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Super Foods
Fourteen Foods That Will change your life
With the advent of fast food chains and ready meals ,the whole idea of fresh Vegetables and healthy foods was essential . Super-Foods is the next major step forward in the food –health connection, and I am certain that people are ready to appreciate that we eat can act as good or bad 'medicine' .
While most of us are well aware that food choices are important to health ,very few people realize that foods can actually promote health.
We are constantly increasing our awareness and knowledge that 'we are what we eat .
Super foods : Fourteen foods that will change your life is an exciting concept based strongly in academic science and peer-reviewed research clinical trials conducted by some of the world's leading clinicians and research scholars.
Super foods is based on a very simple concept : some foods are better than others for your health .These are the foods that have been proven to help prevent and , in some cases, reverse the well –known "Facts " For example They can prevent or greatly reduce your risk of vision problems , stroke, heart disease ,diabetes and a host of killers .
The people who eat the most fruits and vegetables are half as likely to develop cancer as those who eat the least amount of these foods. It's not just cancer that's nutrition-related : about half of all cardiovascular disease and a significant percentage of Hypertension cases can be traced to diet as well .
Micronutrients : ( Vitamins ,and minerals ) .
Phytonutrients : ( "Phyto ' ,from the Greek word for plant )
Are naturally occurring substances that are powerful promoters of human health. Are non vitamin ,non-mineral components of foods that have significant health benefits . some phytonutrients help facilitate the ability of our cells to communicate with one another ,some have anti-inflammatory abilities, some help prevent mutations at the cellular level , some prevent the proliferation of cancer cells .
Here are just three important types of beneficial phytonutrients :
- Polyphenols : act as antioxidants ,have anti-inflammatory properties and are anti-allergenic , among other health promoting abilities.
Some foods that contain Polyphenols are tea, nuts and berries.
- Carotenoids : are the pigments found in red and yellow vegetables thin tomatoes, pumpkin , carrots , apricots , mangoes , sweet potatoes .They are an important category of phytonutrients that includes beta-carotene , lutein and lycopene.
These nutrients function as antioxidants ; they protect us from cancer and help defy the effects of ageing .
- Phytoesrogens , literally ' plant estrogens ' are naturally occurring chemicals found particularly in soy foods as well as in whole wheat , seeds , grains and some vegetables They play a role in hormone –related cancers such as prostate and breast cancers.
How Micronutrients Can Prolong Your Health Span ?
Your body is a complicated , interrelated system that is remarkably resilient .Non the less, over a lifetime, the tiny links in the chain that your health depends upon begin to break down. The micronutrients in whole foods provide the reinforcements that retard this breakdown . This oxidation creates long-and short –term health problems.
Antioxidants protect the body from oxidation . The antioxidants include vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and minerals such as selenium . You can see the antioxidant activity of vitamin C
From own kitchen : - e.g a slice of apple will begin to turn brown shortly after being cut , add on it lemon juice (high in vitamin C) it will preserved . The vitamin C slows down the oxidation process .
Our bodies are heat-generating machines that depend on oxygen to carry out basic metabolic functions .One of the by products of this use of oxygen, or"oxidation"
Is oxygen molecules that have been transformed in what are known as "Free radicals" are generated by the body's own metabolic systems . In addition, the environment are teeming free radicals from drinking water and exposure to sun .
These free radicals , which are constantly proliferating throughout our bodies, are missing an electron . This makes them highly unstable . Driven to restore the missing electron, they seek out replacement molecules from what ever neighbouring cells they can attack . sometimes they attack the cell membrane itself , sometimes their targets are DNA , sometimes enzymes , sometimes important proteins in neighbouring cells they can attack. It's been estimated that each cell experiences ten thousand free-radical hits each day .
Clearly, no living being could survive for long without some powerful system of defence against free radicals .
Our bodies produce many antioxidants on their own, but the antioxidants in foods play a critical role in keeping free radicals in check .
An effort to see which foods were the best proven health promoters the American Cancer Society , the National Cancer Institute and American Heart Association recommended Healthy diet . There is something called an "ORAC "score, in which foods are ranked according to their" Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity" , or how well they act as antioxidants . Spinach and Kale are the two vegetables with the highest ORAC score.
SOURCES:
From book Super foods by Steven Pratt ,M.D.,&
Kathy Matthews
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