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A recently study from the American Dietetic Association revealed that even though two groups of individuals ate the same amount of calories, individuals who at 30% more of one particular nutrient sported low levels of body fat while the other group was clinically overweight and/or obese.  Ouch!

What’s this magical nutrient?  Well, it’s found in foods like:

Apples
Pears
Berries
Beans
Avocado
Sweet Potatoes
100% Whole Wheat Pasta
Brown Rice
Artichokes
Oatmeal
Peas
Brocolli

And a ton of other foods…

The nutrient is fiber, and you BEST to be getting your fair share (~30 grams a day) cause it packs a ton of benefits like:

**slowing digestion and gastric emptying to support stable blood sugar levels and decreased insulin output (this means more fat loss)
**signaling the release of hunger crushing hormones supporting feelings of fullness and appetite control
**promoting weight control independant of calorie intake (as the ADA study revealed)

Basically, it’s one of those super nutrients that you should be aiming to consume with every meal, and it’s found in abundance in most fruits, vegetables, and whole grains…so stock up, and eat up!

Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, eczema … all of these conditions are widely recognized as stemming from chronic inflammation. BUT did you know that heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes — even obesity and aging itself — also have a strong inflammatory component, and may in fact be caused or exacerbated by unchecked inflammation in your body?

Inflammation is a hot topic in medicine right now, and for good reason.

Inflammation is the reason for pain. And while you’ve probably experienced the “good” kind of inflammation — the redness, heat and swelling that occurs at the site of an injury, for instance, which is a key part of your body’s healing process — chronic inflammation is much different. Ongoing inflammation in your body is often the result of stress, unhealthy lifestyle and exposure to toxins, and it serves no useful purpose. Instead, it actively contributes to disease and imbalances in your system.

Foods that fight inflammation are therefore an invaluable way to maintain your health and prevent disease. Whereas certain foods are decidedly pro-inflammatory (sugar, alcohol, trans fats), others, like many fruits and vegetables, are anti-inflammatory.

Adding more of these foods to your diet is one of the simplest, and smartest, ways to boost your health, so without further ado, here are 10 top options to consider.

1. Broccoli

Phytonutrients in broccoli, such as sulphoraphane, are known to fight inflammation of the joints, respiratory system, colon and more. One study even found sulphoraphane may help prevent the activation of an inflammatory enzyme known as COX-2, similar to how anti-inflammatory arthritis drugs work.  However, while the COX-2 enzyme will begin triggering inflammation as soon as the drugs are stopped, researchers suspect the sulphoraphane may stop to COX-2 enzyme from increasing, thereby stopping inflammation before it starts.

2. Olive Oil

Olive oil contains a natural anti-inflammatory agent researchers have named oleocanthal. Like sulphoraphane in broccoli, the substance acts on the COX enzymes, acting as a natural non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent.  Consuming olive oil for breakfast has even been shown to repress in vivo expression of several pro-inflammatory genes, which researchers suggested may help explain why there is a reduced risk of heart disease in Mediterranean countries, where olive oil is a main source of dietary fat.

3. Blueberries

Rich in antioxidants known as anthocyanins, studies show blueberries help ward off both inflammation and oxidative stress. In particular, eating blueberries daily for six weeks increases anti-inflammatory molecules called cytokines, even if the body is engaging in strenous exercise, which is known to trigger an inflammatory state.This suggests blueberries may offer a protective effect against inflammation when your body is in stressful situations.

4. Fish

Fish are an important source of omega-3 fats, the anti-inflammatory healthy fats that are known to help prevent cancer, arthritis, heart disease and more. Omega-3 fats play a powerful role in regulating inflammatory processes, and research shows that women with the highest omega-3 fat intakes had a 44 percent reduced risk of dying from inflammatory diseases compared with women who ate the least.

Eating oily fish like salmon and mackerel, in particular, have been shown to improve inflammatory conditions, but King Mackerel is actually one of the most dangerous types of fish to eat based on average mercury levels. You have to take potential pollution into account when choosing which fish to eat – you can find which fish are safest to eat here.

However, even the safest fish to eat still have some small amount of mercury contamination. If you want to get anti-inflammatory omega-3 without eating a ton of potentially harmful fish, it is highly recommended you supplement with a high-quality option like Super Omega CoQ10.

Along with the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA found in fish, Super Omega CoQ10™ also contains CoQ10, which serves as the miniature “power switch” found in all 100 trillion cells of your body. Our Super Omega CoQ10™ supplement contains high-quality fish oil concentrate, too, which helps reduce inflammation throughout your body.

5. Nuts

Nuts are another natural inflammation fighter. They contain not only omega-3 fats, but also antioxidant vitamins, dietary fiber, L-arginine and magnesium, all of which play an important role in modulating inflammation. In fact, studies show eating nuts helps reduce your risk of dying form an inflammatory disease.[vii]

6. Tart Cherries

Tart cherries are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins that yield powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. Studies show consuming tart cherry juice reduces important markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), while a tart cherry-enriched diets reduces plasma inflammation, abdominal fat inflammation, and cardiac inflammation, all known risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

7. Kelp

Kelp contains a complex carbohydrate called fucoidan as well as chlorophyll, which have anti-inflammatory properties. When choosing sea vegetables like kelp for a snack, be aware that, like fish, they can accumulate toxins from the water in which they grow. Always choose sea vegetables that come from unpolluted waters.

8. Fermented Foods

Kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented foods are rich in friendly bacteria known as probiotics. These good bacteria influence your health in numerous beneficial ways, one of them being to help curb systemic inflammation. One recent study found that people with inflammatory conditions like ulcerative colitis had lower levels of inflammation after taking a probiotic supplement for 8 weeks. Even healthy people who took probiotics had a reduction in inflammation compared to those taking a placebo.

9. Papaya

This tropical fruit contains the enzymes papain and chymopapain, which help lower inflammation. In addition, it’s a rich source of antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene, which also have anti-inflammatory effects.

10. Green Tea

Rich in natural anti-inflammatory compounds called flavonoids, green tea has been shown to actively increase anti-inflammatory substances while decreasing pro-inflammatory substances in animal studies. Researchers have conclued, “ … drinking adequate amounts of green tea may play a role in the prevention of inflammation-related diseases.

In addition to adding these top foods that fight inflammation to your diet, you can also make sure you’re consuming The Top 12 Anti-Inflammatory Ingredients. These ingredients are some of the most powerful, safest, and most effective pain relievers in the world. By feeding your body with the inflammation-fighting foods noted above and the 12 most effective inflammation-fighting natural ingredients below, you’ll give your body a powerful and proven one-two punch against inflammation and pain…

from www.losethebackpain.com

By Dr. Kareem

There is so much ‘gook’ in your system,
it’s pretty disgusting if you think about it…

Your colon, intestines, and entire digestive
tract are ridden with build-up of toxins mixed
with bile, inflammation, and food deposits.

This is mostly because of the immobility of
our intestinal tracts that takes place over time.
We inflame ourselves and end up having a
difficult time excreting bowel contents, suffer
from constipation, and even worse, stop absorbing
the nutrients that matter most to our health.

There are a ton of things you can do to improve
your digestive health, including, but not limited to:

• Quarterly 3 Day Detox
• Make sure you stay away from radical methods such as ‘Master Cleanse,’ in my opinion.  I really don’t believe at all in depleting your body 100% of all the nutrients it needs for an extended period, as this cleanse asks you to do.  It’s dangerous, in my opinion, and it only leads to poorer health
  in time, although the philosophy is to give your digestive tract a break.
• Instead, consider checking out a much more natural and less extreme, cleansing method, like the 3 Day Detox.  In my professional opinion, this is much more effective and removes the danger or radical cleansing.
• Increasing fiber intake
• My favorite thing to do here is carry around a bag of baby carrots all day long. For the entire day, every time I’m hungry in between meals, I’ll first consider filling my belly with carrots, before moving on to other more tempting foods.
• Balancing hydration and electrolyte consumption
• if you don’t get a lot of electrolytes naturally from fruits,
  make sure you include this as part of your hydration strategy)
• Consuming digestive enzymes, specifically designed to help you process food more easily.
• I get my enzymes through my superfood cocktail
• Supplementation – the best Digestive Supplement I know of is:  Ultimate Digestive Health
• This helps with regularity, if that’s a concern.
• Exercise designed to improve intestinal mobility.
• Lower intensity, longer duration on Day 1 and Day 3 – promotes circulation.
• High intensity, super short duration on Day 2 and Day 4  – promotes reciprocal nervous system response by hyper-stimulating your Sympathetic Nervous System
  during your exercise so that your Parasympathetic Nervous System takes over after you exercise and naturally results in increased digestive prioritization.

If you are suffering from poor digestive health, make sure you implement
as much of the above as possible.

However, if you’re not even sure about your digestive health, but you’re feeling fatigued, weaker than you should, and under-nourished considering your otherwise healthy nutritional intake, it’s time to cleanse.  Do this the right way with the Easy 3 Day Detox:

More greens and less processed foods are the way to go, Israeli study finds.

By Dan Even

Low-carb, high-protein diets indeed seem to be the best bet for losing weight, and will even increase your good cholesterol and reduce the fats in your blood, according to a study conducted by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The study, which followed 322 workers at the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona, was published recently in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. It showed that for losing weight in the short term, which the researchers put at six months, a low-carbohydrate diet, based on meat, fish and eggs – in short, a refined version of the famous Atkins Diet – led to the highest weight loss, with an average drop of 6.4 kilograms.

The “Mediterranean” diet, which was characterized by two portions of fish a week and regular consumption of olive oil and nuts, led to an average weight loss of 4.9 kilograms over the period, while the traditional low-fat diet based on pasta, rice and potatoes led to an average weight loss of 4.7 kilos.

This difference held up over the longer term – two years – as well. Over the two years, during which many of those examined put back on some of the weight they’d lost, the low-carb diet still won out, with low-carb eaters losing an average of 4.7 kilos, while the Mediterranean eaters lost 4.4 kilos and the low-fat, high-carb dieters lost only 2.9 kilos.

The low-carb and Mediterranean diets also led to substantial improvements in blood test results, raising the subjects’ HDL (“good” cholesterol ) levels, while lowering their triglyceride (fat ) levels and reducing their insulin excretion and glucose levels during a fast.

The study showed that on average, a person consumes 3.6 kilos of food a day, made up mostly of liquids (32.6 percent excluding water, which was not counted ); vegetables (18.8 percent ); fruit (17.7 percent ) milk products (9 percent ) meat (7.7 percent ) and grains and baked goods (7.1 percent ).

The three diets that were tested led to a one-kilogram reduction in the weight of the food consumed.

“The most concentrated foods, the ones that weigh the least, actually add the most calories to one’s daily consumption,” said Prof. Iris Shai of the International Center for Health and Nutrition at Ben-Gurion University who led the research team.

The researchers’ analysis showed that the food groups that statistically predicted success in losing weight over six months were different among the three diets. In the low-carb diets, the highest losers ate more vegetables; in the Mediterranean diet, the highest losers ate more unprocessed legumes, such as chick peas, and more milk products; while for the low-fat dieters, reducing the consumption of sweets and cake were the best predictors of weight loss.

For those trying to keep weight off over the long term, all three types of dieters benefited from increasing consumption of vegetables and meat while reducing consumption of eggs, processed legumes and soft drinks.

More specifically, low-carb dieters benefited most from eating more meat and reducing consumption of drinks other than water; the Mediterraneans did best with lowering consumption of processed legumes, eggs, bread, potatoes and pasta; and low-fat dieters did best by eating more vegetables and lowering consumption of processed legumes.

“What’s common to all three diets is the recommendation to dramatically increase the consumption of vegetables and reduce consumption of processed foods and snacks,” Shai said. “Beyond that, it’s recommended to choose different strategies in accordance with the diet that’s chosen.”

The BGU team’s research had previously resulted in other findings. For example, in 2010, in a study published in the journal, Circulation, it was found that all three diets reduced the plaque that accumulates in blood vessels, thus reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In another study – linked to this research and conducted by Shai, along with Prof. Assaf Rudich of BGU, researchers from the nuclear research center in Dimona and from Leipzig University in Germany – it was found that the body “remembers” a diet even when the subject has lost all the weight that diet took off and starts gaining weight again.

Though both insulin and leptin – a hormone excreted by fatty tissue – starts to increase as the person gains weight, other blood markers continue to improve, preserving the medical condition of those who continue to eat healthy food, even if they gain weight.

Thus, the good HDL cholesterol continues to rise, while C-reactive protein – a marker of bodily inflammation that increases the risk of heart disease – continues to drop. This research was published in the journal, Diabetes Care.