Author: Doug DiPasquale

Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Dear Healthy Foodie

Hi Doug,

Thank you very much,
Margie

Hi Margie,

There have been studies that have found that antioxidants put directly onto the skin help to protect it from free-radical damage, and thus protect against signs of skin aging. Goji berries, which are relatively high in antioxidants, would likely be put into a face moisturizer for this purpose.

That being said, a lot of brands of cosmetics — including facial moisturizers — like to add different buzz-word health foods to their products, even though there isn’t necessarily evidence that these foods or herbs do anything. Of more concern are petrochemicals, thickeners, fragrances and additives in most moisturizing products (even some organic ones). Your skin is quite porous and does absorb a great deal of what is put on it. In cases where these toxic chemicals are being used, the inclusion of antioxidants is, in my opinion, more a marketing ploy than an actual effective ingredient. After all, who cares about goji berries if your product is full of carcinogens?

Continue reading The Truth About Goji Berry Skin Creams

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When doing research on goji berries, the last superfood I profiled, I came across another amazing fruit that I thought I’d share. I admit I haven’t encountered rose hips before, but from the stuff I’m reading about them, I’ll be chasing them down to give them a try. Several personal accounts I’ve come across say that they’re delicious on top of being oh so good for you.

Roses are known more for their flower than their fruit. Few people know that rose plants even bear fruit, but rose hips are actually just that – the fruit from the rose plant. They begin to form in spring and ripen from late summer through to the fall. They almost look like small plum tomatoes with colours ranging from dark red to almost purple to bright orange.

Rose hips are highly valued in the natural foods community as a potent source of vitamin C. They contain a whopping 2000mg of vitamin C per every 100g or fruit. That’s over forty times more vitamin C than an orange!

Continue reading Rose Hips: A Vitamin C-Packed Superfood

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I had a few spare minutes to sit down at a cafe with a cup of mint tea the other day and, since I didn’t have my book with me, I picked up a NOW Magazine – an independent Toronto area alternative paper distributed for free on seemingly every street … Read more

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This

As far as superfoods go, goji berries are one of the best. They practically define the superfood category.

Also known as wolfberries, goji berries are one of the most nutritionally dense foods you can eat. They’re usually found in health food stores or Asian markets in dried form, and look a little like small red raisins. Goji berry leaves can also be found as a tea.

The berries have reportedly been used in China and Tibet for 6000 years. Herbalists have prescribed them for liver protection, to help with eye sight, to improve fertility and sexual function, to boost immune function, improve circulation and to promote longevity. In vitro studies have found goji berry extracts may prevent cancer cell growth, bring down blood glucose levels and have a positive effect on cholesterol levels.

Continue reading Goji Berries: A Super Superfood

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Do you ever feel your memory isn’t as sharp as it should be? You may be suffering from a magnesium deficiency. A new international study that included researchers from the University of Toronto published in the journal Neuron has found increased brain levels of magnesium improves both learning and memory.

To this end, the researchers found that supplementing the diet of both young and old rats with magnesium enhanced cognitive abilities. Interestingly, the researchers were supplementing at levels higher than what is considered normal dietary intake of magnesium (400mg is the RDA for magnesium) and found the increased intake of this important mineral has a dramatic effect on improving multiple aspects of memory and learning.

The researchers closely examined parts of the brain associated with memory and found a number of cellular changes: The number of functioning parts of the brain cells involved in sending messages actually increased, more signaling molecules were activated and processes for short and long-term memory were enhanced in the magnesium supplemented group.

Continue reading Magnesium For Memory, Are You Getting Enough?

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Don’t Eat This

Hi Doug,
My name is Darren and I recently kicked the craving for pop. I was wondering if drinks such as Aqua-T energy drink (it contains whey protein) and other ‘health’ drinks are actually good for you?

Hi Darren,
Congrats on kicking the pop habit! I’m not sure about the specific beverage you’re talking about, but I can tell you a few general things about claimed “healthy” beverages and how you can best decide whether they’re good for you. Here are five questions to ask yourself.

1. Is it from a whole food? Don’t be fooled by the added vitamins, minerals and antioxidant boasts — look for whole foods and juices. It’s questionable whether something like vitamin water, which is essentially just individual vitamins diluted in sugar water, promote health at all. Even if there are health-promoting ingredients in your beverage, you’re better off getting them from whole foods, where all co-factors and catalysts are present, instead of in fractionated forms as an ingredient in a processed food.

Continue reading How Healthy Are ‘Health’ Drinks? Five Questions to Ask Yourself

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Don’t Eat This

Good morning Doug!

Thanks,
Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Unfortunately, substituting conventional produce for organic is sometimes necessary, especially in colder climates like Canada where the selection of organic produce available tends to decrease in the winter. While organic is preferable, you can always check the EWG’s ranked list of the most pesticide-saturated produce to see which fruits and veggies are alright and which would be better avoided.

Continue reading How Do I Wash Pesticides Off My Fruit?

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Superfoods are foods which are particularly high in certain aspects of nutrition. Some of them, like raw chocolate, acai berries or green tea are particularly high in antioxidants. Others are quite high in certain vitamins or minerals, such as goji … Read more

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Dear Healthy Foodie

It seems my last Dear Healthy Foodie drew a bit of fire from people who thought that I was too hard on poor Bruce. Apparently I gave some readers the impression that I’m some sort of sugar Nazi, insisting all sweetness be removed from people’s lives. … Read more

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It’s nice that all my favourite fruits and vegetables are slowly making their way on to the growing list of superfoods. While there is no official list of superfoods, and indeed it seems like “the” list will vary extensively depending on where you’re getting your information, the term superfood usually designates a food that is particularly high in specific nutrients, minerals or, most commonly, antioxidants. It’s fantastic to see natural foods like blueberries, pomegranates and cacao being recognized for the healthy, nutrient-dense foods that they are.

A shame, then, that one of my favourites, mango isn’t usually thought of as a superfood. Mangoes are quite good for you, and I’ve sung their praises in the past, but their antioxidant count doesn’t come close to what an equal volume of pomegranate or blueberries or acai berries would be, and its vitamin profile is fairly standard. However, Dr. Stephen and Dr. Susanne Talcott have started referring to mangoes as superfoods after their recent study uncovered the surprising effect the fruit has on cancer cells.

Texas AgriLife Research food scientists examined five different varieties of mango and found they all effectively stopped the growth of cancers cells in the lab. And the Talcotts tested an extract of polyphenols from mango in vitro on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancers. Polyphenols are a class of natural antioxidant compounds from plants, found in high concentrations in tea, wine, chocolate and certain other plant foods. The Talcotts specifically looked at specific polyphenols from the mango called gallotannins as being the bioactive compounds responsible for the effect on cancer cells.

Continue reading Mango Stops Colon and Breast Cancer Cells

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Raw milk enthusiasts say it’s a health panacea, loaded with nutrients, live, whole and delicious. Health Canada says it’s potentially ridden with harmful bacteria just waiting to infect anyone who gets near it. So who’s right about raw milk?

Pasteurization of milk and other beverages is the process of heating the liquid to kill possible pathogenic bacteria that could cause human illness and it extends shelf life by preventing spoilage. Originally invented by Louis Pasteur in 1862 as a means for preventing souring of wine and beer, pasteurization was applied to milk in the early part of the last century. Before wide scale pasteurization came into effect in the 1930s, all milk consumed by anyone was raw. Now all milk bought in Canada has been pasteurized.

Raw milk advocates say the pasteurization process is essentially killing a whole, live food. They say that pasteurizing renders the milk life-depleting, actually putting a burden on the system when it is drunk, unlike raw milk, which is full of nutrients, enzymes and beneficial bacteria vital to the human digestive tract. Advocates state pasteurized milk consumption is associated with allergies, colic in young children, tooth decay, growth problems, arthritis, osteoporosis, and even heart disease and cancer. Dr. Edward Group of Global Healing Center says, “The milk everybody drinks today [pasteurized] is far from a whole food, and in my research is not fit for human consumption”.

Continue reading Raw Milk: Is it Healthy and Safe?

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Dear Healthy Foodie

Morning Doug,

Keep up the good work and thank you for your time.
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I’m glad you’re enjoying the column! Eating right is a challenge for everyone, and being surrounded by family, deeply entrenched traditions and friends who don’t see things from the same perspective is probably one of the most difficult things to deal with when trying to make a change for the better. I feel the pressure myself by friends and family all the time.

Natural sugars are certainly a better choice than refined sugar. Maple syrup and honey (particularly raw honey) are sugars that still have mineral and nutrient components intact, and therefore the sugars enter the blood stream more slowly, avoiding spikes in blood sugar levels. Stevia is an even better choice, as it contains no sugar at all and only provides sweetness on the palate. This being said however, there is a difference between using a natural sugar as a treat or to add some sweetness to a dish when it’s needed, versus using it to feed an addiction.

Continue reading What Your Sugar Addiction Is Telling You

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I’ve generally been quite critical of the calorie model of health in my writing. Science has shown time and again that it is far too simplistic a model — calories in equal to calories out does not always ensure that no weight is gained, and consuming fewer calories than are burned does not guarantee weight loss. Nevermind that weight gain and loss is a rather poor measure of overall health (remember that starvation, parasite infection and hundreds of other diseases lead to weight loss, too).

For an in-depth look at this, here’s a fascinating video of Gary Taubes, scientific researcher and author of Good Calories, Bad Calories (a title he admits is inappropriate but that he adopted it, bowing to pressures from American marketing people; the book is called The Diet Delusion in the UK). In the video, Taubes explains the failings of the calorie model, and more specifically, how wrong our conception is that obesity is caused by eating too much. It’s a long video (one hour), but it is quite illuminating and well worth watching.

Continue reading Why Calorie Counting Won’t Help You Lose Weight

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While I was staying with my parents over the holidays I was chopping celery to go into a salad. My mom commented that she never buys celery since it has no food value. I stopped chopping and gawked at her. “What do you mean ‘no food value’? Celery is … Read more

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A new study from the Journal of Cancer Research, supported by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), published findings that show promise for the prevention of lung cancer. The study found that folate, multivitamins and green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of lung cancer in current and former smokers.

The consumption of certain micronutrients may lessen a process called methylation, which has an effect on gene signaling. Since many genes in lung tumors, including those responsible for cell division and other significant cell processes, are methylated, researchers speculated that nutrients decreasing methylation may reduce risk of lung cancer.

The nutrients studied included a multivitamin rich in phytochemicals like vitamin C, carotenoids, lutein, folic acid, vitamin A and vitamin K. Researchers also showed that reduced gene methylation occurred with consumption of these micronutrients as components of green leafy vegetables.

Continue reading Cut Risk of Lung Cancer with Leafy Greens and Vitamins

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Findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry show supplementing with wild blueberry juice for 12 weeks may boost memory in aged subjects showing early signs memory problems. Subjects with increased risk of Alzheimer’s and … Read more

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Dear Healthy Foodie

Hi Doug,

Quick question for you: Is rooibos tea as good for you as green tea? Just wondering if the nutritional properties are similar. I’ve been drinking rooibos because it’s caffeine-free, but I’m wondering if I’m getting all those benefits of … Read more

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A new food takes the stage as a possible ally in our ongoing fight against cancer. A recent study out of California has found that a compound in pomegranates may lower the risk of hormone-dependent breast cancer. The findings, published in the … Read more

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Don’t Eat This

The latest diet “craze” to come through my inbox is a bit light on the crazy, for a change. It’s called the Banana Diet or the Morning Banana Diet and it basically involves eating bananas. The diet took off in Japan in 2008, when a pharmacist from … Read more

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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This

Now that the holidays are over and we’re all back in our regular routines, you may be taking stock of the celebrating you did over the past month or so. And you might be thinking, detox! I think this is the reason we all make our resolutions on New … Read more

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