This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Past Secrets and Future Life, A Resource Manual for Healthy Living
A work in progress by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Consultant, Just Networking for Health
Can a plant change your life?
“Food is an amazing substance that has the power to both create and destroy health.”(1) Creating health -- that’s what Mom and Grandma were doing when then told us: an apple a day keeps the Doctor away…eat your veggies … go outside and play! The message is the same today.
In order to live healthier lives we need to exercise regularly, get plenty of fresh air, drink lots of water, eat fresh fruit and vegetables, and reduce to minimum or remove the intake of animal products and refined flour products from our food choices.
But the fact is, for most of us, we’re on the go, and processed foods and foods that have travelled over great distances, are an accepted part of our lifestyle.
“Accepted” is not always good and some of us have taken the message to heart. But willpower alone is not enough to change the way we eat. Good health is an achievement – there are certain things you have to do. It is the internalization of information that creates actions bound to an emotional commitment for a healthier life. “When your health improves, every other aspect of your life improves simultaneously.”(2)
Let’s see what is happening in our bodies over time resulting from our food choices. Lack of nutrients, plus toxins in processed food, and air pollution, generate Free Radicals (3) that damage our cells and DNA. The result? Symptoms of degenerative disease start to show up. Just look at recent studies showing the relation of obesity to the rapid increase of diabetes type II in children.
To repair cell damage, the body needs specific nutrients and antioxidants. Just imagine, we have billions of cells, 100,000 km of circulation roadways, the heart beats 100,000 times a day, and if we laid out our intestines flat open they would fill the surface of a tennis court. That’s a lot of activity to support!
But the body is already working at a deficit! It uses up all of the meager nutrients we manage to give it, just to combat the toxins that come in through the skin and breathing. There’s nothing left!
While we cannot live in a bubble, we can stockpile our defenses by eating plant-based nutrient-dense food: i.e. fruits, salads, raw and steamed vegetables, legumes. And we can supplement antioxidants. Researchers believe that supplementary antioxidants are necessary for combating free radicals in addition to the body’s normal defense systems.(4)
Okay, we change to a plant-based nutrient-dense food plan and take a potent vitamin and mineral complex with enzymes and amino acids and lots of other antioxidant elements. We’ve made good decisions.
But one visit to the health food store and we’ve got a dizzy head full of questions: do we know how much real potency is in the bottle? How many bottles of individual nutrients or different complexes do we need? What about cost? And which ones do we give our kids?
Remember degenerative disease often has its beginnings in childhood.
In 2004 over 160 vitamin products available (retail, mail-order, and via direct marketing) in the USA and Canada were compared in an independent study against a blended standard recommended by nutritional supplementation experts. (5) Only a few came close to having the optimal values!
So what is the alternative to swallowing handfuls of tablets? What can deliver the nutrients and antioxidants we need, and is good for the whole family?
One solution is Mother Nature’s original health drink: Aloe Vera!
It seems like the newest rave. Everything from yoghurt to panty hose and household cleaners has ‘Aloe’ in the list of ingredients. Is it marketing gag? .
The minimal use of Aloe in those products certainly is a consumer lure.
But let’s take a look behind the scenes. Why Aloe? What is so great about this plant? And how can it change our lives?
In various cultures it was a symbol of Beauty and Immortality: known as the Queen of the Medicine Plants, the Resource of Harmony, or the Present of the Gods. (6) The humble Aloe has over a 4000-year history of documented beauty and medicinal uses, from Cleopatra to Columbus. Today, traditional peoples all over the world still turn to the Aloe for healing.
Aloe is most commonly used externally to alleviate burns of all kinds. It is also anti-inflammatory, speeds up the healing of wounds, relieves pain and soothes itchiness.
The Aloe’s tiny molecules transport its nutrition through all four layers of our skin, making it optimal for natural beauty and personal hygiene.
Although there are many companies providing Aloe Vera to the marketplace, the company I trust is Forever Living Products, a 27-year-old family-owned company, based in Arizona USA. They are world’s largest producer and distributor of Aloe Vera health and beauty products.
To make sure that their Aloe Vera is the purest on the market, they cultivate their plantations without pesticides and herbicides. Only the gel inside the leaf is used as the active ingredient in the FLP products. The leaves are returned to the fields as fertilizer. A patented natural stabilization process insures the fastest turn-around time from plant to product.
The most potent Aloe, Barbadensis Miller, contains over 75 nutrients, 200 active compounds, 20 minerals, 18 amino acids and 12 vitamins according to FLP. But it’s not how many or how much, it is the synergy of these natural ingredients that is the secret of how the Aloe works to promote health. (7)
This plant powerhouse is packaged in one-liter plastic jugs and shipped to warehouses reaching over 105 countries. There are three flavors: Peach - with pieces of aloe soaked in natural peach juice; Berry, with apple and cranberry added; and Natural, the herbal aloe!
Taken internally, the active ingredient of the Aloe gel called Acemannan has been shown to activate the immune system. This strengthens the entire organism, encourages the innate self-healing abilities of the body, harmonizes all bodily activities and supports overall health.
Aloe detoxifies gently, is anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal. Over time, drinking Aloe has been scientifically observed to decrease blood fat and blood sugar values, expand arteries thus decreasing high blood pressure, and to reduce depression! (7)
So what do you think, can a plant change your life?
‘…the most overlooked tool in our medical arsenal is harnessing the body’s own ability to heal through nutritional excellence.’ (8)
Disclaimer: The information provided is strictly educational and not intended as medical advice. For diagnosis and treatment, consult your health care professional.
About the Author: Judith Nappo, Infopreneur and Networker, actively promotes medical doctors, authors, and companies offering natural and nutritional solutions for a happy, fit, long and healthy life. She lives in eastern Switzerland and frequently travels to the USA. Contact:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Forever Living’s wellness and beauty products are available for local home delivery in 105 countries and have a 30-day money back guarantee. When ordering on the net, please use Referral Number 410000023165 or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the ordering procedures in your country.
References:
1. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Eat to Live Little Brown and Company, 2003
Dr. Fuhrman specializes in preventing and reversing disease through a scientifically designed, life-long weight maintenance program. “Eat to Live is a book that will change the way you want to eat. This is a book that will let you live longer, reduce your need for medications, and improve your health dramatically.” http://www.drfuhrman.com/
2. David Wolfe, Sunfood Diet Success System, Maui Brothers, 1999
David is one of the world’s foremost advocates of a Raw Food Lifestyle and one of the most positive people I have ever met. http://www.rawfood.com/
3. Free Radicals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_radical
Free radicals play an important role in a number of biological processes, some of which are necessary for life, such as the intracellular killing of bacteria. However, because of their reactivity, these same free radicals can participate in unwanted side reactions resulting in cell damage.
4. There are many scientific studies relating the value of supplementation to increasing health and preventing disease that can be readily found on the internet. But a great little book, written from the heart, explains it all in a nutshell. Dr. Myron Wentz’s Invisible Miracles available at http://www.sanoviv.com/ shares his vision of nutritional science.
5. Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements, Macwilliam Publishing Canada, 2004. http://www.comparativeguide.com/
6. Information researched in Aloe Vera Queen of Healing Plants, Jutta Oppermann, Lebensbaum Publishing 2004
7. Aloe Vera – a source of vitality and a solid immune system, Dirk Grosser, Lebensbaum Flyer 2003
8. Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, MD in the foreward to Dr. Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live. Here is his full quote: “I am a cardiovascular surgeon infatuated with the challenge and promise of ‘high tech’ medicine and surgery. Nonetheless, I have become convinced that the most overlooked tool in our medical arsenal is harnessing the body’s own ability to heal through nutritional excellence.”
