This Obsession Can Help Fight Cancer
The change in seasons and the loss of summer pleasures can bring on a whole series of stress reactions. It’s a great time to consider adding meditation and yoga breathing to your daily practice. Anything that makes you feel relaxed (as you did on the beach in summer) will benefit both your body and mind.
Your food choices need to be dictated by awareness and clarity as well.
Instead of reaching into the refrigerator for a crappy snack, surprise yourself and eat right.
Make smart choices. These can include increasing your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as adding Vitamins E and C, and green tea extract that can all contribute to bolstering your immune system, not a bad thing to do in advance of cold and flu season.
This is a time that I rejoice in because it’s apple time and I love ‘em. I suggest that you do as well because they can become your new best friend for a variety of reasons: not the least of which is that they contain several important flavanoids that can help fight cancer.
I’m not gonna lie to ya’, there are many other fruits and veggies that are higher in key vitamins and minerals, but apples trump that stuff with the antioxidant phytochemicals that made Korean researchers in the Journal “BIOFACTORS” concluded that, “Our results indicate that the cancer chemopreventive activity associated with apples is associated with the combined antioxodant capacity and antitumor-promoting activities of diverse antioxidants.”
The Korean study found that apples have high levels of quercetin, epicatechin and procyanidin. They are also a good source of fiber, Vit C and K and potassium.
There are 7500 different varieties of apples in the world and 2500 can be found right here in the US. (Early colonists in the 1600’s brought them with and planted the first orchard near Boston.)
More good news is that cooking an apple does not destroy the antioxidants. When you drink juice or cider you get a nice concentration of the good stuff found in apples. Even dried apples retain the benefits.
One medium-sized whole fresh apple has about 95 calories, about a half gram of protein, no saturated fat, 4.4 grams of fiber and 25 carbs.
To see a video about different apple varieties online, go to www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org.
Select: Choose firm, shiny, smooth-skinned apples with intact stems. Should smell fresh, not musty.
Store: Store apples in plastic bag in the refrigerator away from strong-smelling foods. Use within 3 weeks.
Nutrition Benefits: Fat free; saturated fat free; sodium free; cholesterol free; high source of dietary fiber.
Eat: Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash is a true celebration of the favorite fall fruit, the apple. This recipe meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) strict nutrition guidelines as a healthy recipe.
Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash
Preparation time: 1 hour
Serves: 8
Cups of Fruits and Vegetables per Serving: 1/2
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup raisins
- 2 acorn squash (about 4” diameter)
- 8 seconds butter-flavor cooking oil spray
- 2 tablespoons sucralose no-calorie sweetener
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon2 medium Fuji Apples
- 2 tablespoons light butter
Cover raisins with warm water and soak for 20 minutes, then drain. While soaking, pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Cut acorn squash into quarters and remove the seeds.
Spray the inside of each squash quarter with one second of cooking oil spray.
Mix sweetener and cinnamon together. Sprinkle squash quarters with ½ of cinnamon mixture.
Bake for 10 minutes. While baking, cut apples into quarters and remove the core. Chop apples into ½” pieces. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add apples, raisins and remaining cinnamon mixture. Mix well and remove from heat.
Take squash from the oven and top with equal amounts of apple mixture, making sure to scrape sauce pan well. Squash needs all the melted butter to stay moist as it bakes. Return squash to the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes or until apples and squash are tender. Serve warm.
by 
Greta Blackburn is an actress, fitness magazine editor and Founder/Director of Greta Blackburn’s FITCAMPS, which have taken place for over 20 years in locations ranging from Malibu, Maui, and Mexico to Las Vegas and served as training symposiums for fitness professionals and other interested men and women from all over the world. Today the focus at Fitcamp is making 100 the new 50. In 2011 Greta co-authored, “The Immortality Edge” with Michael Fossel, MD, PhD. (author of the pivotal 1997 tome “Reversing Human Aging”) and Dr. Woynarowski with research and solutions based programs based on the emerging field of Telomere Biology.
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