Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit.

It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest

ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand , for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS

PS: Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time! I will add one here; want a quick shine on our shoes?? Take the INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit!----------------------

Subject: FW: Fw: Cancer update from John Hopkins

BM_111c4cf225cda2d2_111c4a84be923ab6_OLE_LICancer Update from John Hopkins

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show

up in the standard

tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer

patients that there are no

more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests

are unable to detect the

cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's

lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be

destroyed and prevented

from multiplying and forming tumours.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional

deficiencies. These

could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and

including supplements will

strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also

destroys rapidly-growing

healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can

cause organ damage, like liver,

kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages

healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor

size. However prolonged use

of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation

the immune system is

either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various

kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become

resistant and difficult to

destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not

feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important

food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar

substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and

it is harmful. A better natural

substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts.

Table salt has a chemical

added to make it white in colour.

Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the

gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus.

By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer

cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic

and it is best to eat fish, and a little

chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics,

growth hormones and parasites,

which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,seeds, nuts

and a little fruits help put the body

into an alkaline environment.About 20% can be from cooked food including

beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide

live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels

within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance

growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells

try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most

vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times

a day. Enzymes are destroyed at

temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine.Green tea is a

better alternative and has cancer-fighting

properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known

toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled

water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive

enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the

intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or

eating less meat it frees more enzymes

to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer

cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence,Essiac,

anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals,

EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.

Other supplements like vitamin E are

known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method

of disposing of damaged, unwanted,

or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and

positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be

a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a

stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have

a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising

daily, and deep breathing help to get more

oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means

employed to destroy cancer cells.

(PLEASE FORWARD IT TO PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT)

CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL , U S - PLEASE READ

1. No plastic containers in micro.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This

information is being circulated at Walter Reed

Army Medical Center as well.

Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.

Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.

Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases

dioxins from the plastic.

Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital ,

was on a TV program to explain this

health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said

that we should not be heating our food

in the microwave using plastic containers.

This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the

combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases

dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he

recommends using glass, such as Corning

Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same

results, only without the dioxin. So such things

as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the

container and heated in something else.

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to

use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He

reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away

from the foam containers to paper.

The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous

when placed over foods to be cooked in

the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins

to actually melt out of the plastic wrap

and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.