herb tea, or add to carrot and apple juice. Add freshly chopped ginger to marinades and stir-fries. Try it pickled with sushi, or dried and powdered in baking.
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Goji Berries
[Found in Akea Essentials] These tangy red raisin-like berries have a long history of use in Chinese medicine. They rate up there with acai berries on the ORAC scale at 25,300 units—meaning you need just 20 grams (less than a handful) to reach your daily recommended intake of antioxidants.
Goji berries also contain high levels of phytochemicals—including 33 minerals and trace minerals, amino acids, vitamins, essential fatty acids, phytosterols, and carotenoids. Working together, these nutrients are likely to protect against chronic degenerative disease, including heart disease and cancer.
One of the carotenoids found in goji berries is zeaxanthin, which helps protect the retina of the eye from UV damage. Goji berries might help prevent age-related macular degeneration.
How to use: Goji berries usually come in dried form. They can be eaten raw or brewed into a tea.
Caution: It’s not advisable to drink goji berries in a concentrated liquid form if you take blood-thinning drugs.
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Green Tea
[Found in Akea Essentials] Green tea first had its moment when epidemiologists noticed that Japanese green tea workers in one particular area seemed to have extremely low incidence of cancer.
It’s now been shown that drinking several cups of strong green tea a day can help prevent cancer—particularly cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, lung, skin, bladder, stomach, and esophagus. The key substance is probably an antioxidant called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which has been found to kill cancer cells in human tissue and prevent tumor growth in mice (26, 27).
Green tea also…
contains B vitamins for energy and immunity
has more vitamin C than an orange
contains vitamin E, which protects heart health by keeping the blood from coagulating
protects against the inflammation that’s linked to aging diseases like osteoporosis and heart disease.
Drinking green and black tea has been found in studies to lower levels of C?reactive protein, a marker of inflammation closely linked to heart disease.
Green tea can help you lose excess weight by improving insulin use so that glucose is burned for energy rather than being stored as fat; it also enhances fat-burning enzymes in cells. Furthermore, scientists have found that these two effects work together in a way that equals much more than the sum of their parts.
Green tea offers other benefits, such as…
antibacterial and antiviral properties
a prebiotic effect, meaning that it creates the right environment in the gut for friendly flora.
EGCG and other catechins are excellent for liver health and detoxification since they slow down the first phase of liver detoxification and enhance the second phase—enabling the dangerous intermediate chemicals formed after the first phase to be mopped up and eliminated more effectively.
People who are exposed to pollutants (almost everyone) tend to have an overly fast first phase of liver detoxification. So, drinking green tea can be very beneficial in this process since it gets rid of potential carcinogens.
How to use: Numerous studies have shown that the anti-cancer benefits are only noticeable in populations who consume four or more cups daily. The best-tasting green tea is made from leaves rather than teabags. It tastes especially good with lemongrass. The Okinawans have theirs scented with jasmine flowers—good health food shops in the West often stock green tea with jasmine added.
Black tea, which is made from charred green tea leaves, also has health benefits. But the benefits are weaker, while the caffeine content is higher.
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Mushrooms
[Found in Akea Essentials] Three types of mushroom qualify for superfood status: maitake, shiitake, and reishi mushrooms.
Maitake is a Japanese word meaning “dancing mushroom,” since Japanese mushroom hunters would traditionally dance for joy at finding one of these prized specimens. Maitake mushrooms…
contain compounds called beta-glucans, which have a powerful ability to strengthen our immune systems and are known to increase levels of our tumor-fighting natural killer cells and suppress the growth of tumors (29).
contain X-fraction, which increases insulin sensitivity to help maintain a healthy weight and lower the risk of diabetes.
can lower blood pressure and blood lipids, which is why Japanese doctors use Maitake mushrooms to help protect against heart disease.
Shiitake mushrooms, which are eaten by the Okinawans, are high in anticancer vitamin D and a substance called lentinan that boosts immunity. Lentinan is used in Japan as an anti-tumor medicine.
The reishi mushroom, known in China as the plant of immortality, also has immune-boosting properties and is thought to protect heart health. It’s a key ingredient in Akea Essentials. Reishi is also used to treat asthma, respiratory conditions, liver disorders, and arthritis. It is anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and antioxidant.
How to eat: Use in stir-fries, noodle dishes, soups, and other Asian dishes with garlic, sesame oil, and soy sauce. These mushrooms are also available in capsule form.
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Red Wine
[Found in Akea Essentials] Red wine is high in powerful antioxidants. It can lower blood pressure, which is why drinking red wine in moderation has been linked to the low levels of heart disease and cancer in the Mediterranean and other regions.
All of the longevity populations drink alcohol in moderation, whether it be red wine, sake, snake wine, or the potent home-brew of the Hunzakuts known as Hunza water.
Red wine is believed to be the most beneficial of alcoholic drinks. Among its antioxidants is one in particular called resveratrol, which…
is found in the red-colored skin of grapes, as well as some berries and also peanuts
has been found to increase the lifespan of laboratory animals by stimulating an enzyme called Sir2, which emulates the benefits of calorie restriction
has been shown to help prevent induced cancer in animals.
These powerful effects are why Akea Essentials contains red wine extract and resveratrol.
Some studies have shown that wine raises levels of estrogen and that it may raise the risk of a woman getting breast cancer by about 6 percent. If you are concerned about this finding, then you might want to avoid wine. But remember: Eating a fibrous diet high in plant foods, as the longevity populations do, helps remove excess estrogen from the body.
How to use: Drink red wine with meals in small to moderate amounts as part of a healthy diet for maximum health benefits. Grape juice is lower in resveratrol, but is a good alternative for non-drinkers. Organic pinot noir from New Zealand contains 30 percent more resveratrol than other red wines. Cannonau from Sardinia has the highest levels of antioxidants—three times the antioxidants of any other grape on earth.
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Soy
Soy is a somewhat controversial superfood. It’s been linked to the low rates of breast cancer and osteoporosis among Asian soy-eating women, including those in Okinawa and Bama. Most likely, the reason for this link is that soy is one of the best sources of plant estrogens, especially two called genistein and diadzein, which help balance estrogen levels in women.
Studies have yet to prove that soy can prevent breast cancer in Western women, but there is research to show that a higher intake of soy in adolescence may decrease the risk in adulthood (29).
Soy is also a good source of immune-boosting plant sterols. It’s also got arginine, which raises levels of vasodilatory nitric oxide, thus protecting heart health.
How to eat: Use traditionally-fermented tofu, miso, and tamari soy sauce. Consume in small to moderate amounts (no more than one or two servings daily), just as the Okinawans and mainland Japanese do. The mass-produced, processed soy now available in ready meals and soy milks is not as digestible as traditionally fermented products and is often made from GM (genetically modified) soy.
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Spinach
[Found in Akea Essentials] Spinach, eaten daily by most Hunzakuts, is a common but powerful superfood. It is…
rich in protein
high in minerals, including bone-friendly calcium and magnesium
a good source of anti-aging alpha-lipoic-acid
rich in folic acid
full of vitamin K for bone health
It is also high in beta-carotene (although its dark green color disguises the orange pigment) and another carotenoid called lutein, which is known to improve visual acuity and protect against age-related macular degeneration (30).
Spinach also contains zeaxanthin, another antioxidant that protects the eyes from UV damage.
How to eat: Make soup or pasta sauce using frozen chopped spinach. Gently wilt spinach with garlic and olive or grape seed oil. Throw a handful in your morning smoothie. Use inside buckwheat wraps or tortillas. Or, just toss in with mixed greens in a salad.
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Sprouted Foods
[Found in Akea Essentials] Sprouts have exceptionally concentrated levels of nutrients—first because the seed, grain, or bean they come from contains all the nutrients required to grow a new plant, and because the sprouting process greatly increases the levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and enzymes present.
The sprouting process releases enzymes that break down some of the nutrients into their constituent parts, making them very bio-available in our bodies. That’s why both brussels and broccoli sprouts are part of Akea Essentials.
Sprouted grains are more digestible than ordinary grains and also contain less phytic acid which can inhibit our absorption of important minerals such as zinc. Sprouting wheat breaks down the gluten so some wheat-intolerant people can eat sprouted wheat bread, as the Hunzakuts do on special occasions. Sprouting beans prevents them from releasing gas in the intestinal tract.
Another remarkable property of sprouts is that they contain the nucleic acids RNA and DNA which are necessary for healthy cell division and thus may protect against cancer. Sprouts are a “living” food, and their vitality has a regenerative effect on us when we eat them.
How to eat: Sprouted seeds are available in health food shops. Or, you can easily make them at home in a sprouting jar. Add to salads and stir-fries to make them more filling and nutrient-rich.
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Sweet Potatoes
[Found in Akea Essentials] Sweet potatoes are richer in nutrients and lower on the glycemic index than ordinary potatoes. They also have more flavor and are more succulent.
Sweet potatoes are such an important part of the Okinawan diet and there is even a local greeting, nmu kamatooin, meaning, “Are you getting enough sweet potato?” They contain vitamins E and C, fiber, and minerals including zinc, copper, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus.
Sweet potatoes also contain more of the antioxidant beta-carotene than any other vegetable— although it is also found in other rich orange-colored foods such as carrots, pumpkins, and apricots. Your body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A, which helps support the health of the respiratory and digestive tracts. Beta -also accumulates in the skin to protect it against sun damage.
How to eat: Roast, bake, steam, or use in soups and casseroles. Beta-carotene is fat-soluble and will only be absorbed if there is enough fat present, so use salads dressed with olive oil to accompany your sweet potatoes and squashes or roast on a low heat with olive oil or grape seed oil.
One oft-cited study of Finnish men showed that giving high doses of beta-carotene in supplement form to smokers increased the risk of lung cancer. However, eating moderate doses as provided by a diet rich in orange and dark green vegetables has been found to have a protective effect against a range of cancers.
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Tomato Paste and Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the best source of lycopene, the carotenoid responsible for the reds and pinks found in tomatoes, watermelon, rosehips, guavas, and pink grapefruit. Tomatoes and tomato paste are popular in Mediterranean cooking, like the dishes served in the Mediterranean Hot Spots Symi, Campodimele, and Sardinia.
Lycopene is best known for its ability to protect against prostate cancer, according to numerous studies (31). One study showed that men with the highest intakes of tomatoes and tomato products had a 35 percent lower risk of prostate cancer and a 53 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer (32).
Tomatoes are also high in vitamin C and folic acid, which probably work in synergy with the lycopene to protect against other illnesses. High blood levels of lycopene are thought to be able to lower heart disease risk in women by up to 50 percent—and one study has shown that lycopene may protect against cervical cancer (33).
Another advantage of eating tomatoes: They block the formation of carcinogenic compounds called nitrosamines formed when we eat cured meats. So, if you want to eat cured meats, you can limit the damage by having them with a tomato salad.
How to eat: Cook tomatoes with olive oil or grape seed oil to improve the absorption of lycopene. Tomato paste, the richest source of lycopene, can be used in casseroles or spread on home-made pizza with garlic, herbs, olives, artichokes, and a moderate amount of cheese. Of course, tomatoes are a delicious addition to a salad.
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Turmeric
[Found in Akea Essentials] Bright orange turmeric, a popular spice used in curries and known in India as the spice of life, first stole the spotlight when curry-eating Asians were found to have remarkably low levels of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.
The magic ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which…
binds to the plaques and tangles which characterize brains of Alzheimer’s patients (34-36).
is a powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidant—shown to be as effective as anti-inflammatory drugs, to decrease biomarkers of inflammation, and improve symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (37, 38).
is a promising treatment for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, thyroiditis, and lupus, thanks to its ability to regulate inflammatory cytokines (39).
increases levels of glutathione, an antioxidant that works within cells to protect them from free radical damage and possibly protect against cancer.
has a long history of use for liver disorders might help the liver eliminate cancerous toxins.
Studies also show that curcumin also induces apoptosis (cell ‘suicide’) in cancer cells and inhibits the development of chemically-induced cancers in animals (40, 41).
How to use: Add a teaspoon of turmeric to bean and lentil dishes, casseroles, stews, or marinades for chicken or fish. Mix turmeric into cooked brown rice, or sprinkle on cauliflower. Adding black pepper improves absorption.
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Yogurt
[Found in Akea Essentials] No list of superfoods would be complete without live yogurt. That’s because the friendly bacteria in yogurt can have a major impact on whether or not our bodies actually absorb the nutrients in our food.
We actually have more bacteria cells than body cells, weighing around 8.8 lbs in total and with up to 1000 different species residing in our gut. And their effects on our health cannot be underestimated.
Whether or not we are prone to stomach upsets, the degree to which we metabolize our food, our levels of certain vitamins, our immunity, and other facets of health all depend to a great extent on what is living inside us. Do you eat a modern low-fiber diet? Suffer stress? Have you taken several courses of antibiotics, or do you eat too much sugar? You’re likely to have many billion too few friendly bacteria—and far too many unfriendly ones.
Friendly bacteria…
synthesize B vitamins and vitamin K
produce enzymes to help digest dairy products
metabolize phytoestrogens
extract calcium from milk
aid digestion of protein, glucose, and fiber
aid absorption of minerals
kill pathogenic bacteria
rid the intestinal tract of salmonella, shigella, and e.coli
lower cholesterol levels
help prevent constipation
•even have antitumour effects
Probiotics—found in Akea Essentials—also help maintain the integrity of the digestive tract, thus preventing the excessive intestinal permeability that is linked to food intolerances and allergies.
How to eat: Choose live yogurt and add to breakfast cereal or fruit. Mix with garlic and cucumber to make tzatziki. Eat as an accompaniment to curry dishes, or eat on its own. If you are intolerant to yogurt, try taking a good-quality probiotic supplement.
The Symiots make thick full-fat yogurt in the Greek style, while the Hunzakuts regularly have both yogurt and a yogurt drink similar to lassi. Theirs has no sugar added, and these types of supermarket yogurt are best avoided. The best live yogurt is made with Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, which produce a smooth, creamy, and quite sweet-tasting yogurt.
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Superfood References
(1) Langmead L, Feakins RM, Goldthorpe S, et al. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of oral aloe vera gel for active ulcerative colitis. Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics April 2004;19(7):739-47.
(2) Boudreau MD, Beland FA. An evaluation of the biological and toxicological properties of Aloe barbadensis (miller), Aloe vera. Journal of environmental science and health part C, Environmental carcinogenesis & ecotoxicology reviews April 2006;24(1): 103-54.
(2a) Kametani S, et al. Mechanism of growth inhibitory effect of cape aloe extract in ehrich ascites tumor cells. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2007 Dec;53(6):540-6.
(2b) Goyal PK, Gehlot P. Radioprotective effects of Aloe vera leaf extract on Swiss albino mice against whole-body gamma irradiation. J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol, 2009;28(1):53-61.
(2c) Tamura N, Yoshida T, Miyaji K, Sugita-Konishi Y, Hattori M. Inhibition of infectious diseases by components from Aloe vera. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2009 Apr 23;73(4):950-3. Epub 2009 Apr 7.
(3) Vogler BK, Ernst E. Aloe vera: a systematic review of its clinical effectiveness. Br J Gen Prac 1999;49:823-828.
(4) Schwartz, Steven J. How Can the Metabolomic Response to Lycopene (Exposures, Durations, Intracellular Concentrations) in Humans Be Adequately Evaluated? Journal of Nutrition August 2005;135:2040S-2041S
(5) Lu et al. Inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth by an avocado extract: role of lipid-soluble bioactive substances. J Nutr Biochem, 2005;16(1):23-30.
(6) Shukitt-Hale, B; Lau FC; Joseph JA. Berry Fruit Supplementation and the Aging Brain. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2008;56:636-641.
(7) Verhoeven DT, Verhagen H, Goldbohm RA, van den Brandt PA, van Poppel G. A review of mechanisms underlying anticarcinogenicity by brassica vegetables. Chem Biol Interact. 1997;103(2):79-129. (PubMed).
(8) Conaway CC, Yang YM, Chung FL. Isothiocyanates as cancer chemopreventive agents: their biological activities and metabolism in rodents and humans. Curr Drug Metab. 2002;3(3):233-255. (PubMed).
(9) Fahey JW, Zhang Y, Talalay P. Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1997;94(19):10367-10372. (PubMed).
(10) Verhoeven DT, Goldbohm RA, van Poppel G, Verhagen H, van den Brandt PA. Epidemiological studies on brassica vegetables and cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1996;5(9):733-748. (PubMed).
(11) Raikkonen, Katri; Pesonen, Anu-Katriina; Jarvenpaa, Anna-Liisa; Strandberg, Timo E. Sweet babies: chocolate consumption during pregnancy and infant temperament at 6 months. Early Human Development, 2003; 76 (2); 139-145.
(12) Wu LC, Ho JA, Shieh MC, Lu IW. Antioxidant and Antiproliferative activities of Spirulina and Chlorella water extracts. J Agric Food Chem, 2005 May 18;53(10):4207-12.
(13) Suetsuna K, Chen JR. Identification of antihypertensive peptides from peptic digest of two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis. Mar Biotechnol (NY). 2001 Jul;3(4):305-9.
(14) Horn-Ross PL, John EM, Canchola AJ, Steward SL, Lee MM. Phytoestrogen intake and endometrial cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003;95(15):1158-1164. (PubMed).
(15) McCann SE, Freudenheim JL, Marshall JR, Graham S. Risk of human ovarian cancer is related to dietary intake of selected nutrients, phytochemicals and food groups. J Nutr. 2003;133(6):1937-1942. (PubMed).
(16) Moruisi KG, Oosthuizen W, Opperman AM. Phytosterols/stanols lower cholesterol concentrations in familial hypercholesterolemic subjects: a systematic review with meta-analysis. J Am Coll Nutr. 2006;25(1):41-48. (PubMed).
(17) Arjmandi BH, Khan DA, Jurna S. Whole flaxseed consumption lowers serum LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) concentrations in postmenopausal women. Nutr Res. 1998;18:1203-1214.
(18) Awad AB, Fink CS, Williams H, Kim U. In vitro and in vivo (SCID mice) effects of phytosterols on the growth and dissemination of human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2001;10(6):507-513. (PubMed).
(19) Awad AB, Downie A, Fink CS, Kim U. Dietary phytosterol inhibits the growth and metastasis of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells grown in SCID mice. Anticancer Res. 2000;20(2A):821-824 (PubMed).
(20) De Stefani E, Boffetta P, Ronco AL, et al. Plant sterols and risk of stomach cancer: a case-control study in Uruguay. Nutr Cancer. 2000;37(2):140-144. (PubMed).
(21) Mendilaharsu M, De Stefani E, Deneo-Pellegrini H, Carzoglio J, Ronco A. Phytosterols and risk of lung cancer: a case-control study in Uruguay. Lung Cancer. 1998;21(1):37-45.
(22) Fleischauer AT, Poole C, Arab L. Garlic consumption and cancer prevention: meta-analyses of colorectal and stomach cancers. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000; 72(4):1047-1052. (PubMed).
(23) Song K, Milner JA. Heating garlic inhibits its ability to suppress 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced DNA adduct formation in rat mammary tissue. J Nutr. 1999;129(3):657-661. (PubMed).
(24) Nigam N, George J, Srivastava S, Roy P, Bhui K, Singh M, Shukla Y. Induction of apoptosis by [6]-gingerol associated with the modulation of p53 and involvement of mitochondrial signaling pathway in B[a]P-induced mouse skin tumorigenesis. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2009 Jul 24.
(25) Rao BN, Rao BS, Aithal BK, Kumar MR. Radiomodifying and anticlastogenic effect of zingerone on Swiss albino mice exposed to whole body gamma radiation. Mutat Res. 2009 Jun-Jul;677(1-2):33-41. (PubMed).
(26) Oguni I, Cheng ShuJun, Annual Report of the Skylark Food Science Institute, no. 3.57(1991).
(27) Ahmad, N. et al. Green Tea Constituent epigallocatechin-3-gallate and Induction of Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Human Carcinoma Cells. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 89, no 24 (1997):1881-1886.
(28) Kodama N, Komuta K, Sakai N, & Nanba H. Effects of D-fraction, a polysaccharide from Grifola frondosa on Tumor Growth Involve Activation of NK Cells. Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 25, no. 12 (December 2002): 1647-1650.
(29) Peeters PH, Keinan-Boker L, van der Schouw YT, Grobbee DE. Phytoestrogens and breast cancer risk. Review of the epidemiological evidence. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2003;77(2):171-183. (PubMed).
(30) Mares-Perlman JA, Millen AE, Ficek TL, Hankinson SE. The body of evidence to support a protective role for lutein and zeaxanthin in delaying chronic disease. Overview. J. Nutr. 2002;132(3):518S-524S. (PubMed).
(31) Giovannucci E. A review of epidemiologic studies of tomatoes, lycopene and prostate cancer. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2002;227(10):852-859. (PubMed).
(32) Giovannucci E, Ascherio A, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willet WC. Intake of carotenoids and retinol in relation to risk of prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995;87(23):1767-1776. (PubMed).
(33) Van Eenwyk, J; Davis, FG, Bowne, PE. Dietary and Serum Carotenoids and Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia. International Journal of Cancer 48 (1991):34-38.
(34) Yang F, Lim GP, Begum AN, et al. Curcumin inhibits formation of amyloid beta oligomers and fibrils, binds plaques, and reduces amyloid in vivo. J Biol Chem. 2005;280(7):5892-5901. (PubMed).
(35) Lim GP, Chu T, Yang F, Beech W, Frautschy SA, Cole GM. The curry spice curcumin reduces oxidative damage and amyloid pathology in an Alzheimer transgenic mouse. J Neurosci. 2001;21(21):8370-8377. (PubMed).
(36) Frautschy SA, Hu W, Kim P, et al. Phenolic anti-inflammatory antioxidant reversal of Abeta-induced cognitive deficits and neuropathology. Neurobiol Agin. 2001;22(6):993-1005. (PubMed).
(37) Deodhar SD, Sethi R, Srimal RC. Preliminary study on antirheumatic activity of curcumin (diferuloyl methane). Indian J Med Res, 1980;71:632-634.
(38) Hanai H, Sugimoto K. Curcumin has bright prospects for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Curr Pharm Des. 2009;15(18):2087-94. (PubMed).
(39) Bright, JJ. Curcumin and autoimmune disease. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:425-51. (PubMed).
(40) Sharma RA, Gescher AJ, Steward WP. Curcumin: The story so far. Eur J Cancer. 2005;41(13):1955-1968. (PubMed).
(41) Huang MT, Lou YR, Ma W, Newmark HL, Reuhl KR, Conney AH. Inhibitory effects of dietary curcumin on forestomach, duodenal, and colon carcinogenesis in mice. Cancer Research. 1994;54(22):5841-5847. (PubMed).
What do we mean by "super"?
The term superfoods gets bandied about a lot these days. It seems each time you turn around there’s a fanfare about another food that’s packed with nutrients and—if you pay a ton of money for it after it has been flown halfway across the world—has the power to transform you instantly to a state of radiant health. Acai berries! Goji berries! Cacao nibs! Spirulina! In the midst of the hype, it’s important to remember some key points…
Individual nutrients work in the context of the food they are in.
Foods work in the context of the diet they are part of.
Diet works in the context of overall lifestyle.
The Akea superfoods described here will benefit you most if you view them as part of an overall plan, like the Akea BluePrint for Life. This is, of course, the way they are used in the Longevity Hot Spots. The idea of everyday superfoods simply means that superfoods can be quite ordinary and easily available—apples, garlic, and tomato paste, for example, are found in the most modest of kitchens.
You can start getting healthier today by learning about superfoods and their nutrients. The goal isn’t to consume them in pharmacologically huge doses. Rather, it’s to learn to enjoy superfoods as part of a daily routine, just as longevity populations do.
Keep these notes in mind:
Be practical! Some superfoods will be more within reach than others. If you live near an organic apple orchard, for example, as opposed to a lush valley in remote China, you can choose to eat apples more often than goji berries.
Put color on your table! The more vibrant the color of a plant food, the greater the benefits, since the phytochemicals (plant chemicals) are represented by the plant pigment. A table rich with reds, yellows, oranges, blues, purples and dark greens will bring you a wide range of nutrients working in concert to rejuvenate your cells and send vitality coursing through your veins.
Go organic where you can. While organic plants don’t necessarily have higher mineral levels, they do have more phytochemicals. That’s because they use phytochemicals to grow strong and protect themselves against bugs. When you eat them, you get the benefits, too.
Now you’re ready to learn more about superfoods. This is the definitive Akea list of top superfoods:
Akea Superfoods
(Click on the superfood name for additional information.)
* Found in Akea Essentials
Acai berries
Ginger*
Apples
Goji berries*
Apricots*
Green tea*
Avocados
Mushrooms*
Blueberries
Red Wine and Resveratrol*
Beans
Soy
Brassica vegetables*
Spinach*
Buckwheat*
Sprouted Foods*
Chocolate (cacao)*
Sweet Potatoes*
Chlorella and Spirulina*
Tomato Paste and Tomatoes
Cinnamon*
Turmeric*
Flax
Yogurt*
Garlic
* Download a printable list of Akea Superfoods
Acai Berries
The acai (ah-sah-ee) fruit is a small purple berry grown in Brazil, where it is a dietary mainstay of local Caboclo populations and sold in towns in numerous acai shops. It’s recently become something of a poster superfood in the West, thanks to two popular news stories:
one about its alleged ability to aid weight loss by speeding up fat-burning and suppressing appetite
another about a University of Florida study that found acai extract can kill cancer cells in vitro.
At Akea, we believe the acai deserves its celebrated status. It has an extremely high rating on the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score, a measure of antioxidant power. While prunes have traditionally topped the fruit list at 5,770 units per 100g, the acai has now shot past at about 18,500 units per 100g and up to 50,000 units when freeze-dried. Scientists recommend we consume between 3,500 and 6,000 ORAC units daily to neutralize aging free radicals. So, eating a handful of acai berries daily may have a powerful anti-aging effect.
The acai also contains anthocyanins, fiber, plant sterols, and both omega 6 and omega 3 essential fatty acids. Acai also contains five hundred times more vitamin C than oranges, making it a valuable anti-aging food.
How to eat: Acai berries are sold freeze-dried or in supplements. Add a handful to your breakfast cereal, smoothies, crepes, or yogurt.
Remember: There is a delicate balance of free radicals and antioxidant levels in our bodies which needs to be maintained, since free radicals do not exist without reason and they do have their uses. Superdosing acai supplements (and other antioxidant supplements) is not advisable. Acai berries are best used in their whole fruit form in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
Apples
It might not be exotic or flashy, but don’t forget the humble apple! White apple blossom fills the beautiful Hunza valley in spring. Locals pick the apples when they are perfectly ripe and eat them fresh, when they are highest in nutrients.
Apples contain antioxidant vitamins and are also one of the best sources of pectin, a soluble fiber that helps keep blood cholesterol levels low, blood glucose levels steady, and toxic heavy metals where they should be—out of your digestive tract.
Apples also provide insoluble fiber, which helps sweep the intestines clean.
How to eat: Slice and add to cereal, fruit salad, smoothies, or desserts. Gently stew and puree them, or simply eat them as they are. Chewing the seeds will also provide you with vitamin B17, which might have the ability to kill cancer cells. Buy organic, locally-grown apples in season if you can and eat while fresh.
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Apricots
[Found in Akea Essentials] Apricots became known as an important anti-aging food in the 1970s when Westerners discovered apricot trees dotted all over the Hunza valley, home to the legendary long-lived Hunzakuts of Pakistan. The bright orange fruit is spread out over the roofs of the houses to dry after harvesting and eaten in large quantities all year long. When Hunzakuts want a snack, instead of opening a bag of potato chips they pick a few apricots. When bored, they hold apricot-eating competitions.
Apricots are a rich source of minerals, fiber, and antioxidant beta carotene, especially when dried. Hunzakuts also crack open and eat the almond-like apricot kernels, which contain protein and omega 6 essential fatty acid. The kernels are also crushed to make a marzipan-flavored oil which is spread on chapattis and used as a beauty product. The kernels are also the best known source of anti-cancer vitamin B17.
How to use: Eat dried or fresh on their own, together with a handful of kernels or almonds as an energy-boosting snack. Or eat as jam, or added to breakfast cereals, oat bars, or desserts.
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Avocados
Avocados were once known by the Aztecs as “the fertility fruit.” The name comes from the Aztec word ahuacatl, meaning testicle, a reference to the shape of the fruit. Today we know just how life-giving avocados can be. They’re full of…
immune-enhancing plant sterols
protein
fiber
the powerful antioxidant glutathione
the antioxidant lutein
fat-soluble vitamin E, which protects cell membranes and blood vessels
fructo-oligo-saccharides, the fibers that encourage friendly bacteria to flourish in our intestines.
In addition, avocados contain monounsaturated fat, a healthy fat that can lower LDL cholesterol levels. This fat also aids absorption of fat-soluble vitamins: One study found that eating them with tomatoes and/or carrots raises absorption of prostate-protecting lycopene by up to 4.5 times and anti-cancer beta-carotene by 13.6 times (4). Avocados also contain their own carotenoids and have been found to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro (5). They are high in potassium, making them useful for lowering water retention.
How to eat: Cut avocados in half and eat with salad dressing and/or shrimp with grape seed mayonnaise (available at health food stores, or make your own with grapeseed oil–there are many good recipes on the internet) as a starter. Eat with salad leaves and pumpkin seeds, in a chicken sandwich, or as guacamole.
Especially good lycopene- and beta-carotene-boosting combinations are avocado with salsa; avocado with tomato, mozzarella and basil; and avocado with carrot, cottage cheese, and basil in a sandwich.
Avocado oil, a rich source of vitamin E and monounsaturated fats, can be used to make salad dressings and can be used for cooking at high heat as it has a high smoke point.
Believe it or not, avocado makes a delicious addition to a fruit smoothie.
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Blueberries
[Found in Akea Essentials] Blueberries, as indicated by their rich color, are particularly high in the prized antioxidants anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin. They also rank high (fourth) on the ORAC antioxidant score for fruits, with 2,234 units per 100g.
Proanthocyanidins have the unusual ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier to enter the brain, where they can protect nerve tissue, help form new pathways, and help regenerate brain cells. Studies on rats have shown that blueberry consumption can actually reverse cognitive decline (6).
Proanthocyanidins do more good things:
improve circulation
reduce inflammation
protect blood vessels
neutralize free radicals
They’ve also been shown to be twenty times more effective than vitamin C and fifty times more effective than vitamin E in preventing the oxidant damage, which is linked to accelerated aging. They greatly enhance the action of vitamin C, which is why sailors in the sixteenth century were saved from scurvy by eating lemons along with proanthocyanidin-rich pine bark.
Other red, blue, and purple berries—strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blackberries—are also high in anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins and are an excellent anti-aging food. Most, including blueberries, also contain ellagic acid, a compound which causes cancer cells to self-destruct in a process called apoptosis.
How to eat: When in season, have a bowlful of blueberries and other berries daily with cereal or yogurt or in smoothies. You can also make home-made ice cream or frozen yogurt with berries.
If you can find them, wild blueberries have up to 100 times the amount of antioxidants than cultivated ones and are also relatively high in omega 3 essential fats. Check the frozen fruits section in your supermarket.
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Beans
Beans are a quick, easy way to make a meal more filling and raise protein levels without having to eat too much meat. Black beans, green beans, aduki beans, soy beans, fagioli beans, cannellini beans, lima beans, mung beans…they can all be found at your local grocery waiting for you to add them to soups, casseroles, and salads, just as the people in the Longevity Hot Spots do.
The Campodimelani are especially fond of their cicerchie beans, which are small but packed with antioxidants. They use them in soups, stews, and salads.
Beans are also plentiful in soluble and insoluble fiber, antioxidant flavonoids, phytosterols, minerals, and energy-boosting, heart-friendly B vitamins. Many beans also contain phytoestrogens, such as genistein, which are thought to protect against hormone-related cancers.
A study from Tulane University School of Public Health in New Orleans found that people who included beans in their diets at least four times a week lowered their heart disease risk by 22 percent compared to people whose diets included a serving or less each week.
How to eat: Add beans to onion, garlic, and tomatoes cooked in olive oil or grape seed oil and add a spoonful of turmeric for a superfood quintuple-whammy. Then mash them up, sprinkle coriander and a little lemon juice over them, and serve in a buckwheat pancake.
You can also add them to casseroles and soups for a hearty but non?fattening meal. Or add beans to a salad for a quick but satisfying lunch.
Sprouting beans prevents them from causing gas.
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Brassica Vegetables
[Found in Akea Essentials] Brassica, or cruciferous, vegetables—like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, pak choi or bok choi, kale, and watercress—are what everyone should be eating if they want to lower the risk of cancer.
Epidemiological studies reveal a link between brassica-eating populations and lower cancer rates. Plus, brassicas have been shown in studies to prevent tumors in animals given a potent carcinogen or even exposed to radiation. They are eaten in plentiful quantities by the long-lived Okinawans, Sardinians, Campodimelani, and Hunzakuts.
Their cancer-preventive effect is likely due to a range of compounds working together, almost as if they were designed to do so just for our benefit.
Sulfurophane and indole-3-carbinol help the liver eliminate carcinogens during detoxification
Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, folic acid, selenium, carotenoids, and fiber have a synergistic antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, toxin-neutralizing effect (7-10)
Brassicas also increase levels of an enzyme which converts estradiol into a safer form, thus possibly protecting against hormonal cancers such as breast cancer
How to eat: Steam or lightly stir-fry brassicas, as cooking degrades the beneficial chemicals. They also taste better when they are crunchier. Cut small and add raw to salads or use as dips. One study showed that just one or two servings of raw broccoli per month significantly reduced bladder cancer risk.
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Buckwheat
[Found in Akea Essentials] Buckwheat is highly digestible, nutrient-rich, gluten-free—and, in spite of its name, it’s no relation to wheat. Buckwheat flour, used for baking and making noodles, comes from the seed of the plant.
Buckwheat bread is given to the Hunzakuts when they are ill, while the Japanese can be found downing buckwheat noodles when hungover. Buckwheat’s many beneficial properties include…
rutin, which supports capillary health
anti-cancer vitamin B-17
protein, fiber, and minerals such as iron, zinc, and selenium
a protein that is thought to bind to cholesterol, thus lowering LDL cholesterol levels
a compound, called D-chiro-inositol, which is involved in insulin use and is being studied for use in treating Type II diabetes
Buckwheat also contains choline, a B vitamin that supports liver health—hence the hangover cure.
How to eat: Make pancakes easily and quickly by combining buckwheat and water with a little salt, then frying in olive or grape seed oil. Make the mixture fairly runny. Spread in a thin layer and cook until golden. Serve with smoked salmon, dill, chopped spring onion, and crème fraiche, or another filling such as beans.
You can also make versatile breakfast pancakes with buckwheat by adding egg, vanilla, oat milk, and/or bananas and raisins.
Buckwheat noodles are also available from Asian stores and health food outlets and are good with mushrooms, soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil.
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Chocolate (cacao)
[Found in Akea Essentials] Cacao nibs, from which modern chocolate is derived, have a long history of medicinal use. Perhaps surprisingly, they rate near the top of the ORAC score for antioxidant levels (28,000 units per 100g).
That’s higher than any fruit or vegetable!
Dark chocolate has been found to lower heart disease risk by 20 percent, probably because it can:
reduce total cholesterol
reduce blood clots and inflammation in arteries
keep arteries elastic
There are still more unexpected benefits to cacao and chocolate. They are…
vasodilators, meaning they can lower blood pressure.
high in magnesium, required by women during menstruation. That might be why women sometimes crave chocolate before their menstrual period.
sources of theobromine, which increases feelings of well-being, and phenylethylamine, a chemical released when we are in love.
One study, called the “sweet babies” study, found that mothers who ate chocolate while pregnant had happier children (11).
How to eat: Choose chocolate that is at least 70 percent cocoa. Eat it in small amounts since chocolate also contains sugar. Cacao is available as a supplement.
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Chlorella and Spirulina
[Found in Akea Essentials] These ancient species of algae have developed a reputation for having almost miraculous healing powers—and not without reason. Much studied by scientists, they are extremely nutrient-dense and have been found to possess antiviral, anti-tumor, anti-bacterial, and anti-HIV properties.
They induce apoptosis (cell “suicide”) in diseased liver cells and decrease blood pressure in hypertensive rats (12, 13). These important superfoods are even being hailed as the answer to some of the planet’s 21st century problems of nutrient deficiency.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae containing around 100 nutrients and a very high protein content of 60 to 70 percent. This superfood…
contains all eight essential amino acids we need, making it a complete protein.
is rich in the antioxidants lutein, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene.
contains remarkably high levels of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
Spirulina has also been found in studies to reduce viral replication including HIV-1, mumps, and measles.
Chlorella is a green algae with 58% protein content and the complete set of essential amino acids. This superfood is…
one of the few vegan sources of bioavailable vitamin B12.
a rich source of chlorophyll, which can chelate toxins from the body and cleanse the bowel, liver, and bloodstream
the source of chlorella growth factor, which has the potential to repair human genetic material and therefore have significant anti-aging powers.
Both algae contain a wide range of the minerals and trace elements our bodies need, as well as vitamins, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. They are also high in calcium and magnesium, which work together to improve our bone density. They are also thought to have prebiotic compounds to support growth of the friendly intestinal flora you need to be healthy.
All of these benefits add up to a super-superfood with the potential to detoxify the body, improve immunity, rebuild nerve tissue, improve mental function, aid in bone health, and help prevent and even reverse disease.
How to use: Spirulina and chlorella are available as a powder, capsule, or tablet, both together and separately. Purchase from a reputable company and take as directed.
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Cinnamon
[Found in Akea Essentials] As with all spices, cinnamon has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities and is high in antioxidants. In fact, it measures almost off the scale on the ORAC score at 6,000 units per third of a teaspoon.
Cinnamon is a traditional remedy for flatulence, diarrhea, and other digestive problems. It’s said that King Solomon took cinnamon as a remedy for his indigestion. Because of its chromium content, this spice may also have the potential to treat type 2 diabetes—although studies have yet to support this.
How to use: Cinnamon comes as a stick or a powder. Dust it on your toast, pancakes, or soup. Drink as an herbal tea, make a tea with dried powdered bark, or mix into ground coffee for cinnamon-flavored coffee. Cinnamon is also available as a supplement.
Caution: Because cinnamon has extremely high antioxidant levels, half a teaspoon is probably more than enough. Consuming high levels of antioxidants is not advisable—in fact, eating more than four tablespoons has been found to cause serious side effects.
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Flax
Flax seeds, an old favorite of Hippocrates, have earned their status as a superfood due to their high content of plant lignans, sterols, isoflavones, omega 3 fatty acids, protein, and fiber. The Hunzakuts mix flax into a paste and spread it on their chapattis. It’s one of their main sources of the essential fats that are so indispensable to good health.
Flax is the best source of plant lignans, which have the power to redirect estrogen metabolism and thus might help prevent hormone-related cancers of the breast, endometrium, and ovaries (14), (15). (The next best source? Sesame seeds.)
Flax is also rich in phytosterols, cholesterol-like plant fats that have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol levels in men and women (16), (17). Exciting new research suggests that phytosterols are immune-modulating and so may be a valid treatment for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and other diseases of the immune system including HIV. Several studies also suggest that sterols may reduce the risk of cancer of the breast and prostate, stomach, lung, and endometrium, although it is not known whether this is due to the sterols in flax alone (18-21).
Early human diets were rich in phytosterols. But now they’re lacking, partly because of farming methods and partly because of our diet. Eating flax is a good way to get your phytosterol levels where they should be.
Nuts and seeds generally are an excellent source of protein, sterols, minerals, fiber, and essential fats.
How to use: Use a tablespoon of ground flax sprinkled over your breakfast cereal or in pancakes. Mix it with applesauce or in yogurt or smoothies. You can cook with flax without destroying the lignans, so use it in baking. Buy the seeds, grind enough for three days, and keep the seeds in an airtight jar in the fridge. Or, buy from a dark vacuum packet and store in the fridge.
You can also soak the seeds overnight and drink the gel-like mixture in the morning, or add it to a smoothie. This is an excellent colon cleanse.
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Garlic
Garlic—once known as the stinking rose—has a long tradition as a cure-all. It was used medicinally by Hippocrates as well as by monks in the Middle Ages to ward off the plague.
Because of its pungent aroma, garlic is sometimes viewed with suspicion. One myth goes that when Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left footprint. Another says Muhammad reportedly forbade anyone who had recently eaten garlic from entering a mosque.
Garlic has a long list of healing qualities:
the ability to protect against gastric and colorectal cancer
boost immunity
lower blood pressure and cholesterol
prevent colds
It has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties—to the extent that it was used by the Russian army during World War II to keep wounds clean. As an antifungal, it is a useful treatment for candida, especially as it does not kill friendly bacteria. Garlic and onions are both good sources of quercetin, an effective natural antihistamine.
Garlic can protect against cancer in several ways. It…
kills H. pylori, the bacterium linked with stomach cancer
is one of the best sources of organosulfur compounds, which have been found to slow the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro
contains the mineral selenium, which is linked to low cancer rates.
A meta-analysis of studies on garlic and cancer found that those with highest garlic intakes had a 50 percent lower risk of gastric cancer than those with low intake and a 30 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer (22).
How to use: Crush and use raw in salad dressings and dips such as tzatziki. Or, lightly sweat garlic as a base for cooked dishes such as stews and soups, just as the Symiots, Campodimelani, Sardinians, and Hunzakuts do.
Cooking garlic destroys some of the beneficial enzymes and cooked garlic has been found in studies to lose its cancer-protective qualities (23). However, letting the garlic stand for ten minutes after chopping and before heating preserves some of the active enzymes.
Eat the real thing! Research shows that garlic itself is more useful than garlic supplements, which can vary in quality.
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Ginger
[Found in Akea Essentials] Ginger is well-known for relieving nausea during pregnancy and after surgery, as well as being a remedy for coughs and colds. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and antioxidant.
Ginger also contains pungent antioxidant compounds, gingerol and zingerone, which may protect against heart disease and cancer. Gingerol relaxes blood vessels, thins the blood, and stimulates blood flow thus protecting heart health and boosting circulation. It has also been found to prevent the development of tumors in animals. Zingerone was found to reduce damage to cells in mice when they were exposed to radiation (24, 25).
How to use: Drink as herb tea, or add to carrot and apple juice. Add freshly chopped ginger to marinades and stir-fries. Try it pickled with sushi, or dried and powdered in baking.
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Goji Berries
[Found in Akea Essentials] These tangy red raisin-like berries have a long history of use in Chinese medicine. They rate up there with acai berries on the ORAC scale at 25,300 units—meaning you need just 20 grams (less than a handful) to reach your daily recommended intake of antioxidants.
Goji berries also contain high levels of phytochemicals—including 33 minerals and trace minerals, amino acids, vitamins, essential fatty acids, phytosterols, and carotenoids. Working together, these nutrients are likely to protect against chronic degenerative disease, including heart disease and cancer.
One of the carotenoids found in goji berries is zeaxanthin, which helps protect the retina of the eye from UV damage. Goji berries might help prevent age-related macular degeneration.
How to use: Goji berries usually come in dried form. They can be eaten raw or brewed into a tea.
Caution: It’s not advisable to drink goji berries in a concentrated liquid form if you take blood-thinning drugs.
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Green Tea
[Found in Akea Essentials] Green tea first had its moment when epidemiologists noticed that Japanese green tea workers in one particular area seemed to have extremely low incidence of cancer.
It’s now been shown that drinking several cups of strong green tea a day can help prevent cancer—particularly cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, lung, skin, bladder, stomach, and esophagus. The key substance is probably an antioxidant called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which has been found to kill cancer cells in human tissue and prevent tumor growth in mice (26, 27).
Green tea also…
contains B vitamins for energy and immunity
has more vitamin C than an orange
contains vitamin E, which protects heart health by keeping the blood from coagulating
protects against the inflammation that’s linked to aging diseases like osteoporosis and heart disease.
Drinking green and black tea has been found in studies to lower levels of C?reactive protein, a marker of inflammation closely linked to heart disease.
Green tea can help you lose excess weight by improving insulin use so that glucose is burned for energy rather than being stored as fat; it also enhances fat-burning enzymes in cells. Furthermore, scientists have found that these two effects work together in a way that equals much more than the sum of their parts.
Green tea offers other benefits, such as…
antibacterial and antiviral properties
a prebiotic effect, meaning that it creates the right environment in the gut for friendly flora.
EGCG and other catechins are excellent for liver health and detoxification since they slow down the first phase of liver detoxification and enhance the second phase—enabling the dangerous intermediate chemicals formed after the first phase to be mopped up and eliminated more effectively.
People who are exposed to pollutants (almost everyone) tend to have an overly fast first phase of liver detoxification. So, drinking green tea can be very beneficial in this process since it gets rid of potential carcinogens.
How to use: Numerous studies have shown that the anti-cancer benefits are only noticeable in populations who consume four or more cups daily. The best-tasting green tea is made from leaves rather than teabags. It tastes especially good with lemongrass. The Okinawans have theirs scented with jasmine flowers—good health food shops in the West often stock green tea with jasmine added.
Black tea, which is made from charred green tea leaves, also has health benefits. But the benefits are weaker, while the caffeine content is higher.
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Mushrooms
[Found in Akea Essentials] Three types of mushroom qualify for superfood status: maitake, shiitake, and reishi mushrooms.
Maitake is a Japanese word meaning “dancing mushroom,” since Japanese mushroom hunters would traditionally dance for joy at finding one of these prized specimens. Maitake mushrooms…
contain compounds called beta-glucans, which have a powerful ability to strengthen our immune systems and are known to increase levels of our tumor-fighting natural killer cells and suppress the growth of tumors (29).
contain X-fraction, which increases insulin sensitivity to help maintain a healthy weight and lower the risk of diabetes.
can lower blood pressure and blood lipids, which is why Japanese doctors use Maitake mushrooms to help protect against heart disease.
Shiitake mushrooms, which are eaten by the Okinawans, are high in anticancer vitamin D and a substance called lentinan that boosts immunity. Lentinan is used in Japan as an anti-tumor medicine.
The reishi mushroom, known in China as the plant of immortality, also has immune-boosting properties and is thought to protect heart health. It’s a key ingredient in Akea Essentials. Reishi is also used to treat asthma, respiratory conditions, liver disorders, and arthritis. It is anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and antioxidant.
How to eat: Use in stir-fries, noodle dishes, soups, and other Asian dishes with garlic, sesame oil, and soy sauce. These mushrooms are also available in capsule form.
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Red Wine
[Found in Akea Essentials] Red wine is high in powerful antioxidants. It can lower blood pressure, which is why drinking red wine in moderation has been linked to the low levels of heart disease and cancer in the Mediterranean and other regions.
All of the longevity populations drink alcohol in moderation, whether it be red wine, sake, snake wine, or the potent home-brew of the Hunzakuts known as Hunza water.
Red wine is believed to be the most beneficial of alcoholic drinks. Among its antioxidants is one in particular called resveratrol, which…
is found in the red-colored skin of grapes, as well as some berries and also peanuts
has been found to increase the lifespan of laboratory animals by stimulating an enzyme called Sir2, which emulates the benefits of calorie restriction
has been shown to help prevent induced cancer in animals.
These powerful effects are why Akea Essentials contains red wine extract and resveratrol.
Some studies have shown that wine raises levels of estrogen and that it may raise the risk of a woman getting breast cancer by about 6 percent. If you are concerned about this finding, then you might want to avoid wine. But remember: Eating a fibrous diet high in plant foods, as the longevity populations do, helps remove excess estrogen from the body.
How to use: Drink red wine with meals in small to moderate amounts as part of a healthy diet for maximum health benefits. Grape juice is lower in resveratrol, but is a good alternative for non-drinkers. Organic pinot noir from New Zealand contains 30 percent more resveratrol than other red wines. Cannonau from Sardinia has the highest levels of antioxidants—three times the antioxidants of any other grape on earth.
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Soy
Soy is a somewhat controversial superfood. It’s been linked to the low rates of breast cancer and osteoporosis among Asian soy-eating women, including those in Okinawa and Bama. Most likely, the reason for this link is that soy is one of the best sources of plant estrogens, especially two called genistein and diadzein, which help balance estrogen levels in women.
Studies have yet to prove that soy can prevent breast cancer in Western women, but there is research to show that a higher intake of soy in adolescence may decrease the risk in adulthood (29).
Soy is also a good source of immune-boosting plant sterols. It’s also got arginine, which raises levels of vasodilatory nitric oxide, thus protecting heart health.
How to eat: Use traditionally-fermented tofu, miso, and tamari soy sauce. Consume in small to moderate amounts (no more than one or two servings daily), just as the Okinawans and mainland Japanese do. The mass-produced, processed soy now available in ready meals and soy milks is not as digestible as traditionally fermented products and is often made from GM (genetically modified) soy.
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Spinach
[Found in Akea Essentials] Spinach, eaten daily by most Hunzakuts, is a common but powerful superfood. It is…
rich in protein
high in minerals, including bone-friendly calcium and magnesium
a good source of anti-aging alpha-lipoic-acid
rich in folic acid
full of vitamin K for bone health
It is also high in beta-carotene (although its dark green color disguises the orange pigment) and another carotenoid called lutein, which is known to improve visual acuity and protect against age-related macular degeneration (30).
Spinach also contains zeaxanthin, another antioxidant that protects the eyes from UV damage.
How to eat: Make soup or pasta sauce using frozen chopped spinach. Gently wilt spinach with garlic and olive or grape seed oil. Throw a handful in your morning smoothie. Use inside buckwheat wraps or tortillas. Or, just toss in with mixed greens in a salad.
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Sprouted Foods
[Found in Akea Essentials] Sprouts have exceptionally concentrated levels of nutrients—first because the seed, grain, or bean they come from contains all the nutrients required to grow a new plant, and because the sprouting process greatly increases the levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and enzymes present.
The sprouting process releases enzymes that break down some of the nutrients into their constituent parts, making them very bio-available in our bodies. That’s why both brussels and broccoli sprouts are part of Akea Essentials.
Sprouted grains are more digestible than ordinary grains and also contain less phytic acid which can inhibit our absorption of important minerals such as zinc. Sprouting wheat breaks down the gluten so some wheat-intolerant people can eat sprouted wheat bread, as the Hunzakuts do on special occasions. Sprouting beans prevents them from releasing gas in the intestinal tract.
Another remarkable property of sprouts is that they contain the nucleic acids RNA and DNA which are necessary for healthy cell division and thus may protect against cancer. Sprouts are a “living” food, and their vitality has a regenerative effect on us when we eat them.
How to eat: Sprouted seeds are available in health food shops. Or, you can easily make them at home in a sprouting jar. Add to salads and stir-fries to make them more filling and nutrient-rich.
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Sweet Potatoes
[Found in Akea Essentials] Sweet potatoes are richer in nutrients and lower on the glycemic index than ordinary potatoes. They also have more flavor and are more succulent.
Sweet potatoes are such an important part of the Okinawan diet and there is even a local greeting, nmu kamatooin, meaning, “Are you getting enough sweet potato?” They contain vitamins E and C, fiber, and minerals including zinc, copper, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus.
Sweet potatoes also contain more of the antioxidant beta-carotene than any other vegetable— although it is also found in other rich orange-colored foods such as carrots, pumpkins, and apricots. Your body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A, which helps support the health of the respiratory and digestive tracts. Beta -also accumulates in the skin to protect it against sun damage.
How to eat: Roast, bake, steam, or use in soups and casseroles. Beta-carotene is fat-soluble and will only be absorbed if there is enough fat present, so use salads dressed with olive oil to accompany your sweet potatoes and squashes or roast on a low heat with olive oil or grape seed oil.
One oft-cited study of Finnish men showed that giving high doses of beta-carotene in supplement form to smokers increased the risk of lung cancer. However, eating moderate doses as provided by a diet rich in orange and dark green vegetables has been found to have a protective effect against a range of cancers.
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Tomato Paste and Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the best source of lycopene, the carotenoid responsible for the reds and pinks found in tomatoes, watermelon, rosehips, guavas, and pink grapefruit. Tomatoes and tomato paste are popular in Mediterranean cooking, like the dishes served in the Mediterranean Hot Spots Symi, Campodimele, and Sardinia.
Lycopene is best known for its ability to protect against prostate cancer, according to numerous studies (31). One study showed that men with the highest intakes of tomatoes and tomato products had a 35 percent lower risk of prostate cancer and a 53 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer (32).
Tomatoes are also high in vitamin C and folic acid, which probably work in synergy with the lycopene to protect against other illnesses. High blood levels of lycopene are thought to be able to lower heart disease risk in women by up to 50 percent—and one study has shown that lycopene may protect against cervical cancer (33).
Another advantage of eating tomatoes: They block the formation of carcinogenic compounds called nitrosamines formed when we eat cured meats. So, if you want to eat cured meats, you can limit the damage by having them with a tomato salad.
How to eat: Cook tomatoes with olive oil or grape seed oil to improve the absorption of lycopene. Tomato paste, the richest source of lycopene, can be used in casseroles or spread on home-made pizza with garlic, herbs, olives, artichokes, and a moderate amount of cheese. Of course, tomatoes are a delicious addition to a salad.
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Turmeric
[Found in Akea Essentials] Bright orange turmeric, a popular spice used in curries and known in India as the spice of life, first stole the spotlight when curry-eating Asians were found to have remarkably low levels of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.
The magic ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which…
binds to the plaques and tangles which characterize brains of Alzheimer’s patients (34-36).
is a powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidant—shown to be as effective as anti-inflammatory drugs, to decrease biomarkers of inflammation, and improve symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (37, 38).
is a promising treatment for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, thyroiditis, and lupus, thanks to its ability to regulate inflammatory cytokines (39).
increases levels of glutathione, an antioxidant that works within cells to protect them from free radical damage and possibly protect against cancer.
has a long history of use for liver disorders might help the liver eliminate cancerous toxins.
Studies also show that curcumin also induces apoptosis (cell ‘suicide’) in cancer cells and inhibits the development of chemically-induced cancers in animals (40, 41).
How to use: Add a teaspoon of turmeric to bean and lentil dishes, casseroles, stews, or marinades for chicken or fish. Mix turmeric into cooked brown rice, or sprinkle on cauliflower. Adding black pepper improves absorption.
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Yogurt
[Found in Akea Essentials] No list of superfoods would be complete without live yogurt. That’s because the friendly bacteria in yogurt can have a major impact on whether or not our bodies actually absorb the nutrients in our food.
We actually have more bacteria cells than body cells, weighing around 8.8 lbs in total and with up to 1000 different species residing in our gut. And their effects on our health cannot be underestimated.
Whether or not we are prone to stomach upsets, the degree to which we metabolize our food, our levels of certain vitamins, our immunity, and other facets of health all depend to a great extent on what is living inside us. Do you eat a modern low-fiber diet? Suffer stress? Have you taken several courses of antibiotics, or do you eat too much sugar? You’re likely to have many billion too few friendly bacteria—and far too many unfriendly ones.
Friendly bacteria…
synthesize B vitamins and vitamin K
produce enzymes to help digest dairy products
metabolize phytoestrogens
extract calcium from milk
aid digestion of protein, glucose, and fiber
aid absorption of minerals
kill pathogenic bacteria
rid the intestinal tract of salmonella, shigella, and e.coli
lower cholesterol levels
help prevent constipation
•even have antitumour effects
Probiotics—found in Akea Essentials—also help maintain the integrity of the digestive tract, thus preventing the excessive intestinal permeability that is linked to food intolerances and allergies.
How to eat: Choose live yogurt and add to breakfast cereal or fruit. Mix with garlic and cucumber to make tzatziki. Eat as an accompaniment to curry dishes, or eat on its own. If you are intolerant to yogurt, try taking a good-quality probiotic supplement.
The Symiots make thick full-fat yogurt in the Greek style, while the Hunzakuts regularly have both yogurt and a yogurt drink similar to lassi. Theirs has no sugar added, and these types of supermarket yogurt are best avoided. The best live yogurt is made with Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, which produce a smooth, creamy, and quite sweet-tasting yogurt.
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Superfood References
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(11) Raikkonen, Katri; Pesonen, Anu-Katriina; Jarvenpaa, Anna-Liisa; Strandberg, Timo E. Sweet babies: chocolate consumption during pregnancy and infant temperament at 6 months. Early Human Development, 2003; 76 (2); 139-145.
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(13) Suetsuna K, Chen JR. Identification of antihypertensive peptides from peptic digest of two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis. Mar Biotechnol (NY). 2001 Jul;3(4):305-9.
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(17) Arjmandi BH, Khan DA, Jurna S. Whole flaxseed consumption lowers serum LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) concentrations in postmenopausal women. Nutr Res. 1998;18:1203-1214.
(18) Awad AB, Fink CS, Williams H, Kim U. In vitro and in vivo (SCID mice) effects of phytosterols on the growth and dissemination of human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2001;10(6):507-513. (PubMed).
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(22) Fleischauer AT, Poole C, Arab L. Garlic consumption and cancer prevention: meta-analyses of colorectal and stomach cancers. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000; 72(4):1047-1052. (PubMed).
(23) Song K, Milner JA. Heating garlic inhibits its ability to suppress 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced DNA adduct formation in rat mammary tissue. J Nutr. 1999;129(3):657-661. (PubMed).
(24) Nigam N, George J, Srivastava S, Roy P, Bhui K, Singh M, Shukla Y. Induction of apoptosis by [6]-gingerol associated with the modulation of p53 and involvement of mitochondrial signaling pathway in B[a]P-induced mouse skin tumorigenesis. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2009 Jul 24.
(25) Rao BN, Rao BS, Aithal BK, Kumar MR. Radiomodifying and anticlastogenic effect of zingerone on Swiss albino mice exposed to whole body gamma radiation. Mutat Res. 2009 Jun-Jul;677(1-2):33-41. (PubMed).
(26) Oguni I, Cheng ShuJun, Annual Report of the Skylark Food Science Institute, no. 3.57(1991).
(27) Ahmad, N. et al. Green Tea Constituent epigallocatechin-3-gallate and Induction of Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Human Carcinoma Cells. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 89, no 24 (1997):1881-1886.
(28) Kodama N, Komuta K, Sakai N, & Nanba H. Effects of D-fraction, a polysaccharide from Grifola frondosa on Tumor Growth Involve Activation of NK Cells. Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 25, no. 12 (December 2002): 1647-1650.
(29) Peeters PH, Keinan-Boker L, van der Schouw YT, Grobbee DE. Phytoestrogens and breast cancer risk. Review of the epidemiological evidence. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2003;77(2):171-183. (PubMed).
(30) Mares-Perlman JA, Millen AE, Ficek TL, Hankinson SE. The body of evidence to support a protective role for lutein and zeaxanthin in delaying chronic disease. Overview. J. Nutr. 2002;132(3):518S-524S. (PubMed).
(31) Giovannucci E. A review of epidemiologic studies of tomatoes, lycopene and prostate cancer. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2002;227(10):852-859. (PubMed).
(32) Giovannucci E, Ascherio A, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willet WC. Intake of carotenoids and retinol in relation to risk of prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995;87(23):1767-1776. (PubMed).
(33) Van Eenwyk, J; Davis, FG, Bowne, PE. Dietary and Serum Carotenoids and Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia. International Journal of Cancer 48 (1991):34-38.
(34) Yang F, Lim GP, Begum AN, et al. Curcumin inhibits formation of amyloid beta oligomers and fibrils, binds plaques, and reduces amyloid in vivo. J Biol Chem. 2005;280(7):5892-5901. (PubMed).
(35) Lim GP, Chu T, Yang F, Beech W, Frautschy SA, Cole GM. The curry spice curcumin reduces oxidative damage and amyloid pathology in an Alzheimer transgenic mouse. J Neurosci. 2001;21(21):8370-8377. (PubMed).
(36) Frautschy SA, Hu W, Kim P, et al. Phenolic anti-inflammatory antioxidant reversal of Abeta-induced cognitive deficits and neuropathology. Neurobiol Agin. 2001;22(6):993-1005. (PubMed).
(37) Deodhar SD, Sethi R, Srimal RC. Preliminary study on antirheumatic activity of curcumin (diferuloyl methane). Indian J Med Res, 1980;71:632-634.
(38) Hanai H, Sugimoto K. Curcumin has bright prospects for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Curr Pharm Des. 2009;15(18):2087-94. (PubMed).
(39) Bright, JJ. Curcumin and autoimmune disease. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:425-51. (PubMed).
(40) Sharma RA, Gescher AJ, Steward WP. Curcumin: The story so far. Eur J Cancer. 2005;41(13):1955-1968. (PubMed).
(41) Huang MT, Lou YR, Ma W, Newmark HL, Reuhl KR, Conney AH. Inhibitory effects of dietary curcumin on forestomach, duodenal, and colon carcinogenesis in mice. Cancer Research. 1994;54(22):5841-5847. (PubMed).
Great Food Choices Come Naturally in the Hot Spots
Every morning, Okinawans rise to pluck vegetables and fruits from their organic gardens. They eat their garden-fresh produce alongside squares of deliciously prepared fermented tofu.
Sweet potatoes are such an important part of the Okinawan diet that there is even a local greeting, nmu kamatooin, meaning, “Are you getting enough sweet potato?”
Across the globe, Symiots in fishing boats return each day with bounties of seafood caught in pristine Mediterranean waters. The deep-sea delicacies enjoy a place at the daily dinner table, together with olive oil, goat’s cheese, and Greek yogurt.
The long-lived Hunzakuts of Pakistan eat significant amounts of apricots and their kernels, a powerful anti-aging food.
People in the Longevity Hot Spots know that better health and improved longevity come from eating the right foods prepared the right ways.
It doesn’t matter whether the foods are from the garden, the pasture, or the ocean. People in Longevity Hot Spots savor good, simple fare.
They practice the art of eating whatever’s fresh and in season. They love the juiciness of a ripe apricot, the crunch of a cucumber, the richness of spices.
Theirs is mostly an organic, plant-based diet and their tables are richly colored with produce in reds, yellows, oranges, purples, and dark greens.
Other foods may contain added fermentation that deliciously enriches nutrient content. As a result, they eat more whole, nutrient-dense foods.
Yet their food choices are the very same ones available to us in our Western supermarkets! We don’t have to grow them or catch them—we simply have to place them in our carts.
Such superfoods are bursting with the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that give us our vital life force. They affect how we feel, how much energy we have, how well we sleep, work, play.
Would you like to bring your nutritional choices closer to those of long-lived hot spot residents? Start today with simple steps, such as
Learning about superfoods and other healthy food choices
Finding out if you're Hot Spot Healthy
Taking the Akea 60-Day Challenge
Making Akea Essentials part of your routine.
Start now. You’ll enjoy better tasting, healthier foods—and your body will thank you.
Sweet potatoes are such an important part of the Okinawan diet that there is even a local greeting, nmu kamatooin, meaning, “Are you getting enough sweet potato?”
Across the globe, Symiots in fishing boats return each day with bounties of seafood caught in pristine Mediterranean waters. The deep-sea delicacies enjoy a place at the daily dinner table, together with olive oil, goat’s cheese, and Greek yogurt.
The long-lived Hunzakuts of Pakistan eat significant amounts of apricots and their kernels, a powerful anti-aging food.
People in the Longevity Hot Spots know that better health and improved longevity come from eating the right foods prepared the right ways.
It doesn’t matter whether the foods are from the garden, the pasture, or the ocean. People in Longevity Hot Spots savor good, simple fare.
They practice the art of eating whatever’s fresh and in season. They love the juiciness of a ripe apricot, the crunch of a cucumber, the richness of spices.
Theirs is mostly an organic, plant-based diet and their tables are richly colored with produce in reds, yellows, oranges, purples, and dark greens.
Other foods may contain added fermentation that deliciously enriches nutrient content. As a result, they eat more whole, nutrient-dense foods.
Yet their food choices are the very same ones available to us in our Western supermarkets! We don’t have to grow them or catch them—we simply have to place them in our carts.
Such superfoods are bursting with the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that give us our vital life force. They affect how we feel, how much energy we have, how well we sleep, work, play.
Would you like to bring your nutritional choices closer to those of long-lived hot spot residents? Start today with simple steps, such as
Learning about superfoods and other healthy food choices
Finding out if you're Hot Spot Healthy
Taking the Akea 60-Day Challenge
Making Akea Essentials part of your routine.
Start now. You’ll enjoy better tasting, healthier foods—and your body will thank you.
Step‐by‐Step Progressive Relaxation Routine
1. Hold tension in forehead until uncomfortable, then let it drop.
2. Notice the radiation of relaxation, allow the warmth to move to the scalp, back of head, ears, temples, cheeks, and nose.
3. Open mouth and chin, relax jaw, whole face.
4. Relax neck muscles, let head tip forward, flow into shoulders, arms, and hands, then down back, over front to chest and abdomen to base of spine.
5. Let buttocks go limp, spread to thighs, legs, feet, and tips of toes.
6. Take a moment starting from the top of head and working down to check and see if any part is not relaxed.
7. Inhale a deep breath and send it to this area, bringing oxygen and comfort.
8. Exhale through the skin replacing tension with relaxation.
9. When quiet and relaxed, remain a few minutes more to enjoy it, then slowly rouse yourself.
2. Notice the radiation of relaxation, allow the warmth to move to the scalp, back of head, ears, temples, cheeks, and nose.
3. Open mouth and chin, relax jaw, whole face.
4. Relax neck muscles, let head tip forward, flow into shoulders, arms, and hands, then down back, over front to chest and abdomen to base of spine.
5. Let buttocks go limp, spread to thighs, legs, feet, and tips of toes.
6. Take a moment starting from the top of head and working down to check and see if any part is not relaxed.
7. Inhale a deep breath and send it to this area, bringing oxygen and comfort.
8. Exhale through the skin replacing tension with relaxation.
9. When quiet and relaxed, remain a few minutes more to enjoy it, then slowly rouse yourself.
Relaxation…a Way of Life in Longevity Hot Spots
Five Fundamentals of Relaxation:
You can manage stress.
Schedule relaxation time.
Slow down, breathe deeply, easily.
Watch intake of stimulants.
Respect the role of sleep.
Relaxation…a Way of Life in Longevity Hot Spots
There are no beeping, overscheduled smartphones in Campodimele, Italy, known as the Village of Eternal Youth. Only fresh mountain air, plentiful sunshine, and low stress.
When Symis meet to enjoy a classic Mediterranean meal, there’s no rushing. No clock-watching. They’re never concerned about arriving late—or staying long after the plates are cleared. Daily afternoon naps are commonplace.
Across the globe, Okinawans practice the ancient art of daily meditation…focusing on breathing to connect mind, body, and spirit. They make time for healing massages to generate new flows of life’s energy.
Relaxation is crucial to living well. People in Longevity Hot Spots lead busy lives, yet they are stress-free. They recognize the rejuvenating power of rest, respite, and relaxation. A connection to nature plays a central role in every hot spot corner, as does the simplicity of life’s daily rhythms.
Nature is restorative. It offers powerful healing qualities and a welcome way to unwind. Spending time outdoors nourishes our bodies and our souls. So do music, meditation, and moments of quiet prayer. Would you like to bring your relaxation skills closer to those of long-lived hot spot residents?
The Signs You’re Stressed
Stress gets in our way nearly every day. Maybe it’s…
receiving hurtful criticism
spilling coffee on your computer when you have a deadline
the death of someone close to you
getting caught in a maze of voicemail when you just want to ask a quick question
trying to pack for a flight at the same time as getting your young kids dressed, fed, washed, and ready…aaargh!
If you feel stress doesn’t affect you every day, you are lucky. There’s one thing you can pretty much be sure of in life—and that’s that you will encounter stressful situations on a regular basis.
But here’s the key: How do you react? Do you smile peacefully throughout, like a Buddhist monk meditating in a temple? Do you yell and throw stuff? Do you sit stiff-lipped, while feeling your heart pumping and your blood pressure rising? Do you reach for a little something in a bottle or a packet to calm you down?
Do you wish you could be less stressed by stress?
Stress at its core
Before you build skills to manage stress, it helps to know more about it. We experience two general types of stressors:
acute stressors, or short-term events that cause temporary acute stress, such as getting yelled at by an angry driver or boss
chronic stressors, which are more general life circumstances that may be causing us long-term, low-level stress, such as overwork
If you suffer from chronic stress, you may find that small things make you flare up more easily than they should—which in turn causes more acute stress. If you feel this way, you’re not alone. You’re a typical modern human being.
Symptoms of stress
If you suffer from any of these symptoms, you may be showing the physical signs of too much stress.
Irritability and/or bad temper
Difficulty getting up in the mornings
Fatigue
Sensitivity to criticism
Difficulty sleeping
An annoying late-evening “second wind” after having been tired all day
Lingering colds and other minor illnesses
Low libido
Indigestion
Poor memory and concentration
Headaches
High blood pressure
Feeling dizzy when you stand up (a sign of low blood pressure caused by adrenal exhaustion)
Depression
Unexplained aches and pains
Reliance on alcohol, coffee, or tranquillizers
Sugar or salt cravings
The people in the Longevity Hot Spots tend to be free of these types of symptoms. Why? They are less subject to the modern stressors we have to put up with.
Instead of daily commutes through traffic, they have lovely winding paths in beautiful scenery with perhaps the odd goat rambling past.
Instead of work deadlines, they pick fruit together or go out fishing.
They don’t have mortgages or alarm clocks or voice mail mazes to deal with.
They are the kind of people who, when a minor mishap happens such as breaking something or tripping, they don’t feel annoyed—they just laugh.
Nobody in a Longevity Hot Spot is entirely exempt from stressors, however, and many of the hot spot populations practice relaxation techniques, which we can borrow. Meditation, martial arts, plenty of exercise, laughing about problems with friends and family, having spiritual beliefs and having therapeutic hobbies—these are all things practiced in the hot spots that lower stress levels.
And they are all things we can do, too. Keeping physically healthy with the right diet and exercise, as the people in the Longevity Hot Spots do, also makes us much more able to deal with stress. Just think about how you deal with stress when you are hungry and tired versus when you feel good. It can make all the difference.
Dial Back the Stress
By making just a few changes, you’ll infuse some welcome relaxation into your daily routine.
The wellness experts at Akea have assembled their favorite methods for de-stressing. Employ them and enjoy them! As you learn to manage your stress, remember to aim for a step-down approach to relaxation. This is a physiologic process. Just like you can't take a car from 100 miles per hour to 0 on a dime, the body takes time to go from a state of high excitement to relaxation.
Take the Akea 60-Day Challenge. Your blood sugar levels should become more balanced, thus reducing irritability. Your ability to produce pleasure-enhancing brain chemicals such as serotonin should improve, and your adrenal glands, which deal with stress, should get certain nutrients they need, such as Vitamin C, B vitamins, and magnesium, to rejuvenate them and keep them robust.
Learn meditation. Transcendental meditation has been found to lower biological age and reduce biomarkers of aging. Meditation can help slow the heart rate, increase blood flow to major muscles, slow the breathing rate, raise levels of the ‘youth hormone’ DHEA, lower blood pressure, reduce anger and frustration, improve concentration, and reduce muscle tension and chronic pain, among other benefits.
Pray or find your own spirituality to give positive meaning to the challenges you face. Studies have shown that having spiritual beliefs lowers heart disease, liver cirrhosis, and suicide risk.
Practice yoga. Yoga improves circulation, boosts immunity, aids bone and muscle health, provides deep relaxation, and can have a profoundly rejuvenating effect on organs and systems in the body.
Take regular exercise, such as walking, dance class, martial arts, or any other form of exercise—preferably earlier in the day, as it may disrupt sleep if done in the evening. Exercise has a huge range of physical benefits which, in turn, should help improve resistance to stress. Exercise also boosts the body’s production of endorphins, the brain chemicals that make us feel happy and relaxed.
Practice deep breathing. Stress causes us to breathe more shallowly, while deep breathing enables oxygenation of body tissues and has a relaxing, rejuvenating effect. Start by sitting cross-legged in loose clothes and keeping your spine straight. Relax. Inhale and exhale slowly, expanding your chest and lower abdomen as you breathe in. Count to five. Breathe out all the old stale air and imagine the fresh, new air coming in and reaching all the parts of your body.
Go for a walk somewhere beautiful. Experiencing the vast timelessness of nature can help us to get perspective on our problems.
Have a hot soak in the tub by candlelight and think about all the things that annoyed you that day until you feel they have been processed. Then congratulate yourself for having dealt with them!
Treat yourself to a massage or reflexology session.
Have a glass of wine or cup of tea with a good friend and share any problems you have. Allow yourself time each week to enjoy some kind of social life with people who make you feel good about yourself.
Have nothing scheduled? Be proactive and arrange something.
Laugh. Watch a funny video or read a humorous book. Studies show that laughter boosts immune cell production. You could also join a laughter therapy class—check the web to find one near you.
Take up a soothing, immediately gratifying hobby such as music (either listening to it or making it), knitting, carpentry, gardening, painting, or pottery.
Gain control. If you worry about things you need to do and when you are going to do them, make a list and schedule each task. Tick tasks off as you complete them—and enjoy a satisfied sigh when you finish the list.
Be realistic about time. Don’t ask too much of yourself or spread yourself too thin. Talk to your boss if you feel you are being given unrealistic deadlines or an unfair workload.
Practice empathy. If someone seems needlessly aggressive, remember it’s their problem, not yours. Try not to take it personally. They are probably having a bad day.
Get lost in an absorbing book to distract you from your daily worries.
Relax your whole body
Ready for more relaxation? Here’s a step-by-step progressive relaxation routine that you can practice once or twice daily. You should feel results immediately.
Hold tension in forehead until uncomfortable, then let it drop.
Notice the radiation of relaxation, allow the warmth to move to the scalp, back of head, ears, temples, cheeks, and nose.
Open mouth and chin, relax jaw, whole face.
Relax neck muscles, let head tip forward, flow into shoulders, arms, and hands, then down back, over front to chest and abdomen to base of spine.
Let buttocks go limp, spread to thighs, legs, feet, and tips of toes.
Take a moment starting from the top of head and working down to check and see if any part is not relaxed.
Inhale a deep breath and send it to this area, bringing oxygen and comfort.
Exhale through the skin replacing tension with relaxation.
When quiet and relaxed, remain a few minutes more to enjoy it, then slowly rouse yourself.
[Listen to an audio of this exercise here, or download a printable copy here.]
Sleep
….the ultimate in relaxation. Make sure to get enough good-quality sleep. Experts recommend 7 to 8 hours each night. Sleep is important for keeping your immune system strong, allowing your nervous system to rest and repair, and releasing hormones. In order to get a good night’s sleep, follow these tips:
Go to bed at roughly the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning so that your body clock works efficiently and you feel sleepy at the right time.
Avoid caffeine or sugar in the evening.
Avoid watching television before bed—it can be over-stimulating.
Keep lights dim in the evening.
Have a bedtime ritual to relax you, such as having a bath and then reading a book. Or, practice the relaxation technique described above.
You can manage stress.
Schedule relaxation time.
Slow down, breathe deeply, easily.
Watch intake of stimulants.
Respect the role of sleep.
Relaxation…a Way of Life in Longevity Hot Spots
There are no beeping, overscheduled smartphones in Campodimele, Italy, known as the Village of Eternal Youth. Only fresh mountain air, plentiful sunshine, and low stress.
When Symis meet to enjoy a classic Mediterranean meal, there’s no rushing. No clock-watching. They’re never concerned about arriving late—or staying long after the plates are cleared. Daily afternoon naps are commonplace.
Across the globe, Okinawans practice the ancient art of daily meditation…focusing on breathing to connect mind, body, and spirit. They make time for healing massages to generate new flows of life’s energy.
Relaxation is crucial to living well. People in Longevity Hot Spots lead busy lives, yet they are stress-free. They recognize the rejuvenating power of rest, respite, and relaxation. A connection to nature plays a central role in every hot spot corner, as does the simplicity of life’s daily rhythms.
Nature is restorative. It offers powerful healing qualities and a welcome way to unwind. Spending time outdoors nourishes our bodies and our souls. So do music, meditation, and moments of quiet prayer. Would you like to bring your relaxation skills closer to those of long-lived hot spot residents?
The Signs You’re Stressed
Stress gets in our way nearly every day. Maybe it’s…
receiving hurtful criticism
spilling coffee on your computer when you have a deadline
the death of someone close to you
getting caught in a maze of voicemail when you just want to ask a quick question
trying to pack for a flight at the same time as getting your young kids dressed, fed, washed, and ready…aaargh!
If you feel stress doesn’t affect you every day, you are lucky. There’s one thing you can pretty much be sure of in life—and that’s that you will encounter stressful situations on a regular basis.
But here’s the key: How do you react? Do you smile peacefully throughout, like a Buddhist monk meditating in a temple? Do you yell and throw stuff? Do you sit stiff-lipped, while feeling your heart pumping and your blood pressure rising? Do you reach for a little something in a bottle or a packet to calm you down?
Do you wish you could be less stressed by stress?
Stress at its core
Before you build skills to manage stress, it helps to know more about it. We experience two general types of stressors:
acute stressors, or short-term events that cause temporary acute stress, such as getting yelled at by an angry driver or boss
chronic stressors, which are more general life circumstances that may be causing us long-term, low-level stress, such as overwork
If you suffer from chronic stress, you may find that small things make you flare up more easily than they should—which in turn causes more acute stress. If you feel this way, you’re not alone. You’re a typical modern human being.
Symptoms of stress
If you suffer from any of these symptoms, you may be showing the physical signs of too much stress.
Irritability and/or bad temper
Difficulty getting up in the mornings
Fatigue
Sensitivity to criticism
Difficulty sleeping
An annoying late-evening “second wind” after having been tired all day
Lingering colds and other minor illnesses
Low libido
Indigestion
Poor memory and concentration
Headaches
High blood pressure
Feeling dizzy when you stand up (a sign of low blood pressure caused by adrenal exhaustion)
Depression
Unexplained aches and pains
Reliance on alcohol, coffee, or tranquillizers
Sugar or salt cravings
The people in the Longevity Hot Spots tend to be free of these types of symptoms. Why? They are less subject to the modern stressors we have to put up with.
Instead of daily commutes through traffic, they have lovely winding paths in beautiful scenery with perhaps the odd goat rambling past.
Instead of work deadlines, they pick fruit together or go out fishing.
They don’t have mortgages or alarm clocks or voice mail mazes to deal with.
They are the kind of people who, when a minor mishap happens such as breaking something or tripping, they don’t feel annoyed—they just laugh.
Nobody in a Longevity Hot Spot is entirely exempt from stressors, however, and many of the hot spot populations practice relaxation techniques, which we can borrow. Meditation, martial arts, plenty of exercise, laughing about problems with friends and family, having spiritual beliefs and having therapeutic hobbies—these are all things practiced in the hot spots that lower stress levels.
And they are all things we can do, too. Keeping physically healthy with the right diet and exercise, as the people in the Longevity Hot Spots do, also makes us much more able to deal with stress. Just think about how you deal with stress when you are hungry and tired versus when you feel good. It can make all the difference.
Dial Back the Stress
By making just a few changes, you’ll infuse some welcome relaxation into your daily routine.
The wellness experts at Akea have assembled their favorite methods for de-stressing. Employ them and enjoy them! As you learn to manage your stress, remember to aim for a step-down approach to relaxation. This is a physiologic process. Just like you can't take a car from 100 miles per hour to 0 on a dime, the body takes time to go from a state of high excitement to relaxation.
Take the Akea 60-Day Challenge. Your blood sugar levels should become more balanced, thus reducing irritability. Your ability to produce pleasure-enhancing brain chemicals such as serotonin should improve, and your adrenal glands, which deal with stress, should get certain nutrients they need, such as Vitamin C, B vitamins, and magnesium, to rejuvenate them and keep them robust.
Learn meditation. Transcendental meditation has been found to lower biological age and reduce biomarkers of aging. Meditation can help slow the heart rate, increase blood flow to major muscles, slow the breathing rate, raise levels of the ‘youth hormone’ DHEA, lower blood pressure, reduce anger and frustration, improve concentration, and reduce muscle tension and chronic pain, among other benefits.
Pray or find your own spirituality to give positive meaning to the challenges you face. Studies have shown that having spiritual beliefs lowers heart disease, liver cirrhosis, and suicide risk.
Practice yoga. Yoga improves circulation, boosts immunity, aids bone and muscle health, provides deep relaxation, and can have a profoundly rejuvenating effect on organs and systems in the body.
Take regular exercise, such as walking, dance class, martial arts, or any other form of exercise—preferably earlier in the day, as it may disrupt sleep if done in the evening. Exercise has a huge range of physical benefits which, in turn, should help improve resistance to stress. Exercise also boosts the body’s production of endorphins, the brain chemicals that make us feel happy and relaxed.
Practice deep breathing. Stress causes us to breathe more shallowly, while deep breathing enables oxygenation of body tissues and has a relaxing, rejuvenating effect. Start by sitting cross-legged in loose clothes and keeping your spine straight. Relax. Inhale and exhale slowly, expanding your chest and lower abdomen as you breathe in. Count to five. Breathe out all the old stale air and imagine the fresh, new air coming in and reaching all the parts of your body.
Go for a walk somewhere beautiful. Experiencing the vast timelessness of nature can help us to get perspective on our problems.
Have a hot soak in the tub by candlelight and think about all the things that annoyed you that day until you feel they have been processed. Then congratulate yourself for having dealt with them!
Treat yourself to a massage or reflexology session.
Have a glass of wine or cup of tea with a good friend and share any problems you have. Allow yourself time each week to enjoy some kind of social life with people who make you feel good about yourself.
Have nothing scheduled? Be proactive and arrange something.
Laugh. Watch a funny video or read a humorous book. Studies show that laughter boosts immune cell production. You could also join a laughter therapy class—check the web to find one near you.
Take up a soothing, immediately gratifying hobby such as music (either listening to it or making it), knitting, carpentry, gardening, painting, or pottery.
Gain control. If you worry about things you need to do and when you are going to do them, make a list and schedule each task. Tick tasks off as you complete them—and enjoy a satisfied sigh when you finish the list.
Be realistic about time. Don’t ask too much of yourself or spread yourself too thin. Talk to your boss if you feel you are being given unrealistic deadlines or an unfair workload.
Practice empathy. If someone seems needlessly aggressive, remember it’s their problem, not yours. Try not to take it personally. They are probably having a bad day.
Get lost in an absorbing book to distract you from your daily worries.
Relax your whole body
Ready for more relaxation? Here’s a step-by-step progressive relaxation routine that you can practice once or twice daily. You should feel results immediately.
Hold tension in forehead until uncomfortable, then let it drop.
Notice the radiation of relaxation, allow the warmth to move to the scalp, back of head, ears, temples, cheeks, and nose.
Open mouth and chin, relax jaw, whole face.
Relax neck muscles, let head tip forward, flow into shoulders, arms, and hands, then down back, over front to chest and abdomen to base of spine.
Let buttocks go limp, spread to thighs, legs, feet, and tips of toes.
Take a moment starting from the top of head and working down to check and see if any part is not relaxed.
Inhale a deep breath and send it to this area, bringing oxygen and comfort.
Exhale through the skin replacing tension with relaxation.
When quiet and relaxed, remain a few minutes more to enjoy it, then slowly rouse yourself.
[Listen to an audio of this exercise here, or download a printable copy here.]
Sleep
….the ultimate in relaxation. Make sure to get enough good-quality sleep. Experts recommend 7 to 8 hours each night. Sleep is important for keeping your immune system strong, allowing your nervous system to rest and repair, and releasing hormones. In order to get a good night’s sleep, follow these tips:
Go to bed at roughly the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning so that your body clock works efficiently and you feel sleepy at the right time.
Avoid caffeine or sugar in the evening.
Avoid watching television before bed—it can be over-stimulating.
Keep lights dim in the evening.
Have a bedtime ritual to relax you, such as having a bath and then reading a book. Or, practice the relaxation technique described above.
Monday 21 February 2011
Roasted butternut squash salad with soy balsamic dressing
2kg butternut squash , peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
olive oil
100g Puy lentils
100g rocket
1 tsp sesame seeds , toasted
6 spring onions , sliced
5 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 red chilli , seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove , finely chopped
1 tsp clear honey
Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the squash on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and season. Roast for 20 minutes or until tender, shaking the tray a couple of times to keep it from sticking. Simmer the lentils for about 15 minutes or until al dente, then drain.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Put the rocket in a shallow serving bowl and arrange the lentils and squash on top. Pour the dressing over and top with sesame seeds and spring onion.
Per serving
342 kcalories, protein 10.3g, carbohydrate 37.1g, fat 17.9 g, saturated fat 2.4g, fibre 7g, salt 0.72 g
Roasted the butternut squash with some halloumi... Delicious
Excellent. Similar to another couple of recipes I make except they have either pecans, walnuts or pine-nuts added and blue cheese, parmesan or feta + more rocket: but no dressing or just olive oil. The dressing with this recipe is a delicious and unusual earth savoury fusion of Italian balsamic and Japanese soy sauce, will be using it for other salads and I think it would be great with something oriental in style like chicken with spring onions, sesame seeds and ginger, or even with sea bass? However if adding cheese to the Roasted butternut squash salad recipe above then I would leave out the dressing as I think that combination would be horrible?!
olive oil
100g Puy lentils
100g rocket
1 tsp sesame seeds , toasted
6 spring onions , sliced
5 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 red chilli , seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove , finely chopped
1 tsp clear honey
Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the squash on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and season. Roast for 20 minutes or until tender, shaking the tray a couple of times to keep it from sticking. Simmer the lentils for about 15 minutes or until al dente, then drain.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Put the rocket in a shallow serving bowl and arrange the lentils and squash on top. Pour the dressing over and top with sesame seeds and spring onion.
Per serving
342 kcalories, protein 10.3g, carbohydrate 37.1g, fat 17.9 g, saturated fat 2.4g, fibre 7g, salt 0.72 g
Roasted the butternut squash with some halloumi... Delicious
Excellent. Similar to another couple of recipes I make except they have either pecans, walnuts or pine-nuts added and blue cheese, parmesan or feta + more rocket: but no dressing or just olive oil. The dressing with this recipe is a delicious and unusual earth savoury fusion of Italian balsamic and Japanese soy sauce, will be using it for other salads and I think it would be great with something oriental in style like chicken with spring onions, sesame seeds and ginger, or even with sea bass? However if adding cheese to the Roasted butternut squash salad recipe above then I would leave out the dressing as I think that combination would be horrible?!
Depression symptoms increase over time for addiction-prone women
Depression symptoms increase over time for addiction-prone women
The longitudinal analysis examined the influences of the women's histories, family life and neighborhood instability on their alcoholism symptoms, antisocial behavior and depression over a 12-year period covering the earlier years of marriage and motherhood.
The research, published in Development and Psychopathology, is part of the Michigan Longitudinal Study, an ongoing project focusing on families at high risk for substance abuse and associated disorders that has already collected more than 20 years worth of data.
Among the current study's other top findings:
The women's partners' struggles with addiction and antisocial behavior, such as run-ins with the law, worsened the women's own symptoms and behaviors.
Children's behavior also had a negative impact on their mothers. When children exhibited behaviors that included acting out and getting into trouble, their mothers' alcohol problems and antisocial behavior tended to worsen. Meanwhile, when children were sad, withdrawn or isolated,their mothers' depression increased.
Living in an unstable neighborhood, where residents move in and out frequently, also had a significant effect on the women's alcoholism symptoms and level of depression.
"Our findings demonstrate the complexity of the factors affecting changes in alcohol problems, antisocial behavior and depression for these women," says the study's senior author Robert Zucker, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Michigan Medical School and director of the U-M Addiction Research Center.
The findings challenge common notions that depression, alcoholism and antisocial behavior, are either just genetic disorders, or alternatively, that they are caused by environmental factors, Zucker adds.
"It's really the network of these relationships -- at the biological, social and at the community level -- that influences these disorders over time," he says.
The research also shows that unlike alcoholism symptoms and antisocial behavior, depression does not, by itself, moderate over time -- it actually gets worse, at least in this high risk population, Zucker notes.
"Unlike the other two disorders, biological differences appear to be more of a constant factor in depression," he says.
The research sample included 273 adult women and their families from a four-county area in the Midwest. Drunk driving convictions involving the father were used to find the highest risk portion of the sample; a blood alcohol content of .15 was required to help ensure that the men had long standing difficulties with alcohol abuse, rather than just having been out drinking heavily for one night. The remaining families were recruited from the neighborhoods where the drunk drivers lived.
The findings also underscore the relationship between alcohol abuse and antisocial behavior over long periods of time, says study lead author Anne Buu, Ph.D., Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the Substance Abuse Section of the U-M Department of Psychiatry. As a result, she notes, interventions targeting antisocial behavior could benefit by also systematically targeting addiction.
"Based on these findings, interventions for women with young children might have the most impact if they improve social supports, educational opportunities, access to family counseling and neighborhoods environments," Buu says.
The longitudinal analysis examined the influences of the women's histories, family life and neighborhood instability on their alcoholism symptoms, antisocial behavior and depression over a 12-year period covering the earlier years of marriage and motherhood.
The research, published in Development and Psychopathology, is part of the Michigan Longitudinal Study, an ongoing project focusing on families at high risk for substance abuse and associated disorders that has already collected more than 20 years worth of data.
Among the current study's other top findings:
The women's partners' struggles with addiction and antisocial behavior, such as run-ins with the law, worsened the women's own symptoms and behaviors.
Children's behavior also had a negative impact on their mothers. When children exhibited behaviors that included acting out and getting into trouble, their mothers' alcohol problems and antisocial behavior tended to worsen. Meanwhile, when children were sad, withdrawn or isolated,their mothers' depression increased.
Living in an unstable neighborhood, where residents move in and out frequently, also had a significant effect on the women's alcoholism symptoms and level of depression.
"Our findings demonstrate the complexity of the factors affecting changes in alcohol problems, antisocial behavior and depression for these women," says the study's senior author Robert Zucker, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Michigan Medical School and director of the U-M Addiction Research Center.
The findings challenge common notions that depression, alcoholism and antisocial behavior, are either just genetic disorders, or alternatively, that they are caused by environmental factors, Zucker adds.
"It's really the network of these relationships -- at the biological, social and at the community level -- that influences these disorders over time," he says.
The research also shows that unlike alcoholism symptoms and antisocial behavior, depression does not, by itself, moderate over time -- it actually gets worse, at least in this high risk population, Zucker notes.
"Unlike the other two disorders, biological differences appear to be more of a constant factor in depression," he says.
The research sample included 273 adult women and their families from a four-county area in the Midwest. Drunk driving convictions involving the father were used to find the highest risk portion of the sample; a blood alcohol content of .15 was required to help ensure that the men had long standing difficulties with alcohol abuse, rather than just having been out drinking heavily for one night. The remaining families were recruited from the neighborhoods where the drunk drivers lived.
The findings also underscore the relationship between alcohol abuse and antisocial behavior over long periods of time, says study lead author Anne Buu, Ph.D., Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the Substance Abuse Section of the U-M Department of Psychiatry. As a result, she notes, interventions targeting antisocial behavior could benefit by also systematically targeting addiction.
"Based on these findings, interventions for women with young children might have the most impact if they improve social supports, educational opportunities, access to family counseling and neighborhoods environments," Buu says.
Sunday 20 February 2011
Свадебный каравай как традиция
Каравай — один из традиционных атрибутов свадьбы. Издревле хлеб воспринимали как щедрый дар земли-кормилицы, как символ плодородия и богатства. Убедиться в этом можно, вспомнив множество пословиц и поговорок, в которых воздавалась хвала хлебу. Хлеб - всему голова, поэтому он всегда занимал центральное место во всех праздничных обрядах. Свадебное торжество не было исключением, но для него выпекался особенный хлеб - каравай.Технология его приготовления была сродни таинству. Свадебный каравай украшали сложными узорами из теста, главным из которых была веточка калины. Она еще с языческих времен наделялась мистическими свойствами и считалась символом любви.
К сожалению, на современных свадьбах появляется новая традиция - караваю предпочитают свадебный торт. Но, думается, что такие изменения поспешны. Ведь выпекание и подача каравая - это своеобразный культ, несущий в себе особый смысл. Подтверждением тому были множество правил и разнообразных ритуалов, требующих неукоснительного их соблюдения в процессе выпекания. Только такой каравай считался «правильным».
К процессу замешивания теста допускалась лишь замужняя женщина, познавшая счастье семейной жизни и материнства. Таким образом она делилась с будущей семьей частичкой своего благополучия. Приступая к процессу приготовления, женщина должна была помыть руки и умыться, одеть нательный крест и покрыть голову платком. При замешивании непременно читались молитвы «Отче наш» и «Богородица».
Сажался каравай в печь также с молитвой, но эту процедуру доверяли только женатому мужчине.
Особенное внимание обращали на размер каравая. Считалось, что от его величины зависит счастье и богатство молодожёнов. Для княжеской или царской свадьбы выпекались просто огромные караваи, которые несли на специальных носилках, оббитых бархатом, по четыре каравайника.
Ведущий свадьбы (тамада) готовил величавую речь, которой празднично встречал молодых. А тем временем родители жениха выносили каравай на красивом вышитом полотенце и присоединялись к поздравлениям тамады.
Молодые благодарили своих родителей за преподнесенный дар и принимали каравай.
Откусив по-кусочку, жених и невеста смотрели, у кого он больше, ведь это была своеобразная примета, определявшая, кто в доме будет главный. Затем свадебный каравай, разрезанный ребенком, ставился на стол или разносился гостям.
Хочется надеяться, что старинные традиции не исчезнут, потому что они только украшают современную свадьбу. Современным молодоженам стоит все-таки обратить свое внимание на традицию приготовления и подношения каравая. А вдруг, действительно, его наличие на праздничном столе станет залогом их будущей счастливой жизни в любви и согласии.
К сожалению, на современных свадьбах появляется новая традиция - караваю предпочитают свадебный торт. Но, думается, что такие изменения поспешны. Ведь выпекание и подача каравая - это своеобразный культ, несущий в себе особый смысл. Подтверждением тому были множество правил и разнообразных ритуалов, требующих неукоснительного их соблюдения в процессе выпекания. Только такой каравай считался «правильным».
К процессу замешивания теста допускалась лишь замужняя женщина, познавшая счастье семейной жизни и материнства. Таким образом она делилась с будущей семьей частичкой своего благополучия. Приступая к процессу приготовления, женщина должна была помыть руки и умыться, одеть нательный крест и покрыть голову платком. При замешивании непременно читались молитвы «Отче наш» и «Богородица».
Сажался каравай в печь также с молитвой, но эту процедуру доверяли только женатому мужчине.
Особенное внимание обращали на размер каравая. Считалось, что от его величины зависит счастье и богатство молодожёнов. Для княжеской или царской свадьбы выпекались просто огромные караваи, которые несли на специальных носилках, оббитых бархатом, по четыре каравайника.
Ведущий свадьбы (тамада) готовил величавую речь, которой празднично встречал молодых. А тем временем родители жениха выносили каравай на красивом вышитом полотенце и присоединялись к поздравлениям тамады.
Молодые благодарили своих родителей за преподнесенный дар и принимали каравай.
Откусив по-кусочку, жених и невеста смотрели, у кого он больше, ведь это была своеобразная примета, определявшая, кто в доме будет главный. Затем свадебный каравай, разрезанный ребенком, ставился на стол или разносился гостям.
Хочется надеяться, что старинные традиции не исчезнут, потому что они только украшают современную свадьбу. Современным молодоженам стоит все-таки обратить свое внимание на традицию приготовления и подношения каравая. А вдруг, действительно, его наличие на праздничном столе станет залогом их будущей счастливой жизни в любви и согласии.
Католическое венчание, особенности
Венчание – это очень красивый и таинственный обряд. Однако венчание католиков имеет свои отличия от венчания православных.
Одним из главных участников церемонии венчания является отец невесты. Именно он ведет её к алтарю, где невесту ждет жених. Папа, человек который с рождения был самым главным защитником своей дочери, помощником, советчиком передает часть своих “полномочий” жениху, будущему мужу его дочурки. С этого дня уже муж будет ответственным за будущее дочери, будет заботиться о ней и любить!
На католическом венчании зачастую можно увидеть маленьких девочек, которые одеты подобно невестам, в белые или алые платьица. Ребенок – это символ невинности, доброты, непорочности… (Дети, конечно, это здорово, но если вы не уверены в выдержке своего ребенка, то лучше не стоит мучить его и заставлять сидеть тихо всю церемонию. Не все дети способны молча просидеть больше получаса. И вам вряд ли захочется бегать за ребенком по костелу или успокаивать его истерики).
Свидетели. Куда без них? Интересно, но на венчании может быть не двое свидетелей, а по несколько свидетелей с обеих сторон, чего нет в православном венчании. Свидетели должны быть крещеные, не важно в православной или католической вере.
Гости: бабушки, дедушки, тети, дяди, подруги, друзья. Только хорошо подумайте, кого вы хотите видеть в этот день. Не превращайте венчание в некое феерическое шоу, пусть это лучше будут только самые близкие. Те, кто придет не потому что “пригласили и уже не отвертишься”, а потому что им тоже не менее важно это событие.
Церемония начинается!
Итак, все в сборе, церемония начинается. Проводит ее католический священник, чаще ксендз. Он говорит вступительную речь, приветствует гостей. Потом читает первую молитву, после чего ксендз читает/рассказывает фрагмент из Библии. Перед тем как священник даст благословение, “молодым” надо ответить на три вопроса: “ Пришли ли вы сюда добровольно и свободно хотите заключить супружеский союз? “, “ Готовы ли вы любить и уважать друг друга всю жизнь? “, “ Готовы ли вы с любовью принять от Бога детей и воспитать их согласно учению Христа и церкви? (вопрос задается только молодым парам).” Церемония заканчивается в том случае, если хоть на один из заданных вопросов прозвучал ответ “нет”. Правда такое случается, наверное, совсем редко, лишь в американских фильмах мы привыкли наблюдать за тем, как за пару минут кто-то из молодых передумывает и вовсе связывать жизнь с человеком, с которым успел дойти до алтаря. Но мы не в Америке и венчание – это не поход в магазин, это решение на всю жизнь. Кстати, еще одно отличие католического венчания от православного: католики не знают, что такое развод (развенчивание). И не разрешают венчаться тем, кто до этого был обвенчан в православной вере и потом получил разрешение на развенчивание.
После положительных ответов на вопросы жених и невеста перед лицом Бога дают клятву, обет верности. Свидетель подает кольца и “молодые” обмениваются ими. Интересно то, что обмен кольцами в принципе не обязателен, это как дополнение клятвы друг другу.
Если вы переживаете за то, сколько времени вам придется находится в костеле, то могу вас обрадовать. Венчание может длиться примерно 30-40 минут, но не больше часа. Так что, если имеются нетерпеливые гости, то можете их заранее предупредить, что всё пройдет быстро и интересно. На самом деле венчание - очень красивый обряд, наполненный радостью и искренностью.
Интересно знать:
• Не допускается брак с мусульманами
• Не допускается брак с монахом/монашкой
• Не допускается брак, если один из “молодых” состоит в браке
• Не разрешается венчание, если один из “молодых” уже был обвенчан в православной церкви (т.к. там получают развенчивание)
• Не венчают крестных родителей
• Брак католиков разрывается только смертью одного из супругов
• Католическая вера допускает венчание, если один из “молодых” православной веры
• Не венчают “молодых”, которые состоят в прямой родственной связи и сводных сестер и братьев
• В костеле венчают в любой день, кроме 40 дней перед Пасхой и 4-х недель перед Рождеством
• Свидетели обязательно должны быть крещеные, не важно католики или православные
Одним из главных участников церемонии венчания является отец невесты. Именно он ведет её к алтарю, где невесту ждет жених. Папа, человек который с рождения был самым главным защитником своей дочери, помощником, советчиком передает часть своих “полномочий” жениху, будущему мужу его дочурки. С этого дня уже муж будет ответственным за будущее дочери, будет заботиться о ней и любить!
На католическом венчании зачастую можно увидеть маленьких девочек, которые одеты подобно невестам, в белые или алые платьица. Ребенок – это символ невинности, доброты, непорочности… (Дети, конечно, это здорово, но если вы не уверены в выдержке своего ребенка, то лучше не стоит мучить его и заставлять сидеть тихо всю церемонию. Не все дети способны молча просидеть больше получаса. И вам вряд ли захочется бегать за ребенком по костелу или успокаивать его истерики).
Свидетели. Куда без них? Интересно, но на венчании может быть не двое свидетелей, а по несколько свидетелей с обеих сторон, чего нет в православном венчании. Свидетели должны быть крещеные, не важно в православной или католической вере.
Гости: бабушки, дедушки, тети, дяди, подруги, друзья. Только хорошо подумайте, кого вы хотите видеть в этот день. Не превращайте венчание в некое феерическое шоу, пусть это лучше будут только самые близкие. Те, кто придет не потому что “пригласили и уже не отвертишься”, а потому что им тоже не менее важно это событие.
Церемония начинается!
Итак, все в сборе, церемония начинается. Проводит ее католический священник, чаще ксендз. Он говорит вступительную речь, приветствует гостей. Потом читает первую молитву, после чего ксендз читает/рассказывает фрагмент из Библии. Перед тем как священник даст благословение, “молодым” надо ответить на три вопроса: “ Пришли ли вы сюда добровольно и свободно хотите заключить супружеский союз? “, “ Готовы ли вы любить и уважать друг друга всю жизнь? “, “ Готовы ли вы с любовью принять от Бога детей и воспитать их согласно учению Христа и церкви? (вопрос задается только молодым парам).” Церемония заканчивается в том случае, если хоть на один из заданных вопросов прозвучал ответ “нет”. Правда такое случается, наверное, совсем редко, лишь в американских фильмах мы привыкли наблюдать за тем, как за пару минут кто-то из молодых передумывает и вовсе связывать жизнь с человеком, с которым успел дойти до алтаря. Но мы не в Америке и венчание – это не поход в магазин, это решение на всю жизнь. Кстати, еще одно отличие католического венчания от православного: католики не знают, что такое развод (развенчивание). И не разрешают венчаться тем, кто до этого был обвенчан в православной вере и потом получил разрешение на развенчивание.
После положительных ответов на вопросы жених и невеста перед лицом Бога дают клятву, обет верности. Свидетель подает кольца и “молодые” обмениваются ими. Интересно то, что обмен кольцами в принципе не обязателен, это как дополнение клятвы друг другу.
Если вы переживаете за то, сколько времени вам придется находится в костеле, то могу вас обрадовать. Венчание может длиться примерно 30-40 минут, но не больше часа. Так что, если имеются нетерпеливые гости, то можете их заранее предупредить, что всё пройдет быстро и интересно. На самом деле венчание - очень красивый обряд, наполненный радостью и искренностью.
Интересно знать:
• Не допускается брак с мусульманами
• Не допускается брак с монахом/монашкой
• Не допускается брак, если один из “молодых” состоит в браке
• Не разрешается венчание, если один из “молодых” уже был обвенчан в православной церкви (т.к. там получают развенчивание)
• Не венчают крестных родителей
• Брак католиков разрывается только смертью одного из супругов
• Католическая вера допускает венчание, если один из “молодых” православной веры
• Не венчают “молодых”, которые состоят в прямой родственной связи и сводных сестер и братьев
• В костеле венчают в любой день, кроме 40 дней перед Пасхой и 4-х недель перед Рождеством
• Свидетели обязательно должны быть крещеные, не важно католики или православные
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