Poaching is a great way to prepare chicken since the nutritional value is preserved well and the Chinese medicine qualities are nourishing, as opposed to roasting or baking (which are drying). It’s really easy as well. Put a few of the following ingredients (celery, carrot, onion, green onion, leek, shiitake mushroom, fennel, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, cloves, garlic, ginger, etc.) with water and bring to a low simmer. Immerse chicken breasts or legs and cover. Breasts take about 10 minutes, legs take about 15 minutes. The chicken can now be eaten as is or can be further prepared as chicken salad.  
But wait! Save that poaching liquid! Strain the ingredients and now you can use this for a soup base. What I did last night was use this liquid for a yummy shiitake mushroom-thyme risotto topped with fresh black and white truffles. 
 

A recent study identified a compound in chrysanthemum that seems to help block angiogenesis and therefore can help prevent tumors from spreading. The flower is commonly steeped and combined with lycium berries for a tasty tea that is also very good for your eyes.
 
Phytother Res. 2007 Oct;21(10):954-9

This is an older study, but very important. We have more and more people taking male fertility supplements, most of them high in zinc. Yes, zinc will help your sperm quality if you need it. In other words, if you are deficient in zinc it will be beneficial. If your zinc levels are normal, then you may actually damage your sperm. In this study they found that elevated levels of zinc in seminal plasma may be related with defective motility. In other words, unless you have certain physical signs of a nutrient deficiency, you should get tested before deciding which supplements are appropriate for you.
  
Andrologia. 1990 May-Jun;22(3):279-83

New research may explain the mechanism by which a ketogenic diet (such as the Atkins diet) is able to control epilepsy in about half of epileptics. In this study, researchers found that leptin administered directly to the brain or nasal epithelium significantly inhibited seizures. The authors concluded that leptin-triggered signaling may be a key to how a ketogenic diet combats epilepsy.
  
J Clin Invest. Published online 2007 December 20.

If you’re of Asian heritage, you must have tried bitter melon. If we’ve told you that you have excessive heat in the body, you should try this. And if you have any problems with high blood sugar then you should know about this vegetable, if you don’t know already. This is one of my favorite vegetables to buy a few of when it’s in season at the farmers market. It’s definitely an acquired taste and it’s called bitter melon for a reason. My Mom likes to prepare it with black bean sauce and ground beef or pork but I have no desire to eat any MSG so I saute it with eggs.
 
2 bitter melons
4 free range eggs
Sesame oil
White pepper
Sea salt
 
Cut in half lengthwise, as the picture below shows. Not all bitter melons have this beautiful orange color in the middle. Carve out the seeds. I’m sure the seeds have some medicinal value but until I figure it out, discard them. Thinly slice. Saute on low-medium heat with the oil of your choice and a little bit of water, enough to steam the bitter melon. Add some sea salt to the melon and cover. Cook until you can easily stick a fork through it. Whisk a few eggs in a separate bowl and pour in the middle of the pan. Turn off the heat and toss the mixture around. The eggs won’t exactly look scrambled but it will look like of chunky. Add sesame oil and additional sea salt to taste.
 
I apologize in advance if you think this is a nasty recipe but I think it’s delicious!

Brandon insists this is the best salad he’s ever had. It was pretty darn good, I must say. I had to resolve some leftover phlegm from my episode of sore throat/laryngitis last week so I wanted to eat radishes. I was trying to figure out what to do with them but I didn’t feel like stressing out my gall bladder by eating a bunch of buttered radishes at 9 pm. So I ripped off a recipe from one of the Food Network chefs and modified it to fit what I had from the farmers market already:
 
1 bunch purple (or whatever color you want) salad radishes from Flora Bella Farms, VERY thinly sliced on a mandoline and salted
1 Asian pear from Ha’s, VERY thinly sliced on a mandoline
1 bunch arugula from Flora Bella Farms
2 T really good organic extra virgin olive oil (Okay it’s not local. I hate California olive oils. They taste like terpentine.)
1 T cold pressed walnut oil (La Nogalera from Ventura County)
1 T Kopali banana vinegar (other types of vinegar might be extremely acidic so you’d need less than 1 T)
Parmesan cheese (Cowgirl Creamery)
Celtic sea salt
 
Prepare the radishes, pear and arugula. Combine the vinegar with 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt and allow to dissolve slightly. Whisk in the oils and pour on top of other ingredients. Grate some parmesan cheese on top (I like to use a microplane because it comes out beautifully and airy) and toss all together.
 
Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Cinnamon bark was found to have antiviral effects against herpes simplex 1. Not entirely intuitive but seems to work, at least in silk worms …
  
J Gen Virol. 2008 Jan;89(Pt 1):188-94

This study found that gold nanoparticles greatly reduced sperm motility. This will become a bigger deal as new nanotechnology becomes more popular. It also may be relevant to gold that is introduced into the body in terms of fillings, etc.
   
Reported in Fertility & Sterility ahead of press in December 2007

Believe it or not, a component of chocolate may inhibit angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) in human ovarian cancer cells. Cancers use this blood vessel formation so they can spread (metastasize). So chocolate may help prevent metastasis … the problem is the sugar in sweetened chocolate may feed some tumors …
   
Oncol Rep. 2000 Nov-Dec;7(6):1285-91.

This study is another in a series of studies demonstrating that acupuncture has point and frequency specific effects. Meaning that when an acupuncture needle is inserted at a particular point it may not improve blood flow until the proper frequency is administered. Likewise if the proper frequency is used but at the wrong point, you still won’t get increases in blood flow.
   
So when you use the correct point stimulated at the correct frequency you get results. In this study the results were significant increases in testicular blood flow (St 29 @ 10hz).
   
Fertil Steril. 2007 Dec 10 [Epub ahead of print].
  
keywords: testicle, sperm, male factor, infertility, blood flow