Eat Away the "Rust" Inside Your Body
Super Key to Health: Micronutrients
Do you know what constitutes "healthy eating"? Fruits? Vegetables? Low-fat? Lean meat? Protein? These suggestions are correct, but based on our current understanding of relative nutritional value of foods, these vague guidelines only scratch the surface. Many believe they are eating healthily, but are shocked when learning how nutrient-poor their "healthy" diet actually is. Ironically, overeaters often suffer from malnutrition. Even many who eat healthily lack essential nutrients needed to prevent disease.
Start by understanding basic nutritional structure—macronutrients such as fats, carbohydrates, and proteins—then delve deeper into micronutrients found in foods. All foods differ. We’re familiar with the concept that some proteins are superior to others—for example, striped bass is healthier than fatty pork chops; many know low-fat or non-fat dairy products are better than full-fat ones. But the idea that certain vegetables or fruits are more beneficial than others is relatively new. This distinction is possible because we can now analyze micronutrients in produce and identify which contain more health-promoting elements.
Among micronutrients, two categories are well-known: vitamins and minerals. Another increasingly recognized category is phytonutrients—natural substances produced by plants with powerful health benefits.
Understanding Phytonutrients
Phytonutrients are non-vitamin, non-mineral food components with great health benefits. Thousands of phytonutrients exist in foods. They appear in every type of food—from morning tea to popcorn at the movies. Some phytonutrients enhance intercellular communication; some combat inflammation; some prevent cellular mutations; some inhibit cancer cell proliferation. Some functions are just beginning to be understood, while many remain undiscovered.
Here are three important, health-promoting phytonutrients:
Polyphenols: Beyond promoting health, polyphenols act as antioxidants, possessing anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy properties. Foods rich in polyphenols include tea, nuts, and berries.
Carotenoids: Pigments found in red and yellow vegetables such as tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots, peaches, mangoes, and sweet potatoes. Important carotenoids include beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene. These nutrients have antioxidant functions, protecting the body from cancer and helping combat aging.
Phytoestrogens: Naturally occurring chemicals, especially abundant in soy foods. Also present in whole grains, seeds, cereals, and some vegetables and fruits. Phytoestrogens influence hormone-related cancers.
How Micronutrients Extend Lifespan
The human body is a complex, interconnected system capable of rapidly restoring energy and vitality. But after a lifetime of operation, the delicate links maintaining health begin to loosen. Micronutrients from natural, healthy foods strengthen these health chains and slow their deterioration. Micronutrients play a crucial role in maintaining health—they are powerful antioxidants. Just as a bicycle left in a garage eventually rusts, the body also "rusts" or oxidizes at the cellular level. Oxidation causes both short- and long-term health problems, and antioxidants protect against oxidation. Well-studied and widely recognized antioxidants include vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and minerals like selenium. You can observe vitamin C’s antioxidant effect in your kitchen: an apple turns brown quickly after cutting, but applying lemon juice (rich in vitamin C) keeps it fresh. Vitamin C slows oxidation. New nutrients with antioxidant properties are discovered almost daily.
How Antioxidants Maintain Human Health
The body is a heat-producing machine relying on oxygen for basic metabolic functions. One consequence of using oxygen—oxidation—is the creation of free radicals, well-known molecules. Free radicals are byproducts of the body’s metabolism. Additionally, the surrounding environment teems with free radicals, appearing in secondhand smoke, pollution, certain foods and chemicals—even drinking water and the warm sun on a spring morning generate free radicals.
Free radicals accumulate continuously within the body, lacking one electron, making them highly unstable. Driven to regain the missing electron, free radicals attack nearby cells indiscriminately to find substitute molecules. Their targets may include DNA, enzymes, vital proteins in neighboring cells, or cell membranes. Estimates suggest each cell faces attacks from free radicals at least 10,000 times per day.
Clearly, no organism could survive without a defense system against free radicals. Antioxidants play the role of frontline soldiers in this battle. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donating an electron, stabilizing them and minimizing their threat. Stable free radicals no longer endanger cellular health.
The body produces many antioxidants naturally, but those from food are equally critical in continuously suppressing free radicals. In fact, it is precisely the antioxidants in food that have led the medical community to widely accept today that certain foods not only nourish the body but also promote health.
Scientists now believe successfully combating free radicals and their damage is key to long-term health. In other words, longevity and resistance to chronic diseases depend not only on genetics or medical advances but also on the body’s ability to fight free radicals. Scientists have confirmed that uncontrolled free radical activity is linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, vision problems, Alzheimer’s disease, and premature aging.
Continuously consuming abundant phytonutrients and all macronutrients and other micronutrients brings immense benefits to the body—forming one of the foundations of superfoods.