All Videos for Phytonutrients

Are Avocados Good for Your Cholesterol?

Can guacamole lower your cholesterol as well as other whole-food fat sources like nuts, or is that just spin by the avocado industry?



Exclusion Diets for Eczema

Infants of mothers randomized to cut out eggs, milk, and fish were significantly less likely to have eczema even years later.



Topical Honey for Canker Sores

What works better against aphthous ulcers? Honey applied with a cotton swab three times a day after meals was compared head-to-head against an over-the-counter soothing pain-relieving paste and a prescription steroid cream.



The Best Food for High Cholesterol

Are the apparently amazing benefits of amla—dried Indian gooseberries—too good to be true?



Are Avocados Healthy?

Avocado consumption can improve artery function, but what effect might guacamole have on cancer risk?



Is White Rice a Yellow-Light or Red-Light Food?

Do the health benefits of rice consumption outweigh any potential risk from the arsenic contamination?



How to Lower Lead Levels with Diet: Breakfast, Whole Grains, Milk, Tofu?

Getting food into your stomach within a few hours of lead exposure can suppress the absorption of lead by 90 percent or more—but which foods are particularly protective?



How to Treat Endometriosis with Seaweed

Five cents’ worth of seaweed a day may dramatically improve a major cause of disability and compromised quality of life among women.



Black Raspberry Supplements Put to the Test

Less than half of herbal supplements tested from a dozen companies were found to be authentic.



Chocolate and Stroke Risk

Dark chocolate is pitted against milk chocolate in a test of artery function.



Should We All Take Aspirin to Prevent Cancer?

The aspirin compounds naturally found in plant foods may help explain the lower cancer rates among those eating plant-based diets.



Food Synergy

Combining certain foods together may be more beneficial than eating them separately.



Is Canned Fruit as Healthy?

Perhaps dietary guidelines should stress fresh, frozen, and dried fruit—rather than canned.



Berries vs. Pesticides in Parkinson’s Disease

Berries counteract the neurotoxic effects of pesticides in vitro, potentially explaining why berry consumption is associated with lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.



The Risks and Benefits of Sensible Sun Exposure

We don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils: skin cancer versus internal cancers from vitamin D deficiency.



How to Prevent Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Avoid sugary and cholesterol-laden foods to reduce the risk of our most common cause of chronic liver disease.



Citrus Peels and Cancer: Zest for Life?

The reason eating citrus fruits appears to protect against cancer may be because of DNA repair enzyme-boosting powers of a compound concentrated in the peel.



Brown, Black, Purple, and Red Unlike White on Rice

White rice is missing more than fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Phytonutrients such as gamma oryzanol in brown rice may help explain the clinical benefits, and naturally pigmented rice varieties may be even healthier.



Specific Receptors for Specific Fruits and Vegetables

Dietary diversity is important because each plant family has a unique combination of phytonutrients that may bind to specific proteins within our body.



Almonds for Osteoporosis

What happens when you take blood from people before and then again four hours after almond consumption, and drip that blood on bone cells?



Tea and Artery Function

Adding milk to tea can block its beneficial effects, potentially explaining why green tea drinkers appear better protected than consumers of black tea.



Preventing Skin Cancer from the Inside Out

Eating antioxidant-rich foods can bolster skin protection and reduce sunburn redness by 40%, whereas alcohol can dramatically drop the level of antioxidants in the skin within 8 minutes of consumption.



Is the Fiber Theory Wrong?

The extraordinarily low rates of chronic disease among plant-based populations have been attributed to fiber, but reductionist thinking may lead us astray.



Industry Response to Plants Not Pills

The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts: how unscrupulous marketers use evidence that ties high blood levels of phytonutrients with superior health to sell dietary supplements that may do more harm than good.



“Veg-Table” Dietary Nitrate Scoring Method

What is the optimal timing and dose of nitrate-containing vegetables, such as beets and spinach, for improving athletic performance?



What Are the Healthiest Foods?

Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which foods best supply shortfall nutrients while avoiding disease-promoting components?



The Downside of Green Smoothies

Concerns about smoothies and oxalic acid, nitrate availability, dental erosion, and weight gain are addressed.



Green Smoothies: What Does the Science Say?

Might disrupting the fiber by blending fruit result in overly rapid sugar absorption?



Are Green Smoothies Bad for You?

Eating intact grains, beans, and nuts (as opposed to bread, hummus, and nut butters) may have certain advantages for our gut flora and blood sugar control, raising questions about blending fruits and vegetables.



Are Green Smoothies Good for You?

Smoothies (and blended soups and sauces) offer a convenient way to boost both the quantity and quality of fruit and vegetable intake by reducing food particle size to help maximize nutrient absorption.



How to Reduce Carcinogenic Bile Acid Production

The consumption of animal fat appears to increase the growth of gut bacteria that turn our bile acids into carcinogens.



How May Plants Protect Against Diabetes?

Protective properties of whole plant foods against diabetes include antioxidants, lipotropes, fiber, and the ability to suppress the estrogen-producing bacteria in our gut.



Why Is Meat a Risk Factor for Diabetes?

Potential culprits include the trans fat in meat, the saturated fat, cholesterol, heme iron, advanced glycation end products (glycotoxins), animal protein (especially leucine), zoonotic viruses, and industrial pollutants that accumulate up the food chain.



Does Chocolate Cause Weight Gain?

Big Candy boasts studies showing that those who eat chocolate weigh less than those who don’t, but what does the best science show?



Fish Consumption and Suicide

The mercury content in fish may help explain links found between fish intake and mental disorders, depression, and suicide.



Are Organic Foods More Nutritious?

There appear to be no consistent differences in the level of vitamins and minerals in organic versus conventionally grown produce, but organic fruits and vegetables have more phenolic phytonutrients.



Antioxidants and Depression

Neither antioxidant or folic acid supplements seem to help with mood, but the consumption of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables and folate-rich beans and greens may lower the risk for depression.



Oatmeal Lotion for Chemotherapy-Induced Rash

Oats are put to the test against cetuximab-type chemo side effects to see just how soothing and anti-inflammatory they can be.



Improving on the Mediterranean Diet

What are the four problematic nutritional aspects of even plant-based Mediterranean diets?



Why Was Heart Disease Rare in the Mediterranean?

What was it about the diet on the Greek isle of Crete in the 1950s that made it so healthy?