Move over kale and broccoli. There’s a new vegetable star in town!! The CDC (US Center for Disease Control and Prevention) announced that watercress is the world’s healthiest vegetable. Complete nutritional profile scores for vegetables range from 1-100.  Watercress scored a perfect 100. What’s So Special about Watercress? The scientific name of watercress is Lepidium Sativum.  This powerhouse leafy vegetable has a fresh, peppery flavor.  It has a deep rich green appearance with long slender stems.  It was first commercially cultivated in England by horticulturalist, William Bradberry, in 1808.  Watercress has also been used as a natural remedy for a variety of ailments.  Native Americans used it to treat kidney diseases and to help alleviate constipation. The Turkish used it as a drug to treat stomach pain and Iranian traditional medicine administered it as an antidiabetic solution (Panahi Kokhdan et al., 2021).  Ancient Persians and Romans believed watercress was an aphrodisiac.  Ind

Red Yeast Rice Red yeast rice is an ancient Chinese and Korean herbal medicine that has significant benefits for heart health.  It’s been viewed within Asian culture and civilization as a dietary staple.  Red yeast rice is a natural statin made from cultivating strains of yeast with rice. It contains Monacolin K, which is similar in property to the drug lovastatin. Red Yeast rice has been clinically proven to reduce low-density lipoprotein (bad) cholesterol levels in humans.   The results of cholesterol reducing properties were seen in over 30 randomized clinical trials.  Red yeast rice was also proven to reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Some cardiologists have not heard of the natural supplement, red yeast rice.  Cardiologists like Drs. Becker & Gordon ( AMA Journal of Ethics ), once detailed their unfamiliarity with red yeast rice.  After starting a patient on statin therapy, his patient returned to the office informing him that he had stopped taking the statins

What Research Has Revealed about Medicinal Mushrooms Introduction The branch of medicine that involves the consumption of foods as medicine is called Functional Medicine or or the new scientific discipline of “functional food science.”  The father of medicine, Hippocrates, once said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” There are many healing and health benefits that can be achieved when consuming certain foods.  The nutritional value of mushrooms is high due to the amount of minerals, protein and vitamins like D2, C, B that they contain.   Mushrooms are antiinflueza, anti-inflammatory, anticancerous, antiinfective, antidiabetic and antimicrobial (Elkhateeb, Daba, Thomas & Wen, 2019; Ganeshpurkar, Rai & Jain, 2010; Sabaratnam et al., 2013).  If one is looking for the richest source to aid in relief of these types of conditions, they should look no further than the medicinal mushroom.  People in countries of Asia (Japan, Korea, China) and eastern Russia have wid

The Silphion (silphium) plant had great value during the Roman Empire.  The saplings of its leaves which had a gum like resin were valued at the same price as the precious metal, silver.  Ancient Greeks valued the plant so much they inscribed it on their money.  Cyrenaica was an ancient Greek city and was known as the most important city of the Pentapolis geographic region.  The Silphion plant was first discovered along the coast of Cyrenaica which is now part of North Africa. Though it was once thought to be a treasure of the ancient Roman empire, it became extinct.  Was it eaten into extinction? It’s very possible!         Ferula Drudeana plant What Did Ancient Civilizations Use it For? Ancient civilizations heavily used the Silphium plant for its numerous therapeutic and medicinal qualities.  The plant has anti-cancerous, contraceptive and anti-inflammatory compounds.  Notable Greek physician, Hippocrates tried to cultivate the plant in order to bring it into mainland Greece but he

I’ve been wanting to complete a water taste test to compare water brands with Kangen alkaline water and finally decided I’d complete one today. The purpose was to see which brand has the best, purest and the smoothest taste.  Both premium and standard water brands were selected.  The water brands I selected are Fiji Artesian Water, Glaceau Smart Water   Alkaline , Essentia Water, Dasani purified water, and Poland Spring.     Just for some background, I drink Kangen Alkaline water religiously but if I’m out and about and do not have Kangen on hand, I’ll likely purchase Essentia or Fiji water.     The results that I received were not extremely shocking! Instead they confirmed my original thoughts about these various waters.     At first, I drank a small bit of each water starting with Poland Spring water, then Dasani, Essentia, Smart Water Alkaline and Fiji Water.   My sentiments about the taste and smoothness of each of the waters are below. Fiji Artesian Water   Fiji Water claims to h

Last year, the Dr. Oz show spearheaded a 21 day vegan challenge experiment to examine the effects that going meat free had on people’s bodies.  Four meat and dairy loving women participated in the challenge. Before they began the challenge, the women were ordered to go to bio reference labs for blood work to determine their initial blood pressure, weight and cholesterol levels. The women experienced some challenges as the foods that they usually ate were swapped out for a meatless substitute.   One woman had an issue with the taste of the dairy free half and half that she started using in her coffee while another experienced a challenge preparing food separately for her family who are meat eaters.  By week three, the women began experiencing changes in their bodies rather quickly.  One woman experienced significantly less aches and pain, more energy and weight loss. Dr. Oz discussed the results of the women’s health markers after completing the challenge and they were pretty significan

Beyonce dropped her seventh studio album a week ago and it's topping all of the global music charts.  She even broke another record! She is the first woman to have 20 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist and 10 hits as a member of a group. During 2021, she broke the record for having won the most Grammy's of any artist (male or female).  That record has now been broken by George Solti but she still remains to be the female artist with the most Grammy's.  Surely, she'll break the record again in 2023 during the 65th Grammy Awards for her album "Renaissance;" a chart topping, beat bumping masterpiece for the ages. Beyonce's love for alkaline water was first revealed a couple of years ago when her tour rider listed the drink as a must have.  Also on the list were requirements of how the water needed to be drank: At near room temperature of 69 degrees over hand carved ice balls.  And the kicker--the water must drank through special $1000 titan