Flu-fighting SUPER berry (not goji or acai)

I think we all know that berries are good for us.

We've been told time and time again that
blueberries are high in antioxidants and other
disease-fighting nutrients. And that strawberries
are very in phytonutrients that prevent
angiogenesis (the undesirable growth of new blood
vessels around cancer cells).

So yes, eating berries is a very smart move.

But, did you that there's a lesser-known berry
that has shown time and time again to be a heavy
weight contender for preventing and fighting the
flu?

Indeed, there is.

I'll reveal its name in just a moment but first
let me illustrate its flu-fighting power with the
help of a 2002 study from the Israeli Medical
Association Journal.

This study looked at the effect of five herbal
remedies – Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract,
Sambucol Active Defense Formula and Sambucol for
Kids (with known antiviral properties), Protec
and Chizukit N (containing propolis and
Echinacea, claimed to be immune enhancers) – on
the production of cytokines, one of the main
components of the immune system.

The results of the study showed that the three
Sambucol formulations activated the healthy
immune system response by INCREASING inflammatory
and anti-inflammatory cytokines production, while
the effect of Protec and Chizukit N was much less.

The researchers concluded that Sambucol could
therefore have immuno-stimulatory properties when
administered to patients suffering from influenza
or EVEN immuno-depressed cancer and AIDS patients
who are receiving chemotherapy or other
treatments.

Pretty powerful.

But…

Once on the Sambucol website I noticed some fishy
things in their ingredient lists.

For instance, the “Sambucol for Kids” formula
contained the following:

* 1.9 g of black elderberry extract per 10ml.

* Glucose syrup, purified water, citric acid,
potassium sorbate (to retard spoilage)

Not too sure about the glucose syrup part but I
guess they need the added sweetness so that kids
will actually take this stuff.

Their “Immune Formula” contained:

* 3.8g of Black Elderberry Extract per 10ml

* Sorbitol, purified water, artificial raspberry
flavour, citric acid, potassium sorbate (to
retard spoilage).

Again, not sure about the sorbitol or artificial
flavors but at least it has decent amounts of
the REAL beneficial ingredient…

ELDERBERRY.

Just in case you didn't catch on, that's the
"secret" flu-fighting berry in question.

Before I show you another awesome study proving
elderberry’s effectiveness, let’s first look at
what it is exactly, shall we?

The elderberry (black elder is the most
widespread) is common across Europe, western
Asia, and northern Africa. The powerful “black
berry” is the fruit of a deciduous shrub that can
grow up to about 6 meters tall.

Now it's time to get out the science goggles…

The European black elderberries are rich dietary
sources of plant pigments and phenolic compounds
– essentially, powerful phytonutrients.

They contain the flavonols, quercetin-3-glucoside
and quercetin-3-rutinoside, and a number of
anthocyanins: a group of antioxidant compounds
responsible for the attractive red, purple, and
violet colors of many fruits, flowers,
vegetables, and also elderberries.

The anthocyanins in elderberries have been shown
in several studies to enhance the antioxidant
status in humans.

Animal and in vitro studies have also shown these
anthocyanins decrease premature cell death and
lower risks of cardiovascular complications
through anti-inflammatory and relaxant effects on
coronary arteries.

So obviously, elderberry can pack a serious
flu-fighting 1-2 punch.

In fact, a brand new 2011 study out of Germany
demonstrated a very POWERFUL dose-response effect
of elderberry liquid extract against dangerous
bacterial infections and influenza viruses.

To put these results into plain English, the more
elderberry (up to about 15% concentration) the
better the effects against 4 known bacteria and
dangerous flu viruses.

Now, if you think elderberry is powerful, wait
until you see the 7 other immune-boosting,
body-protecting, and flu-fighting natural
remedies that my friend and holistic nutritionist,
Yuri Elkaim has got lined up for you in his new
Flu Fighters report...

>> Discover 8 potent flu-fighting natural remedies

Considering that we're in the thick of flu season
and that this "epidemic" seems to be worse than
ever, can you really afford not to pay attention
to this important information that controls your
immune system.

Imagine how many sick days you and your family
could avoid if the common cold and flu was no
longer a concern. 

Remember that you don't have to get sick... you
can easily control the strength of your immune
system from the inside, so that you never get sick
at all.  As I mentioned yesterday, I personally
haven't been sick in at least 8 or 9 years, and I
haven't had the flu in at least 15 years, despite being
exposed constantly through all of my travels.  These
remedies work!

8 powerful flu-fighting natural remedies

PS -- if you liked today's article, please fwd this email
on to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that
would enjoy these immunity boosting tips!

If you missed my previous article on this topic of
boosting your immune system, you can read that here:

7 tips to NEVER get sick again


Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

Cold or Flu? 5 things you NEED to know

First, the flu (aka. influenza) is a virus - not
a bacteria. So if your doctor gives you
antibiotics for the flu (I don't know why they
would, but they do sometimes), then you can
intelligently pass on that.

As you may have heard, unnecessary antibiotics
damages your gut flora balance and can allow harmful
bacteria to take hold causing all sorts of health
problems after you're done with the antibiotics.

Second, since the flu is NOT a bacterial problem,
we should NOT be overusing anti-bacterial
products. Doing so only exacerbates possible
bacterial problems down the road as these little
critters can quickly adapt to our excessively
clean environments.

These harder-to-kill "super bugs" are now sadly
apparent thanks to the over-prescription of
antibiotics and other measures of excessive
cleanliness.

Third, the influenza virus is with us 365 days a year
but flu season peaks in February in the northern
hemisphere and August in the southern hemisphere.

Interestingly, this is also when we get the least
amount of sunlight (and thus vitamin D) in each
respective location.

Vitamin D is so important in this regard that
most experts believe that flu outbreaks are
CAUSED by a lack of the "sunshine vitamin".

Fourth, if the "germ theory" of disease was
correct, then every single person exposed to the
flu virus would get sick. Obviously, this is not
the case since we're all exposed to it, but only
some actually get sick.

Why?

Because what's happening inside your body is more
important than what's happening outside of it. A
clean and healthy internal environment is
inhospitable to viruses and other pathogens.
That's where proper nutrition comes into play.

I personally haven't had the flu in 15 years, and haven't
even had more than a sniffle of a cold in that time frame
too.  Nutrition really can control your outcome!

Fifth, did you know that kids raised with pets (especially
dogs) have been shown to have stronger immune
systems and are more resilient to infections like
the flu... it's true!

This makes sense since dogs acquire all kinds of
micro-organisms while playing outside. Once
exposed to these "natural critters" (by coming
into contact with the dogs) at a very young age,
the child immune's system is able to recognize
the micro-organisms and adapt accordingly.

Lastly, there are simple remedies you can use to
prevent and fight the flu.  EIGHT of the most of
powerful remedies are fully disclosed in a NEW
Flu Fighters report by well-respected holistic
nutritionist Yuri Elkaim.

In this 41-page report, you'll discover:

* The 8 most powerful "flu-fighters" that rev up
your immune system to fight the deadliest of
bacteria and viruses.

* The MOST important flu-fighting nutrient that
MUST be in your pantry and exactly how much of it
you should take (and it's not what most
authorities are telling you)

* The tasty ingredient that you can add to your
favorite meals for enhanced flavor and health
protection.

* The BEST (and surprising) food sources of this
miracle vitamin.

And more!

You owe it to yourself and to your family to be
equipped with this knowledge so you can avoid
becoming another "flu" statistic.

Download the Powerful Flu Fighters Report here.


PS -- if you liked today's article about how to prevent the cold/flu, please share this page with any of your friends, family, or co-workers that would enjoy it.

If you missed my previous article on this topic, you
can read that here:

7 tips to NEVER get sick again

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

More powerful than fish oil, resveratrol, and chlorella?

99% of life on our planet relies on this one superfood as its life source. But most of you have never heard of it...

And according to some researchers, this food has the power to stimulate new cell growth, improve your memory, heal your body and more…

I’m excited to share it with you.

More Powerful than Fish Oil, Resveratrol and Chlorella?

You may have heard how “superfoods” like chlorella, spirulina, goji berries and resveratrol can help you fight disease, lose fat, reverse aging and feel energetic all day long.

Well –

Scientists have recently discovered a nutrient that is 100 times more potent and powerful than all these superfoods... combined.

This one nutrient gives the body a jolt of pure, natural energy like nothing else you've tried before.

But that's not all --

It also has the power to “stimulate” your body to create trillions of healthy, new cells… clears your body of toxins… feed you hundreds of essential nutrients…

After 30 years of research -- and tens of millions invested -- a team of European doctors, microbiologists, and marine scientists have discovered a species of micro-algae (out of hundreds of thousands that exist in the ocean) that contains...

The Highest Nutritional Values of any Food on Earth

This amazing new discovery is a special strain of marine phytoplankton called Nannochloropsis gaditana.

This unique variety contains more than 100 nutritional properties, including all the essential amino acids, all the healing essential fatty acids (omega 3's -- EPA/DHA), plus a wealth of vitamins, key minerals and trace elements, rare antioxidants, phospholipids, electrolytes, nucleic acids, enzymes, and co-enzymes.

DNA Rocket Fuel Power Packed in Every Cell

In addition, this plankton's cell wall is instantly digestible in the human body, so it immediately releases all these nutrients at the cellular level providing your cells with "rocket fuel" at the DNA level.

This newly-discovered cell is so tiny that it would take five of them to equal the size of one red blood cell. Yet there's an incredible concentration of life energy stored in every single cell (more than 10 billion cells in a single drop)!

Heals Almost Instantly?

And this nano-quality makes it ideally suited to aid the healing process.

According to Dr. Jerry Tennant, founder and director of the Tennant Institute of Integrative Medicine, who has treated thousands of people with chronic diseases...

"Because these marine phytoplankton are so microscopically tiny, they immediately enter a sickened digestive system or liver, and are able to begin restoring neurochemicals and minerals immediately ... often producing significant results within days.”

A "Super” Source of Omega-3

In addition, Nannochloropsis gaditana is the richest source of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) there is.

Its EPA is converted to DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) by the human body as needed. (EPA and DHA are crucial for brain function and vision).

Over the last three decades, researchers have determined that EPA is the most important part of omega 3.

According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, marine phytoplankton is the "parent source” of omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil -- and "the most important food supplement you can take.” (Fish eat phytoplankton and transform it into omega-3-rich fish oil.)

Dr. Oz has publically stated that he prefers to get his omega-3 from "the source” (meaning phytoplankton).

And You Can Too...

Now, with just a few drops in a glass of water or juice, you can get all of these health-boosting nutrients at one time, instead of swallowing a handful of separate supplements.

1. This is a live food. It isn't freeze-dried (like spirulina, barley greens, chlorella, and other green foods). Freeze-drying can sometimes destroy much of the potency of these green foods.

2. It isn't harvested from the oceans, meaning less disruption to food chains in the ocean. This form of marine phytoplankton doesn't affect food chains in the ocean -- because it's "farmed” in tanks on land.

3.  There's no worry about ocean toxins (such as mercury and PCBs) and other pollutants, because this phytoplankton is bred in FDA-approved fresh-water tanks.

The Only Source of Live Marine Phytoplankton

As of this writing, there is only one source of living Nannochloropsis gaditana phytoplankton found right here.

To your good health and energy,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

Your daily stress is WORSE than smoking for you?

Research published a few weeks ago in the Journal
of Cardiology reveals that your chronic, daily stress
(just "normal living" in today's fast-paced world) is
WORSE for your heart than SMOKING 4 cigarettes
a day…

… and EQUAL to smoking 5 cigarettes a day.

The Columbia University Medical Center found that
people who said they felt chronic stress ("anxious" or
"overwhelmed" were the two most common issues)
were 27% more likely to suffer a heart attack.

That's a HIGHER risk than smoking 3-4 cigarettes a day.

Now, here's the GOOD NEWS:

Luckily I've been introduced recently to an expert on this
topic, Dr. Holly Lucille -- a woman Dr. Oz called "THE
expert on stress", and a pioneer in the field of natural,
effective stress relief and prevention.

With all the new data coming out on stress -- how it is
simply THE number one killer, and how it also contributes
to your fat gain in a major way -- it's time to take action.

Fortunately for you, that "time" is … about 7 minutes long.

Dr. Lucille's "7 Minute Stress Solution" is the absolute
easiest way to calm anxiety and ease your feelings of
overwhelm and fatigue.

And this all happens for you in 7 short minutes.

You owe it to your health and your peace of mind to
check out Holly's solution to deadly stress here:

How you can DESTROY stress in just 7 minutes
(this protects your heart and reduces cortisol, helping you to lose fat)

I'm not bashing hour-long meditation sessions, yoga,
or workouts to help ease stress. I'm a big believer in
all of these.

But let's face facts:  few of us have TIME to do each of those
every day… yet we ALL have 7 minutes.

That's why Dr. Lucille's new stress-reduction protocol
is such a hit with my readers -- it's short, to-the-point,
and it simply works.

P.S.  Let me remind of you something very important:

If losing fat is important to you, you NEED to understand
the relationship of stress to excess abdominal fat...

You see... fat loss will NEVER happen when stress is in
high gear. Your nervous system shuts down, taking all
the fat burning hormones with it...

PLUS your body produces more of the fat-storing hormone,
cortisol, when you're under chronic stress.

It's a double-whammy.

That's just another reason you should make stress
management your TOP priority...

… and as you'll see on the page below, you can get it
done in just 7 minutes.

That's 7 minutes a day to help ensure your heart health,
your peace of mind, AND your fat loss goals.

Go here, and watch Dr. Oz talk about Holly's 7-minutestress relief protocol

Here's to a stress-free new you,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

The superfoods of the Arctic

If you've been reading my newsletter for a long time, you know that I travel often (for both business and fun), and I love to explore the various foods of each culture that I visit.  If you remember, I described a couple months ago about the super nutritional metabolic benefits (and deliciousness) of the Thailand cuisine that I ate for 3 weeks a few months back.

Well, this week, my adventures have brought me to the Arctic circle in northern Sweden for a fun wilderness trip full of winter sports, staying at the famous ice hotel, ice fishing, and dog-sledding to a remote wood-fire heated cabin in the frozen arctic where we enjoyed wonderful meals of traditional Swedish cuisine with some great friends.

As usual, the traditional foods of almost every culture I visit around the world, although quite different from each other, are easily 10x healthier than the average foods eaten in America.  To give you an idea, here's a little taste of the cuisine we are enjoying here in Sweden...

1.  Lingonberries -- Almost every meal seems to come with some form of Lingonberries here ... these little nutrition powerhouses can be described like a mixture of blueberries and cranberries -- they're about the size of wild blueberries, they're reddish instead of blue, and they have a taste that seems halfway between blueberries and cranberries.  There's no doubt that the super high antioxidant content of Lingonberries protects the Swedish that eat these as part of their traditional diet from many of the typical degenerative diseases we're seeing in America.

2.   Reindeer meat -- We've enjoyed several incredible dinners of very tender and tasty reindeer meat.  This is another traditional food of the arctic, and is loaded with nutrition benefits that make the typical corn-fed feedlot beef served in American restaurants an absolute joke in terms of nutrition.

We've had the reindeer here in Sweden served as a main course seared rare with a delicious mushroom sauce, we've had it served as a carpaccio style appetizer in raw form (soooo delicious!), and we've also had it in a stew form which was equally enjoyable.

Reindeer is a very lean meat, is chock-full of vitamins and minerals, and contains good amounts of the healthy fat called CLA, which helps to build muscle and lose fat, and is also shown to decrease cancer risk.

3.  Artic Char --  This seems to be one of the most popular types of fish served here in Sweden, and we've had least 3 or 4 meals of Artic Char in the past week.  Char is a cold water fish and is loaded with healthy omega-3 fats just like wild salmon and trout.

Char also has a very mild taste so is good for people that don't like a strong "fishy" taste.

It's also interesting to note that Arctic Char is a good source of vitamin D, something that would be extremely important for those living in the arctic due to the lack of vitamin D producing UVB rays from the low sun angle here in the Arctic.  It's almost like nature's perfect gift to those living in extreme northern latitudes that some of the native foods here naturally contain vitamin D since you can't produce vitamin D from the sun most months of the year in the Arctic.

4.  Moose meat -- Everything I described with the reindeer meat basically applies with moose meat as well.  We've had a couple very delicious and nutritious dinners here in Sweden made from moose meat.  

5.  Root vegetables  --  Carrots, turnips, potatoes, parsnips, and other root vegetables have been frequent additions to meals here as well.  These add good nutrition full of vitamins and minerals to meals during the long winters when many fresh vegetables would not be available without modern day long distance importing.

These are an important part of the traditional cuisine here to round out the nutrition.

6.  Other traditional foods -- Two other notable common foods here also seem to be cultured dairy (such as various yogurts and kefirs) as well as pickled herring or other pickled fish.

The cultured dairy foods here are incredible sources of gut-healing and immune-boosting probiotics, and due to the friendly bacteria in them, are the most digestible forms of dairy, and best tolerated.

The pickled herring was a very curious thing for me to try, and although others in our group did not like the taste, I actually enjoyed the herring.  And herring is a great source of omega-3 fats as well as vitamin D. 

Overall, although junk food is still readily available in the cities here, those that rely on the traditional diet of the Arctic culture here will enjoy robust health benefits from these foods.

Although these specific foods may be hard to find in many countries, there's something to be learned from this style of nutritious traditional diet... find game meats, grass-fed meats, and wild fish as often as you can and in as much variety as you can, and utilize the benefits of wild berries and root vegetables as often as you can as well!

More reading...

How does temperature affect your fat loss efforts?

This fruit increased fat loss after 12 weeks

Is "paleo" the best way to eat, or not?

PS -- if you liked today's article, please fwd this email on to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that would enjoy it.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer