Bored with bananas?  Aggravated with apples?  Grumbling about grapes?  Me too. But if you’re like me you discipline yourself to stay healthy.  Is it any wonder most people have trouble sticking with a healthy diet?  Well I have some hope for you my friends.  Below are some alternatives to the old fruit standards to rejuvenate your palate while maintaining your healthy lifestyle.

What was Beethoven’s favorite fruit? Banananaaaas!  (That joke is better told out loud where the punch line can be sung to the tune of Beethoven’s 5^th.)  But, I think even he would get sick of them after a while… although in truth I’m not sure how plentiful bananas were in 19^th century Germany.  Anyway, bananas are not only a staple in every blended smoothie but essential for the maintenance of good blood pressure.  Nonetheless too many bananas can make anyone go “blah!”.  As an alternative, try fresh figs (no not in your smoothie).    Six fresh figs have 891 mg of blood pressure-lowering potassium, nearly 20% of your daily need — about double what you’d find in one large banana. In a recent 5-year study from the Netherlands, high-potassium diets were linked with lower rates of death from all causes in healthy adults age 55 and older.  Figs are also one of the best fruit sources of calcium, with nearly as much per serving as ½ cup of fat-free milk! You’re bones will love you for it.

Interested in fighting disease and protecting your heart but gagging on grapes?  Try lychee.  A French study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that lychee has the second-highest level of heart-healthy polyphenols of all fruits tested — nearly 15% more than the amount found in grapes. The compounds may also play an important role in the prevention of degenerative diseases such as cancer. “Polyphenols act like a force field, helping to repel foreign invaders from damaging your cells,” says David Grotto, RD, author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life!  As well, a recent test-tube and animal study from Sichuan University in China found that lychee may help to prevent the formation of breast cancer cells, thanks to the fruit’s powerful antioxidant activity.

Everyone wants great skin but who could eat so many oranges.  Not me, so I maintain my glow with guava.  One cup of guava has nearly five times as much skin-healing vitamin C (it’s a key ingredient in collagen production) as a medium orange (377 mg versus 83 mg) — that’s more than five times your daily need. Women who eat a lot of vitamin C-packed foods have fewer wrinkles than women who don’t eat many, according to a recent study that tracked the diets of more than 4,000 American women ages 40 to 74.  Guava can also protect against foodborne pathogens such as Listeria and Staph, according to research by microbiologists in Bangladesh. As well, a cooperative study by the USDA and Thai scientists found that guava has as much antioxidant activity as some well-known superfoods like blueberries and broccoli.

Apples are great at lowering cholesterol but terrible if you want to stay in the Garden of Eden.  So why not avoid the snake and eat asian pears.  One large Asian pear has nearly 10g of cholesterol-lowering fiber, about 40% of your daily need; a large apple has about half that much. People who ate the most fiber had the lowest total and “bad” cholesterol levels, according to a recent study of Baltimore adults.  The same researchers found that people who ate the most fiber also weighed the least and had the lowest body mass index and waist circumference.

Now I don’t want cancer but I also don’t want any more watermelon for crying out loud.  Now papaya’s have a weird seed thing going on too but it’s still one of the top sources of beta-crypoxanthin, which research suggests can protect against lung cancer. Like watermelon, it is also a rich source of lycopene which, research shows, protects against several different types of cancer, including stomach, endometrial, and prostate.  Papayas also promote healing.  When used topically it may help speed burn recovery thanks partly to the enzyme papain, which also aids in digestion. “Papain helps break down amino acids, the building blocks of protein,” says Elisa Zied, RD, an American Dietetic Association spokesperson.

So there you have it, variety in the world of fruit mundanity.  Remember, most of these alternatives can also be juiced or blended so there’s no more excuses.

Be Well,

Juicy Josh

877MyJuicer.com

Oh how delightfully blissful we live when we’re in good health, taking care to eat right, exercise, and generally stay on top of our well being.  That’s why it’s so darn frustrating to be stopped in our tracks by that pesky and pervasive virus known as the common cold.  Now I’m somewhat of a health nut…  I say somewhat because I do, on occasion, indulge and compared to some like my dear Aunt and Mother I’m a lightweight when it comes to healthy diet and prevention.  However, I go to great lengths to keep my immune system in tip top shape.  So wasn’t I surprised when those sniffles that I at first believed to be allergies mutated into a full fledged, knock me on my tuchus cold.  Now over the holiday week I’d been on 3 airplanes, mingled with a variety of friends and family and gone through a pretty major temperature drop so I should have boned up on my vitamin C but what I want to talk about in this article is what to do in a healthy way to knock these things out as quickly as possible.

To start I want to promote the product Wellness Formula by Source Naturals (which we don’t even sell so there’s no ulterior motive here).  To go through the list of the 40 immune boosting ingredients would take too much space but this stuff is essential for daily immune system maintenance and when you first feel those symptoms, this herbal supplement can stave off the worst of it fast.  Unfortunately, because I thought it was allergies (and possibly because my giant ego told me there was no way I was getting sick) I failed to start in time but it’s been three days and I’m worlds from where I was Tuesday morning.

Once you’ve got a cold it is recommended you get as much Vitamin C as possible; 5,000 milligrams or more a day.  Find a good supplement but also, because liquids are so important as well consider a lot of fresh grapefruit or orange juice.  Grapefruit is recommended because in addition to the high vitamin C content it helps detoxify the liver.  When taking such high doses you can sometimes get diarrhea so use a calcium ascorbate powder form of vitamin C which is less irritating to the digestive tract.

Zinc is also very important.  A recent study has shown that cold-infected volunteers who sucked on a 23-milligram zinc gluconate lozenge every 2 hours had significantly shorter colds than cold-infected volunteers who sucked on a placebo. Other research has shown that lozenges made only with either zinc gluconate-glycine or zinc acetate shorten the duration of cold symptoms.

Hot fluids and lots of liquid are very important for knocking out a cold.  Because cold viruses grow and multiply when the temperature around them is around 90°F (which is roughly the bodies’ temperature without fever), they are far less comfortable and less likely to replicate so quickly when their environment heats up. Drinking hot fluids will warm your throat as well as impair viral replication and they also have a mild decongestant effect, which helps relieve nasal stuffiness. Taking herbal drinks such as ginger tea is doubly helpful because of their heating effect as well as the antiviral effect.  Soup is essential.  Now I’m sorry my vegetarian friends but chicken soup’s effect on combating a cold is no urban myth.  Studies have shown it works… but take heart, researcher’s suspect that the soup’s cold-fighting powers come not from the chicken but from the vegetables that are usually part of the stock.

Drinking lots of water and fruit and vegetable juice will help to flush toxic by-products out of the body as quickly and efficiently as possible but avoid things like tea and coffee that have diuretic (fluid-eliminating) properties.

Garlic (raw, juiced or supplements) has been used forever in combating and preventing colds.  Recent studies have shown that subjects taking supplements of allicin, the component of garlic considered to be the major biologically active agent produced by the plant, had a reduced risk of catching a cold by more than half.  Those who did catch a cold were more likely to make a speedier recovery and the chances of re-infection following a cold were significantly reduced.

Vitamin A is a nutrient vital to the mucous membranes throughout the respiratory system during a cold or flu. It can be taken in the form of beta carotene (carrot juice) which is a precursor of vitamin A, in higher dosages.

Some general rules to follow while sick: Avoid milk and other dairy products which have been shown in studies to trigger the release of histamine, a chemical that contributes to runny nose and nasal congestion which can make chest, sinus, and nasal congestion worse.  Avoid alcoholic drinks, as these are dehydrating and deplete the body of vitamin C while putting extra strain on the liver, which has to work extra hard to detoxify the body during illness anyway.  If you’re not hungry don’t feel obliged to eat, as long as you drink plenty. Foods should be as light and easily digestible as possible, with a strong emphasis on vegetable soups, broths, salads and lightly cooked fish or chicken.  Avoid high-fat, indigestible foods such as cheese, red meat and pastries.

Basically it’s important to eat a balanced diet. Take supplements as needed to ensure you are receiving the recommended dietary allowances for vitamin A, the vitamin B complex (vitamins Bl, B2, Bs, B6, folic acid), and vitamin C, as well as the minerals zinc and copper.

Be Well,

Juicy Josh

I got an email from a member of the Juicy Josh MySpace community earlier this week asking me what I had to do with OJ?  Strange question, I thought…  and not very nice.  Of course the whole thing was a big misunderstanding that we straightened out quickly.  But it got me thinking and I realized that I hadn’t really written anything about this wonderful fruit and its health benefits.  (I don’t really have much to say about the other OJ)  And away we go…

So every year around flu season we get the sniffles and run to the grocery store to slam as much of this stuff as possible because everybody knows it’s fights off colds and flu.  Most of us are aware that it’s choc full ‘o Vitamin C which is vital for a healthy immune system but that’s really just the beginning.  Let’s start there though.  Did you know that just one orange supplies 116.2% of the daily value for Vitamin C?  And not many know this but Vitamin C is the primary water-soluble antioxidant in the body, disarming free radicals and preventing damage in the aqueous environment both inside and outside cells. This, in a nutshell, means it helps fight cancer and inflammatory conditions like asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.  And because it destroys free radicals which oxidize cholesterol and make it stick to the artery walls, Vitamin C can help keep cholesterol low preventing heart attack or stroke.

So what else? Recent studies have shown that the healing properties of oranges is also associated with a wide variety of phytonutrient compounds, most importantly the flavanone molecule herperidin, which is shown to lower high blood pressure as well as cholesterol in animal studies, and to have strong anti-inflammatory properties.  Found primarily in the pulp and peel, this is just another reason to include these when you’re juicing (at least the pulp for God’s sake).

Several studies in the last few years have shown that a diet high in citrus fruit provides a statistically significant protective effect against several types of cancer as well as cardiovascular disease.  One US study even shows that one extra serving a day of citrus can reduce risk of stroke by 19%. This same report includes evidence of positive effects for arthritis, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, diabetes, gallstones, multiple sclerosis, cholera, gingivitis, optimal lung function, cataracts, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and obesity.

Compounds in citrus fruits, including oranges, called limonoids have been shown to help fight cancers of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon and to lower cholesterol.  A Compound called polymethoxylated flavones, found in the orange peel have been shown to lower cholesterol as effectively as Statin drugs.

Oranges are a great source of fiber, they’ve been shown to help prevent kidney stones, ulcers and stomach cancer and finally, it’s been shown that Vitamin C supplements don’t provide the same protective benefits as drinking a glass of orange juice.  In one researchers own words, “It appears that vitamin C is not the only chemical responsible for antioxidant protection.” In oranges, vitamin C is part of a matrix involving many beneficial phytochemicals, “But how they are interacting is still anyone’s guess,”

Sweet little balls of sunshine.

Be Well,

Juicy Josh