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Garden Variety Anti-Inflammation

The variety of fruit and vegetable consumption may decrease disease risk, independent of quantity.

May 16, 2012 |
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Garden Variety Anti-Inflammation, 5.0 out of 5 based on 5 ratings

Sources Cited

American Heart Association Nutrition Committee, Lichtenstein AH, Appel LJ, Brands M, Carnethon M, Daniels S, Franch HA, Franklin B, Kris-Etherton P, Harris WS, Howard B, Karanja N, Lefevre M, Rudel L, Sacks F, Van Horn L, Winston M, Wylie-Rosett J. Diet and lifestyle recommendations revision 2006: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee. Circulation. 2006 Jul 4;114(1):82-96.

Bhupathiraju SN, Tucker KL. Greater variety in fruit and vegetable intake is associated with lower inflammation in Puerto Rican adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jan;93(1):37-46.

Jacobs DR Jr, Gross MD, Tapsell LC. Food synergy: an operational concept for understanding nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1543S-1548S.

USDA Food Availability. 2011.

Shoba G, Joy D, Joseph T, Majeed M, Rajendran R, Srinivas PS. Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. Planta Med. 1998 May;64(4):353-6.

Mitka M. Study further erodes evidence for eating fruits and vegetables to prevent cancer. JAMA. 2010 Jun 2;303(21):2127-8.

Acknowledgements

Images thanks to Rick Harris, Vladimir Morozov, and Josiedraus via Wikimedia Commons.

Transcript

One of the reasons some studies haven’t shown more impressive results tying disease reduction to the quantity of fruit and vegetable consumption, may be because of quality of fruit and vegetable consumption. People are more likely to eat bananas than blueberries; cucumbers instead of kale. Variety is also important though. If you eat a whole cantaloupe you would be recorded getting 8 servings of fruits or vegetables. One head of iceburg lettuce makes like 10 cups.
We know that whole foods are better than eating individual nutrients, for example a carrot is better than a beta carotene pill, because of what’s been called nutrient synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as many of the nutrients interact, work together, and complement one another. But what synergy between foods?
Check this out. I've talked about the wonders of the spice turmeric, but the key component has very poor bioavailability. Just a tiny bit gets into your bloodstream after eating a nice curry—unless, you add some black pepper. The phytonutrient in black pepper boosts the levels of the turmeric phyonutrient 2000%! That's why dietary diversity is so important.
Not only may the variety of fruit and vegetable consumption decrease disease risk independent from quantity of consumption, sometimes variety may be even more important. Check this out, no difference in inflammation—C-reactive protein levels—between those eating 6 servings of vegetables a day and those eating 2 servings, but those eating the more variety—even if they didn’t necessariliy eat greater overall quantities—had significantly less inflammation
This supports the American Heart Association’s latest dietary guidelines, which, for the first time, added a recommendation for also eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Make sure to watch the "prequel" to this video, yesterday's video. SeeEPIC Study for an example of one of the studies that didn't show results as impressive as expected. For more on the anti-inflammatory nature of plant foods, see Anti-Inflammatory Antioxidants and Aspirin Levels in Plant Foods. For more on black pepper, see Is Black Pepper Bad For You?, and for more on turmeric, see Oxalates in Cinnamon. There are 13 other videos on spices and hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects, so please check them out.

Also, be sure to check out my associated blog posts:  Fighting Inflammation with Food Synergy, The Most Anti-Inflammatory Mushroom, How to Enhance Mineral Absorption, Kiwi Fruit for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Antioxidants in a Pinch: Dried Herbs and Spices, and  Lead Poisoning Risk From Venison

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    Make sure to watch the “prequel” to this video, yesterday’s video. See EPIC Study for an example of one of the studies that didn’t show results as impressive as expected. For more on the anti-inflammatory nature of plant foods, see Anti-Inflammatory Antioxidants and Aspirin Levels in Plant Foods. For more on black pepper, see Is Black Pepper Bad For You?, and for more on turmeric, see Oxalates in Cinnamon. There are 13 other videos on spices and hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects, so please check them out.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670735069 Tan Truong

    I can use black pepper to increase the bioavailability of turmeric by 2000%? Yes!

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670735069 Tan Truong

       Can black pepper increase bioavailability in anything else besides tumeric?

  • Stephen Path

    Dr. Greger,
    do you have a book which contains some of what you post or information like what is mentioned?

    • Michael Greger M.D.

      I have written a few books, but with such a dynamic field I felt that this sort of online platform would be the best to highlight the latest of the latest science.

  • G S S

    Might be a stupid question – but is the variety measured over the day or over a week?

  • Marcus

    So taking Tumeric supplement not effective?

  • Marcus7w

    Okay just saw the turmeric video. Too much turmeric is high in oxalate. I had kidney stones the past….. tossing out the turmeric supplement.

  • ZuZu

    Dr. Greger,

    Do you think the effects here could be explaind by the increased variety leading to higher likelihood of high anti-oxidant fruits and veg in ones diet?  (Instead of synergistic properties)
     
    My hunch would be that people eating a lower variety of fruits and vegetables are probably more likely to eat low-antioxidant fruits and veg. 

    Is it possible this study is just showing (again) that some veg are better than others?
     If I get in a vegetable rut of kale, red bell peppers, beets, carrots and arugula, would I really benefit from including lower antioxidant veg for variety?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please also check out my associated blog post Fighting Inflammation with Food Synergy

  • wchiwink

    been doing blackpepper- curcuma for years, which really helps prevent or at least greatly reduce the inflammation i can suffer from due to my back injury

  • Shani

    I love the example of pepper raising the effectiveness of turmeric by 2000%. Where could I find more examples like this of food synergy? I googled it and didn’t find much. Thanks so much and I love love your site Dr Greger!

  • Sandy Smith

    We just started taking Turmeric capsules, 500 mg. Instead of pepper, it has a patented ingredient called Meriva. It says it “…uses a specialized extract combined with phosphatidylcholine to help generate greater curcumin bioavailability than common turmeric extracts”. Have you heard of this? Is it true that it is better than pepper?

  • http://jolkapolkaskitchen.blogspot.com/ WholeFoodChomper

    Recently, I had some produce lying around that needed to be used up. I concocted (developed, in the foodie world) an impromptu recipe incorporating turmeric, which I thought (and my BF agreed) was quite yummy. See what you think:

    Small bunch of sliced carrots
    1/2 diced red onion
    1 small red potato
    1 small fennel bulb, diced and sliced
    1/2 Pink Lady apple (might sound odd, but it really works in this recipe)
    ~1 tbls EVOO
    1 teaspoonish dried tarragon
    ~1 tbls turmeric
    pepper to taste
    4 cups veggie broth
    1/4 cup or so of frozen corn
    Lemon (optional)

    Saute first 5 ingredients in EVOO (or water saute if you prefer) until soft and take on color. Add spices and mix together to incorporate flavors. Add broth, and allow all flavors to simmer for a while (I think I let mine simmer about 30 minutes). Blend half the soup. Add corn and stir until thawed out. Serve and enjoy. I squeezed some lemon into my soup, b/c I thought it enhanced the soup’s flavor, but this is optional.

  • Carroll

    I listened to a number of your little videos here and came away with the information that collards and kale are preventative of glaucoma. Most of the others seemed to just make generalizations about diet being related to other eye diseases. There was nothing in the macular degeneration segment that I could take and use to improve this condition in myself. This is a serious disease, yet I have heard that it has been cured by dietary inputs. Surely you can find something more substantive than that “Macular degeneration is related to diet,” or something bland to that effect that you said!

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