You
know you should be eating your vegetables, but do you know
why?
Did you know,
for instance, that eating more vegetables can help you reduce stress, increase
attentiveness, reduce cravings, and lose weight?
The truth is,
while most of us know we should be eating plenty of vegetables, few of us
actually eat enough. The US Food Guide Pyramid recommends that we eat 3-5
servings of veggies a day, yet studies show that only 22% of Americans do.
Here are 10
reasons you may not have known for piling on those greens. Once you read these
top ten unsung reasons for eating veggies, I hope you will have all the
motivation you need.
Article at a
glance:
Learn how
eating more veggies can help you: - increase
attentiveness - release
toxins - protect
yourself against high cholesterol and heart disease -
stabilize blood sugar - alkalize
your blood - balance
your taste buds - restore
the flora in your gut - and
more!
Number One: A
Reason to Chew Have you ever
eaten a bowl of fresh, either lightly steamed or raw veggies? If you have, you
may have noticed one simple fact - it takes time to chew.
Unlike a
sandwich, which you can eat quickly, eating veggies demands more dedication to
chewing.
Studies
conducted by the chewing gum industry have linked the act of chewing to
many beneficial effects on the nervous system. One study from St. Lawrence
University found that students who chewed during tests outperformed non-chewing
students in five out of six cognitive tests due to what they called,
"mastication induced arousal."
Another study
from Cardiff University measured increased cortisol (a stress hormone)
production, faster heart rates, and increased attentiveness - all from chewing.
These test results were not linked with the sugar content in the gum, nor the
flavor of the gum chewed. As a result of the overwhelming research in this area,
students today are actually encouraged to chew gum during
tests.
While the
advantages of cortisol production and “mastication induced arousal” are
debatable, here is a list of amazing benefits to be reaped from chewing:
Chewing
stimulates the production of salivary digestive enzymes like amylase in
saliva, which lubricate the esophagus and the chewed food in the digestive
tract.
Chewing
relaxes the end of the stomach - called the pylorus - allowing food to
be released into the small intestine more easily.
Chewing
stimulates taste receptors in the mouth, which in turn triggers the release of
hydrochloric acid, or HCL, in the stomach. HCL is responsible for processing
hard-to-digest proteins, like casein in dairy and gluten in
wheat.
Inadequate
chewing has been linked to digestive issues such as gas, bloating, and other
forms of indigestion.
Chewing also
forces us to relax and take time to eat, rather than race through every
meal.
In other
words: The more you chew, the better you digest. So sit down to a meal of
veggies and chew your way to better digestion.
Number Two:
Take it From the Gorillas Gorillas,
whose digestive system most resembles that of humans, eat more than half their
body weight in ounces of vegetables a day. They literally spend all day
munching on veggies. While it may be unrealistic to match their consumption,
experts agree we should be eating up to one, or even two, pounds of veggies each
day.
Gorillas also
eat fruits, grains (in their natural unprocessed form), and a small amount of
meat.
Number Three:
Release those Toxins Vegetables
are loaded with fibrous cellulose, which scrubs the intestinal villi, provides
bulk for the stool, and binds toxins for escort out of the body. Without enough
cellulose in the digestive tract, bowel movements - and the consequent
elimination of toxins - are dramatically compromised.
Cholesterol,
along with other toxins, is attached to bile in the liver. Vegetable cellulose
attaches to the bile and escorts it, with toxins in tow, out of the body through
the stool. Without enough vegetable cellulose in the diet, up to 94% of the bile
(with cholesterol and toxins attached) is re-absorbed by the liver and the
blood, which raises cholesterol and increases risk of cardiovascular disease.
Number Four:
Your Armor Against Heart Disease Most
Americans gets their cholesterol tested regularly to screen for heart disease,
the number one killer of Americans. The cholesterol that is connected with heart
disease is called low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, and is often referred to
simply as, “the bad cholesterol”.
Cholesterol
becomes “bad” through the process of oxidation.
Vegetables
are the number one source of antioxidants in the diet, neutralizing the
process of oxidation. When vegetable intake is low, antioxidant levels crash,
allowing the fats in the blood to oxidize. Low vegetable consumption is directly
linked to the oxidation of LDL and, ultimately, high cholesterol and heart
disease.
Major
protective phytonutrients found in vegetables, including
flavonoids and carotenoids, have been shown to reduce heart
disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and some
cancers.
Number Five:
The Ultimate Low-Calorie, Blood-Sugar Stabilizing Food
Group Vegetables
are extremely low in calories. A cup of vegetables averages about 50 calories.
By contrast, nuts and seeds can have as many as 750 calories per cup. Moreover,
the body uses almost the same amount of energy to chew and digest vegetables as
it receives from them, thus, they are called a “free food,” or a food with a
very small caloric load.
Breaking down
the cellulose fibers in vegetables takes time, which allows the carbohydrates to
be released slowly. This helps keep the blood sugar stable. You can see why
vegetables are the ultimate low calorie, blood-sugar stabilizing food group.
Vegetables
are also low in fat and have zero cholesterol. In fact, 95% of all vegetables
have less than one gram of fat per serving. Eating plenty of vegetables
stimulates the breakdown of fat already stored in the body, and helps the body
burn this fat for energy.
Number Six:
Alkalize! Most experts
agree that the diet for optimal health should be 1/3 acidic and 2/3 alkaline. In
nature, the winter harvest is a mostly acidic one, high in grains and meats. In
the spring and summertime, nature’s bounty of alkalizing fruits and vegetables
helps the body naturally detoxify the heavy stores of winter.
Alkalizing
the body helps keep the blood healthy and the lymphatic system moving,
maintaining a constant natural detox.
Challenge
yourself this spring to make two-thirds of your diet alkaline - it is more
challenging than you might think! See my
Acid/Alkaline Food list here.
Number Seven:
Balance the Six Tastes Vegetables
provide the body with the oft-overlooked tastes of bitter,
astringent, and pungent. In a society largely addicted to the
sweet, sour, and salty tastes, large amounts of vegetables have been replaced
with a diet rich in grains and bread, meats, dairy, and eggs.
According to
Ayurveda, the six tastes are to be included with each meal. This balances not
only the body, but the mind and emotions as well. In Ayurveda, the word for
“taste” – rasa - is the same as the word for “emotion,” echoing that
food is fuel for the body, mind, and spirit.
A diet high
in the sweet and salty tastes can overly-satisfy the senses and, in time, create
a dependency on those sweet and salty foods. Studies show that these foods
activate dopamine receptors in the brain.
Dopamine is
the "I’ve gotta have it hormone," and it plays a part in any addiction. It is a
“diminishing” hormone, meaning that the more you stimulate it, the more of a
substance it takes to stimulate it to the same degree. Soon, the natural sweet
taste of vegetables (think of them as complex sugars wrapped in fiber) gets
replaced with the more potent, quick-acting sweet taste found in breads, dairy,
and sweeteners.
To balance
this major cultural addiction to the sweet and salty tastes, we must
significantly reduce those tastes and add generous, nearly gorilla, amounts of
veggies back into the diet!
Number Eight:
Spring Cleaning In the
spring, when the snow begins to melt and the ground softens, deer dig up
rhizomes to eat. Rhizomes, or surface roots, are loaded with astringent and
bitter constituents that scrub the intestinal villi of old and hardened mucus
congestion. It is like a spring cleaning of the gut. These early spring roots
also stimulate liver function and blood purification. So don't forget the root
vegetables like beets, burdock, carrots, ginger, radish, onions, garlic,
dandelion, turmeric and most spices.
Number Nine:
Nature’s Pro-Biotics Green
vegetables, especially the spring greens, are loaded with chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll fertilizes the intestinal villi and aids in the proliferation of the
good intestinal bacteria, which are essential for digestion, assimilation,
detoxification, and intestinal waste removal. This is a natural way to get the
pro-biotic result, without a supplement. In contrast, most pro-biotic
supplements do not encourage the growth of your own flora. They work well only
while you take them, but the benefits stop when you discontinue taking them.
The
production of intestinal flora may be one of the most important factors linked
to optimal health. When we take nature’s cue and load our diet with alkalizing
veggies in the spring, we naturally restore healthy intestinal
flora.
Number Ten:
Vitamins and Minerals (That Your Body Doesn’t Make) Vegetables
deliver vitamins that the body does not make, including the water-soluble
B-complex vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, biotin, and choline, as well
as Vitamin C. The water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body, so they
must be ingested daily. Without adequate amounts of veggies in the diet, many of
these vitamins may become deficient.
Vegetables
are also a rich source of the fat-soluble vitamins A and K, and some Vitamin
E.
Vegetables
are also the primary source of minerals in the diet. For instance, the main
source of calcium for humans should not be dairy, but green leafy veggies. As
far back as 1936, in a well-publicized report entitled, “Document 264 from the
Department of Agriculture”, the 74th Congress stated that, "99% of the American
people are deficient in minerals, and a marked deficiency in any one of the more
important minerals actually results in disease."
That same
report from 1936 stated that, "virtually all soils in the United States are
mineral deficient." In 2001, The Journal of Complimentary Medicine pointed out
that US and UK Government statistics showed a decline in trace minerals of up to
76% in fruit and vegetables from 1940 to 1991.
Perhaps this
makes a case for mineral supplementation, but first and foremost, we must focus
on getting as many veggies in our diet as we can!
* Always eat
organic when possible.
Top Tip for
Getting More Veggies:
Try
veggies for breakfast! Start the day off right by adding steamed
greens to your am fare. It might seem unusual at first, but you’ll quickly get
used to how good you feel.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment