Nutritional Fruits

Higher intake of berries, lower risks of cancer

Research shows that berries have rich health benefits like preventing the progression of cardiovascular disease, cancer, cataracts, fibrocystic disease etc; Berries have better anti-oxidant properties than fruits like apples and kiwi fruit.

Special berry extracts like blueberry have been effective in inhibiting the growth of major types of cancers where greater the absorption of berry extract, greater the inhibition in cancers. A higher intake of fruits and vegetables, like berries, translates to lower risks for most types of cancer. Intake of blueberries on a regular basis had the greatest benefits and lowest risk factors for heart disease.
One serve of blackberries or strawberries provides nearly 90% of RDI for men 120% of RDI for women. Blueberries and strawberries are more efficient to improve memory and to reduce development, progression of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

Acai berries are rich in Omega fats where more than 50% of the fruit contains fat, 74% of unsaturated fats contains Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9 which is good for cardiovascular health, enhanced brain function, less depression ,protect from stroke and heart attack, reduce breast and prostate cancer.

As fatness rates continue to rise, nutritional scientists in labs around the world are trying to answer the question: what fills us up?

How we can become satisfied on good foods – in other words, eat a smaller amount and feel less hungry – has become the big question,’ says obesity specialist Dr Alex Johnstone, of the Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health in Aberdeen. “.
And where the scientists tramp, food and supplement manufacturers soon follow..
Get into good habits: Tricks such as eating an apple before your meal and dining on your own can make you feel more fulfilled from your food.
Britons spent £45 million last year on ‘satiety’ products designed to fill your gut and quell your appetite .
One of the first retailers on the satiety bandwagon was M&S, which early this year launched the suffer Fuller For Longer range based on Dr Johnstone’s work. The meals are high in protein, which is filling, but not high in calories.

‘It’s one of our most popular launches because it’s an easy way to plug the hunger pangs that usually lead to diets fault,’ says M&S nutritionist Claire Hughes.

But everyday foods can plug the gap just as well; as shown by research from San Diego University’s School of train and Nutritional Sciences, which compared the feelings of completeness generated by eating plums and biscuits – and the plums amazingly, won hands down.
Two hours after eating, the volunteers given the plums feel less hungry and had less of the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin in their blood when tested.

Interestingly, taking commercial appetite suppressants may not work as well as the right foods.
The irony is that we shouldn’t actually need to worry about satiety because as babies and toddlers we are very responsive to satiety cues and ‘tend to stop eating when the biological signals put the boot in ‘, explains Marion Hetherington, professor of biopsychology at Leeds University.

But that sympathy starts to decrease from the age of around three.’ This is when the parental heaviness to ‘eat it all up’ is applied and food is offered as a reward between meals, displacing internal cues.
This parental ‘programming’ may also explain why bottle-feed babies – urged by mothers to use up the bottle – learn to override their satiety signals and put on weight more quickly, according to Child Growth Foundation figures.

As we get fatter, we have lower levels of a key ‘full-up’ hormone in the brain, known as PYY.
‘Just being overweight decreases PYY, so the satiety signals are slower to kick in,’ says Dr Rachel Batterham, who carried out the original research on the hormone.
Dr Batterham, who runs the weight-loss clinic at University College Hospital London, has shown, through brain scans, that being overweight depletes PYY production, and blunts the pleasure systems in the brain.

That means more sweet and fatty food is needed to get the same pleasant sensations from eating. And when overweight people diet, their level of the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin shoots up (a survival mechanism to give their heavy bodies the energy they demand), making them more hungry, adds Dr Batterham.

Intake of citrus fruits—prevents Kidney stones. Really?

Kidney stones strike more than a million Americans every year. Sometimes, it causes hurting to bring them factually to their knees.
Along with medication to dampen the formation of kidney stones, fatalities are often buoyant to make nutritional changes, among them intake of more citrus juices. Citrate in the fruit juices often reduces the creation of calcium oxalate stones and also lowers urine acidity, almost like the kidney stone prescription potassium citrate.

But not all juices include the same outcome. Diluted lemon juice or Lemonade is the usual suggestion for people with calcium stones. But in 2006 a study financed by the National Institutes of Health which compares lemonade with orange juice in patients with calcium stones and it finally found that three cups of orange juice a day along with other nutritional changes for kidney stone patient’s .It mainly did a better job of raising citrate levels and lessening urine acidity than lemonade.

According to studies, the fruits like cranberry and apple juices are good for some stones and bad for others. It almost raises the repetition risk of calcium stones, but help to avert a far less common subset of kidney stones called brushite. Grapefruit juice raises the risk across the board. One large study in the archives of Internal Medicine found that –a daily cup of grapefruit juice raise the risk of stone formation as much as 44%.

Certain fruits can protect against skin cancer

Protection from skin cancer does not stop at choking yourself with particular skin creams; what you eat could have a major affect the skin’s natural defense. Recent research has found that many familiar foods contain ingredients, which work as a sun block and lessen the risk of skin cancer significantly.

Apricots – rich in beta-carotene, the antioxidant, which helps soak up free radicals created by UV radiation.

Pomegranates – hold more cancer-busting antioxidants than any other fruit.
Red grapes – the skins of red grapes has more powerful antioxidants known as proanthocyanidins that help to combat UV damage and keep cells healthy.

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