Water IS Really Healthy

From the Wholefood Farmacy Newsletter:

"Each year, about half a million people die from coronary heart disease. More than half of them have no previous symptoms of heart disease.

Researchers at Loma Linda University report that drinking high levels of water can significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by up to 50%. The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 155, No.9), reveals that drinking high amounts of plain water is as important as exercise, diet, or not smoking in preventing coronary heart disease.

“Basically, not drinking enough water can be as harmful to your heart as smoking,” warns Jacqueline Chan, DrPH, principle investigator and lead author of the article.

Dr. Chan and Synnove Knutsen, MD, PhD , second author, chair of epidemiology department, found that California Seventh-day Adventists who drink five or more glasses of plain water a day have a much lower risk of fatal coronary heart disease compared to those who drink less than two glasses per day.

The study, “Water, Other Fluids, and Fatal Coronary Heart Disease,” indicates that whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, hematocrit, and fibrinogen which are considered independent risk factors for coronary heart disease, can be elevated by dehydration.

The results from this study show that by drinking more plain water, healthy people—without any history of heart disease, stroke, or diabetes—reduced their risk of dying from a heart attack by half or more. This is as much or more than if they had adopted any other well-known preventive measure, including stopping smoking and lowering cholesterol levels, increasing exercise or maintaining ideal weight. While not as glamorous, the degree of benefit from drinking plain water surpasses that of drinking a moderate amount of alcohol intake and aspirin with none of the adverse side effects (social or physiological). Because drinking more plain water is a simple lifestyle change that anybody can do, this simple practice has the potential of saving tens of thousands of lives each year with minimal cost.

Neither total fluid intake, nor intake of other fluids combined showed this reduced risk. Instead, for women, high intake (5 or more glasses a day) of other fluids, such as sodas, showed a greatly increased risk of coronary heart disease. “People need to be made aware that there is a difference, at least for heart health, whether they get their fluids from plain water or from sodas,” says Dr. Chan.

Delicious whole foods, snacks, soups and more from The Wholefood Farmacy are the perfect foods to enjoy as you start drinking more water."

Whole Grain Brown Rice Or White Rice

Brought to you by the WholeFood Farmacy.

"Milling is the process that turns brown rice into white rice by removing the outer layer known as the bran layer - this alters the nutritional value of the rice. The complete milling process that creates white rice from brown rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. In short, brown rice is a fiber-rich whole grain whereas white rice is simply a refined and nutritionally depleted processed food.

In March of 2006, research reported in the journal Agricultural Research, Nancy Keim and a team at the USDA ARS Western Human Nutrition Center studied 10 women age 20-45 who ate a whole grain diet for three days, then ate the same foods but with refined grains in place of whole grains. Blood samples at the end of each 3-day period showed that the refined grains diet caused a significant increase in triglycerides and a worrisome protein called "apolipoprotein CIII" (apoCIII), both of which have been associated with increased risk of heart disease.
At the University of Utah, in a study of over 2000 people, a team led by Dr. Martha Slattery found that high intakes of whole grains, such as brown rice, reduced the risk of rectal cancer 31%. They also found that a high-fiber diet, 34 grams or more of fiber per day, reduced rectal cancer by an impressive 66%. The findings were published in the February 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In a Study presented at American Heart Association Conference, March 2006, overweight children, age 9-15, spent two weeks on an all-you-can-eat diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lean protein, while exercising 2.5 hours each day. University of California researchers led by Dr. James Barnard reported that in just two weeks the children's cholesterol levels dropped an average of 21%, while insulin levels fell 30%.

In May, 2008, the FDA approved the following health claim for Brown Rice: "Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods and low in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers."

Using Brown Rice in place of white rice is one small change that can make a BIG difference in the lives of you, your family and your children.

Power In Nuts

"Some fairly recent analyses of the Adventist Health Study findings showed a remarkable relationship between eating nuts and whole wheat bread, and experiencing a reduced risk for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). These findings were the subject of a research article submitted by Dr. Fraser and his colleagues to the Archives of Internal Medicine, and published in its July 1992 issue.

The most outstanding findings of this part of the overall study show that nut consumption reduces the risk of both fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease. Again, the researchers looked for a variety of ways to disprove the finding, adjusting the data for differences in age, sex, smoking habits, exercise, relative weight, and hypertension. The protective qualities of nuts remained statistically significant and essentially unchanged in magnitude.

Those individuals who ate nuts one to four times a week had 26% decrease in the risk of suffering from definite nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and a 27% decrease in the risk of definite fatal coronary heart disease as compared to those who ate nuts less than once a week.

However, those individuals who ate nuts five or more times a week had a 48% decrease in the risk of definite nonfatal heart attack and a 38% reduced risk of definite fatal CHD as compared to the group who ate nuts less than once a week. Age- and sex-adjusted analyses of the associations between nut consumption and definite CHD were calculated for various subgroups within the Adventist Health Study. Results were examined to see if the association between nut consumption and CHD held up in different segments of the population. The consistency was quite remarkable and adds to the researchers' confidence in the importance of these findings.

Both "ever-smokers" and "never-smokers" showed a 46% decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease when they ate nuts five or more times a week. Study participants with normal blood pressure showed that eating nuts more than five times a week reduced their risk of coronary heart disease by 60% percent, and hypertensive individuals enjoyed a 30% decrease in risk compared to similar subjects who ate few nuts.

Nuts are widely used here at The Wholefood Farmacy and you can find them in many of our foods. You’ll love them, your kids will love them and your whole family will be much better off. Now is the best time to put your kids on a path that leads to health, vitality, longevity and happiness."