Reducing the Risk of Cancer Through the Addition of Brussel Sprouts to Your Diet

Recently, the World Health Organization classified red meat as a probable human carcinogen.  The University of Oxford did a study of 500,000 men and women aged 40-69 from 2006-2010 and found that participants who ate four servings of red meat a week were 42 percent more likely to develop colorectal cancer than those who had one serving or none at all.  Participants who ate red meat at least twice a week were 18 percent more likely to develop this type of cancer than vegetarians.

What is a person to do?  According to Dr. Paul Talalay at Johns Hopkins University, eating broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts will reduce your risk of cancer.  Dr. Talalay directs the Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins, which in 1992 discovered the cancer risk reducing properties of sulforaphane glucosinolate.  This compound is found primarily in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, cabbage and brussels sprouts. 

Sulforaphane has a potent anti-cancer effect and may have a role in the treatment of several types of cancer as well as numerous other anti-inflammatory and health-protective benefits. Sulforaphane is a sulfur compound which has been shown to kill cancer stem cells, thereby slowing tumor growth. Some researchers believe eliminating cancer stem cells may be the key to controlling cancer. Small human studies have shown that sulforphane may actually suppress the growth of tumor cells in several different kinds of cancer. The compound has been studied in breast cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer with promising results.

Broccoli sprouts, actually three day old sprouts, have between 10 and 100 times the amount the amount of sulforphane as mature broccoli and cauliflower.  By ingesting just a few ounces of broccoli sprouts on a daily basis offered significant activation of the phase II enzyme system, a person would have to eat close to two pounds of broccoli a day to get the same benefit.  Phase Ii enzymes are among the most potent defenders against damage in our bodies.

According to the Annals of Oncology, present analysis confirms that cruciferous vegetables have a beneficial role on the risk of various common cancers, in particular, those of the upper digestive tract, colorectum, breast, and kidney.  As Dr. Talalay  stated, people should eat a wide variety of foods, including fruits and vegetables, to get maximum disease-fighting bang from their grocery bucks.  Just remember to get the best bang for your buck, add three day old sprouts to your diet to reduce the risk of a variety of cancers, including those suspected of being caused by your eating of red meat.

Looking for Cost Effective Promotions for your Fitness Business? Here are the 5 Best Returns on Investment

Find the best value for your marketing dollars, especially for the small gym owner without a large advertising budget is a great challenge.  I know because I owned two medium sized gyms in South Carolina for a number of years. Below are five ways that I found  that will prove to be cost effective and effectively promote your gym business.

1. Get to know your local newspaper. If you are just opening your business, go and introduce yourself to a reporter.  Depending on the size of the newspaper, you may even meet the editor.  Talk with the local business reporter and let them know you are opening a new business and ask them to do a piece on your business.  They are usually searching for ideas to do articles.  If you are an established business, go back and reintroduce yourself.  Ask the reporters if they would be interested in news releases you may send them about member accomplishments, such as: weight loss, strength competitions, or race results.  Send them these press releases as often as you can to keep your name and business in front of them and their readers.  Press releases cost you nothing.  They are free advertisements so build good relationships with your local press.
2. Not only do people love free stuff but they really love to feel like they are getting a value added experience.  You need to show your members that you are genuinely concerned about their health and fitness.  In today’s super competitive market you have to separate yourself from the competition.  This is a great way to build solid customer relationships which, in turn, builds customer loyalty.  So when your newest competitor moves in, you don't lose your client base.  You can offer free personal training sessions to help the novice gym member feel comfortable in this new environment.  The more comfortable they feel, the more loyal they become.  Nutritional counseling is a great value-added service.  These two services pave the way for you to introduce them to paid personal training sessions.  The old standby remains strong – the free t-shirt or, as I like to say, the walking, talking billboard for your business.  
3. An inexpensive but time consuming enterprise is the flyer campaign. I personally put out over 10,000 flyers in the community in which one of my gyms was located.  I drove around on four consecutive Sunday afternoons with my son and put them in all of the individual home paper boxes we could find.  We did this every 3 months for the first two years we were open.  Make sure that the flyers have a catchy picture and phrase on them with an incentive to join with a deadline.  Make sure all of the essentials are on the flyer, name, address, phone number, time staffed and a map of your location.
4. Social media is growing in importance each day, probably better stated by the minute. Establish profiles, pages, and feeds to help build your brand online.  It is mostly free and yes, time consuming, but well worth your efforts.  To be blunt, your business will not make it without a strong social media program.  Websites, Facebook, blogs, newsletters, twitter, whatever is next; you need to be on it. This is how new members will be looking for you.
5. Look for the WOW! You have to find a way to give your members a WOW experience.  It begins with a real, caring customer experience.  Let the gym down the street treat their members as a number, but you make sure that you and your employees never do.  Go out of your way to help them, whether it is answering a question about a workout program, how to use a machine, showing them a new way to use a piece of equipment or helping them get their keys out of the car they just locked them in.  You may be asking: what am I going to get out of all this bending over backwards for my clients? The answer is: the best advertisement you can get the entire time you are in business and one that no amount of advertising dollars will ever get for you.  It is golden.  It is called Word of Mouth.  It is the most potent form of advertising known.  Going above and beyond what is required will not only separate you from your competition but it will earn you the trust and loyalty of your clients.  They in turn will reward you with the best advertisement known in the industry.