Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

In This Issue:

Another Reason to Eat Your Broccoli…Or Sprouts

By Joseph McCaffrey, MD, FACS

You may or may not have heard about a bacterium called Heliobacter pylori – H. pylori for short. It’s a unique bug that can survive in the acid of the stomach. We need to know about it because infection with H. pylori is associated with irritation of the stomach wall, ulcers and even stomach cancer.

The H. pylori story is one of my favorites. I like to remind my colleagues of it when they seem to be a little resistant to a new way of looking at health and wellness.

You see, 20 years or so ago, no one had heard of H. pylori. Ulcers were common and the medical world had a whole theory on what caused them (back in the day, it was all about stomach acid and the resistance of the lining of the stomach to that acid).  Experiments seemed to support that theory.

Not only that, we had treatments, both medical and surgical, based on that theory that worked.

There was no mention of H. pylori infection as part of the cause of stomach and duodenal ulcers. In fact, when I was in medical school they taught us that bacteria couldn’t survive in stomach acid.

So when a “crazy” Australian researcher claimed that this weird bacterium he found was really the cause of ulcers, the medical establishment responded with ridicule.

Now, of course, medical professionals know the danger  of H. pylori. I think this story also makes a point about the importance of keeping an open mind and not being too sure of what we think we know.

Back to H. pylori…

Treatment of H. pylori reduces the risk of recurrent ulcers as well as the risk of stomach cancers.

However, eradicating H. pylori with traditional medications often proves to be difficult. Physicians typically treat the infection with at least three drugs for 2 or sometimes 4 weeks. Even with that, the success rate is only around 80%.

Now there’s good evidence that a simple green sprout added to your diet can reduce or eliminate H. pylori.

The sprout is question is broccoli. You’ve probably heard that vegetables of the cruciferous class (broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, Brussels sprouts and so forth) are especially good for you. There is any number of beneficial nutrients in these vegetables, but one compound that has been studied extensively is sulforaphane.

Sulforaphane is a phytochemical that triggers the production of beneficial enzymes in the stomach. These enzymes protect against inflammation, free radicals and DNA damage — and have a number of health benefits.

Previous studies have shown regular inclusion of vegetables containing sulforaphane protect against several types of cancer (including bladder cancer), heart disease and may even help arthritis.

Sulforaphane levels are 50 times higher in broccoli sprouts than they are in mature broccoli, and now there’s evidence that broccoli sprouts are effective against H. pylori.

In a study in mice infected with H. pylori, over 70% percent of the infections were cleared in the treated group while none were cleared in the placebo group.¹

Other laboratory studies have shown that sulforaphane kills over 90% of tested strains of H. pylori, even those resistant to antibiotics, by 2 mechanisms – induced enzymes and direct effect.²

A more important study in humans infected with H. pylori showed significant suppression of H. pylori infection, if not complete eradication, in people who ate about 2 ounces of broccoli sprouts a day.³

You can make your own sprouts, but they’re widely available under the brand name BroccoSprouts. If I can find them in my little town in upstate New York, you can probably find them where you are.

Even if you don’t have any concerns about H. pylori, including broccoli sprouts in your diet regularly is still a great idea.  It’s another example of why we all should emphasize a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in our diets.

References

1. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2003 December; 47(12): 3982–3984.
2. PNAS. May 28, 2002 vol. 99; no. 11; 7610-7615.
3. Cancer Prevention Research. 2, 353, April 1, 2009.

[Ed. Note: Joseph F. McCaffrey, MD, FACS is a board-certified surgeon with extensive experience in alternative medicine, including certification as a HeartMath Trainer.  His areas of expertise include mind-body interaction and cognitive restructuring.  Dr. McCaffrey strives to help people attain their optimum level of vitality through attention to all aspects of wellness.  For more information, click here.]

Green Living:

A Beginner’s Guide to Food Storage

By Barbara H. Peterson

Have you ever been hungry? Not just “skipped a meal” hungry, but really hungry. I am talkingabout the kind of hunger that won’t go away because the cupboard is bare. If you have, you will understand the need to store food. If you haven’t, this is your chance to learn from the experience of others before it happens to you.  Because if you run into hard times, or the store shelves run dry, you will need to have a backup supply of tasty, nutritious food.

Food storage is not about simply stuffing a bunch of canned goods into a room and forgetting about them until you run out of food, but rather a system that focuses on creating a working food bank within your own home that is used every day by everyone in the family.

The first thing to consider when setting up your food storage system is location. Not only does your food storage area need to be dry and rather cool, but easily accessible, clean, and organized. The size of your space will depend on how much food you decide to store. This year I will convert my spare bedroom into a food storage locker. We have snow, and trudging to the pump house through three feet of snow to get supplies for dinner is not something I like doing.

Next, consider how you will store your food. Canned foods are already sealed, but dried foods need to be in rodent- and insect-proof containers — and everything needs to be labeled with the contents as well as the expiration date.

Organize your food according to size, contents, and expiration date, with the food that needs to be eaten first in front, and heavier containers closest to the floor. Make sure that you create walkways so that you can easily access all of your stored items.

What you store depends on meal planning. If you don’t plan your meals, you will get into the rut of eating the same things repeatedly, because you have not adequately prepared for diversity.

If your family does not like the foods you store, they will not eat them. Therefore, meal planning is crucial in determining just what needs to be stored. But this does not have to be a chore. Get the family involved in planning meals, and have fun with it. Here is a handy printable sample chart to help plan weekly meals:

meal_planning.pdf

Remember: When planning your meals, a balanced diet is essential!

Once you plan a menu for the week, list the ingredients for each meal, and calculate the weekly quantities that you will need to use. For instance, if you decide to eat spaghetti for two meals during the week and use one pound of spaghetti for each meal, you will need two pounds of spaghetti for one week.

Now, take that figure and multiply it by how many weeks you plan to use that meal schedule. If you plan to store one year’s worth of food, and to eat spaghetti twice a week for each and every week of the year, you will need to multiply your two pounds of spaghetti by the number of weeks in a year, which is approximately 48, and store 96 pounds of spaghetti to cover those meals.

Do this for all of the ingredients in each meal included in the weekly food schedules that you created for your food storage program. You will now have a detailed and realistic list of food storage items along with quantities needed for the year, or several months, or for however long you plan to store food.

Once this is accomplished, the only time revisions are necessary is if a recipe has changed, there is an increase or decrease in the amount of food you need, or menus have changed. Also, make sure that you account for changing tastes and growing kids.

Here is a handy food storage calculator that will help jump-start you on your journey. These are only basic guidelines, and each family will need to make adjustments for personal preferences and needs by referring to the more detailed meal planning charts suggested previously:

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

The following tips will help maintain your food storage supply:

1. Make a checklist of your stored food items and revise it as necessary.
2. Keep the checklist handy so that you know how much food you have on hand at all times, and what you need to replace.
3. Check your stored items regularly for contamination and date of expiration.
4. Resist the temptation to reach for a goody in the back of the cupboard, and always use the oldest items first.
5. Replace what you use, placing the new items at the back of the shelf. This way you will always have your supply topped off in the event of an emergency.

Food storage is the central focus of a lifestyle that revolves around independence and sustainability. With a little planning and some work, a realistic and user-friendly food storage system can be incorporated into everyday life. So, set up your system so that you can easily use the items in front for everyday meals, get the kids involved, and have fun!

[Ed. Note: Barbara lives on a small ranch in Oregon with her husband, where they raise geese, chickens, horses, Oggie Dog, a variety of cats, and an opinionated Macaw named Rita. Barbara believes that self-sufficiency and localization of food sources is necessary to survive the coming depression. To this end, she hopes that sharing information with others of like mind will lead to a brighter future where people reach out to each other and form small communities in which food is grown locally, and trade is established between neighbors.  For more of Barbara’s tips on sustainable living, click here now.]

Healthy Recipes:

Southwestern Egg White Frittata

By Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD

Using pre-prepared foods makes this delicious high protein omelet a snap to prepare.  For variety,experiment with different flavors of fresh salsas that can be found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.

Time to table: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Healing Nutrient Spotlight
Excellent source of riboflavin, selenium
Good source of vitamin C, calcium

Ingredients*
2 tsp. butter
8 large egg whites
4 oz. deli turkey breast, diced
4 T. store-bought fresh salsa
2 T. Greek-style yogurt
2 T. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
4 slices avocado or as many as desired

*Use organic ingredients for optimal nutrition.

Preparation
Heat butter in a medium skillet.  Scramble egg whites and turkey until eggs are set.  Split the egg whites and turkey for two portions and top each serving with half the Pecorino Romano, 2 T. of salsa,  a dollop (1 T.) of yogurt, and avocado slices.

Nutrition
249 calories, 28 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 3 g monounsaturated fat, 5 g sugars, 1 g fiber, 451 IU vitamin A, .65 mg riboflavin, 19 g folate, .32 mcg vitamin B-12, 7 mg vitamin C, 119 mg calcium, 25 mg magnesium, 367 mg potassium, 24 mcg selenium, 945 mg sodium

[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet – containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body’s chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace.  To learn more click here now.]