We’ve got some Dried Organic Mango Strips that are mighty delicious, but approaching their sell-by date.

They're terrifically tasty, but we can’t keep ‘em any longer … and you can benefit from our date-sensitive dilemma!

Here’s the deal: You'll get a FREE 8 oz bag of Organic Mango Strips – a $10 value – with any order that exceeds $100.00.

Just fill your cart with Vital Choice products worth $100.01 or more, and enter the Gift Code MANGOES.

You’ll receive a bag of Organic Mango Strips with your order, at no charge. To read more about them, click here.)

The offer is over when these naturally sweet treats run out, so don't wait!

Want to get a head start on the holidays?  Give the gift of great taste and good health!

Each Vital Choice Gift Pack includes a handome, personalized gift card.

You can order now, choose a shipping date during checkout, and put another gift task behind you!

Want to let your gift recipients choose for themselves? Our Gift Certificates offer a great option!

Browse our searchable Newsletter Archive!

People seem to really love our Wild Sockeye Salmon Sausage, which comes in three succulent varieties: Savory Country Breakfast Style, Spicy Italian, and NEW Chorizo Style.

The ingredients couldn’t be simpler: just Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, 100% organic herbs and spices, organic arrowroot, natural sea salt, and water. For tips on how to cook 'em from straight from the freezer, see our Web site.

“I just tried your new Country breakfast sausage for the first time … they are wonderful! I never thought a salmon sausage would be this good. Thanks!” — Dr. Bruce Felgenhauer

Vital Choice fresh-frozen organic blueberries, strawberries and red raspberries are rich in anti-aging antioxidants, and draw customer comments like this:
“OH MY GOODNESS! I cannot believe the flavor ... the taste reminds me of something from my childhood. Thanks for a great product!

Berries are incredibly healthful foods, and it's smart to seek out organic berries, grown without synthetic pesticides.

Our organic berries come in convenient one pound bags, each yielding about 3-1/2 cups. They freeze well, so you can keep plenty on hand!

Worldwide, more than one million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, with the highest rates occurring in the US and the Netherlands.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that 13 percent of American women will develop breast cancer during their lives, with most being diagnosed after menopause.

Evidence from research in animals and human cancer cells shows that high concentrations of flavonoids – common dietary antioxidants abundant in most plant foods – curb the growth of many cancers.

Key Points Study links diets rich in certain flavonoid-type antioxidants to significantly better 5-year survival rates. Findings dovetail with earlier finding by same team, that flavonoids may prevent breast cancer. The positive new findings run counter to the generally negative results of other epidemiological studies of flavonoids and cancer. The fact that soy flavonoids ranked as the most effective survival enhancers run counter to suspicions that soy foods and supplements might promote breast-cancer growth.

However, epidemiological studies have generally failed to find that diets high in flavonoids offer people significant protection from cancer. (The exceptions have been some results suggesting that flavonoids may reduce the risk of lung and breast cancer.)

Flavonoids are abundant in fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, tea, soy, chocolate, nuts, red wine and many medicinal herbs, and are divided into smaller categories such as flavonols, flavones, isoflavones, anthocyanidins, and flavan-3-ols.

Positive survival findings echo prevention findings from prior stage 

As we reported last March, a team based at the University of North Carolina published positive conclusions from a breast cancer prevention study among women living on New York’s Long Island:
“… intake of flavonols, flavones, flavan-3-ols, and lignans is associated with reduced risk of … postmenopausal breast cancer ...”

All flavonoids were found protective against breast tumors, with some kinds – flavones (see source list below) – reducing risk by as much as 39 percent

Lignans, which were also found protective, are fiber-like, weakly estrogenic compounds, found in a variety of seeds, whole grains, bran, berries, and vegetables. Flaxseed is the richest source, by far.

And the UNC team found that women enjoyed protective effects at flavonoid-intake levels achievable by eating the five daily servings of fruits and/or vegetables recommended in US dietary guidelines (Fink BN et al March, 2007).

(For more on this research and related prevention studies see “Food-Borne Antioxidants May Curb Breast Cancer”.)

But the effects of flavonoids on breast cancer survival rates had not been studied until the same UNC team compared participants’ flavonoid intake with their 5-year survival rates.

Second stage of Long Island study finds flavonoids enhance survival

Researchers from UNC analyzed medical and death records from participants in their previous cancer-prevention study, which involved 1,210 breast cancer patients aged 25 to 98 (Fink BN et al November, 2007).

We couldn’t resist reporting two oddball stories that came over our internet transom in recent days.

In incidents reminiscent of Ripley’s strange-but-true stories, researchers have found two oceanic oddities.

The first story involves the oldest animal ever found, while the second is a “tall” but true tale that sounds like something from a low-budget horror movie.

Methuselean mollusk may be longest-lived creature

The first amazing account comes from researchers at Maine’s Bangor University, who found an incredibly old quahog clam in Icelandic waters.

By counting the annual shell-growth lines on the clam, they calculate that it lived for more than 400 years. 

To put this in perspective, Shakespeare was writing Hamlet when this mollusk was newly born.

The previous confirmed record for the longest-lived animal belonged to a 374 year old clam found in a Icelandic museum.

The Maine researchers say it is likely that older clams remain to be found. Frigid, pure Icelandic waters may promote extreme longevity, but clams older than 200 have been found in the Irish Sea and the North Sea.

The Bangor team hopes to find out whether clams may possess exceptionally effective anti-aging mechanisms that we could take advantage of.

Could clam juice replace pomegranate as the hot new anti-aging elixir? Stay tuned …

Fossil reveals man-sized sea scorpion from distant past

British scientists digging in a German quarry unearthed a 390-million-year-old fossil, whose size bears icky implications.

The fossilized claw belonged to ...

As much as any medical matter can be determined with certainty, eating fish is believed to help prevent strokes.

In fact, the preponderance of evidence supports the hypothesis that fish and fish oil reduce the risk of stroke by about 25 percent.

And the credibility of positive results reported from the great majority of epidemiological studies is supported by the proven cardiovascular benefits of omega-3s from fish, which explain why fish should reduce stroke risks.

(A recent Swedish study yielded rare negative results, which we’ve addressed below: see “Stroke-study headlines prove highly misleading”.)

Key Points Fish is a leading protective factor against stroke, thanks to its omega-3 content. Disappointing fish/stroke-risk results from Sweden defied most evidence, and were not as negative as reported. ER physicians remain dubious about a drug touted as an imperative stroke treatment.

Naturally, there’s more to the story, since there are different kinds of stroke, and different kinds and preparations of fish, with differing impacts on risks.

Before diving into the evidence concerning fish, let’s take a closer look at the potentially disabling or deadly phenomenon known as stroke.

Strokes often go unnoticed, and come in two distinct forms

The risk of stroke is raised by the same factors associated with increased risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death:

• High blood pressure
• Chronic inflammation.
• Excessive abdominal fat
• Unhealthful cholesterol profiles
• High triglycerides and homocysteine levels

Stroke rates in America have fallen some over the past 50 years, but remain high. One in seven men and one in six women aged 65 and older will suffer a diagnosed stroke.

And stroke is a much bigger problem than these statistics suggest, because many of the strokes people suffer are undetected, “silent” strokes.

Hospitals and doctors report some 770,000 strokes in the US annually. However, researchers have conducted MRI brain scans on older people, and by projecting the results on the American population, they estimate that about 11 million of us suffer some 22 million asymptomatic, undiagnosed strokes annually (Leary MC et al 2003).

In other words, the annual number of “silent” strokes in America is about 30 times higher than the incidence of diagnosed strokes. Dutch researchers obtained similar results when they ...