Nearly every day, researchers announce more exciting discoveries that show how the foods we eat help fight disease. There is now no doubt that Mother Nature’s most delicious foods—from apples and broccoli to yogurt and zucchini—can be your best medicine for cutting cholesterol, losing weight, preventing cancer, beating allergies, reversing heart disease, and managing scores of other conditions.
That’s why the editors of Prevention are so pleased to bring you this revised and updated version of our best-selling Doctors Book of Food Remedies, which features the latest science-based, doctor-approved information on the healing power of foods.
Thanks to the constant deluge of new studies, we now know that it’s the remarkable microscopic substances in plants called phytonutrients that act in any number of ways to help us prevent illness and achieve optimal health. Quercetin, lycopene, resveratrol, ellagic acid, sulforaphane, alpha-and beta-carotene … these are just a few of the powerful phytonutrients you’ll read about in this book. Some stimulate your body’s immune cells and infection-fighting enzymes, preventing colds and flu, and combating environmental toxins. Others help to balance hormone levels, thus reducing the risk of hormone-related conditions, such as symptoms of menopause, and breast and prostate cancer. And still other phytonutrients function as antioxidants, neutralizing the harmful free radicals (unstable oxygen molecules) that are believed to play a role in the onset of so many degenerative diseases.
Today more than 9,000 phytonutrients have been documented, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. These discoveries have changed everything we thought we knew about foods! Oats, for example, have long been known to lower cholesterol because of the dietary fiber they contain. But that’s not the only reason they protect the heart. Scientists now know that oats contain natural chemicals called tocotrienols that are 50 percent more powerful than even vitamin E in reducing the risk of heart disease.
Apples are another food that will surprise you. They’ve always been thought to be healthy, mostly because they are so chock-full of vitamins and fiber. But it turns out that it’s the phytonutrients in apples (found mainly in the skin) that are the powerhouses. In fact, they’re so strong that one study of 40,000 women associated the quercetin and other phytonutrients in apples with a 13 to 22 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, the quercetin in apples (and pears) has been found to help improve lung function, reducing the risk of asthma and obstructive pulmonary disease.
Or take red wine. We all know a glass with dinner can be a great relaxer, but who could have predicted that the resveratrol present in red wine could help make bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol less likely to stick to artery walls. Or that wine might even play a role in preventing diabetes.
One of the most exciting discoveries is that some foods can literally stop the chemical changes that can lead to cancer. Watercress, for example, has been found to block some of the harmful effects of cigarette smoke. And strawberries, and other berries that contain ellagic acid, have been shown to block the harmful effects of cancer-causing chemicals in the body.
And as if all this isn’t enough to make you head for the produce aisle … scientists have also discovered ways to make the foods that we eat even more powerful. You may know, for instance, that beta-carotene (found in carrots, broccoli, mangoes, and other dark orange and dark green vegetables and fruits) is good for your heart. But scientists have learned that your body can’t readily absorb beta-carotene unless you eat it with a little fat. That’s why a drizzle of olive oil on cooked carrots or broccoli or a dab of yogurt on fresh fruit can vastly increase their healing powers.
Garlic also benefits from a little help. Chop whole cloves fine and suddenly the protective compound allicin is released. It quickly breaks down into a cascade of other healthful compounds, which can help lower triglycerides and cholesterol, reduce the risk of stomach and colon cancers, and much more.
And the list of foods and their seemingly magical healing powers goes on and on.
At Prevention, we’ve always believed that good health comes first from the farm, then the pharmacy. That’s why we’ve spent so much time reviewing the latest scientific journals and talking with hundreds of the country’s top doctors and food experts to bring you this important reference. We want to be sure you are armed with the best and most recent advice and information on how to take advantage of something we all love to do (eat) and avoid something we all fear (disease). The new science we’ve tapped into amazes us—and surely it will amaze you, too.
So grab an apple, or a glass of wine if you like, and start reading—and eating—to your health’s content!
—The Editors of Prevention