Health Wonders of Bitter Leaf

Bitter leaf is a common plant in tropical Africa and it is used mostly for food and medicinal purposes. Among the numerous properties the leaves contain, it is the bitter taste that is of enormous health benefits. Many herbal and medicinal experts copiously testify to this fact.

Bitter leaf is very cheap and easy to obtain. It is easy to grow around dwellings and local gardens particularly in rural areas. It is ingested either by chewing the stem or juicing the leaf to drink. Many families use it as leafy vegetable in local soups.

Among its numerous health benefits are:

It Soothes Body Itching: Bitter leaf juice when rubbed in the itching spots and left to dry off, it soothes the itching and gives relief. 

Helps to Treat Malaria: Bitter leaf comes in very handy to treat malaria which is a very common ailment in tropical climates particularly Africa and the Caribbean. Boiling some of the leaves in a few cups of water helps to juice it. Drinking that juice about three times a day helps to provide relief from malaria.

Helps to Improve Appetite: If you lose your appetite for food, bitter leaf can help. By simply chewing the stem of bitter leaf, there is a tendency to regain your appetite within a few minutes, and you will feel like eating again.
 

Helps to Cure Measles: In many rural dwellings in tropical Africa, women turn to bitter leaf to treat their children when they are afflicted with measles. They squeeze out the juice from the leaves then make a paste of it with palm oil. This they rub on the afflicted children’s skins and left for awhile before bathing the children.

Helps to Cure Ear Inflammation: By squeezing some quantity of bitter leaf you can get out some of the bitter juice. Applying some three drops of the juice into the affected ear helps to provide relief from inflammation. For quick results, you can repeat the process four or five times a day. 

Treatment of toothache: You can boil about 15g of bitter leaf in three cups of water. Taking ½ cup of the boiled juice two or times a day helps relieve toothaches. 

Treatment of Diabetes: There is research evidence that the bitterness in bitter leaf has the ability to lower blood glucose. If you pour boiled water in fresh bitter leaves, just allow it to cool down for some minutes. Take at least one cup of the bitter juice therefrom after meals at least twice a day. It helps to lower the blood glucose of diabetics. 

Helps to treat Typhoid: Bitter leaf has been found to contain properties which help to check disease-causing bacteria in the body. That is why it can be used to treat typhoid.  You can boil about 10-15 leaves of bitter leaf in water. Allow it to be cool then filter it. You may choose to add honey to improve the taste of the boiled juice then drink a cup of it about three times a day.

Helps to Treat Diarrhea: If you boil dried bitter leaf in three cups of water then filter it, you can drink ½ cup twice a day. It helps provide relief from diarrhea.

Cancer Prevention: It has been found that bitter leaf contains properties that can stop tumor growth in the body. Regular consumption of the juice from bitter leaf helps the body to develop a strong immune system which resists tumor growth in the body.

Helps to Reduce Hypertension: Suppression of sodium with potassium in the blood helps to reduce hypertension. It is a known fact that bitter leaf contains a high amount of potassium which helps to reduce the sodium in the blood. Lowering the sodium in the blood helps reduce hypertension.

Health Benefits of Carrots

Carrots are so common in the US that it's easy to overlook their potentially powerful benefits to your health. It is now a popular snack food to eat with dips or add to fresh vegetable juice, or as an addition to soups and stews. Carrots have been valued since ancient times for their medicinal properties.

According to the US Department of Agriculture:

"Thought to be native to central or western Asia (likely Afghanistan), cultivated carrots first arrived in North America with the early Virginia colonists. Carrots are an important member of the parsley family, which also includes celery, anise, and dill.



Like many vegetables, the early history of carrots centered on various medicinal attributes thought suitable for curing a wide range of conditions and maladies."

Beta-Carotene and More: What Nutrients Are Found in Carrots?

A serving of carrots (one medium carrot or ½ cup chopped) will provide about:
210% of the average daily recommended amount of vitamin A
10% vitamin K
6% vitamin C
2% calcium

The high vitamin A content, for which carrots are best known, comes from beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in your liver. Interestingly, there's a reason why 'carrot' and 'carotene' sound so alike. The word carotene was devised in the early 19th century by a German scientist after he crystallized the compound from carrot roots.

Carrot seed oil also contains potassium, vitamin B6, copper, folic acid, thiamine and magnesium. I generally recommend eating carrots in moderation because they contain more sugar than any other vegetable aside from beets,

However, when eaten as part of an overall healthy diet, the nutrients in carrots may provide you with protection against heart disease and stroke while helping you to build strong bones and a healthy nervous system.

From Heart Disease to Cancer: What Does the Research Say About Carrots?

There's good reason to include carrots in your regular diet, as the science is very strong that they may help reduce your risk of chronic disease.

Heart Disease

Eating more deep-orange-colored fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). In particular, carrots are associated with a 32 percent lower risk of CHD, leading researchers to conclude:

"… a higher intake of deep orange fruit and vegetables and especially carrots may protect against CHD."

The consumption of carrots has also been associated with a lower risk of heart attacks in women.

Cancer

Antioxidants in carrots, including beta-carotene, may play a role in cancer prevention. Research has shown that smokers who eat carrots more than once a week have a lower risk of lung cancer, while a beta-carotene-rich diet may also protect against prostate cancer.

The consumption of beta-carotene is also associated with a lower risk of colon cancer while carrot juice extract may kill leukemia cells and inhibit their progression.

Carrots also contain falcarinol, a natural toxin that protects carrots against fungal disease. It's thought that this compound may stimulate cancer-fighting mechanisms in the body, as it's been shown to cut the risk of tumor development in rats.

Vision

A deficiency in vitamin A can cause your eye's photoreceptors to deteriorate, which leads to vision problems. Eating foods rich in beta-carotene may restore vision, lending truth to the old adage that carrots are good for your eyes.

Brain Health

Carrot extract has been found to be useful for the management of cognitive dysfunctions and may offer memory improvement and cholesterol-lowering benefits.

Liver Protection

Carrot extract may help to protect your liver from the toxic effects of environmental chemicals.

Anti-Inflammatory Properties

Carrot extract also has anti-inflammatory properties and provided anti-inflammatory benefits that were significant even when compared to anti-inflammatory drugs like Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxen and Celebrex.

Cooking May Increase the Health Benefits of Carrots

Carrots eaten raw are an excellent food, but there is some research showing that cooking them may actually help to boost their nutritional content. Interestingly, one study found that cooked carrots had higher levels of beta-carotene and phenolic acids than raw carrots, and the antioxidant activity continued to increase over a period of four weeks. Adding carrot peels to a carrot puree also boosted antioxidant levels.

So while I generally recommend eating your vegetables raw or fermented for the most nutrition, carrots may be one case where gentle cooking, such as steaming, is preferred.

As for storage, keep them in the coolest part of your refrigerator in a sealed plastic bag or wrapped in a paper towel, which should keep them fresh for about two weeks. Avoiding storing them near apples, pears or potatoes, as the ethylene gas they release may turn your carrots bitter.

Facts Source: mercola .com

Incredible Health Benefits of Eating Broccoli

Perhaps, you already know broccoli is good for you, but recent information from the scientific community has revealed that broccoli, the tasty, tiny tree doppelganger, is even better for you than previously thought.

Scientists already knew broccoli and other Brassica vegetables could protect against cancer.

Sulforaphane, a naturally occurring organic sulfur compound within the isothiocyanate group, has caused cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in colon cancer cells and exterminated breast cancer stem cells. Some other study explained:

"Epidemiological studies suggest that intake of cruciferous vegetables including broccoli reduces the risks for the induction of certain forms of cancer.



This protective effect has been linked to the presence of glucoraphanin, a glucosinolate precursor of sulforaphane, an isothiocyanate that influences the process of carcinogenesis."

The same study referenced some of the ways this takes place, including the inhibition of tumor development, cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis.

In other studies, broccoli has played a part in lowering risk factors in lung cancer, one of the most common cancer types in the U.S., as well as prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer in U.S. men (other than skin cancer), due to its isothiocyanate content. It's important to know that you have to get these compounds through your diet.

In the newest revelation, scientists at the University of Illinois identified the "candidate" genes that influence phenolic compounds such as flavonoids in broccoli and found that eating them is strongly associated with a lower risk of several other diseases, including asthma, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, as well as several cancer types.
Researchers crossed two broccoli strains, analyzed their offshoots and used "quantitative trait locus analysis"5 to find the genes responsible for both the highest phenolic production and the ability to annihilate free radicals.

Significantly, the scientists reported that the more people eat these compounds, the less they tend to contract these and other diseases. According to Jack Juvik, Ph.D., a geneticist at the University of Illinois, in Phys.org:

"Phenolic compounds have good antioxidant activity, and there is increasing evidence that this antioxidant activity affects biochemical pathways affiliated with inflammation in mammals.

We need inflammation because it's a response to disease or damage, but it's also associated with initiation of a number of degenerative diseases. People whose diets consist of a certain level of these compounds will have a lesser risk of contracting these diseases."

What scientists hope to do with this new information is interesting: they plan to breed broccoli and other vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower and kale, and essentially infuse them with "mega-doses" of phenolic compounds. However, as Juvic noted:

"It's going to take awhile. This work is a step in that direction, but is not the final answer. We plan to take the candidate genes we identified here and use them in a breeding program to improve the health benefits of these vegetables. 

Meanwhile, we'll have to make sure yield, appearance and taste are maintained as well."

Facts Source: mercola.com
 

Why Tomatoes Are so Good for You

Flavor is only one reason to home-grow tomatoes; they're also incredibly healthy. Rich in flavonoids and other phytochemicals, tomatoes have anti-carcinogenic and other healthy properties.

They're also an excellent source of lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin C (which is most concentrated in the jelly-like substance that surrounds the seeds) as well as vitamins A, E and B-complex vitamins, potassium, manganese and phosphorus. Other lesser-known phytonutrients found in tomatoes include:

Flavonols: rutin, kaempferol and quercetin
Flavonones: naringenin and chalconaringenin
Hydroxycinnamic acids: caffeic acid, ferulic acid and coumaric acid
Glycosides: esculeoside A
Fatty acid derivatives: 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid
Lycopene — a carotenoid antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and watermelon a pink or red color — is another one of tomatoes' claims to fame. Lycopene's antioxidant activity has long been suggested to be more powerful than other carotenoids such as beta-carotene, and research has revealed it may significantly reduce your stroke risk (while other antioxidants did not) and plays an important role in bone health.

In addition, lycopene from tomatoes (including unsweetened organic tomato sauce) has also been shown to be helpful in treating prostate cancer.

Organic Tomatoes Are Better for You
Using organic growing methods makes sense, as it's better for your health and the environment. Plus, the resulting tomatoes may be more nutritious. One study found growing tomatoes according to organic standards resulted in dramatically elevated phenols content compared to tomatoes grown conventionally, using agricultural chemicals.

The organic tomatoes were found to contain 55 percent more vitamin C and 139 percent more total phenolic content at the stage of commercial maturity compared to the conventionally grown tomatoes.

The conventional tomatoes were significantly larger; however, while many unaware consumers equate size with quality, this simply isn't the case. At least in the case of organic tomatoes, you get more even though it may be in a smaller "package."

Facts Credit: mercola.com