For more than 2500 years, wolfberries (Lycium barbarum, or more popularly known as Goji berries) have been used as a natural remedy in many Asian countries, especially for “nourishing the kidney and the liver”. In recent years, beverages containing Goji fruit extracts or juice gained tremendous popularity throughout the world. Although Goji soft drinks were shown to have high antioxidant activity in test tube systems and even animal models, little is about their actual effect on the human antioxidant defense system.
When ingested by healthy elderly test subjects (120 ml per day) for 30 days, a standardized Goji fruit juice (GoChi, …read more

I was over at the V8 website because I wanted to check which vegetables the “8″ stands for (tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach , if you must know), and noticed that they’ve renamed the A-C-E Vitamin Rich V8 to Essential Antioxidants V8 Vegetable Juice.
A-C-E is out. Antioxidants is in. Even if they are one and the same.
Plus points to their marketing staff. (rolls eyes)
Image Source: V8 Juice website

According to the latest American food guide pyramid, you should consume at least 7-9 servings of vegetables per day. Holy macaroni, I don’t think I eat 7-9 servings of anything, much less vegetables!
Don’t like to eat veggies, either? Well, perhaps you can drink it instead. Researchers say it’s a great way to get those healthy goodies into your diet without breaking too much sweat.
“What we found in this study is that drinking vegetable juice seemed to address some of the key barriers to vegetable consumption such as convenience, portability and taste, so individuals were more likely to meet their daily …read more

That’s the entry of some Rice University students to the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition to be held on Nov. 8-9, 2008 at the MIT:an anti-cancer brew.
They got a sample of the yeast from Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewing Company, and they are modifying it with two sets of genes. The first set allows the yeast to metabolize sugars and excrete an intermediate chemical that the second set can later convert into resveratrol.
I get the resveratrol part; this compound has repeatedly been shown to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease. What I don’t get is, why beer? Why go through …read more

The cardiovascular health benefits of chocolate has already been much documented. Its positive effect on skin health, a bit less so. That is actually good for the teeth? Unheard of… til now.
Think chocolate is bad for your teeth? Think again—it may actually be beneficial. A study out of the University of Osaka Graduate School of Dentistry in Osaka, Japan found that after four days of rinsing with a cocoa flavanol extract without other oral hygiene methods (such as brushing or flossing) participants had decreased bacteria and plaque on their teeth.
Can you believe that? In the book Chocolate – A Healthy …read more

Most of the research I read (and therefore write about) regarding the cardiovascular health benefits of flavanols in chocolate are studies funded by Mars, Inc. This is not to say that other chocolate makers are not doing scientific research on chocolate; in fact Hershey’s also published results that Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate as well as Hershey’s Natural Cocoa lowered blood pressure and improved endothelial function in a study of 45 patients.
The difference between the research of these two chocolate factories? Mars suggests that its products are superior because of their proprietary processing called Cocoapro® that helps ensure consistently high levels …read more

The benefits of red wine on cardiovascular health and cancer have been thoroughly documented, and apparently, its antioxidant powers also lower lung cancer risks.
Among the study participants, there was on average a two percent lower lung cancer risk associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month. The most substantial risk reduction was among smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. The researchers reported a 60 percent reduced lung cancer risk in these men. Researchers warned men to stop smoking as the best way to reduce lung cancer risk; noting that even …read more

I’ve written a post on the probiotic properties of Yakult some time ago and I see that it has generated some interest. For those of you who prefer to watch rather than read, here’s a video featuring Yakult– what it is and what its health benefits are.

Check out Mark’s Daily Apple’s very well written article about teas. Mark points out tea’s health benefits and hazards (a bit strong a word, but you know what I mean), the differences between black, green, and white teas, and why loose leaves are better than bagged teas. Very informative!

As a segue to my post on tap waters, here’s an enlightening video on why we should just go back to drinking tap water instead of paying for bottled water:

This was one of the winners in the I Heart Tap Water video contest sponsored by Take Back the Tap.