Can you really eat your way to happiness? The mood food connection

(NaturalNews) Yes, you really can eat your way to happiness, but perhaps not in the way you might first imagine. By "happiness," I mean lasting happiness, not the fleeting kind of sensory happiness that might be experienced from sucking the cream filling out of a twinkie. And that's the distinction that really matters here: When I talk about happiness, I'm talking about sustainable happiness, not a brief moment of spurious excitement that soon reverses itself and leads to depression.

You see, a lot of people try to eat their way to happiness by eating the "instant joy" foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies and yes, even twinkies. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood sugar and actively alters brain chemistry. But like any drug, the depression after it wears off is far worse than the brief happiness it appeared to give us. And in the worst cases, we sometimes fall into a pattern of treating that mental rut with yet another hit of sugar to try to keep the happiness going.

This downward cycle of sugar dependence leads us to long-term obesity, diabetes and depression.

As author Timothy Brantley says in The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life:
"How did these foods affect their moods? Food Group A (Standard American Diet). The subjects all had radical energy fluctuations, staying in a cycle of having to manipulate to produce quick energy after a radical drop. The subjects all remarked that they never realized how addicted they were to sugar and other stimulants, like caffeine, simply to function. The roller-coaster effect on their energy swung them into high and low moods, and many of them got sick consistently."
(http://www.naturalpedia.com/book_Th...)

The Standard American Diet is obviously not the solution we're looking for. But what works better?

Foods for long-term happiness

Fortunately, there are a huge number of other foods that promote long-term happiness. That's what this article is about: Sharing with you the good news on foods that can support healthy moods and promote a positive outlook on life for the rest of your life.

And I have to say that list starts with omega-3 oils. High-quality omega-3s provide one of the most powerful and sustainable boosts to healthy moods of any commonly-available food.

Read up on omega-3s at NaturalPedia: http://naturalpedia.com/omega-3s.html

You can get omega-3 oils from fish, quality marine oil supplements like Moxxor, chia seeds, flax seeds and other quality nutritional supplements.

Beware of grocery store foods that claim to be "made with omega-3s" because the actual quantity of omega-3 oils in those foods is usually so tiny that it hardly matters to your daily nutritional intake.

Enjoy healthy nuts

Pecans are extremely beneficial to supporting not just healthy moods but healthy brain function as well. It's the oils in the nuts that do the trick. Read more at http://naturalpedia.com/pecans.html

Other nuts can also be strongly supportive of healthy moods in the long term: Almonds, pistachios, macadamia nuts and walnuts all have powerful health-supporting properties that affect brain function and therefore mood experiences, too. Eat more raw nuts and you'll create better brain balance for the long term!

Adaptogens and green tea

Green tea seems to provide a subtle mood lift without all the problems of typical stimulants. Just make sure you're getting decaffeinated green tea, and check your source to make sure it doesn't suffer from fluoride contamination (some green tea products grown in certain countries have been known to carry a lot of fluoride).

Adaptogenic herbs are also very, very good at helping your neurology better handle stress. This can often translate into an easier day, reduced stress and improved moods. Adaptogens include ginseng, ashwagandha, rhodiola, cordyceps mushroom and many others.

Learn more about adaptogens at NaturalPedia: http://www.naturalpedia.com/adaptog...

Herbal tonics for mood support

While we're in the realm of herbs, there are several herbal tonic products that are well known to help support healthy moods. St. John's Wort has been clinically shown to work as well as antidepressant drugs to ease symptoms of depression. I usually take it with dandelion or yellow dock to provide additional liver support.

Learn more about St. John's Wort at NaturaPedia: http://www.naturalpedia.com/St_John...

Several Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal formulas are also known to help support healthy moods. Chinese herbs are always used in combination, never in isolation, but one herb that's found in many mood-supporting formulas is Bupleurum.

The history and use of this herb is quite fascinating. Check it out here: http://www.naturalpedia.com/Bupleur...

Eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies

In addition to the omega-3 oils, nuts and herbs mentioned here, focus on consuming large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables. You simply cannot over-eat fresh fruits and vegetables, so eat all you want. They're loaded with mood-lifting nutrients that can also help prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Be sure to buy organic produce wherever possible!

What to avoid

This section can be summed up in just two words: Sugar, Caffeine.

Seriously. If you want to maintain healthy moods, it's crucial to avoid refined sugar and caffeine from all sources. That means no caffeinated coffee, no donuts, no cookies, no Pepsi, etc.

These two chemicals do more to destroy healthy moods in the long term than probably any other chemicals in the food supply. And yet, ironically, they are precisely the two chemicals that people reach for to try to get short-term mood lifts.

They do provide short-term boosts, much like a drug. Heroin might make you feel good in the short term, too, but it's highly addictive and causes huge health problems over the long haul. Sugar and caffeine are similarly addictive and problematic; except they're legal and you don't inject them with a syringe. (Well, at least I hope not.)

If you suffer from mood swings or depression right now, the first and most important change you need to make in your diet is to eliminate refined sugars and caffeine. The second change to make is to start bringing in mood-enhancing health foods such as omega-3s, raw nuts and lots of fresh produce.

But the really important step is to find new ways to enjoy your feed by expanding your experience of all the amazing tastes to be found in the universe of foods provided by Mother Nature. If you've never tried raw food cuisine, definitely check it out at a local raw food restaurant (or find a raw food chef in your area). You'll be amazed at the new spectrum of tastes and sensory experiences provided by raw foods -- and you'll experience huge long-term health benefits from the raw foods, too!

Stay happy with healthy foods

Yes, food can make you happy, but only if you focus on consuming health-enhancing foods that are natural, non-refined and packed with nutrients. Don't compromise your mental experience of life by turning to sugar, caffeine and other short-term stimulants. Or if you're on those right now, find ways to slowly transition off them while embracing some of the healthier choices I've covered here.

In the long term, you'll discover that healthy foods = healthy moods.

But give it time: It may take 30 days of eating right before you really feel the full effects with improved mood. Foods are not isolated chemicals that kick in right away. Transitioning to a healthier body and brain with healthy food takes some time. But it's time well spent. After all, you get to eat your way to a more positive outlook on life. And that sounds kinda fun anyway, doesn't it?

Nutrition labels could be mandated on package fronts

(NaturalNews) According to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, the FDA is working on a plan that would require food manufacturers to print nutrition information on the front of their packaging rather than on the back. The alleged goal of the proposed new mandate is to help busy shoppers quickly decipher nutrition information without having to look at the back of a product.

"Busy shoppers will be able to go into grocery stores and have some easy-to-understand information on the front of packages, giving them quick data on what is a healthier choice," she explained.

While it may seem like a good proposal that would help to improve nutrition transparency, many manufacturers are concerned that the requirement could end up needlessly costing them millions of dollars. Since packaging changes are typically very expensive, many smaller producers might be put out of business by the mandate.

James McCarthy, president and CEO of the Snack Food Association (SFA), expressed opposition to the mandate and instead proposed that the change be made voluntary. Because his organization represents 400 snack food manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, many of which are small- or medium-sized operations, he understands the incredible burden that would be placed on them by the requirement.

And his argument is a rational one, considering the fact that nutrition information can easily be found on products as they currently are. Forcing manufacturers to redesign their packages at a tremendous cost to them hardly seems beneficial. If someone is unwilling to turn the package around to read the nutrition information on the back, it is highly unlikely that he or she will bother reading it off the front.

Others disagree, insisting that the mandate would help to combat childhood obesity. Yet it is unclear precisely how the plan will actually accomplish this, and critics see the plan as nothing more than attack on American business.

The FDA is also seeking to establish universal guidelines for how health information is displayed on product packages. The agency would like to eliminate all self-labeling, or labels that indicate that a product is a "healthy choice" or that it benefits "heart health".

According to Sebelius, all labeling should have a "scientific background" and should be tested through an "evidence-based approach." Therefore her agency made recommendations to the FDA that a "national standard" be developed to accommodate such an approach.

Sources for this story include:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/63959

To save America's health, we must end nutritional illiteracy among doctors, patients

(NaturalNews) An obese doctor comes home to his wife at dinner time carrying yet another bag full of drive-through junk food from a local restaurant.

Worried about his health, his wife asks, "Don't you realize all that junk food you keep eating is destroying your entire body?"

"That's not my concern," the doctor replies. "I'm only an ear, nose and throat specialist."

This joke illustrates an important point: That even the most brilliant scientists, doctors and researchers can seem downright clueless when it comes to their own health. And this joke isn't really a joke at all: It's a sad but true commentary about the blind spots in the knowledge of those who are among society's most intelligent thinkers.

I've known many brilliant people. Even a few geniuses. But rarely do I meet anyone whose knowledge of food and nutrition rises very far above outright ignorance. Perhaps one in a hundred people in the western world today have taken it upon themselves to actually learn about foods and health -- the rest simply wing it, going along with the mainstream. (And the mainstream is diseased...)

Brilliance in one field doesn't always translate into nutrition

But here's the really interesting part: The more intelligent a person is in their own field of specialty, the more informed they think they are about foods and nutrition (even if they aren't). A typical rocket scientist, for example, is so used to being right that when it comes to his dietary decisions and food shopping habits, he thinks he is right by the mere fact that he is the one making his food consumption decisions. Because he's always right, then whatever decision he makes -- whether it deals with food, finances or relationships -- must also be the right decision.

Making matters even worse, really smart people are especially susceptible to strategies of non-conscious persuasion -- such as those used by food advertisers. Food companies don't appeal to logic and reason when advertising their junk foods because there really isn't much logic or reason behind consuming their products at all. Instead, they use emotional anchoring to unconsciously attach feelings to brands. That way, when you're in the store shopping, you unconsciously experience a preference for a particular product or brand without knowing why.

This gets the smart people every time, it seems. They may have superior logic and intellect compared to the rest of the world, but when you examine their grocery store receipts, they're buying all the same junk as the guy with an IQ of 70 who lives next door.

Having brains, it seems, doesn't necessarily translate into making good decisions about food and health. And yet these people should know better.

Food and consequences

Most scientists, doctors and high-IQ people believe in The Law of Cause and Effect. Every action (a cause) results in some reaction (an effect). Every input has an output.

Most people acknowledge this universal truth, and yet when it comes to foods and health, there's a bizarre disconnect about this. People have been trained by the big food companies -- and even government regulators to a large extent -- that what they choose to eat has almost no bearing on their health outcomes. The establishment would rather have you believe that your genes control your health while glossing over the far more important point that it is your diet that controls the expression of your genes.

They would rather ignore the truthful fact that vitamin D prevents infectious disease 500% better than a vaccine because this allows them to promote vaccines rather than teach nutritional responsibility. Even mainstream dieticians from the American Dietetic Association are taught that there is no difference between dead foods and living foods. A calorie is a calorie, they're taught, no matter where it comes from or whether it's in a plant from Mother Nature or a sugar factory made by Man.

The nutritional ignorance in our culture is astounding, and as long as such ignorance remains so widespread, we will never achieve a health care system that's both effective and affordable. As long as our doctors remain nutritionally illiterate, we will never have a health care system that values educating patients about what they put in their mouths.

Ignorance is the enemy of lasting health, and sadly our own government institutions such as the FDA maintain policies of enforced ignorance that outlaw companies selling natural products from linking to scientific studies that discuss the health benefits of their products. Everything from cherries, green tea and walnuts have been under relentless attacks by the FDA, which threatens company founders with arrest and prosecution unless they remove their website links that point to scientific studies published in peer-reviewed science journals. (http://www.naturalnews.com/019366.html)

One important victory over FDA censorship has just been achieved in the courts (http://www.naturalnews.com/028929_F...), but the FDA's campaign of enforced ignorance continues.

Even our public schools reinforce nutritional illiteracy among our children. While nearly everyone agrees it's important to teach our children how to read, write and understand math and science, there is no real effort to teach children how to feed themselves in a healthy manner. Health class is a nutritional joke, and school lunch programs actually teach students precisely the wrong message by serving up dead, processed "institutional" foods that promote diabetes, cancer, heart disease and behavioral disorders. (You can also find McDonald's restaurants in many U.S. hospitals, by the way, but that's another story...)

Nutritional ignorance may be fantastic for generating obscene profits for the drug companies, but it's a terrible policy for public health. Americans will only achieve true lasting health when they are granted open access to truthful information about the healing capabilities of natural foods, superfoods, nutritonal supplements and herbal remedies.

Until that day comes, we will remain a nation locked in a cycle of ignorance and disease that will ultimately bankrupt us at every level. Nutrition can help us break that cycle, but only if we can get past the ignorance and unleash a new era of nutritional literacy for our people.

Read my related report, "Nutrition Can Save America!" for more details on how this might work: http://www.naturalnews.com/report_N...

And keep reading NaturalNews.com to stay informed. We'll keep bringing you more news about natural remedies, nutritional cures, and the dangers of synthetic chemicals.

If you'd like these stories brought to your attention via email, just subscribe to our free daily email newsletter using the subscription form below. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Top whole food multivitamin supplements

(NaturalNews) Multivitamin supplements can be a great way to get the extra vitamins and minerals that are lacking in everyday foods. Besides the fact that most prepared food is highly processed, cooked, pasteurized or otherwise depleted of its natural nutrient content, the overused soil in which most of our commercial food is grown is lacking in essential nutrients. Thus, multivitamin supplements help to fill the void in achieving proper nutritional levels.

Unfortunately, not all multivitamins are derived from natural sources like plants, fruits and vegetables. Many are synthetically-derived, laboratory simulations of real vitamins, including some common ones like vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (dl-tocopheryl acetate). These are the same types of "vitamins" used to enrich many processed foods, and they simply do not assimilate well into the body because they are not truly natural.

Whenever a vitamin is listed under "Supplement Facts" with its technical name, it is usually an isolated, synthetic vitamin unless otherwise specified. While not necessarily harmful in every case, these vitamin forms have the potential to be harmful at high levels and do not perform as well as those that are truly genuine.

Real vitamins are the living ones derived from whole foods and that are maintained in their natural states. These contain the necessary cofactors and enzymes which help the body to process and use them, and they provide the most benefit to the body.

There are several companies that produce high-quality, whole food multivitamin supplements that deserve mention. Natural News has no financial stake in any of these brands and I was not paid to endorse them. They are highlighted merely for our readers' benefit because they are among the best in their class.

Garden of Life Living Multi
When it comes to producing high quality superfoods and supplements, Garden of Life is the cream of the crop. Its diverse array of nutritional products is impressive, including its line of multivitamins called 'Living Multi'.

Available in a men's, women's and 'Optimal' formula, Garden of Life's Living Multi contains an impressive array of superfood ingredients. Over 80 different fruits, vegetables, sea vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, spices and extracts are included, many of which are organic.

Probiotic microorganisms and enzymes are used in Living Multi blends to make the whole food vitamins easier to assimilate, providing the body with maximum absorption. All in all, Living Multi is a highly superior whole food supplement that is reasonably priced and readily available at many vitamin and health food stores.

To learn more about Garden of Life, please visit www.gardenoflife.com.

New Chapter Organics Whole Food Multivitamins
New Chapter is a highly-respected, high-quality whole supplemental food company. All of their products are superior and you really cannot go wrong with any of them. As far as multivitamins go, New Chapter's men's and women's multivitamins are among the best available.

New Chapter's multivitamins come on three varieties: 'Every Man', 'Every Woman' and 'Perfect Prenatal'. Each one is uniquely cultured to deliver bio-transformed vitamins and minerals in their optimal form. Each multivitamin contains an array of certified organic foods and herbs that are specially designed for men, women and pregnant women. And because they are whole foods, they can be taken on an empty stomach.

The vitamins listed under "Supplement Facts" are specified as to their source, none of which are derived synthetically and all of which come from whole foods. New Chapter's vitamin blends are superb, earning them a worthy mention in this category.

To find out more about New Chapter, please visit www.newchapter.com.

MegaFood One Daily Multivitamins
MegaFood creates premium artisan whole food supplements in small batches at its New Hampshire facility. The neat thing about this company is that it sources all of its whole food ingredients from local farm partners. All the food ingredients are processed using a unique method that does not apply any heat to them, preserving all of their delicate enzymes and phytonutrients. Each ingredient is tested to make sure it is free of pesticides, herbicides, gluten, soy and dairy as well.

MegaFood produces six different customized multivitamins that contain a diverse array of superfoods, fruits, vegetables, roots, herbs and enzymes. The blends also feature a unique, non-candida yeast called S. cerevisiae that is said to be one of the most nutrient-rich foods found in nature.

The MegaFood company is impressive both for its products and ethic. It may be lesser-known than the others in this category, but the company deserves mention because its vitamins are exceptional.

To learn more about MegaFood, please visit www.megafood.com.

NuttZo, an organic, nutrient-packed nut butter

(NaturalNews) Good nutrition is the foundation of good health, especially for children in their crucial developmental years. But this is not news to Danielle LiVolsi, a San Diego mother of two and founder of NuttZo, a nutritionally-dense, multi-nut butter company. In fact, Danielle's longtime affection for nut butters helped inspire her to develop her superior line of organic butters that pack a punch both nutritionally and flavorfully.

The NuttZo story is an inspiring one, birthed from Danielle and her husband Kevin's adoption of their first son, Gregory. A Ukrainian orphan, Gregory was severely malnourished and deficient in necessary vitamins. Having always had a heart for good health and nutrition, Danielle began working hard to provide Gregory with a diet rich in the things he was lacking.

Having grown up loving nut butters herself, Danielle decided to include healthy nut butters in her array of nutrition-boosting foods. At the time, there were no nut butters available that contained the diverse array of nutritional components she desired, so she began making a homemade nut butter blend, which would later be sold as NuttZo Original, using some of the richest superfood nuts and seeds available.

"NuttZo is one of my favorite creations because I love peanut butter and tree nut butters," she passionately explained. And an amazing creation it is, packed with valencia peanuts, flax seeds, hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, sea salt and vitamin E tocopherols.

One serving of NuttZo Original contains 650mg of alpha lipoic acid (ALA), or 50 percent of the Daily Value of ALA omega-3s. NuttZo is also 100% organic and is USDA Organic Certified.

At the same time Danielle introduced NuttZo Original, she and her husband also started a non-profit organization called "Project Left Behind" with a mission to help the more than ten million orphan children around the world who lack not only good nutrition but love, meaningful value systems and education.

"NuttZo is all about paying it forward, having a wonderful product that's very healthy and nutritious, and, you know, changing the world one nut at a time," she opined.

The LiVolsis have since adopted a second son who was also a Ukrainian orphan, and the couple continues to reach out to children around the world through Project Left Behind to provide them with "human touch, nourishment and surrogate nurturing tools."

NuttZo has also just released a second nut butter called NuttZo PF which is peanut-free. NuttZo PF contains cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds and sea salt, and it packs a whopping 970mg of ALA omega-3s per serving. Like the Original, NuttZo PF is USDA Certified Organic and contains no added sugar.

"When I put out a product, I want it to be exactly what I'd want to eat and feed my family," emphasized Danielle about her NuttZo nut butters.

Not only is NuttZo a powerhouse of organic nutrition, but it is incredibly delicious as well!

To find out more about NuttZo and where to buy it, please visit www.gonuttzo.com.

To learn more about Project Left Behind, please visit www.projectleftbehind.org.

Raw tahini, organic sun-dried figs and my health products philosophy

(NaturalNews) Tahini is one of the favorite foods used by vegans, raw foodies and everyday health-conscious people. But not everyone is familiar with tahini. What is it, exactly?

Just like peanut butter is made from grinding up peanuts, tahini is made from grinding up sesame seeds! It is essentially sesame seed butter, with all the beneficial nutritional properties of sesame seeds.

Tahini is used by food enthusiasts to make all sorts of amazing recipes, from salad dressings and dips to cookies. You can use it to make a glazing for baked tofu, or add it to garbanzo beans to make a delicious hummus. You can even use it in veggie burger recipes (mix it with black beans and mushrooms).

Tahini is extremely versatile due to its complementary taste that seems to go well in both sweet and salty foods.

Why raw tahini is simply better

Most tahini, by the way, is roasted. And as you know, roasting or cooking nuts destroys some portion of their inherent nutrients. That's why many people who eat tahini like to get it raw. But raw tahini is a bit difficult to find in the stores, of course. And even when it's raw, it's usually extremely expensive, costing anywhere from $19 - $21 a jar at health food stores.

That's where the NaturalNews Store comes in. Once again, we've scored a huge discount for you on raw tahini. And not just any tahini, but the "Living Tree" brand of organic raw tahini, which is the brand that's best loved by those who know about raw foods.

Through what can only be called really good timing (and some good fortune to boot), we were able to acquire several hundred jars of this organic Living Tree raw tahini at an extraordinary price. You see, even at online retailers, these jars normally sell for $14.95 each. But through this special, we've been able to offer them to you at just $8.95 a jar -- that's over 50% off the typical retail price, and over 40% off the typical online price.

But it gets even better: When you purchase 3 jars of this organic, raw Living Tree tahini, the price drops to just $8.06 per jar! That's 57% off typical retail price, and it's the best price you're likely to ever see on this extremely high-end raw tahini product.

Take advantage of this remarkable pricing by clicking here.

At this price, these jars of extremely high-end tahini will go quickly.

Sundried, organic JUMBO Turkish figs

Having lived in Ecuador for quite some time, I really came to enjoy eating fresh raw figs. They're called "higos" in Spanish, and it's pronounced like "egos." So my neighbors and I would joke about how big we could grow our figs, and we'd accuse each other of having "the biggest egos in Ecuador" which always drew a laugh.

In the U.S., I've never seen fresh, raw figs in the grocery stores. That's because they don't last very long. They're good for about a day, and then they go soft and mushy. But if you catch them on that day, fresh off the tree when they're dark purple, they're amazing! I must have planted over a dozen fig trees on my ranch in the Valley of Longevity. You can see pictures of these huge figs from my ranch right here (along with other amazing plants): http://www.naturalnews.com/phototou...

Anyway, in the USA the figs you buy are normally dried figs, and they're really delicious, too! When properly dried, they concentrate their natural (delicious!) sugars while preserving most of their nutrients, too. They make an incredible, all-natural fruit snack.

What's really fun is to dip them in tahini! I often use a spoon to pack some tahini on a dried fig, then I pop it into my mouth and enjoy. It's a satisfying yet simple snack.

A great discount on organic dried figs

New in the NaturalNews Store, we've got one-pound bags of sundried organic Turkish figs at a great deal price (as you've come to expect of us!). Normally, a one-pound bag retails for $12.95. At times you can find it at $9.95 a pound. But now, through our special acquisition, we're able to offer these to NaturalNews readers for $7.95 / lb.. That's a savings of nearly 29% off the retail price.

It gets even better when you purchase 3 bags of these organic Turkish figs, because the price drops to $7.16 / lb., which is really just an extraordinary price for organic sundried Turkish figs.

Sure, you can find conventional figs at that price, but almost never organic figs at this price.

If you want some of these amazing organic sundried figs, click here to take advantage of this deal.

My philosophy for recommending products

Here at NaturalNews, we've gained quite a winning reputation for putting together some really fantastic deals on some of the healthiest food and superfood products available anywhere. Through these product offerings, we've saved NaturalNews readers many tens of thousands of dollars on top-notch products.

I thought you might like to know how I choose what to offer through the NaturalNews Store, because these are decisions I take quite seriously. Here's my philosophy:

• I only recommend products I consume MYSELF and would openly recommend to my closest friends or family members.

• I only recommend products that contain NO JUNK, no artificial ingredients, no chemical sweeteners, etc.

• I tend to recommend products from companies that I know and TRUST. For example, our special offer on X-Balance superfood came out of my trust and friendship with Jan Lovejoy, the formulator of that product (who is a really wonderful human being on top of her great product formulation ability).

• I always work hard to bring you an extraordinary price on everything. It's usually the best price you'll ever find on that item.

You'll never see me recommending junk like conventional soy protein, food bars made with Sucralose, watered-down fruit beverages made with fructose, etc. I would never eat those things myself, so I wouldn't dare recommend them to you, either.

You see, I take a different approach than most resellers. I'm not interested in selling low-quality items, regardless of how much profit they might deliver. Most retailers know that the lower quality products actually give them MORE profit. That's why mainstream grocery retailers stack diet soda and Frito-Lay fried snack chips on the aisle end caps: They generate huge profits (because they're made with highly refined, cheap ingredients).

But I don't believe in doing business that way. My primary concern is your health, and when I can help bring you health-supporting products, I'm thrilled to be able to have the buying power to deliver those products at really good prices.

Every item you'll see me recommend here on NaturalNews is a top-notch food, supplement, kitchen appliance or other health-related item that I know you'll find to be immensely beneficial in your own quest for health and happiness.

Thank you for your continued support of the NaturalNews Store, and we'll keep doing our best to bring you more high-end products when we get find them at deep discounts for you.

See the full list of our store specials by clicking here.

X-Balance superfood makes a delicious, nutritious chocolate milk drink for adults and kids

(NaturalNews) Remember the taste of chocolate milk? That wonderfully sugary, chocolaty fatty taste is one you'll probably never forget. And I bet you wouldn't think you could recreate that taste with something that's actually good for you... but now you can!

One of my favorite all-time superfood powders is called X-Balance. It's positioned as "the ultimate kids superfood," but I must still be a kid at heart because I find myself drinking this all the time. I've been recommending this superfood product for years, in fact, and now we've started carrying it in the NaturalNews Store at a generous discount for NaturalNews readers! (See below...)

X-Balance is simply the most delicious chocolate superfood powder you'll probably ever find. Just as advertised, kids absolutely love it, but even the adults around your house will be amazed at the taste -- especially after they read the ingredients and see how nutritious this is!

Delicious and nutritious at the same time

You see, it's easy to make something that tastes great if you're not concerned with nutrition. What's tricky is making something that tastes great while delivering high-potency superfood nutrition at the same time. And that's where X-Balance really shines.

This chocolate superfood powder contains chlorella, organic barley grass, spirulina, moringa leaf powder, blackberry juice powder, blueberry juicer powder, freeze-dried aloe vera, ginger, curcumin, dulse seaweed, cinnamon, parsley juice powder and a long list of other remarkable superfoods (see below). But the really amazing thing is that X-Balance doesn't taste like a nutrient-rich superfood. It tastes like chocolate milk!

Of course, it really tastes amazing when you blend it with actual milk. And by "milk" I mean either coconut milk, almond milk or some other nut milk. (Or raw cow's milk if you do raw dairy.)

But even in water it's pretty good. I actually take it traveling so that I can chase my travel meals with some superfoods. For example, I'm traveling today in Ecuador, and the place I'm staying gave me the dinner choice of beef with rice, pork with rice, chicken with rice, or fish with rice. (Or just plain rice, but that just doesn't cut it for me.) So I chose the fish with rice, then I chased it with two spoonfuls of X-Balance superfood mixed with water, giving me a nutrition boost following the meal.

My top superfood recommendations

I've tasted a lot of superfood powders in the industry, and it is rare to find a product that's so nutritious while tasting so good at the same time. In fact, I would say that my top two choices for best-tasting superfood powders are X-Balance and Living Fuel (www.LivingFuel.com) Delicious Greens is also really, really good, and we'll be covering that product in a future announcement.

Another important product to mention here is Boku Superfood (www.BokuSuperfood.com), which actually goes really, really well with X-Balance. In fact, I often mix the two: One tablespoon of X-Balance plus one tablespoon of Boku Superfood in a glass of raw almond milk, with a bit of stevia or Organic Palm Sugar to sweeten in a little more. I swear this combination tastes almost like the chocolate milk we all remember drinking as kids.

And yet, there's absolutely no sugar in X-Balance. No artificial chemical sweeteners, either. There's no soy protein, no dairy and no artificial anything. The formula, by the way, was created by Jan Lovejoy, the creator of Emerald Balance and the founder of SGN Nutrition. I've known Jan for several years and have come to really respect not just her nutritional wisdom but also her remarkable product formulation abilities. Here's an interview I published with Jan last year: http://www.naturalnews.com/027100_s...

Get X-Balance at up to a 36% discount

You'll be extremely happy with X-Balance. My friends just go crazy over it. I have to keep bringing more of it to Ecuador because I give it away so fast. Everybody loves X-Balance!

Now you can get X-Balance at a generous discount! We've just started carrying it in the NaturalNews Store, and we've got it at a great price:

A 30-day supply of X-Balance (270 grams) normally sells at a retail price of $38.95. Right now at the NaturalNews Store, you can purchase it for just $29.95 (a 23% discount).

When you purchase 3 canisters of X-Balance (a 90-day supply for one person, or a 30-day supply for three), the price per canister drops to just $24.98 per canister. That's an amazing 36% discount off the normal retail price.

Click here to take advantage of these NaturalNews Store discounts.

This is a superfood you'll really enjoy drinking. It's like chocolate milk -- but without the sugar and WITH amazing superfood nutrition!

Here's what's in it:

X-Balance ingredients

Nutrient Dense Superfood 1464 mg - Moringa Leaf Powder, Carrot Juice Powder, Organic Barley Grass Juice Powder, Organic Beet Juice Powder, Spirulina Powder, Chlorella - Cracked Cell

Antioxidant Blend: (ORAC value = 5566) 5210 mg - Decaffeinated Cocoa Powder, Chocolate Powder, Vitamin C - Natural Rose Hips, Strawberry Juice Powder, Acerola Berry Juice Powder, Blackberry Juice Power, Fig Powder, Pineapple Juice Powder, Orange Juice Powder, Bioflavonoids (Citrus), Papaya Powder, Blueberry Powder, Red Raspberry Powder, Turmeric Powder, Ginger Powder (Freeze Dried), Aloe Vera -Freeze Dried, Green Tea Catechins - 40%, Rosemary

Pow R Fiber 639 mg - Apple Fiber, Apple Pectin, Rice Bran Powder, Organic Flax Seed Meal

Balancing Support 919 mg - Soy Lecithin Powder - 99% oil free, Parsley Juice Powder, Agar-Agar, Cinnamon, Burdock, Stevia, Dandelion, Silymarin (Milk Thistle 80% extract), Nova Scotia Dulse

Non-Dairy Probiotic Culture - 2.23 Billion 223 mg

Proprietary blend 399 mg - Nettle Leaves, , Chicory, Astragalus Membranaceous, Quercitin, Plant Enzymes: Lipase, Protease, Amylase & Cellulase

Natural French Vanilla - 150mg

X-Balance recipes

Here are some of my own favorite recipes using X-Balance:

X-Balance with water - Just mix with water, blend and drink. It's simple and easy when traveling.

X-Balance chocolate milk - Blend X-Balance with raw almond milk and Agave Nectar or Organic Palm Sugar (or honey!). It's amazing!

X-Balance with Boku - Combine X-Balance with Boku Superfood for a super healthy, high-density chocolate superfood combination. Mix with either water or your favorite milk.

X-Balance Avocado Smoothie - Blend an avocado with X-Balance, your favorite milk and your favorite sweetener. It makes a rich, chocolaty superfood blend with the added healthy fats of an avocado! (Really, it's quite delicious.)

Click here to get some X-Balance for yourself today.

You'll really be glad you did. And don't forget: Kids love this, too! This is the "chocolate milk" they can drink with your approval... and you know it's giving them outstanding nutrition at the same time. Very good stuff. The whole family will enjoy this superfood.

Natural health news gets nuttier: research shows eating nuts lowers cholesterol

(NaturalNews) NaturalNews has covered how eating pistachios lowers the risk of lung cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/027732_p...) and how a diet rich in nuts may help prevent age-related blindness (http://www.naturalnews.com/026369_r...). Walnuts appear to have breast cancer-fighting properties, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/026115_w...). And now there's even more reason to be nuts about nuts -- scientists have found new evidence that nuts are heart healthy because they dramatically improve blood cholesterol levels, without drugs.

"Dietary interventions to lower blood cholesterol concentrations and to modify blood lipoprotein levels are the cornerstone of prevention and treatment plans for coronary heart disease," Joan Sabate, M.D., of Loma Linda University and colleagues stated in their report, which was just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Recently, consumption of nuts has been the focus of intense research because of their potential to reduce coronary heart disease risk and to lower blood lipid (fat and cholesterol) levels based on their unique nutritional attributes."

The Loma Linda University researchers investigated data from 25 international nut consumption trials involving 583 women and men with high cholesterol or normal cholesterol levels. Each study compared a control group of research subjects to a group assigned to specifically eat nuts regularly. None of the study participants took cholesterol lowering drugs such as Big Pharma's widely prescribed statins.

On average, the people in the trials who ate about 67 grams (approximately 2.4 ounces) of nuts each day had an overall reduction in total cholesterol levels of 5.1 percent. Even more important, there was a 7.4 percent drop in low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is known as the "bad" cholesterol, and a significant 8.3 percent change in the ratio of LDL cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol that protects from heart disease.

The news got even better when the scientists looked at the effect of nut consumption on high levels of triglycerides in the bloodstream. These blood fats, when excessive, are known to contribute to the development of heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease; triglycerides may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes, too. The Archives of Internal Medicine report showed that eating nuts didn't change healthy levels of triglycerides in the body. However, in people with high levels, a diet rich in nuts caused triglyceride levels to take a 10.2 percent nosedive.

Bottom line: the researchers concluded the results of their study support the inclusion of nuts as a natural dietary therapy aimed at improving blood cholesterol levels. "Nuts are a whole food that have been consumed by humans throughout history. Increasing the consumption of nuts as part of an otherwise prudent diet can be expected to favorably affect blood lipid levels (at least in the short term) and have the potential to lower coronary heart disease risk," the researchers stated.

For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://www.naturalnews.com/nuts.html

Do healing foods work better than Big Pharma's drugs? The results speak for themselves

(NaturalNews) The drug industry is constantly trying to convince you that drugs are good for your health while nutritional supplements and healthy foods are somehow bad for you. This same line of nonsense is also repeated by the FDA, which goes out of its way to censor the truth about the healing properties of natural foods like walnuts, cherries and berries. (http://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/u...)

The drug industry and the FDA are, of course, just plain wrong about all this. Although their advertisements show happy, healthy people taking pharmaceuticals, in the real world, people who take their drugs are extremely unhealthy, depressed and highly toxic.

But don't take my word for it: Check out the people walking in and out of pharmacies versus the people who visit health food stores:

• People who visit pharmacies tend to have toxic livers, poor kidney function (because drugs damage the kidneys), wild mood swings, terrible digestion and elimination capabilities, poor skin health, poor posture, low energy, sleep disorders and sexual dysfunction. They tend to be suicidal while living in chronic pain. They have huge medical expenses that often send them into bankruptcy.

• People who visit health food stores tend to have healthy skin, happier outlooks, better energy, better sex lives, healthy sleep, healthy hearts, healthy liver function and greatly improved brain function. They are more creative, adaptable and optimistic, and they tend to enjoy their lives. They spend relatively little on health care expenses while investing their money in organic foods, green products, medicinal herbs and nutritional supplements.

The choice is up to you

Which group would you prefer to join? You can choose either one by deciding what to put in (or on) your body. If you choose to contaminate your body with pharmaceuticals and medications, you will experience increased liver and kidney toxicity, reduced cognitive function, skin health problems, sexual dysfunction, mood disorders and other such problems.

On the other hand, if you choose to nourish your body with superfoods, organic products, healing herbs and nutritional supplements, you will experience a more healthful and joyful life with improved brain function and memory, healthy skin, stable moods, abundant energy, restful sleep and healthy fertility, among other benefits.

The pharmaceutical industry wants you to choose their drugs, of course, and they don't care what happens to your health and happiness as a result. In fact, the worse your health gets after taking their drugs, the more of their drugs you'll need! The side effects of one drug become the "disease" that's treated by another drug, so it's all great for repeat business!

Keeping you ignorant

What the drug industry and the FDA absolutely do NOT want you to learn is that healing foods, herbs and supplements make virtually all pharmaceuticals obsolete. If you really knew the truth about what these items can do to protect your health and cure degenerative disease, you'd probably never take another chemical pill in your life. That's why the FDA works so hard to censor nutritional supplements and make sure they can't make truthful, scientifically-validated claims on their labels. (http://www.anh-usa.org/tell-the-fda...)

The FDA has even gone after healing foods. The scientific literature says conclusively that walnuts lower high cholesterol. It's the natural result of eating the healthy plant-based oils in the walnuts. The FDA, however, has threatened walnut companies with fines and imprisonment for merely linking to scientific studies that describe the health benefits of walnuts.

This is how the FDA keeps people in the dark and achieves its agenda of censoring the truth about foods and supplements while promoting toxic pharmaceuticals that keep the drug companies in business.

Change your decisions and you'll change your life

It's up to you to determine how the rest of your life will be experienced. If you continue to find yourself standing in line at the local pharmacy, or if you look in your medicine cabinet and notice a half-dozen prescriptions, let that be a wake-up call. These drugs will never give you health or happiness. They will never create the life you're truly looking for.

Instead, take a walk to the other side of the street. Walk into a health food store. Ask the friendly staff how to get started with healthy living. These people are incredibly helpful, by the way, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

Spend your money at the health food store instead of the pharmacy and your entire life will improve as a result. As you improve your physical health, your brain health will get better, too, and you'll notice life getting better in many ways: Improved relationships, enhanced career (because having a healthy mind improves your job performance, too!), improved self image, increased stamina and much more.

You'll sleep better, eat better, think better, poop better and feel better. Everything your body is supposed to do naturally will simply work better as you align yourself with the natural laws of health and nutrition. You can embrace those laws by visiting practically any health food store and taking advantage of the remarkable health-enhancing products they carry.

So find your local health food store and give them a visit! I even support Whole Foods, too. I realize there has been some controversy about Whole Foods, but compared to all the other grocery stores, Whole Foods has achieved some astounding accomplishments. I'm glad Whole Foods is successful, because I sure wouldn't want to go back to shopping at some conventional (toxic) grocery store, would you?

Remember, you vote with your dollars -- both in terms of what industries you support as well as what health outcome you will create. If you invest your dollars in natural health products, you will get a healthy result.

So the next time you have a choice between pharmaceuticals versus healing foods, walk over to the health food store and choose healing foods!

Be sure to view the CounterThink Cartoon on this topic here: http://www.naturalnews.com/028789_p...

You can view the entire collection of CounterThink Cartoons at: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Ca...

Maca is the ancient superfood of the Incas

(NaturalNews) Superfood enthusiasts know all about the incredible nutritional powers of maca. This superfood, grown in the high Andes mountains in Peru, is packed with vitamins, minerals, proteins, tannins, complex alkaloids and other phytochemicals. It's one of the favorite powders to add to any smoothie, and it's used by virtually all the raw foodies and superfood advocates, including myself.

A few years ago, long before NaturalNews, I visited Macchu Picchu. I hiked there over a 7-day walk, clambering up and down steep mountain sides with my lungs heaving in the thin air (I was also overweight at the time, so it wasn't easy). I remember spending one entire day climbing UP through a pass at 14,000 feet. It was called "Dead Woman's Pass," and hiking through it myself, I quickly came to understand why. The climb was grueling.

It was soon followed by another entire day spent climbing DOWN, which turns out to be just as brutal on the legs. Imagine walking down a flight of stairs that goes on and on for eight hours... that's what this was like.

After seven days of hiking and climbing, we arrived at a crest overlooking Macchu Picchu, the "city in the sky" that was built by the Incas. And there, my jaw just about dropped to the ground when I looked at the scene below and saw the 20-ton boulders that had been dragged up the mountain side by the thousands in order to build this ancient city.

Here's a link to a photo from that exact moment. I took this from an old, low-res camera that I had brought with me, so don't expect the resolution to be great or anything: http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/...

(The smaller images on the top right are other pictures I over-layed in PhotoShop.)

As I stood there, marveling at the magnificent scene below, I thought to myself "I just barely dragged myself up the mountain! How on earth could these Incas -- using virtually no technology -- lift 20-ton rocks up steep mountains and drop them into place as temple walls?"

Clearly, these folks weren't surviving on Big Macs and Diet Pepsi. They were eating quinoa, spirulina and maca root powder. They lived on superfoods.

Little did I know at the time that I would one day become a strong advocate of superfoods.

The magic of maca

Through the leverage we have as one of the world's largest online natural health news destinations, we've been able to acquire a one-time shipment of 100% organic, raw Peruvian maca powder at an amazing price. We're passing on the savings directly to you through our NaturalNews Store, where our readers have come to expect great prices on the very best superfoods from all over the world.

A one-pound bag of organic, raw, premium-quality Peruvian maca powder normally retails for somewhere around $24. The "street price" of this one-pound bag is around $18, depending on where you get it. But through this one-time direct offer at the NaturalNews Store, we've been able to bring you this one-pound bag of premium, 100% organic and raw Peruvian maca powder for just $12.95.

Click here to see the special.

But it gets even better: When you purchase a 3-pack of our maca powder, the price drops to just $9.98 per pound. That's more than 50% off the typical retail price! It is the very best price you will find on this premium-quality maca product.

Click here to see our maca specials now.

What is maca?

Maca is the powdered root of the Lepidium Meyenii plant. Known for its ability to support healthy energy levels, maca has been used by the Incas as a kind of "Incan superfood" for thousands of years.

It was a central part of the Incan diet when they built Macchu Picchu, in fact.

As we all know today, you can't build a city in the sky when you're living on processed junk foods. And the metaphor is true in your own life: Whatever mountain you are attempting to climb right now, superfood nutrition can help you get there! Whether it's maca, or chlorella, or hemp protein, these superfoods can help give your body (and your mind) the level of nutritional support you need to accomplish great things.

Try something new in your life!

Maca is one of those life-changing superfoods. If you've never tried it before, pick up a bag right now and blend a teaspoon of maca powder into your morning smoothie. It goes great with chocolate smoothies, avocado smoothies, and even strawberry and banana smoothies!

Maca tastes a little like roasted chicory root, which tastes a little bit like coffee. But it's not a caffeine stimulant like coffee. Rather, it's considered an "adaptogenic" herb that supports healthy energy without blasting your nervous system with chemical stimulants.

If you're new to maca, try just 1 teaspoon at a time. Then notice the difference in your awareness or energy levels. It's a subtle but very real effect, and I believe maca is one of the superfoods that gave ancient Incas the nutritional support to achieve great things in their own lives -- things we continue to marvel at today.

Remember, our 100% organic, raw Peruvian maca is on sale at the NaturalNews Store right now for less than 50% off the typical retail price.

This is our one-time special purchase at a special price, so pick some up today, while supplies last. Click here to visit the NaturalNews Store.

The active constituents of maca

Dried maca is approximately 60% carbohydrates (starches and sugars), 9% fiber, and slightly more than 10% protein. It has a higher lipid (fat) content than other root crops (2.2%), of which linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid are the primary fatty acids, respectively.

Maca is also a rich source of plant sterols, including sitosterol, campestrol, ergosterol, brassicasterol, and ergostadienol. From a mineral standpoint, maca exceeds both potatoes and carrots in value, and is a source of iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iodine.

Enjoy this special price on 100% organic raw Peruvian maca.

Tips for using the Hurom Slow Juicer - A juicing guide

(NaturalNews) Since introducing the Hurom Slow Juicer at the NaturalNews Store a few months ago, we've received literally hundreds of emails from very happy customers who love the versatility and results of the Hurom Slow Juicer. It makes nut milks, after all, even while being able to juice grasses, fruits and vegetables, too!

But if you don't use the Hurom Slow Juicer correctly, it can end up create a disturbingly large amount of pulp in the juice. The amount of pulp in the juice depends largely on the sequence of what you're juicing and how you're juicing it. That's why I've put together the following tips to help our readers get better results from the juicer (with less pulp).

Tip #1) Don't shove food into it

Most of us used to juice with the old-style centrifugal juicing machines. If you recall, those machines require you to forcefully shove food into them. You actually had to push hard on carrots and apples, for example, to shove them into the spinning blade where they were shredded into tiny flying pieces.

Do not use this same shoving force with the Hurom Slow Juicer! There is no spinning blade and no dizzying shredding taking place. No shoving is required. Instead, simply let your food fall into the "chewing auger." Virtually no force is necessary! In fact, forcing more food into it can cause too much veggie mass to end up in the auger at one time, and this will result in pulp overflowing into your juice.

When juicing grasses, feed the Hurom a small amount of grass at a time. You do NOT need to "clump" the grass into a ball like you used to do with the centrifugal juicers. In fact, you can slowly feed small bunches of grass, cilantro, parsley and other leafy greens without any problem at all! (You can juice kale one leaf at a time this way...)

Tip #2) Juice low-fiber plants first, and high-fiber plants last

Here's a really important tip: If you're going to juice high-fiber plants like celery, juice them last! Why? Because the fibers in celery tend to accumulate in the ejection port at the bottom of the juicing auger. If this port becomes clogged, then "pulp overflow" will occur, sending way too much pulp into your juice.

But as long as the ejection port stay open, the pulp in your juice will be minimized. So the best way to do this is to juice your low-fiber fruits and veggies first: Apples, carrots, etc. Save the more stringy, fibrous plants for last. You'll get a much better result.

Tip #3) Juice your juice!

If you still find too much pulp in your juice, just pour the juice back through the machine again! You'll find that the second time through, nearly all the pulp is removed.

You can also strain it through a nut-milk bag, if you wish, but that takes more time and effort.

The bottom line is that if you follow these three tips, you'll find that the Hurom Slow Juicer produces very little pulp in the final juice. (Personally, I don't mind a little pulp because a bit of natural plant fiber is actually quite good for you!)

Learn more about the Hurom Slow Juicer

If you're interested in learning more about this revolutionary juicing appliance, here are the two stories I've written about it so far:

The amazing new Hurom Slow Juicer will revolutionize the way you make fresh juice
http://www.naturalnews.com/028128_H...

Hurom Slow Juicer review: Why it has become an essential appliance for a healthy kitchen
http://www.naturalnews.com/028232_H...

It's available now at the NaturalNews Store.

Amazon John Easterling joins NaturalNews Talk Hour, plus guest Richard Cicchetti

(NaturalNews) This week's NaturalNews Talk Hour presents "Amazon John" Easterling, Founder of Amazon Herb Company as we discuss "Secrets from the Amazon Rainforest" and Richard Cicchetti, talking about "Healing Herbs, Powerful Solutions". This is a rare opportunity to learn about the beauty and power of medicinal herbs. Our show starts Thursday evening at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern, and registration is FREE. Simply enter your email address in the registration form on the right column of this page and you'll receive call-in details for the broadcast.

The NaturalNews Talk Hour is a "behind the scenes", up close and personal look at the most important issues of our time. Discover what the mainstream media hasn't told you about the secrets of optimal health, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

Jonathan Landsman, host of NaturalNews Talk Hour, says, "The first part of this show will take you on a mystical journey through the Amazon Rainforest. Together, we will connect with one of the most powerful places on earth. By the end of this program, you will have a new found LOVE and appreciation for the plant kingdom and life itself."

With participation by the Health Ranger, the NaturalNews Talk Hour features top-notch guests like Drs. Julian Whitaker, Bernie Siegel, T. Colin Campbell plus many other notable experts on healthy living.

Reader feedback about the talk hour has been extremely positive. One listener sent us this testimonial about the show:

"First off, Mike Adams and the NaturalNews website has forever changed my life. The independent point of view is a critical part of people awakening to what is "really" going on and how it affects their life on a daily basis. Now with the NaturalNews Talk Hour and the incredible guest list they are hosting, with their extensive knowledge and personal experiences, the information they can pass on to us is the "road-map" for personal health and healing. Words cannot express my sincerest thanks to the entire team for all that you do."
-Andy M.

The NaturalNews Talk Hour is sponsored by the NaturalNews MOXXOR Team. MOXXOR is a NEW class of omegas and antioxidants blended together into a powerful supplement. Improve your mobility, brain function and emotional well-being. To order MOXXOR – email: naturalnewsteam@optonline.net

Each show will continue to feature many of the top natural health experts in the world. To receive each week's unique call-in number, simply register by entering your email address in the form on the right.

This week's guest: "Amazon John" Easterling and Richard Cicchetti

"Amazon John" Easterling - Secrets from the Amazon Rainforest and Richard Cicchetti - Healing Herbs, Powerful Solutions - Thu. Feb. 25th

"Amazon John" Easterling, who holds a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina, spent many years searching the Amazon Rainforest for treasures and ancient artifacts.

During his years of exploration in the Rainforest, he was introduced to the traditional use of medicinal plants. After a health crisis and life-changing experience using these botanicals, a simple truth became clear: The real treasure of the Rainforest is, in fact, the life-enhancing properties of the Rainforest plants.

Amazon Herb Co. is committed to creating a prosperous future for the Amazon by making the health potential of the Rainforest available to everyone and supporting like-minded entrepreneurs who share their vision. This company is truly dedicated to making a difference in YOUR life and the future of our planet.

Richard Cicchetti is a lifestyle trainer and coach specializing in the healing power of Amazon Herbs. His knowledge of herbs coupled with love and compassion for others is a gift to all of us. Richard offers real hope and health solutions for people living in a troubled world.

Since 1983, Richard has been the founder and president of NATURALUTIONS dedicated to supporting the health and happiness of people around the world. For over 30 years, Richard has been teaching and supporting others on how to maintain a high level of health and well being and, for those that are interested, start and build their own successful nutritional eco-business in the comfort of their home.

A Rare Opportunity! Two GREAT shows for one fantastic price – F.R.E.E. Register now using the email form in the right column, and you will be emailed show details. Don't miss out -- space is limited -- Register Now!

Breastfeeding Could Save The Lives Of 1.3 Million Children a Year

(NaturalNews) Providing breastfeeding education and support to new mothers could prevent more than one million child deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Although the WHO recommends that infants start breastfeeding within one hour of birth and consume nothing but breast milk -- not even water -- for the first six months of life, less than 40 percent of mothers worldwide meet this goal. Insufficient breastfeeding is a problem in both rich and poor countries, the agency says.

Because breast milk provides the exact combination of nutrients that a developing infant needs, no artificial formula or adult food can match its nutritive value. In addition, breast milk provides important antibodies to the underdeveloped infant immune system, and helps children's immune systems develop in a healthy way. Even a formula that provides nutrition similar to that of breast milk does not provide this critical, immune-boosting function.

If 90 percent of women met the WHO breastfeeding guidelines, the agency says, 13 percent of global deaths under the age of five could be prevented, translating into 1.3 million lives saved per year.

Although many women start out breastfeeding, large numbers abandon the practice because they are unable to get the baby to latch on properly or do not know how to breastfeed without suffering unbearable pain or discomfort.

"When it comes to doing it practically, they don't have the practical support," said the WHO's Constanza Vallenas.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that during disasters, well-meaning donations of formula may encourage women to stop breastfeeding just at the time when the practice is most critical.

"During emergencies, unsolicited or uncontrolled donations of breast milk substitutes may undermine breastfeeding and should be avoided," she said. "The focus should be on active protection and support of breastfeeding."

Chan said that mothers in disaster zones need more support to be able to continue or resume breastfeeding.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com.

Health Ranger announces "Healing Miracles LIVE" event in Southern Calif., March 19 - 20, with Horowitz, Whitaker, Gerson and more

(NaturalNews) This is a once-in-a-lifetime event... a one-time opportunity to see LIVE presentations by the champions of the natural health industry: Dr. Julian Whitaker, Charlotte Gerson, Dr. Len Horowitz, Jay Kordich, the Health Ranger and more!

This is your opportunity to get "up close and personal" with some of the greatest minds in health and healing. This intimate event is strictly limited to just 100 seats, and tickets have deliberately been made super affordable at just $75 each. Because of the notoriety of these speakers and the very low ticket price, we fully expect these to be sold out in the first 24 hours when the online ticket window opens.

To receive an invitation via email the minute tickets are available, enter your email address in the form below.

When tickets go on sale for this exclusive event, we'll email you the instructions for purchasing a ticket.

Also at the event: Photo opportunities, book signings and Q&A sessions. Meet the people in person who you've been reading online!

Plus... an intimate gathering Saturday night, March 20... strictly limited to just 25 people who wish to join the Health Ranger, Dr. Whitaker, Dr. Horowitz, Charlotte Gerson and other VIP guests at a special Saturday night dinner party. Experience a five-course organic vegetarian cuisine extravaganza and mingle with the Health Ranger, Jonathan Landsman and other VIP guests for just $75 per person (which includes the amazing cuisine!). Limited to 25 tickets. This will be sold out within minutes after tickets go on sale.

All attendees are automatically entered into our "superfoods raffle" for a chance to win the top prize: A collection of amazing superfoods and other health-related products that you'll claim right there at the event.

The location of this event is in Aliso Viejo, CA. Actual street address will be provided when you purchase tickets.

Enter your email address here to receive an email invitation:

Event Agenda - Amazing!

Friday, March 19 (5pm - 9pm PST)

5:00 - 5:45 p.m. Registration

5:45 - 6:00 p.m. Welcome by Jonathan Landsman / Mike Adams (the Health Ranger)

6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Dr. Leonard Horowitz speaks on "Restoring the World’s Natural Healing Paradigm - 5 Steps to Health, Happiness & Sustainability" (see full description below)

7:30 - 8:00 p.m. Q&A Session with Dr. Horowitz and the Health Ranger

8:00 - 8:15 p.m. Conclusion with Jonathan Landsman / Mike Adams

8:15 - 9:00 p.m. Photo ops, book signings and chatting with the Health Ranger and Jonathan Landsman

Saturday, March 20 (8am - 5pm PST)

8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Welcome / Reception

9:00 - 10:00 a.m. Keynote Address - Mike Adams "Unleash Your Inner Healer"

10:00 - 10:30 a.m. Q&A Session with Mike Adams

10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Charlotte Gerson - "Curing the Incurables"

11:30 - Noon p.m. Q&A Session with Charlotte Gerson

Noon - 1 p.m. Lunch Break with prepared food/fresh juice for sale (or bring your own)

1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Dr. Whitaker, M.D. - "Diabetes and Heart Disease: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

2:00 - 2:30 p.m. Q&A Session with Dr. Whitaker

2:30 - 3:00 p.m. Jay Kordich - "All Juiced Up - The Juice Daddy Speaks Out"

3:00 - 3:15 p.m. Q&A Session with "The Juice Daddy"

3:15 - 3:45 p.m. Superfood Raffle - Win some superfoods!

3:45 - 4:30 p.m. Roundtable Discussion with moderator Jonathan Landsman, Guests: Mike Adams, Dr. Horowitz, Charlotte Gerson, Dr. Whitaker, Jay Kordich, Dr. James Chappell

4:30 - 5:00 p.m. Social Time, Photo ops, Book Signings and more

Saturday night dinner party - only 25 seats available

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hang out and enjoy the company of the Health Ranger, Charlotte Gerson, Dr. Julian Whitaker, Jay Kordich, Dr. James Chappell, Dr. Len Horowitz and many more.

If you've ever wanted to share a healthy meal with some of the true legends of natural health, this is your chance! Join us all for an intimate, fun-filled Saturday night dinner at a highly-acclaimed local restaurant serving super healthy living foods cuisine. Strictly limited to just 25 seats! (Sorry, that really is the limit of how many guests we can bring.)

Sign up to receive an email invitation

We'll soon be announcing the web page where you can purchase tickets. To receive an invitation via email, enter your email address here:

When tickets go on sale, we'll email you the instructions for getting yours. Your email privacy is guaranteed - this announcement list is solely for the purpose of announcing this one-time special event. Because of the very limited number of seats for this event, we fully expect it to be sold out within hours after tickets go on sale. So watch your email for the invitation.

See you at the event!

Restoring the World's Natural Healing Paradigm: 5 Steps to Health, Happiness and Sustainability - presentation by Dr. Len Horowitz

Billions of people are being targeted for elimination -- population reduction through deadly, genetically-mutating, cancer-causing vaccinations, polluting chemicals, and toxic drugs. To shift paradigms from poisonous, polluting, chemically intoxicating, genocidal "health care," to uplifting and freeing natural healing, we need more than activism and intelligence. We need wisdom coupled with faith to accommodate and celebrate Divine intervention and Divine-human communion. The great news is this is happening for millions of us worldwide.

This presentation is led by natural healing authority and political activist, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Veritas journal, who invites your participation in celebrating the rapidly accelerating Spiritual Renaissance and accompanying "Healthy World Revolution." He presents "5-Steps to Health, Happiness, and Sustainability" that includes practical advice to stay well despite myriad risks. His revelations in his sixteenth book, "LOVE the Real da Vinci CODE, merges physical and metaphysical sciences, traditionally-honored natural healing practices, and common theologies that not only bring people of all religions and cultures together in LOVE, but guides social and political transformation into the long-prophesied Age of Peace.

Dr. Horowitz will also discuss Healthy World Organization, a natural alternative to the corrupt World Health Organization, offering an enriching and uplifting international cooperative passionate about saving lives and evolving in peace, health and prosperity.

Product review: Raw organic "Yoga Bar" from Everything Raw

(NaturalNews) As a natural health journalist, I've tried hundreds of different raw food products and food bars. No raw food bar has impressed me more than the Yoga Bar from EverythingRaw, a company founded by Paul Mamakos, a dedicated raw foodie (and an all-around cool guy, too). EverythingRaw has now merged with Essential Living Foods (http://www.essentiallivingfoods.com), by the way.

The Yoga Bar has just five simple ingredients:

• Organic Raw Dates
• Organic Raw Cashews
• Organic Raw Cacao Butter
• Organic Raw Pistachios
• Organic Raw Honey

Yet, despite its simplicity, this food bar is, in my personal opinion, the best-tasting food bar on the market, raw or otherwise. It beats Larabar hands down, in my view. I even like the taste of these bars better than Organic Food Bars (which I also love for a different reason, as they're nutritionally packed with goodness).

The Yoga Bar is so good that I gave it my Editor's Choice "Best Food Bar" award a while ago, and that award still stands. To date, I haven't tasted any bar that I like better. I like the Yoga Bar so much, in fact, that we decided to feature it in our new NaturalNews Store, which is currently stocking thousands of healthy raw foods and other health-related products. Check out the store here:

http://Store.NaturalNews.com

You can order the Yoga Bar page here:
http://store.naturalnews.com/index....

The Raw Food World

Those who are familiar with the raw foods industry will probably notice that the NaturalNews Store seems strangely familiar... that's because it's actually a mirror of Matt Monarch's "Raw Food World" store, which has now become one of the very best online retailers for raw foods, healthy foods and other health-related items.

In fact, you can buy Yoga Bars straight through www.TheRawFoodWorld.com too, if you'd like. Or get them from Paul Mamakos at www.EverythingRaw.com

Sales made through the NaturalNews Store help provide financial support for NaturalNews operations -- with exactly the same prices of products in The Raw Food World, too. (Which already has competitive pricing.) So if you want some Yoga Bars, and you'd like to support NaturalNews, please consider purchasing them through the NaturalNews Store at:
http://store.naturalnews.com/index....

Why the Yoga Bars are so amazing...

When considering food bars, keep in mind that the Yoga Bar is not a superfood spirulina bar, or a microalgae bar, or a bar that's trying to pack in a bunch of vitamins and minerals. Rather, it's an absolutely delicious raw foods treat made solely from wholesome ingredients.

I eat it as a dessert. It's really that delicious... creamy, rich, sweet but not overpowering. It's a luscious "white chocolate" bar rich with healthy cocoa butter. Tasting this Yoga Bar forces you to suspend disbelief because it's hard to believe it's made from such simple ingredients.

In fact, I think I'd better stop writing about it now, because I'm sitting in Ecuador and I have no Yoga Bars here because I already ate them all! (But I'll bring more on my next trip, for sure...)

If you'd like to read more about Everything Raw and Paul Mamakos, here's an interview I did with Paul a while back:
http://www.naturalnews.com/027022_f...

Enjoy your Yoga Bars! From the very first bite, you'll understand why they continue to earn my Editor's Choice award.

Dr. Brian Clement interviewed on NaturalNews Talk Hour: The Power of Raw-Living Foods

(NaturalNews) This week's NaturalNews Talk Hour features Dr. Brian Clement, Ph.D., LNC, discussing "Holistic Healing: The Power of Raw-Living Foods". It runs this Thursday evening at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern, and registration is FREE. Simply enter your email address in the registration form on the right column of this page and you'll receive call-in details for the show.

The NaturalNews Talk Hour is a behind the scenes, up close and personal look at the most important issues of our time. Discover what the mainstream media hasn't told you about the secrets of optimal health, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

Jonathan Landsman, host of NaturalNews Talk Hour, says "2010 promises to be an amazing year – filled with life-changing events. The NaturalNews Talk Hour will provide outstanding content plus exclusive offers from incredible leaders in the field of natural health and healing. Join us each week for an amazing journey!"

With participation by the Health Ranger, the NaturalNews Talk Hour features top-notch guests like Drs. Julian Whitaker, Bernie Siegel, T. Colin Campbell plus many other notable experts on healthy living.

Reader feedback about the talk hour has been extremely positive. One
listener sent us this testimonial about last week's show:

I want to thank the NaturalNews Talk Hour for starting the New Year with such a profound discussion. I felt life Alice in Wonderland intrigued by all, with knowledge to be learned. I feel honored I had the opportunity to listen in on such valuable information.
- Kati M.

The NaturalNews Talk Hour is sponsored by the NaturalNews Moxxor Team, health-conscious, caring individuals committed to making a difference in the world we live in. To learn more about becoming a business team member, email naturalnewsteam@optonline.net. Each show will continue to feature many of the top natural health experts in the world. To receive each week's unique call-in number, simply register by entering your email address in the form on the right.

This week's guest: Dr. Brian Clement – Co-Director of Hippocrates Health Institute

Dr. Brian Clement, Ph.D., LNC - "Holistic Healing: The Power of Raw-Living Foods - Thu. Jan 14th

Dr. Brian Clement, Ph.D., LNC is the Co-Director of Hippocrates Health Institute. With graduate degrees in both naturopathic medicine and nutritional science, Brian has spent more than three decades studying nutrition and natural healthcare. Since 1980, he has directed the Institute's growth and development as well as facilitated the implementation of such progressive natural health treatments as: the Living Food Diet, Wheatgrass Therapy, Dark Field Microscopy, and the essentials of mind-body therapies.

In recent years, Brian has been commissioned by government-supported organizations to establish, organize, and direct health programs in Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, and India. He has also written many books exploring the various aspects of health, spirituality and natural healing. His recent best-selling book, Living Foods for Optimum Health, has been acclaimed by Marilyn Diamond, co-author of the book Fit for Life, as "an important and eminently readable book for the new era of self care," and by Coretta Scott King as a "landmark guide to the essentials of healthy living."

The Hippocrates Health Institute has been the preeminent leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education since 1956. Deemed the world's number one teaching institute in 2000 by Spa Management Group, this historic and thriving center was founded by visionary and humanitarian Ann Wigmore and is currently under the leadership of Brian and Anna Maria Clement, PhDs.

For half a century, the Institute has helped hundreds of thousands of guests realize that good health is every person's birthright, and that a life free of disease and pain is our human legacy. The Hippocrates philosophy is founded on the belief that a vegan, living, enzyme-rich diet -- complemented by exercise, positive thinking and non-invasive therapies -- are integral to optimum health.

Register now using the email form in the right column, and you will be emailed show details. Don't miss out!

25 ways to improve your health and happiness in 2010

(NaturalNews) The New Year is upon us, and for many people, it includes a New Year's resolution for achieving improved health and happiness in 2010. Here are twenty-five health-enhancing ideas to help you accomplish that goal.

#1 - Replace sodas or soft drinks with tea or water.

#2 - Commit to eating one raw fruit (or serving of vegetables) at every meal.

#3 - Add just 5 minutes a day to your exercise routine. Don't have an exercise routine? Start with 5 minutes a day!

#4 - Get more sunshine!

#5 - Learn some Pilates. It's probably the #1 exercise system for core strength and flexibility.

#6 - Drink a superfood smoothie every day.

#7 - Buy more indoor plants: They purify the air in your home.

#8 - Take a quality, wild-harvested fish oil supplement that contains vitamin D.

#9 - Eat more quinoa: It's a high-protein, low-carb "grain" that can easily replace rice or couscous.

#10 - When you get out of bed each morning, do five sit-ups first. It sounds simple, but just 5 sit-ups a day can make a difference.

#11 - Instead of trying to find a parking spot so close to the grocery store, park farther away. You'll get a little more walking exercise and a little more sunshine.

#12 - Get a good water filter so you can stop drinking tap water (or bottled water).

#13 - Pick up a "gentle" art like Tai-Qi or Yoga. It will reduce your stress and improve your physical stamina.

#14 - Take a relaxing hot bath with epsom salts and soothing herbs like lavender. It will do wonders for your mind and your muscles.

#15 - Get a professional massage! Massage therapy is really, really healthy, and it's a great way to reward yourself for some of the other accomplishments you're making.

#16 - Grow your own sprouts! With a simple, low-cost sprouting machine, you can grow and eat your own sprouts. Eating just one ounce of sprouts a day still had a huge impact on preventing cancer and boosting immune function.

#17 - Prepare for a Spring garden. Sure, it's cold and snowy right now, but make a commitment to start a garden this Spring, and you'll reap many health benefits in the months ahead.

#18 - Get a mini-trampoline and do some rebounding in your living room. You can even watch movies or documentary DVDs at the same time.

#19 - Make a point to get at least eight hours of sleep for 2-3 nights a week (or more, if you can). Most people are sleep deprived, and the health cost is enormous.

#20 - Start visiting local farmer's markets so that you eat more local food in 2010. You'll be healthier and happier as a result.

#21 - Got a job you don't like? Quit it! Downgrade your lifestyle to live on less money, then pursue what you really enjoy. Being happy in a small house is better than being miserable in a big one.

#22 - Get off those medications! Make a point to learn how to safely and gradually get yourself off all the medications you can by eliminating underlying imbalances or illnesses. The fewer medications you take, the healthier you'll be!

#23 - Throw out your television! Are you still watching cable TV or satellite TV? It's a complete waste of your life (but you already knew that). Disconnect the cable. Read more books and get your information online where news sources are more independent and intelligent.

#24 - Make a decision to think of food as nourishment instead of entertainment. Eat what your body needs, not what your taste buds desire.

#25 - Teach others how to be healthy! The more you talk with others about healthy habits, the more you'll follow them yourself. :-)

That's it! I hope you enjoyed these 25 ideas for improving your health in 2010 (and beyond).

Of course, one of the best ways to keep improving your health in 2010 is to keep reading NaturalNews! We'll be bringing you more natural cures, herbal remedies and self-care tips throughout 2010.

I'm personally looking forward to sharing a great year with you!

NaturalNews Reader's Choice "Best of 2009" Awards announced

(NaturalNews) The votes have been cast: It's time to announce the results of the NaturalNews Reader's Choice "Best of 2009" Awards!

These awards are given to the top companies and products in seven categories: Best Health Products Retailer, Best Herbal Product Line, Best Natural Protein, Best Skin Care Line, Best Superfood Powder, Best Multivitamin and Best Food Bar.

Nominations were accepted for the awards from our NaturalNews Facebook fans (http://facebook.naturalnews.com). We compiled the nominations into the surveys, then we asked for a round of review to make sure we hadn't missed anyone that deserved to be included. Companies that were only nominated by one person were not included -- a double nomination was required to be listed.

From there, the voting commenced, and it wasn't without some controversy. I originally set the voting parameters to be more inclusive of all readers -- but at the cost of lower security. As a result, we learned that some overzealous fans figured out a way to vote multiple times in the Best Superfood category. After assessing the best way to proceed, we reset that category to zero, reconfigured the security and allowed an additional 48 hours for re-voting to take place for that category. You can read about what happened in my report here: http://www.naturalnews.com/027871_s...

Vote results were somewhat influenced by companies emailing their customers and encouraging them to vote. There's nothing wrong with this, of course. It's perfectly legit to ask your happy customers to support you in an online survey, and the number of customers a company can encourage to vote for its products is a reflection of how many people are really happy about that product or company.

Companies that won this survey result are allowed to claim they are the recipient of the Reader's Choice "Best of the Year" Award from NaturalNews.com. (We'll soon be distributing award graphics to the companies that won.)

Keep in mind, by the way, that these are Reader's Choice awards, not Editor's Choice award. My own preferences differ somewhat from the results you'll see below. Although I agree that all the winners mentioned here are deserving of recognition, I personally have some other favorite products that I'll be naming in a future Editor's Choice awards announcement.

Here are the final Reader's Choice voting results:

Reader's Choice - Best Food Bar = Organic Food Bar

Organic Food Bar (www.OrganicFoodBar.com) barely edged out Larabar to win the Best Food Bar category.

Here are the top five results for Best Food Bar:

#1 - Organic Food Bar (www.OrganicFoodBar.com)
#2 - Larabar (www.Larabar.com)
#3 - Garden of Life (www.GardenOfLife.com)
#4 - Greens+ (www.GreensPlus.com)
#5 - Everything Raw (Yoga bar) (www.EverythingRaw.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Multivitamin = New Chapter, Garden of Life

The votes for New Chapter and Garden of Life were too close to call, so they both receive the "Best of the Year" award!

Ola Loa was winning the contest early on, but was eclipsed by New Chapter and Garden of Life as the voting drew to a close. Here are the top five results:

#1 - New Chapter (www.NewChapter.com)
#2 - Garden of Life (www.GardenOfLife.com)
#3 - NSI (Vitacost) (www.Vitacost.com)
#4 - Ola Loa (www.DrinkYourVitamins.com)
#5 - Pure Synergy (www.TheSynergyCompany.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Skin Care Line = Annmarie's

Who is Annmarie? If you've never heard of her, you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn more. Annmarie is the partner of Kevin Gianni of Renegade Health, and she's put together an amazingly healthy, natural skin care product line that just burst onto the scene recently.

During most the voting, Dr. Bronner was in the lead. And no one would argue with Dr. Bronner winning the award. But over the last 24 hours, Annmarie's pulled way ahead of Dr. Bronner's thanks to the votes of enthusiastic Annmarie customers (and some well-timed emails from Gianni!).

Disclaimer: I share a business interest with Kevin Gianni. He and I are the co-founders of Health Book Summaries (www.HealthBookSummaries.com). However, please note that I have absolutely no business interest in the Annmarie skin care line, and Annmarie had absolutely no special advantages in this survey. They won it fair and square.

The top five results in this category were:

#1 - Annmarie's (www.AnnmarieGianni.com)
#2 - Dr. Bronner (www.DrBronner.com)
#3 - Aubrey Organics (www.AubreyOrganics.com)
#4 - Mercola's (www.MercolaHealthySkin.com)
#5 - Avalon Organics (www.AvalonOrganics.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Natural Protein = SunWarrior

SunWarrior protein was in the lead from the very start of this survey, and they never let go of their top position. SunWarrior is a raw, fermented rice protein that's taken off among the raw foods community over the last 18 months or so. It has also been well accepted among the "natural" bodybuilding community (as well as with extreme athletes).

The top five winners in the Best Natural Protein category are:

#1 - SunWarrior (www.SunWarrior.com)
#2 - Nutiva (www.Nutiva.com)
#3 - Vital Greens (www.VitalGreens.com)
#4 - Ruth's Hemp Foods (www.RuthsHempFoods.com)
#5 - Living Fuel (www.LivingFuel.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Herbal Product Line = Mountain Rose Herbs

Not many people really knew about Mountain Rose Herbs until the last few years, but the company has grown immensely in popularity recently. It used to be "the best little secret in the bulk herbs industry" (in the USA, at least).

Without question, Mountain Rose Herbs deserves this award. They offer an amazing product line at very reasonable prices.

Here are the top five results for Best Herbal Product Line:

#1 - Mountain Rose herbs (www.MountainRoseHerbs.com)
#2 - Baseline Nutritionals (www.BaselineNutritionals.com)
#3 - Nature's Sunshine (www.NaturesSunshine.com)
#4 - Wellness Resources (www.WellnessResource.com)
#5 - Young Living (www.YoungLiving.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Health Products Retailer = Vitacost

There was never really any competition in this category: Vitacost took the early lead and maintained it throughout the voting. Whole Foods remained a distant second.

We accidentally listed iHerb twice in this survey, resulting in their vote being split among two entries, so in fairness, we're reporting the sum total of those two entries, meaning that iHerb takes a solid third place with 12% of the votes.

The top five results for Best Health Products Retailer are:

#1 - Vitacost (www.Vitacost.com)
#2 - Whole Foods (www.WholeFoods.com)
#3 - iHerb (www.iHerb.com)
#4 - Swanson Vitamins (www.SwansonVitamins.com)
#5 - Sunfood (www.Sunfood.com)

Reader's Choice - Best Superfood Powder = (It's a tie!)

There was never really any question that this category was a competition between Delicious Greens and Boku Superfood. They were neck and neck at several points, and then one would edge out to take the lead for a while until the other one caught up.

What's clear from this is that the customers of Delicious Greens and Boku Superfood are super loyal!

During our first round of voting, in which we discovered there were some extra votes cast from the same computers, Delicious Greens received 915 votes, and Boku Superfood received 835.

After we reset the poll back to zero and reconfigured the poll security to limit each IP address to just one vote, Delicious Greens received 145 votes, and Boku Superfood received 713 (as of the time of this writing, anyway. Results may now be different).

You might think this proves the initial Delicious Greens votes were being padded, but no, that may not be the case at all! It turns out Delicious Greens has quite a following in one particularly large corporation where all its users share the same external IP address (which is actually common in a corporation). I actually read some emails sent by people from this company, and they're legit.

Here's the kicker: In the second round of voting, all those votes from the same company only counted as a single vote! (Because of the IP-limit security setting I felt was necessary to put in place.) So the Delicious Greens votes for the second round of voting is artificially low due to the IP voting restrictions.

The upshot of all this is that as the editor of NaturalNews, given the special circumstances surrounding the voting in this category -- and the fact that all other products were a distant third to these two -- I have decided to give the "Best Superfood Powder" award to both Delicious Greens and Boku Superfood. It seems to be the most proper result.

We'll never actually know exactly how many votes in this category were lost due to the IP-voting restriction, nor how many extra votes were cast during round one when the restriction didn't exist. So the only fair decision here seems to be the granting of this award to both companies. This doesn't take away from either one, and it recognizes them both as being the top choices among NaturalNews readers. They both have outstanding products, by the way. I actually like to mix them together.

So here are the top five results in this category:

#1 and #2 - Delicious Greens (www.DeliciousGreens.com) and Boku Superfood (www.BokuSuperfood.com), both granted the "Best of the Year" award.

#3 - Vitamineral Green (www.Healthforce.com)
#4 - Garden of Life (www.GardenOfLife.com)
#5 - Pure Synergy (www.TheSynergyCompany.com)

What it all means

Thank you to all who participated in this award survey. With your help, we were able to bring some well-deserved recognition to many outstanding companies in the natural health industry.

This survey encompassed some of the very best products in the natural health industry. At the same time, I want to point out that there are many other remarkable products and companies that deserve similar recognition but aren't known well enough to make it into this survey. I'll keep working to find and report on the best products in the industry, regardless of whether they come from big companies or small ones. Many of the companies winning the awards here, by the way, are quite small!

Please continue to support the natural health industry with your product purchases. It is your choice to select healthy products over junk products that keeps this industry alive. Without your business and customer loyalty, none of these companies would exist, and the world would be missing out on some fantastic products!