Broccoli juice as sunscreen?

As my friends will testify, vegetables and I are not on very intimate terms and broccoli is something I avoid at all costs. But I may change my mind because of it’s newly discovered potential as a sunscreen. Apparently an extract made from broccoli boosts the body’s natural ability to defend against the sun’s ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer. According to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the USA, an extract of broccoli sprouts contains high levels of sulforaphane and gives substantial protection. Co-leader of the study, Paul Talalay, first discovered in 1992 that broccoli is rich in a naturally occurring plant compound called sulforaphane. While all cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, mustard, turnip, radish and watercress) contain it to a certain degree, the concentration is highest in three-day-old sprouts of the broccoli plant.

Sulforaphane has the effect of activating cells’ production of what are known as “phase 2 enzymes.” One such enzyme, glutathione S-transferase, has been shown to neutralize the DNA-damaging compounds produced by the skin produces when struck by ultraviolet radiation. It also appears to reduce inflammation, which can cause precancerous growths to transform into full-blown cancerous tumors. Only a very small (6 person) trial has been done on this but they are enthusiastic about developing a new sunscreen product as many of the commercial products contain chemicals that are themselves potentially carcinogenic. However, unless they can get broccoli juice to smell more pleasant (I may not eat many vegetables but I do juice them) it will be no competition to my preferred choice which is the all-natural organic sun range from Annemarie Borlind.

Naturally better – New food preservative from Australia

Concerns have been raised over the past few years about the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid and occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks, pickles and sauces. Sodium benzoate has been linked to cancer concerns because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale, but there was then found to be another problem.

Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology and expert in ageing at Sheffield University, has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999. He tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory and found that the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria. He told The Independent on Sunday in an interview that, “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.”

Professor Piper’s main concern though is for adults, and particularly children, who consume large amounts of fizzy drinks. A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was “limited”. Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date. “By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago.” The makers of the major soft drink brands, and the British Soft Drinks Association, said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government. So needless to say most sensible people have a right to feel worried.

Help may be at hand though from an Australian inventor who has developed a blend of native Australian herbs that he says functions as an effective preservative for food and drink and that can be used to replace artificial preservatives such as sodium benzoate. Vic Cherikoff’s product Herbal-Active is marketed as an inhibitor of bacteria and surface mould growth, and as a flavouring agent. He researched a number of native Australian herbs and developed a blend that is 30 times more effective as a preservative than the sum of all the plants put together. Because he cannot afford to patent the blend, Cherikoff says, he will not reveal which herbs are being used, but that all of them are native culinary herbs and are either wild-harvested or grown on organic plantations.

Because all the ingredients in Herbal-Active are already culinary herbs, the product can be listed as “herbal extracts” in ingredients lists, and products using it can bear a “preservative-free” label. It has already been bought and used by a university in South Wales, which runs a small dairy. The herbal preservative is used to keep their cheeses from spoiling due to exposure to the yeast from a nearby vineyard. Apparently Herbal-Active does not affect lactic acid bacteria, meaning that it can be used as a preservative in fermented meat and dairy products without interfering with those products’ probiotic effects. He may be able to apply for that patent soon because it now seems that a major juice company is testing Herbal-Active for potential use.

Ripe fruit = more antioxidants

As someone who has never been in favour of ‘crunchy’ fruit and been told often by nutritionists that too ripe fruit was bad for me as it upped my sugar levels too high, I am delighted to report that there is an upside to fruit that are fully ripened.

Apparently, as pears and apples ripen, the chlorophyll in the peel is replaced by an antioxidant known as nonfluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes (NCCs), not a very catchy name, but according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, it has the benefit of upping the antioxidant level of the fruit.

Chlorophyll is the chemical that makes plants’ leaves green and enables them to convert sunlight into energy. When a leaf dies, the chlorophyll begins to decay and the leaf loses its green color. This may happen because of age or injury, so I shudder to think what state the Jolly Green Giant is in as he got his name in 1925 when the US General Food Company thought it would help kids eat more vegetables, by frightening them into it presumably, and has been around on their canned vegetable labels ever since.

The decay of chlorophyll in fruit appears to be linked not to death, but to ripening. In apples and pears, chlorophyll in and just below the peel breaks down into NCCs as the fruit ripens. NCCs are only the most recent antioxidant to be identified in fruit and according to the researchers, the presence of NCCs in ripe fruit have a definite antioxidant effect, and this suggests that they may have an important nutritional effect in animals that regularly eat fruit. That would be us and the chimpanzees, so I can now have a good reason for avoiding the crunchy conference pears and heading straight for the luscious Italian dessert varieties.

Belly laughs and blood pressure

When I was a child a day trip to Blackpool was a highlight of the summer holidays and my favourite thing was to go to the funfair and stand in front of an enormous machine called the Laughing Policeman.

You put your penny in the slot (it was a long time ago), and the large animated figure would rock back and forth consumed by laughter.

It was contagious: you couldn’t stand there, or be within six feet of it, without joining in. Evidently that was my first experience of knowing just what was good for me, and the foundation of my later career as a health writer! Now it seems that the Laughing Policeman’s inventor was a man who knew not just how to make people feel good, but was also unwittingly helping them lower their blood pressure too. Now a wonderful piece of research from India has shown that when 200 workers at an IT call-centre in Mumbai, India, were given 20-minute laugh-yoga sessions they had significant reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. I imagine that working in any call centre must be very stressful, and so this could be an ideal – and economic – way to increase the health of the workers. The study was reported by Dr Madan Kataria to the American Society of Hypertension and if you want to emulate it, then the laughter therapy involved breathing exercises along with laughter that starts as a gentle “hee, hee, hee” and builds to a raucous “ha, ha, ha.” Apparently it’s the full out belly laugh that really makes the difference. I can hear the voice of the Laughing Policeman echoing across the years in full agreement.

Of course you could always call in an expert, and I happen to know one. Anne McDonald actually follows the work of Dr Kataria and is based a little bit nearer to us in Dublin. She is a qualified ‘laughologist’ if you need one in your place of work and I can highly recommend her, though you may have a stitch in your side for several hours afterwards from being overcome by a strong case of hysterics. If you want to contact her, visit her website at www.mcdonaldcoaching.com for a wealth of delights, including her own artwork.

Beauty Queen – Naturally, with free samples

I must declare an interest here, I have been using the natural skincare range from German organic company Annemarie Borlind for many years and have never found anything better. They are free of every single irritating ingredient, wholly natural and – best of all – incredibly effective. I just got information from them about their new suncare range, which I highly recommend, particularly for the dynamic duo of very effective sun protection and incredible skin care no matter how sensitive your skin is.

However, that is not what I wanted to tell you about. They have reformulated their cosmetic range and it is amazing, nothing ‘worthy’ about it, this is glamour all the way. In fact, it is so good they are offering you the chance to try it free. You will get a tester containing generous amounts of two shades of their fluid foundation, two flattering lip colours and a lip brush.

And the beauty queen bit? No I didn’t make it up, but at the 2008 Miss Germany final professional makeup artists from the famous Face Academy made up the 22 contestants with the new Natural Caring colours from Annemarie Borlind. The eventual winner, Kim Valerie Voight, looked radiant even when surrounded by photographers, journalists, television and radio teams.

It showed that natural beauty cosmetics can cope with a high pressure, glamorous event, as well as being the perfect everyday makeup for the rest of us leading less exalted lives! All their products have dermatologically confirmed skin compatibility, so grab your chance to look at your best, for free.

Contact Jane Moore at Simply Nature, the importers of AnneMarie Borlind in the UK, by emailing her at [email protected] or visit the website for more information

Formaldehyde – Is it killing you?

Say formaldehyde and most people automatically think of the embalming process, of which it is a primary ingredient, but you would amazed at where else it turns up. Formaldehyde, is a toxin and carcinogen and is also one of the most common ingredients in many household items, from furniture to bedding. These items can give off formaldehyde fumes that are harmful to our health and lead to developing symptoms such as asthma, eye and skin irritation, headaches, wheezing and coughing.

Formaldehyde is a tissue preservative, and it is the chemical’s very toxic nature that makes it so effective at that as it quickly kills bacteria or fungi that might otherwise begin the process of decomposition. Unfortunately, it is also an ingredient in a wide variety of resins used to make permanent adhesives for plywood and carpeting, so you find it in present in furniture and building materials (particularly those made with pressed wood products) and certain moulded plastics.

Like a crease-free existence? Well formaldehyde resins are used to make textiles wrinkle-resistant and can be found in everything from curtains to sheets and clothing. Where else will you find them?

** dishwashing liquids
** fabric softeners
** carpet cleaners
** glues
** cardboard and paper products
** wallpaper and certain latex paints
** cosmetics including nail polish and nail hardener

If you like to leave your engine running in the garage or on the drive near your home, then be aware that the exhaust from cars, lawnmowers and other combustion engines contain not only the formaldehyde, but other toxic chemicals as well.

Although formaldehyde gas is colourless, it has a sharp and distinctive odour at high concentrations, but at much lower concentrations is unlikely to be obviously noticeable. If it worries you, this link takes you to a UK supplier of a home testing kit – www.hannainst.co.uk/acatalog/HI_3838_Formaldehyde_test_kit.html

And Another Reason to Avoid Aspartame!

Millions of people actually are absorbing formaldehyde in their diet soft drinks. It’s true: formaldehyde is one of the chemical byproducts of aspartame breakdown in soft drinks if they are stored at incorrect temperatures – this generally is over 95F when the chemical sweetener aspartame begins to break down, forming small amounts of formaldehyde right in the can, which when swallowed becomes a potent neurotoxin. You may say you only keep your diet drinks in the fridge, but you have no control over their storage before they get to you, or if they are taken out as part of a picnic and left in the sun.

Aspartame is currently responsible for 75% of all consumer complaints to the FDA in the States and why I am so adamantly against diet drinks. Not only do they not work, your body is not ‘fooled’ by the chemical sweetener and often sends you off looking for real sugar to compensate, but aspartame has been linked to seizures, blindness, fuzzy vision, headaches and other neurological disorders. A healthy alternative is to use half fruit juice and half water, preferably still but if not then go for a less gassy alternative such as Badoit if you want that sparkle and fizz.

Could diabetics and others benefit from grape skins?

A recently published paper in the science journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism has reported on new research carried out by scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England, which has found that resveratrol, a compound present naturally in grape skin, can protect against the cellular damage to blood vessels caused by high production of glucose in diabetes.

Patients with diabetes have elevated levels of glucose that circulate in the blood and which cause both micro- and macro- vascular complications by damaging the mitochondria. These are the tiny power plants within cells responsible for generating energy and when they are damaged they can leak electrons and make highly damaging ‘free radicals’. Serious complications can arise when this happens, including kidney disease, heart disease and retinopathy – which if left untreated can lead to blindness.

Resveratrol stops the damage by helping cells make protective enzymes to prevent the leakage of electrons and the production of the toxic ‘free radicals’. By including grapes in your diet, and other sources such as seeds, peanuts and red wine you could be helping prevent vascular damage caused by hyperglycemia in the future.

Other Health Benefits

You know how you take grapes to patients in hospitals? Well if you take them red grapes the resveratrol in the skin has also been shown to help with other health issues. For instance, if you have the flu, then resveratrol has been shown to prevent the continued reproduction of the flu virus if taken within six hours of the first infection. It has been shown to be anticarcinogenic, and there is also growing evidence that it can also protect the heart. It does this in several ways: inhibits platelet aggregation, the proliferation of smooth-muscle cells, and the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol. So don’t ask ‘Beulah, peel me a grape’, as Mae West famously said, but insist she keeps the skins on!

A chocolate a day keeps womens heart attacks away?

The University of East Anglia is conducting a study on the health benefits of chocolate, specifically relating to risk of heart disease in women. In the first clinical trial of its kind, the researchers at UEA will be asking postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes to eat a specially formulated chocolate bar which has been developed with the help of a Belgian chocolatier for this study. It will provide a higher dose of the protective compounds in cocoa than found in standard chocolate and to maximise the potential benefits, soy has also been added. Soy is another great source of flavonoids, which have been shown to benefit the heart-health of women. This is particularly important for women over 50, because the hormonal changes at that time means that deaths due to heart disease increase rapidly after the menopause, and having type 2 diabetes increases this risk by a further three-and-a-half times.

According to Professor Aedin Cassidy, the lead researcher and Professor of Diet and Health at UEA, “Despite postmenopausal women being at a similar risk to men for developing cardiovascular disease, to date they are under-represented in clinical trials. We hope to show that adding flavonoids to their diets will provide additional protection from heart disease and give women the opportunity to take more control over reducing their risk of heart disease in the future.” Funded by Diabetes UK, I would have thought the health benefits of chocolate had been thoroughly explored, certainly by me on a regular basis, but if any of you are still in doubt: per ounce, chocolate has more antioxidants than fruit, vegetables, tea or wine, with dark chocolate having twice the antioxidants of milk chocolate but you will get the most benefit, as usual, from eating organic. Looks like sales of Green & Black’s organic chocolate bars is set to rise!

Interested in taking part? The researchers at UEA are recruiting 150 women under the age of 70 who have type 2 diabetes and have not had a period for at least one year (and are not taking HRT). If you fit the profile you will also need to have been prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) for at least one year. To find out more, or to volunteer, please telephone 01603 288570 and ask for Andrea Brown (study nurse) or Dr Peter Curtis (study co-ordinator) or email [email protected].

DIY Alternatives to butter

If you are looking to have less dairy in your diet, but don’t want synthetic margarines and spreads with their additives, you could always make up a healthy option yourself that will be full of healthy fatty acids, good cholesterol, and vitamin A. You can buy ‘olive oil’ spread in the supermarket, but this version is much better for you  and very easy to make.

Olive Butter Recipe

Whisk sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil together in a small bowl. Pour mixture into a small container and freeze for 4 hours, or until solid. Use like normal butter – but keep it in a jar in the fridge and it will keep for several months if stored in the freezer. You can of course add other flavours such as garlic or herb for savoury use.

If you want something different, and think you might have a low thyroid function then this recipe for coconut butter might be just the thing. Because of its potential ability to speed up metabolism, coconut oil is good for people with sluggish thyroid glands, as well as for anyone who find it difficult to shed unwanted weight.

Coconut Butter Recipe

Ingredients: 1/4 cup cocunut oil (solid form) and 1 tablespoon light miso. Use a spoon or fork to thoroughly mix miso with coconut oil, again store in the fridge and will stay fresh for two months if kept in the freezer.

Simple fasting can reduce chemotherapy effects

It is one of the basic tenets of naturopathy that regular fasting will aid your body’s own natural defence systems to be activated as it is cleansed of toxins. It usually involves eating no solid food and drinking only water for periods from a day to a week or longer, but only under supervision, though some fasts may involve eating just fruit – usually grapes.

Researchers at the University of Southern California have just discovered a new benefit of fasting that is of huge interest to anyone undergoing chemotherapy. Whilst undertaking anti-ageing research they discovered that certain stressors activate a protective “shield mode” in healthy cells.

What stresses the body most? Certainly being starved is one of the major ones and what the US researchers are suggesting is that if cancer patients fast for two days before chemotherapy that may set in motion a protective reaction in healthy cells, guarding them from some of the more unpleasant and toxic side effects. Cancer patients are often given drugs like Procrit to prevent such side effects so this more natural method would certainly be worth trying.

Also, although it is not ‘news’ as such, it might be worth reminding you that homeopathy also has a lot to offer here. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments for cancer can have significant side effects and homoeopathy has been shown to be useful in terms of emotional support, reduction of anxiety and depression and in the treatment of the side effects from chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.

Remedies for various treatments for cancer can be obtained from a homoepathic practitioner or by mail order from Ainsworth’s in Wigmore Street in London or from Galen, a practice I use in Dorchester, who make their own tablets and have a good free advice service. If you want to contact them ring 01305 263996.

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