Earn tangible rewards for seasonal shopping, with your very own Vital Choice Holiday Bonus!

From now through December 24, 2007, orders that exceed $100, $200, and $300 will receive increasing rewards.

The free gifts include embroidered Vital Choice Aprons, the acclaimed cookbook "Salmon", and our new Super-Antioxidant Organic Trail Mix.

Just enter the gift code HOLIDAY during checkout. For details and restrictions, click here.

Like all Vital Choice orders totaling $99 or more per delivery address, all Holiday Bonus orders include Free Shipping!

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 handsome, 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!

Want to review your order history?

Just click the “My Account” link in the left-hand menu of our Web site, enter your user name and password, and click the “View My Order History” link.

(Web orders will show immediately ... others may take a week or more.)

Join us at the 15th Annual World Congress On Anti-Aging Medicine 2007, where we’ll be speaking with attendees, and serving up samples of savory Vital Choice wild Salmon from booth #4068.

It’s an exciting event that features talks by innovative thought leaders, and draws 6,000 attendees, including more than 1,000 physicians and healthcare practitioners.

WHEN: December 12-15, 2007

WHERE: Las Vega, Nevada

HOW: Register by clicking here.

Boasting a rich golden color, these scrumptious, oven-ready steaks are infused with delicate alder wood smoke flavor — and cook fully from frozen in mere minutes!

Sablefish is rarely seen in standard fish markets, and this buttery, flaky, white fish boasts its own rich texture and mind-blowing flavor—and even more omega-3s than wild salmon!

And for those who prefer it, we also offer irresistible, certified Earth Kosher natural-style sablefish.

A steady stream of studies published over the past few years has highlighted the role that omega-3s play in enabling and enhancing brain structures and functions essential to optimal mental performance.

For example, animal and cell experiments show that omega-3s – especially DHA – stimulate changes that promote stronger and more numerous networks between the brain’s nerve cells (neurons), which occur at the neuron-connecting points called synapses:

• Increased formation of synaptic membranes.
• Higher levels of important proteins within synaptic membranes.
• Increases in the small outgrowths of neuronal cell membranes called neurites.

For more on these points, see “New Insight into Anti-Aging Brain Benefits of Omega-3s” and “MIT Report Shows Omega-

Key Points Decline of conduits between brain regions may underlie age-related loss of mental acuity. Finding highlights importance of brain’s “white matter” channels to sharp thinking and memory. Omega-3s promote the healthy neuronal connections needed to build white matter, with implications for healthier aging and future research.

3s Boost Brain Networks Critical to Memory Capacity”.

Recent studies reveal continuous increases in the amount of neuron-rich “white matter” throughout adolescence, accompanied by increasingly better performance in tests of decision-making power and speed.

(See “Omega-3s Seen Boosting Performance of Healthy Young Brains”.)

And a new discovery about the importance of white matter to maintaining brain function as we age suggests avenues of research, including the supportive potential of omega-3s.

Why white matter matters

The human brain contains several major functional regions, each responsible for different tasks, such as memory, sensory processing, and decision-making.

Scientists have known that white matter degrades with age, but they did not understand how that decline contributes to declines in thinking and memory.

These functional regions are connected by conduits consisting of white matter, which enable the various regions to coordinate activity and share information.

 

Orange and yellow areas show greater blood flow and mental activity. The background image illustrates that in young adults, distant regions of the brain communicate robustly. The foreground image shows the decline in coordinated inter-regional activity characteristic of age-related cognitive decline. Image by Randy L. Bruckner, Ph.D.  of Harvard University

In young, healthy brains, signals are readily transmitted by white-matter conduits. As we age, those conduits decline. Depending on the networks involved, the result could be impaired memory, reasoning or other advanced cognitive functions.

Harvard team finds inter-regional communication key to healthy brain function

According to Jessica Andrews-Hanna, lead author of the new study by Harvard University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute, “The crosstalk between the different parts of the brain is like a conference call. We were eavesdropping on this crosstalk and we looked at how activity in one region of the brain correlates with another.” (HHMI 2007)

The Harvard researchers tested brain function in a group of volunteers aged from 18 to 93. Of these, the 38 volunteers aged 18-34 were classified as “young adults” and the 55 aged 60-93 were designated “old adults”.

They analyzed brain function using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures blood flow throughout the brain in order to show areas of mental activity.

Using an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging, the Harvard team looked at links within two critical networks: one responsible for processing information from the outside world and one that is more internal.

The new study revealed a dramatic difference in these regions between young and old ...

Scientists in Taiwan may have discovered how diets rich in plant foods – especially blueberries and chili peppers – reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Their study focuses on flavonoid-type antioxidants and the major subgroup known as polyphenols: the antioxidants abundant in berries, cocoa, tea, whole grains, and colorful fruits and vegetables.

Flavonoids and phenols appear to reduce risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, senility, and other disorders: especially ones associated with chronic inflammation, which flavonoids oppose. 

(Organic produce is especially helpful: see “Organic Produce and Milk Offer Abundant Antioxidants”.)

The anti-cancer effects of flavonoids are less well proven than their heart-health effects, but evidence on that score continues to accumulate. (See “Antioxidant Food Factors Support Breast Cancer Survival” and “Food-Borne Antioxidants May Curb Breast Cancer”.)

The Taiwanese researchers studied how 15 phenolic acids and six flavonoids affected adipocytes (fat cells) from mice (Hsu CL, Yen GC 2007).

Their results showed that fat cells exposed to certain antioxidants had lower levels of an enzyme – glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) – that forms triglycerides from glycerol.

As a probable consequence of suppressing expression of this enzyme, the fat cells exposed to flavonoids showed lower levels of triglycerides.

High blood levels of triglycerides are a major feature of metabolic syndrome, and raise the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

And the winning antioxidants are …

Among the six flavonoids and 15 phenolic flavonoids tested, o-coumaric acid and rutin were most effective at reducing production of triglycerides inside cells, dropping fat levels by 61.3 and 83 percent, respectively.

Blueberries and chili peppers are leading sources of o-coumaric acid (Zadernowski R et al 2005).

Rutin is most abundant in buckwheat – which, despite its name is a fruit, not a grain– grapes, and other fruits and fruit rinds, especially citrus fruits (Kreft I et al 2006). Rutin is often included in vitamin C supplements with added flavonoids.

These two antioxidant compounds also increased expression of adiponectin, a hormone secreted by abdominal fat cells.

Abdominal fat secretes various hormones that exert strong effects on appetite, inflammation, and metabolism, and influence whether fats and carbohydrates in foods are ...

While testosterone is important to women – for maintaining a robust libido among other things – the “hunk hormone” remains a hallmark of male sexuality and drive.

Testosterone is often cast in a semi-negative light, associated with macho preening and posturing.

But testosterone is an essential to health – especially men’s health – and needs to be taken seriously as a medical topic.

Body levels of testosterone drop as we age, and likely explanations for the hormonal decline are several:

• Increased body fat in middle age stimulates activity of an enzyme called aromatase, which turns testosterone into estrogen, gives chubby men mini-breasts and leads to a syndrome called androgen-deficiency aging.
• Oxidative (free radical) stress on testosterone-producing organs and tissues. (Dietary antioxidants appear to help maintain testosterone levels.)
• Declining body levels of DHEA and other chemicals from which the body makes testosterone (i.e., testosterone precursors).

Low testosterone levels hurt hearts, promote diabetes

Low levels of testosterone are strongly associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome and consequent risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Bhasin S 2003; Boyanov MA 2003; Dobrzycki S et al 2003; Hak AE et al 2002; Zhao SP, Li XP 1998; Jeppesen LL et al 1996).

Metabolic syndrome is defined as having three or more of a half-dozen metabolic risk factors:

• Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (the body can’t properly use insulin or blood sugar).
• Abdominal obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen).
• High blood triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol: a state that fosters plaque buildups in artery walls.
• Elevated blood pressure.
• Pro-thrombotic state that promotes dangerous clots (e.g., high fibrinogen or plasminogen activator inhibitor–1 in the blood).
• Pro-inflammatory state (e.g., elevated C-reactive protein in the blood).

Testosterone injections appear to reduce insulin resistance and abdominal obesity, thus foiling two key factors in MS and the risk of cardiovascular disease (Bhasin S 2003; Boyanov MA 2003; Marin P et al 1992).

And supplemental testosterone may enhance memory and cognition in older men (Cherrier MM et al 2001; 2004).

Surprisingly, despite the hormone’s natural association with male sexuality, testosterone is an inconsistently effective treatment for impotence in most men (Isidori AM et al 2007). It often does more for women’s libidos than for men’s.

The effect of testosterone replacement on libido, strength, body composition (muscle-to-fat ratio), mood and energy appears to depend largely on a man’s natural level of the hormone.

Men with normal to low-normal testosterone levels typically show relatively little ...