We all know which foods we do best to avoid (right?). Despite the alluring appeal of Oreos, Mountain Dew or McAnything, processed foods provide little nutrition and a whole lot of risks. But when it comes to the good stuff—what are the best foods to put into our bodies? While experts all agree we need a variety of foods for a healthy diet, do you know which are the healthiest of the bunch? The answers may surprise and delight you. 1. Spirulina: While the thought of eating lake algae might gross you out, spirulina is actually pretty tasty, especially blended into a smoothie or hidden in a chocolate bar. It has more antioxidants than any other food on earth and is loaded with protein and minerals making it the most nutrient dense food. 2. Kale: According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, kale is the most nutritious food, loaded with minerals, vitamins, fiber and amino acids, as well as important antioxidants that reduce inflammation and can prevent cancer. It's also delicious and an easy to prepare, versatile food. 3. Hemp Seeds: What do you get when you combine protein, fiber, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals? Hemp, of course. This easily digestible seed is versatile, easy to use and extremely tasty, too. 4. Chocolate: Yes, you read right. Cacao beans are so nutrient-dense that scientists haven't even begun to identify all the benefits in the little bean yet. Don't grab a Snickers though—the good stuff is found only in raw cacao beans or nibs (or really, really dark chocolate). Minerals, vitamins and tons of antioxidants are great for your heart, skin, and release chemicals in the brain that make you feel like you're in love. 5. Broccoli: Mom was right, you should eat your broccoli if you want a healthy digestive system and to decrease your risk of cancer. Broccoli has a wide range of yumminess too, from soups and stews to stir fry. 6. Spinach: Popeye was onto something with that spinach fixation. But skip the canned stuff and stick with fresh or frozen for an antioxidant, protein and fiber-rich burst of healthy goodness. Fresh or cooked, spinach's sweet and hardy flavor brightens any meal. 7. Chia: The Aztec warriors may have died out, but their legacy is alive and strong in the chia seed. This yummy, unassuming ancient favorite is loaded with omega fats, protein and fiber. Dr. Weil says it's a better choice than flax because "chia is so rich in antioxidants that the seeds don't deteriorate and can be stored for long periods without becoming rancid." 8. Berries: Unlike other fruit, berries tend to be less sugary and full of vital vitamins, minerals and those free-radical avenging antioxidants. Wild berries are always a great choice, especially black raspberries. Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger Sources: http://www.superfoodsforlife.com/site/531699/page/103407 http://www.dwlz.com/HealthyLife/healthy50.html http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article13.aspx http://www.happyhealthylonglife.com/happy_healthy_long_life/andi-scale-aggregate-nutrient-density-index.html http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA365093/Chia-for-Health.html Image: USACE Europe District

We often discuss how effective plants can be at supporting and gently bringing human beings back to a state of "wellness" (meaning that resiliency, vibrancy, passion are maximized). I've spent a lot of time exploring how this happens, reading through the historical record and perusing modern research, and on balance it seems pretty clear that medicinal herbs, trees, mushrooms and more are good at helping folks in need. But that's not what I want to discuss today.

Rather, I'd like to posit the idea that working intimately with the botanical world alters our lives in ways that transcend individual health. Of course, this is not a surprising idea: reality mirrors itself, and the skin is barely more than an illusory boundary. Nevertheless, as a person whose life was redirected, and perhaps saved, by trees and herbs, I want to share three ways in which these allies can have powerful effects beyond the individual.

First, the people. Herbalists, gardeners, and other plant folk are consistently the most cooperative and compassionate people with whom I've had the pleasure of working. They share knowledge freely, contributing to a vibrant living oral (and now digital) tradition. They are often excellent communicators, speaking easily in language of metaphor and myth, forest and field. Even the most "beginning" herbalists have taught me amazing lessons and come up with amazing insights - which is why I avoid ranking plant people based on experience, training, or whatever else. Nature's gifts aren't reserved for the well-learned - and those of us who have spent a lot of time studying may find that, in the end, we return to the simple source of life for lasting truth, and books fall away in the light of the green world. This engenders gratitude, and may be the reason plant people are generally gentle, compassionate, and giving. They are often amazingly creative, too - coming up with new pictures, herbal formulae, and solutions where science falls short. I don't mean to disparage any way of "knowing", as all ways are necessary. I simply feel that knowing through plants is so very beautiful, and makes its people beautiful, too.

Next, herbal medicine has a way of reconnecting our species to nature. Clearly a no-brainer: we get outside more, we tend to eat differently, we appreciate a woodland walk differently when we have an intimate knowledge of the green folk living all around us. This gets into our heads slowly, insidiously, and deliciously. Before we know it, we may find ourselves kneeling on a city sidewalk looking at plantain (the horror)! But I feel like the gift of reconnecting to nature that herbal medicine offers us is most clearly evident in what happens when nature and wild plants are removed from human life: this is what, in Western culture, we've been working on for a few hundred years. The results are dramatic: epidemics of chronic disease affect the population, not because of the rise technological medicine, but because of a removal of traditional medicine! Additionally, to support homogenized, un-wild, unchallenging food systems we are also creating epidemics of chronic disease in the environment: new chemical signals that affect fertility, waste material that alters climate and ecosystem balance, disorganized living arrangements that sprawl over the landscape. I may be overly optimistic, but I believe that we don't need to remove technology to fix these issues: we simply need to bring plants back in to daily life. Once we develop the botanical habit, herbs begin to mess with our heads (where we all too often live). As we lose our heads, we save our spirit - and spirit being all-encompassing and transcending the human species, we participate in a more sustainable dance with the rest of nature.

Which leads me to my final point of appreciation for herbal medicine: mystery. Anyone who has seen a plant effect a cure knows that there is something magical about this process, as it may never be able to be replicated again. The herbalist, plant, and client have somehow managed to work together, in that one timeless moment, and the feeling all (plant included!) are left with is similar to what you feel when you run in to a random friend in a random place at just the right moment. It is synchronicity beyond coincidence, and we glimpse for an instant what it is like to be the immortal Universe. A healing modality that respects and welcomes mystery is my kind of medicine: because in the end, no matter how much we dress it up or understand its details, a human physiology brought back in to balance always reveals an awe-inspiring mystery. All good scientists know this. Einsten, for instance, tells us:

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

I have great faith in the power of herbal medicine to heal not only people, but also culture, species, and ecology. It's really pretty simple: we really need plants in our lives. Even only a little bit. And once their green tendrils begin to grow in our hearts, like the first pea vines of spring, there is no turning back. Thank goodness - thank greenness.

In gratitude, I leave you with the words of Peter Conway, English herbalist, philosopher, and erstwhile humorist.

The future of herbal medicine is the past of herbal medicine - self care & psychedelics - serious...

Posted by Guido Masé at 8:39 AM 

source: http://aradicle.blogspot.com.br/2011/11/plant-medicine-heals-more-than-just.html?spref=fb

sour

Fotos do mural

LEIA COM ATENÇÃO

suco de limão + bicarbonato (importante)

Tomar limonada como ...água todos os dias, acrescentando uma colherinha
de bicabornato é melhor.
O Limão (Citrus limonun Risso, Citrus limon (L.) Burm., Citrus
medica) é um produto milagroso para matar as células cancerosas. É
10.000 vezes mais forte do que a quimioterapia.
Por que isto não é divulgado?
Porque há organizações interessadas em encontrar uma versão
sintética que lhes permita obter lucros fabusosos. Mas, a partir de
agora você pode ajudar um amigo que precise informando-lhe que deve
beber suco de limão com bicabornato de sódio para prevenir a
doença. Seu sabor é agradável. E, é claro, não produz os efeitos
terríveis da quimioterapia. E se você tiver lugar plante um pé de
limão no seu quintal ou jardim. Todas as partes da árvore são
úteis.
A próxima vez que você quiser beber um suco, peça ou faça-o de
limão natural, sem conservantes.
Quantas pessoas morrem, enquanto este segredo tem sido bem
guardado só para não colocar em risco as utilidades multi bilionárias de grandes corporações?
Como você bem sabe o limoeiro é uma árvore pequena e baixa. Não
ocupa muito espaço. É conhecido pelo nome de limoeiro, pé de
limão, lima (em alguns lugares), llimona (cat) limoiaritz (eusk).
É uma fruta cítrica que vem em diferentes formas. Sua polpa pode
ser consumida diretamente ou é usada normalmente para fazer bebidas,
sorvetes, doces e assim por diante.
O interesse desta planta é devido a seus fortes efeitos
anti-cancerígenos. E embora lhe sejam atribuidas muitas outras
propriedades, o mais interessante sobre ele é o efeito que produz
sobre os cistos e tumores. Esta planta é um remédio comprovado
contra o câncer de todos os tiós e o bicabornato vai mudar o Ph do
seu organismo. alguns dizem que é de grande utilidade em todas as
formas de câncer.
É considerado também como um agente anti-microbiano de amplo
espectro contra infecções bacterianas e fungos que vivem em lugares
ácidos. Acrescentando bicarbonato de sódio em sua limonada você
altera o Ph do seu organismo; é eficaz contra parasitas internos e
vermes, regula a pressão arterial elevada e é antidepressivo,
combate a tensão e os distúrbios nervosos.
A fonte desta informação é fascinante: ela vem de um dos maiores
fabricantes de remédios do mundo, que afirma que depois de mais de 20
testes de laboratório realizados desde 1970, ficou provado que o
extrato:
1 - Destroi as células malignas em 12 tipos de câncer,
incluindo câncer de cólon, de mama, de próstata, de pulmão e do pâncreas ...
2 - Os compostos desta árvore mostraram atuar 10.000 vezes melhor, retardando o
crescimento das células cancerosas do que a adriamicina, uma droga quimioterápica,
normalmente utilizada no mundo.
3 - E o que é ainda mais surpreendente: este tipo de terapia, com o
extrato do limão e bicabornato, destrói apenas as células malignas do câncer e não
afeta as células saudáveis.
Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, L.L.C. 819 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 1201