By Judy Rupp



The value of eating fruits and vegetables has been recognized for generations. What’s changed is that researchers increasingly are bolstering folk wisdom with hard data, pinpointing specific chemicals that fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infection, obesity and a host of other ills.

We’ve moved beyond seeing fruits and vegetables as rich sources of essential vitamins and now are beginning to understand the roles and complexity of compounds such as antioxidants and the literally hundreds of phytochemicals that interact to influence health and nutrition.

Antioxidants are found in abundance in fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants protect the body against free radicals, harmful molecules linked to higher rates of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and a number of disorders related to aging. Free radicals are known to damage the lining of arteries and promote the formation of blood clots.

Vitamin C and beta carotene are good sources of antioxidants, and many Americans try to make up for a fast food diet with vitamins and minerals in pill form. Increasingly scientists are finding it’s not enough to pop a pill containing vitamin supplements or even extracts of other substances known to be healthful.

It’s true than an orange is a rich source of vitamin C, but we now know most fruits and vegetables go far beyond the vitamin benefit we associate with them. A pill might successfully isolate a single beneficial nutrient, but the true health benefit may lie in the complex of nutrients contained in the whole fruit. Pills can’t be substituted for fruits and vegetables.

The Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study followed 8,171 women over age 40 who either had diagnosed heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. The women took antioxidant vitamins and beta carotene in pill form. After 9.4 years researchers found neither of the supplements reduced the risk of heart related events.

Despite the fact these compounds are known to promote heart health when eaten in whole foods researchers concluded in supplements they may not be able to capture the complex nutrients of the whole fruits and vegetables.

Both the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study found those eating the most fruits and vegetables were longer lived and had lower risks of stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease.

A recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found men with prostate cancer who took more than seven multivitamin pills per week were 30 percent more likely to get an advanced and fatal form of the disease.

A large review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association [February 2008] found people who took antioxidant vitamins (especially vitamins A, E, and beta carotene) were more likely to die than those not taking the pills. Although these findings may be controversial, what is certain is pills don’t make up for a poor diet and are no substitute for the whole food.

Scientists have isolated a relatively small number of vitamins essential for good health, but when it comes to phytochemicals, things get far more complicated. There literally are thousands of phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables that provide more complex nutrients than the vitamins and minerals available in pill form.

Americans long have been advised to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables for good health. Numerous studies show most of us fall short of that number. A new campaign by the Centers for Disease Control wants to increase that target to eight to 10 servings per day. If that seems like a daunting task, think of ways you can add to your daily totals.

As well as a small glass of orange juice with your cereal in the morning, add banana and fresh berries to your cereal. Choose nuts and dried fruit for a mid-morning snack, have a bowl of vegetable soup for lunch or add lettuce and tomato to your sandwich. At dinner stir-fry some mixed vegetables and serve a salad. Fruit salad or sliced fruit make an easy dessert with ice cream or frozen yogurt.

And as you’re planning your meals it never has to get more complicated than mixing up the colors. Nutrition may be a complex science, but you can protect your health and that of your family by serving colorful, delicious meals that make fruits and vegetables the stars.



Rupp is information and assistance case manager with the Northern Oklahoma Development Authority Area Agency on Aging.