This story emphasizes how much Brazilians value this drink and consume it nearly everyday. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to also use it for bathing, cooking, and in emergency medical situations when it can substitute for a blood transfusion (the only natural product with this characteristic). It really is an essential part of the daily nutrition for people from South America, Asia, India, along with Hawaii and other Pacific islands where it is indigenous — counted in eighty-five countries overall.

Some of the core benefits include unique hydration properties, five crucial electrolytes — including more potassium than two bananas — while also containing no cholesterol or fat and very low acidity. Other widely reported benefits include calming stomach pain, detox assistance, increased circulation, and even facilitating your body’s immune system. The drink has even been known to contribute to weight loss because of these properties.

Vita Coco is able to produce coconut water without the harmful characteristics of fat and cholesterol because they use only young coconuts — just seven months old on average — when they extract the coconut water. At this age, the coconuts are green, before their brown phase, and have not reached the maturity at which the fruits develop the fat that comes in coconut milk. Proponents of this brand assert that it is so fresh that they compare it to drinking directly from the coconut, just like locals do across the world.

Vita Coco also produces their drink without any additional sugar, leaving it completely natural as extracted from the plant, though they do pasteurize it. With this process, their custom “tetra pak” packaging is known to last for twelve months. Nonetheless, when you go beyond the natural flavor and reach flavors mixed with other fruits, you will get the natural sugars that come in those ingredient combinations. These additional flavors include peach and mango, tangerine, pineapple, tropical fruit, as well as acai and pomegranate. From this company, they are mostly sold in ½ liter amounts but can be found in larger and smaller sizes as well

It is absolutely essential for everyone to do a detox every once in a while, especially after a holiday season, or a period of time where cooked and other processed foods have been consumed regularly.

A raw food detox will simply help to get all the nasty foods and harmful toxins out of the body, so that the body can heal itself, or prevent diseases from creeping up.

The best way to do a detox, or to take detoxification to the next level, is a juice fast, but for some doing a juice fast may not seem right, especially for those who have never fasted before. And for them I recommend going on a strictly raw food detox for at least 2 weeks or longer, and if possible remain on the raw food diet.

Raw foods are high in fiber which will promote bowel movements, thus cleansing the digestive system. Plus they are high in nutrients which will restore the body back to health.

To get started on the raw food detox, you simply start eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with raw nuts and seeds. You can make the change gradually where every day you eat more raw foods than you did the previous day. You can also make the change in one day, but this will be hard on your body.

Your goal is to eliminate all cooked, baked, processed, and fast foods, refined sugars, and animals products. This includes milk, caffeine, canned or bottled juices, and bread. These are the foods which made you toxic in the first place, and that is why you need to avoid them at all costs. Alcohol and cigarettes should also be avoided during this time of cleansing.

To start your day, begin with a fruit or vegetable smoothie, some apples, or any other fruits you may like. For lunch you can have some nuts and more fruits and vegetables, and for supper a leafy green vegetable salad with lettuce or kale is ideal. If you like smoothies and prefer to get your greens that way, by all means drink as many smoothies as you like, and the same goes for anything else; if you like lettuce, or garden salads then eat as many as you like.

The important thing however is to get a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet, but the most important are the leafy greens like kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, and broccoli; the more of these you can eat the better.

Blueberries, strawberries, plums, oranges, and grapes are also great for consumption during a raw food detox.

Last but not least, you want to make sure to eat lots of garlic. Garlic is a great detoxifier and will help to cleanse your body from the inside out. The best way to consume the garlic is by adding it into a fruit or vegetable smoothie.

With the rising costs of healthcare and the unwanted side-effects of traditional medications, many cancer sufferers are turning to alternative medicine as a cancer treatment. Are they worthwhile? Although such treatments haven’t undergone the rigorous testing of traditional medications, their advocates claim that they’re useful. Here are some of the most common types of alternative medicine treatments for cancer:

1. Detoxification

Several cancer patients, who choose alternative cancer treatments, use detoxification as part of their regime. Detoxification can include several types of treatments, including colon cleansing, fasting, heat therapy, herbal methods, and water therapy.

Modern life constantly bombards our bodies and minds with toxins. This happens through the air we breathe, the foods and beverages we consume, and so on. These basic yet effective detoxification methods help to cleanse your body of those unwanted toxins.

2. Nutritional Therapy

There are two basic approaches have become popular. One method is a universal approach that helps to improve the patient’s strength and health. This includes sticking to that old “Food Pyramid” that we learned in elementary school, using a raw foods diet (such as juicing), and so on. While diet fads come and go, research continues to prove that fresh, organic food best feeds your body the fuel that it needs to function effectively.

Another type of nutritional therapy uses a special blend of nutrients to meet the nutritional needs of the patient. For instance, cancer patients may need special quantities of amino acids, carbohydrates, or glucose in their diets. A dietician and other health experts will have the expertise to determine the nutritional needs for individual cancer patients.

Researchers have discovered that certain foods are particularly useful when battling cancer. Here are some of them:

• avocados: contains a powerful antioxidant
• broccoli: breast and prostate cancer
• cabbage: breast and prostate cancer
• carrots: high in beta carotene/effective for several types of cancer
• cauliflower: breast cancer
• chili peppers: may neutralize particular substances that cause cancer
• figs: could shrink tumors
• garlic: may boost immune cells that battle cancer
• grapes (red): contain powerful antioxidants
• grapefruit: may be effective against breast cancer
• kale: may prevent the conversion of lesions into cancerous cells
• mushrooms: some types may battle cancer
• raspberries: may contain vitamins and minerals that prevent cancer
• tomatoes: contain various antioxidants

3. Psychology/PsychotherapySome cancer experts believe that a traumatic experience can cause cancer to appear in a person one or two years following the event. Certain methods included in this type of cancer treatment include counseling, meditation, music, psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, stress reduction, and support groups.

The goal of using these techniques is to boost the cancer patient’s immune system. Another common method is biofeedback. This is a method in which people control particular physical processes that usually happen involuntarily– in order to enhance their health. In this case, the cancer patient visualizes the body’s immune cells striking the cancer cells.

If you are suffering from cancer, you can battle back by using some basic alternative treatments. As always-consult your doctor beforehand!

Although we all try to lead a healthy life very few of us fully understand what vitamins and nutrients we need. An essential vitamin to have in your body is Omega 3 and many people don’t understand the benefits of having enough of it. People are taking omega 3 supplements and not knowing why but as they are selling very well in the shops, people must be seeing the health benefits of this essential nutrient. Although the fatty acids can be received from natural forms, supplements are certainly better than not getting as much as you need.

Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids which every human should have in their diet; your body cannot manufacture these acids. So you will need to either consume foods with them in it or take supplements. The health benefits are amazing for Omega 3. It has been proven that people who have the correct amount in their bodies are healthier and will have fewer health problems. The Omega 3 helps to promote healthy cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. This substance has a great anti-inflammatory effect and people who have the right levels in their bodies claim to get great relief from joint discomfort.

Omega 3 also boosts brain power and helps with mood swings; it helps with memory and cognitive skills. It is great for your skin and hair and your overall appearance will be a healthier one. You will have brighter eyes and be more alert. Omega 3 has also been accredited to healthier child development, cancer avoidance, and many other health benefits. This is really an amazing supplement and we should all ensure that we are getting enough of it.

Omega 3 is found in many fish such as salmon, tuna, halibut and mackerel, but if you do not like fish or cannot find them in your area then it can be found in grains and vegetables as well. Pumpkin seeds, walnuts, leafy green salads and whole grains also contain Omega 3 fatty acids. This should enable you to include some of these in your daily diet. But if you are still not getting enough you can buy supplements.

These Omega 3 supplements can be found in many stores and come in capsule form. They are easy to take and will ensure that you are receiving your daily allowance. If you are lacking in this supplement then you will be showing signs of the deficiency. You will be tired, have dry skin and hair, be prone to infections, have high cholesterol, and may even have heart problems. It is well worth ensuring that you are receiving enough of this amazing supplement in your diet.

Excessive joy and laughter injure the heart and scatter the spirit.  When one indulges in extreme joy and laughter, it slows down and congests the heart energy, causing the heart to flutter erratically.  This not only damages the heart, since the heart houses the spirit, it also causes the spirit to scatter, so that it loses control over the body and its vital functions.  People with weak hearts can easily die laughing, a phenomenon well known in western medicine, and may people have dropped dead from heart attacks upon becoming overjoyed at unexpected news.

Anger

Anger is the emotion associated with wood energy and the liver.  Extreme anger injures the liver’s yin energy, which controls blood, bile and other fluids associated with the liver.  The rising yang energy ascends to the heart and head, causing headache, dizziness, blurred vision and mental confusion.

Anxiety

Anxiety blocks energy and injures the lungs.  Anxiety also impairs the large intestine, which is the lungs coupled yang organ, and can therefore cause constipation and ulcerative colitis.  In addition, chronic anxiety injures the function of the spleen, pancreas and stomach, causing indigestion, depriving the whole system of nourishing energy.

Worry

This is associated with stomach disorders such as ulcers and indigestion

Grief

Sustained periods of grief injure the heart and lungs

Fear

Excess fear damages the kidney energy and causes it to descend sometimes causes loss of bladder control.  Children who wet their beds are often plagued by fear and both the bedwetting and fearful feelings are linked to weak kidney energy.

Fright

Generally the heart is the organ that is affected by emotional excess because it houses the spirit and consciousness.  If the fright persists and turns into chronic fear then it injures the kidneys as well.

An Old Arabic proverb says,  ’By eating we become sick and by digesting we become healthy’.  If we are too weak to assimilate the forces and organisms in our food, they overcome us.  One of the most practical reasons for undereating is that it is hard to meditate if our energy is still involved in digesting food.  This is especially true if we want to get up early in the morning to meditate and we have eaten too much the night before.

Dr Pelletier, in his research on longevity, found that cultures in which people led the longest, healthiest lives – the natives of Vilcabambam region of Ecuador, the Hunza of West Pakistan, the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico, and the Russian people of the Abkhasian region – ate low protein, high natural carbohydrate diets that contained approximately one half of the amount of protein in Western diets and only 50 to 60% of the calories.

An old proverb says, ‘What we leave after taking a hearty meal does us more good than what we have eaten’

The art of nutrition is to be sufficiently attuned to our inner needs and outer life in a way that we  know just the right amount of food to eat.  It requires us to be attuned to the subtle changes occurring over time and to adjust and eat accordingly

The spirit must know silence

Before it can sing and dance

It’s own song -

The ecstatic song of Yah