irina.schurov

Have you noticed that nowadays all illnesses and disorders seem to be affecting younger and broader spectrum of people? We are currently facing a growing number of many developmental neurological disorders that are making the lives of children suffering from these conditions, as well as their parents, extremely difficult and sometimes even intolerable.   For example, did you know that in the US autism is diagnosed in 1 in 63 children? Similar numbers can be observed in Europe and China; and they are growing every day. Overall, the frequency of autism has increased by 78% between 2002 and 2008! Do you know any families with autistic children? Or maybe you yourself are a parent who is facing this issue.

Autism is a whole group of developmental disorders that involves delays in the development of many basic skills, such as, social interactions, use of imagination, language and communication skills. These special kids experience fascinating changes in their brains that have direct effects on the reduction of social skills. Recently scientists in Cambridge (I like to mention this, seeing as I myself am from Cambridge and am therefore I always proud of the great research being done in Cambridge University) discovered that when people with autism try to decode emotional expressions, the area in the brain called “amygdola” is under-active. This is very interesting! However, autism is not a disorder of the brain. It is much more complex!

This is why I particularly love Dr Mark Hyman’s description who says that “Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain”. I think this is so true! We live in a toxic chemical “soup” and it is simply our toxic environment that causes changes, abnormal reactions and triggers certain genes in people susceptible to autism or other disorders.

During recent years, great research has been done that clearly demonstrates that children with autism have whole spectrum of abnormalities in different body systems. For instance, up to 80 % of autistic children have symptoms of gastrointestinal dysfunction of which diarrhea is the most common, followed by constipation, abdominal distention, and pain. Dysfunctions in the immune system have also been noticed in these kids, coming to light as food allergies or metabolic abnormalities. Very often these children are fussy eaters, they are afraid to try new ingredients and therefore eat only selective food. This, of course, causes nutritional misbalance and, simply, malnourishment in young growing organisms who especially require a certain amount of nutrients for proper development! In the human body everything is interconnected. This means that if there were a problem in one system of the body, it would affect and eventually cause problems in other systems. Abnormal gut flora, an unhealthy digestive system, chronic inflammation, frequent colds and infections, together with brain dysfunctions in these kids are different parts of one big problem called “autism”.

Therefore, I really like the idea of helping these children by applying a complex approach. The management of autism symptoms and including not only speech pathologists, psychologists and other specialists but also nutritional support. Gut problems need to be fixed by repairing the leaky gut and normalising microbiome, this will help to reduce chronic inflammation. A further supply of all necessary nutrients will help the immune system to function much better. Additionally, intensive detox and healthy diet will also help to normalise the expression of certain genes triggered by an initial imbalance and will likewise reduce oxidative stress. Eventually other systems in the body will respond to these changes and start to function more efficiently leaving the child much better off. So, as you see, nutrition is a very important part in the normalisation of autism symptoms as well as other conditions and disorders.

At the end of the day, none of this seems news, as in 460BC Hippocrates pointed out that “all disease begins in the gut”. Now we have much more evidence to support this statement and much more tools to fix the problem!

I will continue to share my thoughts and expertise about autism with you. I think we need to keep feeding knowledge to parents in order to help them make the right decision and in turn help their kids with autism in the best possible way!

Please, share your story! Ask me a question!

Please, contact me by email at irina@liveright.eu

Visit my site at www.liveright.eu

Have you noticed that recently teenagers have been experiencing more and more different mental problems? Perhaps your child may have symptoms of depression like sadness, irritability, frustration, loss of interest in things he/she liked before, extreme sensitivity, trouble thinking or concentrating?

Nowadays, at a time when our children seem to have nearly everything that we as children could have only dream of you would think they should be very happy and healthy. Hovewer, the official statistics (CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) actually show that suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds. It’s also thought that at least 25 attempts are made for every completed teen suicide. But WHY???

We may not recall how it felt to be a teenager, on age when you are trapped between childhood and adulthood, a sort of “ugly duckling” period. Of course it is a time of huge possibilities and opportunities but at the same time it can also be a period of a huge stress and worry. Children experience pressure to fit in socially, to perform academically and to act responsibly.

In this situation young people with mental health problems — such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or insomnia — are at much higher risk of suicidal thoughts. During the last fifty years more and more teenagers have reported symptoms of mental illness in general. Just think about it – 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 – 16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder – that is around three children in every school class! Depression affects about 20% of teens by the time they become adults and anxiety disorder affects 25% of teenagers. And this number nearly doubled between the 1980s and 2000s. So, what has changed during this period of time that has had such huge impact on our children’s behavior and health?

It has been shown that the gut and brain have a certain way to communicate and influence each other. This happens via the nervous system, hormones and the immune system.  Certain gut bacteria can release neurotransmitters and have a direct effect on the brain.

Furthermore, recent scientific research has proven that mental disorders are associated with chronic inflammation and increased oxidative stress in the human body. But where this inflammation coming from?

Among the main well known environmental risk factors of depression like stress, trauma, exercise, sleep, smoking, obesity, scientists have also listed diet, gut permeability or leaky gut and the microbiome.

So, what is a leaky gut and why is it important for mental health? In our body, gut cells are normally kept tight to each other and nutrients from the gut are absorbed into the blood stream via the intestinal lining. However, different factors like stress, infections, drugs, toxins, gluten and other molecules can cause a destruction of the intestinal lining causing a leaky gut. As a results some bacteria and their toxins, incompletely digested proteins, fats and other waste may “leak” out of the intestines into the blood stream. This stimulates immune cells and in turn leads to inflammation causing depression and other mental disorders and health issues.

Many different factors may contribute to leaky gut but most important is the disturbance in the  balance of gut bacteria (microbiome) that can cause lots of harmful reactions leading to many health problems. And this is the reason why it is important to avoid anything that may cause such misbalance, including over-usage of antibiotics, drinking chlorinated water, exposing yourself to potentially toxic chemicals, eating processed food and drinking sugary sodas. They all play major roles in changing the dynamics of the gut, increasing leakiness that correlates very strongly with neurological conditions. One of the biggest causes in unbalancing microbiome in children is an unhealthy diet; the junk food, all the processed carbohydrates that kids consume all the time nowadays feed bad bacteria in the digestive system allowing them to grow and cause the disturbance in the balance of microbiome. At the same time, our diet is missing fermented foods that are essential for supporting the good bacteria and a healthy gut.

Therefore, it is evident that the mental health of our children is significantly contributing towards the threatening number of suicidal cases among teenagers and can be largely influenced by eating habits and life stile changes. Just imagine how huge an impact we  can make together by reducing the amount of processed foods full of sugar and toxic additives in the diet of our dearest children!

Do you have a story to share? Or perhaps you have a question? Do you need more guidance on how to change your family eating habits in order to help your child?

Please, get in touch, leave your comments.

Do you want to help your teenager cope better with the changes his/her body experiences during puberty? This is an especially challenging period when our children experience hormonal, metabolic and physiological changes that can have long term effects on their lives and health.

I personally remember how unsatisfied I was with my looks at this age. I thought myself too tall and too fat. Does this sound familiar? I had many questions that I was afraid to ask my parents and this lack of understanding did not help to build my self-esteem. Nowadays, more information is available and of course more or less every teenager is able to go on the internet and find the answers to their questions. However, the problem is children often ask how to fix the way they look rather than why it is happening and how to support themselves throughout this stage. Instead they try to mimic the body image that is constantly being advertised in magazines, clothing companies and media adverts. Additionally, nowadays teens spend much more time independently from their parents and have more of their meals away from home which makes it increasingly difficult to control what they eat. Often they’ll go to fast food venues because they are cheap and universally available. That is why during the most important stage of their development, a period when they require increasing amounts of good nutrients and minerals to meet their body demand, many of our teenagers actually eat a lot of meals that are both nutrient-depleted and full of unhealthy fats. On top of that, they consume different soft drinks which are in turn full of harmful additives and sugar. And of course, they would be resistant to any direct advice or pressure given to them from adults telling them how and what to eat and drink. Generally, nowadays our children are malnourished because they do not eat enough of the RIGHT food even though they eat plenty of it.

I hope that some of the tips below will help you to find the RIGHT solution to support your teenager in building the RIGHT relationships with the RIGHT food.

So, dealing with the puberty period is not easy and we need to support our children in this process. A good way to do this would be to discuss upcoming body changes in a positive way to prepare children for this time period so they can adapt to their new bodies faster, less painfully and without long-term “side effects”.

We need to be aware that increasing body fat is an absolutely normal part of puberty. At this stage of development children can gain up to extra 20% body fat and it is important to remember that this is not bad fat! It is needed for their bodies as a source of energy to go through massive changes. There is no need to go on any diets!

Tastes also change at puberty. Boys tend to eat more protein-rich foods believing that meat builds muscle. Girls, most likely crave sweets due to rising levels of estrogen. At the same time, girls want to stay slim and believe that eating less will keep them slim and sexy. However, young women require a certain amount of body fat to have a healthy menstrual cycle and healthy reproductive system.

Therefore, it is critical that children consume good, nutritionally dense food containing good proportions of protein (20%), healthy fats (30%) and the right carbohydrates (50%). And quality here is much more important then quantity!

For example, smart fats are absolutely essential for healthy brain function, good hair, healthy skin, and a strong immune system. It also helps to reduce the amount of anxiety and depression, which is an exceptionally huge issue at this age. Thus, it is very important they have plenty of Omega-3. So, more fish and less chips!

Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in our body, therefore the growing muscles, organs, and immune systems of teenagers require more protein. Due to more active muscle mass, teenage boys generally need around 25% more protein in comparison to the pre-teen stage. Whereas girls need a slightly smaller daily protein intake. So, eating food like beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes like black beans and lentils is very important. Choose the organic option if possible in order to avoid our children consuming hormones and antibiotics that are present in non-organic dairy and meat.

Teenagers require much more micronutrients and key nutrients at this age such as iron, calcium and zinc. Expanding blood volumes and growing muscle mass means our children need more iron, furthermore girls have extra iron needs because of their menstruation. Red meat is one of the richest sources of iron, a vegetarian diet can provide enough iron too, but vegetarians may need to work a bit harder to eat iron-rich alternatives to meat. Good vegetarian sources of iron include green leafy vegetables, legumes (e.g. beans and lentils) and whole grains.

Zinc is another particularly important element during puberty as it is involved in normal sexual maturation, supports cell division and many other important functions. Therefore, include it in your meals as much as possible by employing foods like garlic and chickpeas; add pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds to salads; indulge your teens in dark chocolate. You can also find zinc in egg yolks, oysters, turkey, salmon, pork and brown rice. I am sure you can prepare absolutely fantastic meals from these ingredients.

Rapid bone growth in teenagers requires a lot of calcium to be included in their diet. Traditional thinking of people needing to eat lots of dairy products in order to obtain calcium can be adjusted as we now know many alternative non-dairy sources of calcium. So, if your teenager doesn’t like to drink milk or eat yogurt, you can offer him/her crunchy broccoli, kale, edamame beans, figs, oranges, sardines, salmon and almonds.

Growing and developing teenage organisms require an additional 20-30% of vitamins. Eating a variety of ripe, fresh and preferably locally grown products is necessary every day. And this can be a very challenging task! Even though it is always better to get one’s increased needs of vitamins and minerals from real food rather than supplements, the erratic and nutrient-poor eating habits of most teenagers suggests that a daily intake of whole food based supplements like Juice Plus would be wise.

The following tips can help our children to make healthy food choices:

• Model good nutrition habits as early as possible. When your child has developed an appetite for a healthy, good quality food her/his body won’t like eating junk food. She/he will simply would not enjoy this type of food and will search for a healthier alternative, demonstrating to others the possibility of eating.
• When you choose products, plan meals and cook choose wisely the words that you use to describe food. Use more words like “good for your mood”, “great for your energy”, “brainy food”, “food for passing exams” and so on.
• When you are in town together with your kids show them better places to eat out rather than fast food restaurants. Carefully making sure that they do not realise that you are teaching them, explain why even though it might be a bit more expensive it is better to go to these places.
• Gently teach your children to say “NO” to friends inviting them to eat junk food or to have a soft drink full of additives and sugar. They need to learn to resist any supermarket food packaged in cheap plastic.
• Create and cultivate a strong emotional link between real food and things they care about. For example, eating a variety of raw vegetables and beautiful, healthy-looking skin.
• Keep lots of nutritional snacks and meals at home like fresh fruits, nuts, dried-fruits, dark chocolate, wholegrain biscuits, humus with vegetables and so on.
• Encourage your child to have her/his own opinion about media topics. Discuss together the real motivation behind a magazine or TV advertisement.

If you can think of any other good tips to add to this list, please, let me know in the comments. It would be great to have your input and for you to share your experiences in this area. I look forward to reading your stories.

Are you satisfied with your teenage daughter’s or son’s eating habits?  Do you have teenagers at home who are not happy with how they look and how much they weigh? Or do you simply worry about your younger kids who will one day become difficult teenagers and will give you lots of “headaches”. In any case, you may find interesting to read this article.

Being a mother of two beautiful daughters, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on the prevention of certain problems we all face when our children become teenagers.

Adolescence is a very challenging time for our children as well as for us, their parents. It is a test period for our relationships, for our parent-child connection that we have been developing over many years. Teenagers go through a very interesting period of physical, emotional, hormonal, sexual, social and intellectual transformations. This is a time when our children begin to discover who they are and they become independent and  at the same time very vulnerable. For many kids this stage of life can be very emotional, stressful and confusing.

At this point our children can start many of their psychological complexes and mental issues, they can start to develop some health related problems that can further develop into big life-threatening conditions.

Scientific studies show that teens experience certain changes in their brain on a socio-emotional level and they crave more social acceptance and recognition. This links to sexual maturation and the development of social responsibilities. As a result, teenagers want to be more popular among friends which can in turn cause certain behavioural patterns.

In any case adolescence is a time of rapid growth and change! To support this process properly a body requires a certain weight gain to fuel those changes and transformations.

However, it is precisely at this stage that a wrong image of being slim and sexy, of being cool and accepted by society, dictates by the media to our children a wrong attitude and as a results inappropriate behaviour. Some kids may simply fail to eat enough good nutritional food to keep up with their growth and their energy. This imbalance may trigger eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. At this point, our role as parents is to be very supportive of our children so that they can share their concerns with us and ask for advise. This is precisely where our parental LOVE and PASSIONS are put to the test!

PREVENSION of these teenage problems in our children starts much earlier in their life. It is integrated into our family life style. Normally kids who lack in confidence are more vulnerable to the huge pressure they experience during adolescence and teenage girls with body image problems are at higher risk of eating disorders. You will help your children to feel good about their body if you:

• Keep telling them and especially the girls how beautiful and great they are! This is vitamin L (L is for love), an essential component of health and self-steam for our kids. We need to find the way to show it, not just think about it quietly in our head, but actually say it out and demonstrate your love in different ways (kisses, hugs, time spend together, small presents, ect.)
• Never talk negatively about your own body. We need to demonstrate that each body is different, a fact that is absolutely normal and acceptable.
• Model a healthy life style and good exercise habits. Have an active family hobby like going to a swimming pool, going skiing or playing a football.
• Go food shopping together with your children, explain to them the difference between healthy and unhealthy products and why it is so important to eat nutritionally dense food.
• Cook together with them and have quality family time by experimenting in the kitchen with different ingredients and new recipes.
• Teach them to serve food in a nice presentable way and decorate the table so that dinner time becomes a great family moment.
• Teach them to be present while you eat! When you eat even a small sack, put away any gadgets like phones, tablets, toys, books, ect. When you are present during eating process and focus on your food, you enjoy your meal much more, you start to notice the different flavours and tastes. This is a very interesting experience that can also be used as a game – “Guess what is in this dish? Which ingredients have been used here?”

Therefore, by helping our children to develop a good and healthy appetite for real food we build a solid foundation for their health and for a balanced attitude in life. It means they will continue to eat healthy and be strong, react appropriately to stress and emotional pressure, have more energy to face difficult times and be less vulnerable. It is our responsibility to show them the right way to eat, live and be healthy and happy!

In subsequent articles, I will share with you some ideas on how to implement these principles in your busy lives. Meanwhile I would be very pleased to hear your questions and feedback. Your comments will help me to shape my next article! Look forward to reading your opinion!

Sadly, nowadays we all live in a very chemically polluted environment, some might say in a “chemical soup”! Toxic chemicals are all around us – in our air, our earth, our water, and the products we use every day.

At this stage we are aware of more than 80,000 chemicals that have been released on the market, many of them have known or suspected negative health effects. Exposure to these industrial chemicals and pollutants is contributing to a wide spectrum of health problems. However, we not only inhale and absorb toxins through our skin, we also consume lots of chemicals via our food and beverages! In fact, we blindly but voluntary eat and drink chemically poisoned products and give them to our children!

Scientists have become increasingly worried that even extremely low levels of some environmental contaminants may have significant damaging effects on our bodies. In tiny doses chemicals can affect human health by disrupting cell communication that controls growth, development and normal body function; they can contribute to obesity, endometriosis, diabetes, autism, allergies, cancer and other diseases. The timing and the dosage of such exposure are very critical to how our health is affected. In utero or early childhood exposure is especially critical since the young are developing much more rapidly and their organs are more sensitive.

Just think about the following alarming figures:

• about 200 industrial chemicals have been monitored in the umbilical cord blood of infants born in the US in 2005
• 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2013
• 500,000 children aged under 15 were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes worldwide in 2013
• 1 in 285 children is diagnosed with cancer before age 20
• the average age of the onset of puberty in 2010 was 10.5 years for girls – six years younger than in 1860
• over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviours such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives
• 90 % of those who have eating disorders are girls between the ages of 12 and 25
• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents

The bottom line is that this unnecessary toxicity leads to likewise unnecessary diseases, disabilities and deaths which can be PREVENTED and should be PREVENTED! As parents and as responsible adults we need to help our children to learn how to eat clean, how to choose real food rather then junk food and how to love an active life style. We need to remind ourselves and our families that food is much more then just the way to kill hunger. It is a part of healthy living, of enjoying life and happiness, a way to relax and connect with nature. We need to slow down and restore these lost relationships between us and real food! If our children were to know where the food they eat comes from and how it is made, they would make the right choice. Let’s teach them! Take them to a supermarket, or a market, prepare meals together, explain why certain ingredients are better to use then others!

I would like to help you on this fascinating journey! However, your feedback is absolutely essential! Ask me a question, live me a comment! We can work together for the bright and healthy future of our children!

To understand why we need vitamins, it is better to figure out what vitamins really are. Vitamins are small molecules that our body requires to perform certain biochemical reactions in our cells. The human body has no way to produce vitamin molecules itself, so the vitamins must come from the food that we eat. Inside of our body, vitamins are used in many different and unique ways. For example, vitamin A is involved in the production of retinal that is used within the photoreceptors of our eyes to sense light. We cannot produce retinal without vitamin A, and therefore without vitamin A we cannot see. At the same time the different vitamins B are very often built into the structure of different enzymes that are crucial to certain chemical changes in our cells. For example, each copy of the enzyme called aspartate aminotransferase that transfers amines between amino acids contains two vitamin B6 molecules. Another illustration of the irreplaceable role of vitamins’ involvement in crucial reactions in our body is the participation of vitamin C in the formation of collagen. In this case, without vitamin C, collagen, which is the main structural protein of the connective tissue, cannot be produced. The first signs of lack of vitamin C in our body are weak blood vessels and loose teeth, which are held in their sockets by collagen. So vitamins are absolutely vital and essential for us!

There are two types of vitamins: fat-soluble and water-soluble.

Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are usuallypresent in fatty foods such as meat and meat products, animal fat and vegetable oils, dairy products, liver and oily fish.Although our body needs these vitamins every day to function properly, we do not need to eat foods containing them every day. This is because they are transported around the body in fat, and our body stores these vitamins in the liver and fatty tissues for future use.

Water-soluble vitamins (B, C, folic acid), on the other hand, are not stored in the body, so we need to have them regularly. They are found in fruit, vegetables and grains. They are transported around the body in water and the excess is passed through urine. That is why we need to eat foods containing these vitamins every day.

Unlike the fat-soluble kind, water-soluble vitamins can be destroyed by heat or by being exposed to the air. They can also be lost in water used for cooking. This means that by cooking foods, especially boiling them, we lose many of these vitamins. The best way to keep as many of the water-soluble vitamins as possible is to steam or grill foods, rather than boil them, or even better to eat foods raw if possible.

It is very clear that we all need vitamins to live a long and healthy life, and a varied diet is essential to obtain the nutrients we need. Too little of just one vitamin may disturb the body’s balance and cause health problems. But taking too many vitamins can also be dangerous. That is why it is important to know that there is a specific recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamins. For example, the RDA for Vitamin A is 900 mcg (micrograms) for men and 700 mcg for women.

Plenty of foods contain vitamins naturally, and it is our responsibility to make sure our daily diet provides sufficient vitamins. However, modern processing techniques have considerably reduced the vitamin and mineral content of many foods. In addition, living a hectic lifestyle, some people tend to eat a lot of processed or even junk food. These foods do not provide the vitamins that are required for our bodies to function properly. So these days people often take various multi-vitamin supplements. However, current research findings suggest that some isolated synthetic vitamins at high concentrations can be potentially harmful. For example, there’s increasing evidence that excess folic acid (the synthetic version of folate or the isolated form – separated from the food matrix) may contribute to the development of colorectal cancer. Multivitamins contain the recommended daily amount of folate – 400 mcg, but folic acid is also added to our foods like cereal products, including breads, rice, and pasta. A person taking a multi-vitamin can easily exceed the recommended total intake, and maybe even the safe upper limit of 1,000 mcg. Interestingly, that excess isn’t a problem with folate found naturally in foods. Similar results have been published for isolated and synthetic Vitamins C and E.

This may be because our body cannot properly metabolize synthetic or isolated forms of vitamins due to our unique genetics.Presently, it seems, we just do not know yet, and it is quite possible that a combination of many environmental and genetics factors might play a role. In any case, accumulating new findings raise questions about the use of multivitamins as a safety net. Experts agree that the best way to get the nutrients we need is through food. A balanced diet that contains plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, offers a mix of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that collectively meet the body’s needs. This is due to the synergistic interactions of these nutrients, which play an enormous role in our nutrition and health.

Try to eat a wide variety of fresh foods:

–          Add vegetables to other dishes you like. For example, add aubergine to your                        lasagne or stir broccoli into macaroni and cheese.

–          Add different vegetables to your soups.

–          Experiment with different raw vegetables and fruit combinations in your salads.

–          Drink your vegetables, fruits, and berries by making fresh juices and smoothies as             often as possible.

Enjoy your healthy meals!

Tomatoes! Juicy, colourful and delicious. We all know that tomatoes are good for us and we should include them more in our diet. But what are tomatoes and why, specifically, are they such a healthy food?

The tomato is the fruit of the Lycopersicon esculentum plant. Although tomatoes are closely associated with Italian cuisine, they are actually native to the west side of South America. First cultivated in Mexico by the Aztec civilizations, their use spread throughout Europe. Today tomatoes are popular worldwide. The largest tomato-producing country is China, followed by the United States, Turkey, India, and Italy.

Tomatoes contain remarkable amounts of lycopene (a carotenoid phytonutrient that has the highest antioxidant activity of all the carotenoids). But tomatoes also provide a unique variety of other phytonutrients, including other carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin), flavonoids (including naringenin, chalconaringenin, rutin, kaempferol, and quercetin), vitamins (A, C, K, B6, E), micronutrients (copper, potassium, manganese, phosphorus, choline, zinc, and iron). All these phytonutrients have individual benefits, but also importantly have synergy as a group interacting to provide us with a plethora of health benefits. On top of that, one serving of tomatoes gives you two grams of fibre, which is seven percent of the daily-recommended amount. Basically, a tomato packs one powerful nutritional punch, and they offer even more.

Tomatoes are a big part of the famously healthy Mediterranean diet. Many studies have found that people who mostly follow typical Mediterranean diets have lower death rates from heart disease and cancer. Indeed, intake of tomatoes has long been linked to heart health. Fresh tomatoes and tomato extracts have been shown to help lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. In addition, tomato extracts have been shown to help prevent formation of atherosclerotic plaques and the aggregation (clumping together) of platelet cells in the blood – a factor that is especially important in lowering the risk of heart problems like atherosclerosis. As a good source of potassium citrate, tomatoes can also help lower blood pressure. And at the same time, they are an excellent source of chromium, which helps to regulate blood sugar.

Tomatoes are a natural cancer fighter. Because of the well-studied anti-cancer potential of lycopene, a diet rich in tomato-based products may help reduce the risk of several cancers, especially prostate, breast, stomach and lung cancers. Tomatoes are enriched with high-powered antioxidants: lycopene, beta-carotene (which has vitamin A activity in the body), vitamin E, and vitamin C, that fight the free radicals causing cell damage.

Tomatoes also make our skin look better. Beta-carotene helps protect skin against sun damage and lycopene makes skin less sensitive to UV light damage, therefore leading to less-wrinkled skin. Vitamin A also improves the condition of hair making it strong and shiny.

The lutein and vitamin A that tomatoes provide help to improve our eyesight as well as prevent night-blindness and macular degeneration, a serious, irreversible eye condition.

Tomatoes contribute to bone health and help keep our blood vessels flexible. The vitamin K and calcium in tomatoes is very good for strengthening and repairing bones, and lycopene has also been shown to improve bone mass, which is a great way to fight osteoporosis.

So, how to eat tomatoes to get the maximum benefit?

First of all, store fresh tomatoes at room temperature; this way they do not lose their flavour. To enrich your tomatoes in well-absorbed lycopene, cook them with a touch of olive oil. This is because lycopene is located in the cell walls of the tomatoes and it is released during the cooking process. Lycopene is also fat-soluble. That means we get maximum nutritional benefit from tomatoes when they are absorbed with some fats. Eating tomatoes with chopped avocadoes, for example, helps our body absorb lycopene more easily.

Easy ways to eat more tomatoes:

• For a snack, dip cherry tomatoes in hummus or any other dip.
• Add sliced tomato to your sandwiches and wraps.
• Use stewed tomatoes in soups and sauces for pasta.
• Have a piece of toast with avocado and tomato slices.
• Make your own quick salsa with diced tomatoes, onion, chilli pepper, coriander, cumin, ground black pepper and freshly squeezed lime.
• Drizzle freshly sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzarella with balsamic vinegar and top with chopped basil.
• Make a quick bruschetta for an appetizer by topping toast with chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and basil.
• Drink tomato juice or vegetable juice with tomatoes.
• You can even eat tomatoes for breakfast. Top scrambled eggs with chopped tomatoes – delicious!
• On a hot summer day enjoy chilled Gazpacho with your friends.
• Bon appétit!

Hi! Thank you for visiting my blog.

I am not really a writer, but a scientist. Nevertheless, I have lots of important knowledge and information that I want to share with you, information that could possibly change, or maybe even save, somebody’s life. Nutritional science is very complex and confusing, but at the same time it is so critical to our lives that it can not be ignored. It is time to act, it is time to tell the truth about what it is that we eat every day and how it can either help us to live longer and healthier or make us sick and miserable. It is for this reason that I want to share a few simple ideas about how you can invest in your Personal Health Plan, which will in turn help you stay active and healthy for many years to come. So, stay tuned!

I would love to hear your comments and questions. Please send me a message, let me know your opinion and share your thoughts!

Best wishes,

Irina