ORGANIC HEALTH

***The following is a guest post for Organic Health by Jimmie Parr*** When I was very young, my mother told me about the nutritional value of oranges, and citrus fruits, in general.  She said that English sailors had become known as “limeys,” because they carried limes, or other citrus fruits, on their vessels.  They had discovered that citrus fruits helped prevent a condition called scurvy, which had, in past times, been linked to a deficiency of Vitamin C. I say that, “in past times,” scurvy had been linked to a deficiency of Vitamin C because that type of information may now be lost on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the March, 2006 edition of Life Extension magazine is an article entitled “Why Is the FDA Picking on Cherries?”  The article has to do with the U.S. Department of Agriculture having given a grant of $150,000 to cherry growers in Michigan.  Michigan cherry growers used the grant to do research about nutritional benefits of cherries.  Among other discoveries, the research revealed a correlation between the consumption of tart cherries and a decrease in pain in joints of people with arthritis.  The anthocyanin in tart cherries was said to be better at pain relief than an equal amount of aspirin.  However, the Fools and Dumb As...oops...the FDA told cherry growers either to stop advertising that tart cherries may help with relief of pain, or to register their cherries as a “new drug,” and to pay the required fees. (Read More.....)