The Importance of Antioxidants in Fruits and Vegetables

Fall has arrived and with the crisp weather comes a cornucopia of delightful fruits and vegetables that not only taste great but are excellent health boosters, as well! Fruits and vegetables are packed with powerful antioxidants that can lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes-related damage and even slow down the body's natural aging process. So grab an apple and read on…

What exactly are antioxidants and why do we need them? Antioxidants are nature's way of fighting off potentially dangerous molecules in the body. Such molecules come in the form of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, plastics, and chlorine byproducts and are called free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that essentially feed off of otherwise healthy molecules in order to survive. Every day tens of thousands of free radicals are generated within the body, causing cell damage that can lead to chronic and degenerative diseases if left unchecked.

The body sometimes creates its own free radicals in order to destroy viruses or bacteria. To balance out these unruly molecules, the body also creates antioxidants, which have the sole purpose of neutralizing free radicals. The body is only designed to create a certain amount of antioxidants on its own however, and as we are faced with an ever-growing number of environmental toxins, the body is less capable of fighting off the unwanted harmful invaders.

Fruits and vegetables provide the body with an added source of antioxidants that is needed to properly wage war against free radicals. Without the necessary intake of healthy fruits and vegetables, free radicals can spread and eventually lead to stroke, heart attack, arthritis, vision problems, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and various types of cancer.

The benefits of getting your daily dose of fruits and vegetables are numerous! The antioxidant, Vitamin E, is wonderful for your heart. Vitamin E has the ability to essentially "mop up" the LDL ("bad") cholesterol in your arteries, allowing for the necessary elasticity and blood pressure levels to keep your heart pumping safely. Cholesterol, if left untreated, builds up as plaque on the inside walls of the arteries, impeding blood flow LDL and forcing the heart to work overtime to continue functioning. Eventually, plaque buildup can become so severe that it can create a blockage in the artery, leading to heart attack or stroke. By getting enough Vitamin E in your diet you can give your body the necessary antioxidants to prevent your LDL cholesterol levels from getting out of control.

Antioxidants can protect you against diabetes related damage. Free radicals thrive in the altered metabolic states of diabetics. But with the necessary antioxidants that fruits and vegetables can provide, free radicals can be neutralized, protecting your kidneys, blood vessels, eyes and heart from harmful damage.

Free radicals cause cancer cells to grow. Many studies have linked cancer, including those of the stomach, prostate, colon, breast, bladder, esophagus and pancreas, to free radicals. Eating your fruits and vegetables may not prevent cancer altogether, but can give your body the fighting chance that it needs. Antioxidants can neutralize cancer cells before they develop into a mass. A recent study at Harvard University found that men who ate the most tomato based foods (rich in antioxidants) had a 35% lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who ate the least amount of tomato based foods.

Antioxidants slow the effects of aging! Free radicals damage the cells within our body that are vital to a youthful appearance and good health. Eating fruits and vegetables can slow down the loss of muscle elasticity that leads to wrinkles, boost your immunity making you less susceptible to illness, and put the breaks on memory failure, as free radicals injure the brain cells necessary for retaining information. Antioxidants are available in supplement form but are the most powerful when found in whole foods. The best practice is to combine a "greens" supplement (containing vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in produce) with the recommended 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Leafy vegetables, like spinach and collard greens, and orange colored fruits and vegetables such as mangos, oranges, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes and carrots are all excellent sources of the antioxidant beta-carotene. Fruits and vegetables containing lycopene, such as tomatoes, watermelon, guava, papaya, apricots and pink grapefruit, are also packed with antioxidants.

It is important that when you are purchasing fruits and vegetables for yourself and your family that you shop in the organic section. The produce available in most stores no longer contains the level of nutrients that it did 100 years ago. Because of pesticides and the diminished mineral levels in soils used today, eating non-organic produce will not provide you with the antioxidants (or vitamins and minerals) that your body needs. On average, organic produce contains nearly 30% more nutrients than non-organic and is grown without using harsh chemicals that can lead to further free radical exposure. Autumn is a great time to start a new healthy habit that your family will love, and eating 5 to 9 servings a day of scrumptious organic fruits and vegetables really can keep the doctor away.

About the author

Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D. has specialized in Integrative Medicine for over twenty years, using conventional and natural methods to determine and discover the "root of the cause" in her clinic, Center for New Medicine in Irvine, California, each and every day. Many people come in to the clinic from all over the world with severe chronic illnesses that conventional medical protocols have been unsuccessful treating. She realized early on that she can truly change lives through education as well as treatment protocols.
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D. and her medical staff strives to look at the whole person while exploring the effects and relationships among nutrition, psychological and social factors, environmental effects and personal attunement. Out of frustration of trying to find the right products to help her patients she formulated the perfectlyhealthy brand of products. All perfectlyhealthy products are clinically tested. For more information on recommended products, please visit www.perfectlyhealthy.net or www.perfectlyhealthy.com.

Natural Fruits, Foods and Remedies Give Smoother, Younger Skin

Roll back father time and keep your skin younger, smoother and healthier with these foods, remedies and other tips:

Healthy Fruits for the Skin:

* The pomegranate's power comes from ellagic acid, a polyphenol antioxidant found in red wine and green tea. Ellagic acid has been shown in some studies to neutralize free radicals more effectively than polyphenols found in green tea and red wine.

* The top vitamins for the skin are vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B12, C and E. Blackberries have all six, including abundant A, C, and E.

* Dark skinned grapes contain resveratrol, an important compound for anti-aging as well as plenty of vitamin C and other good vitamins and nutrients. For maximum benefits, choose seeded grapes and eat or juice seeds and all.

* Though terribly over-hyped with some online products and MLM weight-loss schemes, acai is indeed a super healthy juice loaded with anti-oxidants and nutrients that have many benefits, including benefits for the skin.

* Blueberries are considered to be among the top three healthiest juices, along with pomegranate and acai.

* Raspberry, dark cherry, apple and strawberry are all very healthy juices loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients for the skin and overall health.

* Though not a fruit, carrots and carrot juice are loaded with vitamin A, which is an essential nutrient in maintaining healthy skin.

Want Strong Bones? Eat More Greens

A new study funded in part by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) suggests that an alkalizing diet may be an important key to reducing bone breakdown, or "turnover," while aging. The study comes on the heels of several ARS-reported studies suggesting that consuming more-than-recommended amounts of calcium may not be the main answer to protecting bone. The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass. ARS is a scientific research agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fruits and vegetables are metabolized to bicarbonate and thus are alkali-producing. But the typical American diet is rich in protein (meat and dairy) and cereal grains that are metabolized to acid, and thus are acid-producing. With aging, such diets lead to a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis." The researchers conducted a placebo-controlled study involving healthy male and female volunteers aged 50 or older. Key measurements were taken at the beginning and end of the intervention, which lasted three months. A group of 78 volunteers had been provided either of two bicarbonates-potassium or sodium-along with their usual diet and exercise regimes. Key bone mineral nutrients were controlled to reduce variation in study outcomes. The bicarbonate groups consumed an amount of bicarbonate equivalent to about 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. This allowed the researchers to look at possible acid-neutralizing effects from an adequate alkali load. The results showed that the 78 volunteers in the bicarbonate groups had significant reductions in biomarkers that are associated with bone loss and fracture than the 84 in the no-bicarbonate, or control, group. The authors concluded that increasing the alkali content of the diet, for example by consuming more fruits and vegetables, merits further study as a safe and low-cost approach to improving skeletal health in older men and women.

Alkaline Food Diet (taken from eating-veggies.com)

When alkaline foods are eaten in abundance, they become the true nourishment needed to calm the unending urge to eat. When your body thinks that it is starving, it will conserve fat and began to signal the brain to activate your appetite. Veggies and fruit are full of the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that we need to live. And still we continue to eat the same acidic, lifeless foods everyday, slowly starving our bodies cells. And the body continues to store this food as fat everyday.

Many plant foods are anti-inflammatory foods, which means that they can help reduce the inflammation found throughout the body. Much inflammation is the result of a poor diet high in pro-inflammatory foods. Many alkaline foods are anti-inflammatory. Some researchers believe that inflammation is the root cause of most disease suffered by people in the modern world.

The cure for many sick and overweight people in the modern world may be an alkaline foods diet that contains live enzymes.

Eating cooked vegetables and other cooked alkaline foods is better than not eating any veggies at all but eating an abundance of living raw foods is the key to healthy living. The optimal strategy for good health is a 50-80% alkaline foods diet daily. Eating alkaline foods in their raw form is best for rejuvenating your body. Live enzymes are found in raw plant food. Enzymes are essential in building and maintaining health. These living microscopic structures are in all fresh, raw fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables and are necessary to help digest food when we eat it.

Digestive enzymes are used to break food down into its nutritional component parts so that our bodies can sort out the nutrients and utilize them throughout the body for repair and maintenance. However, cooking alkaline foods also destroys enzymes. While trying to digest cooked food, our body has to rob enzymes from our own enzyme reserves, ultimately depleting them and weakening our immune system and decreasing our ability to fight off unfriendly bacteria and viruses. What was once a living alkaline edible substance becomes totally dead very rapidly with exposure to high heat.

Eating mostly cooked acidic food every day is not helping to improve our health situation. Actually, it is beginning to age us very quickly. Today, doctor's are treating children for diabetes, juvenile arthritis and other degenerative diseases that used to afflict people in their older years. Almost all non-genetic diseases are a result of lack of digestion of raw, alkaline foods and improper elimination of the foods we eat. Plant foods that are high in fiber should become an important part of your diet. Some people go an entire day without an elimination and in most cases, this is not healthy. Eating processed, lifeless food stuffs in huge amounts every day is draining you of your life-force. Alkaline foods contain the life giving properties that we need to help pH balance.

In order to live long healthy lives, humans must eat plenty of living, alkaline foods at every meal. Enzymes are the life force of all people and can be found in raw, plant foods. If we do not eat enough enzymes, more digestive enzymes must be taken from our bodies own dwindling enzyme reserves. Over time our enzyme reserves are depleted and our immune systems become weak and acidic, which in turn leads to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and most non-genetic diseases known to man.

* Cooking destroys the enzymes we need to live and slow aging.
* COOKED FOOD is DEAD FOOD!
* Eating an abundance of nutrient dense foods such as green, leafy veggies can slow aging.
* Alkaline foods are needed to prevent the leaching of calcium from our bones and teeth.
* Enzymes are needed to help prevent body toxicity. (waste backup)
* Un-eliminated waste poisons the body and weakens our immune system.
* Acid-forming foods such as meat and dairy are aging us quickly!
* Our bodies prefer a slightly alkaline pH balance.
* We must eat meals rich in live, alkaline foods everyday.

Eating a plant-based, high alkaline food diet is best for the human race and the more plant foods you eat, the better you will probably feel. Alkaline foods are essential to a healthy lifestyle! Your body needs plant enzymes from green, alkaline foods to help regulate every biochemical and metabolic process in your body. Cooking food destroys the very force that keeps us alive and healthy. When eating to improve your pH balance, always eat a diet high in raw fruits and veggies.

Green Leafy Vegetables - Nutritional Powerhouses Eat Your Greens! By Laura Dolson, About.com

A nutrition professor once told me that it was common for our ancient ancestors to eat up to six pounds of leaves per day. He imagined them walking along from one place to another, just picking and eating leaves as they went. Can you imagine eating a grocery bag full of greens each and every day? Few of us even eat the minimum USDA recommendations of 3 cups of dark green vegetables per week. And yet, these veggies deliver a bonanza of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.

Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, perhaps the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. They are a rich source of minerals (including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium) and vitamins, including vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems, among many other effects. Dark green leaves even contain small amounts of Omega-3 fats.

Vitamin K:

* Regulates blood clotting
* Helps protect bones from osteoporosis
* May help prevent and possibly even reduce atherosclerosis by reducing calcium in arterial plaques
* May be a key regulator of inflammation, and may help protect us from inflammatory diseases including arthitis
* May help prevent diabetes

An Apple A Day!!

An apple a day. Our doctors urge us all to eat at least 5 fresh fruit and veggie servings per day—and they are on to something big! On a very basic level, research shows that cooking produces free radicals, cancer-causing agents in the cells. Eating more raw fare not only eliminates these cooking-generated cancer-causers, it also boosts your immunity and healing time, reverses the progression of chronic degenerative disease, facilitates the elimination of toxins, and has a radiant effect on your skin.

The Incredible Benefits of Eating Green Peppers

The green pepper is very high in vitamin C . We get the benefit of this vitamin C if we eat fresh, raw peppers. They lose some of this vitamin C when cooked, but if properly steamed, not boiled or cooked over a high flame, we still get a great amount of good from peppers.Green peppers are best eaten raw.


Peppers are classified as a protective food because they contain so many elements that build up resistance. They contain vitamin A , which makes our tissues more resistant, especially to colds and catarrhal infections in the respiratory organs, sinuses, ears, bladder, skin, and digestive tract. Vitamin A also promotes growth and the feeling of well-being. Vitamin B, also found in peppers, aids in food absorption and normalizes the brain and nervous system by increasing metabolic processes. Peppers are high in vitamin C , which is a wonderful health promoter as it wards off acidosis. The vitamin C in peppers compares to that of oranges and grapefruit.

The green pepper is high in silicon, and we need this element in our system to have beautiful hair, skin, nails , and teeth-it might well be called the "beauty element."