Check out the healthy products we've carefully selected for our unique gourmet food baskets, relaxation baskets and special occasion baskets.
Hippocrates was right when he said, "Let food be your medicine." Experts believe that more than half of all cancer is related to diet. And a high-fat diet has long been linked to heart disease and stroke. However, it is possible to enjoy a snack that is not only good tasting but also good for you. Here's a sampling of what you'll find in our healthy baskets:
Wild blueberries won't give you the blues
Eating your blues means you may be helping to fight aging and cancer, along with other health conditions. Blueberries contain antioxidants, the agents that protect the body from the breakdown of oxygen molecules into what are called "free radicals." Free radicals help rid the body of toxins, but they also break down DNA. They are believed to contribute to the aging process and diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
Now a study shows that blueberries contain the most antioxidants of all the fruits. Scientists at Tufts University ranked blueberries number one in antioxidant activity, compared with 40 other fruits and vegetables.
Another study, reported in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, showed that blueberries may be as helpful as cranberries in keeping your urinary tract healthy. A substance in the berries, called proanthocyanidins, helps prevent bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall and causing painfully common urinary tract infections.
Finally, another study showed that blueberries improved the balance and short-term memory of elderly animal subjects.
Our wild blueberries are hand picked in Northern Wisconsin by Country Ovens, Ltd. And we include a luscious wild blueberry/apple spice muffin recipe for you to use.
Look for the blueberries in our Healthy Food Baskett and Healthy Food Basket Deluxe, plus our Healthy Birthday Basket.
Tea for you
It's green, it can make you lean, and it's an anti-cancer machine. Now scientists believe they know how green tea keeps cancer at bay.
Green tea has a substance that helps to block the blood vessels that tumors need to survive and grow, a Swedish research team announced. The secret is a compound that blocks an enzyme necessary for cancer cells to proliferate. Solid tumors need a blood supply to live long and prosper--a process called angiogenesis. It appears that drinking green tea blocks this nasty process.
The researchers speculated that green tea may also be useful in combating other conditions that depend on a ready blood supply. One of them may be diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can lead to blindness.
How much green tea do you need to drink to protect yourself? Probably two to three cups daily, for quite a while, for its benefits to take effect.
That means our orange- and lemon-favored green tea is perfect for a healthy tea break. You can find the green tea in our Healthy Breakfast Basket, Healthy Food Basket and Healthy Food Basket Deluxe, and in our Healthy Birthday Basket. We include black tea (less caffeine) in our Healthy Heart Basket.
Go Nuts
You probably know that it's a good idea to limit the amount of butter and animal fats in your diet. These saturated fats can lead to heart disease or stroke. Now the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that you replace saturated fats with other fats: monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats such as those found in nuts.
Studies have found that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are more healthful. They may make the blood-clotting component of the blood, called platelets, less sticky and less likely to form dangerous clots. When blood clots form in arteries, they can trigger a heart attack or stroke. Monounsaturated fatty acids may also help to dissolve clots if they do form, the AHA points out.
And for people with type 2 diabetes, a diet higher in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats can help improve control of blood cholesterol. Our gourmet trail mix, pistachios and Indianola Pecan House sugar-free pecans will make you go nuts.
Plus you can enjoy an assortment of tasty low-fat items including: dipping pretzels, crackers and gourmet popcorn. These products can be found throughout our baskets. They are especially popular in His Healthy Basket.
Chocoholics Rejoice
Forget the apple. If any sinning went on the Garden of Eden, it had to be a big bite of a forbidden chocolate bar. Eating anything that tastes so sinfully good deserves punishment, right?
Not necessarily. Chocoholics can rejoice in a study that showed chocolate is a good source of flavonoids, the same antioxidants found in tea. Antioxidants have been shown to reduce heart disease and possibly cancer risk by protecting against the oxidation of cells by free radicals. Tea drinkers have already have been shown to have lower rates of heart disease.
Dutch doctors studied more than 6,000 people to analyze the antioxidants in the tea and chocolate they drank. They checked for catechins, which are in the flavonoids family. The doctors found that chocolate has four times the amount of antioxidants as tea. Dark chocolate has more catechins than milk chocolate, and both surpassed tea.
Dark chocolate also has less fat than milk chocolate. And cocoa butter, a main ingredient of chocolate, has a special fat called steric acid that doesn't contribute to cholesterol formation.
"Drinking a cup of tea and eating a chocolate cookie might be not only enjoyable but healthy as well," the doctors wrote in the British medical journal Lancet.
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Bath Products
They're natural, naturally. And gorgeous. Herbs, botanicals, natural oils go into these high-quality lotions, bath crystals, soaps and gels. The colors and fragrances evoke the Pacific rain forest, breezes off the sea or a freshly ripened mango and peach. Our European spa line is imported from Europe. The bath packets are scented with lavender, chamomile and eucalyptus so you can slip into a luxurious bath and leave the world behind.
The products are biodegradable, the containers are recyclable and, of course, no animals are used to test the Rain Country Naturals products.
Clients have been raving about their fresh scent and durability: find them in our Healthy Relaxation Basket and Relaxation Basket Deluxe.
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Books and CDs
From relaxation books and CDs, to fitness books for men and golfers.....and our healthy heart books, you can pick up tips from experts on how to be healthy. The books are especially chosen for up-to-date health information that is easy to understand.
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Check out the healthy products we've carefully selected for our unique gourmet food baskets, relaxation baskets and special occasion baskets.