Heart Health Fuhrman Ornish

Where can I buy Chaga mushrooms? Failing that Cacao and berries will have to do.

Any anti-oxidants will do, probably the bigget the mix the better. And that list did not include herbs and spices, which are also very potent anti-oxidants.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chaga mushroom&sprefix=chaga mushroom

Amazon search on chaga mushroom


Amazon search on chaga

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chaga mushroom&sprefix=chaga mushroom#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chaga&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Achaga

@josvin84 check out Invincible Herbs for bulk powder medicinal mushroom extracts.

Also the website for MushroomScience at www.mushroomscience.com . I found a local store that carries a Chaga full spectrum extract (according to the box).

Hi folks,

Yes, all very valuable.

Fuhrman includes Tomatos, Peppers, Mushrooms, Onions, herbs, garlic. Blueberries too. Pomagranates. and ETC !!

Frankly, we can go nuts trying to eat all of these. (Catch that ... "nuts" ... healthy also ... get it? ).

Include a wide variety, with emphasis on ones you like.

Best regards, EngineerGuy

Herbs and spices, too.

3 ounces of parsely flaks has about 270,000 anti-oxidant units, so even a sprinkle is more than you would get from a couple servings of many vegetables.

Hi DMW,

Super stuff. I'm saving your link. :-)

Simply reinforcing your message, recent epidemiological research shows strong anti-cancer qualities to mushrooms and onions. Fuhrman recommends including mushrooms and onions daily. I'm scanning your list...

Best regards, EngineerGuy

I can't eat onions raw because they relax a valve/muscle(LES) that prevents backflow allowing acid to come back up..So I steam them for 20 mins which deactivates that effect.

I wonder if they have the same nutritional value cooked as they do raw.

Such a tough nut to crack. We stay up on things, it difficult to come across something we've missed.

I couldn't click on the link, it wasn't in blue on my screen, but did you guys see the list where small red beans were found to be the highest in anti-oxidents. Even higher than in berries. I also think that rather than worrying about which food has the most anti-oxidents we should concentrate on eating a diet rich in all these foods consistently. ;
Dolores

of course. Variety in foods is excellent for a multiplicity of phyto chemicals.

Correction. Parsely flakes are about 70,000 AO units in 3 ounces. Oregano was at about 200,000, cinnamon at 300,000.

This is pure hype, not reality.


Sorry. Chaga has a good ORAC rating, but not the amount the supplement sellers want you to believe.

You guys never wondered where those figures stem from ? Nobody ever laid eyes on a lab report I guess. The supplement sellers are all quoting Wikipedia and each other, and quite a few have no idea what they are talking about, in fact. They just want to sell their product at as high a margin as possible.

Well, I did see lab reports. And now you can, too.

If you follow this link , you'll download a Certificate of Analysis of a Japanese Chaga extract (capsules). It lists among other things the lab specs of SOD, the base of ORAC-ratings. The outcome is 24.000 3BCg/100 grams, nice, but below e.g. wild thyme and not remarkable at all.

Chaga is still worthwhile though; it is an adaptogen with exceptional power to balance the immune system and to fight cancer. Check Wikipedia for background.

In case you want to buy one of the many extracts, pay attention to this: the percentage of polysaccharides should be listed on the label, and this percentage should be at least 40% if you want value for money.
90% of extracts on the market in the US are not extracts at all - it is just mushroom powder.

So, what is wrong with that, you wonder ?
Well, everything.

The active medicinal ingredients of mushrooms are locked in the cell walls. Those cell walls are made of chitin. Indigestible by the human body. An extraction process is needed (hot water, ethanol) to set those polysaccharides free. If no extraction has been used, it is not possible to determine the percentage of polysaccharides.

Raw mushrooms will leave the body almost undigested, too. (Sorry, raw-food aficionados!) Cooking, boiling (the longer the better - Chaga tea e.g., from raw Chaga or Chaga powder needs 4 hours at least) - it is 100% necessary.

So, what are good extracts you wonder ? The capsules with powder in my opinion are the best. I can give you a recommendation, but I think it's better to Google yourself. You can even buy Chaga and Chaga tea and the extract-capsules on Ebay, at very affordable prices.
Just keep what I said earlier in mind and you will get value for money and become a more healthy person with a stable immune system!

What do you think about the andi scale Fuhrman uses or the idea that cooking destroys some of the nutrients in vegetables....or that microwaving destroys something valuable in foods.

I have seen studies that cast doubt on these theories.

I don't know anything about Fuhrman. Sorry.

I am sure some things get destroyed when you are cooking it, but other things are set free for digestion because of the cooking. Like the mushrooms: eating raw mushrooms will not bring you much - you simply are not able to digest the things. Most green plants as they are are indigestible by humans - we do not have the stomachs of a cow, do we ? That's why we cook them. If raw food was way better than cooked stuff, why would the ancients invent cooking in the first place ? There was not much time for hobbies in those days, so..

If you want the best of both worlds, cook half and eat the other half raw. See how that turns out. :)

My opinion is basically this: this 'raw-food hype' is rubbish, it is not logical for the reasons explained above. To get all the nutrion the body needs you need to cook things to make them available for digestion.

As for the micro-wave thing, I never looked into it so I only have an opinion.

I use it myself, but also to warm up baby food e.g. and I can assure you my baby looks a lot more healthy than the ones we met at the anthroposophical baby centre we attended for some time. They all seemed a bit sluggish, pale complexion... our baby is fed with eco food and condensed milk, after almost a year of breast feeding. It is a very active, healthy and bright little human. Neither me nor anybody else can say that this baby appears to be lacking something because her food is being microwaved.