Tag Archives: nutrition

Nourishing Traditions: Get lots of sunlight!

Nourishing Traditions: Get lots of sunlight!!!

Sunlight is good for you. It is an essential nutrient. 

Sunlight protects you from high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and many cancers. Richard Weller, MD discovered one mechanism – the skin uses sunlight to make nitric oxide (NO). NO lowers blood pressure and lessens heart disease and strokes.

Sunlight is good for your brain; it stimulates production of serotonin and endorphins so you’re in a better mood at the beach. Epidemiological studies show that sunlight reduces the risk of prostate, breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. Sunlight also improves circadian rhythms, reduces inflammation, dampens autoimmune responses and improves virtually every mental condition. Most important, it’s free. 

What about skin cancer and melanoma? 

Skin cancer kills very few people: for every person who dies of skin cancer, more than 100 die from cardiovascular diseases. The deadly type of skin cancer, melanoma, accounts for only 1 to 3% of skin cancers. Studies show that long-term sun exposure is associated with less melanoma. Outdoor workers have half the melanoma rate of indoor workers and tanned people have lower rates too. 

An interesting comment was made by Dr. Weller who works in a skin hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that is near the equator and above 7,500 feet, so it receives massive UV radiation. Despite that, says Weller, “I have not seen a skin cancer. And yet Africans in Britain and America are told to avoid the sun.” (5)

Read the entire article, Sunscreen the New Margarine? by Rowen Jacobsen.

What About Sunscreen?
Sunscreen may cause skin cancer. Sunscreen shields from the UVB rays that cause sunburn but not the UVA rays that cause skin cancer. 

SPF ratings refer only to UVB rays, so many users may be absorbing far more UVA radiation than they realize. Meanwhile, many common sunscreen ingredients have been found to be hormone disruptors that can be detected in users’ blood and breast milk. 

The worst offender, oxybenzone, also mutates the DNA of corals and is believed to be killing coral reefs. Hawaii and the western Pacific nation of Palau have already banned it, to take effect in 2021 and 2020 respectively, and other governments are expected to follow. 

sunlight

Nourishing Foods Lead to Better Health

nourishing foods

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: https://www.ketogenicsupplementreviews.com/

Keep your brain healthy and prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease – eat organic, pastured, grass-fed meat with lots of fat. If you are a vegetarian, add lots of organic, grass-fed butter to lots of cooked, organic vegetables (organic, raw cream from grass-fed cows is also very good for you).

A lesson learned from traditional cultures all over the world, from where our ancestors came, is that meat is eaten with fat. They discovered that a diet of too much lean meat would make them sick. One reason is because eating meat without the fat results in rapid depletion of vitamin A; we need fat to absorb vitamin A and our other fat-soluble vitamins. Most traditional cultures put a special emphasis on organ meats, because these are far more nutritious than muscle meats. 

Nourishing Foods: Organ Meats

Organ meats are the richest sources of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K2. Dr. Weston A. Price found they were prized by nearly every culture and are a key to robust good health. Organ meats are also rich sources of minerals and vitamins B6 and B12 (essential for brain health). Go to www.westonaprice.org for more information on Dr. Price and his research. 

Vitamins

Research shows that Vitamin A is anti-cancer and a deficiency of Vitamin D is associated with a substantially increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There was a 53% greater risk of dementia and a 70% higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease among subjects who had a moderate vitamin D deficiency. (1)

Junk Foods Tied to Higher Cancer Risk

In a study of 471,495 people, who were followed for 15.3 years, it was discovered that people who regularly eat foods with a low nutritional quality have a higher risk of developing cancer. The study authors state that more countries should now enforce food labeling that clearly specifies nutritional value. 

The cancers associated with low nutritional quality include increased risk of colorectal cancer, cancer of the esophagus and stomach, and lung cancer (especially in men) and liver cancer (in women). 

The quality of the food you eat is the key to health.

Always avoid:

  • refined sugar and carbohydrates (especially from dry breakfast cereal)
  • high fructose corn syrup
  • hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils such as canola, corn, soy 
  • non-organic, commercial and junk foods (2)
  1. Littlejohns TJ, Henley WE, Lang IA et al. Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease. Neurology. 2014 Sep 2;83(10):920-928. 
  2. Deschasaux M, Huybrechts I, Murphy N et al. Nutritional quality of food as represented by the FSAm-NPS nutrient profiling system underlying the Nutri-Score label and cancer risk in Europe: results from the EPIC prospective cohort study. Published: September 18, 2018 PLoS Med 15(9): e1002651.