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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Thanksgiving is more than a food feast, it’s a phytochemical feast too! Thanksgiving is here, with most of us shopping, cooking and looking forward to a feast of eating, allowing ourselves to indulge. But how many of us realize that in addition to good food (with lots of calories) we are also consuming lots of disease fighting phytochemicals? Yes, many of the traditional Thanksgiving foods are high in phytochemicals, and we can consume even more by adding additional foods to our shopping list, even at this last minute.
The foods and their phyto’s:
Butternut Squash/pumpkin soup: Squash and Pumpkin contain many carotenoids including the most well known beta-carotene. Beta Carotene acts as an antioxidant scavenging cancer cells, which reduces our risk for cancer. Other carotenoids too numerous (and lengthy) to name, help to protect our vision, as well as giving us other health promoting properties. Let’s not exclude even our Thanksgiving dessert, Pumpkin Pie (okay, we still need to watch our portion control a little!).
Sweet Potatoes: Here again we find our phyto friend beta-carotene which gives us the same wonderful benefits as above.
Brussels Sprouts: These wonderful little smelly cabbages, a member of the cruciferous family, contain several phytochemicals. Indoles, which trigger enzyme production to block estrogen action (helps to prevent breast cancer, and prostate cancer cell growth). Sulforaphane, Isothiocyanates and Dithiolthiones are other phytos, that trigger enzyme production, which block carcinogen damage to cells (in fact, it’s the very odor we smell which contains these phytos that trigger our body to go into enzyme production).
Cranberry sauce: Cranberries, high on the antioxidant list contain Ellagic Aid, a phyto that scavenges carcinogens to be carried out of our body. Cranberry antioxidant power is at the top of the list for ranking of the amount of phytos. Red grapes also contain Ellagic Acid and they’re still widely available and oh so sweet!
Wine: contains flavonoids that act as antioxidants reducing the risk of cancer and cancer cell growth (use oregano in a stuffing? Oregano also contains flavonoids). Let’s also remember that on a regular basis, too much of a good thing increases our risk for disease (referring here to alcohol so let’s stick to the general guidelines of no more than of 1-2 glasses or less average per day).
Garlic/Onions: These contain the phytochemical group known as Allyl Sulfides. These phytos trigger enzyme production in our body, which helps to breakdown carcinogens to be excreted.
Pomegranate juice: While I rarely recommend drinking juice to my clients, pomegranate juice is one exception I make! It contains antioxidants such as Vitamin C found in orange juice, lycopene found in tomato juice, and polyphenols found in red wine. Because it is high in all these phytos, the blend of antioxidant power may place pomegranate juice at the very top of the antioxidant list and mighty powerful. Initial studies suggest that pomegranate juice might slow the growth of cancer cells and reduce plaque that has built up in our blood vessels. Let’s keep in mind that juices are high in calories (pomegranate is approx. 140 per cup), but what the heck, it’s a holiday! Sangria anyone? Let’s make it with Pomegranate juice. Now, this is an antioxidant drink to toast the holiday with (Look for my Sangria recipe at my recipe page Sunday, 11/28 in time for the next holiday)!
Antioxidants really are important because they help prevent and repair the DNA damage that can lead to cancer. And since our bodies are exposed to DNA harmful chemicals all too often in our modern environment, eating nature’s arsenal of weapons has become very important. Antioxidants also help keep cholesterol in a form that is less damaging to blood vessels, protecting our heart and brain.
So, now that we can focus on some of the wonderful health benefits (besides the taste) of our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, we can reach for a second helping of these healthy foods and eat a little less of the less healthy foods (we can try anyway!). We can also keep these foods a bit healthier using low fat substitutes when we prepare them such as a low fat chicken stock, evaporated low fat milk or my favorite butter spray instead of cream and butter, or even healthier, choose non-fat yogurt especially Greek yogurt, which is creamier (my fav is Voskos).
Don’t serve or eat any of the above foods? Well, there’s still time to add them to our shopping list, and now’s the time for us to try them, because when we do, we are “Feeding our Body” for our health, along with their wonderful taste!
Next tip: portion sizes of our holiday meal (okay, just kidding).
Follow me Junefit on Twitter every Sunday for a new tool taken from my book, and follow my blogs at Voskos Greek Yogurt My latest “Voskos Kicks the Common Cold to the Curb” can be found here http://www.voskos.com/fresh/
Here’s to our Thanksgiving Feast!
June M. Lay M.S.
Go to: June Fit
Sources used include The American cancer Institute for Cancer research. Look for my “Sangria” recipe to be posted on my recipe page Sunday 11/28.
Junefit is included in Google’s top ranked women’s health resources http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women’s_Health/Resources/
June is Lifestyle Columnist at www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/index.shtml
(c) junefit 2010
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