Phytonutrients Fight Disease

Have you had your phytonutrients today?

Used to be that fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals were all the nutrients necessary for growth and health. Now we know there's another group of nutrients necessary for optimal health - phytonutrients.

"Phytonutrient" (from the Greek phyton for "plant") simply means a "nutrient from a plant."  

4 REASONS YOU NEED PHYTONUTRIENTS 

You're familiar with vitamins, now we have "phytomins," which are less familiar, but equally important, health-promoting substances in food.

1. Phytonutrients protect the body and fight disease. Ever wonder how plants stay so healthy. They don't wear sunscreen or a raincoat; they don't go to the doctor. The answer: they make their own disease-fighting chemicals we call phytochemicals - phytos for short. The same phytos that help keep the plant healthy keep our bodies healthy. Phytos provide medicine for cell health. They help the cells repair themselves by stimulating the release of protective enzymes or those that rebuild damaged cells. Other phytos inhibit cancer-producing substances, reducing their ability to damage cells. When the repair squad can stay ahead of the damage, degenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis, can't get started. Phytos also keep cancer and cardiovascular disease in check.

2. Phytos fight cancer. Cancer starts with a 'bad cell'. As cells wear out or get injured, they replace themselves with new and healthy cells. Within each cell a network of inner controls (the DNA) keeps this process in check. But with this cellular cloning happening millions of times a minute, there are many opportunities for an occasional cell to defy the rules and get out of control. It may go on reproducing itself, eventually damaging the organ of which it is a part. The out-of- control cancer cells also try to infiltrate other organs by entering the body's blood vessels and traveling to places near and far, a process called metastasis. Some cancer cells are probably formed in every person every day. Yet the body's own defense system recognizes these invaders and attacks. Almost always, the body wins the battle, so that these cancer cells either never have a chance to develop, or they are destroyed before they have a chance to spread or cause damage. Occasionally, the body's defenses aren't strong or effective enough to overcome these rebellious cells, and the person "gets cancer."

Phytos fight on the side of the body. Carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) can enter the body from all kinds of sources: tobacco smoke, pollution, pesticides and etc. Carcinogens attempt to enter cells and change how they develop. But antioxidant phytos stop the carcinogens before they have a chance to cause cancer in the cell. If the carcinogen manages to infiltrate the internal controls of the cell, other kinds of phytos help to shut down the precancerous cell so it does not multiply into a gang and overrun the neighborhood. This phyto protective mechanism explains why cultures whose diets are rich in plant foods have the lowest rates of cancer. The Mediterranean diet, for example, emphasizes garlic, tomatoes, onions, fruits, whole grains, and olive oil - all of which contain cancer-fighting phytos.

3. Phytos help hearts. Antioxidant phytos can interfere with the damaging effects of LDL cholesterol on arteries. LDLs, the bad cholesterol, become harmful after an encounter with a free radical, during which they are oxidized. And when artery walls are damaged by free radicals, it's easier for oxidized LDLs to build up there. Antioxidant phytos, especially beta carotene, can block this process and thus prevent cardiovascular disease.

4. Phytos boost immunity. Phytos, such as carotenoids and flavonoids, mobilize the body's immune cells, called natural killer cells and helper-T cells. These act like a protective armor to keep invading pollutants and germs from entering the cell.

ABOUT ANTIOXIDANTS
One of the most important roles of phytos is acting as antioxidants. Here's why your body needs antioxidants.

When the cells in your body burn fuel for energy they burn oxygen as well. When oxygen is burned, molecules called free radicals are released. Free radicals are like vandals loose in your body. They have at least one extra electron, giving them a negative charge, which drives them around the body looking for cells with which they can react. These reactions damage the DNA and other substances in cells. Much of the time the cells can repair themselves, but the cell neighborhood can't protect itself from these gangs of free radicals all by itself.

Enter the antioxidant "police." Antioxidant molecules have a positive charge, so when they meet up with the negatively-charged free radicals they neutralize them so they can't do any damage. Your body needs more antioxidants as you get older, since the body's ability to repair itself diminishes with age. Antioxidants also help to prevent damage by carcinogens, such as ultraviolet radiation, tobacco smoke, and environmental pollutants.

Food preparation affects the phytos. Usually, raw vegetables have more nutrients than cooked ones, but sometimes this is not true with phytonutrients. Cooking broccoli, for example, releases the enzyme, indole, that fight cancer. Crushing or chopping garlic releases the enzyme, allicinase, to produce the active phytonutrient, allicin.

What To Eat

 The following are the most phyto-dense food sources:

1. Seaweed

2. Tomato <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />3.  Broccoli 4. Garlic 5. Flax seeds 6. Citrus fruits

7.  Legumes: beans, and lentils

8.  Blueberries 9.  Sweet potatoes

10. Chili peppers     

11. Melons: cantaloupe, watermelon  

DRINK YOUR VEGETABLES 

 

I found an easier, more sure way to get all the phytonutrients I need each day.

Body Balance comes in liquid form so it's almost 100% absorbed. It is ionic, liquid

phytonutrients derived from sea vegetation grown in the ocean and not

on polluted overworked farmlands. Body Balance also includes Aloe Vera, the

ancient healing plant and it gives me 121 naturally occurring nutrients in every

ounce.

 

The foods we eat are so void of real nutrition that no matter how much of it you eat,

you will remain malnourished unless you supplement that food with organic, whole

food 'Phytomins' like Body Balance. 

 

I searched for the whole food nutrition that would fight disease in my family

members and I found Body Balance. 

 

Karen Sargent - Wellness Coach

http://Wellness.helps4you.com