Fruits and vegetables | Fruits and vegetables - Posts - Beyond Health

Posted by Beyond Health on Nov 3rd 2025

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables…a Matter of Life and Death

By now, you know about the huge health benefits of eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Rich in essential nutrients, previous research shows fruits and veggies help promote mental well-being, control weight, improve digestion and vision, lower blood pressure and more. But how much is enough? The latest U.S. dietary guidelines for fruits and vegetables suggest consumers eat 2-1/2 to 6-1/2 cups per day—or about 5-13 servings—depending on calorie requirements. Yet, Americans get a paltry three servings per day on average.Now, according to a new study from the University College London, you need to eat 7 or more daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables if you want to live longer. Using the Health Survey for England, British researchers analyzed the eating habits of 65,226 adults, age 35 and older. They discovered that the more fruits and vegetables they ate, the lower their chance of dying prematurely. In fact, compared to those eating less than one serving of fru…

Nov 3rd 2025

Eat Your Way to Better Health with Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Culinary Herbs & Even Chocolate!

In the last NewsClips we told you about a new test for oxidized LDL that should revolutionize cardiology. It turns out that LDL cholesterol isn’t the problem—it’s only oxidized LDL that causes heart attacks and strokes. And now a blood test for oxidized LDL has become widely available. But oxidation doesn’t just cause heart disease; it plays a role in all of the chronic diseases and in aging itself. If you want to stay youthful and healthy, oxidation is something you need to address. You can do that with antioxidants from food and supplements. Oxidation is a normal biochemical reaction—it’s necessary to create energy from the food we eat; it’s also used to kill invading pathogens. But it can have destructive effects, creating something called free radicals ─ reactive molecules that damage DNA, cells and body tissues. Fortunately the body has a way of keeping oxidation in check: compounds called antioxidants. Our bodies make antioxidants, li…

Nov 3rd 2025

Polyphenols and Your Health

Although most people have trouble getting even the minimal 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Recommended by the USDA, it seems that everyone agrees that eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is very important for optimal good health. But why are fruits and vegetables so good for us? Well, apart from being high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, plant foods are good for us because they’re a rich source of antioxidant compounds called polyphenols. Polyphenols protect plants from the oxidative stress caused by the sun’s UV rays, and by environmental pollution and pathogens. Humans who eat these plants get many benefits from the polyphenols they contain, including protection from asthma, allergies, cancer, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, diabetes and infections, as well as inflammation and premature aging. Over 8,000 different polyphenols have been identified. Quercetin, the most common polyphenol, is also one of the most important and…

Nov 3rd 2025

Industrial Agriculture is Killing Our Soils

Everyone knows that fruits and vegetables are good for us. Most people know we don’t get enough. But fewer people know that the nutritional content of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables has been declining steadily since the introduction of chemical farming (sometimes called industrial agriculture) after World War II.Various studies using government data have documented significant nutrient declines in fruits and vegetables from 1930 to the present—declines up to 99% in one case!—in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, copper, magnesium, riboflavin, vitamin C, and vitamin A, while data on other nutrients like zinc, vitamin B6 and vitamin E weren’t collected until more recently, so no comparisons could be made.Why is nutrient content declining? Partly it’s due to traditional breeding techniques, in which fruits and vegetables are bred for better appearance, sweetness, faster growth, or ease of transport, often at the expense of nutritional quality. But a much larger re…

Nov 3rd 2025

Energize with Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates Do your meals leave you feeling light and full of vitality, or do they weigh you down, making you feel sleepy and dull? Although all food supplies calories, how well your body utilizes those calories to provide you with energy depends on the "life force" in the foods you eat. And foods vary widely along a continuum in this respect, from producing vitality, rejuvenation and healing to sapping your energy, adding unwanted weight and contributing to premature aging and disease.Food also influences mood and mental abilities, from raising your spirits, making you optimistic and heightening your awareness and mental function to bringing you down and dulling your brain.A number of factors determine a food's vibration or life force. Overall, foods are most energizing and health-promoting when they're consumed raw, or as close as possible to their natural state. This gives pride of place to the multicolored fruits and vegetable…

Nov 3rd 2025

Feed Your Helpful Tummy Bugs!

You know that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you, but when you feed yourself you’re also feeding trillions of guests. These “guests” are the bacteria (aka microbiota, or tummy bugs) that inhabit your intestines. And according to Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, diet is one of the most powerful impacts on gut microbiota, who feed on fiber-rich carbohydrates found in whole plant foods. Why would you want to treat your tummy bugs as honored guests? Because we have an age-old deal with these guys. We provide them with food and a warm place to live; they help us to digest and absorb food, to synthesize vitamins, to produce amino acids, to secrete mucus, to prevent constipation by increasing motility, to create food for intestinal cells, and, perhaps most importantly, to partner with our immune system (more than 2/3 of which is located in the intestines) by degrading toxins and competing with and killi…

Information contained in NewsClips articles should not be construed as personal medical advice or instruction. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.