Reader's Digest Food Cures New Edition

Book excerpt: Heal What Ails You with Delicious Superfoods! Discover the incredible healing power of everyday food—treat the most common conditions naturally, safely, and deliciously—and live pain free, allergy free, disease free, and worry free. Clean out your medicine cabinet and restock the shelves of your kitchen pantry with healing and appealing items from the grocery store. Rely less on pills and more on real food. How much? How often? In Food Cures, you’ll find all the answers, the research-validated treatments, and successful cures for dozens of common conditions. The past ten years have been filled with intriguing announcements from the world of medial research. Forget about wonder drugs; we’re living in a time of wonder foods. The foods described in this book are nutritional powerhouses bursting with compounds that have specific and well-defined health benefits. Changing your diet won’t guarantee that you’ll never get sick or need drugs, but eating the right food can help heal what ails you and can bolster your body’s defenses against disease, treat disease directly, aid in weight loss, and even slow the aging process. Healing foods section includes: A rainbow of fruits and vegetables (8 to 9 servings a day)—the wider the variety the better—will lower the risk of an array of cancers Kale, spinach, and other dark leafy greens, which in addition to protecting your eyes from macular degeneration, are high in vitamin K which can help maintain bone density Ancient grains such as quinoa, teff, farro, and millet, are great sources of fiber and provide antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to support immunity and fight disease Dark chocolate contains hefty amounts of disease-fighting flavonoids and can significantly improve blood pressure Olive oil lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol and raises “good” HDL cholesterol Cures for common conditions include: Allergies: when the trees bud and grasses sprout add more salmon and other fatty fish, garlic, onions, yogurt with live cultures, and sweet potatoes to your diet Colds and flu: chicken soup is not just an old-wives tale, chicken soup plus lots of water, decaffeinated tea, and juices really can help Gum Disease: A squirt of lime juice can help your mouth battle bacteria plus lean beef (rich in zinc and vitamin B6, whole-grain cereal with milk and a glass of orange juice, and fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants Insomnia: Grandma prescribed glass of warm milk really works. Plus whole grains, chamomile tea, red meat, shellfish, tofu, lentils and other iron-rich food