Mosquito bites: If bitten by an insect, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin.
Banana skin is known for reducing swelling and irritation.
Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.
S.A.D.: Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.
Smoking: Bananas have also helped people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 and the potassium
and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
Stress: The banana’s potassium helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates
the body's water balance. During stress, our metabolic rate rises; this in turn drops potassium levels.
Bananas can reverse this effect of stress.
Strokes: According to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as
part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by stroke by as much as 40 percent!
Please note that the above food recommendations do not apply to all body types equally. Before you
start eating these foods, verify with your body type food charts whether these foods are beneficial for
you or not.
Should We Eat Organic Foods?
For the reasons given below, the answer is a definite “yes.” Whether you are able to afford to buy
organic foods or even have access to such foods is a question, though, only you can answer. Organic
foods are still very expensive when compared with pesticide-treated produce. If your budget is very
limited, but you still want to feed your body the best possible food available, you may either need to grow
your own fruits and vegetables or increase your spending on food.
In a report on organic foods, published in "Coronary and Diabetic Care” in the U.K., 2004, it was
stressed that the use of pesticides in food production correlated with a significant reduction in the health
benefits of foods. For example, there exists a strong connection between pesticide use and the antioxidant
content of food. Crops that are visited and stressed by insects are known to produce polyphenolic
compounds, which are naturally potent antioxidants. These compounds not only ward off insects, but also
increase the nutritional value of the plants. However, when crops are treated with pesticides, they don't
need the natural protection of polyphenolics, and produce less of these compounds.
Foods that contain pesticides are not only less beneficial in the nutritional sense, but also quite
harmful. The U.K. report noted that pesticide use has been associated with a variety of health risks,
including cancer, fetal abnormalities, chronic fatigue, and Parkinson's disease. One study showed that
women with breast cancer are five to nine times more likely to have traces of pesticides in their blood
than women who don't have the cancer. If you are concerned about breast cancer, you may definitely need
to weigh the risks of cancer against budgetary stress.
Furthermore, organic foods are free of food additives such as MSG, hydrogenated fats, and artificial
sweeteners and coloring agents, which have been associated with a risk of asthma, headaches, growth
retardation, and hyperactivity in children. As the U.K. report further pointed out, these additives have
been linked to the development of allergies.
Another advantage of organic food is that it is free of genetically modified (GM) organisms. The report
notes that only ten studies of GM foods have been conducted so far. Among those, the ones that were
completely independent of funding or input from companies with GM affiliations found evidence of
harmful effects in the gut lining of humans.
Overall, organic foods have been found to be more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. In one
study comparing the vitamin and mineral content of organic foods vs. non-organic foods, the organics