Today’s Usage Tip: Reduce swelling during pregnancy with fruits and vegetables

Some bloating is common during pregnancy. Pregnancy swelling, or edema, is the result of the body filling with extra fluids during gestation, notes the American Pregnancy Association. These additional fluids allow for tissues and joints to expand, making room for fetal growth and delivery. But while some extra fluid is necessary, pregnant women can consume certain foods to reduce the worst of the swelling symptoms.
 

High-Potassium Foods

The APA recommends women eat high-potassium foods to help reduce swelling. Because potassium is often flushed from the system by diuretic medication, women given a prescription to cope with pregnancy swelling should get an extra amount of the mineral. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, foods highest in potassium include sweet potatoes, white potatoes, tomato paste and tomato puree, white beans, clams, halibut, yogurt, carrot juice and prune juice. These foods all have at least 10 percent of the recommended daily value for potassium. The portable banana, another high potassium food, offers about 9 percent of the potassium you need in an average-size serving.

Vegetables and Fruits

Some natural foods, especially vegetables and fruits, help flush your system of extra fluids. These foods, known as diuretics, cause extra urination, so check with your obstetrician to determine if you should keep your intake of these foods to a specific amount. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, diuretic foods that may help reduce the symptoms of edema include onions, asparagus, parsley, leafy greens, leeks, garlic, beets and grapes.

Today’s Amazing Fact: Meet the ‘belly fat’ burners!

Food contains energy in the form of calories. Individuals who consume more calories than they burn through exercise gain weight. However, certain foods count as "negative calorie" foods, meaning they have fewer calories than it takes the body to digest them. When negative calorie foods are paired with fatty foods, they can burn some of the excess fat, and this helps people prevent weight gain. Many fruits and vegetables act as fat-burners.

Apples

An apple a day helps keep fat away. Apples contain lots of vitamin C, which dilutes fat and makes it easier to flush from the body. Apples also have pectin, a complex carbohydrate that limits the amount of fat absorbed into cells. Pectin even aids with water absorption, again helping flush fat.

Watermelon

Watermelon will support your fat-loss effort because it is low in calories and very filling. A cup of watermelon is 50 calories. True to its name, watermelon contains large amounts of water. According to Penn State University, by "eating water," you can lose weight. Foods with large amounts of water instead of extra calories can satisfy your appetite and keep you full without requiring you to eat a lot of food. Water from food is digested significantly slower than water that you would drink as a beverage.

Grapefruit

Grapefruit can support your fat-loss effort because it is low in calories and contains a unique compound that encourages further fat loss by improving your insulin resistance, according to the American Council on Exercise, as well as Dr. Jonny Bowden, Ph.D and clinical nutrition specialist, in his book "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth." A medium grapefruit contains only 40 calories. In a study published in the Spring 2006 edition of the "Journal of Medicinal Food," a team of researchers at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego California found that unique compound or compounds in grapefruit promote a fat-loss environment by improving your body's ability to control its blood glucose levels. Researchers admit they are still not certain why this occurs, but recommend grapefruit if you trying to lose body fat.

Today’s Testimony: Complete Detoxification

 by Wayne

Wow this is so cool. I had a good thing happen to me today. My tonsils have been bad for years, for the last few days I kept having funny feelings around that area. Now I don't know what happen or what it is. But my right tonsil looked very big today and it had the feeling something was there in my tonsil, hope I am not grossing anyone out. I know from what health teachers say that the tonsils are one of the organs that help rid us of waste in the body too. 

Well after seeing my tonsils I took some green juice and swish it around my tonsil and out came this big white ball right out of my tonsil, never saw anything like it in my life. I spit it out and it looked like a bit of cheese but round and smell really bad. This has never happen to me, I got nervous, but after it was out I felt like jumping for joy, energy came into my body like I never felt. The 18 day fast and the juicing must have clear something out of my body also I did a lot of colon cleaning with herbs and other things. My eyes took on a look of health. 

I know I sound crazy but it's all true. I still can't think of what it really is but it must be some kind of waste. God is so wise to make our bodies like this.

Already I feel new, my nerves are better and I feel peaceful. I think fasting is the greatest thing, but I do believe in eating and eating well. My diet which I follow for about two weeks before the fast was a lot of whole brown rice and lentils and other types of beans, all kinds of veg and fruit, more veg then fruit. Four glasses of veg juice a day.

Today’s Usage Tip: Fisetin from fruits and vegetables protects the aging brain and helps fight cancer

Fisetin is a unique flavonoid compound found naturally in many fruits and vegetables including strawberries, blueberries and the skin of cucumbers. A wealth of scientific research now explains how a diet packed with raw fruits and vegetables can help prevent amyloid plaque formation in the aging brain and can promote the early destruction of cancer cells by triggering the body's innate immune response. Researchers reporting in the journal Neuroscience Letters found that fisetin is neuro-protective and helps to maintain normal memory processes while inhibiting plaque formation around synapses. 

 

The International Journal of Oncology has published the work of Chinese scientists documenting how fisetin promotes the natural death of potentially malignant breast cancer cells. Fisetin is rapidly emerging as a powerful tool in the arsenal against a number of diseases associated with premature aging.

Fruits and vegetables in their natural state are typically packed with polyphenols; these polyphenols are structurally bioactive and target specific areas of the body or help to lower oxidative stress and inflammation that is behind many disease processes. The brain is particularly sensitive to stress from a high rate of metabolism necessary to oxygenate and fuel the sensitive neurons that control memory and cognition.

Fisetin Helps Prevent Inflammation in the Brain to Boost Memory and Cognition

Researchers have found that fisetin operates in a very specific pathway to boost nerve cell glutathione levels and to reduce one of the most damaging free radicals, peroxynitrite. Scientists have determined that the natural compound protects nerve cells from damage during stroke, while at the same time maintaining vital energy production in the brain. Fisetin also prevents excess activation of specialized glial cells in the brain that helps deter inflammatory nerve damage, excitotoxicity, and declining neurological health. And fisetin reduces amyloid beta fiber accumulation to improve memory and thwart cognitive decline.