Eat your fruits and vegetables is not only your mothers advice for your nutritional health but also the core message of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the official recommendations by the United States government for how its citizens should eat to stay healthy and slim.
Healthy diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those other chronic diseases plague two thirds of our population and, increasingly, the rest of the world. Weight problems, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension keep spreading like wildfire around the globe and are killing tens of millions of people every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These are mostly diet and lifestyle related ills, and much of the havoc they wreak could be avoided by changing our eating habits to what they once were before fast food and TV dinners. At least, thats the thought.
While everyone seems to agree that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you, there is precious little knowledge among the public of what exactly makes fresh produce so beneficial. So, here are a few basic facts.
Fruits and vegetables are good sources of carbohydrates, a main component for dietary balance and health. Carbohydrates deliver energy to many bodily functions, including the brain and the nervous system. There are two groups of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are provided by many fruits and also refined sugar. The complex kind are the ones you should opt for. Those are found in whole grains, starchy vegetables and legumes.
Fruits and vegetables also contain many vitamins and minerals. There are two categories of vitamins: fat-soluble, which get stored in the fat tissue, and water-soluble, dischargeable in the urine. Both are essential for growth, development and body functions. Minerals are important for the health of organs, tissue, bones, muscles and cells.
Fruits and vegetables are high in fiber, a carbohydrate, which paradoxically cannot be digested but is nevertheless important for the digestive process. A fiber-rich diet is believed to prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well as certain types of cancer (although the latter has been disputed).
Fruits and vegetables are the main source of carotenoids (as in carrots) in most peoples diet. Carotenoids are responsible for the bright colors staring at you in the produce department and are believed to be highly beneficial, especially for eyesight.
Part of the nutritional value that sets fruits and vegetables apart are phytochemicals and antioxidants. Phytochemicals are plant chemicals whose multiple advantages are still being discovered. Antioxidants are substances that are believed to protect the body from so-called free radicals, metabolic byproducts that can cause cell damage, possibly leading to certain forms of cancer.
Unfortunately, many of these enormously valuable characteristics of the fruits and vegetables we commonly consume today have been diminished or altogether lost over time due to modern breeding and farming methods. In a recent article published in the New York Times, Jo Robinson, an investigative journalist and author of Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health (Little, Brown & Co, 2013), reported on the substantial nutritional losses in our produce over the past 50 to 100 years. Because we largely abandoned gathering wild plants in favor of growing them domestically, she says, many of the nutrients were bred out to increase flavor and yield.
Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers, she writes. Throughout the ages, our farming ancestors have chosen the least bitter plants to grow in their gardens. It is now known that many of the most beneficial phytonutrients have a bitter, sour or astringent taste. [] The more palatable our fruits and vegetables became, however, the less advantageous they were for our health.
As a case in point, Robinson points out that corn, the way we prefer it today, namely sweet and of light or almost no color, has only a small fraction of the nutrients its ancestors had to offer.
After reducing the nutrients in the majority of the fruits and vegetables we eat today, how can we recoup the losses, she asks. Thankfully, there are still a few species around that have survived more or less intact, among them arugula salad leaves, green onions and a variety of herbs, now mostly used to enhance taste but still adding nutritional value.
In the end, of course, we have to work with what is available to us today. Compared to our dismal choices that dominate the so-called Western diet, consisting mainly of animal products and highly processed food, filling our plates with fruits and vegetables as much as possible remains the next best thing we can do to keep us healthy and properly nourished.
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest
Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book The Healthy Diner How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com. A fat reduction overview can help you build a clear describe of what you need to focus on to complete your fat reducing objective if you're a beginner; or serve as a reminder for those who are at an intermediate or more boost stage of their weight loss strategy. Following are seven steps that can serve as suggestions for your own weight loss program. The first thing that one must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not a similar thing. Many weight loss applications have misled people into considering that it is the same, but most diets and weight loss programs only work by producing a person's body to lose more muscle cells and water than actual body fat, more help please visit The Fat Loss Factor. For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D. (www.timigustafson.com).
Healthy Eating - Helpguide helps you help yourself and others
helpguide.org/life/healthy_eating_diet.htmHealthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, its about feeling ...
Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Favorite Fruits and Vegetables ...
www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/quiz-how-well...Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Favorite Fruits and Vegetables? Which fruit packs the most fiber? Which popular veggie has more potassium than a banana?
500 Healthy Smoothie Recipes - Fruit and Veggie Smoothies ...
www.smoothieweb.comFruit Smoothies Healthy Smoothies Yogurt Smoothies BreakfastAbout those Over-the-Counter Smoothies Fruit smoothies have become quite popular in a health-conscious society. Whether its a specialty smoothies shop, a fast food ...
Nutrition for Everyone: Fruits and Vegetables DNPAO CDC
www.cdc.gov Nutrition TopicsJun 03, 2013 Fruits and Vegetables "Eat your fruits and vegetables." You've likely heard this statement since childhood. Research shows why it is good advice:
MyPlate Fruits and Veggies Video Challenge
fruitsandveggies.challenge.govThe USDA is challenging you to show how youre adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet without straining your budget.
Juicing Diet Plans Juicing Diets Plans and Tips to Keep Fit ...
www.juicingdietplans.comIn todays world, almost all of the commercially-available food products are laced with various artificial chemicals and additives. All this means that toxins are ...
Fruit and veggie comparisons: How big is your baby? Baby size ...
www.babycenter.com/slideshow-baby-sizeThis Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the ...
Take Control of Your Health With My Nutrition Plan
www.mercola.com/nutritionplanOptimize your health through Dr. Mercolas Nutrition Plan, a helpful guide in choosing the right foods that are suitable for your unique biological makeup.
0 comments:
Post a Comment