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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Two recent contradictory findings are important. A study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research showed that a substance found in broccoli can help prevent cancer by selectively targeting and killing cancer cells, leaving normal cells unaffected. A newly released Gallup poll, Americans’ Healthy Behaviors Index, showed that fewer Americans, of both sexes and in all age groups, are eating enough fruits and vegetables.
Even the most humble fruits and vegetables are a complex collection of healthy, wholesome compounds that function in a dynamic and interdependent way. You don’t need to understand all the science to reap the health benefits. You just need to eat fruits and vegetables daily. Most of us don’t. And, those who do rely on a very narrow selection – corn, iceberg lettuce, potatoes, bananas and apples.
Here are just a few benefits gained from eating fruits and vegetables daily:
protecting you from heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke; reducing your risk for cancer; protecting your eyes against cataracts and macular degeneration; protecting your lungs against disease; helping to keep your weight down because most fruits and vegetables are low in calories and fat; supporting bone health; helping to prevent birth defects; reducing a man’s risk for an enlarged prostate; keeping your brain supple and protecting against dementia; and reducing wrinkles. You have to admit that is a pretty impressive list. All fruits and vegetable contain vitamins, minerals and phytochemcials. These substances protect the plants as they grow. When you eat fruits and vegetables these same health-promoting substances wind up in your tissues and protect you as well. These natural plant substances act as antioxidants in your body.
Antioxidants are needed to protect the health of cells. Your body uses oxygen to keep you alive, but in the process damaging compounds called free radicals are formed. These are single, renegade oxygen molecules that damage the cells in your body. It’s believed that free radicals promote cancer, heart disease, dementia, cataracts and macular degeneration, and they may contribute to aging. Natural plant compounds act as antioxidants seeking out and deactivating free radicals. This stops the damage to your body and protects you from diseases.
One test, the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) analysis measures the antioxidant capacity of foods. The more free radicals a food can absorb and deactivate the higher the ORAC score. Researchers suggest we consume 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units a day, but most of us average only 1,200 because we eat so few fruits and vegetables. An average serving of a fruit or vegetable has 600 to 800 ORAC units, and many have much more. If we ate the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day we’d easily meet the ORAC recommendation.
One serving of any of the following would supply the minimum 3,000 ORAC units experts recommend: 1 cup blueberries, 8 strawberries, 6 prunes, ¼ cup dried cherries, 1 cup blackberries, 1 pomegranate, and 1 ounce gogi berries.
Fruit and vegetable facts you should know:
1 cup of broccoli has 1,342 ORAC units putting you well on your way to meeting the daily requirement.
If you like the convenience of buying fruit that has already been cut up, a research report showed that cut up fruit is nutritionally equal to whole fruit. Less work and equally healthy for you.
We take out or eat out one-third of all the food we eat, but we rarely order fruits or vegetables. Think about this the next time you call in an order.
Deep-fried or battered vegetables, chocolate covered dried fruit (like raisins), pickles, olives, candied fruit slices, fruit leathers, and fruit drinks may all be fun to eat but you cannot count them toward your fruit and vegetable intake for the day because of their high fat, high sugar or high sodium content.
You don’t need to worry about which specific fruit or vegetable contains which phytochemical or antioxidant or what its ORAC score is. By eating a wide variety of colored plants each day you will eat a wide array of phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber. Keep it simple – eat a rainbow every day.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales of more than 8.5 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Diabetes Counter, 4th Ed., 2011
The Protein Counter, 3rd Ed., 2011
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to TheNutritionExperts
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