Healthy Food and Living » free radicals http://healthyfoodandliving.com Good Advice to Eating Right and Living Right Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:06:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Colorful Healthy Diet http://healthyfoodandliving.com/colorful-healthy-diet-part-1/ http://healthyfoodandliving.com/colorful-healthy-diet-part-1/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:02:35 +0000 lightfl http://healthyfoodandliving.com/2008/10/08/colorful-healthy-diet-part-1/ The more colorful your diet, the better, according to Dr David Heber MD. Take few minutes to ponder what is the color of your food that you consume daily? Dr Heber recommends that a diet with fruits and vegetable across the spectrum of color. Fruits and vegetables are briefly divided into seven color categories :

Red Group (watermelon and tomatoes)

These contain carotenoid lycopene. Lycopene is able to help our body to get rid of free radicals that damage gene. One glass of tomato juice gives you 50% of the recommended lycopene.

Orange Group (carrots, mangoes,pumpkin and sweet potatoes)

This group of food contain alpha carotene, which protects against cancer. They also contain beta carotene, which is an important substance that body convert to vitamin A. Beta carotene also good for night vision.

Orange/Yellow Group (pineapple, orange,papayas and peaches)

These contain beta cryptothanxin, which is believed may help to prevent heart disease.
Red/Purple Goup (beets, eggplants, red wine, prunes, cranberries, black berries and red apples)

These food are loaded with powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins is believed to protect heart disease by preventing blood clots. They may also delay the aging of cells in the body.

Dark Green Group (broccoli,cabbage, Chinese cabbage)

These categories of food contain high level of sulforphane and isocyanate and indoles. Indoles is able to assist in warding off cancer by inhibiting carcinogens.

White/Green Group (leeks, celery,pears, garlic and onions

The onions contain high level of allicin -a type of antitumor properties. Other food contain of antioxidant flavonoids such as quercetin and kaempferol.

There is another category of food which does not mention by Dr David, it is the Black color group. According to the Chinese community, this group of food such as black sesame, black fungus and mushroom contain high level of vitamin E , mushroom is especially good for cancer prevention and enhance our immune system.

]]> http://healthyfoodandliving.com/colorful-healthy-diet-part-1/feed/ 0 Vitamin E- the powerful antioxidant http://healthyfoodandliving.com/vitamin-e/ http://healthyfoodandliving.com/vitamin-e/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:00:55 +0000 lightfl http://healthyfoodandliving.com/2007/04/21/vitamin-e/ This post shares information on Vitamin E. Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin.There are 8 forms of vitamin E. Alpha Tocopherol and alpha tocotrienol are the most active form of vitamin E

Vitamin E is a powerful biological antioxidant that acts to protect our cells against the free radicals. Free radicals are highly unstable compounds that can cause damage to our cells and also can lead to premature aging and other chronic disease. Antioxidant will protect our cells damage from free radicals and enable our cells to communicate effectively. Studies show that vitamin E is able to play a role in immune function, repair the DNA and also assist in other metabolic processes. Besides that, vitamin E also able to protect our skin from ultra violet lights.

Preliminary research has led to widely held believe that vitamin E may help prevent or delay coronary heart disease. Oxidative changes to LDL (bad cholesterol) promotes blockages in coronary arteries that may lead to heart problems. Vitamin E may help prevent or delay coronary heart diesease by limiting the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Excellent sources of Vitamin E include palm oil, almonds, spinach, sunflower seeds and turnip greens.

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