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Joseph Agbi

HEALTH ARTICLE – 14: THE HEALING VALUE OF EXCERCISE (3)

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What kind of exercise should I do?

  • A well-rounded fitness program should incorporate three basic components: 1) cardio-vascular endurance, 2) strength building for muscular strength, and 3) For flexibility. Following this guideline, any program you select should include exercises that increase heart and lung capacity, stretch tight muscle groups, and strengthen weak ones. Many people tend to neglect stretching exercise and end up with lower back pain.  

Aerobic Exercise (three times a week)

1.         Cardio-respiratory fitness refer to how well the lungs deliver oxygen to the blood and how well the heart and circulatory system send blood and its nutrients throughout the body. Programs that develop heart and lung capacity are often referred to as Aerobic, and they accomplish their goal by elevating the heart rate for a sustained period. Aerobic exercise typically serves as the foundation for any fitness program, since a healthy heart and lungs are essential to the safe and skillful performance of almost all exercises and sports.

2          Minimum of twenty minutes three to five times a week is recommended

  • Choose any activity that uses large muscle groups that can be maintained continuously, and that is cardio-respiratory in nature.
  • Examples include brisk walking, swimming, jogging, running, bicycling, cross-country skiing, skating, stair climbing, hiking, dancing, basketball, soccer, and racquetball.
  • Intensity or the speed of the workout is crucial and is measured by how fast the heart is made to beat.
  • The target heart beat is 65 to 90% of your maximum safe heart rate. Sustain this rate for some length of time.
  • To determine your maximum safe heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Your target heart beat is 65 to 90% of this number.
  • So if you are 40, your target heart rate is between 117 and 162 (220 -40 =180. 180×65% = 117; 180 x 90% = 162).

Strength Building exercises (three times a week)

  • Muscular strength and endurance exercises use progressive resistance to increase the size and strength of muscle fibers, resulting in greater physical ability to perform work.
  • Recommend…..minutes three times a week
  • Weightlifting machines such as the Nautilus, are typical of the types of resistance equipment used.
  • Push-ups, chin-ups and curls produce similar results but require no special equipment.
  • Strength-building is also an effective way of improving general fitness, converting fat to muscle, and increasing metabolic rate.

Stretching Exercises (once or twice a week)

  • Ten to fifteen minutes once or twice a week is great added to other exercises. For example in the use of AB-Doer.
  • Flexibility training is an aspect of fitness that is often neglected. However, forty percent of your body is muscle, including some 650 voluntary muscle (muscles over which you have control).
  • The goal of flexibility training is to increase the …range of motion around a joint.
  • As muscles become stronger through exercise, they also become tighter unless flexibility training is done.
  • Use, slow sustained stretches rather than bouncing, as bouncing can create microscopic tears in your muscles which will scar over as they heal and further diminish your flexibility.
  • Stretch at the close of your exercise as your muscles are more limb then.
  • For a warm up, do your regular exercise at a slower pace for the first few minutes.
  • It is wiser to vary your exercise so you are constantly working on a variety of muscles.

How to get a Trainer

  • An athletic club, start a club in your church or video in your home.
  • Buy a book on exercise, with pictures showing each exercise. Your Personal Trainer is excellent.

How much exercise should I do?

  • If you have not been exercising start slowly
  • If you have a health problem, check with your doctor
  • Enjoying your exercise is critical because you will continue for months and years to come.

Finding time to Exercise

  • Every time you exercise adds an hour of life to your life
  • Since exercise makes you healthy, you get more done in less time. You are more alert.
  • You get creative ideas when exercising, which make you more effective.
  • Devotional time to worship, listen to bible, teaching or motivational messages while exercising
  • Exercise with your spouse, children or a close friend and utilize the time building the relationship.

Walking

  • This is the best exercise for the body when done regularly. Four or five times a week is ideal with occasional long walks.

Walking versus jogging

  • Mile for mile, jogging burns only about 20% more calories than brisk walking says James M. Rippe, MD
  • Jogging jars your body with  triple your body’s weight every time you impact the ground, increasing the possibility of joint injury.

Handling a common difficulty –

1. Sore muscles

  • From the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles. This occurs because your body burns off both fat and muscle cells as you burn calories.

2.  Blisters

  • Blisters can be avoided by starting slow, wearing an extra socks, having comfortable shoes, and dry feet. If blisters strike, it is best to protect them, and let the fluid be re-absorbed into the body.

What does the Bible say about exercise?

The Bible, both in the old and new testament, is mostly silent and speaks indirectly of physical exercise. However in one verse it speaks plainly of its added value to the body (possibly its positive effect of extension of lifespan here on earth), while urging believers to strive for spiritual excellence which profits both in this life and the life to come.

8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come (1 Tim 4:8).

So if you could only do one, either physical or spiritual exercises, then do the spiritual ones. However, if  you can couple the two together, for example, by praying and/or listening to audio recording of scriptures, and receiving creative flow from Almighty God as you exercise, then perhaps you can do both.

Even though bodily exercise is only for this life, this life could last eighty years. And to perhaps extend them to one hundred, will bring glory to God, since He has established a covenant of health with us.

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

  • We need to take into account the context in which Paul wrote 1 Tim. 4:8: no cars, walked everywhere they went, no automated equipment, but worked hard physically all the day long They did moderate level of exercise particularly walking.
  • In all, I think it brings glory to God to do a moderate amount of exercise. It saves me 50% on my doctor’s bills, so now I have money to invest in other things, and it helps keep me alive, so I don’t leave my wife as a widow, or our children fatherless.

HEALTH ARTICLE – 13: My Hugiano Diet Tray

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Each Family should have a family diet plan.

The goal I have for my family called the “Family Diet” or Hugiano Diet Tray would be: whole Grains, Legumes, Vegetables, Raw Nuts, Vegetables, Raw Seeds, and Fruits. These constitutes 80% of our calories intake.

Cooked Fish and Poultry is 10% while cooked lean meat is 1%, which I rarely eat. The other 9% calories intake would come from raw seeds and raw nuts (5%), fats and oils from veggies (3%), soy milk and yogurt dairies (1%). As we age and monitor our general well-being and medical data such as cholesterol levels, we could become more radical and move towards the perfect Genesis Diet outlined in Go Natural.

This is our health plan which we have started on, mine being more radical. For example, we now stock our fruit and veggies tray on the counter for everyone to pick as they pass by making us to be less hungry before our major meals. I keep a plate of it in my office and even in my car keeping me from visiting fast foods restaurant during my afternoon commutes in the city. I am still working on drinking the right amount of fluids to cleanse my system because of the frequency of urination that had troubled me in the past.

Personally I hope to reduce my beef consumption to near zero, or monthly only edible sparingly at home or at social events. I have substituted regular dairy product with soy milk (although my other family members sometimes use lactose-free milk). In all these changes, I first experiment them on myself for a week or two and then explain to them the benefits I am getting from them. They usually follow my advice and thereafter we are all on board.

My modified Family Diet tray (or “Dunamis-Hugiano Diet” tray for a healthy lifestyle) in calorific terms based on the Genesis Diet and Meat Diet (Gen. 1:28-29; 4:4; 1 Tim. 4:4-5; Col. 2:16).

  1. Fruits 10%
  2. Vegetables 30%
  3. Legumes 20%
  4. Whole Grains 20%
  5. Raw Seeds 2%
  6. Raw Nuts 3%
  7. Veggie Oil including Butter 3%
  8. Soy Milk/Yogurt 1%
  9. Fish/Poultry 10%
  10. Meat 1%
  11. Total 100%

You need to design your own family diet plan in line with the Genesis diet. Pray and ask God to give you ideas for a healthy food plan which greatly affects your daily lifestyle.

HEALTH ARTICLE – 12: THE HEALING VALUE OF EXERCISE (2)

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From to the Mayo Clinic website, 7 benefits of exercises, regardless of your age, sex or physical ability are as follows:

No. 1: Exercise controls weight

Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help maintain weight loss. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn. You don’t need to set aside large chunks of time for exercise to reap weight-loss benefits. If you can’t do an actual workout, get more active throughout the day in simple ways — by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or revving up your household chores.

No. 2: Exercise combats health conditions and diseases

Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent high blood pressure? No matter what your current weight, being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. In fact, regular physical activity can help you prevent or manage a wide range of health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression, certain types of cancer, arthritis and falls.

No. 3: Exercise improves mood.

Need an emotional lift? Or need to blow off some steam after a stressful day? A workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed. You may also feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.

No. 4: Exercise boosts energy

Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily chores.

 No. 5: Exercise promotes better sleep

Struggling to fall asleep, or to stay asleep? Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. Just don’t exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to fall asleep.

No. 6: Exercise puts the spark back into your sex life

Do you feel too tired or too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Regular physical activity can leave you feeling energized and looking better, which may have a positive effect on your sex life. But there’s more to it than that. Regular physical activity can lead to enhanced arousal for women. And men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don’t exercise.

No. 7: Exercise can be fun

Exercise and physical activity can be a fun way to spend some time. It gives you a chance to unwind, enjoy the outdoors or simply engage in activities that make you happy. Physical activity can also help you connect with family or friends in a fun social setting. So, take a dance class, hit the hiking trails or join a soccer team. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and just do it. If you get bored, try something new.

HEALTH ARTICLE – 11: THE HEALING VALUE OF EXERCISE (1)

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Exercise stimulates your body healing abilities

  • Studies show that exercisers pay half in medical bills and have one-third the number of sick days
  • Exercise burns away excess weight, lowers blood pressure, improves the cholesterol profile, improves blood sugar and insulin dynamics, helps prevent bone-thinning osteoporosis, helps alleviate chronic lower back pain, and improves immune function, mood and mental performance.
  • Zero exercise = tripled chance of a heart attack.
  • Study at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed:
    • An inactive person’s risk of heart attack is the same as someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.

Physical Benefits of Exercise

  1. Increases general bodily performance and agility
  2. 4,500 people ages 40 to 85 were studied at Brown University by Vincent Mor, PhD.
  3. Those who remain physically active throughout their later years can gain as much as a 25-year advantage in performance over those who retire to their easy chairs.
  4. Moderate activity, such as walking was all that was needed to keep these people active.
  • Lower death rate from all diseases
  • 16,936 Harvard alumni were tracked for many years about their exercise habit. It was found that those men burned 2000 calories or more a week in exercise had a 28% lower death rate than men who exercised less or not at all.  Ralph Paffenberger Jr., M.D., PhD, one of the authors of this study stated, “… for every hour you walk, you can add an hour to your life”.
  • Reduced risk of cancer
  • 5,000 female graduates (1925-1981) from Harvard University were studied. The less active showed…two and a half times greater risk of developing cancer compared to the former athletes among them. The sedentary group had twice the risk for breast cancer, as well as two to four times more cancer of the uterus, ovaries, cervix, and vagina.
  • Reduced Risk of Heart Disease
  • Study of 2000 men at university of Minnesota public health for 7 years. The researchers found that the least active men had a 30 percent greater chance of death from heart attacks than moderately active men.
  • Lower Blood pressure
  • Dr Martin put 19 sedentary men with mild hypertension (high blood pressure) on a 10 week mild aerobic program. Blood pressures went from 137/95 to 130/80.
  • Reduced back pain and back problems
  • Walking can be a wonderful preventive and curative of the most common kind of muscular backache. Even some cases of back pain where a disk problem has been identified will respond well to regular, rhythmic walking – three to six times a week, for 30 to 60 minutes per session.”
  • 492 people polled with a variety of back problems. 98 percent of those made walking a part of their regular routine found it helpful.

Emotional Benefits of Exercise

  1. It is an anti-depressant.
  • A doctoral thesis that reviewed 77 studies concluded that depression exits the body along with sweat. In fact, wrote Thomas Christian North, Ph. D’, exercise appears to be a better anti-depression treatment than psychobiological treatment
  • 81 different studies found that in 70% of the studies, significant improvement in mental state was associated with fitness.
  • When you exercise, endorphins (anti-depressants) are released into your body and you experience a sense of well-being called “runners high” – but all aerobic exercise cause this wonderful sensation. It will last for several hours.

2.         It allows you to handle stress more effectively

Mental Benefits of Exercise

1.         Exercise enhances one’s mental abilities. Exercisers score higher in reasoning, reaction time, and memory tests.

2.         The rhythmic flow of the exercise enhances creative flow.

Why does exercise heal?

1.         Exercise enhances the Immune System.

  • Speeds up the movement of lymph (our inner artillery) through the lymph system fifteen up to thirty fold. So as you flex your body during exercise, you move your inner army of germ fighters into high gear. This is one of the most outstanding insights I personally received from my study on health and nutrition.

2.         Exercise reduces fat.

  • Those who exercise become leaner. Cancer thrives more readily in fatty tissue than lean tissue.

3.         Exercise reduces constipation

  • Constipation has been linked with colon cancer, and inactive people are likely to be constipated. Exercise stimulates the peristaltic action of the intestines, and those results in regular and more frequent bowel movements.

4.         Exercise increases blood flow.

  • Small arteries can begin to shut down through lack of physical activity. Exercise expands and reopens these blood vessels. It is the flow of blood that oxygenates your body and carries away wastes. So exercise both detoxifies your system and oxygenates your cells.

Health Article – 10: Detoxifying The Body Through Proper Bowel Movement

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Key Theme Toxins and garbage must be allowed to leave our bodies readily, or our bodies remain un-cleansed and poor health results.

Foundation of Good Health

1. Build your immune system,

2. Detoxify your body, and

3. Nourish your cells

The healing power of proper bowel management is very important for longevity.

Strong Colon Cleansing

If your immune system is strong, it will constantly wash all damaged mutated cells and toxic poisons out of your system. The three ways these damaged cells are discharged are through:

  1. The lungs
  2. The bowel and kidneys
  3. The skin (two pounds per day)

Eat High-Fibre Foods

  1. The bowels is supposed to discharge a meal within eighteen hours after it is eaten
  2. Because of the type of low-fibre diet we eat, many people have ten extra meals jammed up in their intestines.
  3. The Genesis diet is a –high—–fiber diet.
  4. If the bowel is stock up or only partially functioning, these toxins are not effectively eliminated from your system. Instead, they recirculate and are dumped in areas which create abscesses, open sores, arthritis, headaches, etc.

Constipation is a widespread problem

Chronic constipation is often the result of a diet high in protein, fat, and refined carbohydrates (sugars and refined flours), but low in such fibrous foods as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

  • The intestines are to be filled with friendly flora, called Acidophilus, providing an acid bowel environment.
  • Bacillus coli are unfriendly bacteria which grow in an alkaline environment. They are easily produced by taking protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or by taking antibiotic drugs. This unfriendly bacterium reaches as high as 85% of the floral life in the colon of the average American. To restore the proper floral content in your intestines, you must eat the Genesis diet (i.e. low-fat, low-cholesterol, and high-fiber), and should probably supplement with acidophilus for two to four weeks. You can tell when the flora is changed because you stools are soft, frequent (three times a day), and free from putrid or rancid odor.

We cannot have a healthy body without clean blood, and we cannot have clean blood unless we have a clean bowel with good tone to move wastes along properly. A toxic bowel is the source of many health problems.

Do a colon cleanse at least once a year. December or January is a good month to start (I incorporated it with my year-end fast).

What the colon does

The colon (also known as the large intestine) is the final stop in food’s journey through the digestive tract. The colon absorbs fluid from indigestible food residue and produces solid waste for elimination. “The colon is essentially a waste-storage organ that lets you control when the waste is released,” says gastroenterologist Dr. Clarence KW Wong, associate professor of medicine at the University of Alberta.

But this organ does much more than just act as your body’s garbage shoot.  “The colon is also important for fluid, electrolytes (salts) and fatty-acid absorption. These can be important for systemic health. As well, the colon holds a large number of commensal bacteria [“good bacteria”], which may hold many benefits for the body,” he adds.

 Signs of a healthy colon

If you’re not thinking much about your colon, chances are good that it’s healthy. Regular bowel movements and no pain, bloating, diarrhea or bleeding likely mean that all systems are good.

 Signs of possible colon trouble

There are a number of symptoms that may indicate a colon-health issue, but they can also be associated with other problems. “Digestive symptoms may stem from a temporary illness such as flu, a reaction to certain medications or a more chronic underlying condition,” Wong explains. So it’s important to recognize what’s out of the ordinary for you—and to communicate any of the following to your doctor:

• Chest pain
• Heartburn
• Constipation
• Bloating and/or excessive gas
• Stomach pain and/or cramps
• Difficulty swallowing
• Nausea
• Rectal bleeding
• Diarrhea
• Mucus in stool 
• Changes in bowel habits

 Urgent signs of colon trouble

Although the symptoms above call for you to make an appointment with your doctor, the symptoms below indicate you need see a healthcare professional right away for prompt medical attention, Wong advises:

• Diarrhea that lasts more than five days
• Unintended weight loss
• Persistent vomiting
• Black tarry stools
• Bright red blood in your stool or bloody diarrhea
• Unexplained fatigue
• Pain in the stomach area that improves or worsens when you eat
• Persistent fever
• Pain when having a bowel movement
• Abdominal pain that is persistent and severe or that wakes you from sleep
• Persistent heartburn that is not relieved with over-the-counter antacids

 How to keep your colon healthy

It’s amazing how the same healthy lifestyle habits most experts recommend for weight loss and general good health apply equally to the promotion of good colon health. Want to keep your digestive tract on track? Here are some of Wong’s top tips:

• Drink plenty of water and other caffeine-free fluids
• Drink caffeine and alcohol in moderation
• Don’t smoke
• Get regular exercise
• Eat a balanced diet that’s high in fibre. Women should aim to get 25 grams of fibre daily and men should get 32 grams.

What is God asking me to do as a result of the insights of this Session?

  1. Continue regular fasting program and drink plenty of water. For example, doing 14-day water fasting quarterly.
  2. Continue with my regular exercise so I slim down my stomach waistline and eat light foods.
  3. Add acidophilus to my vitamins and minerals regimen so that my intestines are filled with friendly flora, providing an acid bowel environment.

Health Article – 9: Superfoods to Boost Cognitive Abilities (or Brain Power)

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Having learnt about what superfoods could do in restoring my health, I began to research into which superfoods could help in boosting our daughter’s cognitive abilities who was born more or less with cerebral palsy and grew up mentally challenged.  These findings will also help everyone with lifestyle and poor food habits that could lead to degenerative diseases, keeping away unwelcome conditions like Alzheimer and Parkinson’s in older years which afflicts many in the society. The following sources of reference are acknowledged:

1. HuffPost Healthy Living

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/23/brain-food-superfoods_n_1895328.html)

2. www.bbcgoodfood.comby Jo Lewin, Associate Nutritionist

(http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/10-foods-boost-your-brainpower)

3. WEB MD

(www. http://www.webmd.com/diet/eat-smart-healthier-brain)

First from HuffPost Healthy Living:

1. Walnuts

Walnuts are chock-full of heart-healthy and anti-inflammatory nutrients, and are the only good nut source of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), That means they help promote blood flow, which in turn allows for efficient delivery of oxygen to the brain.

2. Olive Oil

Olive oil is a great source of monounsaturated fats, which have been shown to actually slow brain aging.

3.  Berries

Animal studies have long indicated a link between berry consumption and brain health. But a recent study published in the Annals of Neurology found that a diet high in blueberries, strawberries and others were linked to a slower mental decline in areas like memory and focus in a large sample of middle-aged women, reportedTIME‘s Alice Park.

4. Sardines

Fatty fish like sardines (and salmon!) are a well-known brain booster, thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, which have been linked to lower risk of dementia, improved focus and memory.

5. Coffee

Caffeine, the mild stimulant found in coffee, improves mental acuity. Aside from caffeine’s brain boosting effects, coffee’s antioxidant richness helps maintain brain health. And some research suggests that drinking coffee can actually stave off depression in women.

6. Spinach

Spinach is rich in the antioxidant lutein, which is thought to help protect against cognitive decline, according to researchers from Tufts University. And a longitudinal study at Harvard Medical School found that women who reported eating the most leafy green and cruciferous vegetables had a markedly lower rate of cognitive decline, compared to those who ate the least.

7. Chocolate

Antioxidant-rich dark chocolate is healthy for your whole body, but its caffeine content is thought to play a role in maintaining mental acuity. What’s more, chocolate is rich in flavonoids, a class of antioxidant that helps to improve blood flow (and thus brain health) by regulating cholesterol and lowering blood pressure.

8. Avocado

Avocados are full of monounsaturated fats that improve vascular health and blood flow, making them another brain food.

9. Water (e.g. natural spring water)

When a person becomes dehydrated, their brain tissue actually shrinks. And several studies have shown that dehydration can affect cognitive function. Dehydration can impair short-term memory, focus and decision making, according to Psychology Today.

10. Wheat Germ

Wheat germ is a rich vegetarian source of choline — a nutrient that is involved in the body’s production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that boosts memory, according to Shape. Eggs are another good choline source.

11. Beets

Beets are a good source of naturally-occurring nitrates, which help improve blood flow to the brain, according to Shape.

12. Garlic

Garlic may help stave off some forms of brain cancer, according to research published in Cancer, the medical journal of the American Cancer Society. Investigators found that the organo-sulfur compounds in garlic actually worked to kill glioblastoma cells — a type of malignant tumor cell.

Secondly,

From www.bbcgoodfood.com, their suggestions corroborate what HuffPost suggests:

1. Opt for wholegrains

Like everything else in your body, the brain cannot work without energy. The ability to concentrate and focus comes from the adequate, steady supply of energy – in the form of glucose in our blood to the brain. Achieve this by choosing wholegrains with a low-GI, which release glucose slowly into the bloodstream, keeping you mentally alert throughout the day. Opt for ‘brown’ cereals, wheatbran, granary bread and brown pasta.

2. Eat Oily Fish

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) cannot be made by the body and must be obtained through diet. The most effective omega-3 fats occur naturally in oily fish as EPA and DHA. Good sources include linseed (flaxseed) oil, soya bean oil, pumpkin seeds, walnut oil and soya beans. They are good for healthy brain function, the heart, joints and general wellbeing. Oily fish contains EPA and DHA in a ready-made form, which enables the body to use it easily. The main sources of oily fish include salmon, trout, mackerel, herring, sardines, pilchards and kippers. Low DHA levels have been linked to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss.

3. Binge on blueberries

Evidence accumulated at Tufts University in the United States suggests that the consumption of blueberries may be effective in improving or delaying short term memory loss. Widely available, so there’s no excuse.

4. Eat more tomatoes

There is good evidence to suggest that lycopene, a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes, could help protect against the kind of free radical damage to cells which occurs in the development of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s.

 5. Add vitality with vitamins

Certain B vitamins – B6, B12 and folic acid – are known to reduce levels of homocysteine in the blood. Elevated levels of homocysteine are associated with increased risk of stroke, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. A study of a group of elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment found that after two years of intervention with high doses of B6, B12 and folic acid there was significantly less brain shrinkage compared to a subset given placebo treatment.
 

6. Get a blackcurrant boost

Vitamin C has long been thought to have the power to increase mental agility. One of the best sources of this vital vitamin are blackcurrants.

7. Pick up pumpkin seeds

Just a handful of pumpkin seeds a day is all you need to get your recommended daily amount of zinc, vital for enhancing memory and thinking skills.

8. Bet on broccoli

A great source of vitamin K, which is known to enhance cognitive function and improve brainpower.


9. Sprinkle on sage

Sage has long had a reputation for improving memory and although most studies focus on sage as an essential oil, it could be worth adding fresh sage to your diet too.

10. Go nuts

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that a good intake of vitamin E might help to prevent cognitive decline, particularly in the elderly. Nuts are a great source of vitamin E along with leafy green vegetables, asparagus, olives, seeds, eggs, brown rice and wholegrains.

Thirdly,

WEB MD adds that everyone should Eat Smart for a Healthier Brain.

(www. http://www.webmd.com/diet/eat-smart-healthier-brain)

Wild salmon. Deep-water fish, such as salmon, are rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are essential for brain function, says Kulze. Both she and Pratt recommend wild salmon for its “cleanliness” and the fact that it is in plentiful supply. Omega-3s also contain anti-inflammatory substances. Other oily fish that provide the benefits of omega-3s are sardines and herring, says Kulze; she recommends a 4-ounce serving, two to three times a week.

Nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are good sources of vitamin E, says Pratt, explaining that higher levels of vitamin E correspond with less cognitive decline as you get older. Add an ounce a day of walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, filberts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed, and unhydrogenated nut butters such as peanut butter, almond butter, and tahini. Raw or roasted doesn’t matter, although if you’re on a sodium-restricted diet, buy unsalted nuts.

Avocados. Avocados are almost as good as blueberries in promoting brain health, says Pratt. “I don’t think the avocado gets its due,” agrees Kulze. True, the avocado is a fatty fruit, but, says Kulze, it’s a monounsaturated fat, which contributes to healthy blood flow. “And healthy blood flow means a healthy brain,” she says. Avocados also lower blood pressure, says Pratt, and as hypertension is a risk factor for the decline in cognitive abilities, a lower blood pressure should promote brain health. Avocados are high in calories, however, so Kulze suggests adding just 1/4 to 1/2 of an avocado to one daily meal as a side dish.

Vitamins and Minerals for more Brain Power

Most of the foods, minerals and vitamins have been discussed in this article and in earlier ones. And I have already tried some vitamins in the past on long term therapeutic bases. The superfoods and minerals I take will be very helpful my the family. Other specific choices will be discussed in future articles, The healing Value of Vitamins, Enzymes, Antioxidants and Herbs.

Answer to the following questions concerning the food we Eat

Q1 What is your view on the processed food or chemical food which we find in our stores? Has it changed as a result of this lesson? Will it change your shopping habits in any way? If so, how?

Processed foods in the stores are certainly not as healthy as fresh foods. They are all dead food including the fruits and vegetables. The shelf life of the products further degrades them so that when we take them they at best sustain life (at a poor level) but do not nourish our bodies to make us feel vitalized..

Q2 Do you think there is a place for adding superfoods to one’s diet if they cannot eat natural unprocessed foods?

Superfoods in form of vitamins and nutrients are appropriate as a substitute for those who because of their lifestyle or preference cannot take the time to prepare for themselves home natural foods. As for the various vegetables and fruits that are generally classified as superfoods, this has been adequately covered in the body of this and previous lessons.

Q3 Will your lifestyle allow you to go back to natural foods or would you prefer adding superfoods, vitamins and antioxidants and herbs to your diets. Which is more workable with your life and schedule?

My lifestyle allows me to prepare natural foods. I am also adding superfoods, vitamins and antioxidant herbs to get the best of both worlds.