Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
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 Small amounts of tofu, fish, or boiled pork and other flavorenhancing vegetables and herbs like Asian chives are often added. Last is irichi, a combination of simmering and stir-frying. Less watery vegetables such as burdock, seaweed, dried daikon, and green papaya are used. Water, a hint of oil, bonito dashi broth (for flavor), and small amounts of chicken, fish, or boiled pork are added. Soy sauce and mirin (Japanese cooking sake) are optional.
Okinawa, 1949
Okinawa, 1993
USA, 1990-99
Total Calories
1539
1927
2176
Total Weight (grams)
1557
1353
1321
Caloric Density (CD)
1.0
1. |
Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich
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 To escape the risks of synthetic drugs, some people are experimenting with herbs. This route can be dangerous in view of the absence of scientific information about using herbs as medicine. Others are turning to home remedies and discovering that Aunt Agatha's spring tonic owed its curative powers to a generous helping of whiskey.
Faced with these dismal alternatives, it's understandable why persons like yourself are interested in homeopathy and are eager to learn more about it. |
Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
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| Get your colors. Many herbs and spices have bright, beautiful colors. When you're missing a punchy color on your dish, sprinkle a bit of red paprika or chili powder on orange or purple mashed sweet potato; light-green carda-mon seeds on yellow squash dishes; bright yellow turmeric on green spinach pasta. And so on—the only limit is your artistic imagination.
• Sweet alternatives. Spices are not only "hot"; there are also "sweet" spices, such as cloves, cardamon, allspice, anise, and cinnamon. Use them in lieu of sugar in tea and in cooking.
• Get the best of both. |
| Replace butter with herbs and spices. For a great low-CD treat, instead of using butter or margarine and brown sugar in mashed squash, try a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg plus allspice or ginger. Orange juice and grated zest also add satisfying taste.
• Mix a pinch or two of turmeric, masala, or even a spoonful of mango chutney into your tuna salad. This gives an amazing hint of the exotic, and you can use much less mayonnaise—just a teaspoon of nonfat mayo is enough for a can of tuna.
• Oatmeal takes on a whole new life with cinnamon—makes it almost like a dessert. Sprinkle liberally. |
| As we've pointed out, the moderate use of herbs in cooking, teas, or infusion is the safest way to incorporate them into your diet. When it comes to herbal weight-loss plans—or, in fact, any health-promoting product—remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Nuchi gusui!
Chapter 6
FINDING BALANCE: YOUR PERSONALIZED WEIGHT CONTROL PLAN
It's Never Too Late: Tama Nakajima's Story
When Tama Nakajima, a wiry Okinawan grandmother, turned sixty-six years old, she decided that a change was in order. |
| Go over the Okinawa Diet Pantry list and start Chapter 7, pages stocking up on the basic foods, herbs, spices, and 186—189 condiments.
WEEKS 1 AND 2: LET'S GET MOVING!
Here we go. Now you're prepared and it's time to get moving toward a lifelong healthy weight. |
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D.
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 New York, you get sick, you see the doctor, get surgery, take a regular medicine—not a root or something."
Annie snorted. "In New York we had health food stores, too. And how many times have you told me about your grandmother's chicken soup when you got sick?"
"She was from the old country, times change. But we're here, so let's talk to the doctor. What can you tell us?"
"Before I can tell you anything, I should know more about what's going on. When did you first start having prostate symptoms?"
"Maybe 4, 5 years ago. At night, I was getting up more often, 2 or 3 times instead of just once. |
Patrick Holford
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 Mediterranean: tomato sauce with peppers, mushrooms, and herbs. Serve with brown rice, quinoa, or buckwheat noodles. Alternatively, use other combinations of raw or lightly cooked vegetables with rice, beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu, buckwheat noodles, or fish.
30
Achieving Peak Physical Performance
No first-class athlete can afford to ignore optimum nutrition. Capable of increasing speed, endurance, and strength, the right diet and supplements can mean the difference between winning and losing. |
Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D.
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| What is needed are foods, nutrients and herbs that nourish, strengthen, and build up the nervous system. And, above all, to see that love and peace are created by how we live, what we live for, and what we seek and see inside ourselves. " (P. 27)
Herbs have certainly stood the "test of time " in other countries around the world and for many have added to a very long physically and mentally active life, reaching well into later years. This has been foreign to us in our culture. |
Patrick Holford
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| Combined remedies
Combinations of all these herbs, nutrients, and diet and lifestyle changes should yield the best results. One recent study gave a combination of panax ginseng, black cohosh, soy, and green tea extracts in the morning and black cohosh, soy, kava, hops, and valerian extracts in the evening. By the end of the second week, the number of hot flashes was reduced by 47 percent.17 By the way, acupuncture and yoga have also both been proven to help.
Synthetic or natural HRT?
The conventional view is that menopausal symptoms are brought about by a lack of estrogen. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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 Approximately 100 spices and herbs are used for dietary purposes in the United States, most in very small quantities. A majority of these are available commercially and are regulated under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Some are grown in home herb gardens, and others are gathered wild. Teas made from herbs gathered by amateurs are a well-recognized cause of human poisonings. The carcinogenic properties of most of these spices have not been evaluated. Most are generally recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. |
Josef A. Brinckmann and Michael P. Lindenmaier
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 In Germany, blackberry leaves are used primarily as "Deutscher Haustee" (German household tea) or "Friihstucktee" (breakfast tea), alone or combined with other herbs. In order to produce a taste similar to that of black tea, blackberry leaves are similarly fermented and, in the process, they take on a blackish color. Details of the fermentation process and the use of the drug as a household tea can be found in [8].
Making the tea: Pour boiling water over 1.5 g of finely cut dried leaves. Steep for 10—15 min and then pass through a tea strainer. 1 teaspoon — about 0.6 g. |
The Editors of FC&A
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| Those on potassium were able to hold on to more calcium. She concluded that even if you eat more salt than you should, adding high-potassium foods to your diet can help save your bones.
You also need potassium to help your body absorb calcium. Researchers have found that seniors who get lots of potassium have higher bone mineral density - a measure of bone strength.
Aim for 3,500 milligrams (mg) of potassium a day by eating at least five servings of potassium-packed foods like these. |
Josef A. Brinckmann and Michael P. Lindenmaier
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| In a survey of nurse-midwifes, 63% of those who prescribe herbs prescribe raspberry leaf tea as a uterine tonic [6]. In a controlled clinical trial, raspberry leaf tablets significantly shortened the second stage of labor and lowered fore-ceps deliveries [7].
As a component of dietetic drinks. Raspberry leaves are often subjected to a fermentation process and used in the production of breakfast teas with a taste reminiscent of black tea ([4]; [3] which also includes a few tea recipes). |
| For these herbs, a detailed description did not appear necessary because they are only rarely used in these countries; some of them, however, are more often used in Western Europe and in North America.
Herbal Drugs and Tea Formulas
The extraction of dried plant parts with hot water (or more simplv: making tea) is an ancient tradition, wherein the knowledge of "trained healers" initially played a primary role. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Vervain (page 756) is a traditional herb for dysmenorrhea, however there is no research to validate this use. Tincture has been recommended at an amount of 5-10 ml three times per day.
Clinical reports from Germany have suggested that vitex (page 757) may help relieve different menstrual abnormalities associated with premenstrual syndrome, including dysmenorrhea.29 These studies used 40 drops of a liquid preparation that delivers the equivalent of 40 mg of the dried berries of the plant.
Are there any side effects or interactions? |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| If you are interested in using herbs for medicinal purposes, gather information (including any studies) about the herb, and bring it to your physician for an opinion.
The following is a partial list of many common herbs and their effects.
Box 17. |
| Did you eat any plants, mushrooms, or herbs that might be
___• o poisonous?
Are you taking medications or vitamins?
Food poisoning is common, often caused by bacteria, such as Salmonella ssp., Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium botulinum, and Bacillus cereus type I.
Poisonous mushrooms can be hard to identify, even by an experienced mycologist. Common plants, such as philodendron and dieffenbachia, can be toxic. High doses of certain herbs, like caraway and cardamom, cause nausea. Mayapple and pokeweed can also cause nausea. |
Michael Castleman
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 The chapters on homeopathy, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and naturopathy also touch on medicinal herbs, because herbs figure prominently in these alternative healing systems.
Healing Systems: Different Perspectives on Health
Mainstream medicine is a healing system. It has a distinct philosophy that lays the groundwork for a particular approach to diagnosis and treatment. Its proponents say that it can treat an enormous range of illnesses. And it relies on professional practitioners who use standard examination procedures and treatment protocols. |
Eric R. Braverman
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 Choke 6: 1 bowl chicken soup made with whole-wheat pasta, seasoned with rosemary
Choice 7: 2 cups yogurt mixed with handful of nuts, berries, and other low-glycemic-index fruits
Choice 8: Turkey, chicken, or fish served with steamed vegetables, seasoned with freshly grated ginger
Choice 9: 1 cup vegetable soup, sandwich of 1 slice low-fat cheese, 2 slices tomato, and mustard on 2 slices whole-wheat caraway-seeded bread
Choice 10: V-/i cups spinach salad with 3 oz. |
Tanya Harter Pierce
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 For instance, pancreatic enzymes (Kelley), Laetrile (Krebs), herbs (Hoxsey or Essiac), diet (Gerson or Budwig), or coffee enemas (Gerson and Kelley) can often be combined to optimize one's chances for recovery. Just make sure, whenever combining approaches, that the aspects you use from different approaches do not conflict with each other.
In general, alternative non-toxic cancer approaches tend to work well for mosf types of cancer, and they are not focused on treating specific cancers the way conventional treatments are. This is because they address the common characteristics of all cancers. |
Patrick Holford
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| Supplement anti-inflammatory herbs and nutrients such as omega-3 fats and boswellia.
• Supplement bone-building nutrients, including minerals and glucosamine.
• Good, all-round optimum nutrition.
Sometimes aches and pains occur in the muscles and not the joints. This is not arthritis and may be due to one of two conditions. The first is fibromyalgia, which is characterized by a number of tender points in specific muscles. This is now thought to be due to a problem in the energy metabolism of the muscle cells and not to inflammation. |
Tanya Harter Pierce
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| These herbs are added to their bottled version of Essiac called Flor-Essence.
It seems impossible at this time to know who has the original formula Rene Caisse used on so many thousands of patients. There are so more sources of Essiac on the market today, that it seems impossible to know which one is the most effective. Other sources of Essiac are sometimes referred to as "Ojibwa Tea" or "Ojibwa Tea of Life."
It is difficult to know which form of Essiac tea is best to recommend. |
Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA
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| They're the ones with the big bucks to fund large-scale studies, and so their products get much more attention in research circles than do less extravagant, nonpatentable medicines such as supplements, herbs, and natural hormones. Researchers must often sign contracts stating that the sponsoring drug company has control over what is done with the results of the research; if the results are not favorable, the company can quash the research and never publish it.
Pressure to conform also comes from the physician's state medical board, which has the power to take away his or her license. |
Peter Pringle
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 Companies in the gene-poor industrial North, mostly from America, have been acquiring traditional plants and herbs from the gene-rich South and then claiming ownership. Scientists working on transgenic crops for undeveloped countries are beholden to the whim of companies with patents on basic laboratory techniques.
Despite an astonishing lack of consumer confidence in the technology worldwide, biotech companies are racing ahead with the next generation of genetically modified plants. |
| In recent years Indians had grown increasingly disturbed by the way foreigners from pharmaceutical interests had been patenting their traditional plant medicines and adapting their local herbs for international profit. As far as many in India were concerned, basmati was another example of this high-tech biopiracy.
Americans had filed a patent on the medicinal properties of turmeric, the bright ochre spice that had been a basic ingredient of Indian cooking and healing since the beginnings of Indian culture. In 1995 University of Mississippi medical researchers received a U.S. |
Brenda Davis and Tom Barnard
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 Fresh herbs and garlic, a ¦l^MBi squeeze of lemon, and a touch of extra-virgin olive oil can turn a ho-hum dish into a something special. Choose a variety of colors and textures in the foods you prepare. Take the time to make meals look appealing.
Whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks, you'll want your food to be interesting, tasty, and nutritious. Don't fall into the rut of eating the same foods day in and day out. Experiment with all kinds of flavors, including those with which you aren't so familiar. |
| Flavor foods with fresh lemon juice, wine, flavored vinegars, salsa, soy sauce, and a variety of herbs and spices instead of fat. þReduce intake of hidden fats þ If you use dairy products, select nonfat alternatives or plant-based substitutes.
%/ If you use eggs, keep intake to four or less per week.
Replace high-fat snack foods such as cookies, crackers, and granola bars with low-fat, whole grain alternatives. Be aware that many low-fat products simply replace the fat with sugar—this is no bargain for people with diabetes!
5. Build healthful habits. |
Tanya Harter Pierce
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| He started on nutritional therapy immediately and began juicing and taking some herbs to strengthen and support his body. He felt better right away, as the pain left and his energy returned. However, the tumor continued to grow until it blocked the lower stomach. LaVaughn was no longer able to eat and had to be put on intravenous feeding. He began chemo in June, thinking that might cause the tumor to shrink enough so he could begin eating again. He knew that if he could eat again, he would then become more aggressive with the nutritional therapy. |
| Thus, herbs are often referred to as "nature's medicine" and the Hoxsey therapy for cancer is a wonderful example of this.
The Hoxsey therapy was the first widely used alternative non-toxic treatment for cancer in the modern United States. Still obtainable today, it is an herbal treatment consisting of a topical salve, a topical powder, and an internal herbal tonic. Though many people have never heard of it, this treatment approach was very successful and was actually used by tens of thousands of Americans in the early to mid-1900s. |
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