Dog's Health - Berries

(This blog originally posted on 1/19/2006.)

Ask and ye shall receive!

Remember Ms. X asked where the nutritional research and supplement information for dogs was? (In the first "Dog's Health" post). Then, lo and behold, she found this great article about ellagitannins - "Berry Good Health" by Susan Thorpe-Vargas Ph.D.

Whoa. Ella is tanning? Ella McPherson? Ha, No. Just Ms. X. And there will be NO webcam in the tanning booth and I always tan fully clothed. So best go back and read the word again.

ELLA- JI -TAN-INS. It’s one of those biological terms. Here’s a definition “Ellagitannins are plant phenolics characterized by biaryl-coupled gallic acid moieties esterified to a D-glucose core” straight out of somebody’s doctoral thesis.

Guess what. Despite Ms. X’s obsession with technical factual detail, she doesn’t have a doctorate degree either. But the good Dr. Vargas gives simple explanations. These “things” are merely nutrients in plants that are effective in the fight against cancer (and other things).

Nutrients in some foods, primarily berries, that are good for you.

Just a couple quotes to whet your appetite:

Multiple studies have discovered that phytonutrients found in raspberries can protect us from cancer and can even shrink some types of cancer tumors. These substances can also act as an antibacterial and as an antiviral agent.

We live in a polluted environment. For instance, the outgassing from asphalt on a hot summer day produces the deadly carcinogen benzo{a}pyrene, the same chemical found on meat that has been charcoal broiled. This is just but one example. Exposure to such chemicals in the environment can cause the mutations in our genetic material that lead to cancer.

Not only is the medical delivery system failing but, our costs for health services are rising at an astronomical rate. What this means for the medical consumer is that we need to be more responsible for our own health. We need to look at prevention instead of always looking to health care providers to "fix" what exposure to a toxic environment and/or years of unhealthy lifestyle practices have wrought.

Want more? Click the article link.



Yum.