Best of the Fruits, Part One

Acai berry: helps fight aging, helps digestion, boosts energy, fights cancer. One of the most nutritious foods in the world, it contains antioxidants, amino acids and essential fatty acids.

Blueberries: contains fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. Good for brain health, helps memory.

Grapes (red): benefits kidneys and liver, fights heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

Pomegranate: good for cholesterol and reducing blood pressure.

Apples (red delicious, granny smith): Apples can start your morning with energy like a cup of coffee. Eat one after a meal to clean your teeth. Try unfiltered apple juice.

Oranges: source of vitamin C, calcium and iron. Fights bacteria to prevent colds.

Watermelon: helps with blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. Contains lycopene, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Has triptophan like turkey that can help your body shut down at night to sleep.

Best Vitamins and Supplements, Part Three

D-Ribose: for energy, a natural sugar. Improved heart muscle weaknessand reduced symptoms of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia (www.vagnini.com, Frederic Vagnini, M.D.)

Silymarin (Milk Thistle): for liver health – protects liver cells from toxins.

Cat’s claw: anti-viral, stimulates part of the immune system, used for arthritis, viral infections, cancer.

Sambucol (elderberry syrup): antiviral, used for colds and flu.

Bee Pollen: contains vitamins and amino acids, for energy.

R+ Alpha-lipoic acid (R+ALA): antioxidant supplement (found in beef and broccoli), lowers cholesterol, eases symptoms of diabetes, increases activity of hormone leptin to make visceral fat cells release their energy (to flatten potbelly).

Pycnogenol: Improved osteoarthritis symptoms. From the bark of the French maritime pine tree. (Nutrition Research)

Saw Palmetto: for men’s prostate health.

Best Vitamins and Supplements, Part Two

Flaxseed: contains omega-3s, lignans (cancer fighters) and fiber, beneficial for heart disease, fights breast cancer. Stabilizes sugar levels and regulates hormones.

Glucosamine: good for joints (especially knees), keeps skin elastic-looking.

Panax Ginseng: helps pump oxygen through body, balances hormones, gives energy, a root (User’s Guide to Energy-Boosting Supplements).

Vitamin K: regulates blod clotting, improves bone health and liver function. Reduces the appearance of spider veins.

Folic Acid (Folate, a B vitamin): reduces risk of developing high blood pressure, prevents birth defects. May help with depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

Magnesium: regulates energy levels, relieves constipation, reduces anxiety, supports healthy breathing.

Zinc: improves immune function, helps healing, maintains your sense of taste and smell, stimulates enzyme reaction.

Vitamin A: for vision health, reduces fine lines and wrinkles in the skin, build resistance to respiratory and other infections, helps with bone growth.

Iron: helps oxygen travel from the lungs to the rest of the body, provides energy.

Potassium: regulates blood pressure, maintains heart and kidney function.

Best Vitamins and Supplements, Part One

Calcium – necessary for strong, dense bones and teeth. Take with Vitamin D which helps its absorption and only a certain amount can be absorbed at once, so eat calcium-rich foods spread out through the day. Avoid excess caffeine and high protein amounts which interferes with the body’s use of calcium.

Vitamin D – 10 minutes of sunlight a day can give you vitamin D. Good for skin, heart health, enhances immunity, regulates blood sugar, prevents cancer. D3 helps with calcium use.

Omega 3s - 200mg/day, good for heart health and skin, decreases risk of stroke. Found in fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and tuna.

Vitamin B Complex – For skin, hair, eyes, and liver. Improves muscle tone in intestinal tract and combats stress. B6 and B12 can help with depression symptoms. B3 (Niacin) is essential for metabolism.

CoQ10 - Good for heart health, provides and sustains energy, power and stamina, prevents skin cancer.

Echinacea purpurea – Proven immunity booster.

Best Stress Busters, Part One

First, recognize quickly when your emotional reaction to a situation or event is heading to a level that is inappropriate, so you can immediately take steps to remedy those thoughts. A strong level of emotion is not necessary for life’s little fustrations, so you need develop your own scale of what in your life constitutes a true emergency and what is just a little thing that hasn’t worked out the way you wanted it to. Reserve your energy for tackling the big things.

Try every stress reduction technique you learn until the stress goes away. It can take up to 8 minutes to distract yourself from something that part of you really wants to do. That’s a long time when you are fighting an urge, so if one thing doesn’t work, immediately move onto another suggestion. Watch the clock if it helps – when you become fully distracted, you’ll find you’ve automatically stopped watching it.

Drown out your negative thoughts by internally repeating a personal replacement phrase. Some to try are: “No”, “There’s nothing to cry (get upset) about”, “I don’t have to think that”, “What’s the hurry”, “I don’t know, I don’t care and it doesn’t make any difference” (this last one is a quote from Albert Einstein).

Banish negative thoughts by having an internal conversation with God or with yourself. Discuss good points about yourself or your life, relive successful moments, think of some bad times you’ve already been through and remember that you got through them. Draw in strength from God’s love or from the strength of your own indomitable will and become confident that your worries or your anger is needless and let it go.

Before you give in to increasing an emotional reaction, try to evaluate logically the seriousness of the situation that is bothering you. Ask yourself to think about things like: is it really the worst thing that ever happened, have other things happened to you this serious that you or anyone else have previously overome, what’s the probablility that whatever you’re worried about is really going to happen. If the situation isn’t critical, your logic can overcome your emotions.

Release your anger through vigorous physical activity so you can deal more logically with what is happening. Our bodies are constantly ready to call upon our survival instincts, even if you have never had to invoke these protective reactions before due to a threatening situation. This may be a reason why we are sometimes moved to use these strong emotions when not really called for. Our negative thoughts unconsciously trigger these physical reactions and it may be beneficial to work the stress chemicals out of your bloodstream with activity, just as if you were in a “fight or flight” event.

Activity doesn’t have to be a sport or a workout for release – dance around the house to music that makes you feel good, throw a tantrum on your bed and kick your arms and legs on the soft mattress until you get it all out, or scream or sob as loud as you want into a pillow, or punch the pillow if you need to.