Quercetin, Mammograms, Hempseed, Diabetes & Faery Fun!

Quercetin, Mammograms, Hempseed, Diabetes & Faery Fun

In This Issue: 

• • Top Sources of Quercetin
    
  • Mammograms – Are They Safe & Effective?
  • Hemp Seed – Anti-inflammatory Powerhouse
  • Diabetes Cause and Cure

You’ll find lots of healthy recipes in my Whole Foods Plant-Based, Gluten Free Diet & Recipes Group

Message from Bernadette Wulf

Greetings!

Happy holidays!

No matter what tradition we follow, we can all celebrate the Solstice on December 21st. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice signals the return of the light. Longer days and warmer weather (eventually) are certainly something to celebrate!

I always feel a sense of relief when we reach the Winter Solstice, and I think the plants do too. Keep an eye on your neighborhood plants and notice all the signs of new life as soon as the days start getting longer – buds start swelling, pussy willows pop out and in my neighborhood the flowering quince, acacias, almonds and plums start blooming. I love it!

What’s New?

Did you notice the change in my header? I’ve been in a long process of refining and clarifying my “work in the world” and it recently occurred to me that it’s all about Health, Wealth and Faery Magic! In the past, I’ve mostly focused on the health aspect in this newsletter, but I will be including more about my other areas of focus.

Wealth includes everything that gives us a sense of well-being. In fact well-being is the original meaning of the word from its Old English roots. It includes the arts, understanding how to work with Law of Attraction, wellness and prosperity – in short, living a fulfilled and satisfying life.

For me, faery magic is synonymous with happiness (which always follows health and wealth in the common saying). Not much gives me more delight than sharing faery lore and Celtic mystery wisdom with others. This has been more challenging since the lockdowns and social distancing – or at least it was before I discovered Zoom meetings. I was surprised to find that shamanic journeys and magical workshops actually work really well over Zoom, so I will be doing more of them.

Here of the few new offerings I have in the works for the new year:

• • Faery Healing & Faery Doctoring
  • A Faery Initiation Journey through the Four Cities of the Tuatha de Danaan
  • …and maybe even a Faery Feast where we cook up some fun and healthy faery-themed foods together (still working on the logistics for that one).

More to come! Do you have ideas for Zoom workshops you’d like me to offer? Let me know here – Email Bernadette

I know some of my readers will not understand (or believe) my connection with the faeries and the importance of Celtic mystery wisdom in my life and that’s okay. (And no, they usually don’t look like the little winged nature spirit pictured here.) For a long time I tried to compartmentalize my life and my work to cater to people with different beliefs and interests, but more and more I am realizing that it doesn’t serve anyone very well. Without the faeries, and walking the Celtic magical path, I wouldn’t be who I am and my life wouldn’t be nearly as wonderful as it is… and it’s pretty darn wonderful.

So you can choose to embrace or ignore my woo woo magical offerings – and either way you can benefit from the many down-to-earth articles on enhancing your health and wellness.

Health News

This month on the health front we have some fascinating articles about food sources of quercetin to boost your immunity, the effectiveness and safety statistics of mammograms, the wonders of the little seed of the hemp plant, and hope for people with diabetes… and how to prevent it if you don’t already have it.

Have questions or comments? —>>> Email Bernadette <—<<< Please use this link and do not hit reply to this post, because I may never get your message that way.

To your health and happiness!

Bernadette Wulf

HealItAll.com & Plant Based for Life

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Top Sources of Quercetin

If you have been paying any attention to media news, you have surely heard of quercetin by now. It is one of the most commonly recommended supplements to boost immunity and fight viruses, including the “big C virus” that has been dominating the news for the past two years.

Quercetin is also a powerful oxidant that helps relieve inflammation and pain. It can even help prevent allergy symptoms.

Did you know that quercetin is abundant in many common plant foods? No need to take it in pill form.

Notice that it is often connected with red and green fruits and vegetables.

Top sources by category from theartofantiaging.com:

Fruits:

• • • Apples (particularly red ones)
    • Cherries
    • All berries (blueberries, raspberries, etc.)
    • Grapes (particularly red ones)
    • Citrus fruits

Vegetables:

• • • Peppers
    • Tomatoes
    • Onions
    • Leafy greens
    • Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables
    • Asparagus
    • Red lettuce

Herbs and other foods:

• • • Sage
    • Gingko biloba
    • St. John’s wort
    • Whole grains
    • Cocoa powder
    • Green and black tea
    • Capers

Personally, I’d pass on the cocoa and tea, because the caffeine is so damaging to the adrenal glands… though I do indulge in a little dark chocolate now and then.

Learn lots more about quercetin at – https://theartofantiaging.com/what-is-quercetin-incredible-benefits-of-this-powerful-antioxidant

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Mammograms – Are They Safe & Effective?

If you go to doctors regularly and you are a woman, I’m sure you have been encouraged to have mammograms. However, you probably were not given all the data about their safety and effectiveness. Thank goodness we have Dr. Greger to do that for us!

After reading this article, you may want to think twice before going in for another mammogram.

From nutritionfacts.org:

Most “women are aware about false-positives results and seem to view them as an acceptable consequence of screening mammography. In contrast, most women were unaware that screening can detect cancers that may never progress” and that what they don’t know could potentially even kill them. So, when considering the pros and cons of mammograms, it would be good to consider total mortality. Can the screening help you live longer on average? In fact, mammography “has not reduced total mortality, and it is therefore misleading to claim that ‘screening saves lives.’” 

Not only can mammograms give false positives and lead to over-treatment with dangerous surgeries, radiation and chemo drugs, they don’t even seem to be reducing the death toll from breast cancer. On top of that, there is the additional risk of new cancers developing from exposure to the radiation used in mammograms!

So look into other options like thermography before you decide to take the risk. Maybe you will decide that it’s just not worth it.

Read more about mammograms here – https://nutritionfacts.org/2021/11/18/fewer-than-one-in-ten-informed-about-most-serious-downside-of-mammograms/

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Hemp Seed – Anti-inflammatory Powerhouse

Hemp seeds are said to contain the perfect ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids and they are also a complete protein with an ideal balance of all the essential amino acids.

Though this article says they can be eaten in their natural, unshelled form, I think they may be mistaken about that. In my feed store days we used to sell unshelled hemp seeds for birds and they didn’t look very appetizing at all. I recommend buying the packaged hulled hemp seeds like Nutiva brand. They are actually delicious!

From NaturalHealth365:

Many foods are touted as “superfoods,” but hemp seeds have the credentials to back up that claim.  In fact, no other plant-based food has such a perfect ratio of all the essential amino (and fatty) acids in such an easily digestible form for human consumption as hemp seed.

Their reputation as a superfood comes primarily from the significant amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) they contain.  These hemp seed benefits help to make hemp seeds a natural combatant for chronic inflammation, marking them as an important defense mechanism against chronic disease and the effects of premature aging.

It also says the pesto recipe at the end of the article is low calorie, but it’s loaded with fat from olive oil, pine nuts and hemp seeds. Much as I love pesto, it is something to have as a special treat on rare occasions. Excess fat in your diet can lead to heart disease, diabetes and liver disease, so beware of eating too many rich foods like pesto – and save them for dinner time, so your liver is free to do its vital detoxification work for most of the day.

For more information about the benefits of hemp seeds – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/hemp-seeds-anti-inflammatory-3441.html

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Diabetes Cause and Cure

When we hear about diabetes we usually hear about blood sugar along with the recommendation to avoid sugar, fruit and carbs in general. Even medical doctors who really should know better are still recommending a low-carb-high-fat ketogenic diet for their diabetic patients. However, that is actually the opposite of what they should be recommending.

It turns out that the real culprit in Type II diabetes (by far the most common type) is fat!

From forksoverknives.com:

Scientific evidence points to fats, particularly saturated fats, as a major culprit behind insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. That’s because excess fat has the effect of “gumming up the locks,” preventing insulin from importing glucose into cells, as Michael Greger, MD, explains: “Fat in the bloodstream can build up inside the muscle cells, create toxic fatty breakdown products and free radicals that can block the signaling pathway process. So, no matter how much insulin we have [ ] in our blood, it’s not able to open the glucose gates, and blood sugar levels build up in the blood.”

Even Type I diabetes can benefit from a low fat WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based) diet. Also from forksoverknives.com:

Eliminating animal products and moving to a diet rich in whole and minimally processed plant foods can significantly reduce the problems created by type 1 diabetes. Although there’s no cure for this type of diabetes, Cyrus Khambatta, PhD, who co-founded the Mastering Diabetes program with Robby Barbaro, MPH, notes that following a low-fat, WFPB lifestyle can:

• • Boost insulin sensitivity and reduce insulin use by more than 40 percent within six months.
  • Lead to more predictable blood glucose levels, making it easier to manage diabetes.
  • Increase blood flow to tissues in the body and reduce the likelihood of diabetes-related nerve damage.
  • Reduce the burden on the kidneys, decreasing the chances of developing kidney disease.

By the way, Cyrus and Robby have a lot of great information to share on their Mastering Diabetes website. The other notable expert I would recommend in the field of treating diabetes is Dr. Neal Barnard of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Find out more about diabetes here – https://www.forksoverknives.com/health-topics/vegan-diet-and-diabetes

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