The beneficial effects of Rhubarb in the diet

Leeds, Yorkshire, England, Wednesday. The findings of a three year study into the beneficial effects of rhubarb in the diet were published today by the Metropolitan University of Leeds. The study found that some athletes who included rhubarb in their diet, even in quite small quantities, had shown up to a staggering 22% increase in their performance on the track and in the field.

The study was commissioned when it was noticed that even mediocre sports men and women were turning in greatly increased performances after following a diet plan which included a daily intake of rhubarb.

Rhubarb ( from the Latin eubarbarum, rhabarbarum) is made from the fleshy leaf-stalks of a Chinese and Tibetan plant of the genus Rheum. It is produced in very large quantities in the area around Leeds in Northern England, known as the Rhubarb Triangle, and shipped to supermarkets and grocery stores around the country. It is also exported to the country's European neighbours.

Local people claim to have been aware of its properties for decades. One Leeds resident told us "This study is only telling us what we Northerners have known for years". "Some of our best athletes, footballers, and cricketers are from the North and have been brought up on rhubarb". Some Northern sports clubs have even gone so far as to try to devise a test to detect rhubarb in the bloodstream in a bid to make competition fairer, particularly at times when rhubarb is out of season and only available to those sportspeople who can afford to have it imported. At these times, it is bought and sold on the black market and changes hands for huge amounts of cash.

Its beneficial effects have been shown to be somewhat dissipated when partnered, as it often is, with custard, but enhanced by the inclusion of sugar, which is just as well as it makes the tart fruit more palatable and increases energy as a by-product.

Local producers are expecting acute shortages of rhubarb in the shops and supermarkets later this Summer and into Autumn following publication of the findings coupled with the fact that the long hot Summer has resulted in a poor crop this year.
PA

Proof! - Omega 3 does work miracles

To the claims made for Omega 3, can be added the story of Bryan Henderson of Telford, Shropshire, England, who asserts that discovery of the dietary supplements has changed his life. "Before I started taking the tablets, I was always depressed and I visited my doctor so often, I had my own coffee cup with my name on it in his consulting room. Since I became aware of the properties of Omega 3 and started taking a daily dose my life has been transformed. I shed over 20 pounds in weight in the first three weeks; my wife moved back in to the family home and my kids are no longer ashamed to walk on the same side of the street as me. My halitosis has all but disappeared and the strange rash I have been treated for for over 20 years seems to be clearing up nicely. Strangest of all, my left leg, which I lost back in '83 in a boating accident, has grown back and I played soccer recently for the first time in twenty years".

Over the pond in America, Wendle Speers, of Kentucky is equally impressed by the efficaciousness of the wonder supplement. "My mother has been eating raw fish for over 50 years and thanks to the health giving properties of the Omega 3 contained in the oily fish, she is now over 120 years old. Although my sister and I have not been able to travel to Texas to see her for the last 30 years, she writes to me every week from the $4000 a month retirement home where she has lived since 1976. Her writing, if anything, looks like the writing of a 40 year old (further proof of her sound condition) and the owner of the home insists she is in the very best of health when we ring him at the end of every financial year. The only drawback is that because she is so active, she always tends to be out when we call and so the staff say she cannot come to the phone".

Next week: How Omega 3 helped Italy win the Soccer World Cup in Germany earlier this year.
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