Looking for something natural to help your kid’s coughs and colds? Try a dose of buckwheat honey just before bedtime. According to a study that has been published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine it might work even better than an over-the-counter cough medicine in relieving cough to help your child sleep better.
Ian M. Paul, M.D., M.Sc., Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, and team carried out a study on 105 children – they were aged 2-18, and all were suffering from upper respiratory tract infections. They were ill for up to seven days and experienced symptoms during …read more

I’ve always thought that citrus fruits are good for fighting colds because of their vitamin C content which supposedly helps boost the immune system and helps fight bugs. What I just read is that they also contain a compound called synephrine, that can help you cope with stuffy nose due to allergies and colds.

The USDA tested mandarins from 10 different micro-climates in Placer County and what they found inside these little fruits, compared to other citrus, 6 to 7 times the amount of synephrine, a naturally occurring decongestant.
Photo Credit: sonictk via Flickr

I’ve blogged about the health benefits of broccoli several times in the past, including its potential in treating skin cancer and bladder cancer among others. Well, here’s another one: broccoli could help patients with chronic lung disease.
According to recent research from Johns Hopkins Medical School, a decrease in lung concentrations of NRF2-dependent antioxidants, key components of the lung’s defense system against inflammatory injury, is linked to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in smokers. Broccoli is known to contain a compound that prevents the degradation of NFRP.
That compound is sulforapane, the same compound responsible for broccoli’s reported chemopreventive …read more

Okay, admittedly, this is stretching the ’superfoods’ label a bit, but hey, it does have a positive medical impact. Chewing gum has been demonstrate to help bowel movements get back to normal following colon surgery.
When the trial results were combined, patients who chewed gum took an average of .66 fewer days to pass flatus (gas) and an average of 1.10 fewer days to have a bowel movement, both signs of returning intestinal function. “Postoperative length of hospital stay was assessed in four trials comprising 134 patients,” the authors write. “This was also reduced in the chewing gum group by longer …read more

It turns out that there’s a reason you sweat when you eat a lot of red hot chilli peppers: that compound responsible for the fire in your mouth called capsaicin can directly induce thermogenesis.
And although the studies used relatively high amounts of capsaicin (probably more than even a Thai-food addict can tolerate) to demonstrate this, researchers are looking into the structure of capsaicin as a model to design more potent compounds that might have clinical use such as treating hypothermia.

I came across this video on the health benefits of blueberries and though I’d share:

This video is brought to you by the authors of Eat, Shrink & Be Merry (I hope to review the cookbook of the same title soon!).

Here’s a snippet from the July/August Issue of Health Magazine: the Head-to-Toe Guide to Natural Health:

Eyes: Keep your vision sharp with bilberries, which are packed with antioxidants—even more than their blueberry cousins.
Sinuses: Research shows that oils from dill, bishop’s weed, and cumin work as well as or better than antibiotics against eight types of common bacterial infections.
Breasts: Flaxseed reduces inflammation and tumor growth.
Tummy: Get rid of your burping and bloating with digestive-enzyme supplements which are available in capsule form. Mint has also long been considered a tummy soother.
Feet: To ease the chronic pain of plantar fasciitis (an inflammatory condition), try …read more

A high-fiber barley variety developed by CSIRO called BARLEYmax® will soon find its way in the Australian market.

Photo Credit: CSIRO
BARLEYmax® contains more than twice the amount of insoluble and soluble fibre found in wheat or oats, as well as resistant starch, which helps promote healthy digestive bacteria.
BARLEYmax Business Manager, CSIRO’s Geoff Ball, says clinical testing by CSIRO Human Nutrition has shown that products made with BARLEYmax – such as breakfast cereals, muffins and breads – have a low Glycaemic Index and strong bowel health attributes.
“Further testing showed BARLEYmax has excellent processing properties and foods made with the new grain have …read more

Aside from possibly protecting you from diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and alcoholic cirrhosis, a recent survey study suggests that women coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or cancer.
Women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1980 to 2004 and involved 84,214 women) as compared with non-consumers, and an 18 percent lower risk of death caused by something other than cancer or heart disease as compared with non-consumers during follow-up.
Before you use this to justify your …read more

If you were to drink just one beverage all your life, what would it be?
I’m not especially fond of its taste, but I am starting to think we’d be better off in choosing green tea. In addition to the various health benefits of green tea I’ve written many times here at Eating Fabulous, a new study indicates that it also helps prevent the cognitive deficits that occur with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Because of their difficulties in breathing, people with OSA experience intermittent hypoxia (inadequate oxygen) and are reported to have higher oxidative stress and exhibit architectural changes in the areas …read more