Natural Cures Not Medicine: food

Most Read This Week:

Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

How an 8-year old treated cancer and shrunk her tumor by 75%

Arjun Walia | Collective-Evolution

Image: YouTube
Another story of a cancer patient treating themselves through diet has surfaced. Not long ago we shared a similar story of a man with stage 3 colon cancer who refused chemotherapy and cured himself with a vegan diet. I want to make it clear that surgery does not cure cancer, especially when an individual is already in the later stages of the disease. If it did, that’s all they would do. Cancer is a systemic metabolic disease, the result of a body that is nutrient deficient, overloaded with toxins and usually the result of a PH level that’s too low, meaning that the body is bathed in acidity. If the body is not given the essential nutrients it needs to repair, regenerate and detoxify, cancer will most likely return.
Let food by thy medicine, and medicine by thy food – Hippocrates
In this case, the PH levels were raised, and as a result the lactic acid goes down and the cancer activity  goes down. This allows the body repair itself. It’s very concerning that most doctors don’t know that nutrition plays a vital role when it comes to cancer treatment. If you have cancer, the options you are given are usually drugs, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Rarely is nutrition thought of when it comes to an effective cure for cancer. While each case is unique and no ONE treatment can be used in every case, it is important to look at multiple options that have been effective vs only looking at mainstream options which don’t have high success rates to begin with. For example, here is a list of  20 medical studies that prove cannabis can cure cancer.




Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are constantly pushed as the only go-to options for cancer treatment, when this couldn’t be farther from the truth. How often does a cancer patient see a doctor who tells them that dichloroacetate can cure their cancer? That was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Alberta. Cancer is a multi-trillion dollar industry, it can be hard to believe that there are those who do not promote treatments that have been proven successful, but it simply means we have to go beyond what we are taught, use our critical thinking skills and find out the truth for ourselves.

Source: collective-evolution.com

Refrigeration Without Electricity



Source: http://thetechawards.thetech.org/the-laureates/stories/1405 via Minds.com

Image: gizmodo.com
Mohammed Bah Abba
Country: Nigeria
Region of Impact: Nigeria


Project Overview:

Mobah Rural Horizons, is a Rural Development and Consulting Organization that designs, invents, and disseminates appropriate technologies for poor rural areas. The project is a fresh foods preservation system that uses two clay pots. This system requires no electricity supply to preserve and prolong the storage life of perishable fresh food items.

Problem Addressed:

For people who live in hot climates with little electricity, food spoils quickly. Produce spoils in within three days without refrigeration, forcing farmers to rush their crops to the market and sell them at undervalued prices. This has a lot of consequences to the farmers, and their families, because it affects their village life and leads a decrease in income in the poor rural areas. For Kano City, which is around 60 miles from many farmers, the fresh produce that is grown rots along the way, causing its farmers to earn smaller profits and provide for fewer people.

Refrigeration is a method for storing foods around the world, but places in Africa like Kano City do not have the resources to support a stable supply of electricity to make refrigerators a viable option.

Technology Solution:

Mohammed Bah Abba designed an elegantly simple food storage device that is made up of two earthenware pots which utilize the principles of evaporation to create electric-free refrigeration. In between the two pots is a layer of fine, wet, river sand, and on top is a moist jute bag. When kept in a dry, well-ventilated, and shady location, water evaporates, cooling the inner container. As a result, Mohammed's desert refrigerator allows produce to stay fresh for weeks, so less food is wasted, and farmers are able to increase their profits so that they can continue to provide for their communities. Mohammed sells around 30,000 coolers a year to farmers and other people who want to preserve food for their families and communities.

About The Tech Museum of Innovation

The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit, experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech Museum endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.

According to Gizmodo.com, this is how you build one:
"Materials and Tools Required 
two terra cotta pots with a 2-3 inch difference in diameter. The smaller pot should be glazed and preferably lacking a drainage hole. If the inner container is double glazed (on its inner and outer walls), non-potable water—say seawater—can be employed. 
a bag of sterile sand 
a square of burlap cloth large enough to cover the top of the inner pot 
a trowel 
Building It 
1. If your pots have drainage holes, plug them with a bit of cork, caulk, or other waterproof material. If you don't, moisture from the sand will seep into the lower pot and immerse the stored goods or seep out the bottom of the larger one. 
2. Put down a one-inch deep, level layer of sand in the bottom of the large pot. Set the smaller pot on top of that layer and center it in the larger one. Make sure that the smaller pot's lip is even with the larger one's. 
3. Fill sand in around the sides of the of the two pots, leaving about an inch of space below the lip. 
4. Pour cold water over the sand until it is thoroughly saturated. Put your food into the smaller pot. Cover that with a burlap cloth, also soaked with water. That's it! Just be sure to refill the water regularly, about once or twice a day."

The 7 Nastiest Things Lurking In Your Supermarket

by Judy Molland

If you’ve watched the Food Matters or Hungry For Change films, you’ll understand how important it is to read ingredient labels. So often, dubious food labeling regulations mean that many toxic or harmful ingredients are either not declared or are listed as another name!

If you think pink slime is awful, (which it is, of course), and that arsenic in baby food, cereal bars, rice and even chicken is an outrage, here are seven more nasty items lurking in your local supermarket.

Below are 7 of the nastiest ingredients and food items commonly found in supermarkets.
7-Nasty-Things


1. Flame-Retardant Sodas

The toxic flame retardant chemical brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, was first used to keep plastics from catching on fire. However, the food industry has been using it in sodas, juices and sports drinks to keep those artificial flavoring chemicals mixed in with the rest of the liquids. You’ll find it in drinks such as Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple and Powerade.

BVO has been linked to skins lesions, memory loss, and nerve disorders.

2. Petroleum-Laced Candy

You’ve probably wondered if that candy with those wacky bright colors is good for you. It’s not. Many of the artificial food dyes found in everyday foods, including candy, are made from petroleum-derived materials. Kids love those “fun” colors in their cereal and candy, but food dyes are also used in hundreds of supermarket foods.

They are harmful: orange and purple food dyes have been shown to impair brain function, while other dyes have been linked to ADHD and behavioral problems in kids. Of course, companies don’t care because it’s cheaper for them to use those fake dyes than it is to use real ingredients.

3. Moldy Berries

Here’s a sobering fact: the FDA legally allows up to 60 percent of canned or frozen blackberries and raspberries to contain mold; 15 percent mold is the limit for canned fruit and vegetable juices.

It’s true that it’s perfectly fine to eat some food when it starts to grow mold, but you should toss soft fruits and vegetables, since they may have mold growing below the surface. Also, because mold spreads quickly in fruits and vegetables, check nearby foods in your produce drawer.

4. Salade Verte With Paint Chemicals

Perhaps you didn’t know that your salad dressing may well contain titanium dioxide, which is a component of titanium, a mined substance that is sometimes contaminated with toxic lead.

This chemical is widely used in paints and sunscreens, but Big Food also adds it to lots of things we eat, including processed salad dressing. They do this to to make dingy, overly processed items, like your salad dressing, appear brighter and whiter.

5. Hormone-Heavy Milk

Ah, the wonders of modern technology: today’s cows produce double the amount of milk they did just 40 years ago, and that’s mostly because of a genetically engineered, synthetic hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, that helps them along.

This synthetic hormone is banned in many other countries because it has been linked to prostate, breast and colon cancers. However, it is still legal here, although many dairies are being pressured to abandon it.

6. Meat Laced With Flesh-Eating Bacteria

Beware the supermarket meat department! Grocery store meats are commonly infused with nasty extras, including staph bacteria, and especially the hard-to-kill, potentially lethal MRSA strain. A study published last year in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that half of grocery store meat tested positive for staph bacteria.

MRSA kills about 19,000 people a year in America.

7. Toxic shrimp

Imported shrimp is on the Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch List as “Avoid” at all costs. Less than two percent of all imported seafood is inspected, which is a huge problem.

As a result, imported shrimp often contains antibiotics, cleaning chemicals used in farmed shrimp pens, residues of toxic pesticides banned in the U.S., and pieces of insects.

Domestic shrimp would be the answer, except that 70 percent of domestic shrimp comes from the Gulf of Mexico, and the recent oil spill has made us all wary of eating that. Instead, try buying shrimp from Texas, the East Coast, Maine and the Carolina’s.

The obvious solution to all these nasty items: avoid processed food, and stick to organic produce as much as possible. Not to mention, if you are buying processed food, always check the ingredients.

Source: care2.com/

10 Good Reasons to Buy Organic

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine

Organic Consumers Association

Organic foods and products are the fastest growing items in America’s grocery carts. Thirty million households, comprising 75 million people, are now buying organic foods, clothing, body care, supplements, pet food, and other products on a regular basis. Fifty-six percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer organic foods.

Here are 10 reasons why you should buy organic foods and products:

1. Organic foods are produced without the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Consumers worry about untested and unlabeled genetically modified food ingredients in common supermarket items. Genetically engineered ingredients are now found in 75% of all non-organic U.S. processed foods, even in many products labeled or advertised as “natural.” In addition, the overwhelming majority of non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs are derived from animals reared on a steady diet of GM animal feed. Although polls indicate that 90% of Americans want labels on gene-altered foods, government and industry adamantly refuse to respect consumers’ right to know, understanding quite well that health and environmental-minded shoppers will avoid foods with a GMO label.

2. Organic foods are safe and pure. Organic farming prohibits the use of toxic pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, nano-particles, and climate-destabilizing chemical fertilizers. Consumers worry about pesticide and drug residues routinely found in non-organic produce, processed foods, and animal products. Consumer Reports has found that 77% of non-organic produce items in the average supermarket contain pesticide residues. The beef industry has acknowledged that 94% of all U.S. beef cattle have hormone implants, which are banned in Europe as a cancer hazard. Approximately 10% of all U.S. dairy cows are injected with Monsanto and Elanco’s controversial genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone, banned in most industrialized nations. Recent studies indicate that an alarming percentage of non-organic U.S. meat contains dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

3. Organic foods and farming are climate-friendly. Citizens are increasingly concerned about climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas pollution (CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide), 35-50% of which in North America comes from our energy-intensive, chemical-intensive food and farming system. Organic farms and ranches, on the other hand, use far less fossil fuel and can safely sequester large amounts of CO2 in the soil (up to 7,000 pounds of CO2 per acre per year, every year.) Twenty-four billion pounds of chemical fertilizers applied on non-organic farms in the U.S. every year not only pollute our drinking water and create enormous dead zones in the oceans; but also release enormous amounts of nitrous oxide, a super potent, climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas.

4. Organic food certification prohibits nuclear irradiation. Consumers are justifiably alarmed about irradiating food with nuclear waste or electron beams, which destroy vitamins and nutrients and produce cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde. The nuclear industry, large food processors, and slaughterhouses continue to lobby Congress to remove required labels from irradiated foods and replace these with misleading labels that use the term “cold pasteurization.” The USDA and large meat companies have promoted the use of irradiated meat in school lunches and senior citizen facilities. Many non-organic spices contain irradiated ingredients.

5. Consumers worry about rampant e-coli, salmonella, campylobacter, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and fecal contamination in animal products coming out of the nation’s inhumane and filthy slaughterhouses. The Centers for Disease Control have admitted that up to 76 million Americans suffer from food poisoning every year. Very few cases of food poisoning have ever been linked to organic farms or food processors.

6. Consumers are concerned about billions of pounds of toxic municipal sewage sludge dumped as “fertilizer” on 140,000 of America’s chemical farms. Scientific evidence has confirmed that municipal sewage sludge contains hundreds of dangerous pathogens, toxic heavy metals, flame-retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals coming from residential drains, storm water runoff, hospitals, and industrial plants. Organic farming categorically prohibits the use of sewage sludge.

7. Consumers worry about the routine practice of grinding up slaughterhouse waste and feeding this offal and blood back to other animals, a practice that has given rise to a form of human mad-cow disease called CJD, often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Animals on organic farms cannot be fed slaughterhouse waste, manure, or blood – daily rations on America’s factory farms.

8. Consumers care about the humane treatment of animals. Organic farming prohibits intensive confinement and mutilation (debeaking, cutting off tails, etc.) of farm animals. In addition to the cruel and unhealthy confinement of animals on factory farms, scientists warn that these CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) produce enormous volumes of manure and urine, which not only pollute surface and ground water, but also emit large quantities of methane, a powerful climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas.

9. Consumers are concerned about purchasing foods with high nutritional value. Organic foods are nutritionally dense compared to foods produced with toxic chemicals, chemical fertilizers, and GMO seeds. Studies show that organic foods contain more vitamins, cancer-fighting anti-oxidants, and important trace minerals.

10. Consumers care about preserving America’s family farms, world hunger, and the plight of the world’s two billion small farmers. Just about the only small farmers who stand a chance of making decent living these days are organic farmers, who get a better price for their products. In addition study after study has shown that small organic farms in the developing world produce twice as much food per acre as chemical and GMO farms, while using far less fossil fuel and sequestering large amounts of excess CO2 in the soil. Yields on organic farms in the industrialized world are comparable to the yields on chemical and GMO farms, with the important qualification that organic farms far out-produce chemical farms under extreme weather conditions of drought or torrential rains. Of course, given accelerated climate change, extreme weather is fast becoming the norm.

For all these reasons, millions of American consumers are turning to organic foods and other organic items, including clothing and body care products – part of an overall movement toward healthy living, preserving the environment, and reversing global warming.

Sources: Real Farmacy

Organic Consumers Association

The Amount Of Food The Average American Eats Yearly Will Shock You

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine
 american-average-food-consumption1

What Are We Eating? How Much Are We Eating? While I find the following chart very sobering, I do not find it shocking. Healthy diet is foundational to good health and well-being.  In fact, we can say that in most instances one’s diet will be proportional to their current state of health and wellness.

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5’9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year, Americans eat 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils. They eat 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork. Americans eat 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken. They eat 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs.

Americans eat 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year and 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products. They drink 181 lbs. of beverage milks. Americans eat 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour. They eat 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup. Americans consume 56 lbs. of corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables. Every year, Americans eat 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts. Americans eat 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year.

These foods include 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream. Americans drink 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week. Americans eat 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners each year. They eat 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended. Americans consume 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg. In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day.

Source: Oasis Advanced Wellness

Top 30 Flowers For Bees

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine


Bees are vital. Without them, pollination of crops doesn't occur. Bees work tirelessly to provide us with our food, but are struggling in the wild. In recent years it has become apparent that bees, not just the honeybee, are under threat and some have already gone extinct. Find out on this lens which flowers to grow for pollen and nectar that will feed them and help them to increase their numbers. Insects and plants must now be taken care of by gardeners if they are to survive.The private garden is now a better place than the countryside for wildlife, since much agricultural land is now devoid of the diversity of flowers insects need to give them their 'five a day'. It is now thought by scientists in the field that insects need as much variety in their food as we do to get all the trace minerals and vitamins to keep them healthy, so go on, plant flowers for the bees!

HA= Hardy annual   HHA =Half hardy annual   P = Perennial   HB= Hardy biennial   HS= Hardy shrub


·  1
Cosmos (HHA) is an annual flower easily raised from seed. It’s also one of the very best for the bee. Grow it in groups, making the collection of pollen easier for the bees, who won’t have to fly as far to find their food. Cosmos grows 2-5ft tall, the majority reaching about 2ft. It’s from Mexico, so a half hardy annual. Plant out after all danger of frost has passed, and deadhead to keep them flowering continuously through the summer. These open, flat flowers will delight you as well as giving the bees a feast.
·  2
Aster (HHA) ‘Compostion’ or Michaelmass Daisies. Many modern hybrids have little or no pollen. easy to grow, colorful and late summer to autumn flowering, they provide food late in the season. Important if honeybees are to be well fed to get through the winter months.
·  3
Sunflowers (HA) are a great choice, available in many heights and colours to suit your garden space. Choose yellow or orange over red, which bees don’t like. Varieties exist now for the allergic gardener, containing no pollen. Obviously avoid these when wishing to attract bees.
·  4
Calendulas or marigolds (HA) are great for bees, especially the original single flowered pot marigold. Dead head regularly for a longer flowering period.
·  5
Primulas. (HP) The native primrose, (primula vulgaris), primulas of all kinds, even the drumstick ones are great early food for bees. Cowslips (primula veris) are also good members of this extensive family of perennial plants.
·  6
Rudbekia (HHA) are an extensive group of cone flowers from the aster family. A wide variety of heights, mostly available in yellows and oranges, sure to brighten your border and feed bees. There are also a few hardy perennial ones, of which ‘Goldsturn’ is my personal favourite. All are easy to grow from seed.
·  7
Scabious or cornflowers (HA), another aster family member, are mostly blue flowered and bees adore them. Dead-headed regularly, they’ll flower all summer long.
·  8
Lavender (HHS) There are plenty of lavenders to choose from, all needing plenty of sun and well drained soil, but they’ll reward you with plenty of fragrant flowers for cutting and drying. Just watch them get smothered in bees when they come into flower.
·  9
Bluebells (bulb) Another early food supply. Just a note of caution for UK growers. The native English bluebell in now under threat from the Spanish bluebell, which outcompetes and crosses with it. So please ensure you are planting the native bluebell to ensure you don’t endanger a bluebell woodland near you.
·  10
Hellebores (HP) The Christmas rose! A lovely flower to have in your garden from late winter to early spring, this plant will tolerate some shade and moist conditions, though not wet. When bees emerge from hibernation they need food fast. This one gives them a snack when there’s little else around.
·  11
Clematis (Perennial climber) The majority of clematis will provide pollen, and I’ve watched bees happily moving from flower to flower gathering their crop. Always plant clematis deeper than they were in the container, as this gives more protection against cleamits wilt. These plants are hungry and thirsty, so add good compost to the planting hole. They also like their roots in the cool and heads in the sun, so once planted I place either a thick mulch or a pile of stones or gravel around their roots, keeping them cool and conserving moisture.
·  12
Crocus (bulb) Early flowering, plenty to choose from, and planted in the autumn to flower year after year. These are great value and cheer me up as well as the bees!
·  13
Mint (HP), especially water mint, is loved by bees. It’s great in your cooking, too. Easy to grow, it can be a bit of a thug, so either grow it in a container or prevent its escape around the garden by burying a bucket (with holes in the bottom for drainage) and plant your mint into that.
·  14
Rosemary (HHS) A mediterranean herb, rosemary likes well drained soild and full sun. It flowers around April/May. A great culinary herb, bees will take advantage of the pollen as long as you prune it correctly. This is best done straight after flowering, as most of the flowers will appear on new wood. Don’t prune rosemary back to old, bare wood as these are not likely to regrow. Depending on where you live and soil conditions, rosemary can be short lived, so take some cuttings each year so you can replace the old plant should it dsie or become too leggy.
·  15
Thyme (H to HHS)) There are now quite a few varieties available, tasting slightly different to each other eg lemon thyme. However, I’ve noticed that the wild thyme (thymus serpyllum) attracts a lot of bee visitors and tends to flower more profusely. But they are all worth growing. Give them the same growing conditions as rosemary and lavender.
·  16
Hebe (HH-HS) This extensive group of shrubs have wonderful flowers for bees. Plenty of pollen, all on one flower and plenty of flowers on one shrub. They vary in height, are mosly blue or pink and tolerate most soils. They dislike too much wet, so a well drained soil is best. Water well, though, until established.
·  17
Borage, the bee herb. (HA) Borage is blue flowered, simple to grow and in fact one type grows wild in the UK, though originally from Syria. Easy, prolific and the bees love it.
·  18
Echinacea, the cone flower. (HP) Now available in a variety of colours, all of which will attract bees. Echinacea Tennesseensis will attract birds, bees and butterflies.
·  19
Mignotette. There are HA, HHA and Perennial members of this family. They are sweetly scented and will attract and feed your bees, especially Reseda lutea.
·  20
Thrift, or Sea Pink (HP) is a great plant for a rock garden, trough or wall. Holding its bright pink flowers well above the grass-like foliage, it will cheer your garden and make the bees come back for more! Give it well drained condiitons and lots of sun.
·  21
Sedums are also excellent plants for rock gardens and walls. There are many to choose from, but avoid Sedum Spectabilis Autumn Joy if you’re planting for bees. Biting stonecrop and English stonecrop (sedums acre and anglicum). are natives, and great for bees.
·  22
Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) (HB) are fantastic flowers for bees. An old cottage garden favourite, bees are attracted to the pink or white flowers and we love the perfume! They are members of the dianthus family, as are Pinks and Carnations, all of which are good for the bees.
·  23
Monarda (Bergamot) (HP) This is the herb that flavours Earl Grey tea, but the bees love its flowers for pollen and nectar. Its folk name in the Uk is bee balm. It likes a moist but not wet soil and can cope with a bit of shade. Share it with the bees! Bergamot tea is a herbal treat in itself. Just pour boiling water on the leaves and allow about ten minutes before drinking.
·  24
Cornflower (HA) Easy to grow, cheap and cheerful, cornflowers are another cottage garden favourite. Thier blue flowers act like a bee magnet. Grow in as large a group as you have the space for. This makes it easier for the bees to spot them and saves them flying around more than necessary. It’s easy to save seed from one year to the next, too.
·  25
Poppies (HA-HP) All poppies are attractive to bees, and are laden with pollen in nice open flowers. Very easy to grow, especially the annual kinds, and easy to save seeds to sow next year. Enjoy their delicate petals while your bees enjoy a feast.
·  26
Verbena Bonariensis (HP) a tall, delicate looking perennial with purple/mauve flowers that add a tropical feel to your borders. This is easy to grow from seed and sown early enough will flower in its first year. One not to do without!
·  27
Snapdragons (Antirrhinum) (HHA) Plenty of choice in heights and colours. Have you ever watched a bee enter and leave a snapdragon? Their weight pulls the lower part of the petal down so they can get inside for their food, and you can hear them buzzing while they are in there. Lovely to watch.
·  28
Ageratum (HHA) Easy to grow, with heads of blue flowers and another member of the compositae family, so lots of food on one flower head. This is one of my favorite annuals in the garden. Just don’t plant out until all danger of frost has passed and dead head for more flowers.
·  29
Echinops (globe thistle) (HP) This lovely blue thistle is very ornamental, even when not in flower, standing about 36″ tall. Bees and butterflies love the flowers which provide plenty of nectar. Easy to grow from seed and will come back year after year.
·  30

Digitalis (foxglove) (HB) Foxgloves make great food for bees. As they are poisonous, protect children from them and handle wearing gloves. As long as these precautions are taken these are wonderful plants for the garden and the bees. A woodland plant, they’re useful for a shady spot.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Top 10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Food

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine


1. Get The Nutrition You Need and Enjoy Tastier Food!
Many studies have shown that organically grown food has more minerals and nutrients that we need than food grown with synthetic pesticides. There’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes—they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and, ultimately our bodies.

2. Save Money
Growing your own food can help cut the cost of the grocery bill. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars and month at the grocery store on foods that don’t really nourish you, spend time in the garden, outside, exercising, learning to grow your own food.

3. Protect Future Generations
The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. Food choices you make now will impact your child’s future health.
“We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers,
we are borrowing it from our children.”
– Lester Brown

4. Prevent Soil Erosion
Soil in developed nations is eroded several times faster than it’s built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. However, in conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, many farms worldwide are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history.

5. Protect Water Quality
Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. Pesticides – some cancer causing – contaminate the groundwater an can pollute the primary source of drinking water.

6. Save Energy
Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming a significant percentage total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest crops. If you are growing your own food in the city, you are cutting down on transportation and pollution costs.

7. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
In the United States, many pesticides approved for use by the Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an extra 4 million cancer cases among Americans. If you are growing your own food, you have control over what does, or doesn’t, go into it. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also harm humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations.

8. Protect Workers and Help Small Farmers
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers have risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973 and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in the state. Farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide use can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides.

Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned family farms of fewer than 100 acres. It’s estimated the United States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that half of this country’s farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for family farms.

9. Promote Biodiversity
Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts. Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making farmers more reliant on pesticides. Despite a tenfold increase in the use of pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubled—partly because some insects have become genetically resistant to certain pesticides.

10. Help Beautify Your Community
Besides being used to grow food, community gardens are also a great way to beautify a community, and to bring pride in ownership.

Sources: Prevent Disease
realfarmacy.com 

How To Beat Addictions Naturally

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine

In this land of plenty, a conservative estimate calls 4 out of 10 Americans "addicts." Abused substances include sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, prescription drugs and street drugs including pot. Addiction can serve us well once we recognize that substance abuse is a way to obscure honest, peaceful, self-discovery. Using, of any addictive substance, gives us the temporary illusion of control, excitement and perfection. In recovery we discover, often to our great relief, that we're not perfect, that we need intimacy, and that integrity is more appealing than denial. The addict is self-obsessed; living for the next "fix." The addict is crisis oriented; using panic as a way of feeling alive while avoiding meaningful contact with others. In recovery we let go of our need to control in favor of serenity and clarity.

Scientists from different schools of thought have attempted to explain addiction. Some say the culprit is a genetic lack of the feel-good, sleep-inducing neurotransmitter serotonin. Others say early brain cell damage begets lack of feedback inhibition for normal cravings, driving them out of balance. For example, non-addictive persons who eat some sugar will be satisfied (in terms of simple carbohydrates) for several hours. The addictive person, by contrast, will crave even more sugar after consuming a moderate serving. This may be due, in addicts, to a lack of endorphin stimulation when a healthy physiologic craving is satisfied. Other researchers and physicians contend that addiction is largely a response to depression. Addiction is major problem in this country, whatever the cause. Sugar addiction is perhaps the most insidious because the substance is so cheap, so available and so universally regarded as a "treat."

Addiction spells confusion. For example, street drugs are "bad" while prescription drugs are "good" despite the statistics which show that in any recent year death due to complications from prescription drug overdose is 50 times more likely than death from street drugs. Nevertheless, IV "recreational" drug addicts are the long-term reservoir for AIDS and the vast proportion of criminal activity among teenagers is due to the cocaine trade. Caffeine and alcohol and nicotine are socially condoned although they contribute to a substantial percentage of hospitalizations in the U.S.
If you ingest white sugar daily, or drink alcohol daily or have an immediate family member who is alcoholic, or feel depressed frequently you may have a problem with addiction without realizing it. Please take a good look; the crucial initiation of breaking free from addiction is recognizing the substance abuse and seeking help to maintain the commitment to quit.

Addiction results from a multifactorial network of choices; the treatment approach must address not only the physical, but the mental and emotional (spiritual) as well. One reason the 12-Step programs (Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Spenders Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics, etc.) are so successful is that they are free of charge and thus require only the commitment of the participant for attendance. Sometimes people need stronger measures to kick their habit at the beginning. But quitting per se is not so difficult; the trick is staying quit. Many addicts have incurred so many physical and mental changes that they need to get their fix merely to sustain homeostasis. In other words withdrawal can be very rough. And the better prepared we are for withdrawal, whether it be from inhaled crack or chocolate, the better we will be able to handle the rocky road back to recovery.

The basic parameters for recovery are the same as for any rehabilitation; good high fiber, high fresh veggie, plenty of pure water diet; regular adequate sleep; daily exercise; heartfelt participation in group activities. Don't isolate yourself. The more people know you're trying to quit, the more help will be spontaneously offered, and the more comfortable you'll be with asking for help and taking baby-steps towards your new reality.

The cornerstone towards my own recovery has been wanting to hear that small and enormously personal inner voice that would get drowned in the substances night after night. Breaking free of addictive habits is a blessed opportunity to engage in the ultimate purpose of life -- to know Thyself. Meanwhile, there are a few natural support mechanisms that may help.

1) Good old Vitamin C, preferably the powdered form (1/4 tsp = 1 gram). Take up to 12 grams daily. Vitamin C is the single most potent free radical scavenger and will help cleanse and oxygenate the tissues. It will also help to keep the bowels moving; a very important component of getting clean and sober.

2) The amino acid Glutamine is a so-called amino radical, useful in detox, as well as acting as an excitatory neurotransmitter. Glutamine, 1 gram 4-6 times daily between meals on an empty stomach, will stimulate the body's natural opiates, the endorphins and enkephalins, to help us through the cravings.

3) Essential fatty acids (preferably Flax oil, cold, raw, 1 tablespoon daily) in combination with the sulfur proteins (foods with cysteine or methionine, such as yoghurt, eggs, codfish, sesame paste, garlic and onions) will render fat soluble toxins water soluble, allowing all the toxic wastes, which are preferentially stored in the body's fat cells, to be flushed out via the kidneys and sweat glands.

4) Anything to enhance perspiration; rigorous exercise, Turkish wet steam, or Finnish style dry heat sauna. Make sure to scrub down with a high-fat soap (such as Neutrogena) after sweating, to emulsify the fatty secretions and prevent their re-absorption.

5) Liquid aqueous chromium drops are extremely helpful in reducing sugar cravings. This is because the trivalent mineral chromium is the central molecule in the Glucose Tolerance Factor, which allows insulin to deliver glucose from the blood stream into the cells. Without chromium, the insulin cannot do its job and sugar will build up in high levels in the blood, then flood precipitously into the cells causing the dramatic rollercoaster ride of "sugar blues."

6) There are a number of natural substances to help with sleep and depression, including the amino acids tyrosine, phenylalanine, tryptophan (the precursor to serotonin) and the vitamin niacinamide. From the botanical pharmacy we have Valerian, Scutellaria (Skullcap), Passiflora (Passion lower), Chamomile and many others.

7) Many people are helped enormously by acupuncture, especially for getting off nicotine and street drugs. Acupuncture detox clinics using a simple "5 needle protocol" in specific acupoints (Spirit Gate, Lung, Liver, Kidney and Parasympathetic) in both ears are so successful that state governments have become involved. Seattle King County medical insurance will now re-imburse for acupuncture treatments for addicts. In Oregon, heroin addicts MUST try acupuncture before getting methadone.

Whether you go the route of stimulate the natural endorphins or 12-step meetings, the bottom line is commitment to self. Cold turkey off anything is usually the least painful in the long run -- but please prepare yourself. Prepare for the demons who will emerge. Prepare to negotiate with them and bring them around to your best interest. Set a date; tell your friends; locate support groups in your area; stock up the pantry with fresh healthy snacks; invest in a consultation or two with your local holistic health practitioner to get some high quality supplements. Ask your doctor or therapist to help guide you through a visualization of a shiny clean new you. No one is pretending it's easy; but it's certainly worth it.



Source: OasisAdvancedWellness.com

Foods That Heal The Kidneys

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine


1. Burdock: Burdock is known for it's blood purifying abilities. It is highly regarded for its action in the urinary tract, being of benefit to the kidneys and bladder infections, inflammations and kidney stones.

2. Cucumber: Help to wash the kidneys and bladder of debris and stones. Studies have shown that eating cucumbers regularly helps to regulate uric acid in the body, thereby preventing certain kidney and bladder stones.

3. Celery: Promotes healthy and normal kidney function by aiding elimination of toxins from the body! In fact, Hippocrates considered celery a medicine and recommended it for its kidney cleansing benefits. 

4. Cilantro: Cilantro may help reduce the damaging effects of lead on the kidneys. Cilantro is also useful for removing mercury, a toxic metal that decreases the kidneys' ability to filter and increases risk for kidney disease.

5. Parsley: Parsley is known as the best cleaning treatment for kidneys. It increases diuresis by inhibiting the Na+/K+-ATPase pump in the kidney, thereby enhancing sodium and water excretion while increasing potassium reabsorption. It is also valued as an aquaretic. 

6. Berries: These yummy fruits with vibrant colours are really healthy food for your kidney. Be it strawberry, raspberry, blueberries and last but not the least cranberries all have their individual and collect functions that benefit the kidneys. Cranberry increase the acidic nature of urine thereby eliminating infections, blueberries are anti-inflammatory and raspberries help neutralise the impurities in the kidney.

7. Red Bell Pepper: Provide roughage from the fibre, Vitamin B6, Vitamin A and folic acid and also antioxidant lypocene that cleanses your kidneys.

8. Beets: The blood-red beet is also a good tonic for the blood, providing rich amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus. Perhaps this is why beets are thought to strengthen the heart. With a wealth of vitamin C, carotene, and B vitamins, beets may nourish the nerves, aid lymphatic function, and increase energy

Source : Live Love Fruit

Related Articles :

Health Benefits Of Turmeric


Fruits and veggies that are good for detoxing


Amazing Miracle Cure Juice Including Beets

Foods you must buy organic












Some foods are grown in a way that exposes them to more toxic chemicals than others and some foods are notorious for being exceptionally filthy when you get them at the grocery store.  Here is a list of produce you should make sure you buy organic to avoid the toxins.  They may look healthy, but unless they are organic, they are contaminated:

Kale:  Though a super food, kale is usually heavily contaminated with pesticides.

Lettuce:  More than 50 different pesticides have been found on lettuce.

Potatoes :  More than 35 pesticides have been detected in tests conducted by the USDA.

Grapes:  Imported grapes can have over 30 chemical pesticides and raisins have high pesticide residue tests as well.

Spinach:  Has tested positive for a whopping 50 different chemical pesticides.  Frozen spinach usually has about the same amount.

Strawberries:  A regular on the dirty dozen list, unfortunately these delicious berries have been shown to have over 60 different pesticides on them though frozen strawberries have less.

Apples:  Over 40 chemicals have been found on apples.  Apple sauce and apple juice also contained pesticide residue.

Peaches:  We all love peaches, but not the 60 plus pesticides found on them.  Canned peaches have much less but it is best to go organic. 

Celery:  Tests on this crunchy enjoyable veggie turned up over 60 chemicals. 

Nectarines:  Overall, 33 different pesticides have been found on these, though domestic grown nectarines tend to be less contaminated then imported fruits.

Bell peppers:  Nearly 50 chemicals on these and every color variety of sweet bell peppers are contaminated.

Blueberries:  Pushing over 50 varieties of chemical residues, these berries should be bought from the organic section. 


Other great posts by Natural Cures Not Medicine:

Natures Most Potent Allergy Blockers


Disclaimer:

Before trying anything you find on the internet you should fully investigate your options and get further advice from professionals.

Below are our most recent posts on facebook