Vitamin, Mineral: Vegetable
What Makes Veggies Healthy?
Vegetable and fruit consumption lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. In many studies, eating them is associated with longer life. Lots of research shows the benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables. We know they are good for us, but what makes them healthy?
Vitamin Power
Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins. Compared to the amount of calories, fruits and vegetables have a lot of vitamins. These vitamins are in a better form than vitamin pills. They are in a form your body can easily process and absorb. Vitamin pills often contain vitamins that are hard for your body to absorb and use.
Mineral Reaction
Minerals are required in a lot of chemical reactions that take place in your body’s cells. Vegetables are the best source for minerals, especially if you include nuts. Nuts are the #1 source of minerals. Beans are another good source of minerals, and so are green leafy vegetables. Seeds, like sunflower seeds, are another good way to get minerals. Like vitamins, minerals found in plants are more readily absorbed than minerals in pills.
Bigger Crops, Smaller Minerals
One of the downsides of modern vegetable farming is lower mineral and vitamin levels in vegetables. Soil today contains fewer minerals than 100 years ago. Also, the variety of vegetable plants grown are not necessarily the healthiest kinds, they are the most economical. Faster growing or higher producing type are preferred. Vegetable crops that produce more pounds per acre have fewer minerals per plant. So, we have to eat more veggies than our parents and grandparents to get the same vitamins and minerals.
Polly What Nows?
In addition to the well-known vitamins and minerals packed into fruits and veggies, plant-based foods have other helpful compounds. One of the most important groups of compounds is called polyphenols (Polly - FEE - nols). They help prevent disease.
Vitamin P
Back in the 1950s, one group of polyphenols was called Vitamin P. Today that group is called flavonoids (FLAY-va-noids) or, even fancier, bioflavonoids. Vitamin P is simpler, so we’ll use that.
Vitamin P is a huge group of compounds with all kinds of unpronounceable names. They help protect your body by vacuuming up bits that can damage cells. Those damaging bits are called free radicals. Like real-life radicals, they are constantly vandalizing things. In our body, they damage cells. Keeping free radicals in check helps prevent disease.
Vitamin P also protects against inflammation. Inflammation underlies many disease processes. Vitamin P compounds occur in parsley, onions, tea, bananas, apples, and citrus fruit among others.
Annoyed with Carrots - Carotenoids
Carotenoids get their name from carrots. You pronounce it like you are saying ‘carrot’ with a French accent and add ‘annoyed’ on the end: ‘carrót annoyed.’ These compounds give veggies their colour. They are the most common pigments in the natural world. They are in veggies, such as corn, carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and even dark green leafy vegetables. These compounds seem to protect against certain cancers, as well as keeping your eyes healthy.
Fooled by Plant Cholesterol
Another group of beneficial compounds are plant cholesterols called phytosterol - phyto, meaning plant. All plants have these compounds in varying amounts. These compounds look like cholesterol to your body, and so your body uses them in place of bad cholesterol, but in a healthier way. They lower the level of bad cholesterol in your body.
Things are Getting Rough
Plant food also contains fibre, or roughage, which is necessary for digestion. Fibre is the part you can’t digest, but it acts as a transport barge for your food. It slows the absorption of sugar, stabilizing blood sugar. Some types of fibre also help the healthy bacteria in your gut stay in good shape.
Freezing and Cooking
Freezing reduces the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, especially if the freezing process involves blanching, which is a short exposure to boiling water, followed by ice water. This reduces bacteria and allows for longer storage. Fresh vegetables also lose vitamins over time, so fresher is better. All fruits and veggies, fresh, frozen, or canned, are good for you.
Cooking, especially cooking in water, reduces some of the nutrients. Cooking without water (roasting)or steaming helps preserve nutrition. The key to cooking vegetables is to make them taste good so you will eat them. Eat them raw if you prefer, but if roasting or boiling makes them taste better, do it. Better to have cooked veggies than no veggies.
How Much Do I Need?
Eat 1½ cups of fruits or veggies with every meal, 3 cups if they are the leafy green kind, with every meal every day. That’s more than most of us eat. To eat more fruits and veggies, use them as a snack. Buy a variety so you have a choice. Eat them raw, eat them cooked, and eat them in dishes. But always wash your fruits and vegetables before eating.
The Golden Mean
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are only part of a complete diet. There are compounds in meat that are not available in plant food. As always: moderation in all things.
