Information Courtesy Care2

Most people know that we need adequate amounts of oxygen, water, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, and good carbs for great health. What they don’t realize is that a group of micronutrients, also called phytonutrients, can help prevent disease and restore health and vitality. Phytonutrient- and enzyme-rich foods are essential to vibrant health and well-being, yet they are almost completely ignored by most diet plans.

There are about 2000 known phytonutrients and many others are being discovered all the time. And, you guessed it, they’re found in fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts, sprouts, and seeds. A single fruit or vegetable may contain more than 100 types of healing phyto¬nutrients that basically make up the immune system of the plant. Once eaten, they impart their incredible healing abilities inside your body. The thousands of phytonutrients are categorized into families, including carotenoids, catechins, flavonoids, lipoic acid, phytoestrogens, polyphenols, sulfurophane, and others. Let’s explore the phytonutrient families and find out how you can include more of them in your diet.

Anthocyanins

These natural, health-boosting substances give certain fruits their purple to reddish colour. Not only does research show that anthocy¬anins have the capacity to boost short-term memory by 100% in just eight weeks, they also stimulate the burning of stored fat in the body to be used as fuel. So up your intake: Anthocyanins are found in dark purple or red grapes, cherries, and berries, including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Carotenoids

Not only do Carotenoids help strengthen eyesight and boost immunity to disease, they’re powerful antioxidants that are shown to reduce cancer risk and protect against the effects of aging. So up your intake: Carotenoids are the yellow, orange, and red pigments found in foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, apricots, mangoes, pumpkin, tomatoes, papaya, peaches, and other similarly colored foods as well as dark green veg¬etables like broccoli and leafy greens.

Catechins

Want to lose weight? Be sure to add catechins to your diet since they activate fat-burning genes in abdominal fat cells to assist with weight loss—belly fat loss in particular. According to research at Tufts University, catechins increase abdominal fat loss by 77% and double total weight loss. So up your intake: Catechins are mainly found in green and black tea, as well as apples.

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are miracle nutrients; they interfere with the stages of the development of cancer cells! Resveratrol, a particular flavonoid found predominantly in grapes, has demonstrated its ability to protect the brain from damage. So up your intake: Flavonoids are found in berries, cherries, currants, pomegranates, red and purple grapes, red onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, apple (skin), and walnuts.

Do you see a pattern here? We see that the less muss, less fuss way to getting all this goodness into our diet is to have a fruit salad, green salad, and a cup of green tea each day—maybe for lunch, since whole fresh foods are easy to digest and therefore do not cause that dreaded “afternoon let-down”. Here are a couple fruit salad recipes—just to get us started:

Easy Fruit Salad
This fruit salad combines chopped peaches, strawberries, bananas, and red and green grapes, dressed with a simple fresh lime and pineapple juice dressing.

6 peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped
1 pound strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced
1/2 pound seedless green grapes
1/2 pound seedless red grapes
3 bananas, peeled and sliced

Dressing:
juice of one lime
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine chopped and sliced fruits in a large serving bowl; toss gently. Whisk together remaining ingredients in a small bowl or 1 cup measure. Pour dressing mixture over fruit and toss gently to combine. Cover and chill the fruit salad thoroughly before serving. (Serves 10-12)