Super Juices - Part 2 -Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

In part 1 of our look at "Super Juices" on the market today (last post), we featured Beyond Berries whole-food juice powder from URI International.

A few more specifics about Beyond Berries are quite notable and should be mentioned here.

Antioxidants are something that most Americans have at least heard of and indeed most of us also know that the more of these we have in our foods, the better.

ORAC has become the latest "buzz" word in the nutritional industry. ORAC is an abbreviation for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity - a method of measuring the overall antioxidant activity of the particular ingredient, food or product being tested.

The higher the ORAC value, the more antioxidant power. The ORAC test was developed once scientists became aware that phytonutrients such as antioxidants found in fruits & berries have such powerful health benefits.

In fact berries were found to be the highest on the ORAC scale! The greatest protection is provided when a variety of foods high in these nutrients are combined, like those found in Beyond Berries.

An intake of 3,000-5,000 ORAC units per day is recommended. Because most people are already getting a portion of this value from their diet, research suggests supplementing the diet by at least 1000-2500ORAC units per day.

Beyond Berries Powder boasts an amazing ORAC value of 2,460 per daily minimum suggested use! Beyond Berries ORAC value is naturally occurring and is not artificially increased through the addition of isolated or synthetic additives.

Here's a list of the specific fruits and berries found in this remarkable super juice:

POMEGRANATE
Has 3X the antioxidant ability of green tea and a substantial amount of potassium, polyphenols, fiber, Vitamin C & Niacin.

BILBERRY
Has outstanding antioxidant properties. Rich in vitamins C & A.

RASPBERRY
Rich in anthocyanin antioxidants and phytochemicals: ellagic, coumaric & ferulic acid. Contains fiber, calcium, manganese, enzymes, vitamins A, B, C, E, & folic acid.

PURPLE GRAPE
Contains over 12 antioxidants including polyphenols, quercetin, resveratrol & proanthocyanidin flavanoids. Contains Vitamin C, K, quercetin, manganese, fiber & potassium.

ELDERBERRY
Rich in nutrients, polyphenols, antioxidants, amino acids, flavanoids, tannins & carotenoids.

CRANBERRY
Rich in potent antioxidants - polyphenols, procyanidins & resveratrol. High in Vitamin C & dietary fiber.

STRAWBERRY
Excellent source of antioxidants & phenols. Contains vitamins B, C & K, manganese, potassium, iodine, magnesium, copper & omega-3 fatty acids.

APPLE
Provides vitamin C, B, iron, magnesium, calcium, zinc, potassium, folic acid & fiber.

NONI FRUIT
Contains Vitamins A, B, C & E, amino acids, calcium, linoleic acid, selenium, xeroinine & proxeronine.

MANGOSTEEN
High in antioxidants, potassium & Vitamin C.

WOLFBERRY - GOJI
Extraordinary antioxidant & nutrient value. Contains polysaccharides, 18 amino acids, 21 trace minerals, 6 essential fatty acids, flavanoids, Vitamins B1, B2, B6 & E, with 5X more Vitamin C than oranges & more Beta Carotene than carrots.

ACAI BERRY
Provides a complete range of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, plant sterols, essential fatty acids & essential amino acids. Contains fiber, protein and over 16 antioxidants & phytonutrients. Rich source of flavanoids including anthocyanins & proanthocyanidins. A super-antioxidant with an incredibly high ORAC value.

BLACK CURRANT
Rich source of antioxidants & essential fatty acids. Provides iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and Vitamins A, E, B1, B2, B3 & B6, and 3X more Vitamin C than oranges.

BLACKBERRY
High antioxidant/ORAC value. Contains Vitamin C, E, calcium, folic acid, potassium, iron, anthocyanins, enzymes, ellagic acid & fiber.

BLUEBERRY
Provides high antioxidant values. Contains vitamins A, C & E, resveratrol, zinc, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium & fiber.

Whew! What a list of "who's who" among good fruits and berries! You know, I have to be quite honest with you...I've been using Beyond Berries for over a year now and I never really sat down and evaluated each ingredient and it's benefits until now.

It's no wonder why I feel so healthy since integrating this into my life! I've just been drinking it for the sheer joy and taste of it but I've been truly made stronger for it. I will also add that my family (hubby and kids) consume this regularly as well and we've honestly had a year of so little virus, flu, or illness that it is shocking to realize.

If you're wanting to try this true SUPER JUICE for yourself just email me at food4thejourney@gmail.com and I'll send 1 packet of BEYOND BERRIES per household... FREE.

Beyond Berries is the perfect compliment to eating healthy nutritious food.

Merry K.

Just HOW Super is Your Super Juice? - Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

The "Super Juice" trend is an obvious voice in the realm of health and nutrition today and it is maintaing a steady interest in the eyes of the health-concious individual.

With the same vigor, the "Whole-Food Supplement" category is right up there at the top with the super juices. These are a vital part of eating healthy nutritious food since the vast majority of even the "healthy" Americans struggle to give their bodies large quantities of fresh, live fruits and vegetables.

As I've stated before, I believe juices are an extremely viable way of getting nutrients in your system quickly and effectively. Unfortunately, not all juices get an A+ rating from me. I feel strongly that pasteurization is a detriment to them, as pasteurization means heat, which means there are no living components found there (live food is what your body WANTS!). And, you'll be hard pressed to find a super juice product on the market that can sport "NON-PASTEURIZED" on the label. However, there is ONE company that has one...



Recently, in an interview with Brett Rademacher, of Uri International - an up-and-coming name in whole food based, unpasteurized juice powders, I had opportunity to have him lay out to me the REAL difference between Uri's BEYOND BERRIES and the leading berry juice powder.



If you are currently taking or considering integrating one of the popular "super juices" into your daily life, you'll be interested in this excerpt from that interview...



It is really hard to compare URI's products one on one with another company because there are a lot of variables.
Plus a number of the superior advantages need to be pointed out.


But when you analytically compare the proprietary processing, the quantity, the quality, and the variety- no other product can really compare to overall value.


Especially at a retail value, since URI is the formulator, manufacturer and grows a nubmer of the ingredients too. Those they don't grow they buy farm direct from an established network of farms for the lowest possible cost.

To that URI's products deliver incredible value for the money in the open marketplace, I am going to compare Beyond Berries with Garden of Life's Fruits of Life.

Garden of Life is one of the premier whole food based nutritional companies in the market place.

I think Garden of Life is a GREAT company. So I am not comparing to bash them, just to show you how competitive URI really is in the open marketplace.

I am going to compare the 150 gram container of Beyond Berries because that is the size Garden of Life's "Fruits of Life" comes in.

Comparison 1: Garden of Life "Fruits of Life" 150 gram retails for$44.95
Our new 150 gram size Beyond Berries retails for $32.95

Comparison 2: Fruits of Life has 7 basic, good, organically grown fruits.
Beyond Berries has 15 different fruits and berries from around the world. Some are the most exotic, nutrient-dense and more expensive fruits on the planet, and either certified organic organic or organically grown. The fruit is allowed to fully ripen and processed within hours of harvest for maximum nutrient delivery.

Comparison 3: Fruits of Life has 40% basic oat bran per serving. That is FOURTY PERCENT!
So not only is the price over 25% more than Beyond Berries, 40 percent of the Fruits of Life product isreally just an inexpensive filler. Using inexpensive fillers is quite common in the superfood and green drink category.
Beyond Berries adds a fulvic mineral blend, enzyme blend and probiotic blend, for making it an even better product than just fruits alone.

Comparison 4: Garden of Life uses Freeze Drying. Freeze Drying does produce a level of heat.
Freeze drying sounds cold but in fact they take frozen ingredients and then use varying levels of heat to dry the ingredients depending on the company.
But it does involve some level of heat. No idea how high for Fruits of Life, but many freeze dry processes involve heat as high as 130 degrees or more.

URI uses a low temperature process (no heat), under 100 degrees (except for 30 seconds where the temp reaches 100), so for most of the process the temperature averages 65 degrees. This has asignificant impact on maintaining the nutritional integrity of the fruits.

These are the 4 main product comparisons and you can easily see that Beyond Berries is a superior product at a superior value. (end quotes)

Next post, I'll be giving a bit more information about the exact names of the fruits and berries contained in this Super Juice called Beyond Berries, from Uri International.

If you'd like to check it all out yourself, go to http://www.food4thejourney.com/

Merry K.

Fresh Salsa--Perfect for Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

Here's an easy recipe to give you a spark of creativity. I like simple and easy, as I find that the majority of us do also.

I am more motivated towards eating healthy nutritious food when I have a new recipe sitting in front of me. I get bored easily and gleaning from others' healthy food creativity makes me keep pursuing new ways to eat naturally and nutritiously.

Simple Salsa
by Marc Ramsey
4 servings 10 min 10 min prep

2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 chili pepper (hot or mild)
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper

-Seed the bell peppers, tomatoes and chile pepper.
-Dice the bell peppers and tomatoes and put in a bowl.
-Finely chop the chile and add to bowl.
-Chop onion finely and add to bowl.
-Mince garlic and add.
-Add cumin and garlic.
-Then add lemon juice and mix.
(recipe from http://www.recipezaar.com/ THANKS!)

NOW...Take that awesome salsa recipe and add a couple of avacados to it.

For those who don't know, Avacados are what Guacamole is made from. You cut them open, removing the large seed within and spoon out the "flesh" of the avacado. Then you can either eat it in chunks or mashed with a fork and mixed in directly with the salsa.

Avacados are the fat your body really needs. If you ate this for lunch or dinner you would feel satisfied for many hours and you would not feel weighed down by a heavy meal.

Use this as a dip with tortilla chips but don't go crazy with the chips. Too many of those could give you excess carbohydrates that turn to glucose in your body and WILL give you that weighed down feeling.

A side note....Avacado smashed up with Banana is a SUPERFOOD for babies and toddlers. I also like it myself spread on rice cakes!

Many people I know are turned off by the greeness of Avacado, especially when mashed. If so, close your eyes and taste it anyway!!!Don't get hung up on looks. There's much more to good whole food than looks.If you've never purchased avacados before, you need to know that they are not ripe until very, very dark green on the outside. And they should not be firm to the touch. They are ripe and ready to eat when dark and less than firm.

Merry K.

Healthy Hot Dogs? - Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

No matter how much I keep eating healthy nutritious food, I still crave an "All-American" hot dog from time to time. (Even though I usually regret it later!)

And it seems that wherever we may roam in the summer time, every get together calls for grilled weiners and hamburgers. Because we have children, it's pretty much assumed that they're gonna want a hot dog, or 2, or 3, or more!

Are hot dogs a tasty and convenient food to keep those kidos happy ? Yep, you bet!
Are they harmful? OH YES! How harmful could they be? READ ON...

Here's some info I just found and it REALLY got my attention! Three studies have been published this year that give statistical findings pertaining to the link between hot dog consumption and childhood cancer.

Would you have ever guessed that consuming 12 or more hot dogs a month would make children 9 times more likely to get leukemia? And if you're eating hotdogs more than once a week while pregnant you're doubling your chance of having a baby that will develop a brain tumor.

Are you and your family consuming hot dogs at least once a week? This will increase your child's chances of getting brain cancer.

Nitrites are the preservatives used in the processing of hot dogs to keep them looking nice and pink/red in the package and also to combat botulism. Nitrites are known carcinogens, and are especially known to bring on cancers of the oral cavity, urinary system and bladder, esophagus, stomach and cancer of the brain.

Though some vegetables naturally contain nitrites, they are not cancer forming because of the other compounds, like vitamin C, that cause the nitrites to be "ineffective", so to speak. Vegetables ARE cancer-fighting!

We also must keep in mind that ALL processed meats contain nitrites. That goes for your deli meats, breakfast meats, pizza meats, etc. Pick up the labels and start looking for it.

Now, there are a few manufacturers that make hot dogs without nitrites.
I found one such thing at TRADER JOE'S. If you've got a Trader Joe's in your area and have not visited it, I highly encourage you to do so!
Their hot dogs are nitrite-free and so very flavorful. They are inexpensive at only $3.99/8 pk., and 100% beef.

I also want to encourage you that if you're needing extra help getting the veggies and fruits into your children, then you should consider THE BERRY FEAST. See the post before this one and find out how you can give your kids the nutrtitional equivalent of 4 servings of RAW fruits and vegetables in one serving of berry drink a day.

Merry K.

**for more info on these studies see: http://www.ghchealth.com/

Eating A Feast of Healthy Nutritious Food

If you've visited me before you've invariably noticed the photo of THE FEAST over on the side bar. THE FEAST whole-food juice powder has been the single catalyst for long-term change in the health and nutrition of me and my husband and children. This is the testimony that we who use it daily all share. My desire for eating healthy nutritious food was hugely increased by this one product.

I've never consumed anything like it. I don't know of ANY other "super juice" or "green drink" on the market that has the wide range of fruits and vegetable juices that THE FEAST contains...
30 fruits and berries
30 greens and veggies
11 seed nuts and sprouts
plus- enzymes, minerals, and probiotics

NOTHING synthetic and NO isolated vitamins. Just food- plain and simple, with an astoundingly good taste!

And now...there's a new FEAST in town!
This one's THE BERRY FEAST. This juice powder was created as a result of a request for less probiotics and even more berry taste. Some people who are not accumstomed to probiotics can have a hard time when they first integrate these into their lives by taking THE FEAST. Probiotics are important to maintain the friendly bacterium in the colon and digestive tract. Using probiotics can, at first, cause loose stools if taken in large amounts.

THE BERRY FEAST solves that problem, making the same quality whole-food nutrition available to you, but giving you fewer probiotics for easier integration into your daily routines.

For more information on THE BERRY FEAST go to
www.uriinternational.com/food4thejourney

Look under "products" then under the heading "whole-foods".

Merry K.

Eating Healthy Nutritious Food In Community

I don't know whether you can identify or not...but I hold the opinion that a healthier lifestyle is easier to achieve and maintain when you have a community of folks around who hold the same values and interests. There's a certain synergy that exists in the presence of many who are focused on the same thing.

I have the awesome privelege of living in a small town where I am surrounded by others who are very health conscious, family focused, and community minded. We are not necessarily the majority here but the unity we experience makes us feel empowered to "greatness"!

We love sharing our resources for eating healthy nutritious food. When one of us finds a great source for obtaining healthy foods at affordable prices, we share the info so we all can benefit.

We participate in co-op buying from organic sources and we'll often buy in bulk to get the best price, dividing up the purchase among those interested.

We share recipes, home remedies, herbal treatments, child care, general tips for healthy living, and fun and fellowship. There is not a doubt in my mind that any of these folks would be there for me in a moment's notice should I have need.

The reason I share this with you is to encourage you in the same way. Even being in relationship with 1 or 2 other people who value your choices in keeping you and/or your family in health will add momentum to your success.

Let's face it...going back to old habits is soooo very easy to do! I have found much more success since becoming part of this close-knit, caring group of people. It's sort of like an alcoholic being part of a support group. Really, accountability works!

Another great way to keep me at my nutritional best is for me to keep blogging! I have to continually research and find pertinent health information to share with my readers. This keeps my eyes open and keeps me sober about making good, healthy eating choices. And I also use social networking sites for health-concious individuals. These give me an online community to relate to.

This has been awesome for me and it keeps me out of the "Oh well, this ONE time won't hurt me" mode. Do you believe that all the one time exceptions we make can really add up? Of course, we all do!

Eating healthy nutritious food has to become a priority if we're going to make it a way of life, and not just a fad. Keeping it ever-before your eyes will ensure success.

Last tip: Visit my site often!...as well as all the other great ones I mention throughout my articles and in the list of links to the left. Leave a comment when something helps you or when you have a suggestion or question.

COMMUNICATE with other folks whom you feel are successfully walking in health the way you want to be....(notice the root word here, COMMUNE, as in community!)

Let no man be an island unto himself!!

Merry K.

The Diabetes Miracle - Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

I just quickly wanted to share a site that I found that I think is a great resource for my readers who have Diabetes or loves someone who does.

http://www.diabetesmiracle.org/

I personally believe that when we pay attention to our bodies, we will know when we're at risk for this disease. And I also believe that we can be cured of it, even without traditional meds.That's one of the reasons I continue to keep this EATING HEALTHY NUTRITIOUS FOOD site going.

For instance, my husband and I both do not do well when we eat much carbohydrates, and refined sugars,like high fructose corn syrup, do a real whammy on us. I know for a fact that it was our poor eating habits of younger days that have caused a sensitivity to carbs and sugar.

When the mainstay of your diet is refined carbs and sugars for a continual cycle of 20, 30, or 40 years, your pancreas gets extremely overworked in insulin production. I have a friend who is 39 years old and used to live off of carbonated sugar drinks, snack foods, sweets, and pasta and potatoes. He developed diabetes about 4 years ago. Do you think his diet may have been a contributing factor?...YOU BET!!

The DIABETES MIRACLE and the LIFESTYLE CENTER OF AMERICA is offering entry into a drawing to win the following:

• All-expenses paid travel to one of LCA’s campuses this fall
• A 12-day residential stay to kick-start the new diet and lifestyle
• Continued long-distance health coaching for the entire year
• A digital video camera which will be used to chronicle the journey

The LCA also has a new cookbook, The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook. It has a ton of healthy recipes designed to keep a diabetic eating properly.

Give it a look. There is a better way up for Diabetics!

Merry K.