The Healing Powers of Fruits & Veggies, Part 1

Recent health and nutrition studies are showing that plant foods, especially fruits and veggies, are better for us than we ever imagined. For over a half century we have known that they are bursting with health promoting fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but in the last twenty years we have discovered that they are also loaded with an extraordinary group of disease busting agents called phytochemicals. Plants produce these substances to protect themselves against a host of environmental threats—from damaging ultraviolet radiation to plant-eating parasites. Fortunately, it turns out that these same plant-protective substances are just as good for humans. Several thousand phytochemicals have been identified thus far, and they perform truly spectacular feats in our bodies with the greatest of ease. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry can only dream of producing drugs capable of performing as effectively in our systems as phytochemicals do. What’s even more exciting is that scientists estimate that there are up to one hundred thousand of these chemicals still to be characterized.

Phytochemicals protect our bodies against disease in a myriad of ways, but they are most valuable for their antioxidant, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory, and immune boosting powers. If you think that you are getting these life-preserving chemicals from a supplement or a sports bar—in lieu of real foods—then be forewarned. These miraculous agents of good health are only found in plant-based foods, namely fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. Thus, a diet chock-full of plant foods not only provides sensory pleasure for your tastebuds, but also helps ward off heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal diseases, cataracts, macular degeneration, as well as a host of cancers. Moreover, because fruits and vegetables boast the highest concentration of phytochemicals, they are the ideal food group for a leaner look and better health overall. So much so, that it is worth taking a closer look at what some of these phytochemicals do for our bodies.

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