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What Are the Benefits of Aloe Vera & Prickly Pear?

Prickly pear cactus may help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Aloe vera, a member of the lily family and native to North Africa, has been used for medicinal and practical benefits for more than 4,000 years. Aloe vera is generally used as a supplement, though some people regularly include aloe in their diets as a functional food, one that improves health beyond its basic nutritional value. Prickly pear, a species of cactus native to the Western hemisphere, has been used as a food and traditional medicine, particularly in Mexico. Also called nopal, prickly pear can be eaten as a fresh fruit, mashed into a sauce or cooked into a syrup or jelly. While each offers distinct benefits, some of the uses of these two plants may overlap or complement each other. Consult your doctor before using these or other herbal supplements to treat a medical condition.

Aloe Vera Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Benefits

A study published in the October 2012 issue of the journal "Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders" found that supplementation with aloe vera inner leaf gel for eight weeks significantly reduced levels of blood sugar and low-density lipoprotein, or LDL "bad" cholesterol, in participants with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a condition distinguished by a cluster of risk factors that predispose an individual to developing heart disease and diabetes. Levels of hemoglobin A1c -- a test that measures average blood sugar levels for the last two to three months by determining the amount of glucose that has become attached to red blood cells -- also were significantly reduced.

Benefits From Drinking Aloe Vera Juice

The aloe vera plant has many beneficial properties.

Aloe vera has been adored for centuries as a remedy for skin infections and cuts. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, technological advancements have enabled the production of aloe vera products that aid in treatment of burns, constipation, diabetes, skin conditions and herpes. The plant’s products such as aloe vera juice contain a mixture of ingredients that can collectively curb other numerous health complications.

Detoxification

Aloe vera contains nine minerals -- calcium, copper, chromium, selenium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, manganese and zinc. The minerals interact to boost enzyme metabolic pathways. An increased enzyme activity ensures detoxification of metabolic wastes with minerals such as zinc acting as antioxidants in your body’s cells. Aloe vera does this with the help of vitamins A, B-12, C and E.

Health Risks & Benefits of Taking Aloe Vera Juice Internally

Aloe vera juice contains leaf pulp that is rich in natural nutrients and fiber. This well-known herbal remedy for the skin also has many benefits for internal healing, cleansing and repair when ingested as a nutritional drink. However, it can cause adverse side effects and reactions and should only be taken as directed. Do not consume aloe vera that is not made for internal, use and consult your doctor before self-medicating for any reason.

3 veggies to never eat:

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Benefits of Juicing: Your Keys to Radiant Health

Congratulations! You have made some great changes to your life. The last step will be to implement a juicing plan. I am firmly convinced that the benefits of juicing are the keys to giving you a radiant, energetic life, and truly optimal health.

I've said this in the other levels of this nutrition plan, but it's so important I'll say it again - valuable and sensitive micronutrients become damaged when you heat foods.

Cooking and processing food destroys these micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. In this advanced nutritional level, you avoid all processed foods and eat only organic vegetables and fruits, unless not otherwise possible.

Virtually every health authority recommends that we get 6-8 servings of vegetables and fruits per day and very few of us actually get that. Juicing is an easy way to virtually guarantee that you will reach your daily target for vegetables.

While you can certainly juice fruits, if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, it is best to limit using fruits until you normalize these conditions.

The exception would be lemons and limes which have virtually none of the offending sugar, fructose, that causes most of the metabolic complications. Additionally lemons or limes are amazing at eliminating the bitter taste of the dark, deep green leafy vegetables that provide most of the benefits of juicing.

Benefits of Juicing

There are three main reasons why you will want to consider incorporating vegetable juicing into your optimal health program:

Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because most of us have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body's ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to "pre-digest" them for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.

Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. If you are a carb type, you should eat one pound of raw vegetables per 50 pounds of body weight per day. Some people may find eating that many vegetables difficult, but it can be easily accomplished with a quick glass of vegetable juice.

You can add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole.

If you are new to juicing, I recommend a mid-priced juicer. The cheap centrifugal juicers (like the Juiceman) break easily, produce low-quality juice, and are very loud, which may contribute to hearing loss. They also don't last very long.

My favorite are the single gear juicers which are relatively fast, less expensive and easier to clean than more expensive juicers like twin gears or even the $2000 Norwalk juicers. Here is my current favorite juicer. Many people initially think that juicing will be a real chore, but the majority are pleasantly surprised to find that it is much easier than they thought it would be.