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Steve’s Fun Health Facts
When health foods, supplements, herbs, and other products are discussed, please note that no products are being sold. NHI provides quality educational and health consulting services. Steve suggests you obtain high-quality products from your favorite health food store or respected discount health catalog companies. Information provided is for your self-help, not for commercial purposes, diagnosis, or treatment.
Getting a Taste for Health Early
Moms who choose to eat a wide variety of fruit and vegetables during pregnancy and while breast-feeding can ensure that baby will develop a taste for these foods suggests a recent study. Says senior author Julie A. Mennella, Ph.D. “The best predictor of how much fruits and vegetables children eat is whether they like the tastes of these foods. If we can get babies to learn to like these tastes, we can get them off to an early start of healthy eating.”
“It’s a beautiful system,” says Mennella. “Flavors from the mother’s diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and mother’s milk. So, a baby learns to like a food’s taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis.” Repeated opportunities to taste green beans over eight days enhanced acceptance of the vegetable, increasing intake by almost threefold.
Source: Eat Fruits And Veggies While Breastfeeding And Baby Will Probably Like Them
Settle Down with Serotonin
Research as far back as 1975 told us that hyperactive children have low levels of serotonin. Oral doses of pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6) resulted in an appreciable increase in the serotonin content and a very large increase in the PLP (pyridoxal phosphate) content of blood in these hyperactive patients according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Suggestion from Steve:
If anyone takes an individual B vitamin supplement, it should be taken with a full B vitamin complex. B vitamins are best taken in liquid or capsule form with or after meals that contain any kind of healthful protein, and preferably not with bread or crackers.
Also, various herbs such as Skullcap, Noni Berries, St. John’s Wort, Eleuthero (if taken during the day), Passion Flower, as well as certain foods such as turkey, milk, ripe bananas, and the amino acid L-tryptophan (when not taken with protein) all increase serotonin production.
Sunlight & Cancer
If vitamins had hip-hop names cholecalciferol would be known as “Sunny.” A recent study has suggested that lack of sunlight may increase the risk of lung cancer. Not surprisingly, smoking was most strongly associated with lung cancer rates, accounting for between 75% and 85% of the cases. But exposure to sunlight, especially UVB light, the principal source of vitamin D for the body, also seemed to have an effect, the findings showed. The link between cancer and sunlight is chemically plausible, say the authors, because laboratory research has shown that vitamin D can halt tumor growth by promoting the factors responsible for cell death in the body.
Source: Lack Of Sunlight May Increase Lung Cancer Risk
Steve Schechter, N.P., H.H.P., is director of the Natural Healing Institute (NHI), in Encinitas. Steve is author of the bestselling book Fighting Radiation & Chemical Pollutants with Foods, Herbs, & Vitamins. NHI provides training programs for Nutrition, Herbology, Massage Therapies, Aromatherapy, Naturopathy, as well as others. (760) 943-8485. www.naturalhealinginst.com