In a world filled with greasy foods, oil is something we've had to learn to avoid. Even though it's delicious and makes everything go down easier, it's generally quite unhealthy. That's because oil is – in one form or another – almost entirely fat. With consumers' growing ever more health conscious, the demand for “healthy” oils has skyrocketed. While any type of oil is inherently a very rich food, dense with fats and loaded with calories, it is an integral part of cuisine and can be easily integrated into a healthy diet. These days you can find everything from avocado oil to walnut oil with quite a few options in between. Yet of all these increasingly popular “alternative” oils, none has made such a large impact as coconut oil.   How Coconut Oil Is One Of Our Most Potent Superfoods Few foods can claim to have as many uses or health benefits of coconut oil. Whether you want to eat it by the spoonful, incorporate it into recipes, use it as a cooking oil, use it as a topical solution, or even using it to clean your teeth, the potential health benefits of coconut oil seem virtually endless! While using coconut oil in any form can be great for your body, the best way to reap the benefits are to just eat some raw everyday. It's delicious!   1. Coconut Oil Can Improve Thyroid Health Coconut oil can be a good replacement for corn or soybean oil, which have been linked to thyroid issues. Not only does coconut oil allow you to avoid these potentially problem causing oils, it also has its own benefits for your thyroid health. Diseases of the thyroid such as hypo- and hyper-thyroidism are associated with inflammation, which coconut oil has been shown to help reduce. Coconut oil's antibacterial properties can also reduce stress from microorganisms that can lead to thyroid issues.   2. Coconut Oil Can Help You Lose Weight Coconut oil can be used as a substitute for less healthy oils, which can be great if you're on a diet and looking to cut calories (and especially fats.) However, coconut oil doesn't stop there. Coconut oil is composed largely of compounds known as Medium-Chain Triglycerides (MCTs.) Research has shown that consuming MCTs helps the body burn fat and lose weight more efficiently.   3. Coconut Oil Can Keep Your Immune System In Fighting Shape Coconut oil contains a ton of compounds with the potential to help squash harmful microorganisms and give your body's built-in defenses a bit of a boost. Concentrations of lauric acid, antimicrobial lipids, as well as capyrlic and capric acid have been identified as lending coconut oil it's anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial properties. Regularly consuming coconut oil can help keep the immune system up to par and stave off common illnesses like the cold and flu.   4. Cook With Coconut Oil To Avoid Toxins Unlike other forms of cooking oil such as vegetable oils, coconut [...]

We're all familiar with strawberries. Blended into smoothies, served as a refreshing snack or as a delicious treat incorporated into your dessert, there are many ways to enjoy the strawberry. But there is more to the strawberry than just a sweet treat. Many different species of wild strawberries grow naturally on several continents. Historians have traced humanity's relationship with the strawberry as far back as ancient Roman literature, where the strawberry is referenced for its medicinal properties. This reputation as a folk medicine has carried on all the way down to today. These days, the sort of strawberry you find at the supermarket or plant in your garden is a bit different from the wild varieties which the Europeans of antiquity would have harvested from forests and groves. Modern strawberries are highly cultivated. The most common “garden strawberries” we encounter today are a cross between two species of wild strawberries native to South America. Though we have changed the strawberry a bit, modern research is revealing that those ancient Romans may have been onto something when they regarded the strawberry as a tool of medicine.   What A Few Delicious Strawberries Do For Your Body In the modern diet, strawberries – as healthy as they are – are commonly found incorporated into something that is in no way a health food. Dipped in milk chocolate or caramel, covered in whipped cream, made into jam, added to cakes or ice cream. These might be delicious, but they are all basically dessert. The strawberries are doing their best to improve your health, but they just can't compete when they're covered in unhealthy junk! If you want to get the health benefits of strawberries, try just eating some without adding anything! You can also incorporate them into a healthy snack or meal like granola, cereal, yogurt, smoothies, or fruit salad. Don't fool yourself into thinking that milk chocolate covered strawberry is healthy! So what might you look forward to if you incorporate a healthy dose of strawberries into your daily diet?    1. All The Benefits Of Berries Berries are a well-known super food. Strawberries are no exception. Rich in vitamins, natural sugars, plant fiber, as well as packing tons of trace elements and phytochemicals, berries are a potent source of nutrition loaded with compounds that can be beneficial for the entire body. One of the top dietary sources of important bioactive compounds such as resveratrol, flavonols, anthocyanins, and elleagic acid, strawberries and other berries have been associated with a huge array of health benefits. Some of these include reducing inflammation, acting as powerful antioxidants that reduce oxidative stress throughout the brain and body, improving cardiovascular health, helping prevent damage to the eyes, and even reducing the risk of certain cancers. Plus, they're tasty.   2. Your Brain Loves Strawberries Strawberries are the most potent dietary source of a compound called fisetin. This is an antioxidant and flavonoid which has shown a lot of promise. Fisetin has been [...]

Cucumbers. You can put them in your salad or on your face. But where do they fit into your everyday health routine? There are a lot of things about cucumbers you're probably unaware of. Including their impressive profile as a health food. One little known fact about cucumbers is that they're not a vegetable. They're actually a fruit. You can have that fact for free. For the rest, you'll have to keep reading as we explore just why and how cucumbers can improve your everyday health.   Can Cucumbers Really Help You Lead A Healthier, Longer Life? Cucumbers are a welcome addition to many salads, but few of us look at them as something almost medicinal as well. It's easy to see why cucumbers are such a popular food. They are extremely nutritious with very few calories. A cucumber offers high amounts of vitamins C and K, as well as a respectable helping of potassium, magnesium, and manganese. They also prove to be an excellent source of dietary fiber. We already know that cucumbers are a champion as a foodstuff, though. Since they're mostly water – about 96% – they're great as a diet food. But since they're also full of nutrition, they can earn their place on anybody's plate. If we leave the strict confines of things that might be listed on your nutritional facts label behind, we start to find a variety of previously untold benefits to cucumber consumption. Let's look at three of them.   1. Cucumbers Help Control Blood Sugar In this age of easy access to carbohydrate rich foods, its way too easy to consume vast quantities of sugar. High blood sugar levels can damage the body in all sorts of ways and eventually leads to diabetes. Animals studies have demonstrated that cucumber is capable of reducing blood sugar levels and helping maintain a healthy blood sugar level. In an experiment performed on diabetic mice, a cucumber peel extract was shown to be effective at combating changes associated with diabetes and decreasing blood sugar levels.   2. Cucumbers Help Reduce Cancer Risk Cucumbers are a good source of compounds known as lignans. Lignans are a type of polyphenol which act as hormones in plants. They are common in the diet and while previously not given much attention, they have recently been a focus of study for their ability to fight cancers associated with hormones such as uterine, breast, prostate, and ovarian. Not only does cucumber a good source of these lignans, it contains another host of potentially anti-cancer compounds called cucurbitacins. Cucurbitacins are a type of phytonutrient. They have been identified as being useful for their potenital to disrupt the process of cancer cell development and could be a useful tool in fighting many types of cancer.   3. Cucumbers Help Fight Inflammation Research suggests that cucumbers inhibit key enzymes which promote inflammation in the body. Inflammation is associated with a number of chronic conditions and is a major contributor [...]

It's easy to be a little confused by the history of the egg. At first it was praised as a health food. Then an incomplete picture of how cholesterol works led many to condemn the egg as being quite bad for your heart and cardiovascular health. Now that science has improved, this conclusion has been dramatically reversed. The pendulum has swung back again. Eggs are a health food once more. But this time it is for sure. We know more than ever before about what eggs can do for your health. Let's take a look at some intriguing egg facts.   Knocking Down Egg Myths Before we get into the data that demonstrates how great eggs are for your health, let's dispense with one of the more prevalent myths about the egg. Early nutritionists' recognized that nearly half the calories from eggs come from the fat in the yolk. Contained within this fat are high levels of cholesterol. While today we understand the body's relationship with cholesterol to be a complicated one including multiple forms of cholesterol and different manners of processing it, these early nutritionists' lacked such a complete picture. As such, the association between high cholesterol and poor cardiovascular health was all they had to go on. Eggs were, for a time, labeled an unhealthy food. Today, research has demonstrated that eggs do not increase levels of “bad” cholesterol. While those managing a condition with a low cholesterol diet may want to avoid eggs, for healthy individuals eggs can be an important source of nutrition with no negative health effects. Don't take our word for it. Studies have shown that you can eat as many as 12 eggs per week without any measurable effect on cholesterol levels. That's almost 2 eggs every day! Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to take a peek at what eggs can do for your diet.   1. Eggs Are A Truly Exceptional Source of Nutrients It's not hard to see why eggs are such a rich source of nutrition. After all, they have to contain everything needed to nourish a baby chick until it hatches. Eggs are well-known as an excellent source of protein and healthy fats. You might be less aware that eggs contain traces of nearly every single vitamin, mineral, and nutrient your body needs to live. Many of these are just in trace concentrations, but eggs provide a healthy dose of vitamins A, B2, B5, and B12. It's also a great source of the essential mineral nutrient selenium. You find all of this goodness in the yolk, which is packed with nutrients. But don't go throwing out those egg whites, either. Egg white is almost entirely protein and is an excellent way to boost your protein intake.   2. Eggs Help Nourish Your Brain Although it is an essential nutrient, few of us have heard of a compound called choline. Eggs are a rich source of choline. Necessary for [...]

Baking soda is something that can be found in just about every household. Intriguingly enough, what it's doing in those homes can vary quite a bit. You're probably already familiar with baking soda's eponymous role in baking. You might even know of it as an effective cleaning agent. But did you know that baking soda also offers some extremely useful medicinal properties as well? Baking soda is composed of a salt known as sodium bicarbonate. While sodium bicarbonate does occur naturally, it is mostly produced artificially. Ancient Egyptians were familiar with a mineral salt known as natron, which is made from a mixture of sodium carbonate compounds and contains roughly 17% sodium bicarbonate. Though natron was important in antiquity, often being employed as a cleaning agent and an early form of soap, it would take modern chemistry to truly unlock the potential of sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate's history as a consumable begins in the mid-1800s. It started when a British chemist was experimenting with chemical leavening agents in the hopes of assisting his wife's baking efforts. She suffered from a yeast allergy. After discovering sodium bicarbonate's ability to make bread rise with no yeast, it didn't take long for it to be christened “baking” soda and hit the market. While this particular feature was what brought sodium bicarbonate its modern day ubiquity, baking soda rapidly came to be appreciated outside of the kitchen as well.   What Baking Soda Does For The Body Although you probably get a little bit of baking soda in whatever baked goods you eat, it's not exactly part of the diet. Instead of a foodstuff or even a supplement, baking soda's uses in the body are more reminiscent of a medicine. It can be used to help in the treatment of a variety of conditions both minor and severe. It's great to have on-hand to tackle common symptoms that could befall anyone. Let's take a look at six ways to can put baking soda to use to make life a little simpler. 1. Baking Soda Can Calm Heartburn And Indigestion Sodium bicarbonate is an active ingredient in many over-the-counter remedies for heartburn and indigestion. Because it is highly alkaline, it does a great job of neutralizing the acid in your stomach. This acid can be a major contributor to indigestion and ulcer pain, and is the root cause of heartburn. Instead of buying an expensive preparation like Alka-Seltzer, you can make your own at home. Just add a little bit of baking soda to a glass of water and drink it down.   2. Baking Soda Is An Effective Anti-Inflammatory Agent Inflammation is a major source of pain and a contributor to chronic conditions in the body. In experimental trials, researcher's identified baking soda as activating a novel anti-inflammatory pathway in mesothelial cells, which can disperse this effect throughout the body. This has been investigated for its potential to help manage rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune diseases which cause inflammation. [...]