GoodnessDirect Blog – Health foods & healthy lifestyles for you & your planet

Winning formula for beautiful skin

11 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

When you suffer from skin problems the instinctive thing to do is to take care of your skin more throughly. The trouble is it’s possible to hinder skincare more than you help it. Even when girls use mum’s cosmetics it can spell problems because they won’t necessarily have the same skin type.

If you suffer from spots and acne you might start washing your face twice daily or more to get rid of the bacteria. But the best thing you can do is speak to your doctor, washing your face in the morning (but not at night) can actually destroy your skin’s defences. It’s far better to wash your face before you go to bed and let your skin build up it’s natural protective barrier.

The skin’s natural protection is called the acid mantle, it helps to hold in your skin’s moisture and keep it free from infection. However it is neutralised by using alkaline soaps. Using a cleanser which is mildly acidic itself will strengthen the skin’s acidic shield and form the basis for daily skin care and a lifetime of beautiful skin.

This year, Yin Yang’s Skin Cleanser was winner in the Natural Health Beauty Awards as a “great morning cleanser, which gives the skin a dose of refreshment thanks to the witch hazel and uplifting orange essential oils.” Witch hazel, coconut oil and the essential orange oil are all naturally mildly acidic ingredients but, notably, there is no soap or detergent.

Yin Yang’s first priority has always been to use natural products to make the skin healthy because healthy skin is beautiful skin. They base their products on plants which will deliver the proteins you need straight to your skin and their green credentials are very strong.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Beauty · Skin
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Raymond Blanc ‘approves’ Sweet Freedom

11 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Sweet Freedom

Sweetener made from just apples, grapes and carob

Are you familiar with Sweet Freedom? It’s the low GI (glycaemic index) sweetener that you can use instead of sugar or honey and it is made just from apples, grapes and carob. Excellent for Vegans and those wanting to avoid animal products, excellent for those who don’t want a sugar rush from sucrose. Excellent all round really…and now it’s been discovered by Raymond Blanc.

Deborah from Diet Freedom explains:
“Here we were busily working away on all things Diet Freedom when the phone rings and a lovely lady from Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (Raymond Blanc’s famous restaurant in Oxfordshire) asked if she could set up an account and order Sweet Freedom as Raymond would like to serve at Le Manoir with coffee, teas etc!!! Well … we didn’t have to think about that one too long as you can imagine. They do not want to offer anything artificial to their customers apparently and rather than decant they are going to offer in our ‘very practical’ bottles too!

And then two weeks later, low and behold more excitement at DF HQ when Raymond’s amazing head chef GaryJones, ordered more to use in the kitchen as well … we are very flattered that they seem to love it as much as we do!”

 

Sweet freedom can be used exactly as you would sugar or honey: use to sweeten all hot and cold drinks, bake ‘no added sugar’ muffins, cakes, flapjacks, brownies and puddings plus make desserts such as ice cream, cheesecake, mousses, drizzle over porridge and cereal and tastes great on toast instead of honey or jam.

Low Glycaemic Index

As Sweet Freedom is made from fruit it is absorbed slowly into your system and doesn’t peak your blood sugar levels in the same way as sucrose would.  The rate at which a sweetener is absorebed into our blood can be measured and this indexed and called the GI (Glycaemic Index)  or  GL (Glycaemic Load).  Sweet Freedom has a low Glycaemix Index and load.  (More on Glycaemic values) Because of this Sweet Freedom would be the preferred sweetener for  for weight management.  It has  25% less calories than sugar plus you can use 25% less. It is also suitable for diabetics and vegans. Top down squeezy bottle with drip free cap means really easy to use and no mess.

Sweet Freedom is available in two varieties,  Mild and Rich. Both are multi-purpose syrups but the Mild is best for tea as it’s the most neutral and sugar like, the Rich has a lovely toffee like taste.

Suitable for Vegans

Sweet Freedom sweetener is suitable for the following dietary types:

Diabetics, vegans, those avoiding sugar and on a ‘no added sugar’ diet, gluten free, gluten and casein free diet, dairy free, egg free, low fat , lactose free, wheat free, yeast free, and soya free diets.

As well as Raymond Blanc, Sweet Freedom has also been discovered and recommended by the  ‘queen of natural products’ Janey Lee Grace, co-presenter Radio 2 with Steve Wright and The Wright Stuff, Channel 5. Janey says: “This is a Godsend, the kids love it on porridge and we use it for making bread – a wonder product!”

Nutritional Information

For those of us who read the labels, the nutritional breakdown is:

Per 100g:
Energy 1252kJ/299kcal, Carbohydrate 77g (of which sugars 77g), Fat 0 (of which saturates 0g), Protein 0g, Fibre 0g, Sodium less than 0.05g

 

Sweet Freedom, we are proud of you.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Diet · Low GL (Glycaemic Load) · Vegan · Weight-Loss
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Raw Vegan Chocolate Fudge Balls

9 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Squashing together delicious ingredients and forming them into balls or bars becomes the norm for those wanting to keep it RAW. These basic chocolate fudge balls are no exception. The name is a little deceiving really as personally I don’t like conventional fudge, and so could be easily put off. These balls are just dates, cashews and cocoa with a few optional extras to throw in or roll in as the fancy takes you.

Ingredients:

40g raw cashews

6 dates (pitted)

1 Dessert spoon cocoa

It is so simple – First grind the cashews in a blender, the finer the better as they give a smoother texture.

Then add the dates to the blender and blend again.

Add the cocoa powder.  The mix will take a bit more than the dessertspoon so you can go up to a tablespoon to suit your taste.

Reblend until the whole mix is a solid lump.  Stop blending here, remove and chill a little so it is not too gloopy to handle.

Form into balls.  You can roll the balls in anything you fancy to make them less sticky.  My favourite is raw cacao nibs, but others include more ground cashews, ground hazels or almonds, cocoa, coconut or icing sugar.

It is also simple to add any flavourings, a little mint or vanilla or orange oil for example.  Using biscuit cutters to get star shapes gives a little variety too.

 

 

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Chocolate · Dairy Free · Diet · Egg free · Fruit · General Food · Gluten-Free · Nuts · Raw · Recipes · Vegan · Vegetarian
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Sensitive to certain foods? You are not alone

6 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

(but you can win a recipe book…)

Sensitivity to certain foods has risen in the UK at a shocking rate. It is now estimated that 45% of people are believed to suffer from some sort of food intolerance. For such a massive percentage there is also still quite alot of ignorance around about intolerances. The latest edition of the BBC Good Food magazine mistakenly reported that spelt was gluten free! A serious error as spelt is a strain of wheat and does contain gluten. Interestingly the government are conducting a public consultation which could result in many foods being labelled as ‘gluten-free’ (must not exceed 20mg/kg of gluten) and ‘very low gluten’ (must not exceed 100mg/kg of gluten). You may be interested in offering your thoughts. One of the benefits however is that more companies are producing food which folk with intolerances can eat such as G-Free pies and pastries.

Win a recipe book

I’m always interested in the new foodie experiments that coeliacs come up with. One blog I was following was investigating how much rice flour can replace wheat flour in everyday food (unfortunately I’ve lost the link – if anyone knows which blog I mean please let me know!) So, it’s with some reluctance that I have to part with a book entitled ‘The Best Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes’ by Grace Cheetham, but I know one lucky winner will treasure it. Just for you to sample here’s one of the recipes…

Salmon Fishcakes

Serves 4

500g/1lb 2oz salmon fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
500g/1lb 2oz potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 large eggs, beaten
gram flour, for dusting
polenta or maize flour, for dusting
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Place the salmon in an oven proof dish and drizzle over half of the oil. Cover and bake in the hot oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.
2 Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Place over a high heat, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain, return to the saucepan and heat gently for 1-2 minutes to dry out. Mash coarsely.
3 Take the salmon out of the oven, remove and discard the skin and any brown meat, and flake with a fork, reserving any juices. Mix together the flaked salmon, mashed potatoes, half the beaten eggs, the reserved cooking juices and some slat and pepper, taking care not to break up the fish too much. With wet hands, shape the salmon mixture into eight balls, then flatten them slightly to form fishcakes.
4 Spread the gram flour out on a plate and the polenta or maize flour out on a second plate. Dip each fishcake into the gram flour to coat it, then into the remaining beaten egg, then finally into the polenta or maize flour until well coated. Place on a clean plate, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
5 Heat the remaining oil in a large, heavy based frying pan over a medium heat. Add half the fishcakes and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Keep warm while you cook the remaining fishcakes. Serve with vegetables or mixed salad leaves.

The book is full of recipes for breakfasts, lunchtime snacks, teatime treats, family meals, side dishes and decadent deserts. Mmmm, need I say more? If you want to get your hands on this coveted compendium send me an email and I’ll pick the lucky winner out of a hat.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Coeliac (Gluten-Free) · Coeliac Disease · Gluten-Free · Uncategorized

Goat’s milk. A healthier pint?

6 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

When I was young myself, my mum suggested I change my milk to goats milk to help with asthma and eczema. This wasn’t a scientific experiment, so I can’t say categorically, but I think it helped.

Delamere Dairy produce a goat’s milk range; award winning goat’s milk cheeses; yoghurt and butter which are stocked by GoodnessDirect. Goat’s milk is reputedly very good in cosmetics and cooking but, of course, many people use it if they are wanting to avoid casein or cannot digest lactose. Although goat’s milk does contain lactose it has been seen to be easier to digest than that present in cows milk and so is acceptable to some who would otherwise avoid it. Goat’s milk is also high in calcium, low in cholesterol, and in general much easier to digest than cow’s milk, so perhaps it’s not surprising that goat’s milk is more widely used around the world than cow’s milk. Cow’s milk is renowned for creating mucus, but not so goat’s milk. So if you are a catarrh sufferer try it out.

Check out the Delamere links for more info on all things goatish.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Allergy · Asthma
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Avoid HRT, try out a natural menopause aid

5 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Don’t do it! Not unless you absolutely feel cornered and desperate.

HRT, hormone replacement therapy has been seen to increase your risk of developing various serious health conditions by huge percentages. The US Women’s Health Initiative did a study which published the following results for increased risk through taking a hormone replacement therapy during the menopause:

Coronary heart disease-related events 29%
Stroke, 41%
Deep vein thromobosis, 200%
Blood clot in lungs, over 200%
Invasive breast cancer 24%
All cancers among previous HRT users 86%
Ovarian cancer 38%
Lung cancer 60%.

These are results not to be sniffed at. Having just crawled my way through the menopause I would emphatically like to say to you all, try the natural products first. They are milder, but HRT, as these statistics show,  is simply not worth the risk except as a last resort.

What is the Menopause?

Menopause means – the last menstrual period and can take place from the age of 45 onwards. The average for the menopause is around 51, but thankfully we are all different. Different in the way the menopause affects us and different in how we choose to manage our menopause symptoms. Typical symptoms include hot flushes, mood swings, vaginal dryness, night sweats plus loss of concentration. In addition to this, the menopause increases our risk of heart disease and osteoporosis.

Natural and complimentary helps

All of us need a little extra support and understanding during these years, and many of us need a little extra help in the form of medication. Let’s take a look at the natural remedies and complementary therapies available.  Some help in a preventative way, some help to relax, some are renowned for calming hot flushes or vaginal dryness and others just great for all round health in the menopause years. As a basic foundation a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement would be a good idea at this time especially Vitamin E and C and Vitamin B complex.

Let’s take a look at the more specific natural alternatives:
Black Cohosh – a herbal preperation from the herb Actaea racemosa of the buttercup family, good at driving away insects and the preparation is thought to help keep at bay hot flushes, help reduce insomnia, depression and night sweats. Being a herbal remedy, black cohosh is mild and while it does help some with some of these symptoms, it does not help everyone.  My conclusion is that it is well worth a try before heading down the HRT path.  The trials that have been done on Black Cohosh tried it for 2 months taking 20mg twice a day.

Sea Buckthorn Oil – An oil from the sea buckthorn plant ( a Himalayan shrub) which is rich in essential fatty acids including omega 7 which is extremely effective in maintaining the health of the mucous membranes of our bodies including the vaginal tract. This little capsule should  help with vaginal dryness – that very embarrassing and little mentioned symptom of the menopause.

Soya Isoflavones -  Isoflavones are antioxidants that also act as phytoestrogens and are know to help fight against certain types of breast cancer.  Soya beans are rich in these isoflavones. However is not with breast cancer that we are primarily concerned in this article.  On the run up to the menopause(the perimenopause)  the ovaries lose the ability to produce estrogen and progesterone. The diminishing production of estrogen can be central to mood fluctuation, irritability as well as diminishing bone density. By supplementing with isoflavones, the natural hormone replacement,  these symptoms may be eased. Again, not strong enough for all women but well worth a try as there are many positive trial results that give isoflvones from soy or red clover its name of the natural HRT hormone.

I scraped through the menopause the natural way, and now reading the HRT statistics, I am very grateful that they are there to try.  Even if they are not everyones cup of tea, they are cerainly mine.

 

 

 

 

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Antioxidants · Bones · Cancer · Complementary Health · Menpause · Women's Health
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GoodnessDirect Customer Comments & feedback

4 November, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Thanks for all the compliments we get about our products and our service, we are overwhelmed!

A *more* than perfect shopping experience – as always! Thanks!!!  S Bright

Excellent as always. Brilliant customer service., super quick delivery plus superb products equals an unbeatable company to deal with :) N Quinn

Our first experience of shopping with you was a joy – the site was easy to use and delivery was super-fast . We will definitely be shopping with you again. Best wishes Jenny and Kevin.

I think this is a great site.  It has just the products I want and at the quality I want.  Seervice is second to none.  Well done and keep up the excellent work.  Oh and thank you very much  -  Viccy Hall

Excellent – the only online delivery service I have found that gives me stuff I would choose
for myself rather than tired fruit. J Simpson

Great web site. Recommended by my nutritionist. L Lazaro-Keen.

Order was received in excellent condition , and arrived within forty eight hours, which is excellent for orders to the channel islands.
I can always rely on excellent service from Goodness Direct. Many thanks. F Ferguson

The service you provide is absolutely fantastic – to offer selection of delivery day is particularly brilliant. J Braithwaite

I didn’t have fresh product, but my merchandise arrived in very good condition and well packaged.  Your site was very user friendly.  I found exactly what I wanted at a very good price.  I will visit site again soon for further offers.  L Clark

You’re one of only a handful of places I can get barley flour! K Humphries

I was extremely pleased with the speed with which my order was processed and arrived. The website was really friendly and easy to use – not at all frustrating! Thank you. J Barber
You seem to need to know the brand names to find some things on your site. Better cross referencing might be helpful? Great service though, and fabulous choice! thanks! L Husband

Dark chocolate covered raisins in smaller quantities, please!
You guys are still the best!  A Vine

First order, as we can no longer fine items in local health shops. Excellent service, will definitely shop again. B Roberts

I used to buy Blue Dragon silken tofu in my local Asda, but it was discontinued about a year ago. I tried to find another supplier at the time but couldn’t. On this occasion, I found a few websites that supplied it but I felt yours was the best. I have been extremely impressed with the whole ordering experience – you seem to have everything covered and I will definitely continue to buy this product from you. The only negative I can find is that you don’t have an excellent option on your feedback form! S Common

Found your service excellent and really helpful for someone needing to change their eating pattern seriously. S Gardiner

Very impressed with the speedy delivery. Also, the order was well packed and the food first class. 10 out of 10 on all counts. R Webster.

Items that fall into more than one category sometimes take time to find, eg potato starch flour. Also, the gluten-free section included lots of items possibly with gluten traces, so I had to check the details of every one. It would be helpful if categorisation was clearer and more watertight. J Hickman

Excellent service. Many organisations heavily underestimate the importance of postage and packing free. It so obviously defines whether you place a small order or not. Our family have always been of the opinion that say 5% added to the cost of all goods but never charging p and p would invite many more small /medium orders. D Harris

My order arrived the day after it was placed – a really excellent and efficient service. The goods were very well packed. Thank you, Thelma

My wife is a coeliac. Your service was superb. Could not be better. We’ll be back!. Thanks. M Rainey

A most satisfactory order outcome, my continued custom is guaranteed, many thanks. S Scott.

I didn’t buy these things for me, but for my mum, who’s a vegan. so as these sites are not my natural habitat it’s really helpful to find a site like yours, which is clear, easy to use and hassle-free. Thanks very much. A Schenkl

Your service was better than some of the bigger well-known websites – thank you very much for goods delivered on time and in good condition! R Martin.

One of the easiest eco-shopping sites I’ve used – very good. A Outram
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is just a note to say thank you so much, my order arrived safely today. The speed and efficiency of the service you provide is exemplary. Considering the seasonal goods I ordered, and how close to the required date we are now, every effort has been made to get my order to me before Easter. The is my first dealing with you and because of this occasion I will be a returning customer from now on. You should be very proud of yourselves. You have an excellent company and brilliant staff.
Yours Faithfully C Aldridge

I’m really happy with the service and products, would definitely recommend to others and will be using you again. Thanx. Y Fayyaz

Dear Goodness Direct,

Just received my delivery-its’ the first time I have ordered vegetables from you. I wanted to say Thank You- it felt as if everything in the boxes had been packed with tender loving care-the veg smell delicious-and I had some truly yummy bread (wheat free had to be put on hold it looked so tempting) as a thank you from you. I have previously had a veggie box from Riverford-but I will be changing that to a regular order with you. I follow a macrobiotic eating plan but there is nowhere that stocks macro stuff near to me so a joy to be able to get just about everything I need from the same place. If you had stocked Mooli my day would have been even more perfect.

With brightest blessings to all of you. K Scott

When you offer the best service the only way is down. Please don’t go down. E Edgson

I love you Goodness Direct!!

I’m often overseas working and have 2 small kids, but I know whenever I get home I can trust you to deliver my health stuff ASAP. Just received my parcel..perfect.

Brilliant!
J Watson-Yarngo

Another great shopping experience!!!!Just wish I’d ordered more!!!!
K Roberts

You have best selection of health foods that i have found.
C Neave

Excellent site & excellent service. Many thanks
M Drasdo

Many thanks for the excellent service we received,the items were very well packed and delivered on time.I shall not only use your company again but recommend to friends.
Again many thanks. J Durham

Still the best on-line shopping site. Keep up the good work. S Dunlop

Overall this is a awesome site with awesome service – perhaps one thing i think might benefit the site is if the products had more visual sub-categories – If possible more vegan products : ) I say this on behalf of all my vegan friends as well as it is frustrating when trying to live a compassionate life is made difficult as a result of “lack of products” – Many Thanks again for making life a little easier : ) R Rayner

Overall very impressed and pleased with great service and products from an ethically aware co-operative, keep up the good work folks, as you’re a beacon of hope to health conscious consumers! A Smith

→ Leave a CommentCategories: General Food · GoodnessDirect

Musing on vending machines and kid’s snacks

30 October, 2009 · Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, the vending machines at the leisure centre were my saviour. But I have to admit that while walking through my local leisure centre the other day I was a bit shocked at the foods offered at their ‘greasy spoon’ canteen bar.

I’m not sure though how much I agree with the Heart Foundation’s call to ban snacks from every children’s leisure venue, in addition to the ban in schools (which started this September).

I suppose I was given healthy food at home by my parents and reasonably healthy food at school in the canteen every day. We just didn’t have loads of crisps or sweets or cakes in the house. Cooked meals were always nutritious and appetizing, with a good ol’ serving of carrots and peas, so a little treat now and again didn’t matter. How many times a week will children visit sports venues anyway?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I never ate junk food because I did, I just couldn’t find it in the kitchen cupboard. I had to hunt for it! Five or six years worth of pocket money was spent on crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks, but I’ve never been overweight. Yet today there is a worrying obesity epidemic among children.

I think the saving grace for me was that healthy home-cooked meal. We didn’t get takeaways. That was a luxury! (I think I experienced a Chinese takeaway three times before I turned 18 and I didn’t know KFC existed! McDonald’s however… did get a fair chunk of my pocket money.)

At home dinner and pudding was at about 5.30pm and then that was it… no nibbleys later on. The next meal was breakfast time. During the day, I did plenty of sports at school and lots of running around in the summer holidays or just after school before tea, so I was getting good exercise too.

I feel that while we have a responsibility to guide children to eat good food we can’t live in a nanny-state. It’s how you are trained to live that’s important, not what you buy out of a vending machine now and again. If vending machines do have to stock wholesome snacks then maybe it should be half healthy, half sweet shelf confectionery. There are plenty of handy fruit or nut bars out there with healthier bites and crisps aimed at kids. But do we really need to take away the chocolate treat altogether?

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The best in handmade jams – win a hamper

30 October, 2009 · 3 Comments

It’s been a great year for the fruit harvest. Farmers have been reporting bumper crops, following a perfect mix of rain and sunshine during the summer and ideal conditions earlier in the year. Plums, apples and pears have all had high yields and it’s expected to be a good year for the vineyards too.

One company that will be cherishing the increase is Thursday Cottage, a real cottage industry who make handmade jams, marmalades and curds, which they hope will be the best in the world. They’re not doing too badly either with prestigious awards just recently for their Organic Damson Jam and Lime Curd, and they have a range of their goods displayed at Selfridges.

Nor do they mind the odd experiment, developing mouthwatering preserves like blood orange and pink grapefruit marmalade, nurturing tayberries for a very fine fruit jam or getting into the Christmas spirit with curiosities like tangerine marmalade with cointreau. GoodnessDirect stock their organic range and you may be attracted to their ’special diet’ spreads too. You can visit their website to see their full range of preserves.

With Christmas approaching the humble jam makers would like you to sample their Thursday Cottage wares, so I’ve been sent a fine hamper of preserves, marmalades, curds, and various Christmas titbits including puddings, mincemeat and brandy butter. I’m offering it as a prize draw so send me an email if you want to enter (closing date 6 Novemeber 2009).

→ 3 CommentsCategories: Competitions · GoodnessDirect · Organic
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Green tea heals body and soul

21 October, 2009 · Leave a Comment

My friend recently got into green tea. He was reading a self-help book on how to reduce stress, took the hint and is now practically addicted to the stuff. (It makes for neat little gifts to him: green tea and nettle, green tea with orange and lotus flower, green tea with interesting red bits…)

Because green tea is steamed rather than fermented, like the more familiar black tea, that is what holds its antioxidant and anticancer properties. The latest report out this month is that drinking five cups a day would reduce your risk of getting blood and lymph cancers by over 40%. In fact so well documented is the healing effect of green tea that 1000s of studies now exist into its benefits. My friend thinks he’s drinking something to help him de-stress but he could be helping to prevent heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, osteoporosis and weight-gain. Not bad for a cup of green stuff.

Incidentally, green tea contains half the caffeine of coffee and slightly less than black tea, so you can drink it before bedtime. Since it aids digestion and cleanses the pallet it is also good to drink after a meal or in the afternoon as a pick me up. It is best made with spring or filtered water and usually brewed for only a short time. Personally, I like to drink it before the evening begins as it really does help clear away the day’s stress. If you’re anything like me (or my friend) you’ll find it will help relax you, giving you composure for the twilight hours.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Alzheimer's · Antioxidants · Cancer · Diabetes · Heart and Blood · Insomnia · Joints · Weight-Loss
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