APPLES : The Live Longer Fruit

The beginning of autumn means that we're entering apple season, which will be a time of cider, desserts, and the crisp, wholesome goodness of the fruit freshly picked from your local orchard. Apples have been a staple of healthy eating for many years, and the often-repeated line of an apple a day keeping the doctor away is far from a myth. Apples really do have a wonderful variety of nutritional benefits, and are a tasty addition to any diet of good health and longevity.
Of all of the fruits we eat, apples are the best source of pectin, a natural fiber that has several health benefits. Apples also contain phytochemicals, quercetin, tannins, and antioxidants, all of which have different healthy properties. Below is a list of the top five benefits of making apples a standard part of your daily diet.

1. Apples improve the bowels. Pectin is a source of dietary fiber and a very handy nutrient to have in one's diet. While it is also found in citrus fruits, plums, and other fruits, apples have the highest concentration of them all. Pectin works to increase the stool's volume and resistance of fluids and is therefore helpful in treating constipation, diarrhea, and generally improving the health of the bowels. Studies have also found that apple pectin reduces the incidence of colon tumors, and that has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of colon cancer.

2. Apples lower cholesterol. A study on nutrition and heart disease found that eating three apples a day for three months can help you to drop your cholesterol by at least 20 points. How does this happen? Apple pectin, that miraculous source of dietary fiber, helps to draw bad LDL cholesterol out of the system. Not only that, but the antioxidant quercetin that is found in apples inhibits the LDL cholesterol from even accumulating in the body's bloodstream. When it comes to lowering one's cholesterol, apples provide a cocktail of nutritional benefits that are hard to pass up.

3. Apples reduce the risk of cancer. Apples do not stop at merely preventing colon cancer. The high amounts of quercetin, other flavonoids, and phytochemicals found in this fruit deliver potent antioxidant activity to all who eat an apple, and with that inhibit the actions of free radicals. In addition, the phytochemicals may act against carcinogens, which will likewise help to prevent cancer. This means that apple eating prevents cancer of the prostate and lung, as well as other parts of the body.

4. Apples slow the aging process. There may have been many generations of explorers that sought the fountain of youth, but all they had to do was fight the daily stresses of life with a tasty apple! The phytochemicals that come from the bright colors you find in the skins of your favorite apple variety, along with aiding the apple's ability to lower cholesterol and fight cancer, also inhibits the onset of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other conditions that lead to potentially debilitating situations in old age.

5. Apples help to prevent hair loss. If keeping a full head of hair will help you to age more gracefully, then chow down on some apples. Chinese medicine considers hair loss to be a sign of a depleted kidney essence, and apples are on the list of fruits and vegetables that will help you to restore this essence and nourish the blood that flows to your hair follicles.I hope you eat your apples, and that you really do keep the doctors away. As always, I encourage you to share your own favorite longevity foods and other tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

The Worst "HEALTHY" Foods

If you want to lose weight, it may seem like a good idea to trade candy bars for granola bars or to swap bacon and eggs at breakfast for the classic bagel (it’s shaped like a zero; how bad could it be?).

Sadly, it’s just not that simple. Customers’ nutrition knowledge is rising, so food marketers are desperate to attract the right kind of attention from the eating public. So they’re twisting nutritional buzzwords to trick us into eating the kinds of foods that can actually help make us fat. We need to be more careful than ever to make sure we’re feeding ourselves and our families the very best real health foods — not sugar-infused calorie bombs disguised as weight-loss foods.

Read up for our latest batch of dietary phonies. They may look good on the front label, but they’ll get you in the end if you're not careful.

Granola Bar = 200 calories, 15 g sugars

Eat this instead! ------ 1 oz cheddar cheese with Triscuits, 150 calories, 5 g sugars

Ever wonder what keeps a granola bar together? The answer: high-fructose corn syrup, which quickly raises blood sugar and cancels out most of the potential benefits the granola almonds and oats might give you. Switch over to good old-fashioned cheese and crackers, and you trade sugar and calories for protein and fiber. It's a big deal that will make you smaller, as will steering clear of the sugar bombs. By the way, these are the most sugar-packed foods in America.

Yogurt with Fruit on the Bottom = 190 calories, 30 g sugars

Eat this instead!-------Plain yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in 110 calories, 15 g sugars

Pass on these over-sweetened yogurt cups; they contain as much sugar as a soft drink. Almost all of that comes directly from the “fruit,” which is swimming in high-fructose corn syrup. Yogurt and fruit can be a great way to start your day, but do it yourself by mixing a cup of nonfat plain yogurt with a half cup of mixed berries.

Bagel with Cream Cheese = 700 calories, 40 g fat, 13 g saturated

Eat this instead!------- Cheese omelet 425 calories, 18 g, 6 g saturated

Bagels are bogus. The bread is bad enough, containing 300 calories and 60 grams of carbohydrates, but tack on the liberal cream cheese schmear (by our survey of popular breakfast chains, up to 4 ounces for a single bagel!) and your "harmless" breakfast sandwich weighs in as worse than a Whopper. The omelet swap will save you nearly 300 calories, plus provide a surge of metabolism-boosting protein. And a recent study from the University of Connecticut found that eating eggs can help raise HDL (good) cholesterol. And while you're being vigilant.

Dried Fruit = 175 calories, 45 g sugars

Eat this instead!-----Fresh fruit, like an apple or a peach, 70 calories, 15 g sugars

OK, so dried fruit won’t totally derail a day of good eating (unless you down the whole bag of banana chips), but it’s far from being a harmless snack. First, because the dehydrating process sucks most of the volume from the fruit, you can eat cups of the stuff, and 600 calories later, still not feel any fuller. More troubling, though, is the fact that Sun-Maid and Ocean Spray add sugar to the fruit, making Craisins closer to candy than Mother Nature’s original intention. The choice is clear: Stick to the original, straight from the tree.

Fish Sandwich = 600 calories, 30 g fat, 11 g saturated

Eat this instead!------Grilled chicken sandwich, 300 calories, 13 g fat, 4 g saturated

Fish is good for you, except when it’s battered, fried, robed in cheese, and bathed in tartar sauce. The lesson? Even the biggest star can be sabotaged by the supporting cast. To this end, avoid any menu item with the word "crispy," the restaurant industry’s favorite euphemism for “fried.” Make sure your next fish or chicken sandwich is grilled, dressed with fresh produce, and topped with a low-cal barbecue sauce, or even ketchup and mustard.

Stick margarine (1 Tbsp)100 calories, 11 g fat, 2.5 g saturated, 2.5 g trans fat

Eat this instead!-----Whipped butter (1 Tbsp) 50 calories, 6 g fat, 1.5 g saturated

In their haste to remove saturated fat from butter, margarine makers created the margarine monster — a dangerous lipid called trans fat, with more dangerous links to heart disease than saturated fat. Pick up whipped butter instead; by whipping air into the spread, manufacturers decrease the caloric density of a tablespoon of butter, and they make it easier to top your toast. If you buy margarine, make sure it’s the type found in the tub, hopefully with an added bonus like omega-3s folded into the mix.

To all young people and Female Friends

A woman at a bar on a Saturday night was taken by 5 men, who, according to hospital and police reports, gang raped her before dumping her. Unable to remember the events of the evening, tests later confirmed the repeat rapes, along with traces of Rohypnol in her blood and Progesterex, essentially a small sterilization pill.


The drug is now being used by rapists at parties to rape AND sterilize their victims. Progesterex is available to vets to sterilize large animals. Progesterex is being used together with Rohypnol, the date rape drug.

As with Rohypnol, all they have to do is drop it into the girl's drink. The girl can't remember a thing the next morning, of all that had taken place the night before. Progesterex, which dissolves in drinks just as easily, is such that the victim doesn't get pregnant; she won't conceive from the rape and the rapist needn't worry about having a paternity test identifying him months later.


The drug's effects ARE NOT TEMPORARY - They are P*E*R*M*A*N* E*N*T!!! Progesterex was designed to sterilize horses.. Any female who takes it will NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCEIVE... The weasels can get this drug from anyone who is in the vet school or any university.

It's that easy, and Progesterex is about to break out big on campuses everywhere. Believe it or not, there are even sites on the Internet telling people how to use it.

Please forward this to everyone you know, especially girls... Be careful when you're out and don't leave your drink unattended.

Please make the effort to forward this on to all you know... Guys, please inform all your female friends and relatives!
REPOST THIS MSG AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN to HELP SAVE THE NEXT VICTIM

The best kind of Friend

The best kind of friend
Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word, and then walk away

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it,
But it's also true that we don't know
What we've been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love
Is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.
It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile
Because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile.

May you have
Enough happiness to make you sweet,
Enough trials to make you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
Enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
It probably hurts the other person, too

The happiest of people
Don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for those who cry,
Those who hurt, those who have searched,
And those who have tried,
For only they can appreciate the importance of people
Who have touched their lives.

When you were born, you were crying
And everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
You're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

I LOVE YOU TATAY !!!

Happy Father's Day!!

5 Healthiest Anti-Aging Snacks

Snacking often gets a bad rap, but if you make intelligent choices about what you eat, you can actually benefit your health and longevity. Read on to find out how!

Why Snacks?Most of us are used to eating three times a day, but it is much healthier to eat smaller meals more frequently -f ive small meals a day, for instance. Eating in this way delivers a steady stream of nutrients, blood sugar, and energy to your body throughout the day and is also much less taxing on the digestive and metabolic systems.

And when you eat more small meals throughout the day, you will most likely avoid the pitfalls of overindulging at your next meal and may actually consume fewer total calories for the day.

Keep healthy "grab-and-go" snacks on hand all the time to avoid the tempting lure of high-calorie snacks. Here are my top five snack choices:

1. Nuts and Seeds Keep You Young

Healthy and appetizing, nuts and seeds are absolutely the best snack of the bunch. Helping yourself to a handful of nuts and seeds every day can improve circulation and muscle tone.

And nuts and seeds are especially full of arginine, an amino acid that helps to combat heart disease, impotence, infertility, and high blood pressure, and it also facilitates the healing process. Additionally, arginine can stimulate the pituitary gland at the base of the brain.

The pituitary releases growth hormones, which begin to decline quickly in humans after age 35. This means that after 35, your hormones start to plunge and you experience some aging symptoms. The skin loses elasticity, the muscle loses mass and strength, the lean body tissue decreases, fertility and virility decrease, and other signs of aging start to set in.

Many nuts and seeds are rich sources of vitamin E, lignants and omega-3 fatty acids, which protect you from heart disease and also from the ravages of aging.

Almonds, pine nuts, sesame seeds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, peanuts, and pistachios: mix them in any combination and enjoy! Keep in mind that there are more nutrients in the raw form than roasted. Make sure that the nuts and seeds are fresh and not old and rancid.

2. An Apple a Day for Heart Health

There are many reasons to eat an apple - or two or three - every day. One study discovered that subjects who ate five apples or more a week had a healthier lung function than those who ate no apples.

And scientists have confirmed that apples also contribute to a healthy heart. Thanks to the fruit's rich pectin content, eating two to three apples per day leads to decreased cholesterol levels. Pectin also helps prevent colon cancer, one of the top causes of death in adults over age sixty.

3. Bring On the Berries

In season again, berries are bursting with antioxidants. The enticing red, purple, and blue skins of berries contain bioflavonoids, antioxidant compounds that reduce free radical damage.

These flavonoids are more potent antioxidants than vitamins C and E, and they also help to reduce inflammation - more effectively even than aspirin!

• Blueberries are your best pick because not only do they have the highest level of antioxidant activity, but they also possess powerful neuroprotective properties that shield brain cells from damage , helping to slow down the age-related onset of memory loss, Alzheimer's, and senility.

• Cherries also contain these beneficial anthocyanin compounds, which stimulate your pancreas to produce insulin. In fact, Chinese researchers have observed that cherries help keep diabetics healthy. These compounds also protect you against cancer, arthritis, and heart disease because they lower cholesterol.

4. Avocado: Packed with Nutrients

Among the many antioxidant nutrients, glutathione is known as the "master antioxidant." This naturally occurring compound, found in avocados (as well as asparagus, walnuts, and fish), is made up of the three amino acids glycine, glutamic acid, and cysteine. Glutathione regulates immune cells, protects against cancer, and assists in detoxifying.

A deficiency in glutathione can play a part in diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, low sperm count, and premature aging. Avocados are also a source of L-cysteine, which helps protect your body from the harmful effects of pollution, chemicals, radiation, alcohol, and smoke. L-cysteine may also help boost immunity, protect you from heart disease, and build muscle. It is also useful for combating inflammation and encouraging healthy hair and nail growth.

Pair your avocado with whole-grain crackers or whole-grain crisp breads for a fiber-rich tasty treat.

5. Apricots for Anti-Aging

One of the staple foods of the famously long-lived centenarians in the Hunza valley of the Himalayas is the apricot. Research has discovered that apricots have the highest levels and widest variety of carotenoids of any food.

Carotenoids are antioxidants that help prevent heart disease, reduce "bad cholesterol" levels, and protect against cancer.

Jemilo's 3rd Birthday (05-17-2008)

Rio's 5th Birthday (05-12-2008)

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Choir Pictures ( 4-27-08)

Piano Recital (4-20-08)

The Love of a Mother

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and throughout the world, sons, daughters and husbands will do what they should be doing already - honoring their mothers and the mother of their children. It is estimated that Americans alone will spend nearly $5 billion dollars on flowers, jewelry, gifts, dinners and cards to say "I love you" to our moms.

Did you know that this year Mother's Day in the United States is exactly 100 years old? Julia Ward Howe (who also wrote the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" wrote the first Mother's Day proclamation in 1870, but she was not successful in her effort to get official recognition for the holiday. The first Mother's Day in the U.S. was on May 10, 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia.

Seems like everything and everybody now has their own day. We set aside days to honor our parents, our grandparents, our bosses, our secretaries, our public servants... the list seems to go on and on. It would be easy to be cynical and dismiss all of these days as a conspiracy by Florists, greeting card companies and restaurants to make more money. But we would be missing out on a great opportunity to not only bring happiness to our moms, but to be obedient to God's word.

There is a Bible stud principle known as the law of multiple mentions. In essence this says that if God says something over and over again, it must be pretty important! Such is the case with the principle of honoring our parents. It is the fifth of the Ten Commandments and is the only one with a promise attached to it: "Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." (Exodus 20:12, NKJV) We are then reminded of that principle repeatedly throughout the Bible. In Ephesians 6, Paul says, "Children, honor your father and mother for this is right" and then he repeats the fifth commandment and reminds them of the promise - "that you may enjoy long life upon the earth."
Mothers are a wonderful, precious gift from God. It was in our mother's arms that we first learned about safety, security, and above all, love. We can easily begin to understand God's unconditional love for us, because we saw that love modeled for us by our mothers, who loved us no matter how badly we messed up.

When we think of our mothers, somehow, "thank you" seems so shallow... so trite compared to what they have done for us. Some of our best and brightest wordsmiths have attempted to find the words to express what is in our hearts. Like Abraham Lincoln who said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." Or Edgar Allen Poe, known for writing many dark and frightening tales wrote, "The angels, whispering to one another can find, among their burning terms of love, none so devotional as that of 'Mother.'"

Or how about the old Jewish proverb that simply says, "God could not be everywhere and therefore He made mothers." Or the Irish proverb, "A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest." Perhaps the best and most eloquent was that great philosopher Calvin... not the theologian, the one from the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" who said: "Nobody knows how to pamper like a mom."

Author
Alan Riley


Let me add my feeble, inadequate words to theirs by simply saying,
Happy Mother's Day, Mom... I love you more than words could ever express.


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY PO SA LAHAT NG MGA NANAY!

Me and Josie at Fayette Church

Pictrail 4-10-2008