Flavanoids are labeled as vitamin P. They are metabolites that enhance vitamin C’s functions by protecting it from oxidation and improving how vitamin C is absorbed. Flavonoids are important in plant pigmentation. It helps produce the yellow, red or blue that you see in plant petals. Flavonoids also help to protect plants from insect and fungal attacks. Flavonoids are also found in nuts, grains and leaves. Some of the herbs that contain Flavonoids are hawthorn, echinacea, bilberry and milk thistle. Good sources of Flavonoids can be found in all citrus fruits, berries, parsley, green and white teas, and dark chocolate. Red wine even contains high amounts of Flavonoids. This is why a high intake of red wine would show that there are less coronary disease rates.

One of the most common classes of Flavonoids is phytonutrients.  Phytonutrients are components that help promote health. Nutrients like protein, fat, minerals and vitamins are essential for life unlike phytonutrients. Phytonutrients help to protect against diseases by enhancing your immune system response, killing cancerous cells converting to vitamin A and serving as antioxidants. Flavonoids help with many of the body’s processes and are beneficial to the heart, liver and kidneys. As a result of this, many consumers as well as food manufacturers have become interested in flavonoids. Flavonoids mediate the body’s effect for diets that are rich in fruits and vegetables to assist in the prevention of colorectal cancer. They have a profound growth effect on colonic tumor cells also. Soy flavonoids are used to help ease the symptoms of menopause.

Nashi Pear

 Nashi pears, also called Asian pears, are related to the pears we see regularly but shares similarities with an apple in that it is crisp, slightly sweet and juicy. They are often referred to as apple pears. These pears are round and firm, and as soon as they are harvested they are ready to be eaten. The Nashi pear’s nutritional benefits are vitamin C, dietary fiber and B vitamins. They are loaded with nutrients that benefit you health wise. They provide around 3 grams of dietary fiber per 100 grams. Eating these pears regularly can help to fight against colon cancer. The Nashi pear helps the body with its production of red blood cells as well as gastrointestinal health. Nashi pears have high water content and are grainy in texture. There are a few fruits referred to as ‘antioxidant fruits’ including the Nashi pear. 

The Nashi pear is low in saturated fat and contains about 14g carbohydrates and zero fat. It is also high in dietary fiber and vitamin K. The Nashi pear is not only just good for your general health, but that are good in weight loss. The Nashi pear is rich in antioxidants including zea xanthins, lutein and beta carotene. It has been known to be useful in helping to treat gout, arthritis, colitis and chronic gallbladder disorder. In addition to all of the nutrients this pear provides, it is one of the fruits that bear the lowest calorie count at 58 calories per 100 grams!

grapes

Proanthocyanins are a distinctive class of flavonoid, and was discovered in 1946 by a researcher from France who was doing studies on peanut skins, and its effect on circulation and heart disease. Upon doing his research, he found one compound called proanthocyanidin or proanthocyanins which he discovered to be very effective in the protection of vascular walls inside human body. Vascular walls is human tissue that surrounds and guards your veins and arteries. And in 1986, this was considered the most useful product, and to their amazement, purple grapes especially in the seed extract contained vast amount of proanthocyanins.

In general, how can these classes help you? Proanthocyanidins offer plenty of health benefits. It builds up your vascular walls including your smallest capillaries. This keeps your blood vessels fit and prevents heart diseases. It facilitates in the collagen formation, called a building block in every cell in human body. Other benefits include: It aids with edema and varicose veins prevention; Improvement of eyesight infections due to environmental factors like computer screens, sun, smoke and other eye pollutants; Enhancement in Vitamin C’s functions; And helps in the protection of your heart and prevention of heart diseases. It also makes cell membranes become stronger, thus making histamine difficult to escape. Since proanthocyanidins contains antihistamine action, it blocks any allergic reactions to your body.

Known to be a great antioxidant, it is the reason why antioxidant fruits, such as purple grapes and other grapeseed or grapeskin are recommended to be eaten for health reasons and prevention of heart disease.

cantaloupe

The cantaloupe is popularly known as melon or muskmelon. This is a fruit with orange flesh, with seeds in the middle and a lumpy skin that appears to be netted. It is considered to be sweet and succulent with a pleasant aroma. This cantaloupe is very healthy for your body for you can gain nutritional advantages from it.

Cantaloupe nutrition includes high amounts of potassium and vitamins A and C. it is also high in dietary fiber and niacin. It does not contain cholesterol but has low sodium and high sugar content. Cantaloupe is rich with anti-oxidants that are good for the body’s resistance to cancers. It also has low calories so you can eat them healthily. It can be consumed raw, as a juice or shake and even as an ice cream and dessert. It can come in different appearance but its healthy components remains.

There are cantaloupe health benefits where consumption of this prevents diseases such as cancer, cataracts, arteriosclerosis and it can help avoid muscle cramps, high blood pressure, and insomnia. It serves as a stress reducer too. Cantaloupes have so many advantages with it. The different nourishment present in this such as vitamins and minerals are the main key responsible for its nutritional values.

With this information, cantaloupes are very important in our daily lives for it can add to a healthy living. It can help you in your diet and health problems as well. This can be a good help in our wellbeing for being fit is a good way of living a healthy lifestyle all throughout your life.

peach

A peach is a fruit which is very juicy and sweet. This fruit can be classified into two types depending on the texture of their skin. The smooth ones are called nectarines while the velvety ones are the peaches. It has white to yellowish color of flesh with subtle scent. This kind of fleshy fruit is called a drupe where there is a fleshy part surrounding a hardened inner seed.

A peach contains 79% of water and is very high in vitamin C and dietary fiber. However, it has high sugar content. It has high contents of vitamin A and potassium. It does not contain sodium and cholesterol in it, but it contains calories. This is mostly from the carbohydrates it contains.
The calories in a peach vary depending on how they are prepared. If it is raw, it has 66 calories per one cup of serving. If it is canned with juice, it has 110 calories per one cup serving. When it is canned in light syrup, it has 136 calories per one cup serving.

We can therefore conclude that fresh raw peach is much better to eat when you are watching your diet. It has lesser calories compared to the processed and canned peaches. This is because canning a peach has different steps that add calories in the process. So how to can peaches? It starts from preparing the solution you will mix with the peaches, and it is usually made up of water and sugar. Then, add a mixture of citric acid and vitamin C to the peaches and solution to prevent the flesh from darkening. The can will then be heated to be sealed.

Sambucol has of late become a fairly common household name for a medicine that claims to be a cold and flu remedy.  Studies have indeed shown that Sambucol significantly aids flu recovery.  The earliest double-blind test given in Israel in 1995 showed that both children and adults taking the medicine recovered twice as fast as those who took the placebo—pretty conclusive.  Another study carried out at the Department of Oncology at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem suggested that Sambucol may be useful in cancer treatment because it generates an active immune system.  So what is Sambucol’s secret of success?  Elder berries.

The sambucus Canadensis, or American elder berry, is a shrub that grows freely in most of Canada and the United States producing dark purple-black berries. Extract from all parts of the plant is useful medicinally, but Europeans have been using elder flowers as an expectorant and treatment for fever and cough since the Middle Ages.  Sambucol functions mainly using black elderberry extract.

Try making elderberry ginger syrup at home for some of the same benefits!  Stem and clean two pounds of elderberries and boil them in about four cups of water until soft, approximately ten to fifteen minutes.  They must be juiced, most effectively done with a food mill to discard the skin.  Return the juice to a pot and add up to four cups of sugar.  Boil the mixture until reduced by half and thickened.  When it cools, add a tablespoon of lemon juice.  The syrup can be stored frozen for months or sealed for some weeks.

Lovely Black Elder

The black elder, or sambucus nigra, is actually a very common shrub in Europe and eastern Asia that has been believed since ancient times to hold mystical medicinal qualities.  The dark purple berries of the black elder smell sweet but are rather tart and spicy in flavor.  Still, wines, jams, and syrups made from from elder berries are a European tradition continued today.  The fruit of the American elder, or sambucus Canadensis, has similar healing properties.  The popular flu drug Sambucol is made from the extract of elder berries.  Studies have shown that the medicine does indeed double flu recovery!  The elder has many benefits:

Treats influenza A and B

Contains antioxidants, which stimulate the immune system

Relieves aches, paints, and fever

Antiviral

Antibiotic

Antibacterial

Sooths upper respiratory problems

Promotes circulation and lymphatic health

For access to the health benefits of elder berries, consider trying an herbal tea made from dried elder flowers or berries by pouring a cup of boiling water over two heaping spoonfuls of elder flowers and straining after ten minutes, or by adding cold water to two spoonfuls of dried elderberries, boiling and straining the mixture.

You have probably heard of the elderberry tea, as it is said to provide a number of health benefits to its drinkers. However, did you know that it is possible to make elderberries into wine? Learning how to make elderberry wine is quite simple and if you want to know step-by-step instructions, you might enjoy this book on Elderberry Wine: Elderberry Wine: Vintage 2001.

You can actually choose from among a number of recipes over the Internet just like elderberry fresh recipe wine to be mentioned here.

What do you do first? You have to take some berries, of course, and avoid the green ones because they are poisonous . Even the ripe ones can be toxic but that should be non-toxic once they are cooked.

elderberry

Select good berries and place them in boiling water, which is added with sugar. Stir the mixture well until the sugar dissolves then place them in a bag to cool. Once that is done, you can mash the berries to let out all the juice. Next, add some sugar as well as wine yeast then stir and cover. Strain the liquid and place in a fermentation container and let it sit for about a week. Strain it out again and place in another container then let it sit for six more weeks. Pour the liquid in a bottle – they should be ready for consumption in six months!

Aside from becoming a great-tasting wine, the plant can also be made into the elderberry tincture which helps fight off certain illness like flu. However, they are more effective when paired with other herbal medicines.

dried Goji

Have you been wondering how to grow goji berries?

They are known to eliminate cellulite, enhance the immune system, and also have more vitamin C as compared to oranges and what’s more, more iron as compared to steak.  However, purchasing this berry is quite costly. Thus, it is practical if one can learn how to grow goji berries rather than buying it. In fact, growing goji berry is not only economical but environmental friendly as well.

Goji berries are now being grown and developed in Mongolia, Tibet, China, and even possible in UK’s climate. A good space in your garden is fine, so start planting these berries now. It is easy to grow goji berries as they can survive in any variety of soil, even in deprived soil, because most of the time they grow in mountainous regions of Himalayas.

One can plant them either from seed, from cuttings or a still little plant. Growing goji berry are simple to grow. If growing from seed, keep them warm for about 12 months. It is advisable to buy young plants for practical reasons. Once the plant is older, they grow to become a thick bush. It has to be constantly prune, like firming the soil and watering the plant, and this will produce more berry fruits.

Don’t want to grow them?  You can buy them online, dried and ready to eat:

• Natierra Organic Goji Berries, 16 Ounce Bag
• Navitas Naturals Organic Goji Berries Himalayan Superfruit, 10 Pounds Bag
• Tibet Authentic Goji Berries, 8-Ounce Bag (Pack of 2)

Do you grow goji berries?  Do you have any advice on how to grow them?

Mangosteen Fruit

To set the record straight about the queen of superfruit, here are three mangosteen facts for the informed consumer:

1. Mangosteen is not related to the mango.

Don’t confuse this southwest Asian fruit with the mango commonly sold in grocery stores. While they are geographical neighbors, they are not of the same family. Mangoes have a warm, yellow-orange skin and orange fruit that grows around a large seed. The mangosteen description, on the other hand, begins with an outer purple skin and soft white fruit inside segmented like an orange. In size, the mangosteen is somewhere between an apple and an orange with a flavor that is both citrus and peach-like. Both are high in antioxidants, and while mangoes have been available (and grown) in the U.S. for some time, the mangosteen has just recently been introduced to western markets though they do not grow well in less than ultra-tropical climates.

2. Mangosteen contains xanthones.

Nutritionists are beginning to document the health benefits of mangosteen. A compound called xanthones, which occur naturally in mangosteens, possesses antioxidant-like qualities that can help with cartilage function,  joint function, respiratory system, intestinal health, immune system, and fighting free radicals.  The mangosteen fruit as anti inflammatory is one benefit of xanthones that nutrition companies have tapped into as well as anti-allergenic potential.

3. Mangosteen is being investigated for its cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory properties.

mangosteen

Consumers have seen considerable health benefits from mangosteen including aid for sinus and respiratory illnesses. A study of the mangosteen fruit in Beijing showed that a product derived from mangosteen improved the immunity and overall health of test subjects. Mangosteen also shows up in anti-aging products. Mangosteen is being called a superfruit – in fact, the queen of superfruit – because of the antioxidants in both the rind and fruit that fight free radicals. Mangosteen can be taken internally as a juice, powder, or capsule; eaten raw; or ground up and applied externally to the skin to treat inflamed joints. According to the American Cancer Association, the fruit may have a future in cancer treatment; early studies suggested that mangosteen may treat acne when applied topically for the same reason that natives of southern Asia have been using it for skin conditions and wounds. Mangosteen and health products made from mangosteen extract or powder can be found online and in health food stores.