I heard a podcast today that I just had to share. It was an interview of Julia J. Rucklidge, PhD on the University of Canterbury (Australia) — Episode 7 – Micronutrients for the Mind. Now, more than ever, people in America are stressed and some are suicidal due to what has transpired in our country over the past 3 months. Lock downs and social distancing for a virus that has a 98-99 percent recovery rate. Now as I write this, cities all over America are being burned down from riots in the streets by Antifa groups. Last night curfews were issued in most of the larger cities across the country. People are scared, stressed and need more than drugs. They need help that will help them really heal. Our bodies NEED the right fuels (food) to help recover.
Essentially, we found that people who happened to be taking nutrients at the time of the September 2010 earthquake recovered far more quickly than people who weren’t taking nutrients.
Julia J. Rucklidge, PhD – podcast linked below
Julia J. Rucklidge, PhD is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Originally from Toronto, she did her training in neurobiology (McGill) and Clinical Psychology (University of Calgary). Her interests in nutrition and mental illness grew out of her own research showing poor outcomes for children with significant psychiatric illness despite receiving conventional treatments for their conditions. For the last 6 years, she has been investigating the role of micronutrients in the expression of mental illness, specifically ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety and more recently, stress and PTSD associated with the Canterbury earthquakes. Her TedTalk on The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health (best 17:42 minutes you’ll spend) dives into the topic and she explains how micronutrients make a difference in mental health.
Science of How the Body Heals Itself
An overview of why nutrition is so important, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is to heal. The Science of How the Body Heals Itself (1:13:04) is presented at a Sentara Healthcare Conference by William Li, MD. Dr. Li is an international expert in health and disease-reversal. His work has impacted more than 23 million people across 94 countries. Dr. Li discussed his data-driven research of how the body heals itself and the effect certain foods can have on certain diseases, which resonated with the audience. I first heard Dr. Li speak on my favorite podcast/video “The Doctor’s Farmacy” hosted by Mark Hyman, MD. You can watch the interview, Why Food is Better Than Medicine to Treat Disease (1:21:37)
Microgreens, Nutrient Powerhouses
Check out this website and the science about microgreens will astound you. I’ve quoted from the University of Maryland’s website on Mighty Microgreens below:
AGNR’s Department of Nutrition and Food Science (NFSC) participated in the study, which looked at nutrients like Vitamin C, E, K and beta carotene found in 25 different types of microgreens including cilantro, celery, red cabbage, green basil and arugula.
Their research ultimately discovered that the microgreens contained four to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts.
“We were really surprised,” Wang said of the findings, which were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry * “Those nutrients are very important to us. Vitamin C is considered an antioxidant, as well as Vitamin E, so they’re very important for us to consume.”
“Some of the numbers were really, really high,” said Xiao. “We thought it might have been a mistake but we double-checked so many times and there were no mistakes.”
University of Maryland, Mighty Microgreens
*Assessment of Vitamin and Carotenoid Concentrations of Emerging Food Products: Edible Microgreens Zhenlei Xiao†, Gene E. Lester*‡,Yaguang Luo‡,Qin Wang*†