Brain Enhancing, Fat Burning, Cancer Preventing, DIY Homemade Supplementation

It is not another drug or folk remedy. You can prevent many forms of cancer, improve gut health, establish healthy body fat composition, enhance brain function, detoxify your cells, and reduce depression with this one miracle compound.

It’s called sulforaphane, and it is naturally produced when cruciferous vegetables are damaged. We initiate the reaction that creates sulforaphane with the process of chewing, which allows us to reap a plethora of benefits that make the scientific research on sulforaphane look like a late night TV ad.

The Scientific Sales Pitch

Although there are many proposed effects of sulforaphane, let’s stick with what has been studied. Sulforaphane has been shown to prevent the growth of many cancers including breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. The risk of common diseases like diabetes, heart disease, gastric disease, neurodegenerative disease, ocular disease, and respiratory diseases are reduced with the consumption of sulforaphane as well. Even behavioral disorders like autism have been helped with sulforaphane supplementation. And if that isn’t enough, sulforaphane has been shown to decrease fat gain and improve body composition in mice. All this is possible because sulforaphane stimulates protective and detoxifying mechanisms in the cells. This allows the cells to eliminate environmental toxins like mercury and air pollutants from the body and repair themselves from the damage caused by oxidative stress.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

With positive and protective effects on almost every cell in the body, sulforaphane is like a health insurance policy for your cells. This compound can be found in raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

It is important to note that sulforaphane cannot be produced from vegetables that are cooked at a temperature above 158 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because the enzyme that helps create sulforaphane is deactivated when is heated above 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

The enzyme that helps create sulforaphane may also become less active in mature cruciferous vegetables, so it is uncertain how much sulforaphane you will actually get from mature plants. This is where crucifer sprouts save the day. Due to their increased enzyme activity, crucifer sprouts are the best source of sulforaphane. But one sprout, in particular, may provide the most sulforaphane of them all. That sprout is the broccoli sprout.

Where To Get Broccoli Sprouts

After seeing the benefits of broccoli sprouts it is tempting to add that $10 bottle of broccoli sprout capsules to your cart, but don’t let the tempting price fool you. At $10 per bottle, you are spending 20x more than if you bought broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that they actually have any sulforaphane or enzyme activity.

With store bought broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. However, store bought broccoli sprouts will run you about $1 per ounce when you can easily grow them at home for the cost of ~9 cents per ounce.

With one 64 oz mason jar, a seed strainer lid, broccoli seeds, a glass bowl, and water you can grow up to 15 pounds of sprouts per pound of broccoli seeds. That means you can have a half pound of sprouts every week for over 6 months. Fifteen pounds of broccoli sprouts would cost you $240 if you bought them in the store or almost $5,000 in capsule form, and you can get them for less than $50.

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Growing your own broccoli sprouts is simple and easy. It doesn’t require gardening skills, and after less than a week you can have up to half a pound of delicious broccoli sprouts for the cost of less than a dollar.

Here is what you need:

• Organic broccoli seeds for sprouting (~$15 per pound)
• A 64-ounce mason jar (~$10 per jar)
• Strainer sprouting lids that fit the mouth of your jar (~$9 per lid)
• A glass bowl
• A cool, dark place
• Optional: full spectrum light
• Optional: salad spinner

Estimated yield: 3 tablespoons of seeds will most likely sprout to a half pound of broccoli sprouts in about 5-7 days.

Step by Step Guide to Sprouting Your Broccoli Seeds

Step 1

Put 3 tablespoons of broccoli seeds in your mason jar, cover the seeds with cool, distilled water or spring water (60-70 degrees Fahrenheit), and swish the water around gently. Put your mason jar, with the sprouting lid on, in a cool dark place for 6-12 hours to allow the seeds to soak.

Step 2

Drain off the water by tipping the mason jar to let the water pass through the strainer. Take the glass bowl and rest your mason jar inside of it so that the remaining water can drain. Put it in a cool dark place for 8-12 hours to let the seeds drain and sprout.

Tip: make sure the jar is tipped enough so that the seeds can drain and have adequate airflow. The most common cause of poor sprouting is inadequate drainage.

Step 3

Rinse the seeds 2x daily and put the jar back in the bowl in a cool dark place so it can drain. It might help to set reminders on your phone.

Here’s what mine looked like 60 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Tip: Try not to expose them to too much light until most of them are sprouted with tiny yellowish leaves.

Step 4

After 3 to 4 days you will notice white sprouts with tiny yellowish leaves coming from the seeds. When this happens for most of your seeds, you can begin exposing them to indirect sunlight or a full spectrum light bulb so that they can start to green up. Continue to do the same rinsing process as before.

84 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Step 5

After a day or two of light exposure, rinse them once again, and let them drain overnight. The next morning they will be ready to eat!

After the first day of sun exposure:

The finished product, about 6 ounces of broccoli sprouts from 2 and a half tablespoons of broccoli seeds:

Bonus Step: How to Increase Sulforaphane content by 3.5x

Studies have actually been conducted to find out how to increase the bioavaliability of sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts. One study found that If you want to get the most out of your broccoli sprouts, you must never expose them to temperatures greater than 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). However, if you let them sit in 65 to 70 degree Celsius (149 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) water for 10 minutes, you can increase sulforaphane content by around 3.5 fold. The greatest increase was found at 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) with a rapid decrease when the sprouts were exposed to greater temperatures.

To try this broccoli sprout hack at home all you need is a pot, thermometer, a glass bowl, a timer, water, and your broccoli sprouts. Put your broccoli sprouts in a glass bowl while you heat up the water in the pot until it reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Cover your sprouts with the water and set your timer for ten minutes. Check the temperature of the water that the sprouts are in every couple of minutes and add 70 degree Celsius water to the broccoli sprouts periodically to maintain the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius. After 10 minutes, drain the sprouts, pat they dry, eat them, add them to a smoothie, or store them in the refrigerator.

If that description was to confusing, check out how Dr. Rhonda Patrick hacks her broccoli sprout sulforaphane content:

How to Store Your Sprouts for up to Six Weeks

To keep the sprouts fresh and nutritious for six weeks follow these steps:

1. Eight to twelve hours after the final rinse and drain, pat your sprouts dry and/or use a salad spinner until the sprouts are reasonably dry. Nothing kills produce quicker than refrigerating it wet.
2. Put the sprouts in a plastic bag or container that will ensure minimal exposure to air. If they are exposed to too much air they may dry out completely.
3. Refrigerate them for up to six weeks and eat them whenever and however you like.

Enjoy!

Recommended Reading:

• Fight Cavities and Gingivitis Naturally With Homemade DIY Oral Health
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Natural, Safe Sunscreen Options with Homemade Sunscreen Recipe
• How To Make Natural Body Butters That Actually Moisturize Your Skin

Sources:

• Keap1-Nrf2 Signaling: A Target for Cancer Prevention by Sulforaphane — NCBI
• Sulforaphane treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — NCBI
• Sulforaphane, a Dietary Component of Broccoli/Broccoli Sprouts, Inhibits Breast Cancer Stem Cells — NCBI
• Dietary Sulforaphane in Cancer Chemoprevention: The Role of Epigenetic Regulation and HDAC Inhibition — NCBI
• Frugal Chemoprevention: Targeting Nrf2 with Foods Rich in Sulforaphane — NCBI
• Oxidative Stress and Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review of Upstream and Downstream Antioxidant Therapeutic Options — NCBI
• Sulforaphane, a phytochemical in broccoli sprouts, ameliorates obesity — Science Daily
• Sulforaphane improves cognitive function administered following traumatic brain injury — Science Direct
• Neuroprotective Effects of Sulforaphane on Cholinergic Neurons in Mice with Alzheimer’s Disease-Like Lesions — NCBI
• Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. — NCBI
• Heating decreases epithiospecifier protein activity and increases sulforaphane formation in broccoli. — NCBI
• Refrigerating — Sprout People
• Potential health benefits of sulforaphane: A review of the experimental, clinical and epidemiological evidences and underlying mechanisms — Academic Journals
• Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. — NCBI

If you’re making nut milks for better health, there are a few rules you’ll want to adhere to. First and foremost, kudos for making your own. Homemade is always better when done right. But to do it right, skip the soy milk. It’s no good. When buying almonds, make sure they are not pasteurized. Buy raw nuts. Cashews aren’t really raw, so they’re not the healthiest choice, but I do use them sometimes.

Contents

• Soaking & Sprouting

• Nut Milk with a Blender

• Almond Milk with a Juicer

• Flax Milk

• Hemp Milk

• Coconut Milk

• Rice Milk

PRE-MILKING: Soak and Sprout Times for Nuts

Before you milk your nuts, it is best to soak them. There’s a lot of conflicting information about soak times for nuts but I personally soak nuts for 24 hours and then dehydrate them at 112°F in our dehydrator or at room temperature if the air is dry enough.

I soak raw nuts to remove enzyme inhibitors and activate enzymes. I don’t soak seeds, but some do. I don’t soak cashews because I think that nut is already dead, but as you can see from the infographics on the left, there is some disagreement.

How to Make Nut Milk with a Blender

This recipe yields 5 cups or just over a liter and takes less than ten minutes. I’ve used almonds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, cashews, pecans, and walnuts for this standard nut milk recipe.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups water (some nuts and some circumstances require a little more or less)
• 1 cup of raw, soaked nuts
• 1-3 pitted dates or use stevia, raw honey, or maple syrup to taste (all sweeteners are optional; you may prefer unsweetened nut milk to drink or for use in recipes)

Instructions

1. Place ingredients in a blender and secure lid.
2. Turn blender on high, but not too fast or for too long if you want raw milk.  (Too fast or too long will cook the enzymes!)
3. Blend for about 45 seconds or until desired consistency is reached.
4. If you like thinner milk (most do, but I usually keep the fiber), strain it with cheesecloth, pantyhose (unworn would be a good idea here), or muslin cloth and a fine mesh strainer, but many prefer to use a reinforced nut milk bag.
5. Store milk in refrigerator.
6. Shake well before using.

Notes:

• The less strained a nut milk is, the higher its fiber content.
• I don’t recommend straining cashew milk.
• If you use raw honey, do not use the milk for baking, cooking, coffee, hot tea, etc. if you want to retain the benefits of raw honey.
• I blend with 3 cups first, and then decide if I want some of the fourth cup.

The following are a few other nut milk and non-dairy recipes with videos. These videos are not our videos, so the recipes don’t always exactly match, but as you’ll see reading on, making nut, seed, rice, and other non-dairy milks is really just about blending together water with something fatty (like almonds) to flavor the water. The trick is how to have a finished product with the right consistency and taste balance. Play around and find your own nut milk style and groove.

Making Almond Milk with a Blender

Making Almond Milk with a Slow Juicer

Masticating verticle juicers such as the Omega VRT 350 or 400 and horizontal twin gear juicers can be used to make nut milks. In my experience, the single gear juicers like mine don’t do so well (see the video below).

The video indicates the 8004 (single gear) left behind a delicious nut cream. I tried it, and it worked well. I put the weak nut milk in a blender and added more almonds, lightly strained and had great milk.

Other Non-dairy Milk Recipes

Nut milks are rich and creamy, but there are many more to choose from, and mixing milks to find your own favorite formula is fun. I really like 40% flax, 50% almond, and 10% cashew with some cinnamon, cardamom, and a touch of nutmeg. I don’t like things very sweet, so if you do, you may prefer more dates than I do, or another sweetener entirely or no sweetener at all.

Speaking of flavor, sweeteners are not necessary (it’s up to you), and should always be done by taste. For more on sweeteners, be sure to check out Healthy Alternative Sugars. I recommend the following, in order based on both health consciousness and what I like to taste in these recipes.

Sweeteners and Spices For Non-Dairy Milks

• Stevia
• Dates
• Raw honey (only if it will not be heated)
• Blackstrap molasses
• Sugar cane juice
• Granny smith apple juice
• Maple syrup

I also like using stevia to sweeten and then just a little maple syrup or another sweetener to mask the stevia. Stevia is great for essentially amplifying the sweetness of another sweetener.

Spices for Non-Dairy Nut Milks

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Allspice
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Cardamom

Just a pinch! Depending on what you are using the milk for, use very little of these spices. The taste gets stronger after the milk sets a while. This is especially true with nutmeg. You can ruin any dish with just a little too much nutmeg.

Also, the fineness of your strainer will have a tremendous impact on the taste and consistency of your milk. The less you strain, the more potential for a chalky or slimy texture (depending on the nut, the humidity, and some other factors). On the other hand, with some nuts and seeds, or with some recipes, less of a fine strain may be in order. Plus, there are health benefits in the pulp, so the more of it you get, the better, (unless there are digestive issues to consider).

Healthy & Heavenly Flax Milk Recipe

Flaxseed doesn’t have the most diverse set of benefits, but it is heavy in beneficial omega 3 fats and contains between 75 and 800 times more lignans than other plant foods.

There’s no need to soak or sprout flax seeds.

I like the taste of dates, maple syrup, cane juice, and honey in my homemade flax milk, but I tend to just use honey because I never heat flax milk, and I often heat other milks such as almond or hazelnut for oatmeal and other treats. Heating raw honey or flax does not make for a healthy meal. I’m also careful to keep the blender from cooking the flax as well.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup flax seeds
• 3 cups water (plus 1-1.5  more cups)
• Straining cloth or milk nut bag
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• Vanilla to taste (a tiny bit! I do about 1/4 tsp)

Instructions

1. Combine flax seeds and 3 cups water in blender
2. Blend until thick and creamy on high heat, but not too hot as to cook the flax
3. Strain
4. Blend 1-1.5 more cups water plus honey to desired consistency
5. Can be used right away or chilled for later

Notes

Brown or golden flax will work fine. I used brown, but I’ve read that golden flax results in a milder flavor.

Homemade Honey Hemp Milk

Hemp milk, like flax, is a quick and easy to make since hemp doesn’t need to be soaked overnight. Hemp seeds (hulled hemp nuts) are for omega-3 fatty acids and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential omega-6 fatty acid found in borage oil and egg yolks that is known to naturally balance hormones. Hemp also has all 10 essential amino acids, making hemp a complete source of protein on its own. Calcium, potassium, phosphorous, vitamin A, and magnesium are also prevalent in hemp and homemade hemp milk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup hemp hearts (also called seeds or shelled hemp nuts)
• 3 to 4 cups filtered or spring water (3 cups for thicker milk, and up to 4 cups for thinner)
• 1 Tbsp of coconut oil (optional)
• 2 Tbsp of raw honey and a drop of stevia (pick another sweetener if you’re gonna heat this milk)
• Vanilla to taste
• A pinch of Himalayan pink salt (or other unprocessed sea salt)

Instructions

1. In a high-speed blender, add hemp and water
2. Blend on high for about two minutes, until fully liquefied
3. Strain, put back into blender (rinse the blender first)
4. Add coconut oil (if using), honey and stevia, vanilla powder and salt. Blend briefly.

How to Make Your Own Coconut Milk

I find coconut milk to be an easy recipe, but if you’re picky about the texture, coconut can be a little more labor intensive. What I love about coconut milk is that I find it to be the most versatile, the most robust, and the most beneficial of all the nut milks.

Coconut milk can be cooked at moderate temperatures without affecting the health benefits, the fat is incredibly good for you.

• 1 cup dried coconut chips -or- between 2-3 whole, mature coconuts
• 2 cups water

Instructions

If you’re using whole coconut, extract the meat. You can also use coconut water to substitute for water.

Blend. Blend for a while; take your time. You can blend at high speeds as well since coconut is not very susceptible to heat damage. When the coconut meat is as liquefied as possible, transfer the contents of your blender to the cheesecloth or other strainer.

Some people repeat the process, blending more and then straining again. Other recipes call for hot water to further emulsify the coconut meat into the water.

Making Brown Rice Milk at Home

It isn’t good for you at all if you use refined rice. Always use brown rice. Brown rice is a good source of fiber, manganese, and selenium. It also has some decent levels of iron, copper, niacin, and folate.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cooked rice
• 3 cups filtered water

Instructions

Measure rice into a blender, add the water, and blend until smooth (approximately 1 minute). You may want to blend again for ultra smooth consistency.

Conclusion

Most nut milks are best fresh though I find the sweeter, seasoned varieties I make are better 6-10 hours later. I admit, this could just be my imagination. Homemade nut and seed milks generally last between 5 to 10 days when properly refrigerated. The smell and taste is pretty obvious when they turn, so check the 5-day-old milk before you risk ruining a bowl of cereal. With all of these milks (just like unpasteurized milk), shake before using.

As mentioned, the sweeteners are optional. I recommend as little refined sugar as possible in a diet, and I rarely make sweet nut milks for myself. When I do, I almost always use stevia to amplify another sweetener like raw honey or maple syrup. I don’t generally do a lot of cashews or almonds because they’re expensive to buy unpasteurized (cashews are cooked during the difficult opening process, and truly raw cashews are hard to find and very expensive).

If you suffer from digestive problems or any health issues, see this article. And remember, it is imperative that you soak nuts that need to be soaked. Enzyme inhibitors age us rapidly, so get rid of them.

If you’ve got any tricks or techniques for making alternative, non-dairy milks, be sure to leave us a comment below.

Recommended Reading:

• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Sprouting to Remove Enzyme Inhibitors
• 35 Things You Could Do With Coconut Oil – From Body Care to Health to Household
• Homemade Vitamin C
• Homemade Calcium and Magnesium
• Three Homemade Toothpaste Recipes – Better Oral Health for Less Money

Sources:

• An Illustrated Guide: Benefits to Soaking and Sprouting Legumes, Grains and Seeds – KQED Foods
• Homemade Quinoa Milk – Simple Vegan Blog

Like many great discoveries, the first antioxidants were discovered by accident.

Joe McCord was looking for the function of a different enzyme when he chanced upon a mysterious enzyme that seemed to be present in every form of life except anaerobic bacteria, bacteria that does not need oxygen to survive. In the beginning, neither McCord nor his mentor, Irwin Fridovich, understood the purpose of this enzyme, which they named superoxide dismutase (SOD), but they were convinced that it was important.

This discovery was the beginning of research into antioxidants and free radicals. In the late sixties, when McCord and Fridovich first published their findings, their research was received with little enthusiasm. Most of their peers did not grasp the importance of antioxidants and their role in human health and vitality. Now, decades later, we know a great deal more about how free radicals are generated and the role antioxidants play in the body to protect against their damage.

What Are Free Radicals?

Free radicals are molecules that are inherently unstable. In an effort to become more stable, free radicals will steal electrons from other molecules in close proximity. This electron theft makes the victimized molecule more unstable, and it in turn will steal electrons from other nearby molecules in order to become more stable, and so on. This chain reaction of robbing Peter to pay Paul can cause a great deal of cell damage, as well as cell death.

Free radicals are all around us; they are not easy or even possible to avoid. Many diseases and injuries create free radicals in the body. Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, influenza, sinus infections, and yeast infections all create free radicals. Injuries, even minor ones such as sprains, muscle aches, and strains, all generate free radicals. Toxins generate free radicals and toxins are everywhere – in our food, water, and the air we breathe. Even if our air was perfectly clean, simply taking in oxygen throughout the body generates free radicals.

Unavoidable Free Radicals

Oxygen molecules generate what is collectively known as oxidative stress. Oxygen is actually highly corrosive. Most of us don’t think of it that way because we need oxygen to live; without oxygen our cells would quickly die. But taking oxygen into the body generates a free radical superoxide, an unstable form of oxygen. Obviously, there’s no way to avoid this. Oxygen is just one of our unavoidable sources of free radicals. Metabolizing our food also creates free radicals. Sunlight, smoking, radiation and even eating burnt food can create free radicals in the body.

So why aren’t we all dead yet? That’s where antioxidants come in.

How Does SOD Work?

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is both an enzyme and an antioxidant that protects against the free radical, superoxide. SOD changes this free radical to hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide is still a free radical. SOD then works in concert with another antioxidant, catalase, to change hydrogen peroxide from an unstable free radical to water, a stable compound.

SOD is produced in the body from three minerals: copper, zinc, and manganese. Good sources of copper and manganese can be found in whole grains and nuts. Good sources of zinc include egg yolks, milk, oatmeal, nuts, legumes, and meat.

Antioxidant Supplementation

Joe McCord, now a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, thinks we should find ways of supplementing our diet in order to increase the two antioxidants in our bodies that do most of the work: superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. According to McCord, these two enzymes are the antioxidants that neutralize 99% of the free radicals in our bodies. By McCord’s reasoning, if we can get the body to produce more of these two antioxidant/enzymes, our bodies would be far more efficient at fighting free radicals.

McCord and his coauthor showed how a supplement containing five plant extracts simultaneously increased the body’s production of SOD and catalase and also decreased the markers associated with oxidative, stress-related aging. Their supplement contained green tea, turmeric, milk thistle, ashwagandha (also known as winter cherry), and bacopa.

So when it comes to antioxidants, more is more. Don’t megadose on one nutrient; rely on several nutrients to do their work in combination. Joe McCord Ph.D, Lester Packer Ph.D., Sanjay Gupta M.D., and Don Colbert M.D. are among the many experts who believe that antioxidants work best as a team. When these nutrients are used individually, the resulting health benefits are meager, if at all. This is one of the reasons why the public is getting mixed results back from scientists about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of vitamins in clinical trials. It is speculated by these and other experts that antioxidants are far more effective when they are in our diet (either as a result of supplementation or through our food) in proportionally combined doses.

Most of the body’s antioxidant protection comes from the combined efforts of vitamins A, C, and E, SOD, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. These antioxidants effectively prevent the majority of the damage that would be done by free radicals.

If we run low on these nutrients, cell damage can occur as a result. When Don Colbert M.D. was experimenting with different fasts for his best-selling book, Toxic Relief, he experienced this kind of nutrient shortage firsthand. On day seven of his water only fast, he noticed small white splotches had begun forming on the outside of his skin. Due to his medical training, he immediately knew what had happened; he had exhausted his body’s catalase, and his system was no longer able to convert hydrogen peroxide to water. Of course, he broke the fast immediately.

Antioxidants work synergistically. Increasing some antioxidants will help your body increase others. Take glutathione, for instance. Glutathione can both detoxify the body and neutralize free radicals. The liver manufactures glutathione from three amino acids: cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine.

Glutathione can also be consumed in foods such as fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. However, the amount of glutathione produced can be increased by increasing Vitamin C and N-acetylcysteine in the diet. The previously mentioned herb, milk thistle (one of the five plant extracts in McCord’s study that was shown to increase SOD production) can encourage the liver’s output of glutathione by as much as 35%!

Vitamin C and vitamin E are well known antioxidants. Vitamin C can protect the water soluble interior of the cell, and Vitamin E can protect the cell’s fatty outer membrane. These nutrients can get pretty complicated. For instance, there are eight different kinds of vitamin E. High doses of vitamin C, or any other nutrient, wouldn’t offer this kind of protection without the combined help from other antioxidants.

Many people believe supplemented forms of antioxidants will do them some good, but they don’t often understand that when it comes to supplemented antioxidants quality really matters, and it isn’t possible to get everything you need from pills alone. Some vitamins that also act as antioxidants are of such poor quality that they are of no benefit and may be actually harmful. Many of these detrimental vitamins are derived from petroleum. For example, a common synthetic form of vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopherol or dl-alpha-tocopheryl. This form of vitamin E is actually more harmful than going without any vitamin E supplementation at all.

Conclusion

Antioxidants (and many other nutrients) are naturally found in many foods. Antioxidants (the ones that scientists have discovered so far) are especially high in the following foods: artichokes, apples, blueberries, blackberries, black beans, red beans, kidney beans, carrots, cherries, cruciferous vegetables, citrus fruits, cantaloupes, watermelon, pecans, romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, onions, leeks, pumpkin, cabbage, green tea, and milk thistle tea.

The healthiest diet is an 80% Raw Food Diet. When 80% of your diet is comprised of raw, fresh, organic produce (more vegetables than fruits) your body receives the benefit of nutrient dense foods loaded with antioxidant vitamins and enzymes. To increase nutrition, you may want to add Doc Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula to your diet. Here’s the recipe to make your own.

Sources:

The Seven Pillars of Health by Don Colbert M.D.

Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta M.D.

The human body uses enzymes to carry out virtually every metabolic function.  While supplemental enzymes play an important role in optimizing digestion, taking enzymes outside of meal times has a powerful effect on the body’s immune response.  Using a wide array of different enzymes can provide a full-body anti-inflammatory effect that benefits several different systems in the body.

Enzymes are biocatalysts that are used to carry out and speed up the process of chemical reactions in the body.  We have around 3000 unique enzymes in our bodies that are involved in over 7000 enzymatic reactions.  We also consume enzymes when we eat raw, sprouted, and fermented fruits and vegetables.  Supplementing with an array of plant and proteolytic enzymes has been shown to have powerful health benefits.

Anti-Inflammatory Activity

When the body is injured or under chronic stress the immune system initiates a protein chain called Circulating Immune Complex (CIC) that causes pain, redness, and swelling in a particular region.  This is a beneficial process and early on is a necessary part of healing.  However, inflammation is self-perpetuating and creates further insult and irritation to the region.  Unless there is modulation of the CIC response, the inflammation can dominate and overwhelm the region of the body creating painful and degenerative conditions.

Non-Steriodal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID’s) work by blocking CIC activity in the body.  This affects all CIC’s, including those used to maintain the lining of the stomach, intestine, liver, and kidneys.  This is why long-term NSAID usage causes liver and kidney toxicity, stomach ulcers, and leaky gut syndrome.  Every year 20,000 Americans die from the over the counter use of these drugs and another 100,000 end up in the hospital with liver and kidney damage and intestinal bleeding from NSAID usage.

Systemic enzymes work to modulate or coordinate the activity of CIC’s and have no major adverse reactions.  They work as a lock and key mechanism and have an affinity for proinflammatory cytokines such as Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) and C Reactive Protein (CRP).

Immune System Modulations

Systemic enzymes help to destroy foreign proteins which include viruses, bacteria, yeasts, and other parasites.  They also help to destroy abnormal cells such as cancer cells.  They will also destroy excessive antibodies that the body is producing such as in cases of auto-immune diseases.

Anti-Fibrolytic Activity

Fibrosis is scar tissue that the body produces in the repair process of cuts and wounds on the outer and inner surfaces of our body.  When we have optimal enzyme stores, the enzymes are used to clean up fibrolytic tissue in the body.  However, when our enzyme stores are being depleted due to chronic stress and inflammatory activity, the fibrolytic tissue builds up.  When the body has an abundance of fibrolytic tissue build up, we end up with things like fibrocystic breast disease, uterine fibroids, endometrosis, and arteriol sclerosis.

Systemic enzymes eat fibrolytic tissue and prevent the fibrosis of our organs and tissues.  They have a remarkable ability to not only prevent all of the above conditions but also to eat up old scar tissue.  This includes surgical wounds, pulmonary fibrosis, kidney fibrosis, and even old keloid plaques.

Blood Cleansing Activity

Chronically inflamed individuals often times end up with very thick blood that is loaded with fibrin that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.  Doctors often prescribe asprin and in more extreme cases powerful pharmaceuticals like Coumadin, Heparin, and Plavix.  These have very dangerous side effects.

Systemic enzymes are able to clear up excess thickening agents such as fibrin from the blood stream and naturally thin the blood.  They also break down dead material including dead blood cells, pathogens, toxic debris, and immune agents that have been left in circulation.  This helps cleanse and detoxify the bloodstream and enhances circulation and cellular oxygenation.

Recommended Supplements:

• Systemic Enzymes
• Digestive Enzymes

Sources for This Article Include:

• http://www.naturalnews.com
• http://www.systemicenzymes.net
• http://www.naturalnews.com
• http://www.drjockers.com
• http://www.naturalnews.com

Enzymes and Digestion, Enzymes and Health, and a List of Enzyme-rich foods

The human body produces two categories of enzymes- metabolic and digestive. Metabolic enzymes are intra-cellular (in the cell), and are used for reproduction and replenishment of the cells as well as to maintain and rebuild the organs, tissues, and blood. Digestive enzymes are used to break down food for the proper assimilation of nutrients.

The Role of Digestive Enzymes

The importance of digestive enzymes resides in the fact that the human body cannot absorb nutrients found in food unless you have an adequate supply of enzymes available in order to break them down. In the book, Micro Miracles, Ellen W. Cutler writes about the important role that enzymes play in the digestive process.  “Digestive enzymes assist with the digestion of food, the absorption of nutrients, and the delivery of those nutrients throughout the body. The most commonly known digestive enzymes are secreted from the pancreas into the small intestine, where each is responsible for breaking down a specific compound.”

Digestive enzymes are classified based on their target substrates, the three main are:

• Protease- which split proteins into small peptides and amino acids.
• Lipase- which split fats into three fatty acids and a glycerol molecule.
• Amylase – for the digestion of carbohydrates.

As food is digested, it gets broken down for absorption, and then transported by the blood through the power of enzymatic activity, with nutrients and enzymes working synergistically with each other, functioning as catalysts in countless biological reactions within the body.

Enzymes From the Food We Eat

The final category of enzymes comes from the foods we eat. When foods contain sufficient amounts of their own enzymes, digestion can begin at the very first bite. The act of chewing your food thoroughly and mixing it with saliva will activate some of the enzymes naturally found in food.  However, research indicates that when food is cooked above 118 degrees, the heat will kill most of the enzymes resulting in diminished nutritional values. This deficit in enzymes is one of the major problems facing our modern-day society, which dines almost exclusively on cooked, fast, or processed foods.

The Work of Dr Edward Howell

Dr. Edward Howell, an early pioneer in the field, spent his entire professional life studying enzymes. He believed that people were born with limited enzyme-producing capabilities and that life expectancy depended on how well this “enzyme potential”was preserved.  He believed that when we eat enzyme-depleted foods, our bodies must work harder to manufacture all of the enzymes necessary to support the digestive and assimilation processes.

Enzyme production related to digestion already consumes large amounts of energy, and the lack of enzymes from food will only curtail the availability of enzymatic activity to the rest of the body. For example, tissues such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and muscles won’t get all the enzymes they need in order repair and function properly. Dr. Howell believed that this resulting metabolic enzyme deficit was the root cause of most illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic health problems.

Enzymes and Aging

As we age, our bodies progressively lose the ability to produce enzymes, with major drops occurring every ten years of life. At the early stages of this process, you may not notice any differences, but as it continues, you may discover that you can no longer tolerate certain foods that you may have previously enjoyed. This intolerance may also be accompanied by feelings of fatigue, allergies, and digestive discomforts including heartburn, gas, constipation, bloating, and ulcers.

By incorporating some simple dietary strategies we can begin to make deposits into our enzyme stores instead of the constant withdrawals which have become the norm for many people.

Increase enzyme activity by soaking and sprouting seeds, legumes, and nuts

Read How to Sprout Seeds and Legumes in a Jar and Soaking Nuts and Seeds to Increase Enzyme Potential.

Enzyme-rich foods to include in your diet:

• Papaya
• Pineapple
• Melons
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Grapes
• Avocado
• Raw honey (the enzymes actually come from the bee’s saliva)
• Bee pollen
• Raw dairy products
• Water kefir
• Dairy kefir
• Wheat grass juice
• Coconut water
• Eat a diet rich in raw foods
• Take a quality digestive enzyme with meals
• Fermented vegetables (check out this video: Fermenting Vegetables)

Recommended Supplements:

• Systemic Enzymes
• Digestive Enzymes

Home sprouters aren’t limited to the few commercially grown sprouts sold in grocery stores. There are many types of seeds you can sprout in your kitchen year round: lentil, mung bean, radish, mustard, adzuki, sunflower, clover, quinoa, chia, flax, and more. Home sprouting opens the door to variety and to the following five benefits:

1. Living Superfood

Sprouts are live, alkalizing superfoods exploding with energy and nutrients that literally make your meals come alive.

Microgreens, the bigger greens such as sunflower greens and pea greens and grasses such as wheatgrass, barley grass and rye grass, are a very rich source of chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll’s chemical structure is almost identical to the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. While chlorophyll has magnesium in its center, hemoglobin contains iron. Otherwise the chemical composition is the same. This is the reason why green drinks full of chlorophyll are good for re-building the blood.

2.  Pure and Un-Processed Food

Always make sure your sprouting seeds are organic!

With all the environmental toxins and chemicals our bodies are exposed to on a daily basis, sprouts offer a rare toxin-free food choice easily assimilated and utilized by your cells.

Many raw food advocates believe you can detox your body, clean out accumulated garbage from fat cells, and rebuild a healthy glowing body with pure living food.

The abundant nutrients in sprouts are the real deal, designed by Mother Nature.

3. Economically Responsible Anywhere Anytime.

Home sprouting provides fresh food year round for pennies on the dollar.

Wheatgrass is commonly sold at juice bars in the United States for more than four dollars a shot, while homegrown wheatgrass costs 33 cents a shot.

Alfalfa seeds cost around eight dollars a pound. One pound of alfalfa seed will produce more than ten pounds of alfalfa sprouts. That same eight dollars can get you four, two ounce packages of commercially grown sprouts. And since store-bought sprouts have been harvested prematurely, shipped, and shelved, they are not fresh and they don’t last very long.

It pays to be a home sprouter!

4. Great for Weight Loss/ Ideal Weight Management

Sprouts are a low calorie food with a super high nutrient value. By including sprouts in our diet, we provide the body with the energy and nutrients it needs to cleanse, detoxify, and rebuild itself.

5. The Rewards of Home Gardening

It is rewarding to be a home gardener and to eat your own fresh produce. Gardening is a green thing!

It’s easier to sprout indoors where you can control the growing environment than it is to grow food in an outdoor garden where you are up against insects, animals, extreme temperatures, and long growing periods. Your sprouts will be ready from a few days to a few weeks depending on what type of seed you’re growing. For instance, lentil sprouts will be ready in two to three days, whereas greens like wheatgrass need to grow for two weeks.

When I was living in Austin, Texas I spent hundreds of dollars constructing a garden and bringing in premium organic soil. I diligently watered my precious heirloom and cherry tomatoes for weeks. As they were ripening the birds came in. My dog, who loves to case birds on walks, ignored them. What kind of garden patrol is that? The next day I saw a squirrel with a yellow heirloom running up the pecan tree!

I went inside and rinsed my sprouts and was so thankful for indoor gardening! At least I got to harvest my sprouts. They were still pulsing with life, an abundant source of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals ready to nourish me and not the squirrel!

Remember, sprouts are a time tested superfood that has been eaten for 5,000 years.  When will you start your indoor garden?

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