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alex2678
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I was going to start a thread just about berries and their health/thermogenic properties, (seems not too many bodybuilders eat them either off season or pre-contest for fear of sugar) but I found this article that mentions blueberries and some other foods if you're into health. Some old news but still good to keep in mind next time you do your shopping.
1. Spinach
MAIN TARGET AGE-RELATED VISION LOSS
WHAT'S KNOWN By the time you turn 65, chances are you'll have lost some vision to cataracts. Unless, like Popeye, you're a spinach fan. Men who eat spinach more than twice a week are nearly 40 percent less likely to have cataracts--and women, 25 percent less--than those who eat it less than once a month, according to a 1999 Harvard survey of more than 100,000 people.
POWER SOURCE Lutein. This pigment filters out the sun's blue light and reduces ultraviolet radiation; both harm the eyes.
THE LATEST Though there's no cure for macular degeneration--a leading cause of blindness after age 60--eating spinach may help. To see if upping lutein, the sight-saver in spinach, could improve vision, Illinois doctors added lutein to the daily diets of seniors with macular degeneration. A year later, not only had their sight loss stopped, but it had actually improved, reported a major study in Optometry, April 2004.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE Six milligrams of lutein--the amount in half a cup of cooked spinach. Just that much may cut the risk for macular degeneration by nearly half.
CALORIES 7 per cup raw, 41 per cup cooked
TIPS Cooking spinach releases its full store of lutein. Eating it with a little olive oil or another healthful fat helps the body absorb lutein.
OTHER BENEFITS * Helps prevent birth defects (due to its high folate content) * May improve heart health
2. Bluberries
MAIN TARGET MEMORY
WHAT'S KNOWN Blueberries may stem and even reverse age-related memory loss. The big clue came in a 1999 Tufts University study. After two months on blueberries, older rats not truly navigated mazes faster, they also had better balance and were more coordinated--skills regulated by the brain. Research is now under way at Tufts to determine whether blueberries increase human brainpower.
POWER SOURCE Anthocyanins. These potent antioxidants increase communication between aging brain cells, and find off free radicals. Blueberries have the highest antioxidant power of the 20 most common fruits and berries, according to the USDA.
THE LATEST A compound in blueberries may also reduce cholesterol, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in August 2004. The compound, called pterostilbene, works a lot like the anticholesterol drug ciprofibrate--but without its side effects. Pterostilbene also protects the heart much like resveratrol, the antioxidant in grapes and red wines.
SUGGESTED DAILY DOSE On the strength of his memory studies, Tufts' lead researcher James Joseph, PhD, downs one cup of blueberries daily.
CALORIES 83 per cup
TIPS Go wild. The USDA says blueberries from the great outdoors have twice the antioxidant power of their cultivated cousins.
OTHER BENEFITS Help prevent urinary tract infections
3. Tea
MAIN TARGET CANCERS and HEART DISEASE
WHAT'S KNOWN Every cup is a toast to good health. Tea is particularly effective against cancer--drinking 1 1/2 or more cups daily is linked to decreases in rectal, colon and urinary tract cancers, found a 2003 study in the Annals of Epidemiology.
POWER SOURCE Flavonoids. Tea is loaded with these antioxidants. One in particular--epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)--protects normal cells from cancer, keeps cancerous cells from multiplying and constricts blood vessels that feed tumors. In people with heart disease, EGCG lowers LDL and makes clots less likely to form.
THE LATEST Drinking three cups of black tea daily slashed heart attack rates by half in a 2002 Dutch study. Japanese researchers also found a 42 percent drop in heart attacks among cup-a-day green tea drinkers. Even after a heart attack, people who sip two-plus cups of black tea a day are less likely to die within four years than non-tea drinkers are.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE As little as one cup, but more is likely better--for overall benefits, think four cups.
CALORIES 2 per cup
TIPS Tea's many health benefits are more often tied to green tea--but largely because it has been studied more. Black tea is probably just as healthful, says Jeffrey Blumberg, a tea expert at Tufts University.
OTHER BENEFITS * May reduce incidence of skin cancer * Improves oral health
4. Broccoli
MAIN TARGET CANCERS
WHAT'S KNOWN No single veg fights cancer better than broccoli. Eating it more than three times a week could cut the rate of colorectal cancer in half, suggests 1998 research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
POWER SOURCE Sulforaphane. Broccoli is loaded with this phytochemical, which helps zap certain carcinogens. And it's also high in indoles, plant chemicals thought to inhibit breast cancer cells.
THE LATEST Eaten regularly, the stalky green helps shrink the risk of many cancers, especially bladder. A nearly 50 percent drop in bladder cancer is linked to eating broccoli more than twice a week, versus less than once, reports a 1999 Harvard study.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE One cup
CALORIES 30 per cup, 78 cooked
TIPS Steaming broccoli preserves some 90 percent of its phytochemicals versus 19 percent for boiling and 3 percent for microwaving, found 2003 research in Spain.
OTHER BENEFITS * Helps prevent birth defects (because of high folate content) * Lowers the risk of heart disease
5. Tomatoes
MAIN TARGET PROTATE CANCER
WHAT'S KNOWN Many studies show that tomatoes can reduce the risk of a variety of cancers, including lung, stomach and especially prostate. Eating 10 or more servings a week of tomatoes (canned or in sauce, juice pizza) shrank men's risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent in a landmark 1995 Harvard study. Similar benefits came from eating tomato sauce just twice a week.
POWER SOURCE Lycopene. The colorful pigment--it makes tomatoes red--is loaded with antioxidants that are thought to be particularly good at thwarting cancer cells.
THE LATEST In 2003, the same Harvard researchers tracked prostate cancer in men over 65 years old with no family history of die disease. Those with the highest levels of lycopene had about half the prostate cancer risk of men with lower levels. Researchers at the Mayo Clink are now giving lycopene (via tomato sauce) in men with advanced prostate cancer to see if it reverses the disease. Results are expected in 2006.
SUGGESTED DOSE Twice a week
CALORIES 46 per cup, canned whole tomatoes; 78 per cup, canned tomato sauce
TIPS Because heat releases lycopene, tomatoes anticancer benefits come largely from the cooked fruit---canned, in sauces or juice. Lycopene enters the bloodstream more completely when it's accompanied by a little fat, so saute tomatoes in olive oil and dust the finished sauce with Parmesan cheese.
OTHER BENEFITS * Reduces the risk of heart disease
6. Soy
MAIN TARGET HEART DISEASE and CANCER
WHAT'S KNOWN Numerous studies show that simply adding soy to the diet decreases LDL, "bad" cholesterol, by an average of 13 percent. There's controversy about whether soy protects against breast cancer. It now appears that soy helps the most when it's eaten at an early age: Women who consume the most soy from ages 13 to 15 have half the breast cancer risk of those who eat the least, according to a 2001 Vanderbih University survey.
POWER SOURCE Isoflavones, which are plant estrogens. They seem to keep the body's estrogen from stimulating tumors, and seem to cut cholesterol, but how isn't clear.
THE LATEST Soy may also lower the risk of prostate cancer, and possibly slow or reverse the disease, suggests a 2003 Wayne State University study. When fed isoflavones (the main cancer killer in soy) for up to six months, 83 percent of men--all untreated--saw their prostate cancer indicators stabilize, a sign that the disease had halted.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE 15-25 grams of soy protein, about the amount in 2-3 cups of soymilk
CALORIES 127 per cup of soymilk
TIPS Soy's benefits come in many forms from soup (made from soymilk) to (soy) nuts.
OTHER BENEFITS * May reduce symptoms of menopause * May protect against Alzheimer's disease
7. Oats
MAIN TARGET HEART DISEASE
WHAT'S KNOWN Oatmeal is basically heart-healthy food in bowl. Scores of studies have shown that a daily dose of oars--usually oatmeal or oat bran--can cut artery-clogging total Cholesterol by 8-23 percent and LDL by as much as 20 percent. That's big: Each 1 percent drop in cholesterol triples your protection against heart disease.
POWER SOURCE: Beta-glucan. This spongy soluble fiber, which is what makes oatmeal Sticky, is thought to sop up artery-clogging cholesterol and Carry it out of the body. There's some evidence that it also may actually inhibit cholesterol production.
THE LATEST Oats help people who need it most. When overweight German men with high cholesterol were put on a low-fat, high-oat bran diet in 2003, their LDL levels dropped 50 points, reports the University of Freiburg. Oats help those with normal cholesterol too. After eight weeks of oat bran boosting, Mexican men with normal cholesterol averaged a 37-point drop in LDL, found a 1998 University of Sonora study.
SUGGESTED DAILY DOSE About 3 grams of beta-glucan, the amount in 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal.
CALORIES 147 per cup cooked oatmeal
TIPS Oat bran generally has more soluble fiber--and thus more beta-glucan--than oatmeal.
OTHER BENEFITS May lower blood pressure Helps prevent hard arteries
Healthy extras
Want to supercharge your superfoods with even better nutrition? Liberally shake, grate, dribble, zest or sprinkle these health-giving foods onto them.
OLIVE OIL
A mostly monounsaturated fat that increases helpful HDL (the "good" cholesterol) and lowers harmful LDL.
WALNUTS
The only nut that harbors a rich supply of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids; it also has the most cancer-fighting antioxidants of any nut.
ONION
A heart helper with a reserve of sulfur compounds and flavonoids that defend against stomach, esophageal, breast and lung cancer.
AVOCADOS
Provide a mono-unsaturated fat that's full of phytochemicals, which carry away cholesterol and fend off cancer.
GARLIC
Helps keep clots out of arteries and cancers out of the stomach, prostate and colon.
ORANGES
Supply o hearty dose of health-helping vitamin C and a variety of other plant nutrients that help defend against cancer, stroke and heart disease.
1. Spinach
MAIN TARGET AGE-RELATED VISION LOSS
WHAT'S KNOWN By the time you turn 65, chances are you'll have lost some vision to cataracts. Unless, like Popeye, you're a spinach fan. Men who eat spinach more than twice a week are nearly 40 percent less likely to have cataracts--and women, 25 percent less--than those who eat it less than once a month, according to a 1999 Harvard survey of more than 100,000 people.
POWER SOURCE Lutein. This pigment filters out the sun's blue light and reduces ultraviolet radiation; both harm the eyes.
THE LATEST Though there's no cure for macular degeneration--a leading cause of blindness after age 60--eating spinach may help. To see if upping lutein, the sight-saver in spinach, could improve vision, Illinois doctors added lutein to the daily diets of seniors with macular degeneration. A year later, not only had their sight loss stopped, but it had actually improved, reported a major study in Optometry, April 2004.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE Six milligrams of lutein--the amount in half a cup of cooked spinach. Just that much may cut the risk for macular degeneration by nearly half.
CALORIES 7 per cup raw, 41 per cup cooked
TIPS Cooking spinach releases its full store of lutein. Eating it with a little olive oil or another healthful fat helps the body absorb lutein.
OTHER BENEFITS * Helps prevent birth defects (due to its high folate content) * May improve heart health
2. Bluberries
MAIN TARGET MEMORY
WHAT'S KNOWN Blueberries may stem and even reverse age-related memory loss. The big clue came in a 1999 Tufts University study. After two months on blueberries, older rats not truly navigated mazes faster, they also had better balance and were more coordinated--skills regulated by the brain. Research is now under way at Tufts to determine whether blueberries increase human brainpower.
POWER SOURCE Anthocyanins. These potent antioxidants increase communication between aging brain cells, and find off free radicals. Blueberries have the highest antioxidant power of the 20 most common fruits and berries, according to the USDA.
THE LATEST A compound in blueberries may also reduce cholesterol, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in August 2004. The compound, called pterostilbene, works a lot like the anticholesterol drug ciprofibrate--but without its side effects. Pterostilbene also protects the heart much like resveratrol, the antioxidant in grapes and red wines.
SUGGESTED DAILY DOSE On the strength of his memory studies, Tufts' lead researcher James Joseph, PhD, downs one cup of blueberries daily.
CALORIES 83 per cup
TIPS Go wild. The USDA says blueberries from the great outdoors have twice the antioxidant power of their cultivated cousins.
OTHER BENEFITS Help prevent urinary tract infections
3. Tea
MAIN TARGET CANCERS and HEART DISEASE
WHAT'S KNOWN Every cup is a toast to good health. Tea is particularly effective against cancer--drinking 1 1/2 or more cups daily is linked to decreases in rectal, colon and urinary tract cancers, found a 2003 study in the Annals of Epidemiology.
POWER SOURCE Flavonoids. Tea is loaded with these antioxidants. One in particular--epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)--protects normal cells from cancer, keeps cancerous cells from multiplying and constricts blood vessels that feed tumors. In people with heart disease, EGCG lowers LDL and makes clots less likely to form.
THE LATEST Drinking three cups of black tea daily slashed heart attack rates by half in a 2002 Dutch study. Japanese researchers also found a 42 percent drop in heart attacks among cup-a-day green tea drinkers. Even after a heart attack, people who sip two-plus cups of black tea a day are less likely to die within four years than non-tea drinkers are.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE As little as one cup, but more is likely better--for overall benefits, think four cups.
CALORIES 2 per cup
TIPS Tea's many health benefits are more often tied to green tea--but largely because it has been studied more. Black tea is probably just as healthful, says Jeffrey Blumberg, a tea expert at Tufts University.
OTHER BENEFITS * May reduce incidence of skin cancer * Improves oral health
4. Broccoli
MAIN TARGET CANCERS
WHAT'S KNOWN No single veg fights cancer better than broccoli. Eating it more than three times a week could cut the rate of colorectal cancer in half, suggests 1998 research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
POWER SOURCE Sulforaphane. Broccoli is loaded with this phytochemical, which helps zap certain carcinogens. And it's also high in indoles, plant chemicals thought to inhibit breast cancer cells.
THE LATEST Eaten regularly, the stalky green helps shrink the risk of many cancers, especially bladder. A nearly 50 percent drop in bladder cancer is linked to eating broccoli more than twice a week, versus less than once, reports a 1999 Harvard study.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE One cup
CALORIES 30 per cup, 78 cooked
TIPS Steaming broccoli preserves some 90 percent of its phytochemicals versus 19 percent for boiling and 3 percent for microwaving, found 2003 research in Spain.
OTHER BENEFITS * Helps prevent birth defects (because of high folate content) * Lowers the risk of heart disease
5. Tomatoes
MAIN TARGET PROTATE CANCER
WHAT'S KNOWN Many studies show that tomatoes can reduce the risk of a variety of cancers, including lung, stomach and especially prostate. Eating 10 or more servings a week of tomatoes (canned or in sauce, juice pizza) shrank men's risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent in a landmark 1995 Harvard study. Similar benefits came from eating tomato sauce just twice a week.
POWER SOURCE Lycopene. The colorful pigment--it makes tomatoes red--is loaded with antioxidants that are thought to be particularly good at thwarting cancer cells.
THE LATEST In 2003, the same Harvard researchers tracked prostate cancer in men over 65 years old with no family history of die disease. Those with the highest levels of lycopene had about half the prostate cancer risk of men with lower levels. Researchers at the Mayo Clink are now giving lycopene (via tomato sauce) in men with advanced prostate cancer to see if it reverses the disease. Results are expected in 2006.
SUGGESTED DOSE Twice a week
CALORIES 46 per cup, canned whole tomatoes; 78 per cup, canned tomato sauce
TIPS Because heat releases lycopene, tomatoes anticancer benefits come largely from the cooked fruit---canned, in sauces or juice. Lycopene enters the bloodstream more completely when it's accompanied by a little fat, so saute tomatoes in olive oil and dust the finished sauce with Parmesan cheese.
OTHER BENEFITS * Reduces the risk of heart disease
6. Soy
MAIN TARGET HEART DISEASE and CANCER
WHAT'S KNOWN Numerous studies show that simply adding soy to the diet decreases LDL, "bad" cholesterol, by an average of 13 percent. There's controversy about whether soy protects against breast cancer. It now appears that soy helps the most when it's eaten at an early age: Women who consume the most soy from ages 13 to 15 have half the breast cancer risk of those who eat the least, according to a 2001 Vanderbih University survey.
POWER SOURCE Isoflavones, which are plant estrogens. They seem to keep the body's estrogen from stimulating tumors, and seem to cut cholesterol, but how isn't clear.
THE LATEST Soy may also lower the risk of prostate cancer, and possibly slow or reverse the disease, suggests a 2003 Wayne State University study. When fed isoflavones (the main cancer killer in soy) for up to six months, 83 percent of men--all untreated--saw their prostate cancer indicators stabilize, a sign that the disease had halted.
SUGGESTED DALLY DOSE 15-25 grams of soy protein, about the amount in 2-3 cups of soymilk
CALORIES 127 per cup of soymilk
TIPS Soy's benefits come in many forms from soup (made from soymilk) to (soy) nuts.
OTHER BENEFITS * May reduce symptoms of menopause * May protect against Alzheimer's disease
7. Oats
MAIN TARGET HEART DISEASE
WHAT'S KNOWN Oatmeal is basically heart-healthy food in bowl. Scores of studies have shown that a daily dose of oars--usually oatmeal or oat bran--can cut artery-clogging total Cholesterol by 8-23 percent and LDL by as much as 20 percent. That's big: Each 1 percent drop in cholesterol triples your protection against heart disease.
POWER SOURCE: Beta-glucan. This spongy soluble fiber, which is what makes oatmeal Sticky, is thought to sop up artery-clogging cholesterol and Carry it out of the body. There's some evidence that it also may actually inhibit cholesterol production.
THE LATEST Oats help people who need it most. When overweight German men with high cholesterol were put on a low-fat, high-oat bran diet in 2003, their LDL levels dropped 50 points, reports the University of Freiburg. Oats help those with normal cholesterol too. After eight weeks of oat bran boosting, Mexican men with normal cholesterol averaged a 37-point drop in LDL, found a 1998 University of Sonora study.
SUGGESTED DAILY DOSE About 3 grams of beta-glucan, the amount in 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal.
CALORIES 147 per cup cooked oatmeal
TIPS Oat bran generally has more soluble fiber--and thus more beta-glucan--than oatmeal.
OTHER BENEFITS May lower blood pressure Helps prevent hard arteries
Healthy extras
Want to supercharge your superfoods with even better nutrition? Liberally shake, grate, dribble, zest or sprinkle these health-giving foods onto them.
OLIVE OIL
A mostly monounsaturated fat that increases helpful HDL (the "good" cholesterol) and lowers harmful LDL.
WALNUTS
The only nut that harbors a rich supply of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids; it also has the most cancer-fighting antioxidants of any nut.
ONION
A heart helper with a reserve of sulfur compounds and flavonoids that defend against stomach, esophageal, breast and lung cancer.
AVOCADOS
Provide a mono-unsaturated fat that's full of phytochemicals, which carry away cholesterol and fend off cancer.
GARLIC
Helps keep clots out of arteries and cancers out of the stomach, prostate and colon.
ORANGES
Supply o hearty dose of health-helping vitamin C and a variety of other plant nutrients that help defend against cancer, stroke and heart disease.
