Doctor Opens “Farmacy” to use Food as Medicine

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We are beginning to reconnect with the knowledge of plant based, whole food as medicine was neglected with the onset of big pharma. Dr. Robert Weiss believes that a change is coming in the way we approach medicine and health. He states that plant-based whole foods are more powerful as disease-modifying tools than any drugs or surgeries. Weiss, a doctor of 25 years in Hudson County, has sold his practice in New York for quite a long time. He has been researching how food can be used as a medicine and has established the first farm-based medical practice in Long Valley, New Jersey. The 348-acre farm can be referred to as “farmacy,” since it is a place where the doctor explores and utilizes plant-based “food as medicine.”

Plant Based, Whole Food as Medicine

food as medicine broccoliResearch on plant-based medicine has taken a back seat, yet billions are being spent on the production of synthetic chemicals to treat the symptoms of diseases; this happens despite the fact that ancient history has already known the potential of plant-based medicine. A substantial amount of money can be saved by prioritizing a proper diet comprising of seeds, grains, beans, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. It’s interesting to note that a strict diet regimen can also be used to treat those already afflicted with ailments. This doesn’t mean that when one breaks an ankle, they can fix it by salve of mugwort on it. They will definitely need someone to fix it. The issue here is that a proper diet can be used to prevent and treat chronic diseases – the cancers, the cardiovascular diseases, the strokes, the heart attacks, etc. – the illnesses that are destroying people’s lives.

Fruits and Vegetables Combat Inflammation

apple treesDr. Weiss says that the nutrients in vegetables and fruits prevent inflammation, which is the cause of many chronic diseases, or so it is believed. A recent study from Dr. Mark Kindy at the Medical University of South Carolina showed that inflammation was reduced with a concentrated fruit and vegetable powder called GrandFusion®.  Weiss believes a plant-based diet can help us reduce the reliance on pharmaceutical drugs that are dangerous and are known to bring on a host of negative side-effects. He also strives to avoid, where possible, unnecessary surgeries that are painful and dangerous.

pineapples

 

 

The farmacy already has 90 families that volunteer time harvesting vegetables and picking weeds. The families pay a membership fee, and their goal is to get as many people as possible to be interested in their diet. The farmacy is then able to sustain itself and involve all the consumers in the food production. The doctor adds that there are studies that have shown working in the garden and making contact with soil bacteria can make one happier and smarter, by triggering the release of serotonin in the brains.

Article Inspired by www.cornucopia.org

 

Only 4% of Americans are Eating Enough Vegetables

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Americans are still not having enough vegetables despite the widely publicized benefits of eating them. According to a recent report released by the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, only 4 percent of Americans meet their daily required consumption of veggies. The National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance’s 2015 Report Card has given the marketing of vegetables an F grade while the consumption of vegetables among kids has received a D grade. Meaning most Americans are no healthier than an average school kid.

vegetables

People who eat fruits and vegetables as part of their daily diet have a reduced risk of many chronic diseases. Health experts encourage people to make half their plate fruits and vegetables.  But even with the growing popularity of vegetable-inspired meals and veggie-forward restaurants, people still don’t consume enough vegetables at home. The Alliance’s 2015 Report Card says that the problem is moving from bad to worse. During the past five years, the average consumption of veggies declined by 6 percent.

Fruits and Vegetables are Important for Health

Veggies are a vital part of healthy eating and provide a source of many nutrients, including folate (folic acid), fiber, potassium, and vitamins A, E and C. Garlic, tomatoes, spinach, and broccoli are superfoods because they provide additional benefits. Potassium helps to maintain healthy blood pressure while fiber in vegetables contributes to lower risk of heart disease and reduces blood cholesterol levels. Folate (folic acid) on the other hand helps the body form healthy red blood cells.

kid's healthBut why are Americans not eating enough veggies? The Alliance’s report offers some reasons as to why. First, it says that dinner looks different these days with the growing popularity of one-dish meals and convenience items such as sandwiches and pizzas. These have pushed the vegetable side off the plate. Secondly, when it comes to preparing meals at home, parents are not as strict on making sure their kids have enough fruits and veggies. “Parents don’t want to make tailored meals for everyone at home and be line cooks” explains Elizabeth Pivonka, the CEO and president of the Produce for Better Health Foundation, and a registered dietitian. About 35 percent of parents view getting their kids to eat veggies as a battle, just behind getting them to stop bickering and to clean their room.

The National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance has developed a plan that will increase accessibility of vegetables in schools, communities, on menus and worksites. The organization will promote efforts that will give people the motivation and nutrition education to eat more veggies.

NutriFusion® Can Increase Daily Vegetable Consumption

We have consistently seen this problem in nutrition and healthy eating over the past 5 years. We developed our stabilized whole fruit and vegetable powders to help packaged food companies deliver better nutrition. Our formulas can give foods as much as 50% of the daily value of complex vitamins from vegetables. Our goal is to help children and adults eat healthier packaged foods made from natural ingredients like fruits and vegetables. If you are interested in learning more, please visit the consumer packaged food page.

Belly Fat is More Dangerous For Heart Than Obesity

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Do you consider yourself healthy? In the context of body fat most people will answer by their BMI, and if their BMI is normal, their response will be positive too. Recent research has proved that this is not the case. Even if you have a normal BMI, it doesn’t mean you are healthy and especially if you have fat residing in the middle of your body i.e. belly, it may prove more harmful than obesity.

In a 14-year long research study conducted by health scientists, it was found that men who have an average weight and BMI (body mass index) but carry fat around their bellies are twice as likely to die as compared to the obese men. The study proved that women are also affected by this harmful fat, but their numbers are slightly lower than men, i.e. women having belly fat are 32% more likely to die than their obese counterparts.

This is an alarming situation as normal BMI was considered as a standard measure for one’s health, but the recent research has proved otherwise. This leads us to the question, why is belly fat more dangerous than obesity?

Belly Fat, Not Obesity Is The Silent Killer

All fats do not behave alike. For instance, you need a layer of fat called subcutaneous fat to protect your vital organs from the external environment. The other bad kind of fat that we are talking about here is called visceral fat, and it encircles your organs. It does not just sit there; it secretes harmful toxins and chemicals that increase inflammation throughout your body. Due to its proximity to your heart, it severely affects your cardiovascular system.

Visceral fat secretes a chemical called Interleukin 6 which further increases the inflammation. Ultimately, the metabolism of your body is governed by excess body fats that affect adiponectin – a protein that regulates sugar levels and breaks down fatty acids. When the body doesn’t have enough of adiponectin, it tells the system to store more fat that leads to more and more accumulation of visceral fat and this vicious cycle continues. The body is overwhelmed with cholesterol that leads to building up of plaque in your arteries causing the arteries to clog. With the passage of time, the arteries narrow down further causing hindrance in blood transport, increasing blood pressure and ultimately leading to a fatal heart attack.

There is Hope…

Fortunately getting rid of visceral fat is very easy. The key is healthy diet complemented with exercise. A sound nutrition plan will help you to stop this toxic fat from increasing, and rigorous exercise will help you burn it. Having said that, this is the only option if you want to stay healthy because surgeries like liposuction are not an option for visceral fat. Health is a lifestyle change so get ready to set up a nutrition plan and workout. Your dedication will keep your belly trimmed and your heart happy.

Inspired by: USA Today

FDA Proposes Sugar Limits in New Nutritional Guidelines

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Sugar is the sweet poison in almost everything that we eat. When we eat an excessive amount of sugar every day, it not only adds extra inches to the waist but it is also slowly killing us. A recent study shows that a sugar loaded diet can be a source of a heart attack even if you are not overweight. Another study was carried out to see the drastic effects caused by sugar to a healthy person, and the results were disturbing. Over the span of the 15-year study, members who took in 25% or a greater amount of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as prone to death from heart failure as those whose eating habits included under 10% dose of sugar. In general, the odds of dying from coronary illness increased as the rate of sugar increased in the diet regardless of person’s age, gender, and physical activity level.

An average American citizen’s diet consisting of beverages including sodas and energy drinks. These beverages are one of the leading causes of extra sugar intake. Other sugar sources include cakes, baked goods, and pastries; ice-creams, solidified yogurt; sweets; and prepared-to-eat cereals. American researchers took the notice of this epidemic. Over the past ten years, they came to the conclusion that Americans are exceeding their sugar limits. Now the advocates are taking steps to ensure the health and safety of the American people.

F.D.A. Says Added Sugar Guidelines Must Change

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on July 24, 2015, passed a resolution that stated: in addition to the labeled nutrition facts; food packages should also contain a percentage daily value (%DV) for added sugar present in that item and should change the current footnote of the nutritional label. The percent daily value would specify how much of nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet and would help consumers make an educated decision for their and their families’ health. The initiated guideline is an adjunct to the March 3, 2014, proposed principle on overhauling the Nutrition Facts name, under which the FDA recommended that food companies incorporate included sugars on the Nutrition Facts label. The proposed policy did exclude the statement of the percent everyday value for added sugars.

The FDA’s initial proposal to include the amount of added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label is presently further upheld by recently reviewed studies recommending sound dietary examples, including lower measures of sugar-sweetened foods and drinks, are firmly connected with a decreased danger of cardiac disorders. In addition to providing sweetness to the foods and beverages, sugar only appends calories having no nutritional value. According to this enactment, the beverage companies are advised to restyle their nutritional fact chart posted on their bottles with details about the percent daily value listed for total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, calcium, and iron. The FDA also allowed community members to comment on the ruling for the next 75 days. The FDA has also created a survey to poll the current nutritional elements used by community members daily. Based on the comments received and the study conducted, they wanted to seek the community opinion before formally implementing the rule.

For The Full Article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/placing-a-cap-on-americans-consumption-of-added-sugar

NutriFusion® Natural Sweeteners From Fruits and Veggies

We have developed a wide variety of products for food and beverage manufacturers. Our products are made from fruits and vegetables. The secret to NutriFusion® is the stabilization of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Our proprietary formulas can withstand the heat and cold processing methods. Contact us today to learn more about NutriFusion®!

Nutrients from Fruits & Vegetables are Depleting

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Our food is losing its nutrition from vitamins and minerals. Modern intensive farming may have solved many of our malnutrition problems, but it has caused vitamin and mineral content to decrease. Why does this matter? The phytonutrients and micronutrients in fruits and vegetables are essential to a healthy diet.

Nutrients Research From 1950 to 2011

Fortunately for us, biochemists around the world have been keeping tabs on the nutrient concentrations in a variety of fruits and vegetables for the past 50 years. One of those biochemists is Donald Davis from the University of Texas. In 2011, Davis found notable declines in nutrient counts in several fruits and vegetables when comparing 2009 numbers to 1950 numbers. He found a 43% decline in iron and a 12% decline in calcium, which was in-line with his 1999 study where he found a 15 % decrease in vitamin C and a 38% decrease in vitamin B2.

Another study in 2005 revealed that vegetables lost a considerable amount of copper, magnesium and sodium; fruits dropped copper, iron, and potassium when compared to fruits and vegetables grown in the 1930s.

GMOs Pose Risks Around Nutrients Depletion

Recently, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published a study comparing organic and GMO growing methods. Their study found that organic apple growing methods produce nutrients with at least a 15% increase in antioxidant properties.

 

 

 

Davis and others blame agricultural practices that emphasise quantity over quality. High-yielding crops produce more food, more rapidly, but they can’t make or absorb nutrients at the same pace, so the nutrition is diluted. “It’s like taking a glass of orange juice and adding an equal amount of water to it. If you do that, the concentration of nutrients that was in the original juice is dropped by half,” says Davis.  (WakingTimes.com)

Of course, the research around nutrients depletion has caused some controversy. Many of the objectors claim that old methods of measuring nutrients do not offer a fair comparison of the most accurate methods of today. So, fruits and vegetables have lost trace elements of some vitamins and minerals, but we have drastically increased the supply and variety of our food.

Other Causes of Nutrients Depletion in Food

Photo: epa.gov

Photo: epa.gov

In 2014, a group of Harvard University researchers tested 41 different types of grains and legumes under CO2 levels that we are likely to experience over the next 40 to 60 years. They were able to show that most of the crops would see zinc and iron decrease between 5% – 10% in the future CO2 levels. It’s alarming to see these significant reductions in nutrients, which is truly the value of fruits and vegetables. However, climate change and CO2 are not the only things causing nutrient depletion.

Transportation and Distribution Problems

Many of the methods around transporting fruits and vegetables cause them to lose a lot their nutrients in the process. For example, tomatoes are picked unripe, so they don’t bruise easily, but they miss out on some antioxidants and flavor. Many times vegetables picked off the vine early lose valuable energy from the growing process.

The Bottom Line

In today’s fast-paced world of food processing, production, and transportation may be making food less nutritious, but it is supplying us with so much more food. Overall, we need to be eating more fruit and vegetables. Our company, NutriFusion, is dedicated to helping solving this problem. We want to help companies supply natural nutrients from fruits and vegetables in many of the foods that you already eat. If you are interested in learning more about NutriFusion and our process of stabilizing micronutrients and phytonutrients, please contact us below!

Full Article: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/10/22/fruits-and-vegetables-reaching-an-alarming-state-of-nutrient-depletion/

Infographic: The Benefits of Fruits & Vegetables

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Today’s blog post focuses on a great infographic from PrecisionNutrition about the powerful benefits of eating fruits & vegetables. The importance of phytonutrients is greatly underestimated. PrecisionNutrition does an incredible job at showcasing how different colors of fruits & vegetables contain special benefits. Read through the infographic to learn more.

 

Fruits & Vegetables

Infographic: PrecisionNutrition

 

Key Points From the Infographic

To Maximize Health, Eat 1 Cup Per Day of Each Color

  • “Color deficiencies” in phytonutrients increase our risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, diabetes, and more.

Green Fruits & Vegetables are Rich in These Phytonutrients

  • EGCG, isothiocyanate, lutein, zeaxanthin, isoflavones, flavonoids, coumestans

Red Fruits & Vegetables are Rich in These Phytonutrients

  • Lycopene, ellagic acid, caffeoylquinic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids

Yellow/Orange Fruits & Vegetables are Rich in These Phytonutrients

  • Alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, hesperetin, beta-cryptoxanthin, flavonols, terpenoids, phthalides

White Fruits & Vegetables are Rich in These Phytonutrients

  • Flavonols, allicin, quercetin, sulfides

Purple/Blue Fruits & Vegetables are Rich in These Phytonutrients

  • Anthocyanins, resveratrol, hydroxycinnamic acids

NutriFusion® Delivers Stabilized Phytonutrients

We all know that food processing causes a lot of challenges for manufacturers. Delivering natural nutrition through the process is very difficult. So, we developed NutriFusion® to help packaged and processed food manufacturers deliver whole fruit & vegetable nutrition through processing to the end product. Our patent pending method stabilizes the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients from fruits & vegetables through the entire food processing system. We have a variety of special blends called GrandFusion® that deliver on the different colors mentioned above. We can also create custom blends to meet your specific needs. Our ingredients come from non-GMO, organic produce. Click the button below to learn more about the science and research behind NutriFusion® .

USDA Fruit and Vegetable Program Stops Childhood Obesity

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In July of 2015, the University of Arkansas released the results from a new study on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. The program is intended to help elementary schools increase the amount of fruit and vegetables offered to students. The USDA believes this program can help our children overcome many of the challenges with childhood obesity.

University of Arkansas Research Study

U of A sampled elementary schools throughout their state once the FFVP began. They found that childhood obesity rates dropped from 20% to 17%. While it is early in the program, this is some of the first research to support the idea that fruit and vegetable consumption can lead to decreases in weight.

The study calculated that the fruit and vegetable program costs were about $50 to $75 per child per year to reduce the obesity rate by 3 percent. That’s a staggeringly small cost compared to the $280 to $339 per-student per-year cost of an effort to reduce childhood obesity by just 1 percent as estimated by other researchers in 2011.

“By this measure, our results suggest that the fresh fruit and vegetable program is a very cost-effective obesity prevention tool,” Nayga said. “Moreover, prevention of childhood obesity is in addition to the other nutritional benefits that come from increased fruit and vegetable consumption.”

Qian, Nayga, and Thomsen worked with Arkansas Center for Health Improvement research director Heather Rouse. Their work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute. The study was published in the June 2015 journal Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.

For the full article: Childhood Obesity Study

For more information: http://aaes.uark.edu

 

How Can NutriFusion® Help Tackle Childhood Obesity?

Our patent-pending process allows us to stabilize the vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables. NutriFusion® fruit and vegetable ingredients are being used to power the nutrition in a wide variety of packaged foods across the world. We believe our products can support the USDA’s program by being mixed in with a variety of beverages and foods at schools across the U.S. Our children wouldn’t have to sacrifice taste and would still get their daily value of natural vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables. Together, we can tackle childhood obesity.

Focus on Nutrition and Not Weight for Health

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In August of 2015, Medical News Today published a post on a study for improving your health through a focus on nutrition and not your weight. In our post, we reveal a few of the insights from the recent FASEB Journal research study.

If you are watching what you eat, working out, and still not seeing improvements in your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc., here’s some hope. A new report appearing in the August 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that inflammation induced by deficiencies in vitamins and minerals might be the culprits. In this report, researchers show that – in some people – improvement results in many of the major markers of health when nutritional deficiencies are corrected. Some even lost weight without a change in their diet or levels of activity.

“It is well known that habitual consumption of poor diets means increased risk of future disease, but clearly this is not a compelling enough reason for many to improve their eating habits,” said Bruce Ames, Ph.D., a senior scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, director of their Nutrition and Metabolism Center, and a professor emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “However, a relatively easy intervention with something like the nutrient bar used in this study may help people to realize the positive impact that a diet with adequate nutrition can have in their daily lives, which may be a stronger incentive for change.”

To make their Ames and colleagues undertook three clinical trials in which adults ate two nutrient bars each day for two months. Participants acted as their own controls, meaning that changes in a wide variety of biochemical (e.g., HDL-c, LDL-c, insulin) and physical (e.g., blood pressure, weight) measurements were recorded in each individual over the two-month period. People who were overweight/obese moved in a healthier metabolic direction (e.g., improved HDL, LDL, insulin, glucose, etc.), and some lost weight by just eating small, low-calorie, nutrient bars each day for two months, without any additional requirements.

NutriFusion® Can Make a Difference

lpfvAs seen in this study, nutrition is continually being connected to a healthy lifestyle. There are so many options and ideas of what nutrition means. For us, nutrition is natural. We have created a way to help packaged food companies deliver natural, non-GMO nutrition to their customers through our proprietary blends. Our products deliver natural, complete vitamins and minerals only from whole, organic fruits and vegetables. We are excited to be a part of the food revolution solving nutrition and obesity problems all over the world.