The Importance of Phytochemicals

Phytochemicals, sometimes called phytonutrients, are an important and exciting aspect to health and nutrition.  Don’t be afraid of the name, it simply refers to non-nutrient plant compounds found in vegetables, fruits, grains, and other plant foods.  In fact, “Phyto” is the Greek word for plants.  The phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables are actually what gives them their bright and vibrant colors.  These are different than vitamins or minerals, but may have an enormous impact on human health and wellness.  There are over 5000 different phytochemicals that scientists have identified, and that number is continuing to grow.

Free Radicals

The term free radical is something that is being mentioned more and more in the field of science, and chances are that even if you don’t know what it means, you have probably heard it mentioned.  No, the term does not refer to a punk rock band that is performing at the local skate park, but rather to a chemical reaction that is happening in all of our bodies. 

The atoms in the human body are all seeking to reach a state of stability.  In order to do this, they will sometimes lose and gain electrons, or in some cases share them with other atoms.  Free radicals are created when there are an odd number of electrons and can be produced when certain molecules interact with oxygen.  Once the process starts, the free radical attempts to steal the electron from it’s nearest neighbor to increase stability, which then leaves the new molecule one electron short.  That molecule then continues this process with it’s nearest neighbor, and so on.  It is this domino effect that can quickly build and can have a great impact on the health of an individual.  In small amounts, the human body can handle free radicals and the damage that they cause.  The problem begins when the free radicals become excessive in the body and if antioxidants are unavailable.

The Good News

The important thing to know is that there is help available to combat these free radicals and fight disease.  The phytochemicals that are found in plant foods are packed with antioxidants that can help protect the body from these electron-stealing molecules.  In fact, plant-based foods have close to 64 times the amount of antioxidants than animal foods do. 

In addition to the free radical protection that phytochemicals provide, they also assist with other functions as well.  For example, isoflavones that are found in soybeans and peanuts can assist with blood vessel dilation, which helps regulate blood pressure.  Saponins in beans, corn, and other legumes may assist in fighting cancer, as they interfere with cell replication.  A third phytochemical, curcumin, assists in preventing DNA damage and has been shown to promote death in cancer cells.

Eat To Your Health

The phytochemicals in plants are actually what helps to keep them alive and fight off certain things in the wild.  For example, there are some phytonutrients that help plants protect themselves from insect attack, while others assist in keeping harmful microbes at bay.  One interesting way of looking at this is that when a person eats plant foods, they are ingesting all of that protective power and gaining it for themselves!

There are no phytonutrients that are better or worse than others, and they in fact all work together to optimize health.  The human body needs a variety of these compounds to function at the highest level and to help fight disease.  To make sure that a person is getting what they need, it is a great idea to eat fruits and vegetables with a wide range of colors. 

So load up your plate with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables and eat to your health!

Do Cleanses Work?

There are a growing number of cleanses, detoxes, and other quick fixes that have flooded the market in recent years, as individuals look for solutions to different health conditions.  Quite often these products boast claims of removing toxins from the body, accelerated weight loss, or a myriad of other “solutions” in hopes of earning the hard earned cash of consumers. 

With an endless number of suggestions and products on the market, it may be difficult for an individual to sift through the information and make the right choices.  Is there any truth to the claims these miracle cleanses make?  Are they the answer to all of our problems, or just adding to the confusion by providing false claims and misinformation?

Know Your Enemy

The big claim of many of these items is that they remove the toxins from a person’s body.  That sounds great, right?  When asked if you would like to remove harmful substances from the body, who could possibly say no to that?  One of the universal problems with many of these cleanses, is that they do not actually advertise which toxins they are trying to eradicate.  In addition, consumers are unaware of which toxins may be in their bodies, the levels in which they exist, and the potential dangers or lack thereof.  This basically creates a market of, “just trust us”, without any way of measuring the success or failure of a product.

Energy Misspent

In addition to money spent and time invested in the latest miracle cleanse, there are also some health risks involved as well.  A typical cleanse is extremely low in calories, maxing out at 1200 per day and sometimes as low as 800.  This can result in weakness, light-headedness, lethargy, and most certainly mood instability.  For an individual attempting a longer-term detox, there may be an impact on vitamin levels, mineral levels, and muscle breakdown in the body.  In addition, many of the popular cleanses result in dehydration and low electrolyte levels due to their laxative-like effects.

The Amazing Human Body

The good news is that the human body is amazingly capable of detoxing itself.  In fact, it doesn’t need any special help in the form of the latest cleansing craze.  At this very moment the body is busy removing toxins and trying to run as efficiently as possible.  The skin, lungs, liver, and kidneys are all working to remove different toxins from the body and keep it alive.  To put it in perspective, if toxins continued to build in the human body and were only released during an expensive cold-pressed juice cleanse, it would most likely be overrun and stop working before a person even got there.

Building New Habits

One of the major impacts that cleanses and detoxes have is that they encourage an idea that there is a quick fix to a problem.  While everyone is looking for a fast way to undo the damage of their past behaviors, there will always be someone waiting to sell the “miracle” answer.  It is important that individuals start to look at the entirety of their diet over a longer period of time and not focus just on a one or two week period.  This would be the same concept as someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day for 51 weeks a year with one week off to let their body detox.  It is certainly easy to see the problem with this example. 

The most important thing a person can do to help their body detox is to simply not get in the way.  Let the body do what it naturally does and stop contributing to the problem in the first place.  This includes reducing the amount of fast food, processed food, sugar sweetened beverages, and other food-like substances.  By increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, high quality protein, and other whole foods, an individual can help the body to function at it’s highest level. 

Remember:  Each time a person eats, they are either helping to fight disease or they are helping to fuel it!

Naturally Occurring Sugar vs. Added Sugar

What do you think of when you hear the word sugar?  What types of images come to mind?  For many people, the thought of sugar conjures up images of obesity, diabetes, and numerous other health problems.  It certainly has a negative or “bad” image attached to it, and we all associate items like candy bars, sodas, and other junk food with sugar.  In addition to these types of foods, there are others that also have sugar as part of their chemical makeup.  These items include fruit, milk, and to some extent, vegetables.  So what is the difference between eating a candy bar and having an apple?  Is there any difference between drinking a soda and having a glass of unsweetened milk?  To put it simply, the answer to these questions is yes.  There is a large difference between sugar that is found naturally occurring in certain foods and the sugar that is added to processed food and drinks.

Getting To Know Sugar

The added sugar that we are discussing, or often-called refined sugar, originates from sugar beets or sugar cane.  These are processed in order to remove the sugar for use in manufactured food products.  Generally, this type of sugar is found as a combination of fructose and glucose, called sucrose.  This type of sugar is used in numerous food products like cake, cookies, breakfast cereal, and countless others commonly found in the grocery store.  Food manufacturers also add the highly processed and extremely sweet high fructose corn syrup to and endless number of products including soda, yogurt, pasta sauce, and even salad dressing!

Energy For The Body

We know that the body needs and uses sugar for energy, so what is the difference if it comes from a piece of fruit or from a donut?  The major difference in how the body uses these two different foods for energy is in the way they are metabolized.  An apple for example is loaded with fiber, while the donut has zero.  The fiber that is found in a piece of fruit takes the body time to digest, and releases that energy slowly.  Refined sugar on the other hand is broken down by the body almost instantly and causes blood sugar levels to spike.  When this happens, the body releases insulin to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood, and can result in a drop in energy or “crash” that we have all felt after eating sweets or other refined carbohydrates.

Fiber And Other Nutrients

As mentioned above, fiber is a key difference between foods containing natural sugar and processed foods with added sugar.   Not only does fiber prevent the sugars from being broken down quickly and stored as fat, it also contributes to feeling full after a meal.  This can really help in reducing the amount of snacking or grazing throughout the day.  The fiber in fruit and vegetables can help to restore and maintain a healthy GI tract, which has been linked to mental health conditions related to addiction, depression, anxiety, and others.  A diet high in fiber helps to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut, which is extremely important for proper body function.

Along with fiber, fruit has an endless number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that the body needs in order to maintain a healthy immune system and run efficiently.  Fruit contains nonnutritive plant compounds called phytochemicals that are responsible for many health benefits.  They help to give these foods their bright and distinctive colors, and have been associated with the reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Not All Created Equal

The oversimplification of some dietary recommendations has caused confusion.  We have all heard suggestions to reduce the amount of sugar in our diets, so it is understandable that some people would question fruit.  It is important to look at the bigger picture and realize that not all sugar is created equally.  There is an enormous difference between a banana and candy bar, and they cannot be compared simply on the amount of sugar contained.

Moving forward, grab a piece of fruit on the way out the door and keep the bowl on your table stocked with fresh produce!  You can feel good about providing your body with the energy and nutrients it needs.