What Are Phytonutrients?

Phytonutrients are super healing substances only found in plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and beans.

More Plant Foods = More Phytonutrients

Phytonutrients are not found in processed foods and they are not found in animal foods such as eggs, chicken, beef, milk, and cheese. The phytonutrients found in plants are a major contributing factor to why plant foods play such an important role in Clean Cuisine. And, for whatever it’s worth, most people who eat the standard modern-day diet are in less than optimal health, so it’s not surprising that their diets are exceptionally low in the phytonutrient-rich foods that form the foundation for Clean Cuisine.

We are not the only ones who are praising the powers of phytonutrient-rich plant foods either. The American Heart Association Nutrition Committee, the American Cancer Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dietetic Association, the Division of Nutrition Research Coordination of the National Institutes of Health, and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition all agree that we should eat more phytonutrient-rich unrefined plant foods and less  animal food.

Phytonutrients offer tremendous health, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging benefits independent of their nutritional value. These plant-based superstar antiagers help cells repair themselves by stimulating the release of protective enzymes. In other words, flooding your system with phytonutrients can help you stay looking and feeling younger by providing your body with the raw materials it needs to repair damaged cells. Your body’s ability to repair damaged cells on a regular basis is a key factor in staying youthful. Without a sufficient supply of phytonutrients, your cells age more rapidly, and they lose their ability to remove and detoxify waste products, increasing the risk for disease.

A phytonutrient-rich diet is also an essential component of preventing the development of degenerative diseases. Research shows populations with low death rates from such diseases and populations with low obesity rates consume upward of 75 percent of their calories from unrefined phytonutrient-rich plant foods. Scientific evidence supports the idea that phytonutrients play an important role in preventing and even treating some of the most deadly diseases, including heart disease and cancer.

It is believed phytonutrients inhibit cancer-producing cells. Cancer starts out as a cell growing out of control and it is now believed some cancer cells are probably formed in every person every day. If you have a strong immune system, your body recognizes these cancer invaders and attacks. Almost always the healthy body with a healthy immune system wins this combat so cancer cells either never have a chance to develop or are destroyed before they have a chance to spread or cause damage. Phytonutrients from a wide variety of plant-based foods help fight cancer on many levels and help keep your cells healthy and strong. A review of 206 human population studies shows raw vegetable consumption to offer the strongest protective effect against cancer among the phytochemical-rich fruits and vegetables.

Pass the Phytonutrient-Rich Fruit & Veggie Platter

Throughout the Challenge we will be showing you numerous ways to increase your phytonutrient intake, but one of the best and easiest ways is to simply eat more fruits and vegetables.

One of the most consistent findings in the epidemiological and nutritional literature is that as fruit and vegetable consumption increases in the diet, chronic disease and premature deaths decline. The CDC, the National Cancer Institute, the American Heart Association, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture all recommend adults eat 7 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables every day for better health. One of the reasons fruits and vegetables are so important to eat in abundance is because they offer such incredible nutrient and phytonutrient bang for such a teeny-tiny calorie buck.

Vegetables in particular offer big nutrient package for basically zero calories. It is just impossible to overeat vegetables. For example, eating 1 cup of raw spinach delivers hefty amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients for a paltry 10 calories. Yet, while spinach is great, you can’t eat only spinach for optimal health. You need to eat lots of different colored vegetables and fruits, and the more variety in color you get, the broader the protection. This is because each fruit and vegetable contains its own unique set of phytonutrients. Red fruits and red vegetables have different phytonutrients from green fruits and green vegetables. Even red strawberries have a different phytonutrient profile from red tomatoes.