the mind blown thread

1 Pineapple is a natural painkiller The fruit contains anti-inflammatory enzymes that bring pain relief from conditions such as arthritis, according to a study at Reading University.

2 Pomegranate juice could prevent a heart attack This wonder juice is believed to improve blood flow to the heart and lower blood pressure.

3 Onions are natural antibiotics They might make your breath pong but onions contain allicin, a powerful antibiotic that also protects the circulatory system.

4 Mushrooms can ward off colds They contain more of an immune-boosting antioxidant called ergothioneine than any other food, say researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

6 Blueberries can boost memory A study at Tufts University in Boston showed eating half a cup of this fruit regularly could delay age-related deterioration in co-ordination and short-term memory.

7 A pint is as good as red wine A pint of beer or stout is officially as beneficial as red wine for fighting cancer and heart disease, says scientists at Canada's University of Western Ontario.

8 Eat chocolate, live longer Hurray! Harvard University scientists say that eating a couple of chocolate bars a week could extend your life by almost a year.

9 Grapefruit juice can stop medicine working If you're taking medication, avoid washing it down with grapefruit juice as there is evidence that it prevents some drugs being broken down.

10 You should never drink tea or coffee with meals Tannins in tea and coffee prevent absorption of certain nutrients. A cup of tea with a meal will halve the iron you get from it, whereas a glass of orange juice will double it.

11 Cherries can cure gout Cherries contain compounds that significantly reduce the chemicals in the body which cause joint inflammation.

12 Eating curry could help prevent Alzheimer's According to a report in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a yellow pigment used in curry, curcumin, can stop amyloid plaques in the brain that cause the condition.

13 Sniffing a lemon could help you beat asthma The UK's 5.1 million asthmatics could find lemons ease their symptoms. Studies in rats found that breathing improved after they inhaled limonene, the chemical that gives lemons their smell.

14 Kiwi fruit can improve your eyesight This fuzzy fruit is a surprisingly good source of lutein, an antioxidant that protects your vision.

15 Garlic can cure mouth ulcers and verrucas Here's an old wives' tale that works: halve a clove of garlic, squeeze, and apply a drop of the juice to the offending growth at bedtime.

16 You can have too little salt Too much salt isn't good for us but not getting enough can trigger low blood pressure in those susceptible. Consult your GP before making any major diet changes.

17 Figs can delay brittle bone disease Good news for the three million osteoporosis sufferers in the UK - it is possible to slow its progress by eating calcium-packed figs.

18 Soya can mimic breast cancer drugs A team of Cambridge researchers discovered that a diet high in soya can have a similar effect to anti-cancer drug Tamoxifen.

19 Barbecued-food can cause cancer Eating meat that's chargrilled or burnt could lead to stomach, pancreatic, colon and breast cancer because it creates high levels of carcinogenic compounds.

20 Cinnamon can help diabetics Just half a teaspoon a day of this spice can significantly reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics, says US research.

21 Chillies can help you breath more easily Capsaicin, which occurs in chillies, shrinks the mucous membranes which can ease blocked noses and sinuses.

22 Watermelon is good for the prostate Men will be glad to know that the red flesh contains the antioxidant Lycopene, which helps keep the prostate gland healthy.

23 Coriander can lower your cholesterol levels This aromatic herb can reduce cholesterol levels and prevent heart problems.

24 Nibbling nuts can prevent blood clots Nuts boost nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes blood vessels and eases blood flow.

25 Banish bad breath with natural yoghurt A few spoonfuls of natural yoghurt can neutralise halitosis, according to Japanese researchers.

26 Artificial sweeteners can make you fat Research by US scientists shows that artificial sweeteners such as fructose change the body's metabolism, making it more likely you'll gain weight.

27 A caffeine hit can improve your love life If your libido's flagging, try a quick shot of espresso. Research shows a daily cup of coffee boosts blood circulation to vital areas.

28 Honey combats ulcers Manuka honey from New Zealand my be useful in preventing stomach ulcers, so have some in your morning porridge.

29 Olive oil can be as good for the heart as aspirin There is evidence that the main compound in olive oil, oleocanthal, contains the same properties as painkillers used to treat heart conditions.

30 Boozing can help you stay slim A recent study by US scientists discovered that women who enjoyed the "occasional" tipple were 27 per cent less likely than teetotallers to be obese.

31 Sesame seeds can lower blood pressure Try sprinkling on salad to reduce your blood pressure. They're also an excellent source of protein and calcium, iron and niacin.

32 Eating avocados can cheer you up These green fruits perk you up by boosting your serotonin levels, which can help to beat depression.

33 Fried eggs can cure a hangover A full English breakfast could be the ultimate hangover cure, thanks to the eggs. They're rich in cystine, an amino acid which helps purge toxins via the liver.

34 A daily cuppa could slash your risk of cancer Tea contains lots of flavonoids, disease-fighting substances that lower blood pressure, fight cancer and even prevent wrinkles. One cup a day may halve your risk of liver cancer.

35 Rhubarb can relieve constipation This red fruit, delicious in crumbles, contains a natural laxative.

36 Drinking green tea can prevent prickly heat Green tea is not just an excellent antioxidant - sipping it can help you avoid a painful bout of prickly heat.

37 Pasta may aid sleep Going to bed after eating carbohydrates can induce restful sleep. Complex carbs like whole wheat pasta and bread are most effective.

38 Semi-skimmed milk contains more calcium Half-fat milk is not only lower in calories than full-fat, it also contains more calcium, protein and B vitamins. However it does contain less vitamin A and E.

39 Breakfast can reduce risk of throat cancer According to scientists at Aberdeen University, eating breakfast reduces your risk of developing oesophageal cancer.

40 Eat ice cream for glossy hair A few scoops can do wonders for your crowning glory due to ice cream's high levels of Vitamin B2.

41 Kidney beans help you look younger The US Department of Agriculture ranked these as the third most antioxidant- rich food.

42 Oily fish can ward off arthritis Salmon, mackerel and so on can prevent the onset of arthritis. Two to four portions a week is recommended.

43 Flaxseed oil can help you stay trim Drizzling this oil over salads and soups can trick the body into feeling full and storing less fat.

44 Spinach can make kidney stones worse High-oxalate foods such as spinach encourage the formation of kidney stones, which occur when waste products in the urine crystallise.

45 Crusty bread may cut cancer Crusts have eight times the amount of cancer-fighting antioxidants called pronyl-lysine than the rest of the bread, according to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

46 Boiling hot drinks can ruin your smile Drinking very hot fluids can cause your gums to recede, leaving them prone to infection. Allow drinks to cool before drinking.

47 Frozen vegetables are just as healthy as fresh Although generally speaking fresh is best, providing the fruit or vegetables are frozen immediately after picking, they will retain most of their nutrients and vitamins.

48 Drinking fruit juice can rot your teeth High fructose levels in fruit can cause tooth decay. Have them with meals or brush your teeth directly after drinking.

49 Fizzy drinks can lower your immunity The tartrazine found in fizzy drinks causes depletion of the body's zinc levels. Zinc plays a vital role in supporting our immune systems - 15mg a day is the recommended daily amount.

50 Teabags can fight cold sores Placing a cold, used teabag on a cold sore can reduce inflammation and infection.

FASCINATING FRUIT & VEG SECRETS

STORAGE, preparation and cooking can all rob fruit and veg of essential vitamins and minerals. Here are a few ways to make your five-a-day count...

The deeper the colour of the fruit or vegetable the more nutritious it is likely to be.

Chewing vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and sprouts more thoroughly increases the amount of cancer-fighting chemicals released, says the Institute of Food Research.

The shorter the cooking time and the less water you use, the greater the nutritional effect.

Avoid pre-cut, pre-washed produce. Doing these things too early depletes cancer-fighting nutrients.

A pinch of baking soda may brighten the colour of vegetables but it also destroys B and C vitamins.

#1 In 2010, not only does the United States have a central bank, but it also runs our economy and issues all of our currency. The Federal Reserve has devalued the U.S. dollar by over 95 percent since 1913 and it has been used to create the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.

#2 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that U.S. government agents can legally sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, place a secret GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of you everywhere that you go.

#3 The 50 wealthiest members of Congress saw their collective fortunes increase by 85.1 million dollars to $1.4 billion in 2009.


#4 The U.S. government has accumulated a national debt that is rapidly approaching the 14 trillion dollar mark.

#5 All over the United States, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have now turned some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

#6 Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.

#7 In 2010, Americans waste an astounding amount of food. According to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management board, 63 percent of the average supermarket's waste stream is food. When you break that down, it means that each supermarket wastes approximately 3,000 pounds of food each year.

#8 The city of Cleveland plans to sort through curbside trash to ensure that people are actually recycling properly. If it is discovered that some citizens are not recycling they will be hit with very large fines.


#9 Once upon a time, U.S. industry was the envy of the world. But since 1979, manufacturing employment in the United States has fallen by 40 percent.

#10 Even though the U.S. population has exploded in size, the number of Americans with manufacturing jobs today is smaller than the number of Americans who were employed in manufacturing in 1950.

#11 Having one out of every eight Americans enrolled in the food stamp program is now considered "the new normal" and Americans continue to drop into poverty in astounding numbers.

#12 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.

#13 A family of four actually has difficulty surviving on an income of $50,000 a year in America in 2010.

#14 Barack Obama is backing a proposal to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime.


#15 In 2010, it takes the average unemployed American worker over 8 months to find a job.

#16 The U.S. government has made some parts of Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers. The federal government has actually posted signs more than 100 miles north of the Mexican border warning travelers that certain areas are unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers.

#17 One recent survey of last year's college graduates discovered that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation.

#18 In one of the very first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a U.S. military judge ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.

#19 The average American worker now pays literally dozens of different kinds of taxes each year.

#20 In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.


#21 Christians are being arrested and thrown in jail in some areas of the United States for quietly passing out Christian literature on public sidewalks.

#22 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using cutting edge analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place "potential offenders" in prevention and education programs.

#23 Organic milk is now considered such a national crisis that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in the state of Pennsylvania.

#24 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that they are considering a crackdown on farm dust.

#25 According to a new CDC report, nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis.

#26 Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts says that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

#27 Today, Americans are losing their homes in staggering numbers. One out of every seven mortgages was delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.


#28 Many of our leading scientists are now calling themselves "transhumanists" and are openly proclaiming that a future where men have fully merged with machines is inevitable.

#29 Americans who spend large amounts of cash are viewed as "potential criminals" by the U.S. government in 2010.

#30 New full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States can actually see through our clothing and produce very clear and very detailed images of our exposed bodies as we walk through them.

#31 The U.S. financial system has become a massive gambling parlor in 2010. As a result, a horrific derivatives bubble has developed that threatens to destroy our entire economy at any moment. Nobody knows exactly how big the derivatives bubble is, but low estimates place it at around 600 trillion dollars and high estimates put it at around 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Once that bubble pops there simply will not be enough money in the entire world to fix it.

#32 The U.S. government is spending an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.

#33 Today, 10,000 people make 30% of the total income in the United States.


#34 A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation discovered that 250 employees of the Defense Department used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. However, the investigation also found that the Pentagon investigated only a handful of those cases.

#35 According to a recent poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.

#36 Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama's 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.

#37 A recent Department of Justice guide for investigators of criminal and extremist groups lists "constitutionalists" and "survivalists" alongside organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Aryan Brotherhood.

#38 The U.S. trade deficit has exploded to nightmarish proportions over the past two decades. Every single month tens of billions more dollars goes out of the United States than comes into it. Essentially, the United States is becoming far poorer as a nation each and every month.


#39 Factories are closing in droves across the United States because the American people would rather buy things made in China.

#40 Millions upon millions of good paying middle class jobs are being shipped off to China and they are never coming back. Meanwhile, U.S. politicians stand by idly and do nothing.

#41 Some analysts now believe that China could become the largest economy in the world by the year 2020.

#42 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five trillion dollars.

#43 According to one recent survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one person that is currently searching for a full-time job.

#44 The U.S. dollar continues to rapidly decline in value. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 will cost you $112.35 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 will cost you $440.33 today.

#45 Major international organizations are actually proposing that the United States start considering the adoption of a truly global currency.


#46 Students at a high school in Missouri have built a car that they claim can get up to 450 miles per gallon. On another note, some of the top energy experts in the world believe that thorium could solve our energy problems and supply very cheap energy for society for hundreds of thousands of years. But in today's world technologies such as these are endlessly suppressed by the rich and powerful.

#47 One Colorado high school student is seeking an explanation from officials at his school after he was ordered by security guards to remove American flags from his truck because they might make other students at the high school "uncomfortable."

#48 Three California high school students were recently forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

#49 Memorial crosses erected along Utah public roads to honor fallen state troopers have been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court and now must be removed permanently.

#50 One group of high school students made national headlines recently when they revealed that a security guard ordered them to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.