According to recent statistics the rising incidence of skin cancer is one of the main problems in United States. Considering that this condition appears to be becoming an epidemic, very critical is to develop new approaches to primary and secondary prevention. As consequences we can see many studies exploring the therapeutic value of natural ingredients and researches suggest that common fruit and vegetables extracts may have an important clinical benefits in lowering risk for skin cancer.

It is well-known that fruits and vegetables contain a variety of minerals and vitamins and other bioactive substances that include lutein, flavonoids, folic acid, vitamins C and E, and fiber. The folic acid has a key role in repair and synthesis of DNA, and all dark green leafy vegetables are very rich in it. So, new findings show with no doubt that higher intakes of green leafy vegetables may help prevent Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) tumors among patients who have prior skin cancers.

Another new finding is that pigment that gives certain fruits their dark red colors has an antioxidant activity higher than that of green tea and red wine. Researchers evaluated that pomegranate fruit extract (PFE) is capable of inhibiting conventional as well as new biomarkers of TPA-induced tumors and they may have chemopreventive action in a wide category of tumor models.

Anitta Viali is a freelance writer interested in issues such as a skin formula to avoid diseases.

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Many people see broccoli as nothing more than another green vegetable that they are supposed to consume as part of the eat five a day regieme.

Well people that is where you are wrong. Broccoli is not just another vegetable broccoli is in fact a super vegetable that can help fight against and prevent cancer. So lets look at broccoli a little closer.

Broccoli contains life-enhancing, health-enhancing phytochemicals that protect all ten of the body's healing zones and broccoli is also among the foods that are richest in these agents. Broccoli's phytochemicals help protect the body from Cancer, cardiovaascular disorders and premature aging but in this article we are focusing on Cancer.

Broccoli has been recognised as the number one vegetable by the National Cancer Institute and if you want to prevent your body from getting cancer it is suggested that one half cup of broccoli a day will do just that.

A half a cup of broccoli per day can provide the body with protection from various types of cancer including cancer of the oesophagus, lungs, larynx, stomach, colon, prostate and mouth. So what is the magic ingrediant? Sulforaphane, an antioxidant that works by bonding with toxins it encounters and then flushes these toxic substances from the body.

The antioxidants in broccoli also inactivate oestrogens that are known as 16 alphahydroxyestrone. These oestrogens promote cancer of the ovaries, breasts and cervix.

Broccoli also contains both the beta and alphacarotenes and this is what accounts for broccoli's ability to both resist and even help to reverse lung cancer and also slow the growth rate of tumours.

That's not all broccoli also contains high chlorophyll levels and this helps to block pre-cancerous cell mutations.

One serving of broccoli will also provide you with 125% more vitamin C than that of a glass of orange juice and together with the anticancer antioxidant beta-carotene broccoli helps to reduce the risk of respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tumours.

So as you can see broccoli really is the B when it comes to beating cancer. Don't you think it's time you started eating more broccoli.

Amanda Evans SNHS (Nutrition) is a qualified Nutritional Therapist and freelance writer. Amanda is also the webmaster of http://www.qualityfreelanceservice.squarespace.com a website dedicated to helping others achieve their dreams of becoming writers.

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1. Water. If you?re thirsty you?re already dehydrated. The majority of us don?t tend to drink enough during the day. If you drink a lot of tea and coffee to keep you going then these have a diuretic effect so you should be drinking water to compensate.

Have a glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night ? your body loses a lot of water while you?re asleep ? not only if it?s warm and you sweat a lot but just going 8 hours (if you?re so lucky) without food or drink it?s going to be dehydrated.

Dehydration can also be mistaken for hunger ? have a glass of water first before reaching for a snack or eating a meal.

2. Fruit & Veg. Fruit and vegetables provide you with vitamins, minerals and fibre to help keep your body healthy. Eat a piece of fruit or drink fresh juice for breakfast. Fresh berries on muesli or porridge or cereal. Have fruit as a snack during the day and salad and vegetables with your main meals.

If you can, buy organic and wash fruit and vegetables before eating unless your peeling them. Pesticide residues are more likely to remain on the skin and fruits such as apples are often treated in storage.

3. Avoid processed food. With the increased reliance on ready-prepared meals, take-aways and convenience food to save time there is an increase in the amount of processed food that people eat.

Before you buy that convenience meal ? check the label. How much sugar, salt, hydrogenated fat, E preservatives, colouring does it contain? Because it?s processed ? a lot of the flavour and goodness is lost and has to be added. Because it needs to survive transport, increased shelf-life and cooking fats and preservatives are added. And how much does it really cost. Cooking simple meals such as stir-fries and casseroles are just as convenient and so much better for you.

4. Fresh Juice. One great way to kick-start your day and gently wake up your digestive system is to have a fresh juice every morning. I don?t mean orange juice with your breakfast but fresh vegetable juices. Invest in a good juicer, buy local organic produce and find out how good fresh juice is.

An easy recipe you can have every day is one apple, one carrot (peeled), stick of celery, cube of ginger and thick slice of lemon (remove rind).

5. Fish. Eat fish at least once a week. It contains healthy Omega 3 oils, which are good for your joints, and nerves. Flax and hemp oils offer an alternative for non-fish eaters.

6. Eat regularly. Get into the habit of eating breakfast. Your body has been without food over night ? break the fast with a glass of fresh juice (see above) and then a healthy bowl of cereal, muesli or porridge (avoid those loaded with salt and sugar). Try to eat every 2-3 hours ? little and often ? to avoid your blood sugar levels fluctuating too much. Don?t eat a heavy meal late in the evening. Your body will naturally be slowing down at that time and food eaten late is more likely to be stored as fat.

7. Alcohol. There?s nothing wrong with the odd glass of wine, in fact these days it?s seen to be healthy for the anti-oxidants it contains. Excess alcohol causes your kidneys and liver to work overtime to rid the body of the toxins. Know your limits and drink water to help your body eliminate the toxins.

8. Sugar and Salt. These two ingredients are added to most processed food. They add flavour and act as a preservative but they can be present even in foods you don't expect or are labelled in ways that you don't recognise. Sugar is empty calories, in it's basic form it contains little nutritional value. Natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are all you need. Avoid adding sugar to food and drinks and avoid synthetic replacements. Watch your salt limits too.

9. Know what you?re eating. Be aware of the food that you?re putting in your body. Read the food labels if you buy tinned, processed produce to be aware of how much salt, sugar and fat is in the food you buy. Buy organic meat whenever possible to avoid the steroids, hormones and anti-biotics that are in factory farmed meat. Know how much sugar, salt and fat you should be eating.

10. Balanced diet. One of the most important ways to improve your eating habits is to have a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole food, fish and meat, nuts and seeds. Everything in moderation. Keep fatty and sugary foods low but if you enjoy chocolate, cakes and curries there?s nothing wrong with having one once in a while.

If you?d like help in putting some structure in place to organise your health ? contact me through my website.

Clare Evans ? Do more of what you want, less of what you don?t.
http://www.clareevans.co.uk.

Clare is a Personal and Business Coach who works with individuals and small business owners to help them organise their time more effectively and create a better work life balance - enabling them to spend more time doing what they want and less time doing what they don't.

Contact me today to find out how to create balance in your life.
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Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances.

First research reports suggest that eating high-ORAC fruits and vegetables?such as spinach and blueberries?may help slow the aging processes in both body and brain.

ARS Administrator, Floyd P. Horn, states, ?If these findings are borne out in further research, young and middle-aged people may be able to reduce risk of diseases of aging?including senility?simply by adding high-ORAC foods to their diets.?

The studies revealed high-ORAC foods:

?Raised the antioxidant power of human blood 10 to 25 percent
?Prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats
?Maintained the ability of brain cells in middle-aged rats to respond to a chemical stimulus--a function that normally decreases with age
?Protected rats' tiny blood vessels--capillaries--against oxygen damage

The health community has long held the thesis that oxidative damage culminates in many of the maladies of aging. The evidence has stimulated sales of antioxidant vitamins. However, the early studies have mixed results.

Nutritionist Ronald L. Prior posits, If we can show some relationship between ORAC intake and health outcome in people, I think we may reach a point where the ORAC value will become a new standard for good antioxidant protection.

In a second study, men and women had a 13- to 15-percent increase in the antioxidant power of their blood after doubling their daily fruit and vegetable intake compared to what they consumed before the study. Just doubling intake, without regard to ORAC scores of the fruits and vegetables, more than doubled the number of ORAC units the volunteers consumed, Prior said.

While the research jury is still weighing the evidence, one company has hit the market place with a product, few can resist. Xo?ai? has capitalized on the natural antioxidant properties of chocolate and combined it with Blueberries and Acai. Acai is a plant with the highest antioxidant rated fruit on earth.

This product is ?a dream come true? for chocolate lovers everywhere. Xo?ai? blends the world's best antioxidant ingredients into a delicious dark chocolate beverage, rich dark chocolate nugget, and health-packed chocolate protein bar. They are truly unique! Xo?ai? claims a 3,120 ORAC per 12 oz. nugget of dark chocolate. Each Xo?ai? protein bar contains an astonishing 4,066 ORAC units! And because Xo?ai? is made from whole, natural foods, its antioxidants are in a form your body can easily absorb and use. (ORAC tests conducted by the USDA and Brunswick Laboratories.).

This product seems like the ideal way to ?Have your cake (candy) and eat it too,? with healthy benefits of antioxidants and satisfying the chocolate lover?s palate.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, author, international speaker and inspiration leader specializes in: Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Physical/Sexual Abuse Prevention and Recovery. Dr. Neddermeyer empowers people to view life's challenges as an opportunity for Personal/Professional Growth and Spiritual Awakening. http://www.drdorothy.net

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While it is common to see scientific studies on how health can be improved by using certain, particular supplements of vitamins and minerals it is not the same for the real McCoy.

How true? Ask yourself and do a goggle search (or a PUB Med or any advanced search of scientific articles) about how many times you see a study--any study--on a particular fruit or vegetable that comes out proving some health improvement. Not a group, but a particular fruit or vegetable. And proof of health, not disease (this is an important distinction).

We are talking about real science here not just made up stuff from some science nut or health nut. And we are talking about real fruits and vegetables like a particular apple or broccoli as opposed to a group of fruits or vegetables. In other words we are talking about something very concrete and not at all abstract--this is where real scientific study comes in very handy: such study is not abstract or it is not science. And, importantly, if I can prove it and you cannot, it is not scientifically provable. Period.

How many? Which vegetable? Which fruit?

There are plenty of promoters of eating fresh fruits and vegetables and many of them provide solid credentials like the Harvard, Tufts, Eat 5 a day, and so on (for a really good goggle search try vegetables and health or fruits and health).

For example, the Harvard site cites the latest dietary guidelines that, call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one's caloric intake. For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4? cups per day. The citation for this is The USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is a helpful abstraction but not a particular guide to particular fruits and vegetables and how they can promote your health.

But most of what these prestigious institutions promote is air--no scientific studies demonstrating the health effects of a single fruit or vegetable could be found on the Harvard site, not one. True, it's nice air, but air nevertheless.

Now we are not talking about the genuine research on fruits and vegetables like this one listed in Pub Med, Electron beam and gamma irradiation effectively reduce Listeria monocytogenes populations on chopped romaine lettuce, (J Food Prot. 2006 Mar;69(3):570-4, for those who need to know) . This kind of research is not after the health promoting effects of eating, in this case, romaine lettuce. And it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Of course sites promoting the health benefits of eating of fruits and vegetables could be hiding the scientific studies and don't want to bother their visitors with all those numbers and scientific names for turnips or plums. Or farmers who grow the really good stuff and how to buy them.

I remember a study concerning folate and green leafy vegetables and some kids on an island in the South Pacific. The study, a genuine scientific study, had to be halted because the scientists found that the children in the study could not get enough folate for their diets from the fresh vegetables because the vegetables themselves were deficient. So the study stopped because, ethically, depriving the children's diet of this essential ingredient could hurt them--especially when the science proved the children would be deficient on a natural diet. So much for the health promoting benefits of this entire group of vegetables--and I have not seen another study to refute this single isolated, particular controlled scientific study on green leafy vegetable and exactly how they promote health in humans.

So how do you know if the fruits or vegetables you eat can really promote better health? Simple answer is you don't. But then again, if you stopped eating fruits and vegetables what would happen? Could be all those diseases they write about in Pub Med and cited by the Tufts nutritionists and become the cover story about our fat nation for Time Magazine: eat your fruits and veggies and stay healthy or until we know, for sure, something different.

Copyright 2006 Herbert E Dreyer

Herb Dreyer is the critically acclaimed artisan chef at Good Friends & Company, http://www.goodfriendsco.com , makers of fine American foods.

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