GREEN SUPERFOODS have the best concentration of easily digestible nutrients, fat burning compounds, vitamins and minerals to protect and heal your body. They also contain a range of other substances including essential fatty acids and healthy bacteria which help your digestive system function more effectively and protect you against disease and illness. Please note that a rotation (or combination) of the grass juices is recommended for maximum health benefits.

CHLORELLA

SEA VEGETABLES contain more minerals than any other food source. These sea vegetables can contain up to ten times more calcium than milk and eight times as much iron as beef. There are three types – brown, red and green -according to how much exposure to light they have received.

ARAME Consists of brown stringy strands.

DULSE Red-purple colour with smooth flat leaves. No need to cook.

NORI Best known for being wrapped around sushi.

WAKAME Has a sweet flovour and you can use it in sandwiches instead of lettuce.

HIJIKI Black, firm and nutritionally rich but quite strong tasting. Soak for 20 minutes then rinse – you will only need a small amount as it swells up hugely.

KELP Available in powder or tablet form if you don’t like the idea of eating sea vegetables.

KOMBU Used for centuries as a flavour enhancer and food tenderizer and makes food more digestible.

QUINOA The Most Powerful Protein. Quinoa has more usable protein than meat, containing all the essential amino acids: a rich source of minerals including more usable calcium than milk.

MILLET Assists digestion, improving nutrient uptake. Helps inhibit growth of fungus and nasty yeasts.

ALOE VERA Healer and Strengthener. Repairs damaged tissue, reduces inflammation, assists digestion and promotes free flow of energy through all meridians.

FLAX SEEDS (LINSEEDS) Most abundant levels of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids and in perfect balance. Helps regulate weight and bowel functions, lowers cholesterol, enhances skin tone and improves immunity and reproduction.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS Power packed with essential fatty acids, vitamins E, A, D, B complex, the minerals sinc, iron, calcium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus and lipotropics. Excellent source of protein. The finest energy ‘pick-me-up’.

SPROUTS – SUPER SPROUTS FOR SUPER HEALTH Sprouts are nutritional superstars. They contain a high concentration of antioxidant nutrients that fight against the damage caused by free radicals. Sprouts are also packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, enzymes and fibre as well as two anti-aging constituents – RNA and DNA – that are only found in living cells.

BERRIES Blueberries contain more antioxidants than any other fruit and cranberries are a rich source of procyanidin, a phytochemical that supports cardiovascular and the urinary-tract.

GARLIC Reduces cholesterol and blood fats. Antibacterial and anti fungal properties. Combats viral conditions. Protects against stomach cancers.

OATMEAL Reduces blood cholesterol and suitable for diabetics. Reduces the risk of heart disease and strokes and increases energy.

CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower). Promotes the healthy function of the immune system and broccoli is full of lutein which boosts the eye’s defense against harmful free radicals.

BEE SUPERFOODS Bee by-products have exceptional healing powers.

ROYAL JELLY The Rejuvenator. It is packed with a wonderful range of nutrients essential for boosting energy levels and combating stress.

BEE POLLEN This is the Rolls Royce of the bee by-products and is one of the finest natural remedies around. It can be used to help fight allergies (particularly hayfever and sinusitis), chronic infections, prostate enlargement and nutritional deficiencies.

PROPOLIS The Natural Antibiotic. Propolis prevents bacteria from multiplying in an organism, so can strengthen our immune system. Propolis also maintains and enhances the essential healthy bacteria. It has anti-fungal, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory qualities.

Raw food is alive and it keeps YOU that way. Sprouts head the list of living foods. Sprouts are one of the most complete and nutritional of all foods that exist. Sprouts are rich with vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes.

Have you ever heard of a vegetable which continues to gain vitamins after you harvest it? Sprouts do this. Sprouts are LIVING FOODS. Even after you harvest your sprouts and refrigerate them, they will continue to grow slowly and their vitamin content will actually increase. Compare this with store-bought vegetables and fruit which start losing their vitamin content as soon as they’re picked and often have to be shipped thousands of kilometers or more.

WHY EAT SPROUTS? There are many reasons. In addition to providing the highest amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes of any food per unit of calories, sprouts deliver them in a form which is easily assimilated and digested. In fact, sprouts improve the efficiency of digestion. Sprouts are also deliciously fresh and colourful.

Sprouting at home takes only a few moments a day and can produce a good portion of your daily requirements of the nutrients you need from fresh produce. The hassles are minor, the costs are low and the freshness is wonderful. It is a very effective way to add raw foods to your diet.

Growing your own sprouts means having fresh organic vegetables every day. Common seeds for sprouting include alfalfa, fenugreek, peas, lentils, radish and red clover. Other seeds include broccoli, cabbage, mustard seed, garbanzos and quinoa. Researchers at John Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that 3 day old broccoli sprouts have exceptionally high amounts of a natural cancer fighting compound.

BENEFITS OF SPROUTING

Growing sprouts is economical. Seeds can multiply 8-15 times their weight.

Sprouts are nutritious. They have a greater concentration of vitamins and minerals, proteins, enzymes, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants and trace minerals.

Sprouts are organic. No pesticides, fumigants or synthetic fertilizers. No chemicals.

Sprouts can be grown anytime, anywhere.

Growing sprouts is easy and takes only a few minutes of car per day. Just add water.

Sprouts are easily digestible. Because they are baby plants, their delicate cell wall easily releases elemental nutrients. Abundant enzymes make them easy to digest even for those with a weak digestion.

Acid forming grains, seeds and nuts become alkaline when sprouted.

If you check your Alkaline / Acid food chart you will see that artificial sweeteners are the MOST ACID FORMING SUBSTANCE YOU CAN INGEST! Avoid all artificial sweeteners like the plague. Aspartame, cyclamate, saccharin and acesulfame-K are chemicals used as artificial sweeteners.

Research has shown that they stimulate the urge to overeat. Aspartame and saccharin have been associated with mental and emotional problems. Cyclamate has unresolved questions concerning its association with cancer.

Sucralose is a chemical made by modifying sugar. It is 600 times sweeter than table sugar and is sometimes sold under the name Splenda. It is stable, is not easily broken down during digestion and for some reason does not seem to produce as big a rise in blood insulin. Nevertheless, it is not a food, and like any other drug or chemical, it may have side effects and may not be eliminated from your body.

If you need to sweeten your food, an excellent natural herbal alternative to both sugar and artificial sweeteners is Stevia or Xylitol.

When we hear the word “antioxidants,” many of us automatically think how good they are for us. In our minds, antioxidants are the good guys. We may not be exactly sure what they do, but the “anti” in their name tells us that they protect us by fighting off something bad. And if they’re the good guys fighting the bad guys, how could we possibly get too many?

On top of this good guys versus bad guys perspective, we also know that many antioxidants come in the form of vitamins – as familiar to us as A and C and E – and minerals such as zinc and selenium. And that these are nutrients that we know are of benefit to our health (There are other antioxidants, though, that are not nutrients at all, but rather compounds in our bodies with various physiological function; for example, uric acid and ceruloplasmin are two of the key antioxidants found in our bloodstream.)

Yet, it turns out that it is just the black and white story that if antioxidants are good for us, then more is better. Like an orchestra that needs the correct representation of instruments to make a beautiful symphony, our bodies need an array of antioxidants, not just this one or that one, to create harmony in our health.

Antioxidants Aren’t The Same As “Good Guys”

During the 1990′s, researchers began to conduct very large-scale studies (involving tens of thousands of participants) to determine the benefits of antioxidants in fairly high doses. The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene, and Cancer prevention study (ATBC), the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS), the Beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET), and the Skin Cancer Prevention Study (SCPS) were among these large-scale studies. One very unexpected result in several of these studies was the fact that antioxidant dietary supplements actually raised increased the risk of disease instead of lowering it. In fact, some studies were abruptly canceled, with letters being sent to participants, explaining that antioxidant supplementation seemed to be putting them at greater health risk. While many of these studies have been criticized, and their results debated among scientists, this decade of research changed our thinking about antioxidants and their health role. What we are now realizing is that it is not just antioxidants working in isolation that have benefits but that antioxidants need each other to function optimally and promote our optimal health.

A Little Bit of Chemistry: Leftover Electrons

The problem with thinking about antioxidants as “good guys” is that every antioxidant can become a ‘pro-oxidant’, i.e., it can reverse its role in our metabolism. In chemical terms, when a substance functions as an antioxidant, what it does it give away an electron. Electron-give-away is what antioxidants do. (This potential power for giving away electrons is called reduction potential).

What’s so good about a compound that gives away electrons is that it can donate it to a “reactive” substance that is in need of one since substances in our body can become far too reactive when they are left with an uneven number of electrons. (Electrons like to exist in pairs, and don’t like being “unpaired”). One leftover electron is enough to cause trouble.

When a substance has a leftover electron and become too reactive, it can damage anything nearby, including the wall of a blood vessel or the membrane of a cell. (Highly reactive substances that cause damage to body parts include a group of substances you may already be familiar with, called free radicals). If these highly reactive substances can just get hold of one additional electron, they can be quieted and potential damage can be avoided. That’s what’s so good about antioxidants that give away electrons.

However, when an antioxidant in the form we have discussed gives away an electron, another problem occurs. The leftover antioxidant itself becomes a radical, because it now has a leftover electron. When vitamin C (ascorbic acid) acts as an antioxidant and gives away an electron, it becomes vitamin C radical (ascorbyl radical). It’s no longer helpful to us as an antioxidant (or a vitamin) in this form. Like all radicals, we don’t want excessive amounts of ascorbyl radical in our body. But what’s the solution?

A Team of Jugglers

The solution is for another antioxidant to provide vitamin C radical with its needed electron. And that’s exactly what happens here, when an antioxidant like glutathione comes in to save the day. Glutathione can turn vitamin C radical back into normal vitamin C! When this happens, vitamin C turns back into its helpful antioxidant self. But glutathione becomes glutathione radical and now it goes off in search of a third antioxidant to provide it with its missing electron. Luckily, lipoic acid (in the form of dihydrolipoic acid, or DHLA) is able to do just that.

This process of losing and gaining electrons is like a juggling act. As long as you have a lot of different jugglers staying very active and throwing a lot of balls (electrons) back and forth in the air at the same time, your body stays healthy. The secret of antioxidants is working together as a team, a juggling team that keeps us healthy as long as the focus is on teamwork.

Food Is the Place for Teamwork

There is really only one place outside the body where we can count on finding the antioxidant juggling team: in a balanced diet containing natural, whole, minimally processed and organically grown food. The reason is simple. It’s not only vitamin E and vitamin C and beta-carotene and glutathione and lipoic acid that belong to the antioxidant juggling team, it’s all of the food components that provide natural color and flavor to food, the flavinoids and carotenoids and other types of pigments that you can only find in whole natural foods. You don’t get the complete antioxidant team when you take a dietary supplement, no matter how high in quality or effusive in claims. Nor do you get the complete antioxidant team when you eat processed foods with artificial flavors and colorings in place of natural flavinoids and carotenoids.

If it really is possible to get an overdose of antioxidants from balanced consumption of whole, natural, organically grown foods, we are certainly a long way from witnessing that possibility in any scientific research study. What’s so remarkable about research on antioxidants is that food studies consistently show benefits – and only benefits – to balanced consumption of whole, natural foods that provide the entire antioxidant juggling team.

Studies showing increased health risk from consumption of antioxidants have always been studies including dietary supplements of antioxidants – and usually a few select antioxidants – not anything close to the full electron juggling team. Antioxidant supplements can definitely play a helpful role in lowering our risk of disease, but it’s a mistake to think about antioxidant supplements as a kind of “insurance program” or “safety net” where we’re just building up our army of “good guys.”

Finally, you can see from this article that if a complex molecule like Vitamin C can become a pro-oxidant just by giving away an electron, perhaps there is a form of antioxidant that does not convert into an unpaired oxidant. This form of antioxidant would have to consist of something so simple that what is left over caused no such imbalance. If, for instance, it was a molecule of something as simple as hydrogen (the building block of our body) and oxygen, then a pairing of a negative ion would only release beneficial oxygen and hydrogen to our systems. There is such an antioxidant. It is alkaline, ionized water: OH-

References

Abou-Seif MA. Blood antioxidant status and urine sulfate and thiocyanate levels in smokers. J Biochem Toxicol. 1996;11(3):133-138.

Brighenti F, Valtuena S, Pellegrini N, et al. Total Antioxidant Capacity of the Diet Is Inversely and Independently Related to Plasma Concentration of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein in Adult Italian Subjects. Br J Nutr. 2005;93(5):619-25.

Gohil K, Packer L. Bioflavonoid-Rich Botanical Extracts Show Antioxidant and Gene Regulatory Activity. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002:957:70-7.

Moini H, Packer L, Saris NE. Antioxidant and Prooxidant Activities of Alpha-Lipoic Acid and Dihydrolipoic Acid. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2002;182(1):84-90.

Noda Y, Kaneyuki T, Mori A, et al. Antioxidant Activities of Pomegranate Fruit Extract and Its Anthocyanidins: Delphinidin, Cyanidin, and Pelargonidin. J Agric Food Chem. 2002;50(1): 166-71.

Noda Y, Kaneyuki T, Igarashi K, et al. Antioxidant Activity of Nasunin, an Anthocyanin in Eggplant Peels. Toxicology.2000;148(2-3): 119-23.

Souri E, Amin G, Farsam H, et al. The Antioxidant Activity of Some Commonly Used Vegetables in Iranian Diet. Fitoterapia. 2004;75(6):585-8.

Ian Blair-Hamilton is Managing Director of ION LIFE, the world’s largest internation distributor of alkalizing water health systems. He is also a researcher, journalist, author and alternative health lecturer.

ACIDOSIS is the basic foundation of all disease. We need to understand the simple process of alkalizing our body and the important role a properly alkalized body plays in restoring and maintaining our overall health. Our glands and organs function properly in exact proportion to the amount of alkaline and acid levels in our system.

THE IMPACT OF ACIDOSIS ON YOUR ORGANS:

HEART The heart is one of the most alkaline-dependent organs in the body. It is partly innervated by the vagus nerve which functions best in an alkaline environment. Correct heartbeat is altered by acid wastes. These wastes rob the blood of proper oxygenation and degeneration of the heart follows. An alkaline system creates an ideal heart function.

STOMACH Digestive difficulties (belching, bloating, sensitivity at the waist, intestinal gas, regurgitation, hiccups, lack or limitation of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, colic in children) may indicate vagus nerve problems and possible hiatal hernia syndrome, which can produce acid residue throughout the system. Hiatal hernia can quickly reduce necessary hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Without proper hydrochloric acid breakdown of foods, the foods become too acidic.

LIVER The liver has over three hundred functions, including processing acid toxins from the blood and producing numerous alkaline enzymes for the system and is your first line of defense against any poisons. All the nourishment obtained through the gastrointestinal tract enters the blood by way of the liver. The load on the liver is much heavier when acid waste products are constantly floating in the blood. If the liver becomes too congested with protein acid wastes, death is imminent.

PANCREAS The pancreas is highly dependent on correct alkaline diet. All aspects of pancreatic function reduce excess acidity and regulate blood sugar balance. To have proper blood sugar balance, you must maintain a primarily alkaline-forming diet.

SMALL INTESTINES The Peyer’s Patches, in the upper portion of the small intestines are crucial to life. They are essential for proper assimilation of food and producing lymphocytes for the lymphatic system’s wide ranging nodal network. They also produce large amounts of the enzyme ‘chyle’, which is a major alkalizing substance. The uninterrupted flow of chyle into the system is crucial. Too much acid waste production from acid-forming foods is a great burden on the Peyer’s Patches, which lessens the production of chyle.

KIDNEYS In an adult, about 1 litre of blood per minute passes through the kidneys. By executing their primary duty, the kidneys keep the blood alkaline and extract acid. Kidneys that are overstressed with too much acidity create kidney stones, which are composed of waste acid cells and mineral salts that have become gummed together in a waste acid substance. Therefore, by reducing acid-forming products from entering the body, the chances are better that you can avoid this painful condition.

COLON The colon must be kept clean of accumulated acid wastes. Poisons collect on the colon walls and in cases of diarrhoea or constipation will harden and reabsorb into the bloodstream. Good bowel action (complete elimination) must be done at least 2 times per day.

LYMPHATIC SYSTEM There are 600-700 lymph glands in the body. Lymph fluid carries nutrition to the cells and removes acid waste products. Lymph fluid flows best in an alkaline environment. When the body is overly acidic, it slows, creating one of the most chronic, long-term, life-threatening situations. Gradually, the lymph dries and begins to form very tiny to very large adhesions through the tissues. These adhesions can interfere not only with lymph fluid but with blood flow as well. Hindered lymph flow increases tissue acid storage. Not drinking enough purified water will also slow the lymph. Waste products from foods that are not properly digested are reabsorbed into general circulation via the lymphatic ducts of the small intestine. In addition, bowel movements that do not completely clear the body of its daily poisons are also reabsorbed.

HOW NEGATIVE EMOTIONS CREATE ACIDITY:

Have you ever been so upset with someone or something that you get an upset stomach? All negative emotions create an acidic environment.

Fear is the underlying cause of most disease. It will undermine your life and your health. Fear causes anger. Anger causes hate. Hate will consume you with continual suffering. Love and understanding cleanse and heal the body creating an alkaline environment within you.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

ALKALINE DIET Eating an alkaline diet is very powerful in making everything else work better. In general, it is important to eat a diet that contains both acidic and alkalizing foods. People vary, but for most, the ideal diet is 80 percent alkalizing and 20 percent acidifying.

EXERCISE Moderate exercise is alkalizing to the body. Excessive exercise (past the point of exhaustion) can create an acidic problem due to lactic acid buildup.

BREATH WORK Deep breathing releases at least 50% of body toxins, so take care to breathe to the bottom of lungs in your work does not provide this release.

REST AND RELAXATION Sleep, meditation, massage, yoga are all alkalizers. Eliminate the acidifiers which are fear, worry, anger, gossip, hatred and envy. Seek help to deal with negative emotions.

STAY HYDRATED Drinking sufficient water (preferably ionized / alkaline water) will assist the removal of toxins and acidic waste from cells.

FOOD COMBINING will greatly improve digestion and avoid indigestion.