Charlie Brown's Health Food Ltd

11/01/2025

Today is November's Senior's Day. 15% off all items NOT ALREADY on special. Come in, out of the rain and find what you need to support your body and your life.

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09/30/2025

It’s all in the post.

09/26/2025

We have an array of tasty and healthy teas, coffees, mushroom drinks and more…

07/01/2025

We're closed today for Canada Day. Please, remember to keep yourself hydrated (add some chia seeds to your water!), wear a hat and enjoy each moment!!

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04/18/2025

Enjoy this beautiful, sunny, well-weathered Friday. We'll be open again in the morning -Saturday- at 9:30am.

04/05/2025

Today is April's Senior's Day!! Come in for a 15% discount on any item not already on special. We hope you have a most beautiful Spring day!

03/01/2025

Happy March 1st!!
Today is Senior's Saturday (first Saturday of every month!!). Senior's come in for a 15% discount on all items not already on special.
We hope you have a great weekend!

02/25/2025

Different than Estrogen: This Huge Study Demonstrates the Safety of Soy
This huge soy study is one of the most important studies for women. Demonstrating that soy acts differently from estrogen, it provides evidence that soy can safely ameliorate the symptoms of menopause without the cancer risks of hormone replacement therapy.
Despite all the evidence, women have been cautioned about getting too excited about soy because of the risk that soy isoflavones, being phytoestrogens, could have an unwanted effect on breast cancer. Women are constantly warned away from soy despite all the research that shows soy is safe, and even beneficial, for women with breast cancer. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis found that women who have the most isoflavones in their diet have a 29% lower risk of breast cancer. Every 10 mg of isoflavones consumed a day reduced the risk of breast cancer by 11.7% (Nutrients 2023,15(10),2402).
The misinformation stems from assumptions about soy isoflavones acting like estrogen and from over reliance on animal studies that can produce different results from human studies because rodents metabolize soy isoflavones differently.
Though rich in isoflavones that really do help menopause, soy isoflavones behave differently than estrogen. Estrogen binds to both ERα and ERβ estrogen receptors; soy isoflavones bind preferentially to ERβ receptors. That difference is important because ERα exerts proliferative effects, while ERβ exerts antiproliferative effects. That means that soy isoflavones are what is known as selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), explaining their benefit on menopause without the negative impact of estrogen and hormone replacement therapy.
A new landmark systematic review and meta-analysis has established the safety of soy by looking at 52 controlled studies of 3,285 postmenopausal women. The median duration of the studies was from 13-24 weeks. The median dose of isoflavones was 66-77mg a day.
The results showed that soy isoflavones had no statistically significant effect on any measure of estrogenicity, including endometrial thickness, vaginal maturation index, FSH and estradiol. All of these measures are affected by estrogen, demonstrating that soy isoflavones exert their benefits without estrogenic effect.
All of this suggests that soy isoflavones act as SERMs that have tissue specific effects that, remarkably, allow it to have all of the positive estrogen-like effects without the negative ones. Soy isoflavones, then, really do have benefit for menopause, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and memory in postmenopausal women, and really don’t introduce risk for breast, or endometrial, cancer.
The findings of this important study “support soy isoflavones as an alternative therapy” and “the consumption of soy foods,” since they provide all the benefits for menopause without the risks of estrogen and while being “associated with a reduction in the risk of estrogenic-related cancers.”
Advances in Nutrition. January 2025;16(1):100327.

02/17/2025

Closed for Family Day. We'll be back open tomorrow morning, at 9:30am as usual. Enjoy a restful day!

01/21/2025

Vitamin B12 & Smarter Babies
Your baby’s nutrient intake is only as good as your nutrient intake. And deficiencies can affect a baby’s neurocognitive development. Prenatal B12 might help make your baby smarter.
Vitamin B12 is important for fetal development, especially for the nervous system and brain growth.
This huge new study looked at vitamin B12 intake and language development in 5151 mother-child pairs.
It found that children of mothers who got more B12 had higher scores in language, talking and understanding. They also had significantly higher scores in verbal IQ.
This large study adds to the evidence that prenatal B12 can improve your baby’s cognitive development, especially for speech and language.
Journal of Public Health. 2024;fdae307.

01/19/2025

Is Maple Sugar Healthier than Refined Sugar?
Sugar is sweet. Maple syrup is sweet. What happens to your health when you swap sugar for maple syrup? No one has ever studied that before. Until now.
Maple syrup is more than just another sweet. It also contains several minerals and is rich in polyphenol flavonoids. So, would it have different effects on the body while still sweetening your food?
In the first ever placebo-controlled study of maple syrup, 40 healthy adults from Quebec, where most of the world’s maple syrup is made, who had mild metabolic problems, substituted 2 tablespoons of refined sugar with either real maple syrup or artificially flavoured sucrose syrup for 8 weeks.
People in the maple syrup group had significantly better response to the oral glucose tolerance test, meaning that maple syrup leads to better blood sugar management by your body after eating.
Systolic blood pressure was also significantly lower in the maple syrup group. While it got slightly worse in the sucrose syrup group, it significantly improved in the maple syrup group.
Weight around the middle, called abdominal fat or central obesity, is more of a risk factor to your life than overall fat. This study found that while abdominal fat increased in the sucrose syrup group, it decreased significantly in the maple syrup group.
And one more sweet bonus: maple syrup increased the beneficial bacteria in the gut and decreased the harmful bacteria.
The researchers concluded that maple syrup can reduce cardiometabolic risk factors that are involved in diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The Journal of Nutrition. October 2024;154(10):2963-75

01/10/2025

Can Seaweed Help You Lose Weight?
There may not be a lot of seaweed on the dinner plate in Western dining rooms. But seaweed is popular in Asia, and it has been a central ingredient in the diets of coastal people since prehistoric times. A new study points to helping you to achieve a healthy weight as another of the many benefits of eating seaweed.
Seaweed is a rich source of many nutrients, including nutrients that could help with weight loss.
Seaweeds come in three types: green, red and brown. Common brown seaweeds include kelp and sargassum.
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis has found that dietary brown seaweed can help you lose weight.
The meta-analysis included 11 controlled studies of overweight or obese people. It found that eating brown seaweed significantly lowers body mass index and percentage of fat mass when consumed for at least 8 weeks.
Brown seaweed also significantly improved total cholesterol and the heart harmful LDL cholesterol.
The study concluded that edible seaweed supplementation can help manage obesity and cholesterol.