By Gina Rollins DP, HHC
Phytochemicals
are non-nutritive chemical compounds that naturally occur in plants (phyto means plant in Greek). They provide plants with their color, odor and flavor. They have protective or disease preventive properties and are non-essential nutrients, meaning that they are not required by the human body for sustaining life. It is well known that plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves but recent research demonstrate that they can also protect humans against diseases. There may be as many as 4,000 different phytochemicals.
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, once we eat them, research shows they can influence the chemical process inside our bodies in helpful ways.
Findings from laboratory studies have shown that phytochemical’s have the potential to:
- Stimulate the immune system
- Block substances we eat, drink ad breathe from becoming carcinogens
- Reduce the kind of inflammation that makes cancer growth more likely
- Prevent DNA damage and help with DNA repair
- Reduce the kind of oxidative damage to cells that can spark cancer
- Slow the growth rate of cancer cells
- Trigger damaged cells to commit suicide before they can reproduce
- Help to regulate hormones.To date Thousands of phytochemical’s have been identified and scientists have only begun to investigate their promise. The future looks bright.
Eat, Drink and Gwell