While our intentions might be good, sometimes life gets in the way of us eating enough fruits and vegetables every single day. Our diet might not always be exactly what our bodies need and that’s okay, no one is perfect. Some days we might eat enough fruit, but not enough vegetables, or vice versa. But what if there was a way to get eleven essential vegetables (including two grains and one fruit) in your body in a matter of seconds and with next to no effort other than putting two capsules in your hand, moving your hand to your mouth, and swallowing? 

Juice Plus’s Garden Blend is just that. The Garden Blend contains broccoli, parsley, tomato, carrot, garlic, beet, spinach, cabbage, oat bran, rice bran, and kale. Are you eating all of that daily? These powerhouse vegetables, fruits, and grains have extraordinary benefits to your body. While taking Juice Plus+ doesn’t mean that you can skip eating fruits and vegetables all together, it does help supplement your diet and help make sure that your body is getting all of the vitamins and nutrients that it needs. 

Your diet is one of the most important factors that plays into your overall health and wellness. It is something that we have complete control over yet many of us have a diet that is lacking in some of the essentials. What you put into your body affects every part of your body, and same goes for what you don’t put into your body. In combination with the Orchid Blend, you can add the vitamins and nutrients from 30 fruits, vegetables, and grains to your daily diet with no more thought than just remembering to take it. 

Here are some of the health benefits a few of the key vegetables in the Garden Blend reward your body when ingested. 

Broccoli: (A Parker family favorite) is an excellent source of vitamin C and K, folic acid, and potassium. The nutrients in broccoli are key for supporting collagen production, bone health, and your immune system. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps to fight free radicals, which damage the body and contribute to early signs of aging. 

Spinach: (A true superfood) is loaded with zinc, protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E, K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, copper, and manganese. Spinach is especially good for your skin and teeth! 

Kale: (A hearty dark green) is high in iron, vitamins A, C, K, antioxidants, and calcium. Kale also promotes cardiovascular health and has amazing anti-inflammatory properties. Remember, inflammation is the root of most chronic diseases. 

Garlic: (Safe guards you from vampires) has been linked to reducing blood pressure, risk of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, certain cancers, and even the common cold. 

Beets: (You definitely want this in your daily diet) are full of essential minerals that are important for healthy nerve and muscle function, as well as promoting healthy bones, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. Beets are also very high in antioxidants and beneficial to your immune system. 

If you’d like to learn more about Juice Plus’s Garden Blend, talk to Dr. Blake or Honi. Remember, you are what you eat! 

We’ve all heard the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but you could actually interchange apple with any of the cornucopia of fiery fruits and vegetables. Red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables are high in the antioxidants lycopene and anthocyanin, among other powerhouse nutrients. The darker the color, the higher in these antioxidants that they tend to be. How many red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables are you and your family consuming on a daily basis?

Eating a diet rich in fire-color spectrum foods will help promote a healthy immune system, as well as combat cancer cells and free radicals and decrease premature signs of aging, among so many other internal and external benefits. However, it takes more than just an apple a day to “keep the doctor away.” Fortunately, foods of this color happen to be delicious and oftentimes sweet and juicy.

Do you and your family eat apples, peaches, cranberries, oranges, papayas, acerola cherries, pineapples, prunes, dates, and beets every single day? This amount of fruits and vegetables might seem like a daunting amount to be feeding yourself and your family every day, but there’s actually a very easy trick to get this all in and still have the time and stomach space to eat the other important food groups.

The trick is Juice Plus+ Orchard Blend. The Parker Dentistry family has incorporated Juice Plus+ into their daily routine for nearly a decade and a half. Two organic, non-GMO, and farm-grown dehydrated fruit powder capsules or chewables a day contains all ten of those fruits and vegetables. This almost effortless approach to whole food nutrition has been backed by an inspiring amount of research, clinical studies, and extraordinary conclusions. 

Juice Plus+ Orchard Blend (the red topped bottle) has been proven to help fight heart disease, prostate cancer, and macular degeneration, as well as decrease the risk of stroke and increase your body’s defenses against free radicals. Remember, free radicals are a major contributor to premature or early signs of aging. Red-spectrum fruits and vegetables can also kill cancer cells, lower blood pressure, improve skin elasticity and radiance, promote healthy gums, support eye health, and ease inflammation. 

Aside from all the red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables that your body will enjoy from ingesting two small Orchard Blend capsules or chewables a day, red bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, and pomegranates should also work their way into your diet. Your body will surely thank you graciously for eating these dynamic fruits and vegetables. Nutrition is one of the most powerful defenses against disease. As we’ve said before, preventative healthcare is a far easier, less time consuming, and a more affordable approach to health than treating a virus, disease, or chronic ailment once it's wreaking havoc on your body and life. A simple change can really make a radical difference. 

Talk to Honi or Dr. Blake if you are interested in learning more about Juice Plus+ Orchard Blend. For the next few weeks, we will be breaking down the remaining three Juice Plus+ blends and their benefits. Let us help you make your simple change today. 

As a family dental practice, we are equally concerned about your oral health as your overall wellness, which is why we choose to share inspiring tips and advice to help keep your family healthy. Healthy habits and choices begin at home. The home is a child’s first school. Instilling healthy habits in the home will only better prepare your children and your family to make healthy choices outside of the home. Here are nine simple habits to teach your family that will help set them up for a healthier future. 

1. Build a rainbow on your plate. A colorful plate is likely a well-balanced and healthy plate. Building a plate that represents the colors of the rainbow is a visually stimulating, nutritious, and delicious way to eat. Make nutrition a fun activity in the family. 
2. If you can’t pronounce it or don’t know what is, don’t consume it. Teaching your family to only eat real food is a life lesson that can drastically impact their futures. You become what you eat and if you are eating processed imitation food you can only imagine what you will become. 
3. Learn to love water. For some people, drinking eight glasses of water a day is no problem. However, other people seem to have an aversion for water and find it very difficult to drink enough. Make water consumption a habit early on. Maybe make a game out of it with your kids, utilize one of the many internet applications, or try infusing water with flavorful fruits and herbs. 
4. Choose your treats wisely. No child should be totally deprived of dessert, but it should be taught that sugary treats are an indulgence and not something that you need to have all the time. Also, if you are going to have dessert, have real dessert and not something processed with a ten-year expiration date that comes out of a plastic wrapping or box. 
5. Brush and floss after every single meal. This habit will help your family avoid cavities and periodontal disease. 
6. Wash your hands. Teaching the habit of washing your hands after every time you go to the restroom and always before you eat will help reduce the risk of contracting or spreading the flu, the common cold, and other sicknesses. 
7. Engage in enjoyable physical activities. Learning to love physical activity and exercise is a lesson that will help your family maintain a healthy weight, as well as prevent a wide array of diseases. Regular exercise also promotes a healthy sleep pattern, lessens anxiety and stress, boost self-confidence, and is key for the release of happy-inducing endorphins. Engaging in physical activities that you actually like doing will make exercise a fun part of your daily life instead of a dreaded chore. 
8. Listen to your body. Learning to listen to your body is a lesson that is beyond valuable. Oftentimes, your body sends you signals, signs, or symptoms when something isn’t right. Adults that didn’t learn this lesson tend to ignore or overlook their body’s important messages and this can result in a number of unfavorable consequences.
9. Be a good role model. A family that is a good role model to each other will likely be a good role model to others outside of the home. This includes making healthy food and drink choices, remaining physically active, having a positive attitude, and being kind to others. 

Health starts in the home. Make your home a healthy haven. 

Remember how at Parker Dentistry Facial Rejuventation and Wellness we are always talking about how your oral health affects your overall health? Well, a recent study discovered that there is actually a link between certain types of cancer and periodontal disease. “Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore used data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, which included comprehensive dental exams from 7466 participants from Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Carolina. Subjects were followed from the late 1990s until 2012. The data showed that 1648 new cancer cases were diagnosed during the follow-up period.”

Let’s back track a little first and talk about what periodontal disease is and how you get it.

Periodontal disease is caused by bacteria in dental plague. “Interestingly, it is your body's response to the bacterial infection that causes most of the problems. In an effort to eliminate the bacteria, the cells of your immune system release substances that cause inflammation and destruction of the gums, periodontal ligament or alveolar bone. This leads to swollen, bleeding gums, signs of gingivitis (the earliest stage of periodontal disease), and loosening of the teeth, a sign of severe periodontitis (the advanced stage of disease).”

When your oral hygiene routine is subpar and or you don’t keep up with your biannual teeth cleanings, your risk of developing periodontal disease is very high. Smoking, misaligned teeth, grinding, stress, certain medications, certain types of chronic ailments, and genetics also play into your risk factor. This preventable disease has also been linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and respiratory disease.

Now, on top of the fact that you could lose your teeth, develop heart disease, or have a stroke from having periodontal disease, but you might also develop cancer. The study found that there was a significant increase in the risk of developing lung and colon cancer in particular in patients who also suffered from severe periodontal disease. Some aspects of our health are out of our control, but fortunately a great deal is within out control; and your oral hygiene and health is definitely one of those things.

If you find that your gums are bleeding when you brush or floss, talk to Dr. Steve or Dr. Blake during your next visit, as this is an early sign of periodontal disease. It is far easier to a prevent disease than it is to cure one. Preventative healthcare is the best approach to your health and well-being and by preventing periodontal disease, you are helping to prevent a lot of other diseases in your future. 

What causes your teeth to be less than a sparkling shade of pearly white? There are multiple factors that play into the current color of your teeth. Genetics, age, smoking, certain foods and drinks, certain antibiotics, and even excessive teeth grinding can contribute to the yellowing of your smile. Fortunately, being a general, family, and cosmetic dental practice, we have the expertise, the tools, the resources, the products, and the advice to help you get your smile back on the white spectrum.

Did you know that your smile is one of the first things that another person notices about you? Did you know that when you smile it is likely to cause someone else to smile? Did you know that a face makes a smile and a smile makes a face? (ok, ok, that’s our motto at Parker Dentistry Facial Rejuvenation and Wellness, but it’s true!) Last one, did you know that Americans spend an average of $1.4 billion a year on teeth whitening products according to the National Institute of Teeth Whitening?

Some of the easiest pieces of advice that we can offer to you in regard to helping fight stains and brighten up your smile is through your diet, oral hygiene practices, and lifestyle choices. We also have an incredible and affordable in-office whitening treatment to amp-up that wow factor in your smile!

Eat more of these:

• Apples
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Celery
• Nuts
• Pineapple
• Strawberries

Drink more of this:

• Water

Give up this:

• Smoking
• Sugary drinks

Do more of this:

• Brush your teeth
• Floss your teeth
• Brush your tongue
• Rinse with mouthwash
• Come in bi-annually for a professional deep teeth cleaning

Try this:

• Zoom Whitening (check your email for this week’s incredible Zoom Whitening promotion!)
• The new, revolutionary tooth whitening system that can erase years from your looks in a single 90-minute visit. Zoom whitening, developed by Philips, is the #1 patient-requested professional whitening treatment, capable of safely brightening your teeth by up to eight shades. In fact, it's the #1 patient-requested professional whitening treatment, owing to even results, amazing convenience and minimal tooth sensitivity following the treatment.
  
  Zoom whitening doesn't require trays, wearing strips for days or other hassles. All we do is apply Zoom whitening gel to your teeth during the appointment, and activate it using a special Zoom light for three 15-minute sessions. The advanced gel gently penetrates the sub-micron pores of tooth enamel to break down stains and eliminate years of discoloration.

Stay tuned this upcoming month as we celebrate National Facial Protection Month, National Alcohol Awareness Month, Defeat Diabetes Month, and National Humor Month…all happening in April!