Food Medicine

Seven Key Nutrient-Rich Fruits


Most people know that calcium is good for bones, fiber is beneficial for the digestive system, and iron makes up part of the hemoglobin, a protein needed to transport oxygen from the lungs to our body tissues is found in spinach, beans, and broccoli. So let me take you beyond the basics. When I was in school, college to be exact, it seems that every time information was about to be dispensed that was worth remembering, or bound to show up on a test, was always followed by the words "there will be a quiz." The information in this post is about some of the key fruits we eat that are healthy steps to looking and feeling better and in my opinion, worth remembering and worth taking note, information so useful I feel like using the words, there will be a quiz!


Fruit is a great way to start eating more nutrition and eating at least five to nine servings can make a big difference in the way you feel. We'll take a look at some of the most nutritious fruits and why they are so good for you starting with the apple.  A is for Apple and that's good enough for me remembering the old Sesame Street days. We have all heard the expression, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away". This might not be entirely true, but eating apples is a great way for you to get the fiber we all need in our diet. Apples are delicious and available all year around. This fruit also contains pectin and that aids in lowering bad cholesterol. They are also known to contain flavonoids that are beneficial in fighting cancer. It is better to eat a fresh apple rather than drink apple juice. The reason behind this is that some of the nutrients and important minerals may be lost during the apple juice processing.



Apricots also start with the letter "A" but there was no Sesame Street song about this one so let's move on. The apricot is loaded with zinc, folic acid, vitamins A and K, calcium and protein. They are also very high in beta-carotene, potassium, and fiber. Apricots are often found on the top ten lists for fruits and you can find them freshly picked, canned or dried. Eating dried apricots will provide you with an excellent source of essential nutrients. Use caution when purchasing dried apricots, it is good to read the label to avoid those dried apricots that are laden with chemicals and preservatives. The best place to purchase dried apricots or any other dried fruit is from a health food store or a natural market. Apricots can provide you with the valuable nutrients you need in order for your body to perform in peak condition.


What makes a fruit a fruit are their seeds so you'd be surprised at how many people mistakenly think of avocados as a vegetable when in reality they are a fruit too. In fact, an avocado is considered a "super fruit" and is loaded with zinc, riboflavin, thiamin, and niacin to name just a few of the important nutrients that an avocado has. Avocados are great for growing kids. Those who are conscious of their weight may want to forgo avocados because of their high-calorie content. They also have a high fat count, but it is the heart-healthy monounsaturated fats such as the Omega 3 fatty acid, an important brain food. Avocados can be eaten fresh after they have been peeled or can be made into guacamole, just add a little garlic, onions, and tomatoes.


Bananas make great food medicine because are high in potassium and can help those of us who take such medications as diuretics which are known to deplete the potassium from your body. They are easily mashed for easy consumption for babies and toddlers and because you have to peel one before you eat it, they will not contain the pesticides that many other fruits are vulnerable to. A banana is a handy snack for eating on the go and keeping a supply of them in your home will make snack time a snap.


For many years, blueberries have been thought of as a tasty summertime treat. We now know that blueberries can pack a lot of punch because of the anthocyanin, a cancer-fighting antioxidant that can be found in the skin. They are a tasty addition to any health-conscious person's diet and can make many other foods even tastier with their addition. You can add blueberries to a salad, cereal or ice cream or use them to make your fruit smoothie even more delicious. Adding blueberries to your diet whether fresh or frozen is a great nutritional step for you to take.


Cantaloupes are not only juicy and delicious; they are high in potassium, vitamin C and beta-carotene. Melon that is fresh can be enjoyed in a variety of ways and is nutrition that is tasty as well as good for you. There are other varieties of melon, but cantaloupe is a melon that you can trust to give you the healthy nutrients you need.



Eating grapefruit has long been a staple of dieters. It is a fruit that is high in fiber yet low in calories. The best grapefruit for you is the red or pink type. So if you have a choice, opt for these instead of the white variety. There is a lot of fiber packed into the strings that attach the grapefruit segments, so do yourself a favor and don’t use a spoon to scoop out the tasty flesh.


I suppose if there was a quiz, from me to you about these food medicines it would simply be to find out which of these fantastic fruits best suits your personal body chemistry? Listening for any sign of allergy and if there are none say try to incorporate each of these nutrient-rich fruits listed above into your diet. Should you need more information about the fruits listed above today's technology even makes quizzing me unnecessary and okay to cheat. Google it.  :-)

Reason Marijuana Should be Legal

A lot of people feel that Marijuana, also referred to as cannabis and pot, is helping fund the war on terror, but making a war on drugs and keeping Marijuana illegal has not stopped millions of Americans from smoking pot on a daily bases. However, if you focus only on the negative you lose sight of the good cannabis does regularly like the pain relief, appetite building, and cancer-treatment qualities medical marijuana has. 

So what is the answer?  Let me start by saying that I have never used marijuana for medical or any other purpose, but I can't help but feel that if at some point in my life this drug did become necessary, for medical reasons, I would hope there would be no legal hurdles standing between me/my doctor and this already tested alternative treatment.

First, why is Marijuana illegal? Well, it seems that in the 1930's, News Paper Publisher William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry testified to Congress on the evils of marijuana, saying things like marijuana can make people insane and commit acts of cannibalism? Where the heck he got his data no one knows, but what is known is that back in the 1930's very few knew what cannabis/marijuana was. Anyway, to stop people from going insane and cannibalizing each other Congress decided to make the use of marijuana illegal.

It's been my experience that you don't need to use cannabis to know a cannabis user so in my lifetime (especially when I lived my life as a musician) I have known many marijuana users and not once have I ever heard of any of them cannibalizing or scarfing down anything but snack food. And to date, I have heard of no report that tells of anyone using medical marijuana going insane. I would guess though, that for every person that uses medical marijuana legally, and in the right way, there are abusers who abuse this drug. 

In Mr. Randolph Hearst's case, I found out that he was actually driven by an ulterior motive. His reason for dissing cannabis may have been because many paper manufacturers at that time were thinking of changing from using trees to make paper to using hemp because it was cheaper and easier to grow, not to mention better for the environment.  Hearst stood to lose millions so he used his influence and testimony to help get marijuana, the source of hemp, banned in the U.S.

So now that we know why marijuana was made illegal I think we should also keep in mind that alcohol was once made illegal and like the drug kingpins of today, back then people like Al Capone became rich and famous selling unregulated, untested bootleg alcoholic beverages. Once alcohol was legalized the bootlegging empire collapsed on a commercial scale. 

I theorized that the same thing would happen when cannabis is made legal on a federally commercial scale, and not only result in putting drug smugglers of cannabis out of business, but we could avoid the cutting down of millions of trees every year for paper products that can be made better from hemp, which by the way comes from the same plant as cannabis. And what about the medical benefits that come from marijuana?

Cannabis is an effective pain reliever and cancer treatment, the herb has also been proven to slow down the spread of Alzheimer's in the elderly and relieves the pressure behind the eye from glaucoma. There is even proof that marijuana provides relief from migraine headaches. Hemp, one of the byproducts of cannabis, was used during WWII for the rigging on parachutes, and as material for uniforms. Hemp can be used to make rope with thousands of other potential uses affected by the prohibition on cannabis; making it hard to exploit hemp's potential because of marijuana's illegal status.

If you've been here on earth for a while you probably know that marijuana is not illegal everywhere, several states have laws that legalize cannabis use, however, marijuana is still outlawed due to federal laws creating a problem for state legalized cannabis businesses. Banks are regulated by the federal government limiting business' in the cannabis industry to relatively few banks that will accept their business, with some of those banks forced to do business under another company name. The problems for marijuana businesses, medical and recreational, extend to their insurance and payroll because these business necessities also follow federal law and must operate in fear of losing government contracts, being penalized, or shut down due to serving cannabis businesses. 

The truth of the marijuana matter is that legalization is inevitable. The attitude of people has changed so drastically over the last 30 years that hopefully eventually, the federal prohibition on marijuana will go the way of the federal prohibition on alcohol with younger generations of Politian’s starting to take over. Marijuana will eventually become legal because the younger generation will understand the truth, cannabis can be a good source of federal income, while at the same time putting drug smugglers out of business and freeing up law enforcement forces to focus on terrorist and other villains. 

Hopefully, their collective wisdom will also show them that just like the ban on alcohol; putting a ban on something only makes the market for it stronger.

Cinnamon, the medicine

Cinnamon has been part of my diet since I can remember, from cinnamon suckers to cinnamon rolls the word cinnamon has always been related to a flavor I enjoy. Not until recently, however, I have given any attention to the health benefits of cinnamon. One of the things I enjoy is reading about different food medicine benefits like this, finding some way to put them to the test, then sharing the results be they, positive, or negative. Since I started using cinnamon for its health benefits I have noticed a drop in my blood pressure since I started using my cinnamon and honey concoction, a fact that even presented some surprise to my doctor during a most recent physical exam.

As I mentioned I have always enjoyed the taste of cinnamon and now I seem to be enjoying a health-related positive effect of cinnamon too. Personal discoveries by me lately with regard to the medicinal use of cinnamon has me singing the praises of this really neat food medicine. To me, cinnamon is the perfect combination of something that tastes good and is good for you. Cinnamon suckers may be stretching the good-for-you thing a little bit and maybe the cinnamon roll but cinnamon tea, along with cinnamon and honey are some of the ways I have added cinnamon to my diet. I've also gained an entirely different appreciation for the cinnamon I find in cookies, cake, apple pie, apple turnovers or my morning oatmeal.

I also realize that not everyone may enjoy the taste of cinnamon but my hope is that after reading this even a cinnamon hater will be at least willing to try cinnamon for some of the really neat medical properties this famous tree bark possess. If I had a planter big enough, you can bet I would be trying to grow me some cinnamon too because in my opinion cinnamon is one of the best food medicines a person can add to their diet, and while I have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing the pain relieving properties of ground cinnamon some studies have shown that cinnamon is a better pain reliever than Ibuprofen.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to point out this word of caution, some of the herbal medicine publications I read caution to be careful where herbal and pharmaceutical medicines meet. Therefore I will echo this same caution. If you are taking a doctor prescribed medication, you might want to check with your doctor, to see if taking a herbal medication on a regular basis would be considered safe to use with your doctor prescribed meds. There are several Herbal PDR online that should be helpful understanding the different effects some herbs might have on you.

The use of cinnamon has shown positive results and worked well against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, meningitis, brain tumors, and multiple sclerosis. Cinnamon can help balance hormones which can aid fertility for couples who might be experiencing difficulty starting or add to their family.  Cinnamon also contains many of the nutrients the human body needs on a daily basis like manganese, iron, calcium and fiber, cinnamon may even reduce the proliferation of cancer cells.

Until now I never really looked at this natural ingredient for all of its wonderful healing properties, a natural medicine that taste good in my opinion. I know I will not be able to grow all of the herbs, fruits, and veggies that I want or need in my small garden but because of cinnamon's ability to act as a natural food preservative,  reduce the pain of arthritis, and menstrual cramps, take on bad cholesterol, and regulate blood sugar, cinnamon will definitely be part of my kitchen medicine cabinet from now on.