Summer’s fresh vegetables and fruits bathe your taste buds in
fabulous flavors. And
they’re chock full of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.
Phyto what?
"The ‘phyto’ means ‘plants,’" said Holly Alley, a
nutritionist with the
University of Georgia Extension Service. "The plants we eat
contain hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of chemicals."
Don’t be so quick to say "yuck." Phytochemicals are
good guys. In fact, they
may be one of the best things about some of our favorite
foods.
"We don’t know exactly what they do," Alley said.
"But eating foods with
phytochemicals may reduce the risk of certain types of
cancer."
Scientists have known for 20 years that people who eat lots
of fruits and vegetables
are less likely to have most cancers, she said. But they haven’t
known why.
The answer, or at least some of the answers, may be in the
phytochemicals. Researchers
are studying this group of compounds to find out exactly how
they affect people’s health.
So far, they’re pretty sure they’re not like vitamins.
"Vitamins are essential chemicals in foods that prevent
and cure specific
diseases," Alley said. "For instance, if you don’t get
vitamin C in your diet,
you’ll get scurvy. And if you get scurvy, taking vitamin C will
cure it."
If you don’t get phytochemicals in your diet, you won’t
necessarily get cancer.
"And so far," she said, "there’s no evidence that
eating foods with
phytochemicals will cure any type of cancer."
But the evidence is growing, she said, that these compounds
may help protect you
against certain cancers. They seem to have a number of
functions.
Some, Alley said, may help your body get rid of cancer-
causing agents, called
carcinogens. Among them are limonenes, found in citrus fruits;
ellagic acid, found in
grapes; caffeic acid, found in fruits; and allyl sulfides, found
in garlic, onion, leeks
and chives.
Others may help keep cancer cells from growing. Two of these
are protease inhibitors
and saponins, both found in beans.
Still others are believed to block estrogen, a hormone that
increases the risk of
breast and ovarian cancer. These include isoflavones, found in
beans; and indoles, found
in vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and
greens.
These compounds’ names are long and strange now. "But
they may become as common as
vitamin names in the future," Alley said.
Cooking may destroy a few of the compounds, such as allyl
sulfides in garlic. But
cooking can actually make some chemicals more available.
"So until we know more," she said, "it’s best
to eat a variety of both
raw and cooked fruits and vegetables. And phytochemicals are one
more good reason to eat
at least five servings a day."
