I often get the question about why fruits and vegetables are good for you and the short answer is that they are good for you because they are what you are supposed to be eating. That sweet tooth you have is not meant to lead you to white sugar or refined carbohydrates it is meant to lead you to the natural sweetness found in fruits and vegetables. Let’s take a look at exactly why fruits and vegetables are good for you.

High Nutrition, Low Calories

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I’m not a big fan of the calorie concept (see: When it Comes to Weight Loss, Forget Calories), but calories can be useful when talking about certain food concepts and understanding the goodness of vegetables and fruits is one of those times.

There are many ways to measure the value of the food you are eating. Measuring food by weight and nutrients is called a Nutrient Adequacy Score and is a common way to measure the quality of food, but it is very inaccurate. You can also measure the quality of food by calorie (how many nutrients does a food supply per calorie) and this is much more accurate. When you compare the nutritional value of foods by calories (called a Nutrient Density Score) you see that nothing stacks up to fruits and vegetables.

When you calculate the Nutrient Density of Foods then foods such as Kale, spinach, Brussels sprouts score really high (you get a lot of nutrients per calorie) and foods like grains, beans and meats are much lower (not many nutrient per calorie).

There are many different nutrient density scoring charts, but the most user-friendly is Dr. Joel Furhman’s (see ANDI Scoring System). Using this system show you that there is nothing as good for you to eat as fruits and vegetables.

You might be shunning fruits and vegetables for their cost, but take a closer look. When Turns out vegetables may seem expensive, but they provide the best nutrient per calorie of any food[i]

Anti-Everything

Fruits are vegetables are the anit-everthing foods (anti-cancer, anti-heart disease…) There are no better fighters of disease to put in your mouth than fruits and vegetables. Let’s take a look.

Anticancer

• Fruit consumption seems to be protective against cancers of the esophagus, oral cavity, and larynx.[ii]
• Eating more fruits and veggies protects against cancer of the stomach and pancreas as well as colorectal, prostate,^[iii] and bladder cancers. Even lung cancer risk is lower for smokers who eat their veggies.^[iv]
• For women, cancers of the cervix, ovary, and breast,^[v] and endometrium are all lower when they consume more fruits and vegetables.
• Women who consume a large amount of fiber are at lower risk for breast cancer in women (fiber “sweeps” cholesterol and bad estrogens out of the body).^[vi]
• Clinical trials are ongoing with many individual fruits and vegetables:
  • Cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage and broccoli).[vii]
  • Allium vegetables (such as garlic and onion).[viii]
  • Tomatoes.[ix]
  • Berries.[x]

• Compounds found in fruits and vegetables are also being tested:  lycopene (from tomatoes), sulforaphane (from asparagus), brassinin, (from cruciferous vegetables), indole-3-carbinol (from broccoli), and resveratrol (from grapes and peanuts). [xi]

• John Hopkins School Of Medicine has been studying the benefits of Brassica vegetables for over 20 years.
  • High fruits and vegetable consumption reduces your risk of high blood pressure.^[xii]
  • A high-fiber diet lowers cholesterol,^[xiii]
  • You also reduce your overall risk of heart disease when you eat fruits and veggies.^[xiv]
  • Consumption of fruits and vegetables—particularly leafy green vegetables and vitamin C-rich fruits—appears to have a protective effect against coronary heart disease.^[xv]
  • Eating more fruits and vegetables helps you to lose weight; scientific research has shown that eating more fiber does help to lower your weight.^[xvi]

  Heart Disease

  • High fruits and vegetable consumption reduces your risk of high blood pressure.^[i]
  • A high-fiber diet lowers cholesterol,^[ii]
  • You also reduce your overall risk of heart disease when you eat fruits and veggies.^[iii]
  • Consumption of fruits and vegetables—particularly leafy green vegetables and vitamin C-rich fruits—appears to have a protective effect against coronary heart disease.^[iv]

Weight Loss

• Eating more fruits and vegetables helps you to lose weight; scientific research has shown that eating more fiber does help to lower your weight.^[v]

Other Diseases

• The risk for Alzheimer’s, ^[xvii] diabetes, ^[xviii] and many other diseases is lower with higher fruit and vegetable consumption.

Vegetables and Fruits are Good For You

There is no doubt that vegetables and fruits are good for you, the research above is only a tiny bit of what is out there. You should try to make fruits and vegetables as much of your diet as possible. You can feed your body what it needs by making sure every meal has some sort of fruit and vegetable in it.

[ii] Riboli E, Norat T. Epidemiologic evidence of the protective effect of fruit and vegetables on cancer risk. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep;78(3 Suppl):559S-569S.

[iii] Freedland SJ, Aronson WJ. Dietary intervention strategies to modulate prostate cancer risk and prognosis. Curr Opin Urol. 2009 May;19(3):263-7.

[iv] Block G, Patterson B, Subar A. Fruit, vegetables, and cancer prevention: a review of the epidemiological evidence. Nutr Cancer. 1992;18(1):1-29.

[v] Patterson RE, Cadmus LA, Emond JA, Pierce JP. Physical activity, diet, adiposity and female breast cancer prognosis: A review of the epidemiologic literature. Maturitas. 2010 Jan 22

[vi] Suzuki R, Rylander-Rudqvist T, Ye W, Saji S, Adlercreutz H, Wolk A. Dietary fiber intake and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer defined by estrogen and progesterone receptor status–a prospective cohort study among Swedish women. Int J Cancer. 2008 Jan 15;122(2):403-12.

[vii] Herr I, Büchler MW. Dietary constituents of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables: implications for prevention and therapy of cancer. Cancer Treat Rev. 2010 Aug;36(5):377-83. Epub 2010 Feb 20.

[viii] Bianchini F, Vainio H. Allium vegetables and organosulfur compounds: do they help prevent cancer? Environ Health Perspect. 2001 Sep;109(9):893-902

[ix] Ansari MS, Ansari S. Lycopene and prostate cancer. Future Oncol. 2005 Jun;1(3):425-30.

[x] Gullett NP, Ruhul Amin AR, Bayraktar S, Pezzuto JM, et al. Cancer prevention with natural compounds. Semin Oncol. 2010 Jun;37(3):258-81.

[xi] Gullett NP, Ruhul Amin AR, Bayraktar S, Pezzuto JM, et al. Cancer prevention with natural compounds. Semin Oncol. 2010 Jun;37(3):258-81.

[xii] Alonso A, de la Fuente C, Martín-Arnau AM, et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with blood pressure in a Mediterranean population with a high vegetable-fat intake: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Study. Br J Nutr. 2004 Aug;92(2):311-9.

[xiii] Brown L, Rosner B, Willett WW, Sacks FM. Cholesterol-lowering effects of dietary fiber: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Jan;69(1):30-42.

[xiv] Slavícek J, Kittnar O, Fraser GE, et al. Lifestyle decreases risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2008 Dec;16(4):161-4.

[xv] Joshipura KJ, Hu FB, Manson JE, et al.  The effect of fruit and vegetable intake on risk for coronary heart disease. Ann Intern Med. 2001 Jun 19;134(12):1106-14.

[xvi] Liu S, Willett WC, Manson JE, et al. Relation between changes in intakes of dietary fiber and grain products and changes in weight and development of obesity among middle-aged women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Nov;78(5):920-7.

[xvii] Giem P, Beeson WL, Fraser GE. The incidence of dementia and intake of animal products: preliminary findings from the Adventist Health Study. Neuroepidemiology. 1993;12(1):28-36.

[xviii] Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJ, et al. A low-fat vegan diet and a conventional diabetes diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled, 74-wk clinical trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1588S-1596S. Epub 2009 Apr 1.

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Health News:

HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY (HRT): HRT and the risks of breast cancer were reviewed in a recent symposium. It appears that even using HRT for a short time increased the risk of breast cancer. Which begs the question: why use HRT? The risks are not a small increase, but for some women constitute a doubling of their risk for breast cancer.

Dr. Scott’s Comments: Hormones are powerful and can create huge problems in our bodies. Estrogen, in particular, is a problem for women because of the risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. Part of the problem lies in the fact that most HRT are synthetic hormones that are not natural to humans. Other problems have to do with the fact that many chemicals in our environment act like estrogens (including plastics, pesticides, and a host of other chemicals). The final question has to be should we be putting hormones in an aging person at all?

HRT is a travesty because there are many natural substitutes that work just as well, without the side effects.

original article

CANCER MUCH WORSE FOR DIABETICS: Cancer is currently the number two killer worldwide and is rapidly approaching number one. People with diabetes are more than 40 percent likely to die in the years right after a cancer diagnosis than people who are not diabetic.

Dr Scott’s Comments: There are no well-established links between sugar consumption and cancer — at least not yet. This new study sheds light on another horrible aspect of diabetes: it makes surviving a cancer diagnosis harder. For me, this adds to the destruction wrought by sugar. Not only is sugar toxic to our blood vessels (witness the kidney, eye and heart damage in diabetics), but it also leads to obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Clearly we have to start avoiding the sugar and foods that act like sugar in our diets.

original article

LOW GLYCEMIC DIET FOR DIABETICS: The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association has published an article showing that diabetics eating foods that are low on the glycemic index had better sugar control than those that didn’t.

Dr Scott’s Comments: I’m going to borrow a word from my 10 year-old-daughter to describe the finding of this study: DUH! Medical science has come a long way, but they have yet to make any connection between what we eat and the diseases that we get. Maybe this study will change their minds. Yes, diabetes has something to do with the sugar and foods that act like sugar that we eat every day. I think that people eating Eating Below the Glycemic Index would fare even better… maybe even reverse their diabetes.

original article

STRESS INCREASES HEART DAMAGE: People who reported a high amount of stress in their lives increased the risk of a cardiovascular event by as much as 50 percent when compared to people who have a low amount of stress. The increase in disease was evident by the number of heart attacks, bypass surgeries, and strokes that high-stress people suffered from.

Dr. Scott’s Comments: This study shows the strong connection between our minds and our bodies. Stress is a big killer, but is often hard to define or understand. I personally feel the best treatment for stress is exercise. Whenever the world starts weighing too much on my shoulders, I know I have to get out for a run, or hop on my bike, or even just take a walk outside. It also helps to listen to other people’s worries: When you hear someone describe what they are worried about, you realize that many of their fears are ungrounded, maybe yours are too?

original article

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A picture pops into most people’s heads when they hear the words “heart attack.” That picture usually starts with an old man who is a drinker or a smoker. Maybe he’s outside working, or maybe he is having an argument and is really angry; either way, he stops what he is doing and grabs his chest. Soon, he is felling numbness or tingling down his left arm, eventually the pain intensifies (like an elephant sitting on his chest). Suddenly, grabs his chest and falls to the floor.

Heart attacks are considered the silent killer because the first sign of a heart attack is usually the heart attack itself. The hidden nature of heart attacks is made even more severe by the fact that most people (including doctors) have that exact picture of an old man in their head when they think of someone having a heart attack. That picture, while correct, doesn’t account for over 1/2 of the people who visit the emergency room with heart attacks.

What we and doctors need is a new picture that represents the most common heart attack victim.

Try this picture:

Instead of the old man, you need to put a woman in your picture, because since the mid 1980′s more women have died of heart attacks than men.

The woman in our new picture doesn’t smoke, but she might have high blood pressure or diabetes and she is often normal weight. She knows she doesn’t feel well, but cannot place what is wrong. Sometimes her neck or shoulder may hurt, but often she just feels sick to her stomach and may vomit. Occasionally she may feel short of breath.

All of these symptoms make her think she maybe ate something she shouldn’t have, but nothing a serious as a heart attack is entering her mind (because she too has the wrong picture in her head). She has no tingling down her arm, no elephant on her chest, no collapsing… just vague symptoms. Her chest may hurt enough that she calls or even stop by her doctor’s office, but she will often leave with a suggestion to take some antacids.

Even if she makes it to the hospital and they somehow think her problems may be heart-related, none of the common tests they run show anything wrong. For example, a common test for heart disease called an EKG is often normal looking even in a woman who has had a heart attack; other standard tests may also show nothing is wrong.

Women and Heart Disease

What doctors and the rest of the world are starting to understand is that heart disease is an entirely different condition in women than in men. Cardiovascular disease affects more women than men and is the leading killer of women in America.

Let’s look at why heart disease is such a serious problem for women:

• Most of the research done on heart disease has been performed on men.
  
• The leading cause of death of women 25 years and older is coronary artery disease (clogged arteries).
  
• While death rates from heart disease have dropped in men over the last few decades, they are increasing for women.
  
• More than 250,000 women in the United States die each year from heart disease (accounting for 40 percent of all deaths for women).
  
• Even if a woman reports chest pain, they are much more likely than men to have clear coronary arteries, this leaves researchers scratching their heads wondering what is going on.
  
• The standard treatments for blocked arteries are commonly balloon procedures or bypass and women are much more likely to have a poor outcome from these treatments than men. This may be due to the fact that women with heart disease are much more likely to have another disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol which makes any surgery more dangerous.
  
• Women, more than men, are likely to develop heart failure.
  
• Even blood tests that help diagnose heart attacks are often negative in women.
  
• Depression is a common in over 40 percent of women who have had a heart attack; depression typically occurs in only 20 percent of men.
  

It is obvious from the above that heart disease in women is different from heart disease in men.

The danger for women is threefold: They are more likely to have a heart attack than a man; they may not have typical symptoms if they do have a heart attack; and their doctors may not take them or their symptoms seriously.

Heart Health for Women

Remember, a heart attack can look like that picture of the old man, but other symptoms may include:

• Squeezing or feeling of fullness the chest
  
• Shortness of breath
  
• Nausea
  
• Sweating
  
• Dizziness
  
• Fatigue
  
• Paleness
  

The standard advice for heart disease applies to women, only more so: Remember to eat well, exercise, keep your weight normal, and don’t smoke. New research studies are starting to uncover the differences in heart disease in men and women, but taking control of your health is of vital importance for women.

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