High Vibe

WELLSPHERE Antioxidants

Let's get scientific. Everyone knows that antioxidants are good, but what exactly are they again? And what do they do, and how do they do it? And how can I get more in my life? Well, we found a great article on understanding oxidants by David Wolfe, and we'd love to share some of it here:

Antioxidants are compounds that are particularly rich in hydrogen and excess electrons, usually visible to our eye as pigments of color in plants. The richly pigmented plants prove to be the easiest way to discover and track down where real antioxidant values are to be found.  Superfoods ranging from cacao to acai to goji berries to spirulina to blue-green algae all contain extraordinarily-rich antioxidant content. All raw, pure fats and oils are antioxidants as they contain excess electrons: not only are richly-colored foods loaded with antioxidants, but so are all raw olives, avocados, nuts, and seeds.

Antioxidants are known to stop runaway free radicals. Free radicals are aggressive oxygen molecules that oxidize and damage tissue, creating problems in every cell they touch. Free radical damage has been implicated in numerous symptoms ranging from skin wrinkles all the way to cancer. So the more antioxidants you consume, the better, due to the ability of antioxidants to quench and deactivate free radicals.

Vitamins A, C, and E are considered antioxidants. Vitamin A is a metabolite of beta-carotene, a red pigment commonly found in plants (e.g. goji berries, carrots, etc.). Vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant with a tremendous volume of research behind it. Natural vitamin C sources (Camu berry) instead of simply ascorbic acid are best. Vitamin E has undergone substantial revision in recent years as its antioxidant value varies with quality and type (tocotrienols or tocopherols). Tocotrienols are more powerful Vitamin E antioxidants than tocopherols.

The only known atom that acts independently as an antioxidant is hydrogen. Hydrogen neutralizes free radicals instantly (and completely) with no byproducts leftover except water. Ultimate Mega H Minus (a hydrogen supplement) is perhaps the world’s strongest antioxidant supplement.

Other than taking a supplement, the most powerful way to increase antioxidant consumption is by combining raw cacao powder, which has the highest antioxidant count known, with a high-antioxidant berry, like goji, acai or camu berries. The berries help the body absorb all those antioxidants, sometimes up to triple the absorption. How fortunate for us that these ingredients are so delicious as well - they all make great additions to smoothies!

WELLSPHERE On Juicers and Juicing

Happy new year to all the HV blog readers! We hope your New Year has gotten off to a great start. Things are chilly but beautiful here on East Third Street - lots of sun, and no snow... yet. We're looking at getting some new cool products in and there are a few awesome items on sale - scroll down for more!

But first, there's been a lot of queries at the shop about the different kinds of juicers we sell here at High Vibe, so we thought we'd get a little more info out there. Basically, there are two different kinds of juicers: hydraulic press and masticating centrifugal. We stock the Greenstar juicer, which is hydraulic, and the Breville Elite, Juice Fountain, and Compact which are centrifical masticating.   

Let's start with the hydraulic Greenstar. It presses whatever you're juicing between two stainless steel gears. There are a lot of advantages to this technique. There's no friction and no heat, which makes for an extremely high quality juice. It's also very efficient - the pulp comes out quite dry, because you're getting more juice out of your material. The Greenstar can also juice wheatgrass and create nut butters! The disadvantages are that it has more parts to clean, and it also works relatively slowly.

These issues are neatly matched by the masticating Breville. These juicers work by shredding the material and spinning the juice out. They work quickly and are really easy to clean, and they do most vegetables and fruits just fine. However, they're not as versatile - no wheatgrass or nut butters - and the pulp is still damp, so there's some juice that doesn't get extracted. Within our three models, the Elite is the best - it's made of stainless steel and is equipped with a reset button, so if it gets jammed you can just reset it. The other two (the Compact is essentially a smaller version of the Juice Fountain) have a lot of plastic components.  I must say here, though, that I've had my Compact for several weeks now and make a juice virtually every morning, and it's never showed any sign of jamming.

Actually, let me take a second to sing the praises of my lovely little Breville, just for the record. I timed myself, and from the time I start pulling produce out of my fridge to the time I'm propping the last rinsed component (of four, all of which are also dishwasher-safe) out to dry, I clock about 15 minutes to make a super fresh pint of gorgeous green juice. Here's how it usually works out - I grab my kale (lacinato, easiest to rinse), celery, parsley, cucumber, lemon, ginger, carrot or beet if desired, maybe an apple... plus or minus whatever I feel like, or whatever's in season, or whatever looked good at the co-op that week. Rinse 'em all off - though some debate whether that's really necessary, since everything's organic and if it's grown in pesticide-free soil, there's only good bacteria to be gotten from a little dirt. Well, call me timid, you can also get great probiotic action from Innate or Bio-Culture.

Anyway, I put the pulp catch onto the base, pop on the mesh, put the top on and latch it together. I'm ready to juice! I run everything through my Brevilleand the juice pours into a cup that comes with the juicer, and is fitted with a top that not only keep the juice from splattering, but also has this spout that skims the foamy stuff off the top, in case I'm juicing something that creates a lot of foam. Now I've got my juice. I pull down the latch and rinse the top, the mesh and the pulp catch. The mesh requires a little scrubbing, but Breville includes a scrubber whose handle doubles as a spatula that fits the pulp catch, so it's easy to scrap the pulp out. (You can compost it, although I've been thinking about what one could make with it in a dehydrator. That's a whole other story, though.) Voila - totally fresh organic juice, just how I like it. Marvelous!

Great books on juicing,

Juicing for Life by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane

Power juices and Super Drinks By Sproutman Steve Meyerowitz

The Juice mans Power Of Juicing By Jay Kordach

Heinerman's Encyclopedia of healing Juices by John Heinerman

Furthermore, we're selling out of our Sensuous Beauty products - 50% off! Especially check out the sultry scents - we have Come Hither and Gypsy Jasmine, but we won't for long! These are super quality and absolutely heavenly products - we have some lotion, cleanser, bath scrubs and anointing oils on the site. Surprise someone for Valentine's Day!

THE CURRENT Good and Bad News in the News

We just received a message from Dr. Rima Laibow at the Natural Solutions Foundation that was scary, enlightening and fascinating - as is so much of their information. You can read the whole article here, but we're providing an overview here.

The article starts with the government's use of independent media to further its agenda. In this case, popular "indy" radio host Art Bell is interviewing internist Dr. Gary Ridenour about a book he is selling describing a supposed imminent avian flu pandemic. The NSF article describes why such an outbreak is actually not likely, and - more to the point - how the government could use such fear in society to allow for forced vaccination of the entire population.

Dr. Laibow goes on to describe incidents of forced vaccination in Maine and Maryland and reviews the implications for our health and our civil rights. She then details the rights and interests of the government at the state and federal level (including how they may conflict with the rights of the individual) and provides alternative information about the risks of vaccination, as well as how to find out more about vaccine exemption.

The article continues with a description of the NSF's mission and goals for 2008, specifics on how you can support their work. It concludes with some thoughts on the role of one's skin as a boundary that should be sacred and inviolate. No one should be able to force you, by injection or consumption, knowingly or unknowingly, with or without consent, to ingest ANY substance.

Beyond the specifics of the information that the NSF provides, we really appreciate their vigorously independent thought and their devotion to health, human rights and the environment. Dr. Laibow and her co-founder of NSF, General Stubblebine, will be in New York City briefly on January 26, and you can meet them for lunch in Queens if you email Dr. Laibow here, with RSVP in the subject line.

While health information is being used and abused (and disabused), there are also examples of mainstream media getting the word out about alternative treatments. A recent article in the New York Times describes the neti pot, which had just been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. Neti pots are used to clean out the sinuses, and can help reduce symptoms of allergies, cold, flu and other nasal problems.

Another Times article focused on food allergies (specifically among kids) and one mother's journey to understand her children's health problems. She traced much of it to industrial agricultural practices and political and financial relationships between health professionals, food producers and government agencies. The Times article was clearly skeptical of this woman's work.

And they may have a point. She may be seeing connections that don't truly exist. However, the real lesson to be learned here is the value of questioning what is taught, thinking for yourself, getting out and doing your own research and consulting sources that have earned your trust. And it's truly wonderful that this mother's investigation and our friend the neti pot are both getting mainstream coverage!