Health experts now recommend that we eat at least three to five servings of vegetables every day and two to three servings of fruit. Scientists believe this advice alone would go a long way toward improving Americans' health. A tomato, for example, contains about 10,000 phytochemicals, and a bite of broccoli or brussels sprouts serves up thousands of phytochemicals.
Phytochemicals simply refers to chemicals found in plants.
You won't need to go shopping for them because they occur naturally in vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and seeds. Scientists believe these plant chmeicals may protect our cells from the damaging effects of toxic substances that can result in cancer and heart disease and foster the aging process. Vitamin C, vitamin E, and betacarotene are examples of phytochemicals. They are better known as antioxidant nutrients. Research suggests that people tend to develop fewer cancers when their diets contain antioxidant-rich foods.