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Acid reflux or reflux esophagitis as it is also referred to, is very common. This usually takes place when the esophagus is inflamed or swells up due to the regurgitation of the things which are inside your stomach. A burning sensation felt within the chest and the stomach (as if you are going to have a heart attack) is one of its major symptoms; hence the term heartburn.

Just like in adults, infant acid reflux is also very common. Once you experience the symptoms, it is best that you find yourself a remedy early on since many experts believe that GERD or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (the other term for acid reflux) can possibly lead to esophageal cancer. Here is a short list of some of the most common causes of acid reflux;

a.) Too much intake of alcoholic beverages
b.) Frequent consumption of fatty and fried foods
c.) Cigarette smoking
d.) High levels of stress
e.) Hormonal imbalance, especially during pregnancy
f.) Regular intake of carbonated drinks
g.) Eating very large meals in one sitting

a.) Cinnamon – This is a very potent cure for heartburn. Cinnamon contains loads of natural healing properties and it is also a great antiseptic. Regular intake of cinnamon will leave a great impact in the health of your stomach as it helps manage the production of gastric juices inside your tummy.

b.) Apple Cider Vinegar – This is another great natural cure for acid reflux. Simply take a teaspoon of apple cider and then dissolve it over a glass of filtered water. Drink this solution three times per day or at best, every each meal. This will also regulate the production of gastric juices and can provide you with an instant relief from the burning pain.

c.) Fresh Fruits – Make sure that you consume lots of fresh fruits such as bananas, papaya, grapefruits, fig to name a few. These said fruits are packed with healthy enzymes and can promote proper digestion.

All of us know someone who has heartburn.  In fact, most all of us have experienced its painful symptoms at one time or another.   If you suffer from chronic heartburn you probably have acid reflux disease.  This disease can be very painful from the burning feeling it causes to the strong chest pain it can produce.

So what can you do if you have it or how can you help the person you know who suffers from chronic heartburn?  Here are three natural remedies for acid reflux diseaseyou can use to help you or a loved one get over this problem.

Papaya is one of my favorite ways to help get rid of the painful symptoms this disease can cause.  This fruit is underutilized in the American diet.   It is a very powerful fruit for preventing and getting rid of disease.  It’s strength for acid reflux comes from the papain enzyme. This enzyme helps digest your food, which is important in helping avoid heartburn.

Pineapple is very close to papaya when it comes to using fruit to help you get rid of this disease.  Pineapple has an enzyme called bromelain.  Bromelain is a natural painkiller that can be used for this and other problems you might have.  Pineapple also has potassium and vitamin C, which like papaya helps you digest your food.

Yogurt is another great remedy for acid reflux.  Yogurt is beneficial, [ad#Probiotic]because it has probiotics in it.  Probiotics help create good bacteria in your intestinal tract.  This is important as it helps create a more favorable digestive environment.  Good digestion reduces stress on the stomach.  Stress on the stomach is one of the major causes of acid reflux symptoms.

Papaya, pineapple and yogurt are very good remedies that help reduce symptoms caused by heartburn.  They should be a part of anyone’s diet for acid reflux disease. I encourage you to give them a try today.

Vitamin A is an essential vitamin that is needed for a variety of important metabolic process in the body. For this reason a deficiency can result in a variety of different disorders such as immune system problems, poor skin health and night blindness among others. As an antioxidant vitamin A also protects our cells from oxidative damage.

Dietary vitamin A is found in both animal products and plant form. Animal products contain actual vitamin A (called retinol) while plant sources, especially specific vegetables, contain carotenoids that can be transformed by the liver into vitamin A. There are more than 600 known carotenoids found in plants, but only 4 of them can be turned into vitamin A: beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, gamma-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin. So these carotenes are also commonly referred to as ‘pro-vitamin A’. To learn more about carotenoids visit what are carotenoids?

Eye health Benefits of Vitamin A
“Eating carrots helps you see in the dark” is an age old belief that is now grounded in solid science. Carrots are abundant in pro-vitamin A carotenoids and vitamin A is essential for seeing in the dark. In fact vitamin A is essential for seeing, period! In the case of our eyes vitamin A is metabolized one step further into another chemical called rhodopsin. Rhodopsin is purple based plant pigment that absorbs light waves and is essential for the eye to see the colors black and white and therefore make sense of its environment in low light. So without rhodopsin we become night blind. Although now a rare condition in more affluent countries, night blindness can still effect people in impoverished regions where they have little access to vitamin A rich vegetables and meat.

Vitamin A benefits for Skin Health and Organs
An adequate supply of vitamin A in our diet is essential for the health and well being of our skin. Vitamin A is needed to create epithelial skin, the outer layer of the skin that we see and is exposed to the environment. Even a slightly inadequate intake of vitamin A can result in a dry flaky appearance of the skin. Also a powerful antioxidant, vitamin A can also protect the epithelial skin cells from harmful toxins in the environment.

Vitamin A is also needed in the creation and maintenance of internal skin structures called epithelium. Epithelium is important for protecting our organs and is necessary for other functions. Epithelium cells in the small intestine are needed for absorbing nutrients from the food we eat. Epithelial cells in the kidney excrete waste products from the body while epithelial cells in the lungs help to remove dust particles and foreign bodies that we breathe in.

Vitamin A and the Immune System
Along with vitamin C and vitamin E, vitamin A is essential to the proper functioning of the immune system. Vitamin A enhances the functioning of certain white blood cells, improves the receptivity of antibodies to antigens and fights off viral infections.

Vitamin A food Sources
Animal: animal livers are one of the best sources of vitamin A because the liver is where carotenoids from plant foods are converted to vitamin A. Eggs, milk, cheese and butter are also good sources.

Plant: pro-vitamin A carotenoids are found abundantly in carrots, pumpkins, squash, kale, spinach and other leafy greens. It is important to note that carotenoids in plant sources are digested considerably more effectively by cooking or other processing methods like juicing. So carrot juice or steamed carrots are therefore a considerably better source of carotenoids than eating raw carrots. Because vitamin A is also a fat soluble vitamin, its digestion is also greatly improved by eating it along with fats or oils. Adding olive oil or avocados to vegetable salads has been shown to greatly enhance carotenoid digestion and absorption into the blood stream.

Carotenoids are a family of over 600 naturally occurring organic chemicals found in plants and some fungus, bacteria and algae. They function as both antioxidants and plant pigments and put the wonderful red, orange and yellow hues in fruits and vegetables. As antioxidants, carotenoids are created by plants to protect themselves from the cell damaging oxidative effects of free radicals found in sunlight. Carotenoids actually separate into two distinct groups – carotenes and xanthophylls.

Carotenes
Carotenes are the orange colored members of the carotenoid family and put the orange hue in carrots, squash, cantaloupe melon as well as many other plants. In fact the colorings of carotenes are not limited to plants but also color animals, mammals and birds. The pink color of lesser Flamingos for example is generated by the abundant amount of beta-carotene rich shrimp in their diets. Flamingos are naturally white in color, and white mixed with orange = pink!

Beta-carotene is one of the most well known carotenes for its ability to be converted to vitamin A in the body. Alpha-carotene is also another carotene that can be converted (although less efficiently) into vitamin A. Carrots are one of the best known food sources of beta-carotene and alpha-carotene and is therefore often referred to as a vegetable ‘high in vitamin A’. Lycopene is another antioxidant that is a carotene but does not convert in vitamin A. However, all carotenes are considered potent disease fighting plant chemicals regardless of whether they convert to vitamin A or not.

Research that has studied the diets of tens of thousands of people show that those with the most carotenes in their diet are generally at a much lower risk of developing cancer than those who have the least in their diets. Alpha-carotene has been shown to be especially effective at protecting us from lung cancer while lycopene is effective at protecting men from prostate cancer.

Xanthophylls
Xanthophylls are the other branch of carotenoids and include lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-cryptoxanthin. Xanthophylls are yellow based pigments and contribute to the yellow color in leaves as well as the yellow in egg yolks and even the yellow hue in our own fat and skin.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are the only antioxidants that are found in the lens and retina of our eyes where they protect the eye from oxidative damage induced by blue light. This protection helps to delay the aging of the eyes and protect them against eye disease like cataracts and macular degeneration. For this reason lutein and zeaxanthin are a common ingredient in most eye care vitamins.

Beta-cryptoxanthin is the only carotenoid of the xanthophyll family that converts to vitamin A and is also strongly associated with a reduced risk in lung cancer. People with diets high in beta-cryptoxanthin are actually 25% less likely to develop lung cancer than those with a low intake.

Health Benefits of Carotenoids
The health benefits of carotenoids as an overall group relates to all degenerative diseases that result from oxidation. Carotenoids strongly defend our cells from free radicals (the unstable oxygen based molecules that produce oxidation) and as carotenoids are fat soluble they are effective at protecting fat cells in particular. LDL cholesterol (a fat based substance) in the blood stream greatly contributes to the development of atherosclerosis when it is oxidized. This explains why high levels of carotenoids in the blood is a great indicator that a person is at low risk of heart disease. Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of heart disease.

Free radical cell damage is also a well known cause of cancer; such cell damage can mutate the DNA code in cells and develop into tumours.

Food Sources of Carotenoids
Alpha-carotene: carrot juice and pumpkin are the two best sources. Other good sources include carrots (cooked are better than raw), plantains, tomatoes, collard greens and tangerines

Beta-carotene: carrot juice, pumpkin, spinach and sweet potatoes (cooked) are the best sources of beta-carotene. Carrots (cooked are better than raw), collard greens, kale, cantaloupe melon and are good sources.

Beta-cryptoxanthin: pumpkins (cooked) and papayas are great sources. Red bell peppers, oranges, carrots and nectarines are good sources.

Lutein and zeaxanthin: spinach, kale, turnip greens and [ad#Commission Junction-2]collard greens are exceptionally rich sources. Squash, brussel sprouts, broccoli and yellow corn are good sources. These vegetables are a better source when cooked or juiced. Egg yolks are a great source of highly bio-available lutein.

Lycopene: processed tomato products such as tomato paste, tomato puree, tomato juice and tomato soup are by far the best sources of lycopene. Raw tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruits are a fair source.

Carotenoids and Digestion
You will notice in the above list of carotenoid food sources that processed foods are actually a better source of carotenoids than their raw and whole counterparts. This can be a little counter intuitive as most nutrients in fruits and vegetables actually get destroyed in the cooking process. So what is the deal?

Carotenoids are deeply embedded in the fibers of the fruits and vegetable in which they are found. So to be more effectively released for digestion, carotenoid rich foods generally need to be processed to ‘break the carotenoids free’. So cooking, pasting and juicing greatly enhance the bioavailability of carotenoids. Carrot juice is a much better source of beta-carotene than raw carrot (although still good). Lycopene is the toughest of the group and tomatoes are by far the most abundant source of lycopene that we know of. Even so the difference in bioavailability of raw tomatoes and processed tomato products is astounding. For example – 1 cup of raw tomato delivers 4.6mg of lycopene, 1 cup of tomato juice provides 22mg of lycopene while 1 cup of tomato paste delivers a whopping 75mg of lycopene!

There is also another factor that greatly enhances the bioavailability of carotenoids and that is fat. Carotenoids are fat soluble compounds so they are digested more easily when consumed with fats or oils. This is one of the reasons that the bioavailability of lutein in egg yolks is much greater than the bioavailability of lutein in raw spinach and kale. Research has shown that adding health fats like olive oil or avocado to salads greatly enhances the amount of carotenoids we will digest from the vegetables in them. For this reason I like to mix a little oil into the fresh vegetable juices I make at home.

Although famous for their ability to help us ‘see in the dark’ there are more health benefits to carrots provided by their wonderful plethora of vitamins, mineral, enzymes and phytochemicals.

Carotenoids
A group of phytochemicals called carotenoids are found more abundantly in carrots than any other vegetable or food source and as we can see they are actually named after carrots. Carotenoids are potent antioxidants created in vegetables to protect themselves from the oxidative effects of sunlight, especially the blue part of the light spectrum.

There are actually more than 600 known kinds of carotenoids of which three are found abundantly in carrots – alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin. Beta-carotene is more commonly known and is often called pro-vitamin A because it is converted by the body to vitamin A. Alpha-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin are also converted to vitamin A but half as effectively as beta-carotene. It takes 12mcg of beta-carotene to generate 1mcg of vitamin A, while it takes 24mcg of either alpha-carotene or beta-cryptoxanthin to produce 1mcg of vitamin A.

Carotenoids and Heart Health
A variety of studies have found that a diet rich in carotenoids is associated with a significant reduction in heart disease, especially in the form of atherosclerosis. Carotenoids are fat soluble and therefore travel within lipids in the blood such as LDL cholesterol. Their antioxidant actions also protects LDL cholesterol from oxidative damage and this protection is the basis of reducing the risk of atherosclerosis developing. Oxidized LDL cholesterol cells are bad news because they attach to the artery walls developing into a plaque that narrows and hardens the arteries, therefore creating atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis raises blood pressure and reduces blood flow to the heart and even the brain. This can lead to stroke or heart attacks.

One study which provided powerful evidence for the heart protective qualities of carotenoids was conducted with 1300 elderly people in Massachusetts. Researchers discovered that those who ate a daily serving of carotenoid rich foods (either carrots or squash in this instance) were 60% less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who ate less than a daily serving! That is a pretty astounding result!

Carotenoids and Cancer Prevention
There was a lot of controversy when a study revealed that beta-carotene supplementation actually increased the risk of lung cancer in smokers. However this negative effect only held true for beta-carotene in supplement form and the opposite is true for those whose diets are high in real food sources of beta-carotene such as carrots. Synthetic beta-carotene supplements are actually a little different in their chemical structure to beta-carotene in foods and their effect upon our cells is naturally different too. Large prospective studies that include tens of thousands of people always find that those who eat carrots daily are up to 50% less likely to develop lung cancer. In fact carrot consumption was not just limited to providing protection from lung cancer put also proved to be protective against cancers of the colon, larynx, esophagus, prostate, cervix and bladder.

Carotenoids and Digestion
When we eat raw carrots we are limited in the amount of carotenoids that we actually digest. Carotenoids are deeply entwined in the matrix of proteins and fibers of carrots (and other vegetables) and require some help to be released. Chewing does help to release the carotenoids on a very small scale but cooking carrots helps to loosen up the carotenoids more extensively and increases bioavailability. Juicing carrots is also another great way to improve the bioavailability of carotenoids. A juicing machine’s blade will ‘chew up’ the carrots extensively and research shows that carrot juice is a considerably better source of carotenoids than eating a raw carrot.

There is also another factor that greatly improves the digestibility of carotenoids and that is fat! Carotenoids are fat soluble so adding oil to salads or cooking greatly improves digestibility.

Vitamin A Benefits
As the carotenoids in carrots nutrition are transformed to vitamin A by the liver then carrots also provide us with the health benefits of carrots vitamin A content. Carrots are famous for ‘helping us see in the dark’ and this is no ‘old wives tale’ because vitamin A is essential for preventing night blindness. Vitamin A is converted in the eye to another chemical called rhodopsin, a purple based pigment that the eye needs to see at night. The antioxidant action of vitamin A also helps to protect eye cells from oxidative damage that can lead to premature aging of the eyes and increase the risk of developing eye diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration.

Providing healthy skin is another important health benefit of carrots vitamin A content. Vitamin A is needed in the creation of and the healthy maintenance of epithelial skin cells. Even a slight deficiency of vitamin A may lead to dry, cracked or rough looking skin (or all three!). The antioxidant actions of vitamin A also protects the epithelial skin cells from the oxidative effects of free radicals that are found in polluted air and smoke.

In partnership with the antioxidant vitamins C and E, vitamin A is also an essential member of the immune system.

Carrots Nutrition Facts
Besides being an excellent source of some carotenoids and vitamin A, carrots are also a good source of vitamins B1, B3, B6, folate, C and K, molybdenum, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous and dietary fiber.