Your body, like any plant or animal, is a live biological organism; all of your organs, fluids, and cells work as a team; if one element of the team is not functioning properly, your body becomes unhealthy and illness sets in.
Consider your body to be a football team; you don’t need to know anything about football to understand that you have a home team and an opposition squad. From the first play, your birth, through the final goal, the end of your life, the football field is your life. The opposition team, as well as all the outside fleeing sources, are aiming to end your life by stealing the ball and running in the opposite way. This is referred to as premature death as a result of disease or illness.
The opposing team consists of some really powerful players, free radicals, and chronic inflammation; these players never weary and will never give up. Free radicals enter your very young body with your very first breath and begin attacking your cells from the minute you are born. Free radicals are molecules or atoms that lack an electron and attack any cell they come into contact with in order to steal an electron. Free radicals continue to attack until they succeed, causing damage to the healthy cells they are attacking.
Free radicals are a natural aspect of life. They are present in air and water pollution, as well as in the processed foods we consume. Traumas and injuries also produce free radicals. Another form of free radical damage is the medications we take to recover from illnesses; this type of free radical damage from pharmaceuticals is referred to as “side effects.” There are times in our lives when we need to take medications to treat a serious illness, but we must remember to improve our immune system while we are on these meds. This will reduce the negative side effects and aid in our long-term recovery.
Every time you breathe, new free radicals enter your body and begin to work for the opposite team. Chronic inflammation is the next opposing team member; experts refer to this player as a silent killer. Our bodies are wonderful organisms; when they detect an injury or illness, they send in a home team member called inflammation to help in the defense of our body and to help restore the damaged area.
When free radicals steal an electron, they not only damage the cell, but they also mutate or deform it; the damaged cell then becomes another free radical; when the home team’s healthy inflammation tries to go in and protect the now unhealthy cell that the body perceives as damaged, the unhealthy cell turns on the inflammation and attacks it, stealing an electron. Once-healthy inflammatory cells become altered or malformed, resulting in chronic inflammation that attacks healthy tissues within our body. This is the beginning of a long series of events. But keep in mind that the football game features two teams on the field.
You must breathe in order to survive; now you know that every time you take a breath, free radicals enter your body and do damage. You can win the game, though, if you consume enormous doses of anti-oxidants to replenish your team’s players. Antioxidants are the main participants; they are molecules or atoms with an extra electron that they will provide to a free radical. When this occurs, the free radical ceases to play for the enemy team and begins to play for you. This is what I mean by “creating your team forces,” and your team forces are your immune system.
Your squad collaborates, but your immune system is your coach; if your immune system is strong, it can send in the correct players at the right moment to fight any invaders that your body may confront. However, you must feed your immune system on a daily basis; it requires essential minerals and vitamins, as well as substantial dosages of anti-oxidants. If you deprive your immune system of the nourishment it requires, the players on the field will not receive the reinforcements they require to win.
Most people begin taking multivitamins as they get older, but parents should put their children on multivitamins as soon as possible and teach them about nutrition as early as feasible. Diabetes is being diagnosed in people as young as 20 years old in this country due to bad dietary habits. This is a really frightening trend that is occurring. Many 30-year-olds have heart disease as a result of bad eating habits and “hardening of the arteries.” Just terrible.
So, what did you have for lunch today? As you read this post, you are breathing filthy air; what form of defense did you supply your immune system today? I hope you consumed your vitamins and minerals; did you consume any fresh fruits or vegetables? What about your kids?
Most plants have between 1,000 and 1,500 anti-oxidants. Vitamins and minerals are also high in antioxidants. Antioxidants are most abundant in vitamins C and E. You can take as much vitamin C as you want without affecting your body, but vitamin E has a suggested daily dosage; take much more and you may cause difficulties; do not exceed any advised amount for your weight. Fish is also abundant in antioxidants; consider including it in your diet a few times per week.
Also consider this: your cooking habits can ruin the anti-oxidants in your food. Do not microwave vegetables or fish; instead, steam or broil them; do not cover them in fat and fried them. Foods are delicate, and poor preparation might negate any health benefits. Foods, like you, are biological entities. If you, like me, have a tendency to burn things, invest in a juicer and juice your vegetables and fruits, juice your way to healthier life. The beautiful thing about juicing is that there are so many different combinations you can make to convince your kids to drink their vegetables by adding delicious fruits to the mix.
Let us now examine the statistics. Due to our ignorance, we as a population have generated major pollution problems on this magnificent world we live in. As a result, we take in approximately one billion free radicals per day in the form of contaminants. Let’s see how many anti-oxidants we can consume; if we eat one full grapefruit, two eggs, and one slice of bread for breakfast, not to mention our multivitamin, we will consume around 3,600 anti-oxidants. For a snack, we have a banana and a glass of milk, which has over 1,800 anti-oxidants. We’re having fish with steamed spinach and one cup of whole grain rice for lunch, which has approximately 4,000 anti-oxidants. Dinner arrives, and we do extremely well, with a great cut of steak and some steamed broccoli with red onions and mushrooms; we now add a yam to that meal, and we consume 9,500 anti-oxidants. We did not fare well that day, with only 18,900 anti-oxidants. We’re losing a football game that we believed we were going to win. What are our options? You can drink a lot more fruits and vegetables by juicing them instead of eating them, and the anti-oxidants in these life-saving nutrients will not be lost.
Today many people are adding Mangosteen Fruit to their diets. Mangosteen fruit has been used for generations in South East Asia to treat a variety of ailments. Anti-diarrheal, anti-inflammatory, pain control, treatment of infections, fever control, gastrointestinal problems, skin rashes and burns, headaches, anti-parasitic, musculoskeletal and joint problems, control of blood sugar and diabetes, infections – viral, bacterial, and fungal, as well as mouth ulcers, prevention of atherosclerosis, dementia, anxiety and depression, cancer and anti-aging concerns As more clinical tests and scientific study on this fruit is conducted, the list of health advantages grows.
For the last 30 years, independent universities and experts have conducted research on the mangosteen fruit in order to understand why people in South East Asia do not suffer from the same diseases that we do in this country. Serious infections that are deadly in America are almost never found in South East Asia. As scientists began to investigate this particular fruit, they discovered that it has the potential to aid in disease control. A chemical molecule called xanthones was identified in record levels inside the skin of this fruit, as was the record number of anti-oxidants found in this fruit. The mangosteen fruit has the largest concentration of anti-oxidants known in a single food source, with an astounding 25,000 per fruit.
In nature, xanthones are extremely rare. Consider the Aloe Vera plant, which contains only one xanthone but is used for medical purposes in a number of ways. When word got out about how effective Aloe Vera was in healing burns and skin disorders, people started growing it in their yards and breaking sections off whenever they had a skin problem. Over 200 xanthones have been detected in nature to date, with 41 of those found in mangosteen fruit alone, accounting for nearly a quarter of all known xanthones.
What are the benefits of xanthones? Xanthones are a new chemical compound family that contains physiologically active plant phenols. Xanthones are a unique, biologically active category of compounds with a six-carbon ring; this structure makes the xanthone exceptionally stable and flexible. When eaten, each xanthone has a distinct chemical formula that allows it to perform a specific biological function. Xanthones are sufficiently stable that they can neutralize more than one free-radical at a time while still performing a biological function. Xanthones have anti-inflammatory, anti-tuberculosis, anti-tumor, anti-platelet stickiness, and anti-convulsive effects. Scientific investigations show that xanthones are responsible for a wide range of therapeutic benefits observed by persons who consume this juice.
Mangosteen is a fruit, not a pill, and hence does not have the inherent risks associated with medications. Thousands of people who are now consuming mangosteen fruit juice for therapeutic purposes are reporting positive impacts on their diseases. The mangosteen fruit has three parts: the skin or pericarp, the fleshy fruit, and the seeds. All three parts contain potent xanthones and anti-oxidants, although the skin or pericarp contains the most. One thing to keep in mind is that xanthones must be eaten in their natural form. The true mangosteen fruit juice is the whole fruit crushed up to form a juice; nothing is wasted, so you get the most out of this delicious fruit.
By switching to a healthy diet you will strengthen your team by supporting your immune system, allowing it to protect your body against outside invaders. This way you will certainly have an excellent quality of life!