bookmark_borderWhy Juicing is Not Good for You

There are two main reasons why juicing is not as good for you as eating the whole food.

1) Juicing removes much of the nutritional value from food including fiber.  The fiber helps you digest the food in a healthier fashion.  You are much less likely to get a spike in your sugar levels when consuming sugars with the fiber.

2) Juicing increases your caloric intake.  Typically, you consume 4 times more calories when juicing.

There are other disadvantages to juicing, such as, increasing toxicity of certain foods.  For instance, raw kale contains a substance that can be toxic. Juicing kale increases the toxicity.

bookmark_borderHeavy Metals In Your Diet

Heavy metals can either be an essential part of your diet or toxic and deadly. For instance, iron is needed for blood; however, men can build up toxic levels of iron as they grow older.

Living organisms require varying amounts of “heavy metals”. Iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc are required by humans. Excessive levels can be damaging to the organism. Other heavy metals such as mercury, plutonium, and lead are toxic metals and their accumulation over time in the bodies of animals can cause serious illness. Certain elements that are normally toxic are, for certain organisms or under certain conditions, beneficial. Examples include vanadium, tungsten, and even cadmium.

Heavy metal toxicity can result in damaged or reduced mental and central nervous function, lower energy levels, and damage to blood composition, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other vital organs. Long-term exposure may result in slowly progressing physical, muscular, and neurological degenerative processes that mimic Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis. Allergies are not uncommon, and repeated long-term contact with some metals (or their compounds) may cause cancer.
– Wikipedia

Do not eat:

  • Shark
  • Swordfish
  • King Mackerel
  • Tilefish

Nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury… some fish and shellfish contain higher levels of mercury that may harm an unborn baby or young child’s developing nervous system. The risks from mercury in fish and shellfish depend on the amount of fish and shellfish eaten and the levels of mercury in the fish and shellfish.
– The FDA of the United States of America

Heavy Metals Song from the album Food For Thought

bookmark_borderCopper Connected to Alzheimer’s Disease

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America has conducted a study linking the consumption of copper to Alzheimer’s:

Significance
The causes of the sporadic form of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are unknown. In this study we show that copper (Cu) critically regulates low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1–mediated Aβ clearance across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in normal mice. Faulty Aβ clearance across the BBB due to increased Cu levels in the aging brain vessels may lead to accumulation of neurotoxic Aβ in brains. In a mouse model of AD low levels of Cu also influences Aβ production and neuroinflammation. Our study suggests that Cu may also increase the severity of AD.

Abstract
Whereas amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulates in the brain of normal animals dosed with low levels of copper (Cu), the mechanism is not completely known. Cu could contribute to Aβ accumulation by altering its clearance and/or its production. Because Cu homeostasis is altered in transgenic mice overexpressing Aβ precursor protein (APP), the objective of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of Cu-induced Aβ accumulation in brains of normal mice and then to explore Cu’s effects in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. In aging mice, accumulation of Cu in brain capillaries was associated with its reduction in low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), an Aβ transporter, and higher brain Aβ levels. These effects were reproduced by chronic dosing with low levels of Cu via drinking water without changes in Aβ synthesis or degradation. In human brain endothelial cells, Cu, at its normal labile levels, caused LRP1-specific down-regulation by inducing its nitrotyrosination and subsequent proteosomal-dependent degradation due in part to Cu/cellular prion protein/LRP1 interaction. In APPsw/0 mice, Cu not only down-regulated LRP1 in brain capillaries but also increased Aβ production and neuroinflammation because Cu accumulated in brain capillaries and, unlike in control mice, in the parenchyma. Thus, we have demonstrated that Cu’s effect on brain Aβ homeostasis depends on whether it is accumulated in the capillaries or in the parenchyma. These findings should provide unique insights into preventative and/or therapeutic approaches to control neurotoxic Aβ levels in the aging brain.

In a separate study, playing a musical instrument was found to and years to the life of the brain.

bookmark_borderOlive Oil

New studies suggest that olive oil is an important part of your diet and may improve your quality of life; however, the making of olive oil is not that environmentally friendly.

The USDA says: For every gallon of olive oil that’s pressed from the ripe fruit, about 38 pounds of olive skins, pulp and pits are left behind. Known as pomace, these leftovers typically have low-value uses. But U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agricultural engineer Rebecca R. Milczarek and her colleagues are working with olive growers and olive-oil processors in California—where most of the nation’s commercial olives are grown—to find new, environmentally friendly, and profitable uses for pomace.

According to Milczarek, pomace from California mills is usually a wet, heavy goulash that ranges in color from green to brown to black to purple, and has an aroma somewhat like that of olive tapenade, a flavorful spread made of finely chopped or puréed olives, anchovies, capers, garlic and olive oil.

Milczarek notes that one key to creating higher-value uses for pomace is to develop techniques that millers can use to quickly and affordably dry it on-site. That would make the pomace lighter, and easier and less expensive to ship to, for example, a centralized processing plant. There, specialized equipment could be used to extract additional oil or perhaps compounds for use in new foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or other products.

In her research, Milczarek is investigating the dynamics of drying pomace. The goal of these studies is to determine precisely how long it would take for water to diffuse from the pomace under specific conditions.

In preliminary experiments, documented in a 2011 peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Food Engineering, Milczarek’s team dried small batches of fresh pomace, using a combination of microwave and convection (hot forced air) heating. The drying rates for the four internal temperatures studied—104 degrees, 122 degrees, 140 degrees, and 158 degrees Fahrenheit—averaged about 28 percent lower than those reported in some studies conducted by other scientists.

The bottom line? Lower drying rates mean more drying time is needed in order for the pomace to dry sufficiently.

What can olive mills do about that? For commercial drying, pomace would be carried on a conveyor belt through a “drying tunnel.” With the drying rates in mind, the tunnel could be lengthened, or the conveyor belt could be slowed, to ensure that pomace emerging from the tunnel isn’t damp and prone to mold.

Of course, drying adds to mills’ energy costs. However, the combination of microwave and convection drying that Milczarek tested is inherently more energy-efficient than drying options that are based solely on convection, she points out.

Two features of Milczarek’s study—keeping the pomace’s internal temperature steady when testing each temperature regimen, and taking pomace shrinkage into account—likely made the research unique among olive-pomace-drying experiments and contributed to the accuracy of her results.

Milczarek is with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. ARS is the USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency.

bookmark_borderHumans Are Omnivores

by Daniel Brouse and The Membrane Domain

To the best of my knowledge there has never been a culture that has thrived as vegetarians.

All evidence (throughout the history of humankind) shows man to be an omnivore.

Depending mostly on climate conditions, the ratio of plant to animal intake varies. In colder and more severe environments, the meat in-take is usually much larger. This primarily occurs for two reasons:
1) plants won’t grow. You can’t eat what isn’t there. (Ask an Eskimo. He’ll know.)
2) the concentration of nutrients is much higher in meat than in vegetables. This means you can harvest less tonnage of food. It also means the culture can have less of an impact on the environment (then if they cut their meat in-take and became more herbivore-like.)

Read more “Humans Are Omnivores”