Not all coconut fat is created equal. Recently there has been an onslaught of information about coconuts and their oil, and how they can enhance your health, along with - more recently - reports that coconut fat may be damaging to our health. For many decades we had been advised to keep away from them, as researchers thought that all saturated fats were the same.

What is magnesium? Magnesium is a mineral, and the fourth most abundant one in the human body. It is essential for good health, which means it has to be supplied in the diet as the body cannot make it. About 50% of the magnesium in our bodies is found in our bones, with most of the other half being found inside our cells, while only about 1% is found in our blood. It is required for more than 300 different enzyme reactions in the body, which means if it is not available in the body, these important biochemical reactions will be unable to take place.

Your brain is the hungriest organ you possess and it is very sensitive to both environmental toxins and to what you eat every day. It is obviously easier to control what you eat than to change the environmental toxins that we are all exposed to, over which we have very little control.

Most people set some specific goals for themselves at the start of a new year. We seemed to be filled with an optimistic zeal that the year ahead will be different to past years and that we will finally be able to sustain the good habits we plan to put into action.

You need both omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. When a scientific topic is complex it is easy for incomplete information to be conveyed to the public. This is what has happened with the omega-3 and omega-6 scientific story, especially as regards the omega-3 and omega-6 advice that people have been given. The advice to consume foods and supplements that contain omega-3s, and shun those that contain omega-6s has been based on misinformation. This advice came about because of a lack of knowledge about how these two polyunsaturated, essential fats work together, and because most people eating a modern diet get very little omega-3s and more omega-6s.

A beautiful myth. The history of the olive tree involves a beautiful myth from ancient Greece. The Goddess Athena, the namesake of Athens, is said to have brought the olive to the Greeks as gift. Zeus had promised the region, Attica, to the god or goddess who provided the most useful tool. Athena’s gift – the olive, which provides food, light, heat, medicine and perfume, as well as a refuge from the sun, was deemed to be superior to the horse, which Poseidon provided. After all, the horse, although powerful, was an instrument of war. Athena is said to have planted the original olive tree on the rocky hill that is known today as the Acropolis. Rumour has it that the ancient olive tree that is found there today is from the roots of Athena’s original tree.

This is a simple salad to make, but is nutrient dense and any left over's make a great salad to take to work the next day. It is gluten free, if you select 100% pure Soba / Buckwheat noodles. You can also use rice or mung bean noodles instead. Adding the coriander, sesame seeds and a sprinkling of peanuts makes it both tasty and crunchy. You do not have to add the soya sauce, but it does add to the flavor, although, be sure to choose Tamari, which is gluten free. 

Vitamin D can be made, or synthesized, by your body when it is exposed to sunlight. Your body makes vitamin D through the action of sunshine on the cholesterol that is present in your skin. This means that it is not technically a vitamin, because vitamins are classified as compounds that our bodies cannot make and which we have to get from our food. Therefore, some researchers call it a hormone instead, as it is similar in structure to some of the main hormones in our bodies, such as estrogen and cortisol, and it performs hormone-like activities too.

Whenever elevated cholesterol levels and heart disease are discussed, a connection between fats and these health concerns is assumed. Let’s discuss both of these concerns and shed some light on the facts relating to them. 

A half-truth is a whole lie. In 1903, the process of heating plant-based oils and turning them into solid fats was patented, when a German chemist named Wilhelm Normann, boiled cottonseed oil at temperatures of more than 260 °C (or 500 °F), and watched it solidify.

Most people know that water is the number one compound in their body, but they are not aware of all the functions it has to perform. These functions are important for your brain, the rest of your body and your skin. Drinking more pure water can, within a very short space of time, transform the way your brain works, how much energy you have and what your skin looks like.

How EFAs can help you to manage the transition you may be dreading. Let’s break the hormone story down into manageable chunks, so that it’s easier to understand these important compounds, and how to manage them. Hormones are messengers. Hormones are tiny chemical compounds, which act as messengers and cause specific signals to occur in your body and brain. Hormones are produced by glands, and transported via your bloodstream throughout your body, giving instructions and transferring information between cells.

Eating the right fats and oils can lift your mood naturally. The link between heart disease and depression is a common one, and you may assume that it is quite normal for someone who has heart disease to be depressed.

However, depression is believed to precede cardiovascular disease (CVD), sometimes by decades, leaving researchers with the impression that there may be common underlying physiological or biochemical aspects between these two disorders.

If you understand what I mean by the word "foggy" in this title, then this article may be for you. Although it is not a medically accepted term, most people nevertheless understand what it means. The term brain "fog" refers to the feelings of sluggish, fuzzy, slow, confused and grayish thinking that your brain can experience. A lack of focus and mental clarity, as well as general forgetfulness and even feelings of confusion can accompany this general brain apathy. Basically, you feel as if your thoughts and ideas are moving through treacle and can't get any traction.

Whenever I speak to people about their health, they seem to confirm a belief that I've held for a while. One group of people pursues health based on either a fear that they have, such as contracting cancer as a parent did, or putting on weight, or getting older. The other group follows the latest fad, whether it's raw, vegan or paleo. They like the sound bites that the various proponents "sell" to their followers, and start doing everything that the new fad suggests they do.

When You Know Why, You’ll Load Up On Them. Life on earth would be impossible without plants. Plants are sometimes called the ‘lungs’ of the earth because they provide the oxygen that we need to breathe to stay alive. Furthermore, they use the carbon dioxide that we breathe out, coupled with the chlorophyll that they possess, and the sun's energy, to provide us with both food and beautiful greenery.

People have come to believe that regular detoxes can get rid of toxins stored in their body cells by eating certain foods or beverages and avoiding others. The idea of "cleansing" the body has become a type of ritual, especially after the holiday season.

This is a great green salad with a special ingredient! Why did I add artichokes? Each artichoke contains about 10.3 grams of dietary fiber, which is about a third of what we are recommended to eat every day. So artichokes contain enormous 'fiber-punch!'

Maybe you've started off on a new health or dietary approach by making a list of all the foods and beverages that you are going to avoid. This approach is not very effective in the long term for a number of important reasons.

Being able to quickly throw the ingredients for this dish together is very useful when you need to make something that can look after itself after it's assembled. As long as you've soaked the lentils, then you can quickly add the rest of the ingredients.