Do You Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables Everyday?

The Canada Food Guide states that children ages 2-13 should eat between 4-6 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday, and adults between 7-10 servings per day. Most children and adults do not even come close to this amount of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.

Fruits and vegetables provide essential anti-oxidants, phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals that are needed on a daily basis to counteract the free radical damage that we are exposed to. Environmental toxicity, toxins in our food and water are constant threats to our body's cells and immune system. Free radicals cause us to age prematurely, gain weight, and suffer from joint pain, to name a few. For this reason, researchers have found that it is best to obtain our anti-oxidant nutrients from whole food sources, namely high anti-oxidant fruits and vegetables.

Some fruits and vegetables have been tested and have higher anti-oxidant capabilities than others. One test called the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale ranked fruits and vegetables according to their ability to quench free radicals. Goji berries, acai berries, bilberries, prunes, acerola cherries and blueberries ranked highest among the fruits. Kale, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, garlic, carrots, beets and red bell peppers ranked highest for vegetables.

The Whole Food Difference

Most vitamins found today in pharmacies and health food stores are not whole food supplements. They are generally synthetic forms of the vitamins and minerals that are extracted using various chemicals and often lack the important cofactors and accessory nutrients required for the proper absorption and digestion of the vitamins and minerals.

A good example is beta-carotene. Almost all of the beta-carotene available to buy in supplement form is an isolated synthetic compound made from acetylene gas.

Beta-carotene is part of a family of anti-oxidants called carotenoids. It is never found alone in nature. For example, carrots and tomatoes have alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, cantozantheen, gamma-carotene, omega-carotene, etc. And although beta-carotene is a great antioxidant, cantozantheen is already known to be even more effective as an antioxidant. Therefore by isolating beta-carotene from its entire family of carotenoids, the even more beneficial antioxidant, cantozantheen has been eradicated.

When we eat food, the nutrient composition of the food is in the perfect balance for those nutrients to be best absorbed. Synthetic vitamins lose this important quality in their processing. The next best thing to good quality food is a 100% whole food vitamin made from whole and unprocessed foods. Whole food means that the whole plant is used, not just the isolated nutrient that has been chemically denatured, like most vitamins.

It is very difficult to get all the nutrients we need from food. Our soils have been depleted from over-farming for years. It has been estimated that we would need to consume four to five times the amount of food as we currently do in order to get all the nutrients required in a day. For this reason, more and more people are taking concentrated whole food nutrients derived directly from fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Janine Bowring is a naturopathic doctor and author of The Healthy Millionaire-The Secret to Manifesting Health and Wealth.

She is the formulator of VitaTree Nutritionals, a whole food supplement company.

For more information visit http://www.healthymillionairebook.com & http://www.vitatree.ca

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