August 13, 2007

DID YOU KNOW for people concerned about colon health, a spicier diet just may be in order? According to research conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, antioxidants found in curry spices and onions can help shrink colon polyps and prevent them from becoming cancerous tumors. Hopkins researchers studied a group of patients, identified as being at high-risk of colon cancer, over the course of a six-month period. At the study's end, those patients who had consumed higher amounts of the compounds curcumin and quercetin – found in abundance in curry and onions – experienced an average reduction of 60% in the number of colon polyps. Researchers called for larger-scale studies of curcumin and quercetin.(LifeScript)

AND power up your mac and cheese by stirring in a cup of chopped steamed broccoli. When you eat cruciferous vegetables -- such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and brussels sprouts -- your body produces a chemical compound called 3,3'-diindolylmethane that inhibits prostate-cancer cell growth by up to 70 percent, according to Leonard Bjeldanes, Ph.D., a professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology at the University of California at Berkeley. "I eat a large serving of them three to five times a week," he says. You should, too.(Men's Health)

NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE ABOVE try to be selective as to what and how much you eat. Not only limit fat carrying foods, but try to introduce good, nutricious foods into your daily eating. Also keep in mind that regular exercise inhibits or even reverses many of the declines commonly associated with aging. A long-term regimen of three to five brisk 30-minute walks each week, for instance, may not only add years to your life, but also adds life to those years as the "good" food you eat is the "good fuel" for those years.

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