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Blueberries

According to “The World's Healthiest Foods” :

Essential nutrients are nutrients that your body can't make on its own… The benefit of deriving nutrients from eating fresh whole foods such as those included on the list of the World's Healthiest Foods is that they provide not only an abundance of individual nutrients but also the variety necessary for their optimal function.

A Visionary Fruit

Extracts of bilberry (a cousin of blueberry) have been shown in numerous studies to improve nighttime visual acuity and promote quicker adjustment to darkness and faster restoration of visual acuity after exposure to glare. This research was conducted to evaluate claims of bilberry's beneficial effects on night vision made by British Air Force pilots during World War II who regularly consumed bilberry preserves before their night missions.

Many other attributes of this precious fruit include:

Protection against Macular Degeneration

Your mother may have told you carrots would keep your eyes bright as a child, but as an adult, it looks like fruit is even more important for keeping your sight.

A Better Brain with Blueberries

In laboratory animal studies, researchers have found that blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia.

Promotion of Gastrointestinal Health

In addition to their powerful anthocyanins, blueberries contain another antioxidant compound called ellagic acid, which blocks metabolic pathways that can lead to cancer.

Protection against Colon Cancer

Laboratory studies published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry show that phenolic compounds in blueberries can inhibit colon cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Protection against Ovarian Cancer

Among their rich supply of phytonutrients, blueberries include a flavonoid called kaempferol.

*A significant 34% reduction in ovarian cancer risk was also seen in women with the highest intake of the flavone luteolin (found in citrus). Int J Cancer. 2007 Apr 30;Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 May;79(5):727-47.

        [And for us older folk]

Healthier Elimination

Blueberries can help relieve both diarrhea and constipation. In addition to soluble and insoluble fiber, blueberries also contain tannins, which act as astringents in the digestive system to reduce inflammation. Blueberries also promote urinary tract health.

And for those of you who ‘need’ details:

Blueberries are the fruits of a shrub that belong to the heath family, which includes the cranberry and bilberry as well as the azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron. Blueberries grow in clusters and range in size from that of a small pea to a marble. They are deep in color, ranging from blue to maroon to purple-black, and feature a white-gray waxy "bloom" that covers the surface serving as a protective coat. The skin surrounds a semi-transparent flesh that encases tiny seeds.

You can find MUCH more about fruits, vegetables, spices, and their nutritional values at: The World's Healthiest Foods

Carrots

Carrots are available year-round.

Thanks to that carrot-eating icon, Bugs Bunny, generations of American children have grown up knowing that carrots are good for your health. Easy to pack for lunch and easy to carry for snacks, carrots are a nutritious, low calorie (1 cup contains only 52 calories) addition to your Healthiest Way of Eating.

Nutritional Value

According to our rating system, carrots contain 13 health-promoting nutrients that qualify as excellent, very good or good, and you won't find another vegetable that contains more pro-vitamin A than carrots! Beta-carotene and lutein provide carrots. rich orange color as well as powerful antioxidant protection against free radicals.

Health Benefits of Carrots

Carrots are an excellent source of antioxidant compounds, and the richest vegetable source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes. Carrots' antioxidant compounds help protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer and also promote good vision, especially night vision.

Carotenoids and Heart Disease

When six epidemiological studies that looked at the association of diets high in carotenoids and heart disease were reviewed, the research demonstrated that high-carotenoid diets are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. In one study that examined the diets of 1,300 elderly persons in Massachusetts, those who had at least one serving of carrots and/or squash each day had a 60% reduction in their risk of heart attacks compared to those who ate less than one serving of these carotenoid-rich foods per day.

Better Vision

Beta-carotene helps to protect vision, especially night vision. After beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the liver, it travels to the retina where it is transformed into rhodopsin, a purple pigment that is necessary for night-vision. Plus beta-carotene's powerful antioxidant actions help provide protection against macular degeneration and the development of senile cataracts, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.

Carotenoids and Optimal Health

Carrots are by far one of the richest source of carotenoids-just one cup provides 16,679 IUs of beta-carotene and 3,432 REs (retinol equivalents), or roughly 686.3% the RDA for vitamin A. High carotenoid intake has been linked with a 20% decrease in postmenopausal breast cancer and an up to 50% decrease in the incidence of cancers of the bladder, cervix, prostate, colon, larynx, and esophagus. Extensive human studies suggest that a diet including as little as one carrot per day could conceivably cut the rate of lung cancer in half. Remember the study in which heavy long-term cigarette smokers were given synthetic beta-carotene, and it did not appear to prevent them from developing lung cancer? Well, not only is synthetic beta-carotene not biochemically identical to the real stuff found in carrots, but scientists now think that carrots' protective effects are the result of a team effort among several substances abundant in carrots, including alpha-carotene-another, less publicized carotenoid. A recent National Cancer Institute study found lung cancer occurence was higher in men whose diets did not supply a healthy intake of alpha-carotene.

Carotenoids and Blood Sugar

Intake of foods such as carrots that are rich in carotenoids may be beneficial to blood sugar regulation. Research has suggested that physiological levels, as well as dietary intake, of carotenoids may be inversely associated with insulin resistance and high blood sugar levels.

Falcarinol in Carrots Promote Colon Health

Although best known for their high content of beta carotene, carrots also contain a phytonutrient called falcarinol that may be responsible for the recognized epidemiological association between frequently eating carrots and a reduced risk of cancers.

Falcarinol provides protection against colon cancer, suggests a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Three groups of laboratory animals in whom precancerous colon lesions (aberrant crypt foci) had been chemically-induced were fed a standard diet, one supplemented with freeze-dried carrots naturally containing falcarinol, or one supplemented with an extract of falcarinol. After 18 weeks, precancerous lesions in the animals given diets containing carrots or falcarinol were much smaller than those in the control animals, and far fewer of the lesions had grown in size or progressed to become tumors.

Promote Lung Health

If you or someone you love is a smoker, or if you are frequently exposed to secondhand smoke, then making vitamin A-rich foods, such as carrots, part of your healthy way of eating may save your life, suggests research conducted at Kansas State University.

While studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.

Baybutt's earlier research had shown that laboratory animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet developed emphysema. His latest animal studies indicate that not only does the benzo(a)pyrene in cigarette smoke cause vitamin A deficiency, but that a diet rich in vitamin A can help counter this effect, thus greatly reducing emphysema.

Baybutt believes vitamin A's protective effects may help explain why some smokers do not develop emphysema. "There are a lot of people who live to be 90 years old and are smokers," he said. "Why? Probably because of their diet…The implications are that those who start smoking at an early age are more likely to become vitamin A deficient and develop complications associated with cancer and emphysema. And if they have a poor diet, forget it." If you or someone you love smokes, or if your work necessitates exposure to second hand smoke, protect yourself by making sure the World's Healthiest Foods rich in vitamin A (carrot's beta-carotene is converted in the body into vitamin A) are a daily part of your healthy way of eating.

Asparagus

Nutrients And Benefits Of Asparagus

By Cindy

Asparagus has some dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It is an excellent source of the B vitamin folate. A serving of six cooked fresh asparagus spears has 1 g  dietary fiber, 490 IU vitamin A, 10 mg vitamin C and 131 mcg folate. Besides, it is also low in fat, sodium and practically no cholesterol.

The most nutritious way to serve asparagus is by serving it fresh, boiled and drained. Canned asparagus may have less than half the nutrients found in freshly cooked spears. As such it is  encouraged to take asparagus when it is fresh.

Look for bright green stalks when buying asparagus. The tips should be purplish and tightly closed and the stalks should be firm. Asparagus is in season from March through August. Always avoid  wilted stalks and asparagus whose buds have opened. When storing, keep it fresh in the refrigerator.

To keep it as crisp as possible, wrap it in a damp paper towel and then put the whole package into a plastic bag. Keeping asparagus cool helps it to hold onto its vitamins. At 32 degrees F, asparagus will retain all its folic acid for at least two weeks and nearly 90 percent of its vitamin C for up to five days. At room temperature, it would lose up to 75 percent of its folic acid in three days  and 50 percent of the vitamin C in 24 hours.

The adverse effects associated with asparagus is that after eating, we will excrete the sulfur compound methyl mercaptan, a smelly waste product, in our urine. Eating asparagus may also interfere with the effectiveness of anticoagulants whose job is to thin blood and dissolve clots because asparagus is high in vitamin K, a vitamin produced naturally by bacteria in our  intestines, an adequate supply of which enables blood to clot normally.

The white part of the fresh green asparagus stalk is woody and tasteless, so you can bend the stalk and snap it right at the line where the green begins to turn white. If the skin is very thick,  peel it, but save the parings for soup stock.

What happens when we cook asparagus? Chlorophyll, the pigment that makes green vegetables green, is sensitive to acids. When we heat asparagus, its chlorophyll will react chemically with acids  in the asparagus or in the cooking water to form pheophytin, which is brown. As a result, cooked asparagus is olive-drab. We can prevent this chemical reaction by cooking the asparagus so quickly that there is  no time for the chlorophyll to react with acids, or by cooking it in lots of water which will dilute the acids, or by leaving the lid off the pot so that the volatile acids can float off into the air.

Cooking also changes the texture of asparagus. Water escapes from its cells and they collapse. Adding salt to the cooking liquid slows the loss of moisture.

About the Author: Cindy is the host of Asian Online Recipes

Spinach

Calorie for calorie, leafy green vegetables like spinach with its delicate texture and jade green color provide more nutrients than any other food. Although spinach is available throughout the year, its season runs from March through May and from September through October when it is the freshest, has the best flavor and is most readily available.

Description

Spinach belongs to the same family (Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae) as chard and beets. It shares a similar taste profile with these two other vegetables-it has the bitterness of beet greens and the slightly salty flavor of chard.

We all know that Popeye made himself super strong by eating spinach, but you may be surprised to learn that he may also have been protecting himself against osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer, arthritis, and other diseases at the same time.

Popeye popularized spinach, but it's too bad he ate it out of a can. Fresh spinach retains the delicacy of texture and jade green color that is lost when spinach is processed. Raw spinach has a mild, slightly sweet taste that can be refreshing in salads, while its flavor becomes more acidic and robust when it is cooked.

History

Spinach is thought to have originated in ancient Persia (Iran). Spinach made its way to China in the 7th century when the king of Nepal sent it as a gift to this country. Spinach has a much more recent history in Europe than many other vegetables. It was only brought to that continent in the 11th century, when the Moors introduced it into Spain. In fact, for a while, spinach was known as "the Spanish vegetable" in England.

Researchers have identified at least 13 different flavonoid compounds in spinach that function as antioxidants and as anti-cancer agents.

The anticancer properties of these spinach flavonoids have been sufficiently impressive to prompt researchers to create specialized spinach extracts that could be used in controlled studies. These spinach extracts have been shown to slow down cell division in stomach cancer cells (gastric adenocarcinomas), and in studies on laboratory animals, to reduce skin cancers (skin papillomas). A study on adult women living in New England in the late 1980s also showed intake of spinach to be inversely related to incidence of breast cancer.

Spinach Carotenoid Combats Prostate Cancer

A carotenoid found in spinach and other green leafy vegetables fights human prostate cancer two different ways, according to research published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Spinach Flavonoid Combats Ovarian Cancer

Research calculating flavonoid intake in 66,940 women enrolled in the Nurses Health Study between 1984 and 2002 revealed that women whose diets provided the most kaempferol had a 40% reduction in risk of ovarian cancer,

Cardiovascular Protection from Spinach

For atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease, few foods compare to spinach in their number of helpful nutrients. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, the latter notably through its concentration of beta-carotene. These two nutrients are important antioxidants that work to reduce the amounts of free radicals in the body;

Spinach is also an excellent source of folate. Folate is needed by the body to help convert a potentially dangerous chemical called homocysteine that can lead to heart attack or stroke if levels get too high, into other benign molecules. In addition, spinach is an excellent source of magnesium, a mineral that can help to lower high blood pressure and protect against heart disease as well.

Promotes Gastrointestinal Health

The vitamin C and beta-carotene in spinach help to protect the colon cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. And the folate in spinach helps to prevent DNA damage and mutations in colon cells, even when they are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.

Anti-Inflammatory Nutrients

The nutrients in spinach can also help with conditions in which inflammation plays a role. For example, asthma, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis are all conditions that involve inflammation.

Vitamin E-rich Leafy Greens Slow Loss of Mental Function

Mental performance normally declines with age, but the results of Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) suggest that eating just 3 servings of green leafy, yellow and cruciferous vegetables each day could slow this decline by 40%, suggests a study in the journal Neurology (.Morris MC, Evans DA, et al.)

Bottomline: If you remember to enjoy at least 3 servings of leafy greens each day, you are much more likely to remember other things as well!

Iron for Energy

Cooked spinach is an excellent source of iron, a mineral that it particularly important for menstruating women, who are more at risk for iron deficiency. Boosting iron stores with spinach is a good idea, especially because, in comparison to red meat, a well-known source of iron, spinach provides iron for a lot less calories and is totally fat-free.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas:

Add layers of steamed spinach to your next lasagna recipe.

Toss steamed spinach with pressed garlic, fresh lemon juice and olive oil. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese.

Pine nuts are a great addition to cooked spinach.

Spinach salads are a classic easy and delicious meal or side dish.

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