FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Image by maja7777 from Pixabay 

I thought of coming up with a special, catchy title, but nothing seemed better than just the purity of the topic itself. Speaking of purity, finding purity spiritually has its connections to diet and most have pointed to a plant-based diet. Religions have their own codes of eating. Most conservative and orthodox Jews follow teachings in the Torah (Old Testament) to abstain from eating "impure" animals like pork and their food should be prepared by a trained or licensed Jewish butcher. Seventh-Day Adventists and some Buddhist groups are encouraged to abstain from meat altogether and be vegetarians. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints follow a "Word of Wisdom" which includes abstaining from alcohol, coffee, tea, and tobacco and eating mostly plants and meats sparingly.

These codes of eating were all developed long before science knew much about the topic. Interestingly enough, Research on Seventh-Day Adventists and Latter-Day Saints demonstrate that these people have a longer than average life span and have far lower rates of many chronic diseases. (More on this topic in an article coming soon.) The evidence is clear from multiple accounts, in faith and science, that fruits and vegetables are by far the best foods for you. But why? We know that eating fruits and vegetables is important, but did you know just how important?

What makes up plant foods?

Plants are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals/phytonutrients. Most scientists believe that the benefit of eating fruits and vegetables is due to their phytochemicals and fiber, however, it could be that something else is responsible for good health. Either way, studies are clear that those who regularly eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts have better health than those who do not.

Fiber

On his podcast station Nutrition Facts with Dr. Greger, Michael Greger M.D. debates the common belief that people with a plant-based diet don't get enough protein. What do you think? The fact of the matter is that protein intake should be the least of your worries. He shows how Various types of vegetarians, all get relatively the same amount of protein as non-vegetarians (an average of 70 grams/day out of a recommended 42 grams/day of protein intake. That accounts for 97% of the American population. On the contrary, what we should be worried about is fiber! Greger quotes an NHANES study from 2003-2006 showing that a whopping less than 3% of Americans got less than half (14.8 grams) of the recommended daily minimum amount of fiber which is 31.5 grams. What does that mean? Just more than 97% of the population does NOT get enough fiber.

To hear it from Dr. Greger himself, see this video: Do vegetarians get enough protein?

That's a big problem. Why is that, you say? That's perfectly understandable when you know that the traditional American diet is high in meat and refined grains (white bread, noodles, etc.), and low in fruits and vegetables. Additionally, I don't know how this happened, but somehow people have it in their minds that fiber is found in meat. Dr. Gregor says that many will say, "Steak! That's a significant source of fiber!" This, however, is FALSE. Fiber is strictly a component of plants. Unfortunately, neither do you get fiber in white, refined grains either as discussed in my article Foods in their original form (coming soon). The process of refining wheat takes all the fiber and phytochemicals out. Where is it put you say? It is fed right to the farm animals. At least they are getting good digestion. 

Phytochemicals 

Phyto(meaning "plant") chemicals are also thought of as "fight-o-chemicals" because they fight off attackers. They are plentiful in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, and seeds. Phytochemicals produce the colors within fruits and vegetables. Colorful animals like parrots have phytochemical storage sites in their feathers that pick up the color of the foods they eat. Although it would be cRaZy cool, sadly you cannot pick up the phytochemicals from eating a parrot's feathers. 

These are present in high concentration in raw foods but intensities are reduced during processing and handling (Wang and Murphy, 1996).

More than 5,000 different phytochemicals have been identified and there are still more to be discovered. Harvard Health Publishing's article Fill up on phytochemicals explains a brief summary of what is known about these plant chemicals. Certain phytochemicals pertain to different colors.

According to the Harvard article, Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says, "The most studied are probably the carotenoids, from beta carotene to lycopene in tomatoes. Also, flavonoids have been studied much more in the last 10 years." Not all of the benefits are conclusive. They are just based on observations of when someone consumes certain phytochemicals in food and then see certain outcomes. One thing we do know for sure about phytochemicals is "Almost always, benefits are found only when the phytochemical is consumed in food and not pill form" says Rimm.

This is triangulated by a study done by Dr. Rui Liu and his colleagues at Cornell University. They isolated cancer cells in an environment that fostered their growth. Three concentrated juices were made: 1) from just the skin of apples, 2) just the pulp, and 3) both skin and pulp combined. Each of the juices was poured on the growing cancer cells and researchers measured the speed at which the cells grew. Group 1 cancer cells, with juice from just apple skins, almost stopped splitting, group 2 cells, with juice from the pulp, continued to grow with no perceived changes, and group 3, with the combination of skins and pulp (whole apple), had a moderate amount of slow down in growth.¹

What does this suggest? Eat apples WITH the skins! This is also true for other foods like potatoes. Whole grains are another great example because What is a good rule of thumb? Where possible, eat fruits and vegetables with the skins.

A love-hate relationship with oxygen -- free radicals

There is a bit of a love-hate relationship we have with oxygen. That molecule O₂ (oxygen) is what our body breathes in and needs to live. When tampered with, it becomes our demise. Normally an O₂ molecule has 16 electrons. When an O₂ molecule loses an electron it becomes what is called a free radical and is responsible for oxidation, aging, and the weakening of our bodies. 

This 15-electron O₂ molecule will then search rampantly all over the body, like an upset child, to steal an electron from anything. Think of a baby who lost his/her binky. The baby wants a binky so badly that he/she will take one from another baby if possible. The same is for free radicals. If an electron is stolen from a protein in a cell wall, the cell will likely die. If the electron is stolen from a vitamin, that vitamin can no longer do its normal job. If an electron is stolen from fat in the blood, it causes the fat to cling to artery walls which is the first step to cardiovascular disease (CVD). If it is stolen from a strand of DNA of a cell nucleus, a mutation could occur causing cancer. It would behoove you to know that about 10,000 free radicals attack the DNA in every cell in the body every day!²

Where do all of these free radicals come from? First off, our own bodies produce them every second, daily during regular metabolism. Creating usable energy in muscles produces free radicals. However, it is clear that there is more to learn about free radicals since people who exercise have less cancer and CVD. Free radicals come from the sun as ultraviolet light comes to our skin. They come from industrial chemicals, vehicle exhaust and other air pollutants, radiation (including x-rays), and burnt foods (especially meat burned on an open flame). Even greater, cigarette smoke alone produces 100,000,000,000,000,000 (100 million billion) free radicals per puff.³ Thus demonstrating why smokers have the highest rates of cancer and CVD.

Fight-o-chemicals against free radicals

Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do about the tampering, but we can do things that reduce its effects. Phytochemicals are antioxidants. So far the science about phytochemicals is still very new. All we know is that somehow they have the ability to give a spare electron to those free radicals thereby neutralizing damage that could take place within our bodies and slowing down aging, and even halting the development of chronic diseases! If that's not motivation enough to eat plants, I don't know what is!! This is why eating apples and potatoes with skins is so important.

Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?

With that statement taken for what it is, eating an apple a day (regardless of other lifestyle choices), according to Dr. Greger, the studies do not confirm this statement. However, there are other benefits that have proven true with eating apples. As we learned with the cancer cells, something about the entire apple reduces the growth of cancer. However, it is not yet. Listen to his podcast The incredible edible apple. You can also find the three episodes from this podcast in video format on the landing page of that podcast just beneath the audio file.

Spend your time in the produce aisle

It is all about where you get your food. If I spend more time in the snack aisle I am probably going to get more snack foods in my home. If I shop in the produce aisle I will probably have more fruits and vegetables in my home. Why can it not be that simple?

Try it out!

Phytochemicals work best in combinations, and it is best to eat as many colors as possible. And if one vegetable of a certain color is boring, or you don't like the taste try another. For example, with greens, if you are tired of romaine lettuce, try spinach. Or if you don't want Brussel sprouts, try cabbage instead.

Eat the rainbow.

When you read this phrase I hope by now you were thinking of this.

Image from oakhillelementary.org

However, I am 99% certain that when you read that phrase you at least thought of this. 

I know that the real marketing slogan is "Taste the rainbow". It's sad enough that Oak Hill Elementary School had to use a different slogan for propagating whole foods by saying "Eat the colors of the rainbow". Or on the contrary, it is an absolutely brilliant ad that associates your mind with Skittles, but teaches you a lesson at the same time of what eating the rainbow really means. My point is that marketing has done a really good job of setting deep in our brains that ingesting a rainbow means eating little balls of sugar, coated in food dye. Sadly the food dies in those candies will do nothing but scrape up your insides like with a pitchfork and the sugar will give you a short burst of energy. Side-note, Skittles were one of my favorite candies growing up, but now I know better. Oh they make your mouth water and they are yummy but eat enough of them and you have a mouth full of canker sores and a belly ache. 

What happens when you eat lots of fruits and vegetables? In the past, it has been thought that you can never eat too many fruits and vegetables, hence the phrase "five will keep you alive, but nine is divine". Ultimately, you can suffer gastric distress, but one recent study⁴ suggests that there can be some negative drawbacks to eating more than 2.5 servings of fruits and 2.5 servings of veggies. Such drawbacks include As far as serving sizes go, it is prudent to follow the recent guidelines from the"DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR AMERICANS 2015-2020 EIGHTH EDITION" which states the following

VEGETABLES
Healthy Intake: Healthy eating patterns
include a variety of vegetables from all of
the five vegetable subgroups—dark green,
red and orange, legumes (beans and peas),
starchy, and other.[10] These include all
fresh, frozen, canned, and dried options in
cooked or raw forms, including vegetable
juices. The recommended amount of
vegetables in the Healthy U.S.-Style Eating
Pattern at the 2,000-calorie level is 2½
cup-equivalents of vegetables per day.
In addition, weekly amounts from each
vegetable subgroup are recommended to
ensure variety and meet nutrient needs. 
 
FRUITS 
Healthy Intake: Healthy eating patterns
include fruits, especially whole fruits. The
fruits food group includes whole fruits
and 100% fruit juice. Whole fruits include
fresh, canned, frozen, and dried forms.
The recommended amount of fruits in the
Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern at the
2,000-calorie level is 2 cup-equivalents per
day. One cup of 100% fruit juice counts
as 1 cup of fruit. Although fruit juice can
be part of healthy eating patterns, it is
lower than whole fruit in dietary fiber and
when consumed in excess can contribute
extra calories. Therefore, at least half of
the recommended amount of fruits should
come from whole fruits. When juices are
consumed, they should be 100% juice,
without added sugars. Also, when selecting
canned fruit, choose options that are lowest
in added sugars. One-half cup of dried
fruit counts as one cup-equivalent of fruit.
Similar to juice, when consumed in excess,
dried fruits can contribute extra calories. 

This is the rainbow that was designed for your body to keep it healthy. Just as you search for the proper grade of motor oil to lubricate your vehicle or fuel it with the appropriate fuel, whether gasoline or diesel, and even with added techron, you should fuel your body and lubricate it with the appropriate food and oils. See more about fats in my article Healthy Fats (coming soon).

So, try a salad, or a veggie omelet. Or when you go out to eat at your favorite Asian cuisine, don't just get another meat dish that has some vegetables with it (although that is still good), but ask for the full dish of MIXED VEGETABLES--nothing but fiber and phytochemicals! Remember, you are likely getting plenty of protein in your diet and the best proteins actually come from plants.

For other options to eat at home, try Dr. Greger's list of foods on How Not To Die Cookbook. Or try Brianna Elliott's 17 Creative Ways to Eat Vegetables on Healthline. Bottom line, eat your fruits and veggies!

Tools at a glance

• Your local market produce section
• I highly recommend following NutritionFacts.org. Dr. Michael Gregor does a splendid job of explaining the literature behind nutrition!
• Eat the whole food

References

1. Liu RH. Protective role of phytochemicals in whole foods: implications for chronic disease prevention, Applied Biotechnology, Food Science and Policy. 2003;1(1)39-46

2. Beckman KB, Ames BN. Endogenous oxidative damage of mtDNA. Mutat Res.1999 Mar 8;424(1-2):51-8.

3. Flicker T, Green S. Comparison of Gas-PHase Free-Radical Populations in Tobacco Smoke and Model Systems by HPLC, Environ Health Perspect. 2001, 109:765-771

4. McMaster University. (2017, August 29). Moderate consumption of fats, carbohydrates best for health, international study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 11, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170829091027.htm