The wonders of berries.
The Healthiest Fruits
So yes, watermelon is a healthy fruit. Healthier than we used to think, but there’s healthier still. Greens are the healthiest vegetable. But what are the healthiest fruits? A few years ago, I talked about the studies suggesting that eating a single serving of berries every day could add an extra year to our lifespan. Wait a second—tastes great and we get to live longer? That’s really what plant-based eating is all about.
More good news this year on cranberries and blueberries. In general, berries are packed with wonderful phytonutrients, with nice names like petunidin. That’s another difference between plant- and animal-based foods. In plant food, there’s teanines in tea, gingerols, rosemarinic acid; limonoids, like limonin and tangeritin. Whereas in animal-based foods, there are substances with names like putrescine in turkey muscle; this is from the Journal of Nutrition. Dietary putrescine doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Nor would I want it, frankly, to touch my tongue at all.
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.
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- Collins JK, Wu G, Perkins-Veazie P, Spears K, Claypool PL, Baker RA, Clevidence BA. Watermelon consumption increases plasma arginine concentrations in adults. Nutrition. 2007 Mar;23(3):261-6.
- Neto CC. Cranberry and blueberry: evidence for protective effects against cancer and vascular diseases. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Jun;51(6):652-64.
- Girdhar SR, Barta JR, Santoyo FA, Smith TK. Dietary putrescine (1,4-diaminobutane) influences recovery of Turkey poults challenged with a mixed coccidial infection. Girdhar SR, Barta JR, Santoyo FA, Smith TK.
Image thanks to LexnGer via Flickr.
So yes, watermelon is a healthy fruit. Healthier than we used to think, but there’s healthier still. Greens are the healthiest vegetable. But what are the healthiest fruits? A few years ago, I talked about the studies suggesting that eating a single serving of berries every day could add an extra year to our lifespan. Wait a second—tastes great and we get to live longer? That’s really what plant-based eating is all about.
More good news this year on cranberries and blueberries. In general, berries are packed with wonderful phytonutrients, with nice names like petunidin. That’s another difference between plant- and animal-based foods. In plant food, there’s teanines in tea, gingerols, rosemarinic acid; limonoids, like limonin and tangeritin. Whereas in animal-based foods, there are substances with names like putrescine in turkey muscle; this is from the Journal of Nutrition. Dietary putrescine doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Nor would I want it, frankly, to touch my tongue at all.
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.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Collins JK, Wu G, Perkins-Veazie P, Spears K, Claypool PL, Baker RA, Clevidence BA. Watermelon consumption increases plasma arginine concentrations in adults. Nutrition. 2007 Mar;23(3):261-6.
- Neto CC. Cranberry and blueberry: evidence for protective effects against cancer and vascular diseases. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Jun;51(6):652-64.
- Girdhar SR, Barta JR, Santoyo FA, Smith TK. Dietary putrescine (1,4-diaminobutane) influences recovery of Turkey poults challenged with a mixed coccidial infection. Girdhar SR, Barta JR, Santoyo FA, Smith TK.
Image thanks to LexnGer via Flickr.
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Title
The Healthiest Fruits
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
More on the antioxidant and phytonutrient benefits of berries:
- Best Berries
- Clinical Studies on Acai Berries
- Boosting Natural Killer Cell Activity
- Amla Versus Cancer Cell Growth
And check out my other videos on fruit.
Also see my associated blog post, Eating To Extend Our Lifespan.
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