Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Friday, 22 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
These Foods and Nutritional Deficiencies Can Make You Depressed or Violent
The U.S. is still reeling from another tragedy -- the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and the murder of several civilians during the attempt.
Many are asking what the cause might have been -- whether it was pervasive, over-the-top violent rhetoric in the culture, or simply mental psychosis.
But, even if the former, there is still the underlying cause of mental psychosis to consider.
And what if people are lashing out with such destructive force, at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now Arizona, not because of what they are hearing, but at least in part because of what they are eating?
Soy infant formula has damaging effects on the development of the brain, but soy is a common ingredient in many processed foods and soy products are being mistakenly touted as a healthy option. Copper toxicity can also cause mental disturbance, and a diet high in grains and low on animal products is also likely to be high in copper. Animal-based omega-3 fats are crucial for fetal brain development.
Writing in her blog, Kimberly Hartke, a publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, says:
"Our USDA dietary guidelines currently advise to restrict meat and eggs, in favor of vegetables and grains ... Could our government policies be misguided and leading us down the wrong path? ... Let's stop focusing exclusively on the environmental influences in the home and in our culture, but start looking at the internal influence of the Standard American Diet on mental health."
Sources:
Hartke Is Online January 10, 2011
NOW Toronto January 13-20, 2011
CNN January 14, 2010
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Kimberly Hartke, a publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, brings up an important yet largely ignored factor in violence, namely diet.
This is yet another case of common sense being swept under the rug in favor of political discussions about how to handle people with mental "issues." But trying to figure out how to identify potential violent offenders before they strike is actually avoiding the real issue of why emotional and mental health problems are on the rise in the first place. New laws and stricter gun control will have no impact on the root of the problem whatsoever.
I've previously written about the detrimental impact of antidepressants and other drugs. Many of these can exacerbate emotional problems and lead to senseless violence against yourself and others.
In fact, a study by The Institute of Safe Medication Practices published last year, highlights 31 commonly-prescribed drugs that are disproportionately associated with cases of violent acts toward others. Topping the list is the quit-smoking drug Chantix, followed by Prozac and Paxil, and a number of drugs used to treat ADHD.
It's not presently known whether Jared Loughner, the young man who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed several civilians, was taking medication, but there are indications that he did not have a healthful diet.
Many people may scoff at this discussion, but like Hartke says, we cannot continue focusing solely on environmental influences such as upbringing and culture. Our mental health is so clearly linked to our diet and lifestyle that it simply cannot be ignored any longer. And if our government and health authorities really want to improve the mental health of the people, they must begin to reconsider their dietary recommendations.
More people than ever are medicated to supposedly address their mental anguish, yet people seem to be more depressed, despondent, and violent than ever. The "magic" fix it pill paradigm is simply not working. It's time to rip off the Band-Aid and look deeper.
The Gut-Brain Connection
When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's hard to fathom why diet is still so widely ignored by the mental health field.
In a very real sense, you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut.
These two organs actually originate from the same type of tissue during fetal development. One part turns into your central nervous system, while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen.
This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. They work in tandem, each influencing the other. And this is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.
For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this, read through Sandra Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.
Further evidence of this connection includes the fact that a number of neurotransmitters such as serotonin can be found not only in your brain, but also in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!
Nutrition Affects Your Mood and Mental State
As a result of this connection, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.
As Hartke points out, foods that contain beneficial nutrients for optimal brain function and mood control have been "demonized" in our culture. B3- and protein-rich foods such as raw dairy products, eggs and meat have been more or less blacklisted, accused of being too high in cholesterol and fat.
Hartke also mentions soy, which is frequently recommended as a healthier substitute. Popular soy foods include soy infant formula, which we now know is extremely harmful to infants, especially their brain. Trans fat is another area of concern. According to Dr. Mary Enig, a well-known researcher and scientist, the USDA's dietary guidelines endanger the health of our children.
Are You Getting Enough "Brain Food"?
One nutrient in particular that is essential for optimal brain development and functioning is omega-3 fats. It's one of the few supplements I recommend to all the patients at my clinic. Omega-3 fats are especially important during prenatal development, and, unfortunately, most people are sorely deficient.
Could rampant omega-3 deficiency be a contributing factor to deteriorating mental health? I believe so—along with vitamin D deficiency, which also plays an important role.
NOW Toronto also touches on the subject of omega-3 fats and violence in a recent article stating:
"Hamburgers and fries are rarely accused of causing violent behavior in male youth who subsist on them. But the standard junk food diet of North America is dangerously low in many nutrients, notably the omega fatty acids found most easily in fish and walnuts, fats that were likely crucial in early human evolution.
I say "dangerously low" not only because of the body's physical need for such fats, but because these fats deliver mental health benefits that counter depression. Washington-based National Institute of Health clinician Joseph Hibbeln created a momentary stir in 2001 with research showing lower murder rates among prisoners who ate fish regularly.
Harvard's Andrew Stoll wrote about EFAs as "the new pharmacology of aggression" in his 2001 book, The Omega-3 Connection, and expressed "hope that at least part of the answer" to such problems as intermittent explosive disorder "may be as simple as omega-3 fatty acid."
Research has shown that low plasma concentrations of DHA (a type of omega-3 fat) is associated with low concentrations of brain serotonin. This decreased amount of serotonin can be associated with depression and suicide.
In fact, not getting enough omega-3 fats is known to change the levels and functioning of both serotonin and dopamine (which plays a role in feelings of pleasure), as well as compromise the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from unwanted matter gaining access. Omega-3 deficiency can also decrease normal blood flow to your brain, an interesting finding given that studies show people with depression have compromised blood flow to a number of brain regions.
Finally, omega-3 deficiency also causes a 35 percent reduction in brain phosphatidylserine (PS) levels, which is relevant considering that PS has documented antidepressant activity in humans. Fish used to be the ideal food for obtaining omega-3 in your diet; however, fish stocks around the globe are now so polluted I cannot recommend eating fish anymore. Especially not if you're pregnant.
After doing extensive research in this area, I'm convinced that the ideal source of omega-3 fats is krill oil, which also contains astaxanthin, an extremely potent antioxidant that also benefits the brain, in addition to protecting the oil from going rancid. Krill oil is also more potent than fish oil, which means you need less of it.
Omega-3 fats such as those in krill oil have actually been found to work just as well as antidepressants in preventing the signs of depression, but without any of the side effects. I can also attest to this, as throughout my years of medical practice many of my patients were able to eliminate their antidepressants once they started taking omega-3 fats.
Researchers Around the World have Linked Bowel Problems to Brain Disorders
Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.
I realize he has taken a lot of unfair heat in the media recently and I hope to report on that more fully, but always remember that there are two sides to every story and the one telling the story now is Brian Deere. If you want to hear the other side of the story you can view the interview I did with him last year.
A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. These studies include:
The Journal of Pediatrics November 1999; 135(5):559-63
The Journal of Pediatrics 2000; 138(3): 366-372
Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003; 23(6): 504-517
Journal of Neuroimmunology 2005
Brain, Behavior and Immunity 1993; 7: 97-103
Pediatric Neurology 2003; 28(4): 1-3
Neuropsychobiology 2005; 51:77-85
The Journal of Pediatrics May 2005;146(5):605-10
Autism Insights 2009; 1: 1-11
Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology February 2009; 23(2): 95-98
Annals of Clinical Psychiatry 2009:21(3): 148-161
Journal of Child Neurology June 29, 2009; 000:1-6
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders March 2009;39(3):405-13
Medical Hypotheses August 1998;51:133-144.
Journal of Child Neurology July 2000; ;15(7):429-35
Lancet. 1972;2:883–884.
Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia January-March 1971;1:48-62
Journal of Pediatrics March 2001;138:366-372.
Molecular Psychiatry 2002;7:375-382.
American Journal of Gastroenterolgy April 2004;598-605.
Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003;23:504-517.
Neuroimmunology April 2006;173(1-2):126-34.
Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol Biol. Psychiatry December 30 2006;30:1472-1477.
Clinical Infectious Diseases September 1 2002;35(Suppl 1):S6-S16
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2004;70(11):6459-6465
Journal of Medical Microbiology October 2005;54:987-991
Can Your Diet Prevent Mood Disorders and Aggression?
I've already addressed the importance of omega-3 fats in brain development and mental health above. However, although extremely important, that's not the only nutrient needed for optimal brain function and mood control. Your overall diet is just as important. Eliminating most sugars and grains from your diet is high on the list, as these will increase your risk of insulin resistance, which is also linked to depression.
Researchers have discovered a positive connection between higher levels of insulin resistance and severity of depressive symptoms in people with impaired glucose tolerance, even before the occurrence of diabetes. Based on these findings, it was suggested that insulin resistance could be the result of an increased release of counter-regulatory hormones linked to depression.
Additionally, excessive insulin release can lead to hypoglycemia (falling blood sugar levels), which in turn causes your brain to secrete glutamate. High levels of glutamate can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and an increase in suicide risk.
Many food additives, preservatives and food colorants can also cause behavioral changes, so avoiding candy and processed foods is important.
Fermented foods, on the other hand, have been found to have mental health benefits, which again ties into the gut-brain connection, as fermented foods are rich sources of healthful probiotics.
Optimizing your vitamin D levels is yet another way to boost your mental health.
Have you ever noticed how great it can feel to spend time outdoors on a sunny day? Getting safe sun exposure, which allows your body to produce vitamin D, is actually great for your mood. One study even found people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who received healthy doses.
As for food sources containing vitamin D, lard from organically-raised pigs and butter from grass-fed cows are two viable sources. Sylvia P. Onusic, PhD wrote about this on Hartke’s blog:
"Lard is a good fat to use in cooking because it is hard at room temperature which means it will not spoil or become rancid as quickly as liquid oils at room temp do. But lard purchased in the supermarket is usually hydrogenated and thus a trans fat to be avoided….
Butter from pastured cows on green grass also contains nice amounts of natural vitamin D as does farm fresh milk. The vitamin D is in the butterfat. Conventional milk, produced from cows that are usually fed either/and /or corn, soybeans, candy, brewery wastes, does not naturally contain vitamin D. These cows may never even see the pasture or feel the sun in their lifetimes."
Other Lifestyle Factors for Mental Balance
Last but not least, exercising and having effective tools to address your stress also play important roles in caring for your mental health. Regular exercise is in fact one of the "secret weapons" to overcoming depression because it helps to normalize insulin resistance while boosting "feel good" hormones in your brain.
As for managing your stress levels, my favorite strategy is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT); a form of psychological acupressure that you can learn how to do yourself. However, if you have depression or serious stress it would be best to consult with a mental health professional who is also an EFT practitioner to guide you.
Of course, there are other stress-management methods out there as well, such as meditation, journaling, breathing exercises, yoga, or simply sharing your feelings with a close friend. Ideally, pick the method that feels best for you.
Many are asking what the cause might have been -- whether it was pervasive, over-the-top violent rhetoric in the culture, or simply mental psychosis.
But, even if the former, there is still the underlying cause of mental psychosis to consider.
And what if people are lashing out with such destructive force, at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now Arizona, not because of what they are hearing, but at least in part because of what they are eating?
Soy infant formula has damaging effects on the development of the brain, but soy is a common ingredient in many processed foods and soy products are being mistakenly touted as a healthy option. Copper toxicity can also cause mental disturbance, and a diet high in grains and low on animal products is also likely to be high in copper. Animal-based omega-3 fats are crucial for fetal brain development.
Writing in her blog, Kimberly Hartke, a publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, says:
"Our USDA dietary guidelines currently advise to restrict meat and eggs, in favor of vegetables and grains ... Could our government policies be misguided and leading us down the wrong path? ... Let's stop focusing exclusively on the environmental influences in the home and in our culture, but start looking at the internal influence of the Standard American Diet on mental health."
Sources:
Hartke Is Online January 10, 2011
NOW Toronto January 13-20, 2011
CNN January 14, 2010
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Kimberly Hartke, a publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, brings up an important yet largely ignored factor in violence, namely diet.
This is yet another case of common sense being swept under the rug in favor of political discussions about how to handle people with mental "issues." But trying to figure out how to identify potential violent offenders before they strike is actually avoiding the real issue of why emotional and mental health problems are on the rise in the first place. New laws and stricter gun control will have no impact on the root of the problem whatsoever.
I've previously written about the detrimental impact of antidepressants and other drugs. Many of these can exacerbate emotional problems and lead to senseless violence against yourself and others.
In fact, a study by The Institute of Safe Medication Practices published last year, highlights 31 commonly-prescribed drugs that are disproportionately associated with cases of violent acts toward others. Topping the list is the quit-smoking drug Chantix, followed by Prozac and Paxil, and a number of drugs used to treat ADHD.
It's not presently known whether Jared Loughner, the young man who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed several civilians, was taking medication, but there are indications that he did not have a healthful diet.
Many people may scoff at this discussion, but like Hartke says, we cannot continue focusing solely on environmental influences such as upbringing and culture. Our mental health is so clearly linked to our diet and lifestyle that it simply cannot be ignored any longer. And if our government and health authorities really want to improve the mental health of the people, they must begin to reconsider their dietary recommendations.
More people than ever are medicated to supposedly address their mental anguish, yet people seem to be more depressed, despondent, and violent than ever. The "magic" fix it pill paradigm is simply not working. It's time to rip off the Band-Aid and look deeper.
The Gut-Brain Connection
When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's hard to fathom why diet is still so widely ignored by the mental health field.
In a very real sense, you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut.
These two organs actually originate from the same type of tissue during fetal development. One part turns into your central nervous system, while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen.
This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. They work in tandem, each influencing the other. And this is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.
For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this, read through Sandra Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.
Further evidence of this connection includes the fact that a number of neurotransmitters such as serotonin can be found not only in your brain, but also in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!
Nutrition Affects Your Mood and Mental State
As a result of this connection, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.
As Hartke points out, foods that contain beneficial nutrients for optimal brain function and mood control have been "demonized" in our culture. B3- and protein-rich foods such as raw dairy products, eggs and meat have been more or less blacklisted, accused of being too high in cholesterol and fat.
Hartke also mentions soy, which is frequently recommended as a healthier substitute. Popular soy foods include soy infant formula, which we now know is extremely harmful to infants, especially their brain. Trans fat is another area of concern. According to Dr. Mary Enig, a well-known researcher and scientist, the USDA's dietary guidelines endanger the health of our children.
Are You Getting Enough "Brain Food"?
One nutrient in particular that is essential for optimal brain development and functioning is omega-3 fats. It's one of the few supplements I recommend to all the patients at my clinic. Omega-3 fats are especially important during prenatal development, and, unfortunately, most people are sorely deficient.
Could rampant omega-3 deficiency be a contributing factor to deteriorating mental health? I believe so—along with vitamin D deficiency, which also plays an important role.
NOW Toronto also touches on the subject of omega-3 fats and violence in a recent article stating:
"Hamburgers and fries are rarely accused of causing violent behavior in male youth who subsist on them. But the standard junk food diet of North America is dangerously low in many nutrients, notably the omega fatty acids found most easily in fish and walnuts, fats that were likely crucial in early human evolution.
I say "dangerously low" not only because of the body's physical need for such fats, but because these fats deliver mental health benefits that counter depression. Washington-based National Institute of Health clinician Joseph Hibbeln created a momentary stir in 2001 with research showing lower murder rates among prisoners who ate fish regularly.
Harvard's Andrew Stoll wrote about EFAs as "the new pharmacology of aggression" in his 2001 book, The Omega-3 Connection, and expressed "hope that at least part of the answer" to such problems as intermittent explosive disorder "may be as simple as omega-3 fatty acid."
Research has shown that low plasma concentrations of DHA (a type of omega-3 fat) is associated with low concentrations of brain serotonin. This decreased amount of serotonin can be associated with depression and suicide.
In fact, not getting enough omega-3 fats is known to change the levels and functioning of both serotonin and dopamine (which plays a role in feelings of pleasure), as well as compromise the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from unwanted matter gaining access. Omega-3 deficiency can also decrease normal blood flow to your brain, an interesting finding given that studies show people with depression have compromised blood flow to a number of brain regions.
Finally, omega-3 deficiency also causes a 35 percent reduction in brain phosphatidylserine (PS) levels, which is relevant considering that PS has documented antidepressant activity in humans. Fish used to be the ideal food for obtaining omega-3 in your diet; however, fish stocks around the globe are now so polluted I cannot recommend eating fish anymore. Especially not if you're pregnant.
After doing extensive research in this area, I'm convinced that the ideal source of omega-3 fats is krill oil, which also contains astaxanthin, an extremely potent antioxidant that also benefits the brain, in addition to protecting the oil from going rancid. Krill oil is also more potent than fish oil, which means you need less of it.
Omega-3 fats such as those in krill oil have actually been found to work just as well as antidepressants in preventing the signs of depression, but without any of the side effects. I can also attest to this, as throughout my years of medical practice many of my patients were able to eliminate their antidepressants once they started taking omega-3 fats.
Researchers Around the World have Linked Bowel Problems to Brain Disorders
Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.
I realize he has taken a lot of unfair heat in the media recently and I hope to report on that more fully, but always remember that there are two sides to every story and the one telling the story now is Brian Deere. If you want to hear the other side of the story you can view the interview I did with him last year.
A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. These studies include:
The Journal of Pediatrics November 1999; 135(5):559-63
The Journal of Pediatrics 2000; 138(3): 366-372
Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003; 23(6): 504-517
Journal of Neuroimmunology 2005
Brain, Behavior and Immunity 1993; 7: 97-103
Pediatric Neurology 2003; 28(4): 1-3
Neuropsychobiology 2005; 51:77-85
The Journal of Pediatrics May 2005;146(5):605-10
Autism Insights 2009; 1: 1-11
Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology February 2009; 23(2): 95-98
Annals of Clinical Psychiatry 2009:21(3): 148-161
Journal of Child Neurology June 29, 2009; 000:1-6
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders March 2009;39(3):405-13
Medical Hypotheses August 1998;51:133-144.
Journal of Child Neurology July 2000; ;15(7):429-35
Lancet. 1972;2:883–884.
Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia January-March 1971;1:48-62
Journal of Pediatrics March 2001;138:366-372.
Molecular Psychiatry 2002;7:375-382.
American Journal of Gastroenterolgy April 2004;598-605.
Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003;23:504-517.
Neuroimmunology April 2006;173(1-2):126-34.
Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol Biol. Psychiatry December 30 2006;30:1472-1477.
Clinical Infectious Diseases September 1 2002;35(Suppl 1):S6-S16
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2004;70(11):6459-6465
Journal of Medical Microbiology October 2005;54:987-991
Can Your Diet Prevent Mood Disorders and Aggression?
I've already addressed the importance of omega-3 fats in brain development and mental health above. However, although extremely important, that's not the only nutrient needed for optimal brain function and mood control. Your overall diet is just as important. Eliminating most sugars and grains from your diet is high on the list, as these will increase your risk of insulin resistance, which is also linked to depression.
Researchers have discovered a positive connection between higher levels of insulin resistance and severity of depressive symptoms in people with impaired glucose tolerance, even before the occurrence of diabetes. Based on these findings, it was suggested that insulin resistance could be the result of an increased release of counter-regulatory hormones linked to depression.
Additionally, excessive insulin release can lead to hypoglycemia (falling blood sugar levels), which in turn causes your brain to secrete glutamate. High levels of glutamate can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and an increase in suicide risk.
Many food additives, preservatives and food colorants can also cause behavioral changes, so avoiding candy and processed foods is important.
Fermented foods, on the other hand, have been found to have mental health benefits, which again ties into the gut-brain connection, as fermented foods are rich sources of healthful probiotics.
Optimizing your vitamin D levels is yet another way to boost your mental health.
Have you ever noticed how great it can feel to spend time outdoors on a sunny day? Getting safe sun exposure, which allows your body to produce vitamin D, is actually great for your mood. One study even found people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who received healthy doses.
As for food sources containing vitamin D, lard from organically-raised pigs and butter from grass-fed cows are two viable sources. Sylvia P. Onusic, PhD wrote about this on Hartke’s blog:
"Lard is a good fat to use in cooking because it is hard at room temperature which means it will not spoil or become rancid as quickly as liquid oils at room temp do. But lard purchased in the supermarket is usually hydrogenated and thus a trans fat to be avoided….
Butter from pastured cows on green grass also contains nice amounts of natural vitamin D as does farm fresh milk. The vitamin D is in the butterfat. Conventional milk, produced from cows that are usually fed either/and /or corn, soybeans, candy, brewery wastes, does not naturally contain vitamin D. These cows may never even see the pasture or feel the sun in their lifetimes."
Other Lifestyle Factors for Mental Balance
Last but not least, exercising and having effective tools to address your stress also play important roles in caring for your mental health. Regular exercise is in fact one of the "secret weapons" to overcoming depression because it helps to normalize insulin resistance while boosting "feel good" hormones in your brain.
As for managing your stress levels, my favorite strategy is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT); a form of psychological acupressure that you can learn how to do yourself. However, if you have depression or serious stress it would be best to consult with a mental health professional who is also an EFT practitioner to guide you.
Of course, there are other stress-management methods out there as well, such as meditation, journaling, breathing exercises, yoga, or simply sharing your feelings with a close friend. Ideally, pick the method that feels best for you.
If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why
Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.
Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.
According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:
"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."
Sources:
Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:
Mind
Mood
Behavior
So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!
Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior
In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.
According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:
"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."
The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!
So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.
The authors concluded that:
"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."
This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.
Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.
According to Dr. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz, lead author of the study:
"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."
In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.
The Gut-Brain Connection
When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.
With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.
Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Sandra Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)
Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.
As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.
Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?
Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.
Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.
Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.
Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.
When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.
The authors explain it as follows:
"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).
Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.
… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."
Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders
Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.
A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.
Other Health Benefits of Probiotics
Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."
In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:
Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease
Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients
Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates
Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins
Preventing allergies
Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.
What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?
Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.
Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:
Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution
Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.
Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria
Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.
Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.
In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.
Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).
If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.
Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.
If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.
Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.
According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:
"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."
Sources:
Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:
Mind
Mood
Behavior
So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!
Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior
In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.
According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:
"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."
The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!
So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.
The authors concluded that:
"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."
This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.
Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.
According to Dr. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz, lead author of the study:
"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."
In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.
The Gut-Brain Connection
When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.
With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.
Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Sandra Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)
Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.
As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.
Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?
Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.
Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.
Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.
Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.
When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.
The authors explain it as follows:
"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).
Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.
… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."
Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders
Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.
A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.
Other Health Benefits of Probiotics
Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."
In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:
Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease
Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients
Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates
Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins
Preventing allergies
Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.
What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?
Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.
Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:
Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution
Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.
Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria
Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.
Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.
In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.
Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).
If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.
Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.
If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.
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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(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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