12 Reasons to Eat Apples

by Christina Menefee

An Apple A Day Keeps the Doctor Away…

With all the talk of Superfoods and exotic fruits, we sometimes forget the healing powers of simple, easily accessible foods. Take for instance, the apple. We’ve all heard the saying, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away”. You know that apples are good for you, but do you know just how good?

• The healing value from the apple comes from its pulp, which contains pectin, a soluble form of fiber.
• Studies have shown pectin to be effective in treating diarrhea because intestinal bacteria transforms it into a soothing, protective coating for the intestinal lining.
• Pectin also adds bulk to the stool which helps to relieve diarrhea.
• Apple pectin has also been shown to be effective against several bacteria known to cause diarrhea such as salmonella, staphylococcus, and e. coli.
• If you have problems with constipation, apple pectin can add bulk to your stool and stimulate bowel contractions.
• A high fiber diet is effective in reducing blood cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease and some type of stroke. Fiber from pectin helps keep the cholesterol we eat in the intestine until it is eliminated.
• Apples also contain compounds called flavonoids. Flavonoids are antioxidants that help prevent cell damage that causes arterial narrowing that leads to heart disease.
• The American Cancer Society recommends a high fiber diet to prevent several types of cancer, including colon cancer. Pectin bind cancer causing compounds in the colon and speed their elimination from the body. Flavonoids prevent cell damage that causes many cancers.
• In the Annals of Internal Medicine, a study showed that apple pectin reduces blood sugar level in people with diabetes.
• Some European studies show that apple pectin is effective in eliminating lead, mercury, and other toxic heavy metals from the body. This is especially good for people living in polluted cities.
• The apples leaves contain an antibiotic called phloretin which is effective in treating wounds.
• Some studies have shown that pectin may be effective in keeping cancer from spreading throughout the body.

One note about safety: Apple seeds contain high levels of cyanide, a powerful poison. Stay away from the apple seeds and teach children to do the same.

I always knew that apples were good for me, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn of all the medicinal uses for apples.

It is truly a powerhouse of health and healing.

Now,  go have an apple today and keep that old doctor away!

Fall Blessings to All,

Christina Menefee

www.livingonliquidsunshine.blogspot.com

Reference: The New Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman

How To Attack Paper Clutter — Just Do It!

I was like a mad woman with paper clearing last week. I decided that once and for all, the paper in my home – the majority of it — just had to GO! Unlike what I had been doing — attacking a bin at a time – I decided to just DUMP it all out on the floor of my home office, and go for it. Yes, that did mean stepping over scattered piles for a few days and feeling energy being pulled down just by the mere disgusting sight of it, but taking that approach was my fast track to getting through ALL of it more quickly. So with each new day, I awoke to my temporary “job” with renewed energy to tackle the daunting task.

The rainy, windy days of Hurricane Fay made it the perfect opportunity to stay close to home being drowned by paper. On a few days, I opened the sliding door and windows for some fresh, breezy inspiration from nature. I thought of Jinjee Talifero’s article in the August issue of Pear Magazine about the upcoming raw-vegan village in Ojai, California, and how the houses in that village will be built really low to the ground to give the effect of living in nature. With windows open in my one-story home, I got a similar feeling duirng my paper project because of all of the greenery that surrounds my residence. But when I couldn’t trick my body anymore, I just had to step outside when the rain took a break. There, I retreated to the screened-in porch area, spread a sheet over a lounge chair and rested as though I was basking in the sun. The breeze helped still my mind, and watching the trees blow fiercely yet gracefully was perfect entertainment — a far better sight than piles of paper! However, when I stepped back indoors, the paper reality greeted me once again. Oh Geez! Where did all of this paper come from in the first place?

Well, let’s go back about 14 years when I took on my first newspaper and magazine writing internships while getting my master’s degree at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. My writing clips began accumulating faster than I could get them scrapbooked, so that meant bin storage for them. To that initial pile, online articles of mine that I printed out were added — and even though I managed to get a ton of them nicely stored in a large binder, the paper pile in the bins just didn’t seem to be decreasing. Then, add to that the birth of a son who eventually started producing all sorts of masterpieces of his own – from art to writing and more. Whew!

Fortunately, I did eventually reach the point of knowing I just couldn’t keep it all, so I began recycling many of my son’s paper things and made sure to stay on top of the latest junk mail and such coming into the house. But, doggon it, those bins with older stuff just stayed full for some reason.

Now, with this latest round of paper reduction, I decided to get ruthless like never before. Simply ruthless! I now have one binder designated for my son’s keepsakes and have organized it with tabs from age 4 to present. His binder also includes a section for home-schooled keepsakes. On the other hand, while my writing clips are now out of the bins thanks to my plastic-reduction process, they are stacked awaiting a home — a scrapbook of some kind, I guess.

On many a day I have been tempted — very tempted — to simply let ALL of this paper go! Imagine that….a PAPER-FREE HOME! Ahhh, bliss! But there’s that part of me that wants to hold on to some paper memorabilia from my son’s early years – for his children! Who knows, he or his future wife might want to show it to their kids someday, especially those interesting, creative stories he wrote. Then, because I’ve written so much about parenting and the varied things I’ve done with my darling son, well, I want him to have those “journals” around when I’m not. So, rather than letting it all go, I decided to find my balance; one book with his paper keepsakes and, hopefully, one with mine will do the trick.

To add fuel to the fire — or should I say fuel to the paper – in the process of this major paper-shedding project, a strong urge to get as much plastic as I can out of here came upon me! I had been wanting to go that route for a while, and then, viola, there was Ardis’ article to turn up the heat. So, like a mad woman, I began attacking plastic.

One area I have really nailed is the clothes department. Yes, I have scaled those down to a minimum. Who would have thought I’d want to be a minimalist with clothes considering how many of them I’ve had over the years. These days, it’s all about simplicity for me, though. Who wants to spend forever trying to figure out what to wear? Not me! That indecisive process used to be fun, but long gone are those days.

In fact, I’ve minimized my clothes so much that I decided to give up my half of the master bedroom closet. I got tired of being weighed down by my husband’s many clothes when I stepped in there, so it was best for me to make that an area I don’t have to enter at all. Now, between dresser drawers and a smaller closet in another room, I’m joyfully set with clothes storage. This arrangement works perfectly for me.

My books have also been reduced significantly, but it’s quite a challenge trying to get them down to my goal of only 12 books. Again, who would have thought? Think about it, though….. If Jesus managed to choose only 12 disciples, I certainly should be able to select the 12 books that serve me best at this stage of my life, right?

Now, the only thing that remains to be attacked is one more closet with MORE BINS, and I suspect that’s going to take a while because they have a whole bunch of pictures in ‘em that are yet to join existing photo albums. Anyone have any effective solutions for quick and easy photo organization? If so, please, please let me know.

With Thanks,

Penny

De-Clutter Paper and Save Trees

I’m more than happy to do my part with helping to save trees! I love looking at trees, I love climbing trees, I love sitting under trees, I love breathing the oxygen that trees allow us to breathe.

Just imagine a world without trees? Not a pretty picture, huh?

De-clutter, Recycle, and Save a Tree

Thanks to the Clutter-Busting element of the Body Enlightenment System(BES), I have restarted my paper de-cluttering project — which ultimately is allowing me to save more trees.

While the paper in my home is lessening more and more each day, and while what remains is well contained for the most part, the fact of the matter is that there is still more paper in my home than I care to have.

Gosh, I’ve gotten really good at quickly recycling the new paper that arrives. In fact, I’ve gotten a little too good at it. One day I instantly recycled a local coupon magazine that had an ad in it of my son with Jaguars’ Running Back, Maurice Jones-Drew. Yikes! The recycling truck took my copy away before I realized the “keepsake” that rested within those pages. (Of course I had to track down another copy elsewhere.)

In any event, what I haven’t been equally as good at recycling, is older paper piles that I let build up sometime back — when I was less mindful of the paper/tree effect on this world.

You know, I really wouldn’t mind seeing just about ALL of this at-home paper gone forever. I’d rather not file paper away anyway, if I don’t have to. I much rather recycling what I absolutely do not have to keep.

Perhaps my strong desire for wanting a paper-free home (as much as possible) is:

(1) A result of my love, understanding and respect of nature having further intensified.

(2) A way of saving the trees, thus helping the Earth.

(3) Due to the fact that I would rather not spend my time keeping on top of paper organization. The less paper I have, the less I’ll need to keep it organized. And, think about all of those papers that get filed away that we end up never returning to anyway. Wouldn’t they have more purpose being recycled?

C’mon! Do we want more trees to assist the flow of Earth’s oxygen and keep the Earth cooler………or do we want more paper? Let’s just simply recycle every piece of paper we do not need and use what has been recycled for any paper supply that we do need.

The way I see it, the more paper I recycle from my home, the more recycled paper I am helping to make available for others and myself when necessary, and hopefully that means a higher level of oxygen for us to breathe.

ACoolerClimate.com says: “If we want to help stop global warming, then we should become aware of where our paper comes from.” A quick read on the topic along with some useful links are here.

Well, talking about trees, I’ll leave you this week with Tree Pose. “This noble pose reminds us of our connection to the earth, which sustains and nourishes all living beings………..The Tree improves your posture and helps stabilize the pelvis, elongate the spine, strengthen the legs and ankles, and increase flexibility of the inner thigh muscles. In addition, it helps with balance and centering.” ~ Essential Yoga by Olivia H. Miller

In the Love of Trees,

Penny