Combine and Conquer
We all know that certain foods can be categorized as bona fide cancer preventers. But what do you get when those foods are combined?
There are currently 40 studies underway that examine specific food combinations and their preventative health benefits. Early results show that combining foods can offer even greater cancer prevention and overall healthier combinations of nutrients than any one food can offer individually.
How about a filet of salmon on a bed of watercress surrounded by a ring of broccoli florets, and crushed walnuts dusted across the top — sound like an incredible dinner plate at a fancy restaurant? It’s also a cancer killer extraordinaire. You see, each of these foods has a cancer-fighting ingredient. But something magical happens when they are combined into one dish. Together, they are particularly high in two nutrients — sulphoraphane and selenium. The combination of these two nutrients is 13 times more effective than either one alone.
The sulphoraphane found in broccoli also has a synergistic relationship with lycopene and with another flavonoid, apigenin, which is found in apples, endive, beans, broccoli, celery, cherries, cloves, grapes, leeks, onions, barley, parsley and tomatoes. Eating meals that combine foods of different colors may also impart improved health benefits over eating any one color of food alone.
It’s like the new Rubik’s cube of food — the combinations and the beneficial effects could be endless.
This may not seem groundbreaking. After all, even though science has always studied one food at a time, we’ve never eaten that way. But in the next few years you’ll be able to combine foods based on more than just how they taste together. You’ll be able to design menus for your family based on evidence of their health-protecting value. Entire cookbooks will be designed around the ultimate diets for preventing cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, and the many other health challenges that are prominent today.
Suddenly the future looks very good — and healthy.
European magnetism
Q: I was intrigued by the magnet therapy you described in the April newsletter. Do you know if I can find a practitioner in Germany — or anywhere in Europe?
JVW: One of the MME centers I referenced in the April issue may be able to help you locate a practitioner in Europe. In the U.S., there are centers in southern California (949-367-0877), Michigan (586-254-7711, www.amri-mi.com), North Carolina (336-492-2800, www.amri-nc.com), and Pennsylvania (717-632-0300, www.amripa.com). There is also an MME center in Canada — Calgary, Alberta (800-265-1119) — which is run by Dr. Dean Bonlie, who pioneered this treatment.
You might also check in with the British Institute of Magnetic Therapy (Tel: 01495 752122; www.cogreslab.co.uk) and see if any of their practitioners are using the MME.
I am sure that if this promising therapy has not made it to Europe yet, it will in the near future.
What is…Biomagnetic Therapy?
While Dr. Bonlie’s MME machine is a new twist, magnetic therapy has a long healing history. Some of the earliest recorded medical writings describe the use of magnetic stones to correct imbalances in the “Qi” or life force. Hippocrates, generally regarded as the father of modern medicine, believed the lodestone, a naturally occurring magnetic substance, had therapeutic properties.
Along the way, as the health claims for magnet therapy became more outrageous, it became associated with quackery more than actual healing, and fell outside of the practice of most traditional physicians. Even as the MRI became hailed as a breakthrough diagnostic tool, using magnets therapeutically remained on the sidelines.
However, a double-blind study that came out of Baylor University in 1997 went a long way in putting magnet therapy back on the mainstream map. In that study of 50 post-polio patients, applying magnet devices to pain trigger points resulted in a significant decrease of pain. Subjects reported 76 percent pain relief from the magnet devices, compared with 19 percent for the placebo — a statistically-significant difference, especially if you’re the one in pain.
Yours in good health,
Amanda Ross
Managing Editor
Nutrition & Healing
Sources:
Heber D. “Vegetables, fruits and phytoestrogens in the prevention of diseases.” J Postgrad Med 2004; 50(2): 145-149
“Combining Certain Foods Boosts Anti-Cancer Properties,” Many Healthy Returns (e-letter, www.drmagaziner.com) 2003; 33
Vallbona C, Hazlewood CF, Jurida G. “Response of pain to static magnetic fields in postpolio patients: A double-blind pilot study.” Archives of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 1997; 78(11): 1,200-1,203.