by Valerie Brooks
America’s favorite vitamin just can’t seem to stay out of the limelight. The medical community and health experts just keep on boasting of its benefits. Most people’s first reaction to Vitamin C is that it’s a supplement to be taken to prevent or treat a cold. But its history actually has its roots in the treatment of scurvy, a serious disease that plagued sailors in the 1590s who didn’t have access to fruits and vegetables at sea because they were perishable. They started to notice that when they ate citrus fruits, their condition improved. It was then discovered that ascorbic acid (literally meaning “no scurvy”) was the specific nutrient that turned the disease around. That’s when its healing properties were first noticed. Since then, it has been in Linus Pauling’s microscopes as a possible cure for cancer and many other things. We may still only be scratching the surface of this vitamin’s true potential.
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The World’s Oldest Fruit

Considered the world’s oldest fruit, the pomegranate is a long way from extinction. In fact, it’s making a major comeback as one of our healthiest and most versatile foods…and considered by many to be one of the Earth’s healthiest things. First, the delightful red juice of this timeless fruit is one of our best sources of antioxidants and many of the new anti-oxidant “red drinks” coming onto the market include pomegranate in their formulations. You can also find pomegranate juice with nothing but…pomegranate juice in it. One great source is POM juice.
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The idea of cleansing and detoxifying the body has been around for thousands of years. References to colon cleanses appear in the Old Testament, the Vedas, and other spiritual texts and are part of just about every culture on the planet. Given that the digestive system and colon are two of the main entry and exit routes of the body — most cleansing systems focus on these areas. Plus, it’s now well known that years of poor eating habits can cause toxins and other matter to build up in the colon and intestines. So that’s where detox is primarily focused.

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The Return of Hemp

If you think that hemp plantations are just making excuses for growing marijuana, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. Although a relative of the marijuana plant, the hemp plant that used for nutritional products, paper and cloth fiber has almost no THC, the compound that makes the other plant a favorite smoke-able pastime for many. No, the hemp plant is poorly understood and vastly under-utilized, given its amazing qualities. It suffered from a negative PR campaign back in the days of George Washington, who was, in fact, a hemp farmer. According to history, the cotton growers ran the hemp farmers into the ground to put cotton on the top of the heap, as it were. As a result, our founding father died poor and the world suffered the loss of the hemp industry. But natural health and green living enthusiasts have gotten behind some of the more exciting products that come from hemp. And with more and more companies jumping on the trend…we’re benefiting from lower prices and more variety in the products available to us.

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The coffee business is just too lucrative to let a thing like “increased awareness on health” take a bite out of it. So coffee makers have turned their resources to making healthier beans and enriching the coffee experience at the same time. The trend toward health-enhancing coffees is on the rise. Here are some of the early entries…
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