The Doctrine of Signatures

Every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.
Grapefruits, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which was h the epithelial layers of the eyes.

"The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life."

David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, Oct. 2003

Avocado, its nutritional benefits.

Avocados were first cultivated in South America with later migration to Mexico. It was believed that a Mayan princess ate the very first avocado and that it held mystical and magical powers. European sailors traveling to the New World used avocados as their form of butter. Avocados were first seen in the United States in the early 1800's. California is currently the largest producer of avocados stateside. There are more than 80 varieties, with the "Hass" variety dominating the crop share. A single mature avocado tree can produce more than 400 pieces of fruit in a year.

NUTRITIONAL VALUES
Avocados are loaded with nutrients such as dietary fiber, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, and folate. They're also cholesterol and sodium free. Avocados contain 60% more potassium per ounce than bananas. This fruit is an excellent source of monounsaturated fat. In addition, researchers have shown that avocados extracts improved calcium absorption in rats and addition of avocado to salsa significantly improved lycopene, lutein and carotenes absorption in healthy human subjects.

POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF AVOCADO
Researchers from South Africa proposed to use Avocado (Persea americana) leaf aqueous extract for the management of childhood convulsion. The data from their study in rats suggested that 'avocado' leaf aqueous extract produced its anticonvulsant effect by enhancing GABAergic neurotransmission and/or action in the brain.

Some studies show the potential benefits of soybean combined with avocado on the symptoms of osteoarthritis. [12-15, 18] The combo is believed to exert anti-inflammatory and stimulatory effects on aggrecan or proteoglycan synthesis in chondrocytes.The common dose of the Avocado-soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) in some of the studies is from 300 to 600 mg/day.

AVOCADO MAY HAVE BENEFITS OF CUTTING CANCER RISKS
The California Hass avocado (Persea americana Mill.) avocados were found to contain the highest content of lutein among commonly eaten fruits as well as measurable amounts of related carotenoids (zeaxanthin, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene). Lutein accounted for 70% of the measured carotenoids, and the avocado also contained significant quantities of vitamin E. An acetone extract of avocado containing these carotenoids and tocopherols was shown to inhibit the growth of both androgen-dependent (LNCaP) and androgen-independent (PC-3) prostate cancer cell lines in vitro.On the other hand, Kim OK from Kyoto University, Japan, proposed that persenone A, an active ingredient of avocado, is a possible agent to prevent inflammation-associated diseases including cancer. They found that persenone A at concentration of 20 microM almost completely suppressed both iNOS and COX-2 protein expression in a vitro study.

AVOCADO HELPS CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING DIETS
Researchers found that intake of avocado could enhance the effect of low-fat diets on lipid reduction. [22, 26] Mexican researchers consider avocado as an excellent source of monounsaturated fatty acid in diets designed to avoid hyperlipidemia without the undesirable effects of low-saturated fat diets on HDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations.

In a study of healthy adult normolipidemic volunteers and 37 adult patients with mild hypercholesterolemia, Mexican researchers found that intake of avocado was linked to a significant decrease of serum total cholesterol (17%), LDL-cholesterol (22%) and triglycerides (22%), and increase of HDL-cholesterol (11%) levels in hypercholesterolemic subjects.

EFFECTS OF AVOCADO ON WEIGHT LOSS AND BLOOD PRESSURE
The consumption of 200 g/d of avocado within an energy-restricted diet does not compromise weight loss when substituted for 30 g of mixed dietary fat. Serum lipid concentrations, plasma fibrinogen, arterial compliance, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were not affected by weight loss or avocado intake.

BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS / SIDE EFFECTS OF AVOCADO ETRACTS AND OILS

One common side effect of avocado intake is allergy or hypersensitivity. The symptoms include skin reactions, vomiting, bronchial asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, urticaria and angioedema.In a study, eight of the 21 avocado skin test positive patients reported that symptoms repeatedly followed the ingestion of avocado; two reported systemic reactions, but six noted oral symptoms only. Serum IgE antibodies to avocado were elevated in seven of the eight patients reporting symptoms after eating avocado. Avocado-induced symptoms occurred in 8% of 100 consecutive atopic allergic rhinitis patients unselected for avocado reactivity. Oral, and less frequently systemic, allergy symptoms appear to be more common among the atopic population than previously appreciated.

In later 1980s, researchers from Israel fed rats with avocado or avocado seed oils for four weeks and they noticed an increase in the amount of hepatic lipids, a decrease in blood levels of triglycerides in the animals and changes in levels of some liver enzymes.

Rats fed with unrefined avocado oils showed significant increases in soluble collagen content in skin. The increased soluble collagen content appears to be a consequence of the inhibition of lysyl oxidase activity. The total collagen content did not change.However, researchers also found a significant decrease in total collagen solubility in the liver after supplementation of unrefined avocado or soybean oil to rats for one week. They confirmed the results by repeating the experiment with chicken. They also found collagen accumulation in the liver of the rats, suggesting early stages of fibrosis.

Though there are indications (above) that avocado may damage the liver by collagen formation, Japanese researchers have shown the protective effects of avocado on liver injury caused by D-galactosamine.

The leaves of avocado in doses exceeding 20 g fresh leaf per kg bodyweight, produced damage to the mammary gland with decreased milk production in an animal study. Six of 21 goats feeding on fresh avocado leaves from pruned trees, showed clinical signs of cardiac distress.Ingestion of avocado leaves also caused lung oedema, hydrothorax, severe myocardial degeneration, necrosis and fibrosis in 15 Cameroon goats. In a study, nine out of 120 ostriches died from congestive heart failure within 96 h of ingesting avocado leaves and immature fruit in an avocado orchard containing Hass and Fuerte cultivars.Finally, researchers from Kenya observed dyspnoea, pulmonary oedema, abdominal enlargement and signs of elevated liver enzymes from two dogs which had a fondness for avocado fruits.