Family Health and Anti-Aging Products:

There is nothing more anti-aging than the antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables. Aging occurs from oxidation of our tissues - much like iron will rust and decay, and fruit will turn brown - all from oxidation. If you want to stay young, healthy and active, harness the antioxidant power of fresh fruits and vegetables. Raw fruits and vegetables are filled with the vitamins, minerals, fiber and enzymes necessary for the proper function, healing and repair of our bodies. Government agencies, to include the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommend 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (www.5aday.gov) to prevent disease, I say shoot for nine servings a day for optimal vitality and longevity. Since most Americans fall dismally short on their daily intake of fruit and vegetables, my first two product selections give you fun, delicious and easy ways to jump start your fresh produce intake.

Vita-Mix Machine:

This powerful blender/food processor can be used for making everything from soups, sauces and salsas to pancakes, breads and frozen desserts. The Vita-Mix unit comes with hundreds of easy, delicious, and healthy recipes. However, my family uses ours primarily for making yummy smoothies. I keep bags of frozen fruit in the freezer, and I round out the smoothies with yogurt, milk and any fresh fruit on hand. If we really want a treat, I might add a scoop or two of ice cream. For added protein, I sometimes add peanut or almond butter, or a scoop of a powdered protein. For added nutrition, I can throw in flax seed oil, ground flax seeds or a small amount of a vegetable. The taste of a few spears of broccoli is easily over-powered by the sweetness of the fruits, yet the nutrition of the broccoli remains. The Vita-Mix doesn't heat food, so vitamins and beneficial, live enzymes are preserved. Plus, each serving is loaded with a healthy portion of cancer-fighting fiber! The Vita-Mix is a heavy-duty commercial grade unit that will last for many years. Ours is still going strong after 11 years of frequent use. Economical smoothie making tip: Buy the discounted, very ripe, bananas from your grocer. When you get home, peel all of the bananas, break them up into chunks and throw them into a large bowl. Pour a little orange or lemon juice over the bananas and mix them around to coat them. Then freeze in a plastic bag or container. (The vitamin C in the juice helps prevent the bananas from turning brown in the freezer.) Use the frozen bananas in your smoothies and you'll never have to water your smoothies down with ice. Frozen bananas make for creamy, delicious and nutritious smoothies. Click the Vita-Mix image above for more information and to order with Dr. Michele's free shipping discount.

Juice Machine:

The best way to get the vitamins and minerals that your body craves, is through eating vegetables and fruits. While the Vitamix unit above is great for increasing your fruit intake, the juice machine is especially good for increasing your vegetable intake. Since the juicer extracts the fiber, you can drink so many more vegetables than you could possibly eat - there is no fiber to fill you up. When eating fruit, you want to consume the fiber because that helps slow down the absorption of sugar, but for vegetables, by extracting the fiber you can "main-line" pure nutrition into your body without anything slowing it down. I have tried smaller juicers in the past, by either the motor breaks down after a few months, or the shoot that you feed the chunks of produce into breaks. The nice thing about the Jack Lalanne juicer is that it has a very large shoot, so the prep time is shorter. You can usually pass whole carrots, lemons, and apples through. Plus it cleans up pretty easily. The key is to at least rinse it right away before the fiber sets! All the pieces are dishwasher safe too. I have used mine for years without any problems.

A juice machine is a little more work and vegetable juice is not always as palatable as a strawberry-banana smoothie, but the health benefits are astonding. Juice is easily absorbed, even in people with compromised digestive tracts and immune systems. Dark vegetables are loaded with minerals, so drinking vegetable juice is great for bone strength and restoring iron levels and vitality.

Natural Health Products from Dr. Mercola:

Dr Mercola' website offers wide range of highly endorsed products to include supplements, personal care items, cookware, healthy salt, a water purifier, an air purifier, natural light bulbs, books, CDs, DVDs and even devices to make cell phones safer.