The Goodness of Grapes
by Shereen Jegtvig
According to the Journal of Nutrition, eating grapes and grape products may have some powerful health benefits. Grapes might help to prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes and tooth decay, plus eating grapes may help to keep your immune system strong, which is important as we head into flu season.
Grapes contain phytochemicals, which are natural chemical compounds that your body uses to protect your health, including the well-known resveratrol. You’ll get the health benefits from grapes when you eat them fresh (or frozen as a sweet treat) or if you drink the juice. Grape juice is naturally sweet, but that doesn’t mean some food manufacturers won’t water it down and add high fructose corn syrup. Be sure to read the labels to buy 100% juice. Read more
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What’s a Goji Berry?
by Shereen Jegtvig
It seems like every couple of years a hot new exotic superfood makes its way into the United States. One of those recent superfoods is the goji berry – usually sold in juice or you can also find dried goji berries that kind of look like small raisins. Goji berries come from Asia where they have been used for thousands of years as an herbal medicine. They’re rich in vitamins A and C, iron, fiber and plant sterols, which are compounds found in plants that resemble our cholesterol, except that plant sterols actually lower cholesterol in the human body. In my opinion, Goji berries deserve to land on many superfoods lists.
What do you look for when buying goji berry products? You can buy 100% goji berry juice in some health food stores and online (wallet warning – it tends to be pretty expensive), however goji juice blends are popping on up the shelves of typical grocery stores. These juice blends are much less expensive than 100% goji juice, but more affordable, just be sure you’re not loading up on added sugars and you want the accompanying juices to be good for you too. You also need to know that these juice blends won’t have anywhere near as many of the plant sterols as 100% goji juice, but they will still be rich in vitamins and other phytonutrients. Read more
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Food Tip: Vitamin C & Fruit Juice
by Shereen Jegtvig
Vitamin C is so important for the human body. It’s necessary for keeping your immune system strong and for building connective tissue that you need for healthy skin (that means fewer wrinkles) and sturdy bones. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that helps protect the cells in your body from damage due to free radicals from the environment, sun damage and even as a result of normal metabolism.
The best dietary sources of vitamin C are fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit, guava, strawberries, broccoli, peppers and potatoes. If you eat five to nine servings of these fruits and vegetables every day you should be getting all the vitamin C you need. However, vitamin C doesn’t hang around long so once fruits and vegetables are peeled, cut, sliced, cooked or processed, the vitamin C content starts to deteriorate. In general, fruits lose about 30% of their vitamin C content when canned or bottled as juice. Read more
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The Best Fruit Punch
by Shereen Jegtvig for Foodessentials.com
The best choices for fruit juice are plain 100% fruit juices such as apple juice, orange juice or pomegranate juice. However, sometimes it’s fun to enjoy some fruit punch or a blend of fruit juices. And kids love fruit punches and fruit drinks. Read more
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