NaturalNews Health News

Some recent articles on health from NaturalNews.com:

"Butter has been maligned as unhealthy for decades. Fortunately, the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) disagrees. The WAPF was started decades ago by Weston Price, DDS. He and his wife traveled to isolated locations and examined the diets of peoples free from civilization's degenerative diseases...

Why the Negative PR Campaign Succeeded

Diet fads promoted aspartame as well as margarine as healthy choices. The overweight and even not so slim were manipulated into diets with only weight loss in mind . That popular movement had its foundation in medical misinformation, based mostly on saturated fat nonsense. That nonsense was compounded by the cholesterol scare.

Abstaining from the saturated fats was promoted as a healthy choice. Butter, coconut oil, and palm oil were all given bad press. The doctors, uneducated of real nutritional health science, went right along. Yet all three of those saturated fats are actually health promoting.

This trend was accelerated by corporate greed in the processed food industry. They could righteously insert those cheaper trans fatty liquid oils in packaged goods or sell them as healthy cooking oils. And now it turns out that those oils cause long term health damage, including obesity, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and even cancer..."

You have been lied to about butter
Paul Fassa
Friday, January 14, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/031002_butter_misinformation.html

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"Arsenic and its related compounds are mostly thought of as killers -- and these natural substances can be just that. Notoriously poisonous to myriad forms of life, arsenic is often used in pesticides. And water supplies in many parts of the world that are contaminated by the natural occurrence of arsenic compounds can cause serious health problems. But despite it's reputation as a dangerous chemical, arsenic has been used in tiny amounts in medicine for over 2,000 years.

Sound crazy? Not any more. Mainstream science has learned that traditional healers were on to something when they treated certain cancers and other difficult-to-treat problems with remedies containing arsenic. It turns out that while a high level of arsenic is known to be carcinogenic, low doses can be an anti-cancer therapy in some cases. For example, a Dutch population study found low levels of arsenic concentrations in drinking water not only didn't increase cancer incidence in people who drank it, but resulted in a decrease in skin cancers..."

Arsenic shows promise as treatment for deadly brain tumors
S. L. Baker
Thursday, January 13, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/030994_arsenic_tumors.html

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"Rye is more than a flavorful ingredient in baking; research shows that this humble grain packs a serious nutritional punch. Contributing to cardiovascular health, cancer prevention, and management of diabetes, rye is an important addition to the diet. Not only is this grain healthy, but it also has been found to promote weight control and digestive health when consumed as dark rye bread..."

Consumption of rye linked to weight control and vigorous health
Carolanne Wright
Thursday, January 13, 2011

http://www.naturalnews.com/030988_rye_body_weight.html

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"Regular breads use yeast to rapidly expand the dough mixed for bread. The yeast creates a gas that expands rapidly. So baking with a yeast base is faster. Consider the word yeast and all it implies.

Sourdough is a fermented culture combining friendly yeast and bacteria. This becomes the starter culture for making sourdough bread. The process of fermenting the culture makes the baking process slower than yeast based baking.

Fermented foods are often healthier than their unfermented versions. For example, all the health problems caused by soy products are removed in tempeh, which is fermented soy. The cultures for yogurt and kefir are created by a fermentation process.

Health Benefits of Sourdough

Sourdough breaks down gluten, allowing some wheat sensitive consumers to enjoy bread that tastes good and is not too expensive. But many researchers consider sourdough rye to contain even more nutrition than sourdough wheat breads.

Research has shown that using the sourdough culture for making bread increases the bread`s nutritional impact beyond yeast produced bread. The sourdough process makes starches more digestible by predigesting them, and it lowers insulin resistance while increasing glucose tolerance.

The most controversial benefit is phytic acid or phytate reduction. Phytates are salts derived from phytic acid contained in grains, legumes, and nuts. These phytates bind with several different minerals, including magnesium, and inhibit mineral absorption into the body.

There are two points of view on phytates. Some say we need all the minerals we can get. Anything that inhibits mineral absorption should be at least reduced. Others say phytates have antioxidant and cancer fighting benefits and inhibit excess iron. But even this camp seems to agree that the mineral blocking aspect of phytates can adversely affect those who are mineral deficient.

And who is not mineral deficient? Magnesium, the most important essential mineral for human health, is deficient among most of the civilized population. Magnesium is essential for over 300 different metabolic events in the body. So the phytate factor is a mixed bag nutritionally.

Completely eliminating phytates may not be wise or even possible. Well, the cultured sourdough process does not completely eliminate phytates. It reduces them. Since most of us tend to be mineral deficient, reducing phytates can allow us to have our bread and eat it too.

Sprouted Grains

All sprouted grains, seeds, and legumes have one thing in common: Higher nutrient density. Sprouting converts a starchy food into a virtual vegetable, easier to digest and more nutritious than its source. So why bring this up?

Combining a sourdough culture with sprouted organic grain flour looks like an extremely healthy choice for bread. It`s a little more pricey, but not out of range for most who are health conscious..."

Superfood breads are realistic
Paul Fassa
Saturday, January 22, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/031078_superfood_breads.html