Greetings, gracious viewers to today’s episode of Healthy Living. Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day, with thousands of events being held around the world to mark the political, social and economic achievements of women. In honor of this day, our program features excerpts of interviews with physicians, nutritionists, and dietary experts regarding the direct relation between diet and the health status of women.

We begin with the consumption of animal products and the very negative effects they have on the female reproductive system. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, an esteemed nutritional biochemist from the United States, and author of the acclaimed book “The China Study” provides his observations on the consequences of the intake of dairy-based foods:

Dairy food has certain characteristics with it that when, especially young people, in this case, young girls, are consuming dairy, for example, to hopefully to get stronger bones and teeth and to grow faster, as the ads have indicated, they actually then reach the age of menarche or their reproductive lives earlier.

So they reach the age of menarche earlier, their circulating estrogen levels are higher; they remain high as long as they consume that kind of diet; they stop their reproductive life later, they have a longer period, more estrogen exposure, all in large measure related to the kind of diet they’re consuming. So I would argue that as far as food is concerned, animal food is a problem, especially dairy food. I think we should just simply not be feeding dairy food to our young people and older people either.

By contrast, soy, a plant-based food, has a healing effect for those undergoing menopause.

Soybeans, tofu also provides proteins to women who are at the age of menopause or are post-menopausal. An estimated 60 grams daily, distributed throughout the day, from morning till evening of soy will stop all these symptoms of menopause or the climacteric.

The World Health Organization says that breast cancer is the most common form of cancer for women in both the developing and developed countries. In particular, the health body cites the adoption of “western lifestyles” as one of the main reasons for the increasing trend of this cancer in developing nations. In the West, large amounts of meat and dairy products have become a part of the standard diet with disastrous health consequences being the result.

Breast cancer is very complex from a biological perspective, and unfortunately, over the years, we’ve studied that it has various factors that might be related in isolation. So we’ve learned some things, but it’s quite controversial and debatable, if people focus on these individual studies and individual entities.

When, however, you put all this together in a holistic kind of interpretation, and look at things collectively, it becomes quite clear to me that breast cancer is a disease of the West. It has been noted by many people, breast cancer starts to emerge as we start consuming more animal-based foods, especially dairy.

Studies that show that women in Asia, for example, have less breast-cancer than women over here in North America, and that can be attributed, to their intake of soy products. There’s just so many things related, but it all goes back to the fact that it doesn't have cholesterol. It doesn't have the fat. It doesn't have those types of things that bring on disease.

Osteoporosis, or bone density loss, is most commonly found in women after menopause, particularly those ages 45 to 55. According to the International Osteoporosis Institute, one-third of women over 50 will experience osteoporotic fractures and annually 1.6 million hip fractures due to osteoporosis occur worldwide, with some predicting this number could reach between 4.5 million and 6.3 million by 2050. What can be done to stem this health epidemic?

We’re given information to think that milk protects us against osteoporosis and taking calcium protects us against osteoporosis. And it’s really more a vitamin D and exercise issue, not a milk or a calcium issue.

People who take calcium from milk and eat a lot of animal products, the acid production and the acids being secreted by the digestive tract which is caused by all the high protein animal products, that high protein causes more pressure on the kidneys, and the acid causes more calcium to be leached out of the bones and we lose much more calcium in the urine from the diet high in animal protein. So we lose too much calcium if our diet is too high animal protein.

We need some calcium in the diet. We need much more vitamin D, much more of those other nutrients found in green vegetables, because green vegetables and sesame seeds are also high in calcium, but they also have vitamin K, and other phytochemicals that are important for your bone health.

So the main message here is that don’t rely on medications for osteoporosis, don’t think calcium is enough and don’t think drinking milk is going to protect you; it’s not! We have to exercise vigorously, we have to hop and jump and bend and do things to use our bones and keep our legs and our back strong.

After these messages, we will present more information regarding the direct relation between diet and the health status of women. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

I think we have to start understanding that the earth works in a whole , you know if we do body good, we'll be doing the environment good and the environment will be doing us good.

Welcome back to Healthy Living for our program commemorating International Women’s Day 2010 by featuring the perspective of various physicians, nutritionists, and dietary experts on women’s health issues and their relation to diet.

For older women, Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia or impairment of cognitive abilities in areas such as memory and thinking due to brain cell loss, is increasingly becoming an issue. Women are twice as likely as men of similar age to experience late-onset Alzheimer’s, a form of the condition occurring after age 65.

Dr. Steven Pratt, author of “Superfoods Rx: Fourteen Foods Proven to Change Your Life” refers to blueberries as “brainberries” for their beneficial effects on brain health. Recently the US-based magazine Health, named blueberries as number two on their list of “America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women” for, among other reasons, protecting our cells and thus possibly helping to prevent Alzheimer’s.

You’ve probably heard that the berries are good for your brain, the blueberries and raspberries and pomegranates are really good for your brain. Well, they’re very rich in many phytochemicals; ellagic acid happens to be one of them. There are thousands of phytochemicals that are found in foods and we’re just now discovering some of those and the powerful effects that they have on the brain. They can protect the cells from damage, and then if the cells are damaged it actually goes in and repairs the damage.

There are some colors like purple, some blueberries or berries that are also associated with powerful anti-aging antioxidants. With cellular aging, one grows older cell by cell, not year by year. One may be old at 30 or young at 60 years of age. Everything depends on our brain cells remaining young.

It is already known that our brain can get neurons back and that memory is related to the length of the brain dendrites and in turn that we can achieve such long dendrites with certain proper food.

Recently a hot topic in women’s health is whether women have sufficient levels of vitamin D in their bodies. A lack of vitamin D has been linked to many health conditions such as depression, heart disease, birth defects, skin and other cancers, and multiple sclerosis. We get approximately 90% of our vitamin D from our exposure to the Sun, thus making our nearest star the simplest source of nutrition around!

In several studies a correlation has been shown between those who succumb more frequently to colds and flus and low levels of vitamin D. For example, researchers at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York, USA found that when Afro-Caribbean women were given vitamin D supplements for three years, they reduced their incidence of cold and flu infections by 70 percent. The study suggested that because the melanin in darker skin slows vitamin D production when in sunlight, these women were previously deficient in the vitamin.

So getting out there and getting some fresh air, the vitamin D that we get from the sunshine affects the health of the brain, affects the immune system of the body. So it’s a package; to have a healthy brain means having a healthy lifestyle. Also having a healthy brain are the thoughts that we think, what’s going on and what do I say when I talk to myself, because negative thinking can affect health and it can affect the brain.

What am I surrounding myself with? What’s the external environment? So, creating a positive environment, and I think it’s very important to have a healthy brain to share love with each other, to have relationships with other people. It expands those neural connections.

Finally, for innumerable reasons, spiritual “food” is the ultimate key to maintaining good health for both men and women.

Our body, our physical is connected to our mental, which is connected to our spiritual so they all work as one. They can each boost the other, but when I take care of myself physically, that’s going to affect me mentally, and that’s going to perhaps have an effect on my desire for spiritual things as well.

We have found that social connections affect the health of the brain and also having a relationship with God and trusting so that we are not filled with anxiety, that we’re filled with peace and joy. And that we know that things will work out, and that we can depend, and that we have a God that’s going to take care of us. And I think that can make all the difference.

Happiness is your immune system. Happiness, joy, love, not receiving love, giving, if you’re doing these things, if you’re able to find a source to give love to, if you’re able to be happy with the life you’ve got. That’s what your immune system is, is your soul’s happiness with being in your body.

Beauty doesn’t always come from the face or the body. Beauty from inside. There are two kinds of beauty. The beauty from inside is always everlasting and always endearing to everybody. So what I mean is, we have to be beautiful inside out.

Our sincere thanks goes to all the experts featured on today’s program for their wise thoughts and guidance on women’s health issues. We wish all viewers a very splendid International Women’s Day 2010 and that you always enjoy the very best of health through the nutritious and delicious organic vegan diet and compassionate living.

Thank you for joining us on today’s Healthy Living. Up next is Science and Spirituality after Noteworthy News. May all be endowed with blessed health, beauty and happiness as well as the love and light of Heaven.