Thursday 18 April 2013

Eat Your Greens


I was always told that I had to eat my greens no matter what.  My mum didn't care whether I liked them or not she just knew they were essential.  Like many children, I was not keen on the taste but my mum found ways to prepare them that meant I ate and enjoyed them. Sometimes just a knob of butter can make all the difference.

Why Are Greens So Important?

Dark green leafy vegetables are perhaps the most potent superfood on the planet. They are also the most ignored and avoided foods as well. If you consider the powerful dose of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phyto-nutrients that we get from spinach, kale, chard, collards, dandelion and other greens, it’s a wonder we can survive at all without them.

What Makes Greens, Green?

Chlorophyll is the naturally occurring molecule that gives plants their green colour. Chlorophyll is also what enables one of the most miraculous processes on earth, photosynthesis. Photosynthesis  converts sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into our primary source of fuel – glucose. All animals and humans obtain their life-sustaining energy from plants, making photosynthesis (one of) the sources of all life. Without plants there would be no life on our planet.

Chlorophyl - The Blood of Plants

One of the most interesting aspects of chlorophyll is how similar it is our red blood cells, known as haemoglobin, the pigment that makes our blood red and able to carry oxygen.  Haemoglobin and chlorophyll are virtually identical in molecular structure, with the only difference being the centre atom which in haemoglobin is iron and in chlorophyll it’s magnesium. 

Benefits of Chlorophyl

The extreme similarity is what makes chlorophyll so beneficial to our health because it’s a powerful blood cleanser and blood builder. Chlorophyll delivers a continuous energy transfusion into our bloodstream, replenishing and increasing red blood cell count. And since haemoglobin carries oxygen to our cells, increasing haemoglobin thereby increases the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen which is a very good thing.

Disease-promoting anaerobic bacteria cannot live and thrive in the presence of oxygen. It’s also known that disease can’t thrive in an alkaline environment either. Lucky for us, chlorophyll helps to alkalize our blood  and helps our bodies fight off disease. 

Detoxification

Every January we have Doctors saying in the media how we don't need to detox because our bodies can do it perfectly well.  That's true, but you have to give  your body what  it needs in order for it to be able to carry out its natural processes.  Eating your greens leads to healthy blood flow and an abundance of oxygen to enable your body to remove toxic impurities. Chlorophyll has also been shown to improve the detrimental effects of radiation, and been linked to cancer prevention. Chlorophyll binds with toxins like heavy metals and helps remove them from the body. Chlorophyll can also stimulate bowel movements and is a great aid in colon cleansing.

Overall Benefits of Chlorophyl

The range of health benefits to gain from a diet abundant in green veg is nothing short of miraculous. Chlorophyll is known to improve the health of the circulatory, digestive, immune and detoxification systems of the body resulting in many different and overlapping health benefits including:
  • Cleans, oxygenates and builds your blood
  • A powerful detoxification effect on the body
  • Rich in enzymes that promote quick rejuvenation of our cells
  • High in Amino acids
  • Extracts toxins form the liver improving function
  • Regulator of calcium
  • Alkalizes the body
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Wound-healing properties
  • Fights infection
  • Anti-oxidant – neutralize free radicals
  • Promotes healthy intestinal flora
  • Helps reverse protein-deficient anaemia
  • Protection from cancer
  • Helps skin disorders

Greens and Healthy Bowels

Eating a diet rich in leafy greens is the best way of  supporting your bowels to maintain healthy colonies of good bacteria.  Good bacteria forms a significant part of your immune system and also facilitates absorption and synthesis of nutrients.  An abundance of green veg is much cheaper and more effective than eating yoghurt with live bacteria or consuming the very expensive probiotic drinks.

In addition, your greens provide lots of dietary fibre to promote regular bowel evacuation.

Best Greens         

Essentially all green plants you eat contain some chlorophyll but some foods are better sources than others. Generally speaking, the darker green vegetables are, the more chlorophyll they contain.   So a good choice is to ditch the iceberg lettuce (which has little chlorophyl and is low in other nutrients) and choose darker options such as romaine, watercress, rocket etc.   Adding herbs like parsley is also a great way to increase the nutrient value of your salads. 

Other Benefits

Green vegetables have more nutrition per calorie than any other food. Greens are a significant source of vitamins A, C, E and K as well as several B vitamins. They are rich sources of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium. They are rich in fibre, extremely low in fat and carbohydrates and provide an excellent source of protein when you eat a wide variety.

Organic

Choose organic whenever you can as the growing methods produce vegetables with higher levels of nutrients and less pesticides.  Better still, during the summer months, grow your own.  If you don't have much space available then even growing your own lettuce and herbs will provide greens with a higher nutrient content (and more taste).

Falling Nutritional Value 

Scientists first noticed that the nutritional content of our fruit and vegetables had started to decrease some time ago.  Have a look at the following table and if that does not encourage you to grow your own or buy organic whenever you can I don't know what will.  Unfortunately for us, we have the most perfect looking fruit and veg (thanks to supermarkets dominating distribution: its all form over substance) but not necessarily the best in terms of nutritional value, especially mineral content.


How Much Green Should You Eat?

The USDA food pyramid suggests a minimum of 3 servings of leafy greens per week. This is ridiculously low but even so most Americans, and most people in the UK fall short of this recommendation.  In truth, you should aim for three servings per day of a variety of green vegetables.  An easy way to increase your nutrient intake is to do green smoothies.  Just greens can be less than palatable(especially for someone who has been avoiding greens) but try adding a green apple for sweetness and some ginger for warmth and flavour.  I like spinach, celery, watercress, apple and carrot.

Hope that's helpful!  Apologies for the mish-mash of font sizes and heading types, it's not co-operating with me today!



Tuesday 16 April 2013

Maximise Your Nutrient Intake By Choosing a Variety of Colours

If you want to ensure you are eating a wide range of nutrients, the best way is to choose a variety of different coloured veg and fruit for every meal.

The first group we are going to look at is carotenoids.  

What Are Carotenoids?

The pigments that give some fruits and vegetables their rich red, orange and yellow colours are called carotenoids.  These natural antioxidants are also potent disease fighters.

Although more than 600 carotenoid pigments are known it seems that only six of them are used in significant ways by the blood or tissues of your body.  These are: alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin.

Which Foods Contain Carotenoids?

Carotenoids are present in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables but some foods have more concentrated levels.  Alpha-carotene is found in carrots and pumpkin, lycopene is abundant in red fruits such as watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava, pomegranate can cooked tomatoes.  Lutein and zeaxanthin are plentiful in pumpkin and red peppers and cryptoxanthin is abundant in mangoes, oranges and peaches.  To prevent disease it is advisable to ensure all these foods are part of your diet.  

Benefits of Carotenoids      

The main benefit of carotenoids lies in their antioxidant effect, protecting your cells from damage by unstable oxygen molecules called free radicals.  Although carotenoids are similar to each other each acts on a specific type of body tissue.

Carotenoids may guard against certain types of cancer by limiting the abnormal growth of cells.  Lycopene for example appears to inhibit the development of prostate cancer.  A study conducted by Harvard University found that men who ate 10 or more servings a week of tomato based foods (tomatoes are the richest source of dietary lycopene and cooked tomatoes contain five times as much) cut their risk of prostate cancer by a whopping 45%.  Lycopene may also be effective against cancers of the stomach and digestive tract. 

Studies have shown that high intakes of alpha-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin decrease the risk of lung cancer (so very important for smokers) and that cryptoxanthin and alpha-carotene lower the risk of cervical cancer.

Carotenoids may also be helpful in the fight against heart disease.   In a survey of 1,300 elderly people, those who consumed the most carotenoid rich foods were found to have half the risk of developing heart disease and a 75% lower chance of having a heart attack than those who ate the least amounts.  This was the case even after taking into account other risk factors such as smoking and high cholesterol levels.  Scientists believe that all carotenoids but especially alpha-carotene and lycopene, block the formation of LDL cholesterol (that's the bad one).

Lutein and zeaxanthin promote clear vision  by absorbing the sun's harmful ultra violet rays and neutralising free radicals in the retina (the light sensitive portion of your eye).  This may reduce the risk of macular degeneration, an age related vision disorder that is the number one cause of blindness in older adults.  Other carotenoids may prevent damage to the eye's lens, decreasing the risk of cataracts.   This is clearly ancient knowledge and the reason why our mothers told us eating our carrots  would help us to see in the dark.  

Some studies, in their early stages, have identified a link between low carotenoid consumption and menstrual problems whilst other studies have found that, even after the onset of cancer, a diet high in carotenoids may improve the prognosis.

Downside       

The only downside is that high consumption of carotenoids is likely to turn your skin orange  which is particularly evident on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet.  Still it saves on the false tan!   And if you do go orange then just reduce your consumption.

To Get The Benefits      

Make sure your diet  contains a variety of red, orange and yellow foods every day.  Choose from tomatoes, oranges, peaches, mango, sweet potato, cantaloupe melon, watermelon, guava, red peppers, yellow peppers, carrots, pumpkin, pomegranate, strawberries, raspberries, physalis, sharon fruit, pink grapefruit, corn and apricots.

Try snacking on raw carrots or having them with houmous.