Bird's Haven Farms
Granville, Ohio

Home

About Us

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

2008 Schedule

Pick Your Own

Berries

Flower Listing

Produce Availability

Fall Decorations & Pumpkins

Fresh Eggs

Health News

Special Orders

BHF Paraphernalia

Directions to Farm

Join Our Mailing List

Weather

Contact Us

Health News

Berries

Picking berries can burn up to 384¹ calories an hour! (add in the heat from a sunny day and you can burn an additional 60 calories!) 

Raspberries have shown to be a healthy addition to any diet. Studies have shown this tiny fruit is packed with healthy vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants.²

Vitamin C: With only one cup of raspberries or blackberries you can consume half the amount currently recommended for adults per day³

Fiber:  Dietary fiber helps maintain a healthy gastrointestinal tract and may help prevent certain types of cancers, decrease heart disease, reduce blood pressure, and reduce the chance of diabetes. It can also help to reduce blood cholesterol levels and lower the risk of heart disease. ²

Antioxidants: The big news in raspberries today are the promising benefits that the substantial quantity of ellagic acid hold. Ellagic acid is a phenolic compound that has most recently become known as a potent anti-carcinogenic/anti-mutagenic compound. Clinical tests conducted at the Hollings Cancer Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) show promising results that ellagic acid, a naturally occurring plant phenol may help prevent cancer, inhibit the growth of cancer cells, and arrest the growth of cancer in subjects with a genetic predisposition for the disease. ²

1. 1995-2005 The Fitness Partner Connection ™ http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner
2. Washington Red Raspberry Commission 2004 http://www.red-raspberry.org/about/us.html
3.  Collins, Karen R.D. “Berries Cancer-fighting super foods?” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13484206/

ORANGE TOMATOES HEALTHIER THAN RED
by Mike Laferty, The Columbus Dispatch.

When it comes to tomatoes, cancer researchers have preached "the redder, the better." But now Ohio State University scientists say that the lighter-skinned tangerine tomatoes top their red counterparts. Why? The cancer-fighting lycopene they contain is more easily absorbed by your body.
Lycopene absorption from the tangerine tomatoes was 2 1/2 times higher than that absorbed from typical red tomato varieties. "That's what is so dramatic," said Steven Schwartz, an Ohio State food chemist and toxicologist who is head of the research project. Lycopenes are antioxidants abundant in tomatoes, watermelons, pink grapefruit and other red fruits and vegetables. Nonred tomatoes, including the tangerine, never really figured into lycopene research. Tangerine tomatoes have been sold by a number of seed companies for years. "This is a really interesting finding, and perhaps it can be used in breeding," said Grace Romero, director of research at Burpee, the Pennsylvania-based seed company.
The new study grew out of a discovery made several years ago by Schwartz and other researchers that our blood contains an abundance of a type of lycopene called cis-lycopene. Cis-lycopenes are found in tangerine tomatoes. Trans-lycopenes are found in red tomatoes. "That's why we got interested ... we want to know if there's any physiological significance to these various (forms)," Schwartz said. The OSU study compared lycopene absorption in 12 adults who ate a red tomato sauce and a tangerine tomato sauce. Despite having fewer lycopenes, tangerine tomatoes far outshined the red variety in terms of lycopene absorption. The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Originally published 3/3/07. Used with Permission.