Bioactive Foods in Promoting Health

Fruits and Vegetables

Ronald Ross Watson, Victor R Preedy, Victor R. Preedy

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9780080877877
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

While everyone knows fruits and vegetables are beneficial to good health, it's increasingly seen as important to know which ones can be effective in treating specific illnesses. For example, which are good for cardiac care? Which can help combat and treat asthma? What are the safety concerns to be aware of when using herbs in combination with traditional medicines?Diet and nutrition are vital keys to controlling or promoting morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases, and the multitude of biomolecules in dietary fruits and vegetables play a crucial role in health maintenance. They may, therefore, be more effective and certainly could have different actions beyond nutrients however this science is still evolving. This book brings together experts working on the different aspects of supplementation, foods, and plant extracts, in health promotion and disease prevention. Their expertise and experience provide the most current knowledge to promote future research. Dietary habits need to be altered, for most people and the conclusions and recommendations from the various chapters in this book will provide a basis for that change.The overall goal of this book is to provide the most current, concise, scientific appraisal of the efficacy of key foods and constituents medicines in dietary plants in preventing disease and improving the quality of life. While vegetables have traditionally been seen to be good sources of vitamins, the roles of other constituents have only recently become more widely recognized. This book reviews and often presents new hypotheses and conclusions on the effects of different bioactive components of the diet, derived particularly from vegetables, to prevent disease and improve the health of various populations.- Identify bioactive fruit and vegetable options for prevention or treatment of illness- Moves from general overview to disease specific applications providing a framework for further research and deeper understanding- Includes discussion of issues and challenges, permitting critical analysis and evaluation

Chapter 1. Botanical Diversity in Vegetable and Fruit Intake

Potential Health Benefits

Matthew D. Thompson and Henry J. Thompson

Crops for Health Research Program and the Cancer Prevention Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Key words: botanical family, vegetables and fruit, chronic disease prevention, chemotaxonomy, phytochemical, secondary metabolite, dietary pattern

1. Overview

Dietary guidelines are evolving from a primary focus on providing adequate intake of essential nutrients in order to prevent nutritional deficiency to an emphasis on reducing the prevalence of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, type II diabetes, and obesity 1., 2. and 3.. During this transition, there has been a movement to broaden nutritional terminology such that nutrients are divided into two categories: essential and nonessential [4]. Essential nutrients are those substances that cannot be made in the human body but that are required for normal cellular function. The absence of essential dietary nutrients results in defined disease syndromes. Nonessential nutrients are not required for life, but they promote health [5]. Many chemical constituents of plant-based foods, i.e. foods which are plants or are derived from plants, are termed nonessential nutrients since they positively impact health; such phytochemicals are also referred to as phytonutrients. Current dietary recommendations attempt to meet these nutrient requirements and are based on grouping foods using culinary definitions and knowledge of essential nutrient content. Despite the recognition that literally thousands of chemicals exist in plant-based foods and that they are likely to exert a wide range of bioactivities in living systems, dietary guidelines continue to provide limited direction about the specific types of plant-based foods that should be combined to render maximal health benefits. This situation exists for many reasons including: 1) the lack of a systematic approach by which plant-based foods are nutritionally classified; 2) the limited information regarding the chemical profile of each type of plant-based food; 3) the lack of data on the biological activities of plant chemicals; and 4) the paucity of information about the impact of plant-based food combinations on health outcomes. However, technological advances in chromatographic separation and chemical identification of phytochemicals are occurring at a rapid rate [6] and this progress is providing a large amount of information regarding the chemical composition of plant-based foods. This situation has created an unprecedented opportunity to expand our approach to dietary guidelines and menu planning.

The objective of this chapter is to raise the awareness of health care professionals about opportunities to extend dietary guidance about plant-based food intake beyond meeting the recommended servings/day of cereal grains, vegetables, and fruit by incorporating information about the botanical families from which the plant-based foods are selected for menu planning. The approach also has the potential to identify food combinations that reduce chronic disease risk. The remainder of this chapter addresses three topics: Section 2 details the rationale underlying the proposed use of botanical families, Section 3 provides evidence of the potential usefulness of this approach in an effort to reduce chronic disease risk, and Section 4 considers how botanical families can be applied to meal planning.

2. Rationale for Using Botanical Families

2.1. Categorizing Vegetables and Fruit

The focus of this chapter is on vegetables and fruit, yet a careful inspection of how these terms are defined and the manner in which they are used reveals a surprising amount of ambiguity about the foods placed in each category. While the term ‘vegetable’ generally refers to the edible parts of plants, the categorization of foods as vegetables is traditional rather than scientific, varying by cultural customs of food selection and preparation. Moreover, in the biomedical literature, some foods are not classified as vegetables because of their content of starch, e.g. potatoes 7. and 8., without consideration...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Chapter 1. Botanical Diversity in Vegetable and Fruit Intake
• Chapter 2. Vegetable and Fruit Intake and the Development of Cancer
• Chapter 3. Fruit and Vegetable Antioxidants in Health
• Chapter 4. Medicinal Activities of Essential Oils
• Chapter 5. Emerging Knowledge of the Bioactivity of Foods in the Diets of Indigenous North Americans
• Chapter 6. Barriers and Facilitating Factors Affecting Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
• Chapter 7. Healthy Eating
• Chapter 8. Trends in US Adult Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
• Chapter 9. Fruit and Vegetables in the Optimized Mixed Diet
• Chapter 10. The Antibacterial Properties of Dietary Fruit
• Chapter 11. Fruit and Vegetable Intake of Mothers in Europe
• Chapter 12. Fruit, Vegetables, and Bone Health
• Chapter 13. Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Intakes
• Chapter 14. Working with Industry for the Promotion of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
• Chapter 15. Garlic and Aging
• Chapter 16. Garlic and Heart Health
• Chapter 17. Fig, Carob, Pistachio, and Health
• Chapter 18. Poi History, Uses, and Role in Health
• Chapter 19. Increasing Children’s Liking and Intake of Vegetables through Experiential Learning
• Chapter 20. Bioactivity of Polyacetylenes in Food Plants
• Chapter 21. Nitrates and Nitrites in Vegetables
• Chapter 22. The Essentiality of Nutritional Supplementation in HIV Infection and AIDS
• Chapter 23. Tomatoes, Tomato Products, and Lycopene in Prevention and Therapy of Prostate Diseases – Is There Evidence from Intervention Studies for Preventive and for Therapeutic Effects?
• Chapter 24. Fruit, Vegetables, and Legumes Consumption
• Chapter 25. Spinach and Carrots
• Chapter 26. Spinach and Health
• Chapter 27. Potential Health Benefits of Rhubarb
• Chapter 28. Health Benefits of Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum leguminosse)
• Chapter 29. Weight Loss Due to Fruit and Vegetable Use
• Chapter 30. Legumes and Cardiovascular Disease
• Chapter 31. Biological Effects of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), especially its Antibacterial Actions, Against Microorganisms Present in the Dental Plaque and Other Infectious Processes
• Chapter 32. Açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.)
• Chapter 33. Beneficial uses of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis)
• Chapter 34. Bioactive Compounds in Mango (Mangifera indica L.)
• Chapter 35. Health Benefits of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia)
• Chapter 36. Pomegranate in Human Health
• Chapter 37. Kiwifruit and Health
• Chapter 38. Bioactive Chemicals and Health Benefits of Grapevine Products
• Chapter 39. Soursop (Annona muricata L.)
• Chapter 40. Carotenoids in Vegetables
• Chapter 41. Apigenin and Cancer Chemoprevention
• Chapter 42. Goitrogen in Food
• Chapter 43. Nutritional and Health Benefits of Root Crops
• Index