If you get your health guidance from the mainstream media, you’d think the healthiest way to live is to guzzle red wine and drown everything in olive oil.

That’s basically what they’ve told us in recent years. First, it was the “French paradox”–the fact that the French, who generally eat lots of cheese, cream, and butter; drink lots of wine; and smoke like chimneys, are healthier than Americans. Scientists told us it was all in the wine—specifically, in the anthocyanins—the antioxidant flavinoids that gives red grapes their deep color.

Then it was the “Mediterranean diet,” the traditional way of eating in the regions of Italy and Spain, where olive oil is a staple. We learned that olive oil is a good source of essential fatty acids that are processed right out of many Americanized foods.

I’m not discounting the benefits of either of these phyto-chemicals. In fact, in a minute I’ll explain exactly why both are so important to good health. I just question the sources recommended in the headlines. There’s got to be a better way to get these valuable nutrients than guzzling wine and drowning in oil.

As it turns out, there is. I learned about it from HSI panelist Jon Barron. He told me about a single SuperFood from the Amazon, Acai, that, fresh from the tree, can provide over 30 times the amount of anthocyanins as red wine and all the beneficial fatty acids of olive oil in one delicious, all-natural package. And this is just the beginning of Acai’s health benefits. It’s virtually impossible to over-do this food—which is certainly not the case with red wine or olive oil.

With Acai you get the healing power of many phytonutrients in one delicious package. There’s no disputing the health benefits of anthocyanins and essential fatty acids. Both have proven to be powerful nutritional tools in the quest for good health.

Research has shown that plant pigments like anthocyanins are potent antioxidants.

The cardiovascular benefits are the most well known; studies show that anthocyanins can help prevent blood clots, improve blood circulation, relax blood vessels, and prevent arthrosclerosis. But scientists have also uncovered a whole host of other powerful effects from anthocyanins, including antiviral and antiallergenic properties. Some research even suggests that anthocyanins can prevent cancer, by blocking carcinogenesis on a molecular level and encouraging tumor cell death.

Essential fatty acids have proven just as powerful. Oleic acid, a monounsaturated omega-9 acid, and linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated omega-6 acid, help lower LDL, and maintain healthy HDL levels. They also increase the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, E, D, and K, which are essential to good health. Research has even suggested that oleic acid may prevent against cancer and hypertension.

Olive oil may be the best known sources of these nutrients, but it is certainly not the only one. It’s the pigment in red grapes that gives wine its anthocyanins—and that same pigment can also be found in other red and purple fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries, red cabbage, and purple sweet potatoes. Oleic acid is also present in pecans and seed oils, and linoleic acid is found in peanuts.

However, Acai is one food that delivers it all—plus other healthy nutrients like fiber, phytosterols, and vitamins C and E. For centuries, it’s been a staple for people in Brazil, yet virtually unknown to anyone outside the region—until now.

Discover the health secret of generations of Amazonian Indians.

Acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee), and is the fruit of a palm tree that grows in the rainforests of the Amazon—a tree Brazilians call “The Tree of Life.” About 90 percent of the small, round fruit is its hard, inedible pit—but that’s OK, because it’s the outside skin that holds the treasure. That dark purple skin of the Acai Berry is what contains the anthocyanins.

The natives puree the acai skins, creating a treat that can be served warm as a sauce over fruit or grains or frozen like a sorbet. They’ve been eating acai for centuries, passing down recipes from generation to generation. (The native people have also passed down the story of how acai was discovered.) Because acai fruit itself is perishable, its popularity never spread beyond the region.

SuperFood fights heart disease, cancer, prostate enlargement, and more.

Since then, the news about acai has been steadily spreading—and the evidence of nutritional and health benefits just keep piling up. Consider this: a 100-gram serving of acai contains only 90 calories, just two grams of fat and no cholesterol. Plus, it delivers 3.5 grams of dietary fiber, something we could all use more of in our diets. Improved processing of the fresh fruit is making it possible to preserve more of the fruit’s healthful attributes. Currently, the acai puree provides more anthocyanins than red wine and acai has antioxidant concentrations that well outweigh blueberries.

Subsequent research has shown that in addition to the anthocyanins and essential fatty acids, acai also contains a healthy dose of plant sterols, another class of phyto-chemicals that have been shown to reduce cholesterol, protect the immune system, and relieve prostate enlargement. In fact, it turns out acai is in the same family as saw palmetto, a common herbal treatment for prostate enlargement. And researchers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro have discovered that acai extract can be used to fight infection, like the parasitic infection schistosomosis which affects 10 million Brazilians each year and the common bacterial infection staphylococcus aureus.

It seems there’s no end to the Acai miracle fruit’s health benefits.

Foods that a good for liver:

Lemon
Brocolli
Sunflower seeds
Almonds
Garlic
Onion
Beet
Cauliflower
Cabbage

Avoid:

Dairy products
Fat foods
Salt
Sugar
Alcohol
Tobacco
Aspirin
Antibiotics

The foods that we eat and how we take care of ourselves greatly affects how our liver works. It is important to choose foods that will help keep your liver healthy. Good nutrition can also help to rebuild the liver and damaged liver cells. It can also help the liver form new cells.

There are many different foods that can help out the liver to keep it healthy as well as to help rebuild it if it is damaged. The foods listed below are used to help to detoxify and to rebuild the liver.

Carrots contain beta carotene and and carotenoids which help to protect the liver. Antioxidants help limit the damage to the liver caused by toxins. There are many different antioxidants.

Brown rice provides the antioxidant, selenium, and also B vitamins.

Beets contain antioxidants such as beta carotene, healing flavonoids, and other carotenes. Beets also contain folic acid. Brocolli contains B and C vitamins and is a good source of folic acid as well.

Broccoli also contains natural sulfur compounds needed for detoxification.

Garlic contains selenium and glutathione which act as antioxidants. It also contains methionine.

Eggs give B vitamins also contains a sulfur containing compound called methionine. Spinach provides folic acid as well as other B vitamins.

Tomatoes contain vitamins C and E and are a good source of the antioxidant lycopene. Wheatgerm is an excellent source of phytochemicals and contains selenium and vitamin E.

Melons and peppers are a good way of getting Vitamin C.

Brazil nuts contain selenium.

Onions have sulfur compounds which are important in detoxification.

Asparagus and watermelon contain high amounts of glutathione which is extremely important in liver toxification.

Papaya and avocado also help the body to produce glutathione.

There are also foods that you can eat that will just help to keep the liver healthy. These foods include soy beans.

Soy beans contain lecithin. Lecithin helps the liver to break down fats and helps the body to reduce high cholesterol levels. It also helps to maintain healthy membranes around the cells of the liver.

Cayenne pepper contains phytochemicals that include beta carotene and lutein. It is also high in certain B vitamins and Vitamins C and E. It also helps to aid in the process of digesting food.

Lemon is helpful in general cleansing of the body.

Walnuts are a good source of arginine. Arginine helps the liver to detoxify ammonia. It is also a high scoure of glutathione and omega 3 fatty acids.

Caraway seeds have flavanoids and carotenoids that act as antioxidants. It also helps if a person has liveror gallbladder disease.

When choosing a diet that is good for helping the liver it is important to think of fresh fruits and vegetables. You will want to eat plenty of dark green, leafy vegetables and colored fruits. These foods contain enzymes, fiber, vitamins, antibiotic substances, and nutrients to help stop cancer. You will also want to eat foods that help to produce glutathione in the body as mentioned above.

Drinking green tea contains properties that help to boost the immune system which in return helps the liver.

Lastly in maintaining a good diet to help the liver, water is always important. You should drink between 6-12 cups per day. Water helps to get rid of the toxins that the liver has broken down.

Making the foods listed above as part of your diet will greatly help your liver as well as your whole body, to make you feel and keep you feeling healthy.

Popular detox diets promise to flush poisons from your body, purge pounds of excess fat, clear your complexion and bolster your immune system.

But experts say there’s little evidence that extreme regimens such as the Master Cleanse or Fruit Flush do anything more than lead to unpleasant, unhealthy side effects.

Still, these super-restrictive eating plans are hotter than ever, thanks to being linked to lanky celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. Beyonce Knowles attributed her 20-pound weight loss for the movie “Dreamgirls” to the Master Cleanse — a starvation diet whose adherents swallow nothing but a concoction of lemon juice mixed with maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper, as well as salt water and a laxative tea for 10 days.

The idea of detoxifying or purifying the body of harmful substances has been around for centuries and cycles back into popularity now and again. There are no hard numbers on how many people have tried the latest fashionable plans, much less stuck with them, but dozens of new do-it-yourself fasting books are glutting bookstore shelves.

That’s what has nutrition experts sounding the alarm over possible risks from lengthy or repeated fasts. Vitamin deficiencies, muscle breakdown and blood-sugar problems — not to mention frequent liquid bowel movements — are some of the seriously unpleasant drawbacks to these plans, which are skimpy on solid foods and often call for laxatives.

“Long-term fasts lead to muscle breakdown and a shortage of many needed nutrients,” says Lona Sandon, a Dallas dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Depriving the body of the vitamins and minerals we get from food can “actually weaken the body’s ability to fight infections and inflammation,” she says.

Because the crash diets can upset blood sugar, potassium and sodium levels in the body, people with diabetes, heart or kidney disease or women who are pregnant or nursing shouldn’t try them, experts say. Children, teens, older adults or people with certain digestive conditions should also steer clear.

The scores of detox diet books and kits out there each have their own take on how to cleanse the body — one calls for spices and fruit juices, another for only vegetable purees — but most of them boil down to extremely low-calorie, primarily liquid diets.

The idea behind these plans, which can last anywhere from three days to about a month, is to rid the body of toxins absorbed from the environment and the less-than-healthy foods we eat. This cleansing is supposed to leave you feeling energized.

Some plans restrict all solid foods and instruct dieters to survive on only low-calorie beverages for days at a time. The Joshi holistic diet involves an elaborate list of so-called acid-forming foods to avoid for three weeks, including seemingly healthy veggies and grains.

Many intestinal experts say we don’t need an extreme diet to cleanse our insides.

“Your body does a perfectly good job of getting rid of toxins on its own,” says Dr. Nasir Moloo, a gastroenterologist with Capitol Gastroenterology Consultants Medical Group in Sacramento, Calif. “There’s no evidence that these types of diets are necessary or helpful.”

While there are medical conditions that interfere with organ function and prevent the body from clearing toxins, healthy people already have a built-in detoxification system — the liver, kidneys, lungs and skin, says Moloo.

And by attempting to flush out the “bad stuff” from our intestines, Sandon warns, you’re also “flushing out the good bacteria that keep the intestines healthy.”

Lots of bathroom time

The side effects from prolonged, severe calorie restriction can include headache, fatigue, irritability, aches and pains. Because many rely on aggressive laxatives, these diets can also get pretty messy. Frequent bathroom visits can lead to irritation and breakdown of skin on your bottom, as well as dehydration.

While believers claim they feel lighter and more energetic, studies on starvation show the longer you fast, the more lethargic and less focused you become. Because most of these diets contain very little protein, it can be difficult for the body to rebuild lost muscle tissue.

Although people can quickly drop pounds on these diets, the majority of people regain all the weight they lose on any diet, especially the highly restrictive varieties, according to recent research published in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association. While people can lose 5 to 10 percent of their weight in the first few months of a diet, up to two-thirds of people regain even more weight than they lost within four or five years, the researchers found.

Cutting back on high-fat foods, eating in moderation and consuming more vegetables and fruits may not seem as glamorous as starving yourself like a celebrity for days, but it’s healthier for you in the long run and certainly sexier than rushing to the bathroom all day.

Cleansing is necessary to keep our bodies functioning at their best. Pollution from the environment, oxidative stress, and additives (pesticides, chemical colors and flavorings) in our water and food are stored in organs and fatty tissue and build up in our bodies over time. Cleansing this toxic load can help to boost the immune system, improve vitality, get rid of headaches, allergies, fatigue, pain, arthritis and other symptoms, and can result in substantial weight loss. One of the most powerful dietary cleanses is the Lemon Cleanse or Master Cleanse.

Where the Lemon Cleanse Began

The lemon cleanse was developed by Stanley Burroughs and is laid out in his 1976 book, Healing for the Age of Enlightenment. The book addresses several unconventional aspects of health care, including Vita Flex reflexology, color therapy, and the lemon cleanse. A smaller book by Burroughs, The Master Cleanser, covers only the cleanse.

Despite the wealth of information about the master cleanse that is available on the internet and by word of mouth, it is advisable to read one of these books before attempting the lemon cleanse to get the details right and avoid adverse effects.

What is the Master Cleanse?

The master cleanse consists of 6 to 12 glasses a day of:

* juice of 1/2 a lemon
* 2 tbsp maple syrup
* 1/10 tsp cayenne pepper (or less, to taste)
* 8 oz water

This protocol is used for at least ten days, although the cleanse may be followed for up to a month. The cleanse is completed when white buildup on the tongue fades and it appears pink again (showing all candida is gone).

Food is not consumed during the cleanse; instead, a glass or two of the “lemonade” mixture is consumed whenever hungry. A laxative tea is also used during the cleanse.

Special protocols are laid out for coming off of the master cleanse which should be followed completely.

Why Lemons?

Lemons are one of the best foods for the human body. They provide vitamins and minerals as well as making the body more alkaline and helping to cleanse.

Organic lemons are preferable for the cleanse.

Why Maple Syrup?

Maple syrup is one of the few unprocessed good sugars that provide micronutrients as well as calories to the body. It is high in minerals including zinc and manganese. For the Master Cleanse, Burroughs recommends grade B because it contains more minerals than the lighter grades of maple syrup. It is also less likely than grade A (light) syrup to contain formaldehyde.

If you prefer, agave may be substituted for maple syrup in the master cleanse.

Is the Master Cleanse a Fast or a Starvation Diet?

No.

The master cleanse is more gentle on the body than a fast. Most cleansing fasts leave a person incapacitated or in bed for their duration. On the master cleanse, the only inconvenience is making sure to have ready access to the ingredients. Many people report high energy levels and productivity even during the cleanse.

Maple syrup provides for the body’s caloric needs even as the lemon, cayenne, and high water intake encourage toxins and buildup to leave the body. Minerals and vitamins are provided by the mineral-rich maple syrup and lemon juice (which is high in vitamin C and other nutrients). The master cleanse is not intended to be used permanently, but it is completely safe in the short term provided the directions are closely followed.

The Primary Goal of a Cleanse Is Not Usually to Lose Weight…

…but substantial weight loss can be one result.

If you don’t want to lose weight or find you are losing weight too quickly, add more maple syrup to each glass of “lemonade” or increase your intake in glasses per day.

The master cleanse is not for everyone. Please read Burroughs’ book and consult with an expert before beginning the cleanse.