Health & Wellbeing Podcast #32

Medicinal Mushrooms are growing in popularity all over the world, and not without reason. Medicinal and functional mushrooms are showing a huge amount of promise when it comes to improving our health and wellbeing. You might have heard of some of the more common mushrooms like Shiitake and Reishi mushroom, but there’s a whole heap of mushrooms with different benefits.

I was privileged to have a mushroom expert on the podcast – Jeff Chilton, founder of one of the leading medicine mushroom companies, Nammex.

Jeff is a wealth of knowledge and is very passionate about quality of mushroom supplements, something which we talked a lot about in this podcast. On top of that, he’s also a very lovely man, and patiently waited while I had to look after baby Lara a few times in the podcast, or while airplanes flew over (it was a noisy day then it seems!).

We spoke about the different properties of medicinal mushrooms, why it’s important to grow medicinal mushrooms organically, some of the quality issues that we face in choosing medicinal mushroom supplements, and Jeff shares a trick that we can do at home to tell if our mushroom supplements are quality or not.

Did you Know – Your Mushroom Supplements could contain grains.

Did you know that there are many types of mushroom supplements sold that contain grain? In a cost saving measure some companies will grow the mushrooms on grain. The mycelium (like the tiny roots of the mushroom) will spread throughout the grain and when it comes time to harvest, both the mycelium and the grain is taken. It’s virtually impossible to separate the grain from the mycelium, but not all companies are transparent with this. In some analysis it’s found that the chemical components of the supplements match the profile of the grain – so you’re essentially taking a glorified grain supplement.

Thankfully there’s an easy way to tell if your supplement contains grains – Jeff tells you how to do this in the podcast.

The Podcast

Click here to listen on Soundcloud, or via the embedded player below.

iPhone   Stitcher   Youtube   Soundcloud

Don’t forgot to leave me a 5* review on iTunes or on your podcast app.

Understanding Mushroom labels

Fruiting body refers to the part of the mushroom you see growing – usually that’s the cap and stem.

Mycelium is the cobweb like root structure that grows below the surface. This may be referred to on supplement labels as hyphae, mycelium or myceliated grain.

Another phrase that may be used is ‘full spectrum’, meaning that the mushroom contains both mycelium and fruiting body. To be truthful companies should detail the percentage of fruiting body contained in their supplements, and should not use the term full spectrum if the mushroom is grown on grain.

Benefits of Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional chinese medicine for centuries. There’s countless types of mushrooms used medicinally, but there are some select mushrooms which have been studied, and these are the more popular ones.

The benefits they show vary depending on the mushroom, and usually take a few days-weeks to achieve their effect.

There are so many types of medicinal mushrooms, but these are some of the more popular ones and their reported actions.

Shiitake

Lentinula edodes

• Immune tonic
• Anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial
• Can be used in cooking
• Lowers blood cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Potential anti-cancer activity

Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

• Immune tonic
• Adaptogen – helps the body cope with stress
• Calms the nervous system
• Supports good sleep
• Brain tonic
• Strengthens heart Qi
• Potential anti-cancer activity
• Can reduce allergies

Lion’s Mane

Hericium erinaceus

• Brain tonic
• Supports the nervous system, including nerve repair
• Supports stomach health and helps to heal stomach lining
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-microbial

Chaga

Inotus obliquus

• Anti-oxidant
• Immune modulator
• Balances blood sugar levels
• Supports pineal health
• Improves sleep
• Anti-viral
• Anti-fungal

Cordyceps

Cordyceps sinesis CS-4, Cordyceps militaris

• Adaptogen – improves the bodies ability to cope with stress and reduces fatigue
• Improves athletic performance
• Tonic for the new mothers
• Improves mental clarity
• Helps recovery after a big infection/illness
• Lung and cough tonic
• Sexual tonic

I find this mushroom so interesting I’m dedicating a whole blog post to it – I’ll add the link here when it’s up in a week.

Jeff’s links:

www.nammex.com

realmushrooms.com/

The post Medicinal Mushrooms appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

[fb_button]

It’s been a frustrating time for myself and fellow natural health practitioners who have been watching the stories about shonky ‘health gurus’ circulate around social media. Those that have received criticism in particular are the “Wellness Warrior” Jess Ainscough, and Belle Gibson, both wellness bloggers who have shared their journey with cancer, Gerson therapy and diet (however in the case of Belle Gibson, she lied about having the cancer) and as a result ‘steered people away from life saving conventional therapies’.

What I have been frustrated to see come out of the unfolding story of these bloggers is an attack on the complementary health industry as a whole. Claims that it is ‘dangerous’ or that the industry tries to steer people away from conventional medicines options. I feel this is quite a bit of a stretch to make these comments, as I’ll go into a bit later and it also frustrates me just for the simple principle that it is extremely generalised. I can’t imagine this same situation happening in another industry, for instance if you had a bad haircut you wouldn’t declare all hairdressers to be lowsy.

Wellness bloggers do not equal qualified practitioners, even though they may blog about similar topics such as the importance of a healthy diet, the difference that I often see is that wellness bloggers are talking about their own experiences. I don’t see a problem with this as long as it is made clear that it is just their own experience – perhaps where the confusion comes from is in the way it’s been written.

Photo by William Iven

Belle Gibson

Until recently, I didn’t even know who Belle Gibson was. I had seen her app “The Whole Pantry”, but didn’t know of the connection with this to her or her ‘pretend’ illness.

To start with, what I saw was that Belle Gibson created a beautiful cookbook and app which included recipes and articles written in cooperation with practitioners and other health ‘gurus’. I read some of the articles and recipes contained in the app (most of them weren’t even written by her) a while ago without realising she was claiming to offer an alternative to cure cancer and at the time thought “What a great resource, there are some excellent general health tips in here”. I can’t comment further about any specific cancer claims she made at this time as I didn’t read about that, and I never bought her book so wasn’t able to read her ‘sob story’ introduction.

I watched her interview on ACA where she claimed she was convinced by an alternative medicine ‘quack’ that she had a brain tumour, and then not long after this it was revealed that she had testing which confirmed that she did not have the brain cancer, however she continued to lie about having it. Originally she claims she was diagnosed by an actual oncologist, and I wonder whether now she claims it was ‘the quacks fault’ because that is the easiest way to shift the blame and focus off of herself.

In the last few months it was revealed publicly that she never had cancer, and this came as a huge shock to all those who followed her and took on her advice hoping to achieve the same results.

I think it was incredibly wrong for her to lie and deceive so many people, although we still don’t know if she acknowledges if she’s lying, and I think it is incredibly sad for the people who followed her and gained hope for themselves, who I would imagine are now feeling incredibly betrayed and to an extent hopeless. I am disappointed that she never followed through with her promises to donate falsely earned money to charity. I am also disappointed that one of the outcomes has been a lowering of trust for people promoting wellness and natural health.

Jess Ainscough

I never followed Belle Gibson or even knew of her existence until this recent scandal but I did follow Jess Ainscough, and in her writings it was always clear to me that she was writing about her personal experiences and what she had researched, and she never tried to steer people away from conventional medicine, rather she tried to encourage people to eat well and mindfully. Having read many of her blog posts and her book “Make Peace with your Plate” I know that she had a very specific cancer that is treated differently to most of the more common cancers, and even so she didn’t personally avoid or boycott chemotherapy, so when it is said that she steered people away from conventional therapy I can only say that’s not the impression that I got from reading her writing.

Wellness Blogger or Health Practitioner?

Health practitioners don’t make claims or recommendations without backing it up, or at least discussing what research is and isn’t available, and if they are writing an opinion piece (such as this is) you don’t see health recommendations in it (because everyone is different!). The aim is always to provide the information so that you can make your own decision.

A consequence of this whole debacle seems to be the apparent war between conventional and natural medicine that has come to the fore. Even if this war isn’t even in actual existence (in my personal experience with dealing with other health professionals it isn’t), some of the issues that came up with these scandals is the ‘one or the other’ mentally which I don’t think needs to happen, let alone should happen, and my gripe with this is that it is deterring people from working with their health professionals as part of a team.

Personally I am not a fan of the Us vs. Them mentality (that being natural medicine vs conventional medicine, e.g. naturopaths vs. doctors or nutritionists vs. dieticians). I may at times say that there is an area where a particular field may be more indicated, but I truly feel that if there was more communication between health practitioners, with the goal of the patients best interests always being the priority, and less ‘bashing’ of the fields then so much more progress could be made. Most of the time this is already happening but this recent media attack has set it back several steps.

There’s a place for everything. For example you wouldn’t see a naturopath for a heart attack or broken leg, and you wouldn’t see a surgeon for fatigue or PMS. If you see a naturopath for a condition before seeing a doctor, they are trained to refer you if they feel there is something going on that they can’t help you with or if you present with any ‘red flags’ that require stronger conventional treatment. Similarly, Naturopaths do not diagnose conditions (and to refer back to the Belle Gibson story where she claimed that she was actually diagnosed with cancer by an alternative medicine practitioner, I claim bullshit on this being a legitimate practitioner, and most likely it never happened at all).

This is where the principles of Therapeutic Order come in. When supporting a condition the aim should be to use the least invasive methods possible with the lowest risk profile, which is usually things like diet and lifestyle interventions, and at the other end is things with greater risk such as surgery. Most of the time one would start at the lowest risk end, but there are always situations where you would jump in further along – the best example of this would be a broken bone would go straight to surgery.

Picture source: http://lindseybellnd.com/therapeutic-pyramid/

Having said all that, I think there is a place for wellness bloggers, which can be a great inspiration source for generally eating well, getting plenty of exercise and being mindful of your health. But the difference is that you shouldn’t rely on the information they share as your only source of information to make your health decisions.

Complementary Health Care and Cancer

I think that complementary medicine can have a valuable role to play in conjunction with conventional cancer treatment, and that if people choose to go down this path then they should seek advice from a CAM practitioner who is knowledgeable in this area and is open to working with their oncologist.

There are some herbs and nutrients which have been studied in this field and most oncologists are accepting of these, but they need to be informed about whether the patient is using it. They need to be aware of any potential interactions, they need to know if you’re taking something that could be responsible for making you feel better or worse. Keeping a health practitioner in the dark when they are making decisions about your health is not a wise move.

The reality is that people are seeking help for dealing with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, and these treatments don’t work 100% of the time(what does?) so they often look elsewhere for help to make it work better and give themselves more confidence in their treatment success. Most of the time this results in self prescribed complementary medicines which are chosen based on internet research, and often the patient does this without the knowledge of their oncologist – in my opinion this is not a good or safe decision.

Do it safely

If someone wished to use complementary medicines alongside conventional treatment, my first bit of advice would be to seek a practitioner who is properly qualified and part of an association such as NHAA, ATMS or ANTA. Associations such as these have requirements for their practitioners to follow ethical guidelines, to be up to date in their knowledge and promote professional practice. In the case of Naturopaths, there is a push for registration to occur and this will result in a much tighter governance on who can call themselves a Naturopath. In the meantime, checking with associations is the best way to know you’re getting a properly trained practitioner.

Secondly, don’t keep secrets from your health care practitioners about things that are relevant to their treatment of you.

Thirdly, don’t take information you read on the internet (especially social media) as gospel, and always check with your health care practitioner before making changes.

[fb_button]

The post My thoughts on the recent ‘wellness’ scandals appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Vitamin D really is the wonder nutrient at the moment. A quick search of PubMed shows there to be almost 60 000 studies on vitamin D alone, and over 7000 of these are on vitamin D and cancer. Most of us already know about how Vitamin D is important for our bone health, but did you know it’s also important for our immune system and to protect us against cancer, particularly breast cancer (among many other things)?

Let’s take a quick look at the properties of vitamin D.

• It supports the assimilation of calcium into our bones
• It’s important for our immune system – it ‘switches on’ our immune cells to help us fight infections, but also helps us deal with auto-immune conditions and ‘foreign invaders’
• It regulates inflammation levels
• It is involved in some hormone metabolism pathways
• It is involved in our blood sugar level control and metabolism

Looking at the effects of vitamin D, it makes sense how it can also play a role in reducing our risk from cancer. But by how much does it reduce our risk? Well, the answer seems to be : a lot.

Let’s take a look at some of the research:

A 2012 study performed in Pakistan analysed the Vitamin D levels of 180 women, 90 of which had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. In the group who had been recently diagnosed 95.8% of them were deficient in Vitamin D, compared to 77% of the women with no cancer diagnosis. This not only shows the huge prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, but also highlights an important association between low Vitamin D levels and increased breast cancer risk [1].

It was originally thought that Vitamin D was only able to be fully metabolised in the kidneys, however studies from 2001 and on have shown that breast tissue also has the ability to metabolise Vitamin D, which may be why Vitamin D has such as affinity for breast cancer. [2]

Vitamin D may be so protective against breast cancer for many reasons.  A sub-type of Vitamin D (1,25(OH)₂D) has anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce the production of a chemical called prostaglandins (many people know this chemical to be a cause of period pain) which have been implicated in breast cancer. [2]

A population study published this year analysed a group of women, 593 with breast cancer and 580 who were cancer-free (controls). They found that 96.1% of the women with breast cancer had severe vitamin D deficiency, compared to 80% of the women without cancer. Similarly to the first study there was a significant Vitamin D deficiency across the whole population, but what was most interesting was the data showing the inverse association between Vitamin D and breast cancer – essentially the higher the levels of vitamin D they had, the lower their risk of breast cancer [3].

The benefits of sun exposure may be due to more than just Vitamin D, particularly for some other types of cancers.  A systemic review of studies analysed the link between vitamin D levels, sun exposure and risk for various types of cancer.  It found that higher blood levels of Vitamin D reduced the risk of breast cancer as well as colorectal cancer, but not as much for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and prostate cancer (however longer sunlight exposure was more beneficial for these cancers).    Long-term or ‘chronic’ sun exposure compared to short-term or ‘intermittent’ sun exposure reduced the risk of all the cancers analysed.  This may be due to a variety of factors such as the suns effect on our circadian rhythms and melatonin production [4].

Interestingly melatonin, a hormone controlled by our exposure to light and dark (among other things) which manages our sleep cycles is also a potent anti-oxidant that is protective against breast cancer.  Some research has shown that people with disrupted melatonin such as shift workers have a significantly increased risk of cancer, particularly breast cancer [5] [6]. Melatonin is helpful as it repairs our DNA from oxidative damage and inhibits tumour cell formation, but it also reduces the tumour developing affect of excessive oestrogen, encourages the immune system to recognise the cancer calls as being foreign (cell differentiation) and then destroy them (apoptosis) [7], [8], [9].  Vitamin D has also been shown to have these properties [2]. So not only do we need to have plenty of Vitamin D, but we should also get plenty of decent sleep!

How much Vitamin D do we actually need to prevent breast cancer?  Aim to get your blood levels of 25(OH)D around 100 ng/mL, but not higher than 150 ng/mL [2].  Even though this is much higher than what is considered to be normal or not deficient by pathology reports, people with these levels had the lowest risk of breast cancer [3].  Keep in mind that Vitamin D levels vary according to season, so in Summer our levels should be even higher again (about 120 ng/mL).  How supplements are administered varies a lot between health professionals, from big weekly/monthly doses of 50 000IU to frequent daily doses of 600IU.  It doesn’t seem to matter, as long as the cumulative amount of Vitamin D is high enough to get your levels up.

Vitamin D supplementation is generally very well tolerated.   Most reports suggest that the toxicity threshold is 10,000–40,000 IU of vitamin D per day [10] however this is based on the fact that these are the upper limits of what have been studied and no toxicity has been found with these, so as yet an actual toxicity limit has still not been found.

From these studies it seems clear that having good Vitamin D levels is without doubt an important way to reduce breast cancer risk, however studies analysing the benefits of Vitamin D supplementation in women with later-stage breast cancer show inconclusive results, but the studies in this area are limited [2]. So far, it seems that Vitamin D is better at preventing breast cancer than treating it.

While there were some flaws in some of the studies, such as an insufficient pairing of the study groups and not analysing all the forms of vitamin D, we can see from this research that there is definately a connection between low levels of vitamin d and an increased risk of breast cancer. I cannot stress this enough – Do not take it for granted that you spend time in the sun and therefore should have enough Vitamin D. Get your Vitamin D tested (you may have to pay for the test, but surely knowing the importance of vitamin D it is worth it?) and if your vitamin D is not over 100 ng/mL then you should consider supplementing – consult a health care practitioner trained in nutrition such as a nutritionist, dietician or naturopath for advice on which supplement is right for you.

Previous posts on Vitamin D:

Vitamin D and Allergies

Vitamin D Newsletter

Vitamin D and Asthma

The post Vitamin D reduces breast cancer risk appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Nutritious, delicious, thirst quenching, sweet and satisfying.

Fruit, in moderate amounts, is good for you. But what fruit is best for you? In this article I detail the nutrient content of fruits, and also list their health properties.

A lot of the health properties I mention are based in Chinese medicine principles. An example of this is when a food is described as ‘cooling’, ‘drying’, or ‘warming’.

Ernestina Burchmore is a acupuncturist who has been in practice for 10 years. She has kindly explained the effects of these properties in foods for us.

Warmer/hot foods tend to cause dryness. Cool/cold foods tend to moisten, promote urination and reduce fever and dryness. Damp is created when the digestive system is weak and cannot fully process food, thereby creating an excess amount of mucus that comes out in the skin, stools or through the lungs or sinuses. E.g. Coconut can give rise to eczema-like rash, oranges can make you sneeze and wheeze.

This is just a rough guide. Other food properties include the roles of the 5 Flavours – sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty. But I won’t discuss this here.

Ernestina Burchmore is a qualified Acupuncturist and experienced Chinese Herbalist. She graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2001 with a B.A, in Health Science (Acupuncture) / B,A. International Studies (China Studies). Ernestina has been practicing at Health Dimensions in Bella Vista and WIndsor for 10 years. Her general practice focuses on pain management, stress management, fertility solutions, women’s health, pregnancy, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory disorders.

Ernestina believes that treating the whole person and getting to the root problem that is causing the symptoms is the key to really solving the problems you come in to have treated.

From a botanical perspective, fruits are technically the flowering part that derives from a plant’s ovaries and are any vegetable which contains seeds. Therefore fruits also include beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, eggplant, and pumpkin (to name a few). This article only covers those which are commonly classified as fruit, and only the most popular varieties.

General tips about fruit:

It is always important to ensure your fruit is properly ripened (via tree or vine). If a fruit is not adequately ripened it doesn’t have as many benefits, and may even have some harmful properties (particularly so with citrus). When unripe fruit is purchased, it should be allowed to ripen at room temperature before eating. An exception is the intentional use of certain unripe fruit for its medicinal effect.

Another potential issue with is the excessive use of pesticides on the most popular types of fruit. These pesticides can often negate any health benefits.

Fruits are easily digested, and are alkalizing, cleansing and cooling. If you are overly stressed or have a lot of ‘mental heat’, then fruits are for you. The alkaline natures of fruits also help to get your bowels moving.

If you have a lot of sweet fruit every day, it is possible to develop too much ‘damp’ (according to Chinese medicine principles) and therefore it is beneficial to have occasional periods where you don’t have fruit. Too much fruit will also mean too much sugar, which is not helpful for weight loss or keeping blood sugar levels stable.

The sugar in fruit is fructose, and this takes longer to affect your blood sugars than standard sugar such as sucrose or glucose. Fructose needs to be converted to glucose by the liver. Fructose is also 1½ times sweeter than sucrose. Therefore if you’re craving something sweet, not only will having a piece of fruit instead of a chocolate bar provide you with more vitamins and minerals, it will also have a better affect on your blood sugar levels.

It is best to avoid having too much juice, and rather have the benefits of fruit by eating them whole.

Apple

• Cooling nature (Reduces heat, especially summer heat)
• Helps to produce fluid for the body, making it good for lung health. It can help protect the lungs from cigarette smoking (not that anyone should be doing that anyway)
• Stimulates digestion
• Green apples cleanse the liver and gallbladder and help to soften gallstones.
• Contains malic acid and tartaric acid which can help to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria and reduce fermentation.
• Contains pectin, which removes cholesterol and helps bind up and remove toxic metals, and also promotes good bacteria in the digestive tract
• Contains calcium-d-glucarate, which is good for healthy hormones
• Helpful for people with low blood sugar levels
• Grate an apple and apply directly or wrap in muslin and put on your eyes for 20 minutes to help with eye strain, pink eye or sunburn

Apricot

• Moistens the lungs
• Fresh apricots are good for dry throats, thirst and asthma
• When buying the dried type, buy the organic or uncoloured variety as dried apricots often have added sulfur compounds to make them brighter and this can worsen allergies and asthma particularly in children
• Good source of vitamin A and carotene.
• Dried apricots are a good source of iron, cobalt, and copper making them good for anemia

Avocado

• Cooling nature
• Helps to build the blood and increase ‘yin’ energy
• Harmonizes the liver
• Good source of lecithin which is important for brain health and helps with fat digestion
• The fat content is very easily digestible, and is mainly in the form of mono-unsaturated oils
• Rich in copper, vitamin E, protein and potassium
• Great for nursing mothers

Banana

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for dry conditions (e.g. dry coughs) as it produces mucous
• Avoid if you’re very mucousy
• Before they are fully ripened, bananas having a drying property. If you have diarrhea, colitis or hemorrhoids then unripe bananas are helpful.
• For hemorrhoids, steam the whole unripe banana until very soft and eat one organic banana (with skin if you can manage it) twice a day on an empty stomach.
• Bananas are helpful to treat drug addiction due to their cold nature and high sugar content.
• Due to their high potassium content, bananas are good for high blood pressure.
• They have high sugar content (17-19%)

Blueberry

• Cooling nature
• Blood, eye and liver tonic
• Good for countering urinary tract infections
• Good source of vitamin C, manganese and vitamin A

Cherry

Cranberry

Date

Feijoa

• Rich source of fibre, vitamin C, Iodine and Folate. (Iodine is not included in table due to the lack of data of iodine content in other fruits).
• Has blood pressure regulating properties.
• The nutrient content makes this a great fruit for pregnancy.

Goji

• Considered a ‘super food’ because of the high levels of antioxidants they contain.
• High in vitamin A and taurine
• Helpful for diabetic retinopathy,
• Thought to have anti-aging properties
• Strengthens the kidneys
• Helpful for liver health, especially when eye symptoms are associated with liver weakness such as dry and tired eyes and blurry vision (in Chinese medicine, it is thought that the liver sends nutrients and energy to the eyes). Goji and chrysanthemum tea is good for this.
• Can help to reduce cholesterol
• Helps to reduce blood sugar levels
• Eaten long term, Goji berries can support the immune system. However if you currently have an infection it’s best to avoid them.
• Contains germanium, a mineral shown to have anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties (not included in table due to the lack of data of germanium content in other fruits).

Grape

• Increase qi energy
• Good for the liver – grape juice is helpful for hepatitis and jaundice
• Diuretic – reduces edema and helpful for painful urination
• Help to reduce menopausal heat symptoms
• Grapes are a good snack for children
• Darker grapes are good for blood building
• Good source of vitamins A, B-complex and C.

Grapefruit

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for poor digestion, such as burping and poor appetite (especially during pregnancy)
• Good for hangovers
• The peel has many beneficial properties for digestive health and mucous in the lungs, and is rich in vitamin c. You can make a tea from the peel (fresh or dry) by simmering it for 20 minutes. Apply a compress of this tea to frostbite (at room temperature) to restore circulation.
• Citrus seed extract is primarily made from grapefruit and has many health benefits. It is a potent antibiotic.

Guava

• Has astringent and laxative properties
• Tonifies the lymphatic and skeletal system
• Good source of vitamin c and potassium

Jackfruit

• Cooling, nutritious and tonifying.
• Can counteract the influence of alcohol
• The ripe fruit has laxative properties
• Dried seeds contain B-complex vitamins, calcium, iron and sulfur

Kiwi

• Cold in nature, clearing heat
• Promote the production of fluids making them helpful for dry mouth and throat
• Can help the passage of kidney stones
• They are very nutrient dense. They have twice the vitamin C of oranges, and are also rich in magnesium. They are higher in potassium than bananas and oranges.
• Low in calories (45 calories per fruit)

Lemon and Lime

• Cooling nature
• Very helpful for people who have eaten a high fat/protein diet
• Helps to destroy putrefactive bacteria in the intestines and mouth
• Antiseptic, anti-microbial and reduces mucous
• Good for coughs
• Good for fevers
• Supports liver health and bile production
• Supports weight loss
• Alkalizing: their alkaline content is five times greater than their acidic content.
• Only contains 1% sugar
• Good source of vitamin C, and is also high in potassium, and vitamin B1.
• Apply the juice externally to relieve insect bites and to soften corns
• Limes generally have fewer chemicals used on them than lemons
• Avoid if you have excessive stomach acid or stomach ulcers

Lychee

• Good for the spleen, pancreas, stomach and liver meridians
• Promote body fluids and ease thirst
• Contain vitamin B and C, folic acid, citric acid, malic acid and arginine

Mango

• Cooling
• Good source of vitamin A and C and potassium
• High in calories
• Related to poison ivy, and contains the same toxic chemical – urushiol. In some people this can cause itching and skin eruptions.

Orange

• Cooling nature
• Regenerates body fluid
• Helps to cool and moisten the body
• The inner white lining, placed directing on the eyelids, helps to dissolve eye cysts.
• Good source of vitamin C, potassium and also contain some calcium
• The inner white lining also helps with iron absorption and has anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Papaya

• Warming nature
• Tonifies the stomach and acts as a digestive aid
• Ripe papayas moisten the lungs and alleviate coughing
• Under ripe papaya and its seeds are rich in the digestive enzyme papain, which helps digest protein, break down deposits on the teeth, resolve mucus, and has a strong vermicidal action capable of destroying most intestinal worms including tapeworm.
• Also contains carpaine, a compound providing anti-tumor activity
• Excellent source of vitamins A, C and E, and are also rich in calcium, iron, potassium, and phosphorus.
• Papaya is often referred to as pawpaw in Australia, however they are actually different fruit. Papaya (Carica papaya) is the longer green/yellow-orange fruit with pinky/orangey flesh (when ripe). It has multiple small black seeds. Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) is indigenous to North America, it has large seeds (approx 1 inch in diameter) shaped like lima beans, is a rounder fruit and has yellow flesh.

Passion fruit

• Good source of vitamins A and C
• High in fibre
• Contains anti-oxidants and sterols, making it helpful for lowering cholesterol and promoting heart health
• Helpful for people with asthma and allergies due to its anti-histamine properties
• Extracts of the whole plant are excellent for calming the nervous system

Peach

• Cooling nature
• Builds body fluids
• Moistens the lungs and intestines
• Useful for dry cough
• Helps to reduce excessive perspiration due do it’s astringent properties
• Peach leaf tea can destroy worms

Pear

• Cooling nature
• Good for lung health, and helps to reduce heat in the lungs
• Don’t eat if you have loose, watery stools
• Don’t have excessive amounts of pears during pregnancy

Persimmon

• Cooling nature
• Clears lung heat
• Builds body fluids, removes phlegm
• Unripe persimmon has an astringent taste from the tannic acid, which eventually goes when the fruit ripens
• Partially ripe persimmons are helpful for diarrhea, dysentery and hypertension

Pineapple

• Removes summer heat
• Contains the enzyme bromelain which increases digestive ability and destroys worms. Bromelain also has anti-inflammatory properties, making it good for joints.
• Thirst quenching, diuretic
• Treats sunstroke, indigestion, diarrhea, lack of appetite and fluid retention
• Under ripe pineapple is very acidic and can damage teeth

Plum

• Good for liver health and diabetes
• Stewed prunes are a good remedy for constipation
• Plums also treat cirrhosis of the liver and liver conditions generally (the purple variety)
• Umeboshi salt plums (very sour and salty) are very good for digestion and liver health. They are highly alkalizing.

Pomegranate

• Good for bladder disturbances
• Destroys worms in the digestive system
• Strengthen gums
• Soothes ulcers of the mouth and throat

Raspberry

• Good for liver and kidney health
• Cleanses the blood
• Good for menstrual cycle regulation
• Raspberry leaf is widely used for childbirth preparation as it strengthens the uterus and reduces excessive menstrual flow

Strawberry

• Cooling nature
• Improves appetite
• Moistens the lungs and generates body fluids
• Eat before meals to treat poor digestion accompanied by abdominal pain and swelling
• Relieves painful urination
• Good source of silicon and vitamin C, making it very useful for arterial and connective tissue repair
• Allergic reactions to strawberries are often caused by berries that are not vine-ripened

Watermelon

• Very cooling
• Removes heat, especially summer heat
• Has diuretic properties
• Helpful for thirst, urinary difficulty, edema, depression, kidney and urinary tract inflammation

The post Everything you ever wanted to know about fruit appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

What does organic mean?

The word ‘organic’ is used to describe food that has been grown without the use of artificial fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, growth regulators and hormones, antibiotics, and livestock feed additives. This means working with nature rather than against it, by recycling natural materials, maintaining soil fertility and encouraging natural methods of pest and disease control, rather than relying on chemicals. Crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, green manures, legumes, organic wastes, mineral-bearing rock, and biological pest controls are used by organic farmers to raise whole, natural foods.

Benefits of Organic Foods

Nutrient content

It’s often claimed that a large number of studies have found no difference in the nutrient content of organic and non-organic crops. It’s true there have been more than a hundred studies comparing the nutrient content of organic and non-organic foods and the results are inconclusive. But this is because the majority of studies are of poor quality, being either agriculturally or analytically flawed.

Official food composition tables, including data compiled by the US Department of Agriculture, reveal that since the 1940s the mineral levels in fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy have declined substantially in conventional foods. Combine this with earlier (pre-ripened) picking, longer storage, and more processing of crops, and it’s not surprising that we may be getting fewer nutrients in our food than we were 60 years ago.

The artificial fertilization associated with conventional crops produces lush growth by swelling produce with more water. On a pound-for-pound basis, organic food has more “dry matter” (i.e. food). Partly because of this (and for other reasons too), there are higher levels of nutrients in organic produce.

We can expect also that phytonutrients, many of which are antioxidants involved in the plant’s own defense system, will be higher in organic produce because crops rely more on their own defenses in the absence of regular applications of chemical pesticides. Evidence is emerging that confirms this expectation. Higher levels have so far been found of lycopene in organic tomatoes, polyphenols in organic potatoes, flavonols in organic apples, and resveratrol in organic red wine. A recent review of the subject estimated that organic produce will tend to contain 10-50% higher phytonutrients than conventional produce.  These phytonutrients have important roles in our body protecting us from disease and promoting healthy aging.

Recent research has showed that:

• Conventionally grown fruit and vegetables in the USA have about half the vitamin content of their counterparts in 1963.
• On average organic foods contain about one-third higher in antioxidants than comparable conventional produce.

Two independent, comprehensive reviews of (around 40) studies that compare the differences between organic and conventional foods came up with similar conclusions showing that there is overwhelming evidence that organic food is more nutritious than conventional food. Heaton stated: ‘On average our research found higher vitamin C, higher mineral levels and higher phytonutrients – plant compounds which can be effective against cancer.’

Food additives

The use of antibiotics, anti-microbials, hormones and other growth promotants are prohibited in organic production. If animals are treated with veterinary chemicals, they are not allowed to be sold as organic. Similarly the use of synthetic chemicals as preservatives, colourings, antioxidants etc are prohibited in the processing of organic foods. There is an increasing body of concern about these synthetic compounds in the diets of humans and animals used for human food.

Research from the University of Hawaii has found that people who consume processed meats have a 6,700% increased risk of pancreatic cancer over those who consume little or no processed meat products. The researchers concluded that sodium nitrite, a chemical used in nearly all non organic processed meats was the cause of the  very alarming cancer rates.

Chemicals

It’s regularly claimed by the mainstream food industry that pesticide residues in foods are known to be safe on the basis of total diet surveys that supposedly find the levels of pesticide residues in our food to be very low and within acceptable safety limits. But monitoring programs consistently show that around one in three non-organic food samples tested contains a variety of pesticide residues, with far lower levels being found in and on organic produce. Conventional-food proponents also claim that rigorous safety assessments show that pesticide residues are no threat to human health. Yet consumers intuitively know this is a false assurance.

Photo by Thomas Le on Unsplash

The problem is that most pesticide-residue safety levels are set for individual pesticides, but many samples of fresh produce carry multiple pesticide residues. Rules often do not take into account the “cocktail effect” of combinations of pesticides in and on foods. Research is emerging confirming the potential for such synergistic increases in toxicity of up to 100-fold, resulting in reproductive, immune and nervous system effects not expected from the individual compounds acting alone.

Israeli researchers have linked symptoms such as headaches, tremor, lack of energy, depression, anxiety, poor memory, dermatitis, convulsions, nausea, indigestion and diarrhoea with dietary intakes of pesticides. Belgian research has found that women diagnosed with breast cancer are six to nine times more likely to have the pesticides DDT or hexachlorobenzene in their bloodstreams compared to women who did not have breast cancer.

The British Medical Association appears to agree:

“Until we have a more complete understanding of pesticide toxicity, the benefit of the doubt should be awarded to protecting the environment, the worker, and the consumer—this precautionary approach is necessary because the data on risk to human health from exposure to pesticides are incomplete.”

Peer reviewed published research has demonstrated that many of these types of chemicals are known to disrupt the hormone, nervous and immune systems. The escalating increase of certain types of cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, breast, uterine and prostate cancers are linked to agricultural and other synthetic chemicals. Similarly, a good body of scientific research also links these chemicals to the dramatic increases in disease like chronic fatigue syndrome. Cancers such as Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma have gone from being one of the rarest cancers to one of the fastest growing cancers amongst people exposed to agricultural chemicals.

A detailed scientific analysis of organic fruits and vegetables in the USA, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Additives and Contaminants, showed that organic foods have significantly less pesticide residues than conventionally grown foods.

Children’s immature and developing organs, brains, detoxification and immune systems, plus their larger intake of food per kilo of body weight combine to make them even more susceptible to toxins than adults. Research has shown repeatedly that organic food significantly lowers children’s dietary exposure to pesticides, lowering their exposure from above to below recognized safety levels.

The facts show that organic foods have health benefits because of higher nutritional values. They excel in the antioxidants that prevent heart disease, cancers, anti-inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

How to buy ‘organic’

• Look for the certification stamp on the labeling of the products; In Australia, any organic food or product that is sold must display a certification symbol or number by law. The symbol means that the product meets government standards.
• Buy from a reputable retailer;
• If there is no stamp, question the retailer on the authenticity of the products until you are satisfied that it is the ‘real deal’.
• Remember that Organic foods have a shorter shelf life when compared to conventional foods, as they contain no chemical food preservatives as conventional foods do.  This means that you should plan your meals out so that food doesn’t get wasted (which would be a shame, as it’s more expensive).

Organic foods may be found and purchased from your local health food shop, organic fruit and vegie store or farmers markets or online.

Organic Shops and Sites

Abundant Organics

http://www.abundantorganics.com.au/

Bare Roots Organic & Health

Shop 4 7 Ward Place, Dural
02 9651 5561
http://www.bareroots.com.au/

Blue Mountains Food Co-op

Shop 1-2 Ha’Penny Lane,  Katoomba
(under the PostOffice shop)
02 4782 5890
http://www.bmfoodcoop.org.au/

Doorstep Organics

28-30 Meeks Rd Marrickville, Sydney, NSW.
(02) 8399 1666
orders@doorstep.com.au
http://www.organicdeliverysydney.com.au

Green Hills Organics

Shop 4/328 Windsor St, Richmond
02 45885377 or 0412180749
http://www.greenhillsorganics.com.au

Hawkesbury Organic Food Co-op

23 Bosworth St, Richmond
Operates every Thursday evening from 5pm-6.30pm
http://sites.google.com/site/seasonscoop/home

Honest to Goodness

http://www.goodness.com.au/

In Harmony Health Baulkham Hills

Shop 59 Stockland Mall, Baulkham Hills
02 9688 6797

Lettuce Deliver

http://www.lettucedeliver.com.au/

The Organic Grocer

http://www.theorganicgrocer.com.au/

OrganicFood.com.au

http://www.organicfood.com.au/

Penrith Organic Health

437 High St
Penrith NSW 2750

Real Good Food

http://www.realgoodfood.com.au/product-information/

Warrah Farm

Dural
http://www.warrah.org/farm.htm

If you know of an organic shop or site that’s not listed here, please let me know!

The post Organic Food appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

This study was the first to suggest that curcumin (the main phytochemical from turmeric) and piperine (from pepper) could reduce the risk of cancer by targeting stem cells. Based on the hypothesis that malignancies arise in tissue stem cells, limiting the number of stem cells may mean that the number of cells with potential to form tumours is also limited.

To investigate the effects of curcumin and piperine on breast stem cell markers and signalling pathways in vitro, investigators used doses that were 20 times the potency available in food. The equivalent doses are possible to achieve with dietary supplements.

The results showed that curcumin and piperine, administered both separately and in combination, decreased the number of stem cells while having no effect on normal differentiated cells. Being selective to cancer stem cells and having low toxicity means these substances have a possible future in breast cancer prevention.

Kakarala M, Brenner DE, Korkaya H, Cheng C, Tazi K, Ginestier C, et al. Targeting breast stem cells with the cancer preventive compounds curcumin and piperine. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2009 Nov 7.

Curcumin’s Potential in Oesophageal Cancer

 The survival rate for oesophageal cancer is low while its incidence is increasing. This study assessed the effect of the natural phytochemical curcumin on a panel of oesophageal cancer cell lines. Of particular interest was the mechanism by which it exerted its purported anti-cancer effects, whether by promotion of mitotic catastrophe, apoptosis or autophagy.

The curcumin treatment reduced all cell line viability within 24 hours of treatment. The predominance of a non-apoptotic form of cell death was observed with features of mitotic catastrophe and autophagy apparent.

Curcumin appeared to affect a key cell cycle checkpoint regulator in curcumin-responsive oesophageal cancer cells, disrupting mitosis and producing cytotoxic effects. Thus, curcumin represents a promising anticancer agent for prevention and treatment of oesophageal cancer.

O’Sullivan-Coyne G, O’Sullivan GC, O’Donovan TR, Piwocka K and McKenna SL. Curcumin induces apoptosis-independent death in oesophageal cancer cells. Br J Cancer 2009;101(9):1585-1595.

The post Spices show promise in anti-cancer properties appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.