Scientist with vision.

Vic Cherikoff has left a new comment on your post "Kakadu full of goodness":

Can I refer readers of this blog to my site for information on the research into the value of Australian fruits? There is a great deal happening in the food, health and nutraceutical industries with some first mover advantage going to strategic, forward-thinking companies such as Kakadu Juice, Dr Red, Berri and Charles Sturt Uni Cheeses. Please support the products from these companies as it really helps to build Australia's competitive edge. Oh, and if you wish, please support my products - you'll find them in my store. I can assure you that you will feel better eating produce which still has wild vigour. Every product I have closely scrutinized since my analyses confirming the vitamin C level in the Kakadu plum as record holding, has revealed startling value in our herbs, spices, fruits, nuts and more.

On a related topic, I for one, can't tolerate the pundits ranting about the rising Aussie dollar making us uncompetitive in the global economy. What it takes are more innovative, clever companies embracing a "Blue Ocean Strategy (Google this term if you are curious) to turn our exports into new products, new ideas and new sales. A key principle of BOS is to make the competition irrelevant and I am proud to have played a pivotal role in fostering the creation of new endeavours, new products and new companies as we offer native Australian foods and ingredients to global markets.

Full comment at the end

Why is Green Tea in Kakadu

Green tea looking better every day.

Writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers from Japan's National Cancer Centre report the benefits of green Tea.
Drinking five or more cups a day was associated with a 48 per cent reduction in advanced prostate cancer risk, compared to drinking less than one cup per day.

"Green tea may be associated with a decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer," reported the researchers, led by Norie Kurahashi.

The research is in-line with a growing list of benefits that has linked tea and tea extracts, ranging from a lower risk of certain cancers to weight loss, and protection against Alzheimer's have all been linked to the polyphenol content of the tea.

Green tea contains between 30 and 40 per cent of water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea (green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation) contains between 3 and 10 per cent. Oolong tea is semi-fermented tea and is somewhere between green and black tea.

If you have any health concerns consult with your Medical Practitioner immediately. Although this report is of interest in can not be assumed that Green Tea is a cure.

Vitamin C and wrinkles

An orange a day keeps wrinkles away
11 Oct 2007, 0030 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN

Times of India

An orange a day may actually keep your wrinkles away. An interesting study has revealed that regular intake of foods rich in Vitamin C helps prevent ageing of skin.

Vitamin C, also know as ascorbic acid, is found in a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Good sources include ( Kakadu Plum) peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, oranges, kiwi fruit, strawberries, tomatoes, leafy greens, papaya, mango, watermelon, cauliflower, cabbage, raspberries and pineapples.

British scientists examined links between nutrient intake and skin ageing in 4,025 women aged 40-74 years using data from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. All the women had extensive dermatologic examinations designed to evaluate skin wrinkling and other aspects of skin ageing and also completed a survey listing all the foods they ate in a particular day.

Ageing of the skin was defined as having a wrinkled appearance, senile dryness and skin atrophy.

The study by nutritional epidemiologist Maeve C Cosgrove and other researchers found that those who ate plenty of Vitamin C-rich foods had fewer wrinkles than people whose diets contained little of the vitamin. "Vitamin C is an antioxidant that has been shown to play a role in the synthesis of collagen, the protein that helps keep skin elastic. Our findings add evidence to a predominately supplement and topical application-based hypothesis that what we eat affects our skin-ageing appearance," according to Cosgrove.

"This is one of the first studies to examine the impact of nutrients from foods rather than supplements on skin ageing. Diets rich in Omega-6 fatty acid were found to be associated with less skin ageing from dryness and thinning while higher fat diets and those higher in carbohydrates were found to be linked to more wrinkling," Cosgrove added. Vitamin C, a water-soluble vitamin, is important in forming collagen, a protein that gives structure to bones, cartilage, muscle, and blood vessels.

Kakadu full of goodness

Bush plum help slows ageing

By Alice Plate

Thursday, 02/08/2007

If you're feeling a bit old, a bit wrinkly around the edges you might pay to get stuck into Kakadu plums.

The native Australian fruit, often called billy goat plum, is found in parts of the Territory and Western Australia , has been widely recognised for having the highest source of vitamin C in the world.

Now, new research shows the bushtucker's also got large quantities of anti-oxidants, which can help slow the ageing process.

Food Science Australia's Izabela Konczak says they compared 12 native australian fruits to blueberries and they

"Blueberry was our international standard because it has a high level of anti-oxidants. In these native fruits the anti-oxidant activity was four or five times higher than in blueberries. And the Kakadu plum was the winner."

She says anti-oxidants help slow muscular degeneration, alzheimers disease, diabetes, cardio vascular condition and others and it can slow down the ageing process.

She says for the fruit to take affect US scientists say you need to eat about 1.5 cups of blueberries a day, so that means you need about a quarter of a cup of Kakadu plums.

But, how do you actually get your hands on some plums?

There are a lot of hurdles. Billy goat plum fruits for just six weeks of the year around March and the almond sized fruit only grows in top end of NT and WA.

Plus you need a permit to search for any. It isn't currently widely available on supermarket shelves and while it has been used in some vitamin products and in some cafes to make muffins and milkshakes, it hasn't been widely adopted.

But, there are moves by a Darwin company and the NT Government to create a fully-fledged industry. Kakadu Wild Harvest 's Karen Sheldon has been involved in the discussions for some years now to make it a long term Aboriginal heritage product.

"We do have a test orchard. We are doing some work with Charles Darwin University. We are entering into agreements with companies to do research on it and we've also got a rural industries development application that's in its final stages."

She says the opportunities are endless and the NT is very lucky to have it.

In this report: Izabela Konczak, research team leader, Food Science Australia; Karen Sheldon, CEO, Kakadu Wild Harvest.

Bush Tucker Appreciated

Independent on Sunday –UK

How 'bush tucker' became flavour of the month for foodies

After years of neglect, Australians are rediscovering the ancient culinary traditions of the Aboriginals.

By Kathy Marks

Published: 29 September 2007

As Aboriginal people have done for perhaps 60,000 years, Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Bauman catches long-necked turtles by hand in the billabongs of the Daly river. But while her ancestors roasted turtles in hot coals, or baked them in a hole in the ground, Ms Bauman serves them up to her family stir-fried or in the form of turtle liver risotto.

Ms Bauman, an elder of the Nauiyu Nambiyu community, south of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, is one of a growing number of Aboriginal women learning new culinary skills – thanks to a "whitefella".

Steve Sunk, a senior lecturer in hospitality and cookery at Charles Darwin University, is showing them innovative ways to cook the animals they traditionally hunt, and their wild fruit and vegetables.

He started his courses because he was concerned about health problems caused to a large extent by poor diet. Indigenous people suffer from high rates of diabetes, obesity, renal failure and heart disease.

Their traditional diet was healthy, combining low-fat meat (kangaroo, emu, crocodile, goanna) with a wide variety of fruit and vegetables: bush tomatoes, water lilies, wild limes, yams, quandongs (native peach), Kakadu plums and wild spinach, to name but a few.

After white settlement, though, Aborigines abandoned their nomadic lifestyle. Forced to live on missions and reserves, they stripped the surrounding vegetation. They were also introduced to Western processed food, and nowadays many of them live off fried chicken and potato chips, washed down with Coke and other sugary drinks.

Mr Sunk wants indigenous people to return to their millennia-old supermarket: the desert, the rivers, the sea. To encourage that, he shows them how to cook their traditional produce more creatively and healthily. Ms Bauman, who is principal of St Francis Xavier primary school in Nauiyu, says: "Steve has helped us to realise there are better foods we can eat, that won't make us sick later."

While Mr Sunk spreads the message in Aboriginal communities, mainstream Australia is belatedly waking up to the rich flavours – and nutritional value – of "bush tucker". The Kakadu plum contains five times the volume of antioxidants found in blueberries, well known for their antioxidant qualities.

Other wild fruit and vegetables have been found to have extraordinary qualities. A government study published last month found that fruits such as brush cherries, finger limes and riberries are a rich source of phytochemicals, which help protect against disease and ageing.

While Australians pride themselves on their adventurous palates, and their multicultural dining scene, they have always resisted eating the produce of their own backyards. For many people, bush tucker evoked visions of squirming witchetty grubs – fat white insects found in the desert, which Mr Sunk swears are delectable fried in garlic butter. Previous attempts to popularise bush cuisine, particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, were unsuccessful.

Public perceptions are now changing, thanks to new restaurants devoted to "native Australian food", as bush tucker has been rebranded, and the appearance of products such as bush tomato chutney and lemon myrtle-infused fruit juice on supermarket shelves……

. The trend is benefiting Aboriginal communities, where people are employed or paid to supply specialist companies, supermarkets and restaurants. It might be on a small scale, with enterprising individuals digging under acacia trees for witchetty grubs, or using their knowledge of local geography and the seasons to hunt out bush tomatoes. Or it might be on a larger scale, with thriving businesses engaged in growing and harvesting ingredients whose popularity is soaring. Lemon myrtle, wattle seed and quandongs are among the products now being grown on big plantations. Mr Christie's business partner, Vic Cherikoff, sources Kakadu plums from a plantation in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, run by a company uniting five communities. Such enterprises give indigenous people a degree of economic independence, while enabling them to retain their connection with the land. Some have called this serendipitous meeting of demand and supply "edible reconciliation". Mr Christie says: "Aboriginal communities have created real businesses and returned money to their communities by growing and selling native foods co-operatively."

Mr Cherikoff, who has pioneered the use of native produce in Australia, says: "There is an Aboriginal art industry, but only the best artists make money. Everyone can go out and pick bush tomatoes. The expansion of the native food industry is bringing real benefits to these communities."

Despite the growing popularity of native foods in Australia, it is overseas markets that are fuelling much of the demand. Vic Cherikoff exports products such as wild lime tartare sauce to 40 countries including the US. British supermarkets are stocking bush tomato chutneys and desert lime jams. New York is home to half a dozen Australian restaurants, most of them using native ingredients.

At Nauiyu, the former Daly River Mission, children are eating fruit and yoghurt instead of salty, high-fat snacks. They drink watered-down fruit juices; Coke and lemonade are just an occasional treat. The health kick has extended beyond food. Children at Miriam Bauman's school regularly take long walks, and enjoy exercise classes.

Ms Bauman says: "It makes the kids feel important too. It reinforces the culture. We still have all the skills and knowledge surrounding bush food. We just have to start using them again."

ABC Report 5/9/07

Study finds native fruits help fight diseases

Print

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 05/09/2007

Reporter: Mike Sexton

In recent years connoisseurs have enjoyed the increased availability of Australian native foods such as wattle seed, Kakadu plum and bush tomatoes. Now there's scientific evidence to further encourage their use. According to a study by Food Science Australia, some native fruits have exceptional levels of anti-oxidants that are used by the body to fight diseases. For indigenous population, the results confirm what they have known for generations - that bush tucker is good for you.

Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN: In recent years chefs and connoisseurs have made increasing use of Australian native foods like wattle seed, Kakadu plum and bush tomatoes.

Now there's scientific evidence to further encourage their use.

According to a study by food science Australia some native fruits have 'exceptional' levels of anti-oxidants that are needed by the body to fight disease.

For Indigenous Australians the results confirm what they've known for generations- that bush tucker is good for you. But it may also provide a further boost for a fledging industry.

Mike Sexton reports.

MIKE SEXTON: Although native fruits have been growing in this country for thousands of years, most Australians would struggle to name one.

But that could all be about to change with new science showing Indigenous fruits could be among the healthiest foods on the planet.

IZABEL KONCZAK, FOOD SCIENCE AUSTRALIA: They are packed with very healthy compounds, something which probably would help us to stay healthy and live longer I hope.

MIKE SEXTON: When it comes to measuring the health benefits of fruit, comparisons are usually made with the blueberry, which is known as a super fruit due to the high level of anti-oxidants which the body uses to fight disease.

These are Illawarra plums. They grow on pine trees in NSW and Queensland and like blueberries, their sweet flavour can be used for a range of desserts.

IZABEL KONCZAK: If we cut this fruit in half we find that it is packed with pigment.

MIKE SEXTON: Research into the health benefits of Illawarra plums in being led by Isabel Konczak at Food Science Australia, a joint venture of the Victorian Government and the CSIRO.

Since emigrating from Poland eight years ago, she has become fascinated with Indigenous foods and her work suggest there are at least a dozen Australian super fruits.

ZABEL KONCZAK: This plum, is three times stronger in anti-oxidant activity than our sample of blueberry.

YVONNE LATHAM, CSIRO LAND AND WATER: This one is lemon myrtle. It is a rainforest species from northern NSW. It's got high citral content, beautiful lemon aroma.

MIKE SEXTON: You don't have to convince Yvonne Latham of the important properties of bush tucker. As a Nunga woman from Western Australia, she has long believed in the properties of native foods. Now as a project officer for the CSIRO, she oversees bush tucker projects in three states including here at Moonta on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.

YVONNE LATHAM: Our project initially focused on the cultivation of the native plant food species trying to find out which plant grew where, successfully. So much more research needs to be done. It feels like we are just touching the surface.

MIKE SEXTON: Native food is a boutique industry at best and for the CSIRO it is important to find out how to grow bush tucker in commercial quantities.

MAARTIN RYDER, CSIRO LAND AND WATER: There is not a lot of coordinated knowledge about what grows where. People have done it by trial and error. We are also still doing trials. It's trial and error still and the mountain pepper plants that we put in here at Moonta here died out after about a year. So they are not going to grow here.

MIKE SEXTON: One of the fruits under cultivation is the Muntry which has a spicy apple flavour and is loaded with anti-oxidants. But Muntry bushes are not the thing of horticulturalists' dreams. They are slow growing little shrubs that only produce small amounts of fruit. But they are tough.

MAARTIN RYDER: All of the things we grow still need water, rainfall or irrigation to produce a crop, but in terms of surviving drought conditions, some of the arid zone plants are very good at surviving those conditions until the next rains.

MIKE SEXTON: But for the Muntry and other native food, it is that very battle to survive that could be the reason for its health benefits.

IZABEL KONCZAK: Plant cells exposed to stress produces anti-oxidants, produces compounds which will help the cell to survive. Those compounds are good for the plant's health and fortunately, they are also good for us.

ANDREW FIELKE, AUSTRALIAN NATIVE FOOD INDUSTRY LTD: There is a huge lack of awareness or understanding about the native food ingredients and what to do with them.

MIKE SEXTON: When he isn't filleting barramundi, Andrew Fielke chairs the new Australian Native Food Industry Limited and believes the research on anti-oxidants will stir more interest in bush tucker particularly from overseas.

The veteran chef believes more science needs to be done to take native foods out of the novelty basket and into the mainstream.

ANDREW FIELKE: To get them fully recognised internationally as legitimate foods, there has to be more work done on establishing the toxicology and all those health benefits and that. Whether it is anti-oxidants or vitamins or whatever and get all that information really done professionally now and put to those international bodies so these foods are recognised.

MIKE SEXTON: While the world waits for a stamp of approval, Izabel Konczak isn't. She will continue slicing and blending and building a scientific profile of Australian's super fruits.

IZABEL KONCZAK: We feel we are bringing something new. I would say we are discovering something which already exists here and just we are finding new value of those foods.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And offering us more and more choices. Mike Sexton with that report.

Kakadu Juice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kakadu International tm. is an Australian company proud to be the first to introduce an Australian native super-food beverage to the world market.

Emerging research is uncovering a wealth of nutritional value in Australia’s native bush foods. Record-breaking levels of Vitamin C, , micro-elements and unique phytonutrients have made the Australian outback a leading nutritional hotspot in Wellness today. Kakadu Juice promoted as a nutritional supplement contains the super antioxidant Kakadu Plum, Pepper Berry, Quandong, Wild Rosella and Illawarra Plum from Australia

Contents

1. Company

2. Production

3. Kakadu Juice Components

4. Concentration

5. Research

6. References

7. External Links

Company

Kakadu International is a 100% Australian company. Drs Kowalski and Cherikoff have a combined 50 years of bush food, scientific and manufacturing experience

The research & development team consist of leading Australian physicians with a passion to introduce people all around the world to the natural nutritional healing benefits of the Australian Native Super-Foods. Distribution is by way of network marketing.

Production

Every bottle of Kakadu Juice is providing employment for Aboriginal Australians. The Australian Outback is one of the last pristine wilderness areas of the world. Wild harvesting of bush foods from this region relies on ancient Aboriginal knowledge of healing foods meshed with the modern practical skills of how to transport, process and distribute these foods in a way where nutritional vitality is...vital.

The manufacturing partner, Orielton Laboratories has more than 20 years manufacturing and distribution experience within the health and nutrition industry.

All Kakadu’s range of products are manufactured in a therapeutic goods (TGA) licensed premises.

Kakadu Juice Components

Kakadu Juice is a concentrated blend of 5 of Australia’s (and the World’s) most potent Natives which are naturally enhanced by a selection of unique plant foods

This natural cold-processed cocktail of essential nutrients supplies abundant slow-release energy, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, bioflavonoids, chlorophyll, protein, essential fatty acids (3, 6 & 9), polysaccharides, a highly rich ‘natural’ source of Folic Acid and Iron as well as fibre for fortifying the diet Nature’s way...from cold processed whole foods.

Kakadu Plum . A favourite healthy food of the Aboriginal people. Holds the World Record for Vitamin C content. Is a phytonutrient feast full of antioxidants, folic acid, iron.

Pepper Berry Hailed as the World’s strongest antioxidant food. A polygodial-rich food traditionally used as a bush medicine by indigenous Aboriginals of Australia.

Quandong Has a sweet peach flavour used in gourmet cuisine. Contains vitamins, minerals & unique oils such as Santalbic Acid - studied by Deakin University.

Illawarra plum A very close rival to the pepper berry for the title of strongest antioxidant. Subtle plum/pine flavours plus vitamin C make it a culinary favourite & boost for KJ!

Wild Rosella A very close rival to the pepper berry for the title of strongest antioxidant. Subtle plum/pine flavours plus vitamin C make it a culinary favourite & boost for KJ!

Acai A feast of flavonoids, omega 3, 6 & 9 oils, vitamins & sterols . A health-food favourite of the native South Americans with a taste like chocolate cherries!

Gogi A natural cornucopia of nourishing vitamins including A, C, E & B, antioxidants, amino acids, essential oils, anti-inflammatories & proteoglycans.

Cherry Delightfully sweet, slightly sour with antioxidant power! Also a source of mallic acid and numerous bioflavonoids.

Mangosteen A delicious fruit full of minerals, polyphenols, polysaccharides, catechins and

anti-inflammatories plus over 40 different highly concentrated antioxidant Xanthones.

Blueburry A well known health-food full of flavour, fibre, phenols, vitamin C and potent antioxidants including resveratrol and numerous bioflavonoids.

Pomegranate A well known health-food full of flavour, fibre, phenols, vitamin C and potent antioxidants including resveratrol and numerous bioflavonoids.

Green Tea A powerful herb, famous for its copious catechins, vitamins and minerals plus ECGC (an even stronger antioxidant than vitamins E & C).

Flax A wonderful source of omega 3, 6 & 9 oils, lignans (numerous health benefits) and rich in healthy plant proteins important for a naturally nutritious diet.

Barley Grass A concentrated green food rich in enzymes, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll which may be lacking in modern processed food diets.

Grape Seed Grape seeds contain numerous fatty acids and antioxidants including resveratrol and the OPC’s which are strong and versatile antioxidants.

Concentration

While most juice products on the market are between 60-90% water, Kakadu Juice contains less than 10% water meaning if you took 6 of the leading juice products and combined them together you still wouldn't equal the quantity and quality of nutrients contained in 1 bottle of Kakadu Juice.

Research

Professor Brand-Miller, the pre-eminent authority and author on glycaemic index is also to thank for discovering that Kakadu Plum is the World’s richest natural source of Vitamin C. [1] At up to 450mg of Vitamin C per gram of dry fruit, that is over 150 times the concentration found in dried goji berries, over 200 times more than blackcurrants and 900 times more than oranges.

The Australian bush foods safely offer a variety of essential nutrients plus some novel ones like the oils unique to Quandong (seen below). Scientists from Deakin University in Melbourne revealed the oil’s ability to vigorously stimulate the production of brain, liver and kidney enzymes responsible for the detoxification of drugs and alcohol. [2]

Also attracting great attention these days is the importance of consuming a sufficient quantity and quality of antioxidants from real whole foods

According to Vic Cherikoff, former researcher at the Sydney University Human Nutrition Unit, the commonly known antioxidant foods such as goji, mangosteen, noni, blackberry, and blueberry are “eclipsed in antioxidant concentration" by the following Australian natives: Kakadu Plum, Tasmanian Mountain Pepper, Wild Rosella and Illawarra Plum.

"Eating a Tasmanian Mountain Pepper berry is like having a hand grenade go off in your mouth" says Vic.

Furthermore, the carbohydrates found in bush foods are much more complex, greatly slowing the release of sugar into the body, allowing the Indigenous people to sustain themselves for long periods on relatively small amounts of food. [3]

The research by Vic and Professor Brand-Miller is well-supported by a recent research alliance between Food Science Australia and the CSIRO. According to numerous tests it is entirely likely that the World’s strongest antioxidant food is indeed the Tasmanian Mountain Pepper. [4]

Analysis of the Mountain Pepper also revealed an abundance of 'polygodial', a substance found in many traditional medicine foods of the Australian Aboriginies and New Zealand Maoris; possibly Nature's finest anti-microbial agent and believed to offer hope to arthritis sufferers. Also found were bioflavonoids known to slow sugar-release from food, stimulate the immune system and bolster the body's natural cancer defences. [5]

References

1. Brand, J.C. et al “An outstanding food source of Vitamin C.” (1982) Lancet (#8303): 873.

2.Jones, G.P. et al “Santalbic acid from quandong kernels and oil fed to rats
affects kidney and liver P450.” (1999) Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr 8(3): 211–215.

3.Cherikoff, V. et al “The nutritional composition of Australian Aboriginal bushfoods.” (1982) Food

technology in Australia 35:293-298.

4. Konczak, I. “Biodiscovery of antioxidants from Bush Foods.” (2006) Future Foods for Future Health; June 14-15, Melbourne AUS.

5. Davis, W., et al. “Antioxidants & Cancer III: quercetin.” (2000) Alt Med Rev 5(3):196-208.

External Links

http://www.kakadujuice.net