Super Fruits and Veggies

Vegetables not only have the potential to help with weight loss and wieght maintenance, but they also contribute to your health and well being. Now it seems they also have the added benefit of protecting against disease.

You often hear, eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want. The most recent guideline from the Center for Disease Control suggests eating a minimum of seven serving each day. Most fruits and vegetables are great, they are low in calories, high in fiber, contain vitamins and antioxidants that nourish your body. But even better, research suggests that phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables have health-promoting properties.

It is important to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and paying attention to the color can help. Fruits and vegetables can be categorized by color, since different colored fruits and vegetables contains different sets of phytochemicals and the different phytochemicals have different health benefits

By color:

• White: bananas, onions, cauliflower and mushrooms contain anthoxanthins and allicin, which can help lower blood pressure and protect against stomach cancer.

• Green: spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, collard greens and bok choy contain lutein, which appears to decrease the risk of stroke and heart disease.

• Orange: oranges, carrots, mangos, and pumpkin contain beta-carotenes, which are thought to prevent cancer, particularly lung, esophagus and stomach cancer. There is also some evidence that they reduce the risk of heart disease and improve immune function.

• Red: watermelon, red peppers, tomatoes and pink grapefruit contain lycopene, which may be helpful in fighting lung and prostate cancers. Lycopene is not harmed by cooking so canned tomatoe products are good too.

• Purple: blueberries, prunes and concord grapes contain anthocyanins, which show promise of lowering the risk of cancer and helping to prevent heart disease by preventing clot formation.

Cruciferous Vegetables:

The most common cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale. Other examples of cruciferous vegetables are radish, daikon, watercress, wassabi, arugula and chinese cabbage. Cruciferous vegetables contain a high chemical concentration of glucosinolates. Research has shown that eating more cruciferous vegetables reduces your risk of several types of cancer, including bladder, prostate, and breast cancer as well as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.