What
Are Experts Saying?
The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are
good for you. It's that they are so good for you
they could save your life.
The latest scientific research has shown--and the
evidence continues to mount--that the plant kingdom
is filled with gifts that can help fight off the
ravages of chronic disease.
--
Time Magazine, Cover Story | Oct. 20, 2003
"Eat your fruits and vegetables"
is one of the tried and true recommendations for a
healthy diet. And for good reason. Eating plenty of
fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart
disease and stroke, control blood pressure and
cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a
painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis,
and guard against cataract and macular degeneration,
two common causes of vision loss.
--
Harvard School of Public Health
The best way to get vitamins is through food, not
vitamin pills,
according to Susan Taylor Mayne, a professor at the
Yale School of Public Health's Division of Chronic
Disease Epidemiology. A major problem with
supplements is that they deliver vitamins out of
context, she says. The vitamins found in fruit,
vegetables and other foods come with thousands of
other phytochemicals, or plant nutrients that are
not essential for life but may protect against
cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease
and other chronic ailments.
--
ScientificAmerican.com | May 17, 2007
In 2005, the USDA increased its recommended daily
servings of fruits and vegetables for adults from 5
to 9 servings a day to 7 to 13 servings a day.
Behind the new guidelines lies a simple fact: People
who eat the most fruits and vegetables have the
lowest risk of chronic diseases.
--
USDA
