Most of us are aware that the natural health world is packed with different and often conflicting beliefs. Take coffee, for example. For every ten researchers who proclaim that coffee is an antioxidant-rich superdrink that can guard us from Alzheimer’s disease, you’ll find another ten who state, with equal conviction, that giving up coffee is a requisite for superior adrenal and mental health. Raw food, red wine, sugar alcohols and fasting seem to be similarly…
The humble garlic, which is closely related to the onion, is one of the earliest documented plants used by humans for treating disease and maintaining health. Egyptian medical texts, for instance, prescribed garlic for parasites, malaise, circulatory problems and abnormal growths. The Greek physician, Hippocrates, recommended garlic for pulmonary conditions, sores and cancer. Garlic was also held in high esteem by the medical practitioners of ancient India, Rome, Assyria and China. Clearly, this is a…
Along with coconut oil, eggs were one of the biggest victims of Dr. Ancel Keys’s popular “lipid hypothesis” of the 1950s, which claimed a link between high fat consumption and heart disease. A decade thereafter, the humble egg shifted from being a staple breakfast item of Westerners to public enemy number #1 – a food so radiant with Lovecraftian malevolence that even being in the same room as one could induce atherosclerosis by proxy. Okay,…
You have to hand it to kale: this is a vegetable that knows how to be loved. During the harsh winters of Europe in the Middles Ages, for instance, kale would be one of the few vegetables that could withstand temperatures as low as 10 degrees… much to the joy of hungry peasants. Throughout World War II, many British citizens relied upon kale for sustenance during periods of extensive rationing. Even today, certain towns in…
You have to hand it to South America: that part of the world produces an impressive number of nutritious foods. The vitamin C-rich camu camu, the sweet and juicy mangosteen, the antioxidant-packed acai berry… all of them are native to that fertile continent. If there’s one South American food that stands head and shoulders above the rest in the health department, however, it’s Peruvian Ginseng – or, as it’s more commonly known, maca. Native to…
