Top Five Phytonutrients for Your Health

You’ve probably heard the saying “variety is the spice of life”? Often when starting a new diet, or lifestyle, it can be all too easy to think about the foods you’re not going to eat and forget about how many different foods you can eat. This leads to the same foods becoming weekly staples and a lack of variety in both fruits and vegetables.

Food is more than just proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. Every fruit or vegetable that you put in your mouth has a complex assortment of phytochemicals that provide amazing health benefits. You don’t need exotic herbs for good health; including a wide variety of local fresh fruit and vegetables can provide you with many of the same active ingredients we look for in herbal medicine.

While it’s hard to stop at just five here are our top phytochemical recommendations for you to include in your diet.

Lutein & Zeaxanthin

We might have cheated and included two phytochemicals, but Lutein and Zeaxanthin are so tightly related and so frequently work in tandem that we’re considering them as one!

Lutein and Zeaxanthin are two important phytochemicals for anyone concerned about eye health. Dietary intake of these two important phytochemicals has been associated with decreased risk of age related macular degeneration.

While you might normally think of grapes and berries when it comes to Lutein and Zeaxanthin, many vegetables are often more potent sources. Kale, watercress, spinach and parsley are all highly concentrated sources of Lutein, while Zeaxanthin is one of the major components in orange peppers.

Indoles

We regularly talk about hormonal health and how to prevent or detoxify excess oestrogen in the body. This not only helps hormonal balance and mood, but also protects against many hormonally driven cancers such as breast or prostate cancer. One group of phytochemicals that support this are known as indoles.

We regularly use one particular indole, indole-3-carbinol, in the clinic as a good oestrogen detoxifier. This particular nutrient supports oestrogen detoxification by promoting a pathway that converts stronger, dangerous forms of oestrogen to a weaker form of that doesn’t stimulate hormonally driven cancers such as breast cancer.

Indole-3-Carbinol, or its precursor, is a major phytonutrient in cabbages and other members of the brassica family. It is also heat sensitive so try to use this fresh and raw.

Capsaicin

Red hot chilli peppers are good for more than just music! As it turns out they are also a fantastic dietary source of capsaicin.

While capsaicin is most commonly an ingredient in topical, anti-inflammatory creams it can also be used orally as an effective, systemic, anti-inflammatory. Capsaicin works by blocking the formation of the pro-inflammatory chemicals that lead to our sensation of pain, this is exactly the same way pharmaceutical anti-inflammatories work, but without the gastrointestinal side effects.

We utilise herbal sources of capsaicin regularly in clinic with great results in many common musculoskeletal inflammatory conditions.

Capsaicin has another trick up its sleeve however and is very good at increasing your bodies basal metabolic rate. This makes capsaicin invaluable for anyone attempting to lose weight, particularly the hard to shift weight around the abdomen.

Polyphenols

You’ve probably heard the phrase polyphenols in TV or magazine adds. Polyphenols are the active ingredients manufactures of tea, coffee, wine and chocolate refer to when they attempt to market these products as health foods.

It’s not all hype however, and including polyphenol rich foods in your diet are a great way to improve your overall health and wellbeing.

One of the main polyphenols in tea, catechin, for example has been shown to be a good antioxidant and is regularly found in antioxidant herbal formulas and supplements. Green tea also offers an effective way of lowering cholesterol and increasing the rate at which you’re body burns fat. Both of which are outcomes that I’m sure most of us would be quite happy with!

Green tea is not the only good source of polyphenols. They are also naturally occurring in high levels in onions, apples, strawberries, nuts and yams. Wine manufacturers may also try to tell you that wine is a good source of polyphenols, don’t be fooled. The amount of wine needed to obtain the alleged health benefits, is not worth the side affects.

Sulforaphane

Sulforaphane is a lesser known phytonutrient, but one that deserves a very important mention in our top five. Like indoles, sulforaphane is one of the polyphenols found in high concentrations in many cruciferous vegetables and are part of what make them such potent cancer fighters. Perhaps even more importantly unlike the indoles found in these vegetables, sulforaphane is quite heat stable and survives the cooking and microwaving process far better.

In addition to its anti cancer properties, sulforaphane has also been shown to be particularly effective in supporting liver detoxification; particularly phase 2 detoxification where toxins mobilised in the body are rendered “safe” by conjugation with glutathione.

Would You Like to Improve Your Health Naturally?

If you’re looking for natural options to improve your health and wellbeing, why not make an appointment to see one of our Naturopathic team?

Our Naturopaths can help you to feel better, have more energy and reverse many of today’s chronic illnesses. Best of all, using natural medicine doesn’t expose your body to many of the harmful, and often toxic ingredients, that are found in many pharmaceutical medications.

Call us today to ask how we can help you fast track your return to health.