"If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t."
"Don’t eat any food that needs to be advertised on television."
"It’s not food, if it has the same name in all languages."
Michael Pollan, In Defence Of Food, An Eater’s Manifesto. posted by Juergen 10:00 AM
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
:: PRESS RELEASE - EU rule is bitter pill to swallow ::
A local health food store has likened a new EU Directive to ‘using a sledgehammer to crack a nut’.
Remedies Health Store, Abbeyside, which stocks a wide range of herbal and food supplements, has said that a new EU law requiring natural supplements to undergo testing is expensive and unnecessary.
Owner Mr. Jürgen Denzinger, who has been in business for more than 15 years said: “There is already ample regulation under food law to safeguard the public from unhealthy products.
The Directive is discriminatory against herbals from outside the EU to the detriment of Chinese and ayurvedic traditions and is prohibitively expensive for the low-run traditional indigenous herbs.
The Directive will force customers underground to buy their herbal supplements online from potentially unscrupulous suppliers."
The EU Traditional Herbal Products Directive (THMPD) requires all herbal medicinal products to obtain an authorisation to be sold within the EU. A company needs to demonstrate that the herbal medicine has been in use within the EU for at least 30 years or 15 years within the EU and 30 years outside the EU.
A petition to ‘Save Herbal Medicine’ has secured nearly half a million signatures from supporters in just two days calling for the suspension of the directive.
The petition organisers say the THMPD is a “draconian move that helps drug companies and ignores thousands of years of medical knowledge”.
“If this directive is not challenged, it will lead to very restricted access to a much smaller range of herbal products,” he added. posted by Juergen 9:07 AM
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
:: You & Me & THMPD ::
As retailers, we all care passionately about our business and the Natural Health Industry. We want our customers to have the right to choose what is right for them, with regard to herbal medicine.
With the new Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) coming into force on May 1st 2011, choices will be restricted, products will disappear from the shelves and the consumer will have less control over their own health.
Thanks to Alan Martin from Food for Thought, Surrey, UK for the following video.
We stock over 700 single homoeopathic remedies.
Dispensing charge is normally €9. For a limited time we have reduced it to €7.
This applies to all 6c and 30c potencies. posted by Juergen 2:02 PM
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Dear friends and fellow adventurers,
any homeopaths brave enough to come with Jan Scholten to Africa from the 12th - 19th March -???-
The experience we are offering is leading edge homeopathy. The chance to live and breathe
homeopathy for a week on a beautiful island in Africa. Immerse yourself in the plant and marine life of Lamu Kenya and discover new insights into remedy prescribing.
Stunning sundowners after an inspiring day guaranteed. Take the plunge.
best wishes / yoroshiku onegai shimasu /
saludos cordiales / meilleures salutations / mit freundlichen Gruessen
Kate & Jürgen posted by Juergen 9:01 AM
Friday, November 05, 2010
:: Food for thought ::
An easy, basic rule to check whether something is going to be nutritious and good for you is to work out what it was, when it fell off a tree or grew out of the ground. The longer it takes you to suss it out, the more processed and therefore less beneficial it will be. Rice is easy, rice crispies are slightly more complicated, marshmallow squares will take you about an hour to figure out.
"If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty." Sir Paul McCartney. posted by Juergen 2:24 PM
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Traditional herbs are threatened by upcoming EU legislation
Udo Erasmus will be on the Marion Finucane radio show on RTE1 tomorrow at around midday. He will be on TV3 breakfast show on Tuesday morning. He is also booked in to do radio interviews on Limerick Live 95, East Coast FM, KFM Kildare and WLR.
The theme of his visit is the benefits of Essential Fatty Acids and how we can incorporate these into our food and as part of that he will be promoting his book Omega 3 Cuisine. > www.udoerasmus.com posted by Juergen 3:07 PM
HOW IT WORKS: Whilst Solidago has diuretic action, this is not the prime role of the plant. Solidago, aka. Golden Rod, has been shown to have important anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic and antiseptic action and seems to strengthen kidney function.
This makes it useful as an agent to counter inflammation and irritation of the kidneys, when infection or stones are present. The diuretic action is also useful in helping to dissolve kidney stones. posted by Juergen 8:44 PM
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
:: Rude Health Show - RDS, Dublin, Sat. 11th - Sun. 12th September ::
Call into our store for your free ticket worth €12.
Visit > rudehealth.ie for all events, talks and a list of exhibitors. posted by Juergen 3:02 PM
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
:: GM-FREE LABEL TO HELP FOOD SALES ::
A GM-free label for Irish food is to be introduced by the government next year in a bid to boost sales abroad. Ciaran Cuffe, the food minister, is consulting officials in the Department of Agriculture about how best to achieve verification and testing for the label ahead of its planned launch.
"Over 70% of consumers in Europe want their food to be GM-free, so there is a big commercial aspect to this," said a spokespan for Cuffe. "At this point it's realistic to say we'll be launching the label next year."
:: Taking vitamin B or C can help prevent a hangover ::
This is true, because both the B vitamins and vitamin C help your liver detoxify alcohol.
Here’s what I recommend: at a party, be sure to drink as much water as alcohol. Then, before you go to bed, take 2000mg of vitamin C and a heaped spoonful of glutamine powder in water (approximately 5 grams). Do the same when you wake up, and have a hearty breakfast with your daily supplements, including some extra B vitamins in a B Complex formula.
PACE Health Committee denounces ‘unjustified scare’ of Swine Flu, waste of public money.
So, for many, it won’t be such a big surprise, that we’ve also heard that the three scientists who authored the World Health Organization guidance document for the swine flu pandemic were in the pay of the drug companies. The very drug companies due to profit so much from stockpiles of vaccines, if governments could be persuaded to stockpile. Once again we get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes corporate puppeteering that compromises our freedoms. Such manipulation resulted in an estimated £1bn wasted stockpile of drugs and vaccines and officials are now attempting to unpick expensive drug contracts.
How many more worthy causes could that money have been spent on? Using independent expertise to save the delicate natural ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico from oil emanating from BP’s deep sea drilling disaster is one that comes to mind just now, especially given the foot-dragging from BP. But coming back to the swine flu debacle, apart from money, just how much anxiety, fear and suffering could have been avoided? posted by Juergen 8:08 AM
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) Intl’s Robert Verkerk went head to head with Basil Mathioudakis, head of the food law unit at the European Commission, at the end of April over ANH-Europe and the Irish Association of Health Stores’ petition to the European Parliament (EP) on Maximum Permitted Levels.
It was a win for common sense when the EP Petitions Committee unanimously agreed to keep open the ANH's and four related petitions, that questioned how the European regulators were going about limiting maximum levels of vitamins and minerals to potentially ridiculously low levels. posted by Juergen 10:22 PM
Monday, April 26, 2010
:: WHEATGRASS JUICE ::
Wheatgrass Juice is the liquid extracted from the sprouts of hard red winter wheat harvested at the stage immediately prior to the appearance of the first true jointing of the plant stem as it grows from seed.
A primary ingredient in the wheatgrass juice is the chlorophyll that gives the juice its distinctively green appearance. It not only possesses chlorophyll, but, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes.
Wheatgrass is a complete protein in that it contains all amino acids.
Wheat, and or its “relatives” (means any kernel belonging to the “wheat” family) is the only seed known to have the ability to take up 90 or more minerals [during its life cycle] in its germination process - which is in effect, close to all known minerals. This means that if grown with availability of nutrients, in the proper environment, wheatgrass will be very nutrient dense due to its incredible genetic design.
Enzymes are important for every function in the body. Digestive enzymes such as amylase and protease are found in wheatgrass juice. This is desirable since the body does not have to produce these in order to perform the digestive function of “processing” the wheatgrass juice. Wheatgrass, in its raw state is abundant in enzymes. Juice that has been pasteurised (heat treated) will have lost most or all of its enzymes. Juice that has been spray dried will also have been subjected to high temperatures.
Join us on Thursday April 29th for a delicious in-store tasting of wheat grass and broccoli juices, all grown and squeezed in Wexford. posted by Juergen 11:44 AM
Thursday, April 08, 2010
:: NAC - willpower in a capsule ::
There has been some ground breaking research done over the last three years into a natural product called NAC or N-acetylcysteine, as it is known technically. The research shows that NAC may help restore an imbalance in the part of the brain that deals with cravings and addictions. This part of the brain is called the nucleus accumbens. NAC may help to restore extracellular glutamate concentration in the nucleus accumbens. This may sound very grand and scientific, but it basically means NAC may have the potential to help the brain to switch off the desire to smoke by correcting a chemical imbalance.
The possibility for use in other areas of addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling etc.) is very exciting. It is to be hoped the scientific community continue the research into this potentially life changing natural product.
NAC+ capsules, which also contain glutamine, cinnamon and chromium can also be effective to combat food cravings (which can be a problem when trying to quit smoking). posted by Juergen 11:36 AM
Saturday, March 13, 2010
:: Herbal throat spray trial ::
A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study*, carried out to compare the results of using an Echinacea based throat spray with those of a pharmaceutical throat spray in patients with acute sore throats, has recently been published in Herbalgram No.83 (Feb-April 2010), the journal of the American Botanical Council.
The study was most encouraging, as it showed that the herbal throat spray (a mixture of echinacea and sage extracts) performed as well as its medication-based counterpart.
Sore throats are among the most common complaints encountered in general medical practice and generally occur in conjunction with upper respiratory tract infections. Viral infections account for at least 65% of all sore throats, so the use of antibiotics only plays a minor part in the treatment of sore throats.
This trial was conducted at 11 medical practices in the Swiss cantons of St Gallen, Zürich and Aargau. 151 patients were recruited, aged between 12 and 75, with acute pharyngitis or tonsillitis with throat pain and inflammation of the pharynx and/or tonsils, and onset of the sore throat less than 72 hours prior to the start of the study. The study was continued until the patients were symptom-free, up to a maximum of 5 days.
Each patient was given a patient diary. He or she had to rate their sore throat symptoms (difficulty swallowing, salivation, redness and fever) every morning before administering the first dose of treatment, at midday and in the evening.
The combined response rates showed that the echinacea and sage based throat spray was as good as the pharmaceutical spray for the resolution of symptoms of sore throat. There were no serious or otherwise significant adverse events in either group, and 94% of the Echinacea group said they’d use the product again. It is always gratifying to have clinical research such as this confirm the benefits of a herbal product.
*Reference: Schapowal A, Berger D, Klein P, Suter A. Echinacea/sage or chlorhexidine/lidocaine for treating acute sore throats: a randomized double-blind trial. Europ J Med Res.2009;14(9):406-412. posted by Juergen 2:47 PM
Monday, January 11, 2010
:: Cookery Demonstrations with Jess Keane: Detox ::
Too much wine and too many chocolates over Christmas? Get a simple three step approach to a healthy and effective detox using real food and easy, delicious recipes full of goodness. Handouts will include quick and tempting recipes and a shopping list.
Tannery Cookery School, Dungarvan - Friday, January 15th 2010, 7-9pm > More ... posted by Juergen 7:55 AM
