High blood pressure on the rise among young adults

Posted by Neill Abayon

Rates of high blood pressure have remained fairly steady over the past ten years in every category except one: young adults between the ages of 18 and 39. According to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), increasing numbers of young adults are developing high blood pressure, and more young people than ever are now taking blood pressure medication for the condition.

"[I] got upset when I first found out because I automatically associated it with people who are overweight or old," explained Kristen Pessalano, a 23-year-old woman with high blood pressure, in an ABC News article. "I would have never associated high blood pressure with someone my age, especially when I appeared to be totally healthy."

And there are likely millions of other young adults like Kristen who think they are safe just because of their age, without taking into account their dietary and lifestyle habits. The modern American diet is loaded with high levels of bad fat, processed sodium, highly-refined sweeteners, and artificial chemical additives, all of which contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Read the full article here.

Turn off the lights when you go to bed - Even dim light at night may trigger obesity

Posted by Neill Abayon

You are getting the same amount of exercise as always, you aren't taking in any more calories than usual and yet you keep on gaining weight. So you may be wondering what on earth is going on with your body. Maybe the question you should be asking yourself is this one: what lights are on in your bedroom at night? According to new research, persistent exposure to light at night may lead to weight gain, even without decreasing physical activity or eating more food.

The study, just published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved animals. However, the findings raise serious questions about whether the human body is also at risk from altered metabolism and weight gain from too much light exposure at night.

An Ohio State University research team found that mice exposed to a fairly dim light at night over about a two month period experienced a gain in body mass that was approximately 50 percent more than other mice who lived and slept in a normal light-dark cycle. "Although there were no differences in activity levels or daily consumption of food, the mice that lived with light at night were getting fatter than the others," Laura Fonken, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State who headed the study, said in a statement to the media.

Read the full article here.

Coconut nectar, coconut liquid aminos, coconut vinegar and coconut flour all come from coconut trees

Posted by Neill Abayon

I really find a lot of joy in bringing you some of the most unique and amazing natural food products from around the world, and this week I've got something so unusual and delightful that you'll be amazed it even exists. It turns out that coconut trees produce a lot more than just coconuts and coconut oil. A whole spectrum of surprising food ingredients are derived from coconut trees, and you've probably never heard of most of them.

For example, did you know that coconut trees produce their own soy sauce? It's not really made from soy, of course. It's called Coconut Aminos, and it's a dark, amino acid liquid harvested directly from coconut tree sap. Containing 17 naturally-occurring amino acids, this sap is combined with mineral-rich sea salt to create a soy-sauce-like "aminos" liquid that can help flavor salads, raw vegan dishes, sauces or even Chinese stir-fried cuisine.

Think of it as a natural replacement for soy sauce, but with a deeper and more complex taste. You've got to try this to believe that it really comes from coconut trees!

And there's another huge benefit, too: This "liquid aminos" product has absolutely no reactive MSG-like effects. That's rare because even in the natural products industry, there are amino acid products that contain a small amount of naturally-occurring glutamic acid that can have an MSG-like effect on those who are sensitive to it (like me). But the aminos from this coconut sap are completely unadulterated and non-hydrolyzed, so they remain in their natural form and have no negative effects on people sensitive to MSG. You can read more about this here:http://coconutsecret.com/Tappingthe...

Read the full entry here.

Drinking tea cuts risk of heart disease by one-third

Posted By Neill Abayon

Drinking several cups of tea or coffee daily appears to cut your risk of heart disease by more than one-third, Dutch researchers have found.

"It's basically a good news story for those who like tea and coffee," said lead researcher Yvonne van der Schouw. "These drinks appear to offer benefits for the heart without raising the risk of dying from anything else."

The study appeared in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers followed 40,000 healthy people for 13 years, then compared rates of heart disease with consumption of coffee and tea. They found that participants who drank between three and six cups of tea per day were 45 percent less likely to die from heart disease than those who drank less than a cup a day.

Drinking coffee or larger amounts of tea was also protective against death from heart disease, but not as strongly. People who drank more than six cups of tea a day reduced their risk by 36 percent compared with the low tea-drinking group, while those who drank between two and four cups of coffee daily reduced their risk by 20 percent compared with those who drank either more or less coffee. These effects remained after researchers adjusted for other heart disease risk factors, such as smoking and exercise level.

Read the full article here.

Blueberries halt hardening of the arteries

Posted by Neill Abayon

Atherosclerosis is a disease marked by plaque in the arteries. Made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood, plaque hardens overtime not unlike concrete -- and that narrows arteries and limits the flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. The result can be potentially fatal strokes and heart attacks.

But now, for the first time, scientists have direct evidence that a side-effect free natural substance exists that can help prevent these harmful atherosclerotic plaques from increasing in size and narrowing arteries. What is this powerful hardening of the arteries fighter? Blueberries.

Principal investigator Xianli Wu, who works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock and with the University of Arkansas Center for Medical Sciences, led the new study which was just reported in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Dr. Wu's research team compared the size of atherosclerotic lesions in 30 young laboratory mice with this form of heart disease. These animals were deficient in apolipoprotein-E (which helps regulate fats in the body), making them highly susceptible to forming atherosclerotic lesions.

Read the full article here.