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• Ask a Naturopath News
  • Autumn News 2010
  • Ask a Naturopath News - Buon Natale!
  • Ask a Naturopath turns One!
• Featured Therapist's
• Stress
• Good things about...
• Recipes
• Books

Ask a Naturopath turns One!

Ask a Naturopath turned one last month and we would like to thank all of you for your support over the last year! We had over 30 000 visitors in the first year and this is just the beginning of what we hope will grow into a great resource for Natural medicine and Complimentary healing. We would especially like to thank our sponsors Fusion Health and Nu Ferm who have generously supported us. Ask a Naturopath.com only endorses ethical companies and we are very proud to be affiliated with such high quality Natural Medicine companies. And a big thanks to Mark Jansen from Canada for your donation.

Featured Therapist - Lola Berry

Lola Berry is one crazy kid! This health-nut loves her fruit n' veg and she's on a mission to get people excited about real, fresh, local food! Lola spreads her message through documentary's which make being healthy loads of fun!! The series is made up of short webisodes which are free to view on her website. They are sure to entertain and inspire the whole family to get excited about fresh fruits and veggies!!! Yummo!!! Here is an interview we did with the crazy kid.

Sally: What initially attracted you to the Natural Therapies industry?
Lola: My aim is to inspire people on a global scale to live wholesome lives. Natural therapies is what I'm passionate about and its one of the messages I'm spreading! So what attracted me to natural therapies was that I could empower people to live healthy, vibrant and fun lives.

Sally: What is one of your favorite herbs and why?
Lola: Schisandra- Not only do I reckon "Schisandra" is an awesome name, but I love taking this herb because it supports both phase one and two of liver detoxification. My favourite bit about Schisandra is that its a nervine tonic, you see I'm the kind of person who's go go go and I'm often doing 10000000 things all at once. When taking this awesome herb I find that it improves my concentration and mental cognitive function in general. Plus it's an antioxidant! So it gets a double thumbs up from me!

Sally: Do you have a favourite whole food?
Lola: Yes!!!! I have many.. but one of my favos at the moment is young coconuts! I drink the coconut water and then scoop out the jelly like flesh... one word: AMAZING! Coconuts are so so so so so awesome for us: They are high in Lauric acid which aids our intestinal health and immune system. Plus they make our skin glow and they even speed up our metabolism for 24 hours! Talk about favo food! I think I'm addicted! I have one of these little gems every day!

Sally: What is your number one goal for your documentaries?
Lola: One of my heros is Steve Irwin and I'd love to portray my passion for health, the environment and wholefoolds to the world! Much like Steve Iriwin did with his inspiring wildlife adventure docos!
We've filmed two series in Australia, and the next series will be filmed in New York City so I'm really excited to see these docos grown on a world wide scale! For these docos to be inspiring and empowering people all over the world.. I'm wrapped!

Sally: How do you encourage and inspire people to use foods as medicine?
Lola: I aim to not only educate people but to make health and whole foods exciting through the Lola Berry docos! The docos are very visual so I can show the viewers how to prepare and experiment with food as medicine!

Sally: What is the most bizzare for you've talked about in your docos?
Lola: Wow.. what a ripper of a question! We filmed this whole episode on quirky foods, it's called "freaky foods" They were mainly tropical foods: dragon fruits, jack fruit and star fruit! The jack fruit tastes like bubble-gum and they're the largest treet born fruit goin' round! It's quite crazy! Will also had a squizz at these massive avos, they were called "Linda Avocados"... No joke, one avo would make about five bowels of guacamole! mmm.. Yummo!

Sally: What's on the cards for Lola Berry:
Lola: We're off to NYC to film our next series which is really exciting. We're also doing a segment for channel ten's "9am with David and Kim" over there!! I am so excited to have a look at some of the crazy foods and health ititatvies going on over in the big apple!
I've just finished writing my first book so I'm looking forward to releasing it very soon!
It's a very exciting journey and I'm loving every second of it! Woohoooo!

Sally: Simple health tips?
Lola: Count your colours: if you can count 5 colours in your meal then its jam packed full of nutrients! So go for greenies, marties (tomatoes), avo, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beetroot, carrot.. and you're getting a broad variety of phyto-chemcials or plant nutrients!
Water: aim for 1 liter for every 22kg of body weight per day! Now I know this sounds like a lot but jut gradually work your way up! When you're hydrated you can think clearer, you're digestive system functions optimunly and your skin will glow! So drink to your health!
The most important tip is to have fun, get creative and think outside the square! try something new and get excited about health and whole-foods.

 

Well Lola just got back from New York and she's got lots of stories to tell. You can check her out on Channel Ten with David & Kim, or go straight to www.lolaberry.com

Product Review - NuFerm Plus

Nu Ferm Plus contains probiotic superfoods that combine billions of live probiotics from 13 key strains of friendly bacteria and naturally occuring vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essentially fatty acids, phyto-nutrients & enzymes found in the 15 specially selected wholefoods.

FermPlus is Gluten, Wheat & Dairy-Free and does not contain a single manmade vitamin, synthetic mineral, chemical, preservative, filler, binder or extract.

FermPlus was created to provide the 13 key Lactobacillus strains (not just two or three strains) together in their own food source. This food source also acts as a prebiotic which allows the bacteria to stay alive and healthy and able to work synergistically together to provide your body with a very powerful probiotic. This is the result of two decades of research.

FermPlus bacteria is cultured from vegetables and fruit (not dairy or soil based organisms) and free of any genetic engineering.
Your Digestive System

A healthy digestive systems is full of bacteria both "friendly" and "unfriendly." The "friendly" or probiotic bacteria should predominate. However this intricate ratio can become unbalanced due to poor eating habits, medication, antibiotics, tummy upsets, chemicals, stress and illness.FermPlus helps replenish the "friendly" intestinal flora for gut bacterial balance, essential for good digestion and a healthy bowel and immune system.
 

Signs of Bacterial Imbalance

• Digestive problems
• Constipation or diarrhoea
• Food allergies & sensitivities
• Sugar and carbohydrate cravings
• Fatigue
• Acne, eczema, fungal infections
• Poor immune system, colds & flu
• Poor concentration
• Inflammatory disorders

Food allergies are a major cause of gastrointestinal inflammation, as is the disturbance of good gut bacteria. This leads to an unbalanced digestive system making it more difficult to absorb the goodness from food eaten and even nutrient starvation.
Optimize Nutrient Absorption. Some say, "You are what you Eat" We say, "You are what you Absorb!"

Ingredients:

Certified Organic Spirulina
Linseeds
Lentils
Adzuki Beans
Alfalfa Grass
Chickpeas
Bio Dynamic Whole Grain Rice
Pumpkin Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Fermented Soya Beans
Alfalfa Seed
Mung Beans
Fresh Ginger
Agave
Black Strap Molasses

Probiotics

Lactobacillus Acidophilus
Lactobacillus Delbrueckii
Lactobacillus Caseii
Lactobacillus Bulgaricus
Lactobacillus Caucasicus
Lactobacillus Fermenti
Lactobacillus Plantarum
Lactobacillus Brevis
Lactobacillus Helveticus
Lactobacillus Leichmannii
Lactobacillus Lactis
Bifidabacterium Bifidum
Sporogens
Saccharomyces Boulardii
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

There are two yeast strains that are aerobic in nature and are not the harmful yeast strains that are associated with candida and thrush. These yeast strains are added to the formulation of FermPlus and are responsible for the presence of B-Vitamins so necessary to maintain health.

www.nuferm.com

Ten Reasons To Eat Organic Food

While in Melbourne we came across the Organic Food and Wine Cafe.  It was a groovy little cafe in a laneway in the heart of the city.  On the wall by the entrance was a list that caught my eye.

The ten reasons why Organic food is best.

1.Organic produce is not covered in a cocktail of poisonous chemicals. The average conventionally grown apple has 20 artificial poisons on its skin, even after rinsing.

2. Fresh organic produce contains on average 60% more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other micro nutrients than intensively fermed produce.

3. Going organic is the only practical way to avoid eating genetically modified (GM) food. And by buying organic food, you are registering your mistrust of GMO's and doing your bit to protest against them.

4. If you eat dairy or meat products going organic has never been more essential to safeguard you and your family's health. Intensively- reared dairy cows and farm animals are fed a dangerous cocktail of anti-biotics, growth promoting drugs and parasite drugs and many other medicines on a daily basis, whether they have an illness or not. These drugs are passed directly onto the consumers of their dairy produce or meat.

5. About 99% of non-organic farm animals in the UK are fed GM soya. And thee has never been a rerported case ofBSE in organic cattle in the UK.

6. Organic produce simply tastes so much better. Fruit and vegetables full of juice and flavour, and so many different varieties to try! There are about 100 different varieties of organic potatoes available!

7. Organic farms support and nurture our beautiful and diverse wildlife. Over the last thirty years , intensive farming has led to dramatic erosion of the soil, a fall of up to 70% of wild birds in some areas, the destructiion of ancient hedgerows, and the near extinction of some of the most beautiful species of butterflies, frogs, grass-snakes and wild animals.

8.Organic food is not really more expensive than intensively farmed foods, as we pay for conventional foods through our taxes. We spand billions of dollars every year cleaning up the mess that agro-chemicals make to our natural water supply.

9. Intensive farming can seriously damage workers health. There are much higher incidences of cancer, respiratory problems and other major diseases in farm workers from non-organic farms. This is particularly true in developing countries, and for agrochemical farms growing cotton.

10. And if you simply like the idea of your children and grandchildren being able to visit the countryside and play in the forest and fields just like we did when we were young, go organic for the sake of all our futures.