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PHYTOCHEMICALS AND OTHER HIDDEN TREASURES IN FOOD by Olha Shevchuk O'Quinn, Ph.D., CDN It used to be that the prescription for good health depended upon eating a balanced diet from four food groups: Dairy, Meat, Grain and Fruits and Vegetables. This concept was largely based on the premise that eating equal daily portions from each group would supply all the necessary nutrients for health -- vitamins, minerals, essential fats and proteins. At that time, all of our knowledge on good nutrition was based on studies of endemic deficiency diseases and on discoveries of how to prevent them. Our concept of nutritional health was based on a "deficiency prevention model". Dairy foods were considered essential for providing calcium, riboflavin, protein and supplemental vitamin D to provide rickets. The meat food group was necessary for providing iron, vitamin B-12 and protein. The grain food group provided most of the В vitamins and many minerals. The fruit and vegetable group provided vitamins C, A and K. This model guided American eating patterns for many years while common sense told us that balance, variety and moderation must be important, especially if there were specific things about nutrition and health we didn't know. As it turns out, there were a lot of things we didn't know! It used to be, for example, that spices and herbs were viewed simply as taste enhancers. We knew that some herbs had pharmacological properties and that medicines or poisons could be derived in purified form from others (e.g. digitalis). However, most other "condiments" were considered non-essential food flavorings, except perhaps by the few who subscribed to folk-medicine remedies. This perception has been changing in the last few years as we seem to be entering into a revolutionary era of nutritional discoveries, not unlike the revolutionary era of vitamin discoveries. It is an era that has not yet been categorized or labeled. Are the newly isolated compounds to be viewed as required "nutrients"? Are we uncovering new vitamins or does a new nutritional "title of honor" need to be created for these compounds? At this point, you may be asking yourself "What compounds is she talking about?" And my response is "phytochemicals", a term you may have recently heard or not. Phytochemical literally means "plant chemical". Since a vitamin or mineral salt can also be considered a plant chemical, the term is not very helpful without further explanation. One source defines phytochemicals as "substances found in edible fruits and vegetables that may be ingested by humans daily in gram quantities and that exhibit a potential for modulating human metabolism in a manner favorable for cancer prevention." (Jenkins, MLY. Research issues in evaluation of "functional foods." Food Technology . 1993. 47(5): 76-79). Yet as popularly used, the term phytochemical has been Dr. Olha Shevchuk O'Quinn accepted to mean those compounds that are also labeled "nutraceuticals", "chemopreventive agents", and "pharmafoods". The term has been used not only for compounds with potential cancer prevention effects, but also for compounds affecting blood cholesterol, heart disease and menopausal symptoms and problems. Phytochemicals include many "non-vitamin" vegetation pigments (colors) and odiforous compounds. There are too many for me too list (hundreds have been identified), but here are a few examples. There are the isothiocyanates, indoles and sulforaphane found in vegetable such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. These compounds give the vegetables their characteristic odor upon cooking. Another well known odor emanates from the allylic sulfide compounds found in garlic and onions. Then there are the polyphenols and ellagic acid in grapes and wine and the tannins and flavonoids in tea leaves and other plants. Soybeans contain various isoflavones which have mild estrogenic activity and are believed to have the potential to counteract the negative effects of menopause. These, and many other phytochemicals not mentioned, have been found to have anti-carcinogenic properties, cholesterol-lowering and HDL-boosting effects, blood clot inhibiting activity, antioxidant and anti inflammatory action. Wine and tea, for example, have been known for their antibiotic properties which are apparently derived from the pigments of both. Now new research is showing that wine (and to a lesser degree grape juice) is protective from heart disease. Green tea (and to some degrees all teas) seem to protect against cancer. So does the pigment lycopene in tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon. Soybean products (as mentioned before) and berries contain isoflavones with 18 ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 1997 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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